Speakers:

John Dodge, Services Architect, VMware

Dale Lahue, Sr. Product Manager, VMware

Nicholas Gibson, Consulting Architect, VMware

Tags: virtualization, VMware View Pilot

This session feature VMware product management and professional services discussing the technology advancements in the solution.
Download this podcast to learn more about what’s new in this release!

Speakers:
John Dodge Services Architect, VMware
Dale Lahue, Sr. Product Manager, VMware
Anjan Srinivas, Technical Marketing Manager, VMware

Tags: Vmware View, VMware VDI

Speakers:
J. Tyler Rohrer, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, VMware
John Dodge, Worldwide Release Engineer, VMware

Tags: J. Tyler Rohrer, John Dodge, VMware, Thinapp, VDI, Thinstall, virtualization, ROI

Speakers:
J. Tyler Rohrer, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, VMware
John Dodge, Worldwide Release Engineer, VMware

Tags: J. Tyler Rohrer, John Dodge, VMware, Thinapp, VDI, Thinstall, virtualization

Speakers:
J. Tyler Rohrer, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, VMware
John Dodge, Worldwide Release Engineer, VMware

Tags: VDI, John Dodge, Thin Clients, Thinapp, VMware, virtual desktop deployment

Speakers:
J. Tyler Rohrer, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, VMware
John Dodge, Worldwide Release Engineer, VMware

Tags: NOUN, software, VMware, Enterprise Desktop solutions, VDI, Thinapp, J. Tyler Rohrer, John Dodge

In this podcast, Ty Schwab from Blackhawk Technology Consulting LLC will discuss:

* The desktop virtualization evaluation process.
* The implementation of VMware VDI and VMware Application Virtualization.
* The expected (and unexpected) benefits they achieved.

Tags: Blackhawk Technology Consulting, VMware, VMware Application Virtualization, Thinstall, Ty Schwab, VDI, virtualization

In this VMware podcast, Henrik Rosendahl and Ed Albanese of VMware’s application virtualization product team explain why application virtualization matters, including the real-world benefits and the best way to try it out.

Tags: Application compatibility, VMware, virtualization, Thinstall, Henrik Rosendahl, Ed Albanese

This podcast features VMware Desktop Specialist Todd Dayton in an interview that dives into the architecture behind VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, applicable use cases and tips on how to get started.

The Server Virtualization Blog has a great and concise explanation of the VM value proposition in a recent post by Bridget Botelho, including links to case studies.

Tags: enterprise computing, mobility, IT, VMware, virtualization, Virtual Desktop, data center

A virtual desktop is one where all computing happens remotely. It contains a very simple screen that allows you to replace the heavy workstations that are currently being used by the majority of companies. Virtual desktops provide a “virtual” space, in which the user can place all their application software. The most compelling argument that vendors use to convince organizations to buy in to this solution is the fact that all the data and applications are in one secure location. Someone can still manage all of their employee’s desktops, even when the computer is off.

The recent trend has been for companies to move to Windows Vista. This allows an organization to keep the same hardware, which is a viable solution to cut costs. So, why are some people hesitant to invest in this? The answer seems to be that virtual desktops are not a “one size fits all” solution - but there are ways for easy implementation, which is where BearingPoint comes in. We assist with the pain points or doubts that an organizations goes through. It is our goal to assist with the development of a strategic roadmap that brings the client all the way through the deployment. We bring our expertise to the table to ensure the transition is smooth and that our clients are on their way to cost-saving success.

Tags: BearingPoint, Laurent Mandorla, virtual desktops, virtualization

In this podcast, Davidson and his colleagues Mike Ferron-Jones, marketing manager for Intel’s Emerging Compute Models program, and Chuck Brown, who directs the program, lay out the basic questions IT managers need to ask before choosing new compute models, discuss some of the pros and cons of different models, and preview some Intel and industry developments in the ECM space.

Tags: Intel, Emerging Compute Model, Jason Davidson, Mike Ferron-Jones, Chuck Brown, Thin Client, Rich Client, Terminal Services, Virtual Hosted Desktop, Blade PCs, OS Streaming, Application Streaming, SaaS

In this video podcast, Intel Senior Business Marketing Manager Justin Van Buren, Wipro Chief Application Architect Patrick Kalaher, Wipro Architect Timothy Morey, and Intel’s own Josh Hilliker discuss the technology and its implications for business with PodTech’s Jason Lopez.

