Working Smarter - Lifehacker Australia.pdf

Chapter 1: Tactics And Technology To Help You Work Smarter
Technology was supposed to make life easier, but the end result is often that we feel more swamped than ever. How can you make the right technology and organisational choices to work smarter, not harder?

Section 1: How Big Is The Problem?
Almost every week, a study appears in the news telling us how much harder we’re working and how much busier we are. It’s hard to believe isn’t it? 150 years ago Australians won the right to the eight-hour work day. A look back through figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that each year, the number of hours we’re putting in is slowly working its way back up. Once known as the “working man’s paradise”, Australians now work as many as 240 hours per year more than the international average of 1643 hours. Think about it -- that’s 4.6 hours per week, or almost an extra hour per day or a whole extra six weeks per year. And research also shows that we’re also spending more time on housework than before. Technology was meant to fix all of that wasn’t it? Instead, we’re more connected to the office than ever through notebooks, smartphones, broadband and VPNs so we work outside the office. Even holidays are invaded unless you ditch your smartphone. Technology has resulted in a deeper connection to work, but work practices haven’t changed. In fact, many of us feel like our bosses have simply acquired more ways to nag us – they’re like kids in the back seat asking if we’re there yet.

Section 2: The Key Is Working Smarter
We’ve all head the mantra “work smarter, not harder”. The trouble is that there’s no silver bullet solution that works for everyone. We all need to take time to find organisational systems that work for us and then be prepared to adapt them as circumstances change or as we learn more. But we also need to look for ways to reduce the time it takes to carry out repetitive tasks and to remove unproductive time. Over the years management gurus such as Kaplan and Norton (who wrote The Balanced Scorecard) and Peter Drucker have emphasised a basic concept to help you get more from your business: you can’t fix what you don’t measure. The same idea applies to your personal work as much as it applies to your business’s operation. Keep a personal log for one week and note down everything that you do and how long it takes. That way you’ll have data to help you understand how long it actually takes you to get something done rather than gut feel or your memory. Measurement will deliver lots of useful information that you can then use to create a smarter work strategy. You’ll be able to work out when you work best, where too much time or effort is being expended on a particular activity and what you’re actually spending time on. As well as measuring what you do it’s a good idea to carry out an audit of your toolkit. What equipment are you using? How often does it get in the way of you doing your work? Are you leaking money on equipment that seems to work but requires constant maintenance?

Once you get through looking at your personal productivity you can start to look at the bigger picture of your staff and colleagues. There’s no point trying to get anyone else’s behaviour to change until they see the benefits through your actions. Also, what works for you may not work for other people so take the time to find what fits particular situations. Although many people feel that technology gets in the way of work, using technology smartly can save you time and effort. Knowing where people are, being able to see them during remote communications and knowing whether they are busy can create a working environment that doesn’t get in the way of productivity. Improving your personal and professional productivity is not a one-off project. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, many companies promoted productivity and quality programs. But, to get long lasting benefits, you need to make improving your productivity part of your regular work plan, not just a short-term activity, and incorporate appropriate technology as it appears.

Section 3: How To Organise Yourself
Seven Habits, Getting Things Done, simple lists . . . there are hundreds of gurus out there recommending dozens of different productivity systems. Instead of trying each and every system we’re going to save you lots of time and tell you which is best.Finding an approach that works for you is more important than sticking blindly to a particular methodology. It’s the one that works for you. The one thing that is consistent across every personal organisation system is the use of lists, prioritisation and regular reviews. Scratch the surface of any organisational system and you’ll find these basics. Once you’ve made your list and prioritised tasks you need to set time aside in your calendar to get things done. The easiest way to do this is to block time out in your calendar. Be realistic when you do this -- it’s easy to underestimate the time you need. and set aside a reasonable amount of time. Most of us tend to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task, as we often have a somewhat inflated view of our productivity. Remember to allow for breaks, meals, administrative tasks, thinking time and interruptions. Our rule of thumb is to add at least 50 per cent to the time you initially think you’ll need. A good technique is to divide your time according to the priority of each task. Allocate tasks based on urgency, but ensure you assign a variety across the day. the most time to the most urgent task but allow time for other tasks so that you keep whittling them away. By chipping away at the whole list you’ll keep everyone happy and get the psychological benefit of bringing the light at the end of the work tunnel closer. If you have a few smaller tasks allocate some time to clear them off the list. There are few more satisfying than putting a line through a task on a list. In a team environment the same principals can be applied. So how do teams become more productive? They key to making a team and workplace more productive is sharing and communication. And that’s where good systems can make a big difference. If your team all use the same calendaring app then chances are that you’ll be able get them to talk to each other. Google Apps, hosted Exchange services and others make it easy to share calendars and tasks so that everyone knows who has free time and where the rest of the team is.

For many people, mobile phones are a double-edged sword. Although they make it easy to stay in touch they can also constantly interrupt our work. Aside from calls, there are incessant social media notifications, email and SMS. But your phone need not rule you. You can make your phone into your assistant rather than being its slave. Only answer calls when you’re available to answer them. Put the phone on silent and let calls go through to voicemail. Update your voicemail message with your email address and ask callers to send you an email rather than a voice message. That way you won’t have to write messages as often and can review the email when you have allocated time. Also, have your calendar and task list synced to the phone – this is easy with all the major smartphone platforms – so you can update it and amend it while you’re out if necessary.

Section 4: How To Work With Legacy Tech
We’ve all got a favourite piece of tech we can’t let go. Perhaps it’s a Mini-Disc Player that you use for recording conferences or a favourite app for storing contact information. It may even be a computer that’s running an old OS but it’s still working and you’re loathe to go through the pain of getting new applications and changing your workflow. If you have a favourite tool that’s critical to your workflow and productivity but is getting long in the tooth you need to set time aside and make plans for the inevitable time when it fails. If it’s a piece of hardware check out online auction sites for a spare device. Many people offload old gear that still works. It’s also worth hanging on to or acquiring a failed device for spare parts. Even if you don’t have the technical know-how to make a repair, you could find someone to do the work if you have the parts. With older software we’d suggest a two-pronged approach. Virtualisation gives you the ability to run more than one operating system on your computer. If you’re tied to an application that only runs on Windows XP but your computer is dying, it’s possible to run Windows XP in a virtual machine just for that specific application. Then you can use the newer OS to try alternatives out and plan an upgrade path. Although sticking with an older, familiar application is an aid to productivity now, if it fails and there’s no support from the supplier you’ll hit a productivity wall that will stop you as you scramble to save your data and find a new program. If you’re trying to come up with good reasons to upgrade when what you have seems to work use a classical risk management matrix. On a scale of one to five, rank the likelihood of a specific tool you’re using failing. For instance, an older software package that is no longer supported might score a 5, while a widely used office tool which is regularly patched would score a 1. Then Next, rank the impact on your productivity if that tool broke down, using the same scale. Something you use frequently gets a 5, rarer tools score a 1. Any product which has a high score in both columns is a major risk and should be upgraded. Products with a high probability of failure should all be replaced, but priority goes to those with the highest impact on your productivity. Map that to a grid where the lowest risk and lowest impact is in the lower left corner and highest impact and highest likelihood in the top-right corner. Anything in the extreme top-right corner needs an immediate plan for replacement or a strategy to deal with failure.

Section 5: Seven Simple Tricks To Save Time And Stress
Password Managers
It’s the bane of the modern age – every time you sign on to a new service you create a new username and password combination. Many of us simply use the same combination for each service but that soon breaks down as different services force you to change passwords at different intervals. And if that combination is compromised someone could potentially hack into your entire online life. A password manager can, in a secure system, hold all your usernames and passwords so that you don’t have to try to remember each one. The only password you then need to remember is the one for your password manager.

Work from Home
Telecommuting has been around for a while and can be a great way to reduce travel time and boost productivity. Many people who regularly work from home find that they can get more done as there are fewer distractions. Being able to balance your home life and work by telecommuting can also be a great stress reliever and make employees happier as they can still participate in family activities like taking kids to school, helping at kinder or helping with domestic chores between work tasks. One useful way to justify telecommuting is to create a task list for a work-from-home day and then show your boss that it was completed and that you were easily accessible by phone and email.

Email Management
Email is insidious. It’s tempting to stop what you’re doing and address each new message as it arrives. Our advice is to set aside specific times each day to go through email and to prioritise which messages need to be addressed. Use rules to shuffle messages into folders. For example, have all messages where you are cc’ed rather than the main recipient moved to an FYI folder so that your inbox is less cluttered. Have messages from your boss moved to another folder so you can find those easily.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Productivity
The primary productivity benefit of using cloud-based systems is access. If you can access your email, calendar and work files via a web browser, smartphone or tablet then you can pick and choose where and when you’ll work on specific things. For example, if you commute to work, use the morning commute to plan your to-do list and the evening to review email.

Kill The Notifications
Do you really need to know when Aunt Mildred’s cat sat on her computer via Facebook? Is it critical that you know when every email arrives? Your smartphone is meant to help you be more productive, not interrupt you with incessant beeps and messages. Turn off all but the most urgent notifications. Most devices allow you to set different ring and message tones for different contacts. Set the default to silent and use specific tones for family, you manager or most important contacts. Remember, the hammer doesn’t swing the carpenter.

Automate Whatever You Can
Any task that is repeated should be automated. If you always receive and pay bills on the same day each month, set up automatic transactions in your accounts system. System backups should just happen without any intervention on your part. If there’s a task you carry out every week or more often find a way to automate it.