Check out the Intel vPro Technology ROI Estimator

Some images provided with permission via Creative Commons by Brian Floto, Ben Donley, Mo Riza and Megan Ann, via Attribution 2.0 Generic; Kyle Flood, chapleauportal, Tammy Green and Julien Hourbrechts via Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic; and Gailjadehamilton and Murtaza Gulamali, via Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

Tags: Intel vPro Technology, IT efficiency, PC refresh program, hardware complexity, Wipro, desktop management, Justin Van Buren, Patrick Kalaher, Timothy Morey, Josh Hilliker, ROI Estimator

Employees can collaborate and update projects through Microsoft Outlook. Dashboards with traditional Gantt charts and graphical cost, risk, and benefit views make it easy for management to determine status.

Tags: AtTask, Abraham Knell, @task, iPhone Web App, Microsoft Outlook

To support their growth, COMPLETExRM landed funding and a board seat from Donald L. Lucas, a respected VC and board member at Oracle and other tech companies.

Tags: CRM, Saas, COMPLETExRM, Salt Lake City, PlanPlus Online, FranklinCovey, Donald L. Lucas, Oracle

Tags: Ubuntu, GNU/Linux, debian, GNOME, Linuxworld, Kevin Shuk

Tags: illumio, desktop application, David Gilmour, Tacit Software

Unified identity and service delivery is a new approach to providing each user with access to everything they’re authorized via a bookmark entry in their Web browser. This virtual desktop gets them productive quickly, greatly increases security, and enhances the massive investments in current infrastructure and procedures. Unifying identity across the enterprise, identity presence, requires a platform that provisions, synchronizes and self-heals identify information across all mainframe, client-server and SaaS solutions by providing identity-as-a-service in a SOA. Unified identity also greatly facilitates effective hardware virtualization of applications and services with VMware, Xen and others.

Tags: David Doane, PresenceID, identity transparency, virtual workplace, Unified identity, SaaS, VMware, Xen

Bungee Connect includes an IDE with loads of Ajax goodness that makes it feels like your using a desktop application. More importantly, Bungee Connect offers a system to make it easier than ever for developers to mash-up web services, program entire applications, share with other engineers and deploy applications to the grid. And unlike other development environments, Bungee Connect works from within a standard Internet Explorer or Firefox or Safari Web browser.

Tags: Microsoft, Alex Barnett, Bungee Labs, Bungee Connect, IDE, Ajax

Tags: Sean Penn, Roxio Labs, MediaTickler, Roxio Buzz

Tags: Jay Pullur, Pramati Technologies, Dekoh, TechCrunch

(more…)

Tags: Claire Hogikyan, Pfizer, Documentum

Transcript:

Host: Catherine Girardeau - PodTech
Guest: Gary Kim - IT Business Wire
Guest: Andy Randall - MetaSwitch

Catherine Girardeau - PodTech
This is PodTech.net. Gary Kim is Editor-in-Chief of IT Business and Andy Randall, VP of Marketing at MetaSwitch, join PodTech.net in conversation with Andy Randall and Gary Kim at a breakfast panel sponsored by MetaSwitch at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida.

What we are going to focus this discussion around is what it means to be a service provider in the current climate for CLECs?

Andy Randall - MetaSwitch
I think it’s a really interesting time for service providers that you see the rise of Google, YouTube, all of these Internet based applications and service providers are really juggling within this to try and work out what is it that they are actually providing. Is the application that they are providing transport access to the Internet at large or can they really move up the value chain in terms of services? I think for lot of carriers they are finding it struggle to actually work out where they are on that ladder and even though they want to move up, it is a very different mindset and it becomes a different kind of challenge for them to build, build the applications and it’s all about how fast they can move. I think that’s the large part of it. Carrier tends to think in terms of years and Google thinks in terms of days or weeks. What do you think Gary?

Gary Kim - IT Business Wire
Another way to explain what Andy just said is that something really good or something really bad could happen to the entire global telecom industry, which is about a trillion dollars a year, in annual revenue. So, the really good thing would be that we succeed in creating applications that are like voice on your mobile phone or voice on your PBX at the office, or voice at your home phone, you get paid for providing that application. The really bad thing that could happen is we windup being just providers at the pipes that allow those things to be created. Those things get created by other parties that are not affiliated with you a business sense and you don’t capture much of the revenue from it. So, it’s a huge challenge, it faces all service providers not just the CLECs and it’s an issue we’re going to be facing for the rest of our professional career, that’s very clear.

Catherine Girardeau - PodTech
One of the things that came up in panel discussion had to do with differentiation or convergence between services for home use, mobile use and enterprise use. What are the challenges for service providers with regard to this kind of convergence?