Get Out Of The Office
Don’t eat meals at your desk. Aside from the inevitable crumbs in the keyboard and risk of spilling coffee all over your work, you need to get away from your screen. Breaking away can be a great way to give your brain some time to reflect on your work and recharge. Think of how many times you’ve had a brainwave about a problem when you’ve been doing something completely unrelated. As part of your lunch break, go for a walk, get some exercise or do something different so that your mind and body can recuperate. When you return to your desk you’ll be refreshed and ready for action.

Chapter 2: How To Maximise Your Server Infrastructure
Servers remain the backbone of business IT infrastructure, but in the cloud era your choice is far more complex than just choosing a hardware and operating system. We walk through the key factors you need to consider and the strategies you can use to maximise the performance of your server systems.

Section 1: The evolution of server systems
The olden days… when experts Experts once predicted that there was a need for maybe five computers in the whole world. Once personal computers became commonplace, it was argued When that 640K of memory was more than we’d we would ever need. When a PC in every home was an aspirational goal for a fledgling software company.Expectations change regularly. Regardless of your age, you’ll have a memory of when computing was very different to today. At first, it was all about centralised processing and terminals that let you type data in and read information is stunning green on black. The 1980s saw the arrival of the beige box – the PC. Although the first PCs were expensive and difficult to use, it was just a few years from the arrival of the Altair and Apple 1 until we saw personal computers GUIs, mice and colour screens that could be used by non-scientists. Pretty soon, high-powered PCs with many megabytes of memory and the ability to connect to each other over networks were with us and we entered the age of the server. Today, it’s all about the cloud. The cloud is able to take advantage of superfast processors, plentiful memory, copious storage and virtualisation so we can use local applications in the office alongside applications that are delivered from centralised systems that are hosted by external organisations. For example, you can use a locally installed word processor to store documents on your computer’s hard drive and a local server for your colleagues and then synchronise that data to a hosted storage on the cloud so that clients can easily access it. For computer users, this is a great time. We are at a tipping point where we can take advantage of a number of robust, mature technologies that are reliable, easy to use and cheap to access. The pure “cloud era” won’t last long – we’re already moving towards a computing landscape where hybrids will be the norm and we chose the solution that best fits the way we work.

Section 2: Current roadblocks in server utilisation
What’s stopping us from getting the most out of our servers? Many organisations add servers, as they’re needed, without much forward planning. As the business grows, new servers are added and eventually there are several servers in use. The trouble is that some are fully utilised while others are barely touched. For example, often disk space in one server can’t be efficiently used in others, leading to frustration and wasted resources. One answer to this is virtualisation. Instead of buying separate, physical servers for each business activity, a larger server is purchased and several virtual servers are deployed. This has helped

reduce the number of physical devices and changed the way servers are managed. So while virtualisation has offered lots of promise, some businesses have missed out on all the benefits as they’ve grappled with a new way to manage their IT. That challenge brings us back to the cloud. Regardless of how technically inclined you are, it’s a sure bet that someone has mentioned the cloud or “something-as-a-service”. Instead of deploying your own hardware and software, the cloud outsources all of that to a service provider. As long as your Internet connection stays up and offers decent performance you access your systems using almost any computing device with a web browser. If you’re wary about outsourcing critical company systems and information you can use your own, unshared infrastructure and applications that are offered through an outsourcer. This is usually called a private cloud as it uses internet-based systems but they are accessed over a private connection and aren’t shared with others. The trick to knowing what sort of solution is best for you is to spend some time writing down and analysing what you do, what the problems are with your current approach to technology, and then looking at the gap between what you have and what you need. It’s tempting to follow the crowd and go with what’s currently popular but you need to work through this process or risk deploying systems that don’t work for you. One of the main advantages often touted by cloud providers is that they can reduce your power bills and offer greener systems than you could manage. While this may be true it’s worth doing some investigation – particularly on any green claims. While your own local carbon footprint might shrink, all you might be doing is moving carbon emissions from your office to the service provider.

Section 3: Running better systems on premises
If you’ve done the analysis and determined the best course, you’ll need to make some smart decisions about what hardware to buy, how to finance it and how you’re going to get the best return on your investment. In earlier times, there were three main things you needed to consider when buying a server: processor, memory and storage. In most localised server environments the processor and memory – sometimes referred to as “compute” – are purchased separately to the main storage. All that runs on the server is the base operating system. Everything else runs in virtual servers that are stored in a separate storage system. Once you know what applications will be running on the server and your budget the idea is that you purchase the fastest CPU and most memory you can afford that meets your needs. As well as performance, look into the power management capabilities of your hardware. Chances are that you’ll be paying the power bill to support that equipment for at least three years. While a cheaper but more power-hungry CPU might save you money today, it could cost substantially more than that over the time you operate it. Also, don’t forget that when you’re planning your server acquisition that you need to think about what sorts of devices will be connecting and what applications you’ll be running. Buying a server without working through how it’s all going to be used is a recipe for disaster. When it comes to paying for that gear there are several options. You can purchase outright and depreciate the equipment so that you receive some level of tax relief over the next three to five years. If you don’t have enough liquid cash sitting idle in the bank account there are other models.