Andy Randall - MetaSwitch
I think those are distinct areas of applications right now. I think the big difference we are seeing at the movement is in terms of video applications. The residential subscribers — the activity that’s happening there is all about video on demands, IPTV and the Internet based video sites. You’re seeing the content creators putting their shows up on the Websites for download. Now, this is completely disintermediating the whole distribution setup is being put in place over the last 75 years. That’s the huge shift in terms of the residential space. Different kind of dynamics happening in the business space, that where that overlap, this happening and this came up in the panel discussion and I think this is really important. I don’t think people are paying enough attention to this is that, the home workers and home office and the mobility of the worker to go beyond their cubicle to mobile space and into there home. I think the service providers that can really capture this dynamic both addressing all of those residential requirements and tie that back into the office environment, that for me could be a killer app, for any kind of service provider.

Gary Kim - IT Business Wire
One of the great inversions we might be seeing and I could be quite wrong about this, is that traditionally the really interesting things human beings can do with communications, start in the business sector, get use there, people get familiar with it and then start they using them at home, fax machines, best example then. What we have seen I think in the last couple of decades though is that the fax machine was about the last technology that actually originated in the office, so much brought home, I think everything else one can make an argument.

Catherine Girardeau - PodTech
Or email, well email.

Gary Kim - IT Business Wire
Sure, it starts in the home and then at some point so many people are using it the enterprise has to respond. I would argue to a certain extent broadband access itself, email, instant messaging, blogs, wiki’s, the use of Internet – open internet right, all of that was created by demand of users that found these things useful and then now the IT departments of the enterprises have to respond and that’s a pretty big shift. I think all of this in that the service provider community need to spend more time looking at how consumers use technologies because those things are going to wind up in our offices, there’s no question about that.

Catherine Girardeau - PodTech
And this is kind of where managed services comes in, especially maybe for small to mid size business, they don’t have the in-house expertise in their IT departments, nor perhaps the person power to deal with the IT demand of this rapidly changing environment.

Andy Randall - MetaSwitch
I was at the trade show the yesterday I was just talking to some customers who — I am talking to how they handle this kind of situation of particularly the kind of things David was talking about with quality of service, but not just in terms of the last mile to the enterprise, but actually going and replacing their network infrastructure, managing the local area network remotely over that wide area network and that’s I think even see more of that where service providers, point to demarkation of the service providers changing from where the T1 goes into the office building, right down to the desktop and they are taking on more of the management if it uses desktop of the network infrastructure and the entire IT applications of the small — particularly small business obviously at a point.

Gary Kim - IT Business Wire
One of the ways to illustrate what Andy is saying I think is that just as people customizes their cell phones by ringtones, we maybe moving towards world and hopefully we are, where end users can actually create their own custom applications, that maybe actually useable just by them personally at the office and it could be that Tom in the cubical next to me doesn’t want to do this, he may create entirely different applications and that’s just a fundamental shift in a way that we have always operated. Always before it’s been — we service providers will decide what you need, package it up, create it and sell it to you and now we maybe opening up our networks a little bit more and with that allows people to create the things that they decide they want without us having to intervene in the middle of it, which is a certainly great thing.

Andy Randall - MetaSwitch
This is the most profound time of challenge that I have ever discovered in all my years, being in the business and it’s a time of great opportunity, not just great risk, I mean both of them are present to you, but both of them are addressed.

Gary Kim - IT Business Wire
I think it’s all about carriers realizing that business model is changing. We could not to see a change in technologies, but also change in people are getting the services from based upon which of the carriers that are embracing those can build these today.

Catherine Girardeau - PodTech
Andy Randall of MetaSwitch and Gary Kim of IT Business, thank you so much for joining me on PodTech.net.

Gary Kim is Editor-in-Chief of IT Business and Andy Randall, VP of Marketing at MetaSwitch, at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida, this is PodTech.net.

Copyright ©2006 PodTech.net. All rights reserved. Privacy policy

Tags: Gary Kim, Andy Randall, MetaSwitch, CLECs

In this podcast, Farid Moussavi, managing director of BearingPoint Financial Services Technical Solutions Practice will help you to better understand a service delivery framework to address the prevalent issues in providing market data to your internal clients. He will also explore what it would take to treat market data like a service.

Transcript:

Host: Paul Lancour - PodTech
Guest: Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint

Paul Lancour - PodTech
I’m Paul Lancour with PodTech.net.

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
People are expecting in a very short-term and I mean the next 12-18 months, the volume of market data to quadruple.

Paul Lancour - PodTech
That’s Farid Moussavi, Managing Director of Financial Services Technical Solutions Practice at BearingPoint. Not only is the sheer volume of data a problem, but traditional practices of considering data in individual silos will no longer suffice. I started by asking Farid to give us his view of the landscape today.