You may choose to lease equipment and pay a finance company each month. There are a few options. Financial leases are quite common. At the end of the lease period, the ownership of the equipment reverts to the lessor. As well as letting you hold on to lump sums of cash, this makes disposal of old equipment easy as the lessor makes arrangements to collect the gear. With an operating lease, the lessor is responsible for maintaining the equipment and they also maintain ownership of the equipment. Finally, there’s sale and lease-back. This is a handy option if you get lucky and score a grant or some other cash injection for your equipment. You purchase the equipment and then sell it to a finance company that leases it back to you. You then pay a monthly fee for the equipment and hang on to the cash. Just watch out for any special terms and conditions of the cash injection to ensure that this is above board. You could choose to not hold any equipment yourself and outsource the entire operation. This is viable if server management expertise is a little thin on the ground in your business. It also means that you can invest in equipment that meets your needs today and increase capability as you need incrementally. For example, if you need to add 20 per cent more storage each year, you can do this easily whereas running your own gear might make that task harder. How long should you plan to keep your servers? If you’re buying or leasing then three years is a realistic minimum. In general, tax rules are built around retaining equipment for at least three years. Although many businesses consider servers to have a five-year life, the problem is that you’ll be stuck with old equipment that requires increased maintenance or servers that are not able to run up-to-date software. If you try to overcome this by purchasing really powerful gear initially, it’s likely that you won’t get the maximum value for your investment early on.

Section 4: Running better virtualised systems
If you’re planning to run several virtual servers on your hardware there are a few design considerations to take into account. One word you’ll hear over and over is “hypervisor”. A hypervisor is a program that runs and manages a group of virtual machines. There are two types of hypervisors. Some run directly on your hardware and others require another operating system to be installed first. For your server environment you’ll want to run are the first type. The most common hypervisors run on server environments are Hyper-V by Microsoft, ESX by VMware and XENServer by Citrix. Each virtual server that you intend to run on your server will have a minimum specification that it needs. Let’s say you’re planning to run three virtual servers; an Oracle database server, a Microsoft Exchange server and an application server for your company’s CRM system. The database server will require access to about 2GB of memory and four CPU cores. Exchange needs about the same and the CRM system needs 4GB of memory and six CPU cores. Allowing for the requirements of the hypervisor’s management system (something else that can be virtualised) and some other overhead, you’re probably looking for a server that has 16GB of memory and 24 CPU cores. When it comes to choosing hypervisors it gets a little trickier. All the major hypervisor vendors offer similar products. There are points of difference but they’re all going to deliver similar services.

The decision can be simplified as some hardware vendors sell out-of-the-box solutions with all the hardware, storage and virtualisation pre-configured. In that case, you’re buying a complete solution so you won’t be choosing a hypervisor specifically. All of the major vendors offer free trial versions so it you’re technically inclined you can try before you buy. Some of the things we advise you should look out for are the ease of use of the administration tools, how easy it is to create a new virtual server and the pricing structure. Pricing can be tricky as pricing models have changed recently from a per-server or per-processor model to a memory-use based model. It is possible to host your virtualised servers externally. Rather than have the overhead of running servers, setting aside a secure environment to house them and then either learning to run or hiring someone to look after the environment, you can outsource the whole lot. It’s your gear but someone else does the grunt work. If moving services to the cloud has been on your mind but you’ve not been sure about the reliability and security then this is a great transition strategy. You get some of the benefits of the cloud – no maintenance overhead, simplified remote access and outsourced operation without the concerns about someone else using the same hardware as you, questions about data sovereignty and whether your Internet connection is up to the challenge.

Section 5: Making the move to the cloud
If you’re considering a move to cloud-based systems you need to ask yourself a question: are you looking for a way to deploy new apps or a reliable system for existing apps? It’s important because not all software is designed for the cloud. Apps that aren’t made for the cloud can encounter difficulties. For example, a sales ordering system that is designed for the cloud can handle occasional disruptions in network connectivity without losing any data. Software that expects a constant, unwavering network connection might be less robust. It’s critical that you talk about these issues with your IT people, software suppliers and staff before making wholesale changes to your IT infrastructure. Not all cloud solutions are the same. In some cases, the cloud solution you’ll choose will share servers, applications and databases between lots of different people. Although everyone’s data is segregated and kept secure (hopefully) the infrastructure is shared. This is what we call the public cloud. You can also create a private cloud. This uses the same sorts of techniques and systems as the public cloud but there’s no sharing with the rest of the world. In other words, you get the benefits of easy remote access, applications that deliver great functionality within a web browser without needing to install lots of software but the risks of data being accidentally shared or system performance being decimated by a rogue user are reduced. Choosing which is best for you is a question of weighing up the risks, your budget and current capability. Cloud solutions, whether they are public or private, are at the mercy of many things but perhaps the most critical is network speed. How fast is what I do at my desk reflected in the central system and how long does it take for information to get to me?