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
I think the best way to give a good background to set things going here is to state it in the form of a problem, and then discuss about how to identify the solution or solutions around the problem. Market data in its original form dating back to its early days really was historically pretty nothing more than a ticker tape if you will, of information coming on a piece of paper, out of a box on to a user’s desk or office or an organization, and over the course of time, Financial Services history especially in the last decade or so, it’s really exponentially grown to be much more than that. It’s no longer just a push of information to individual or organization. It really needs to be treated like a technology service, just like other technology services in an IT organization is used to pushing out to whether it’s email service or network service or desktop services and the like. And in this context, what we’re advocating here is to really put together a service delivery framework as an IT organization and the financial services firm is looking to treat market data for service.

Now, there’re some challenges obviously, especially in the days of algorithmic trading and program trading, this really represents the secret sauce if you will, of some other financial services firms, and breaking down the barriers to the silos of what it takes to deliver Market Data Services to a User Community, it is really the daunting task that’s in front of most IT organizations as well as the business divisions that they represent and support. There are fundamentally, currently two models providing market data, one is the classic outsource model, Bloomberg is a primary example of a subscription based turn-key solution, and then the other model is one which is more of a cookie cutter, grow your own type model. Companies like Reuters and Thomson are usual suppliers in this domain that leverage on market data distribution platform.

Paul Lancour - PodTech
So, that’s a good outline of the problem as it exists right now that there’s a lot of market data out there, and there’s a lot of technology that is changing the way, people expect to have that data presented to them. What’s the trend going on right now with financial services firms using Market Data?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Well, the most daunting trend is just a sheer volume of market data coming out from the exchanges into various sources. The content is just exploding and the ability of the financial service firms to absorb this volume, and deal with it and basically make very quick financial decisions from the moment of making the decision to the execution of that decision is now being measured in microseconds whereas it used to be measured in minutes if not hours. So, with this explosion of data and just a sheer volume and the type of data what we’re looking at here is a problem statement whereby the technologists who have to consume this data or challenge with rising costs, being forced primarily in a reactionary mode, and it’s really a costing issue and most firms on Wall Street are now challenged with this trend.

Market Data, let’s not forget, is this annual spend in a large Wall Street firm is usually measured not in the millions or tens of millions, It’s measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year as their annual spend and this number is increasing.

Paul Lancour - PodTech
Given what you’ve said then what would it take to take to go from the old models to a newer model that would treat market data more like a service?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Well, we’re advocating a tiered service delivery approach whereby you’re really treating users based on their need for market data. So, if you take the analogy of a bronze, silver, gold typed User Community where the bronze user would be basically looking at just screen-based display of data, the silver and gold as now platinum user would be looking at data coming out in a much faster pace to address for example automated trading, algorithmic training, doing some of the really exotic cross-asset class trading applications, that is a totally different type of user and therefore must be treated as such.

In order to treat the User Community in such a structured fashion, you’re really looking at addressing three fundamental areas. One is Instrumentation and that’s simply the monitoring and reporting of connectivity with the market data service providers. Your internal market data feed handlers and cache, and looking at of course your data quality itself. Another area where it’s definitely needed to some assistance on is the area of Processes. If you’ll take a look at the service delivery framework then too it’s of course several processes that together form that framework. The most important one that applies here is one of Capacity Management, and we should not be a surprised because of course the sheer volumes are forcing capacity limitations to be violated. Looking at Capacity Management which involves enhanced collaboration with the exchange data providers, the application developers, production support, regulators as well as the end users themselves who will help the market data service organization stay ahead of the curve.

The last and definitely not the least, it’s not the most extensive is looking at addressing this tier to user community from an organizational support perspective. This is where you have development support for new API to support low latency infrastructures that the new volumes are dictating, as well as the integration with existing service delivery components to address the problem. What do I mean by that? IT organizations for these firms are all providing perfectly viable email service, network service, desktop services, and they all have what you would expect and to help desk, trouble ticketing, problem change inside of management, that’s all embedded into the way they do things everyday. There’s absolutely no reason why market data cannot be treated just like any of these other service families, leveraging the exact same service management concepts that are dictated by a service delivery framework. Hopefully, that shed some light on how one would go about embarking on a tiered user community.