Although network throughput is important, latency is perhaps more critical. Think of it like driving a car. The network throughput is your vehicle’s top speed. Latency is the time it takes between you pressing the accelerator and when the car starts moving. Imagine being behind the wheel of a racing car but it takes 10 seconds to get going. Latency with cloud services is largely governed by how far you are from your data centre. The further away the data centre, the greater the latency. If your business is exclusively Australian then a local data centre makes sense. For an international company, using a more centrally located data centre might be a better choice.

Section 6: Bringing it all together
Businesses need to keep an open mind when it comes to technology. What worked three years ago may no longer be best. Remember, three years ago there was no iPad and clouds were largely something in the sky. Today, creating a mobile workforce that can use portable devices in the field is not impossible - it’s becoming trivially easy. But that ease makes it even more important than ever to plan and engage everyone in working out what will be best for your business. It may be that some systems and applications remain centralised but others are moved to public cloud infrastructure and other to private cloud providers. What’s most important is to take a step back and look hard at what you are doing, what you could do, what you need to do and what you want to do. Armed with that information you can make an informed decision about what you should do. Once that’s understood you can look to how it’s funded. Do you buy, lease or adopt a hybrid financial model that splits some of the expenditure into capital and the rest into operational spending? There are advantages and disadvantages to both models. It may be that splitting things lets you get some of the benefits of both without all the downsides. These aren’t easy questions to answer. They take time to resolve and require some expertise. But making the effort will mean that you make informed decisions and don’t get caught by any hidden surprises.

Chapter 3: How To Give Everyone The Computing Power They Need
In the bring-your-own-device era, worker demands have to be balanced against business security needs. What strategies does your business need to keep everyone happy and productive?

Section 1: A History Of BYOD
There was time when people were scared of computers. They were expensive, hard to use and conjured images of Matthew Broderick launching global thermonuclear war. But by the end 1980s we were moving into the PC age and people started to see how a computer could be a useful business tool. At first, senior management had access to green screens and other systems so that they could be seen to have the best of what a company could offer but by the 1990s everyone was clamouring to get their hands on a PC. Two tools drove that desire – word processing and spreadsheets. Once everyone was accustomed to using a PC they wanted to have one all the time and so laptops were born. Again, it was the executive suite that got them first but by the time everyone was panicking about Y2K notebooks were becoming common and began to permeate our open plan offices. At the same time, mobile phones had moved from flashy gimmick to essential and we could suddenly work and stay in touch wherever and whenever we – or our bosses – wanted. Today, we are heading into the BYOD era. IT departments are losing control of their Standard Operating Environment. Clients demand the ability to use or choose their own gear. The businessstandard notebook running a specific version of Windows and productivity apps with locked down settings is becoming a thing of the past. Today’s users want to choose their own kit and use what they like – not what someone else chooses.

Section 2: The Problems With BYOD
BYOD is not without its challenges. Corporate IT systems and applications aren’t the same as home systems and often have specific dependencies, hardware requirements and security needs. No business can afford to have its security compromised but enforcing security policies on personal devices can be nigh on impossible. The security issues can be worked around through the use of VPNs and remote access solutions that make the user’s computer into a host that runs a secure remote terminal application. That way the corporate applications are run inside a sandboxed environment that is isolated from the rest of the computer. Support is also an issue. What if an application that’s installed to a user’s personal computer stops working because the user installed a patch for World of Warcraft that breaks some critical file? Again, running corporate applications inside a protected remote application means that any malware that’s made its way onto the user’s computer will be isolated from the corporate network. However, businesses still need rules in place that put the onus on running current, maintained security software.

Businesses want to ensure that their data is safe so the networked, remote solution works well as users still store data on the corporate servers. If the user’s computer is stolen there shouldn’t be any confidential business data on it. The downside for the business is that if everyone gets to choose their own computer there may be some cost impact. When you’re buying hundreds of identical computers your reseller is likely to offer some great discounts. If you end up buy a wider spread of devices some of those volume discounts will disappear. Also, you might find that software licensing costs escalate as enterprise and site licenses may have conditions precluding personally-owned devices. Make sure you do your homework before endorsing a BYOD program. Work through all the hardware, software, infrastructure and policy issues.

Section 3: How Far Should BYOD Go?
A successful BYOD program walks a tightrope. Fall off the rope to one side and you’ll open up your IT department to lots of extra support work, security problems and fractured corporate data. Fall off the other side and you’ll have a work force filled with disgruntled staff. But if you can stay on the rope, you’ll potentially reduce your IT support load while delivering better services to the business. Given that the line between success and failure is so thin – why bother considering BYOD? When you get BYOD right it can be a huge boon to a businessoffer major business benefits. Staff are happiest and most productive when they are using tools that they like and that don’t get in the way with doing their work. We don’t want to get into a religious war but one of the reasons cited by business people that prefer a Mac is that the Mac just works. When you scratch the surface of those comments what you really find is that their personal preference is for the Mac hardware and OS X. That preference manifests itself as happier staff that spend less time messing about with their computer and more time working. For the IT department, when BYOD works, they actually have less work to do. Instead of having to manage a fleet of computers, they can focus on improving corporate applications and infrastructure. It’s a fair bet that any successful BYOD program will include some form of desktop virtualisation. While that has some overhead in creating, maintaining and operating it can be easier that managing a fleet of mobile devices that connect to the network in different ways. A poorly-executed BYOD program is the stuff of nightmares. Data loss, poor reliability, network capacity issues, software deployment problems – all of these are potential outcomes if you don’t get it right. The IT staff will be run ragged as they try to install software onto client devices but struggle with application incompatibility issues. The reality is that for BYOD to work it needs to be carefully thought out. Some limits need to be put in place. After all, you don’t want to have to connect an ancient $50 swap meet special running Windows ME to your network. You will need to establish some rules so that service levels can be maintained.

Section 4: Key Elements Of a BYOD Policy
What does it take to get BYOD right? A well-executed BYOD program is like an iceberg. All that people notice is the top. But below the surface is a massive volume that only matters if it gets in your way. The first step to BYOD success is connectivity. You need a network that allows devices to connect, authenticate and deliver secure data. As you won’t be able to control the hardware that connects you’ll need to ensure that your network supports and is tested with a wide variety of hardware. Also, make a decision early on about what sorts of connections will work. There’s little point offering remote connections via a VPN from a cellular network if the performance or reliability will cause issues with corporate apps. Do the research early, set reasonable expectations and make limitations known. Allowing staff to directly access data by installing different client apps will make your job much more difficult. A remote desktop provides the IT department with enough control to guarantee a consistent user experience and protect your data. If your CRM system requires specific client software that writes to the database, what happens if a remote network connection drops out? With a remote desktop all that happens is the desktop drops out. Depending on how you’ve configured things, it could still complete the transaction even though the user has lost connectivity. Remote desktops also make security easier to manage. If a user logs in to a remote desktop you can manage application access from a single point rather than needing to authenticate each user for each application separately. Essentially, you’ll be remotely delivering an SOE. If you’re planning to supply devices to users that they choose, make sure that support arrangements are clear – both for the users and IT support. If users are buying their own devices and bringing them to work, establish where the support boundaries are so that IT staff aren’t trying to repair devices they have little expertise with. And ensure you have some spare devices on hand in case of breakages or failures. If you get your BYOD strategy right, users will stop bypassing the business and rely on the internal IT systems and infrastructure. That makes life easier for everyone and can potentially reduce the cost of systems operation and support.

Section 5: Delivering Apps Across Multiple Devices
If everyone is using different devices with different screen sizes, operating systems and connectivity options, how do you deliver applications? The old way of creating an installable executable doesn’t work anymore if every user has multiple devices running different operating systems. Part of the answer is in the app that is installed on every device, large and small – the browser. If you can deliver all your apps via a web browser then software deployment can be greatly simplified. With the delivery mechanism managed, your focus can be on functionality and security. Of course, if it were easy everyone would be doing it. In order to make an application browser friendly, you need to ensure that it follows modern web standards like HTML 5 and doesn’t rely on options, like Flash or Silverlight, that aren’t multiplatform.

The path to making your business apps browser friendly won’t be short. It’s likely to take a long time and there will be many questions about whether the return on investment will stack up. A simpler solution might come through virtualisation and remote desktops. Where an app needs to run on a full computer, it’s likely that a virtualised computer that’s delivered through a remote desktop will do the job. This simplifies delivery, as there are virtual desktop clients for just about every computing platform you can imagine. However, you’ll notice that we used the phrase “just about” in there. Those aren’t weasel words. The reality is that you can’t hope to support every single possible different device that exists. Make decisions about what platforms you’ll support, make those public and revise them from time to time. One of the challenges will be to determine which applications are best delivered by web browser and which should be virtualised. A logical approach would be to think about two different activities; reading data and writing data. Some users will only read data from an application. For example, senior managers are unlikely to ever enter sales transactions but they will look at sales reports. Delivering the sales reports over a web browser makes sense, as the functionality you need to create is simpler. It also helps you gain experience in creating web-based applications while managing the risk of delivering transactional data through a new platform. Rather than recreate the entire data entry system for a browser, it makes sense to deliver that part of the application – a part that already exists – using a remote desktop system. This technology is very mature and the skills to deploy remote desktop solutions are widely available.

Section 6: Delivering Security Across Multiple Devices
Once the IT department starts to relinquish control of the devices that staff use to get their work done, managing the company’s logical security takes on some new challenges. One of the big ones is security. How do you ensure that everything is locked up when everyone can bring their own door? Security starts with basics. Educate your staff and enforce strong passwords. At a minimum we’d encourage you to enforce rules that all passwords are at least eight characters long and include three of the following • Upper case letter • Lower case letter • Numbers • Symbols Avoid variations on dictionary words. For example, P@55word fulfils the rules we set before but is not very hard to guess. Ensure that password changes don’t allow passwords to simply increment by adding a digit to the end. Although these rules can be a drag, it’s important that you teach users about why they are important so that the rules have context and don’t just come across as edicts from on high.

Ensure that mobile devices that store corporate contact information, documents and other sensitive information can be remotely wiped. You could do this by using a Mobile Device Management, or MDM, solution or by enforcing policies that make it mandatory for users to have such a service. For example, Apple’s MobileMe and Google Sync for Android support remote wiping of lost devices. Alternately, supply staff with a mobile device and encourage them to maintain a personal, non-work device as well. This will assist with security and make it easier for staff to separate their personal and work lives.

Chapter 4: The Cloud: It’s Even Bigger Than You Thinks
Cloud computing sounds compelling, but deployments often bog down in details and internal politics. The key to making the most of cloud computing is to recognise the breadth of solutions it offers but choose just those options that meet immediate business needs.

Section 1: Defining the cloud
Ask a room full of IT-savvy folks what the cloud is and it’s a fair bet that you’ll hear a number of different definitions. Like the shapeless bodies of water vapour floating above us, it’s impossible to come up with a single answer that captures every shape or type of cloud. When it comes to the cloud we think that there are two broad categories of cloud services: software and infrastructure. What makes cloud services different to traditional outsourcing arrangements is its flexibility. Cloud services are delivered as a pay as you need service. For example, say you decide to use a cloud service for your business’s customer relationship management (CRM) system. When you start out with the new system you have seven staff that use the system and 100 customers. After a few months, you expand to 12 staff and your CRM now holds data for 300 potential and current clients. The system has expanded to meet your needs without you needing to think about managing the hardware or application. A year later, you decide to run a month-long marketing campaign so you add a group of ten temporary staff. With a cloud service you can “purchase” the extra software licenses you need, run the campaign and then return the licenses. With traditional software you’d either have to negotiate with the vendor or buy the extra licenses. Cloud services make it relatively easy to expand and contract when compared to traditional technology deployment models. A trap for business users is that they see popular consumer cloud services and think that they will fit into their business. We’d suggest a cautious approach. Most consumer cloud services are delivered on an “all care, no responsibility” basis with no guaranteed level of service. It may be worth looking at a paid service that offers a service level agreement, as it’s unlikely your business can afford to lose access to data or systems.

Section 2: The four clouds and why you would use them
Earlier, we divided cloud services into two groups. But another way to divide them based on what they deliver to your business. The public software cloud can be best described as the “one size fits most” option. The public software cloud delivers basic utility services like email, file storage and other functions that are so generic that choosing one solution over another is really a matter of personal taste. Some of the more popular public software cloud applications that are available are tools like Gmail and Dropbox. All your data sits on systems and hardware that are shared with potentially millions of other users.

The public hosted cloud uses public infrastructure like storage and servers that you can deploy your own applications on. In some cases, the service providers deliver turnkey solutions for specific needs. For example, if you need a server running Microsoft Exchange you can have that provisioned for you. No one else will be using that instance of Exchange. Although the application and database are specific to you and not shared, the hardware the applications are running on is shared. A couple of the more popular public hosted clouds are Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The private hosted cloud enables flexible business delivery within a completely private environment. That means it’s your software running on your hardware. Nothing is shared with anyone else. What makes this the cloud and not an outsourced data centre is the nature of the applications. They are made to be remotely accessed rather than used on a local network. Finally, you can simply roll your own business infrastructure, taking the best of each. You might use the public software for your email system, public hosted cloud for document management and the private hosted cloud for your finance system.

Section 3: The public software cloud
The public software cloud is an easy entry point for anyone who wants to try before they buy. All public software cloud solutions run through a web browser. They deliver software or services that are used by everyone and are commodities. That is, everyone has these applications so they don’t give your business any market advantage. If you decide to move a business function to the public software cloud then the deployment will be reasonably easy although there may be some effort involved if you need to move old data into the new system. Other than needing to launch the new application through a web browser, it’s unlikely that users will find the transition difficult as they’ll be confronted with familiar user interfaces. Although many public software clouds offer a free version, the real benefit comes from only paying for the capacity you need. For example, if you choose a public software cloud accounting system you may start with just one or two log-ins. If your business grows you can pay a little more for extra log-ins as you need them. The same goes for storage and other options. As thousands or millions of users share the software on the public software cloud there’s very little scope for customisation. You might be able to add a corporate logo and update the colours but if you need a new function added then the best you can do is suggest it to the developers and hope it makes it to a future release. If a public software cloud option looks like a good fit for your business there are a few things to look out for. Check for storage limits and check out what costs you’ll be up for if you decide to expand your capacity. Many public cloud systems make it relatively easy to import data but look into the export options. If you change your mind and decide to move to another public cloud system you’ll want a way for extracting your data in a suitable format – you don’t want to print out hundreds of pages of reports for re-keying.

Section 4: The public hosted cloud
The public hosted cloud is a way of getting the benefits of the public software with greater flexibility. It uses public infrastructure so you can deploy your own applications. With the public hosted cloud you are allocated processor, storage and memory according to your needs and

budget. When you need more, you simply pay for it. When your needs are lower, you can reduce your outlay. When you buy your own equipment, you need to come up with a wad of cash and then wait for the gear you order to arrive, be installed and then made ready for use. There are backups, system updates and other maintenance jobs that need to be done. With a public hosted cloud solution, you completely bypass the capital outlay. When you buy your own hardware you are effectively pre-paying for its use. A public hosted cloud solution takes your expenditure out of the capital budget and moves it into operational expenses. This means you hold on to your cash where it can be used on something that will set you apart from your competition or earn some interest. However, it’s important that you budget carefully so that any contracted commitment to a service provider is managed in the context of your overall cash flow. Like any shared infrastructure, pay close attention to promised service and reliability levels. Although you’ll be using virtual servers that aren’t shared, the physical computers are shared. That means other parties may impact the performance of your servers. As these are paid services you can reasonably expect to be given some service level guarantees for performance and availability. Also, do some investigation about where the actual infrastructure is housed. If your business is based in Australia, using servers in an American data centre can lead to disappointing performance with network latency an important consideration. Many large public hosted cloud providers have data centres in different parts of the world so choose a location that offers you the best possible performance.

Section 5: The private hosted cloud
So far, we’ve looked at solutions with fully hosted software and hardware and moved to running your own virtual servers and applications on shared hardware. The private hosted cloud takes the next step with you running your own hardware so nothing is being shared. It’s your software running on your hardware but inside someone else’s data centre. Although this isn’t the cheapest option it offers the best security and, potentially, performance. You get to choose the hardware, operating systems, applications – everything. The great benefit here is that you get the upside of a cloud service with easy remote access and someone else doing most of the administration. Although the equipment is yours, most private hosted cloud providers will handle the procurement process and then finance the equipment to you. So, you still get to hold on to your money and cover the payments from your operational funds. It’s tempting to be the master of your own destiny and have your own bespoke server environment but that won’t come cheaply. If you figure what it would cost you to buy servers, employ staff, supply power and set aside a climate controlled, secure room you can understand why this is the most expensive option so far. In effect, it’s giving you an entire IT department and infrastructure that you pay for by the month. The big question with a private hosted cloud is whether you really need a completely isolated environment. To answer that question you need to take a hard look at your business, what problems you’re trying to solve, your budget and what return you’ll get on your investment. As this isn’t the lowest cost option, if the best business case only breaks even then you may be better served by a public hosted or public software cloud solution.

Section 6: The hybrid cloud
Welcome to the real world. The world where nothing is simple and the answer to solving complex business issues requires a multi-faceted approach to problem solving. It’s human nature to seek the simplest, most elegant solution. When it comes to our office IT needs we look for a single answer to all our questions. But it’s a hybrid solution that’s more likely to fit your needs. A hybrid cloud sounds like it’s more difficult but it needn’t be. What it really means is that you can choose a different solution for each different function in your business. For example, a public software cloud solution could be a good fit for email and other services that are essential for your business but don’t give it an advantage over your competitors. A public hosted cloud solution could be a good fit for a document management system. You can run up a virtual server of a particular specification, install your own software and then entrust the operation of the server to your service provider. You’ll still have the task of administering the document management system but that’s a specialised skill that may be worth having in your organisation. For a mission critical system where security is paramount a private hosted cloud set-up might be the best fit. Let’s say you need a server for your core financial and customer management systems. The data is critical – you wouldn’t want it shared accidentally and having systems that are held in a secure environment where the risk of theft or damage is such that you want to take some extra precautions. Regardless of which options you choose it’s important to make decisions that don’t lock you into a specific platform. If you start with a new application, within a couple of years it’s likely to have a significant volume of critical information. Make sure that there are easy ways to get that data out should you decide to change your mind or move to an alternative that better matches your growing and changing business. Also, if you choose a hybrid model and your applications need to exchange information make sure that they can. Many of the most popular software cloud providers have established methods for sharing information but don’t assume that will always be the case. Finally, if you decide to use several different cloud solutions it’s worth making a small investment to create a simple dashboard so that your staff has a single entry point so they can access the systems. Ideally, the systems you look at will support technologies like Open ID so that users only require a single username and password for all systems rather than different ones for each system.