Paul Lancour - PodTech
I think it does, but also I would wonder what are some additional challenges? You’ve already outlined some in terms of expected speed by the client, the sheer amount of data. What are some of the challenges in breaking down these silos?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
A couple of things, one comes to mind is primarily is — market data falls in that classic business and technology divide. On one hand, you’ll have as I have mentioned earlier in the introduction, the secret sauce, the applications which consume market data information are really in many ways swinging the profitability of the firm could very easily go from the positive to negative and vice versa. An outage of market data during the business day even measured in a matter of few minutes can translate into tens of millions of dollars of lost revenue. So, letting go or opening up access to these applications and see where some of the skeletons are, where some of the errors of optimization could be opening up some other proprietary protocols. These are the types of things that are much higher hurdles in the context of market data than in other technology solutions. It’s an (Inaudible) of email which is basically a utility type application whereas market data applications or anything, but you also have sheer lack of knowledge unfortunately in the technology community as well as in the business community about what market data is from a life-cycle perspective. There’re so many disciplines that are involved in pushing this out as a service. Market data is the industry is somewhat of an incestuous industry. Very few people in the industry are aware about the issues. A lot of people can speak to them, but actually addressing them, you can really — it’s hard to find their talent that can speak to it and work at it the same time.

Paul Lancour – PodTech
Well, given all the difficulties you’ve outlined what is the reasoning behind doing this in the first place?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Well, as I mentioned it represents hundreds of millions dollars of annual spend that usually is one of the largest, it’s not The largest line item and IT organizations budge in the financial services firm. And by definition there’s opportunity to save but not only capital cost but operational cost. So, cost optimization, cost efficiency is definitely one aspect of it. Secondly, everybody is expecting not just the slope to continue going up linearly but exponentially with the advent of some of the regulations that are coming on board, people are expecting in a very short-term and I mean in the next 12-18 months the volume of market data to quadruple. So, this is if they don’t spend money on it now to address the issues that they’re facing, but now they’re only going to be spending that much more money later. So cost avoidance, optimization and frankly, user satisfaction getting that very precious piece of information to that trading desk in the right to point of time is going to be the difference between profit or loss at the end of the trading day.

Paul Lancour – PodTech
So, what is the vendor community doing to address this problem?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Well, depending on which sub-section of the community you’re talking about. At the end of day you’re talking about CPUs, you’re talking about servers, you’re talking about networks. If you’re a CPU vendor you want to sell more servers, you want to be able to ultimately ideally, horizontally scale but that’s not going to solve the problem that’s actually going to — it’s anything add to the problem, you want to ultimately, vertically scale and looking at some of the latest technologies when it comes to, for example, Dual-Core technology or testing Quad-Core technologies, exploring server fabrics, these are the types of things that the hardware vendors are addressing and most of these firms are maxed out on their data centers. There is no space left, there is no power left to add more servers, so something more innovative has to be done to address the hardware on footprint.

On the network side, of course the usual suspects in the networking community are providing the monitoring tools or just beginning, I should say, you would think that they would be well on their way given the size of dollars that are being spent but they’re providing monitoring tools to be able to measure latency which is a very big issue at the moment in a the market data space, and the service providers themselves, the market data service providers, the Bloombergs, the Reuters, the Thomsons, they are recognizing that this is becoming a barrier that’s too high for even them to address on their own. So, they’re developing various user groups to work along with their clients to address some of the service delivery aspects of market data.

Paul Lancour – PodTech
Who do you see out there in the market place who is at the cutting edge addressing this?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Well, without necessarily plugging any one vendor, I think as I mentioned depending on which angle you’re addressing this problem, you have your service management vendors which were obviously very keen on because that’s the foundation of what we are talking about here, providing more open sourced solution based approaches to service delivery whether it’s a reporting tool, whether it’s a trouble ticketing tool, whether it’s a monitoring tool, they are all beginning to wake up and pretty much trying to address this problem, of course admitting that there is a talent shortage in the space. In the network space the hardware vendors the likes of Cisco, for example, but definitely not just them are also being able to put in some monitoring capabilities to their underlying switches and routers to be able to accommodate at this very specialized type of traffic in the monitoring and in reporting.

Paul Lancour – PodTech
Is there anything else, Farid, you would like to share with our audience?

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Well, to those in the audience who’re involved in providing market data to an end user community, I would like to say is help is on the way because the vendors are be a little bit late to the scene are beginning to wake up, I think there really is no real silver bullet, there is no automated solution that’s out there that you can just buy off-the-shelf I think. People are going to have to continue rolling up their sleeves for those of the audience who have experienced a shrinking of their budget when it comes to this particular technology domain, they will see a reversal of that, they will have to see a reversal that is their firm is going to continue being a player in the capital market space.

Paul Lancour – PodTech
Well, with that I want to thank you very much for taking the time out to speak with us today, Farid.

Farid Moussavi – BearingPoint
Oh, you’re quite welcome.

Paul Lancour – PodTech
Farid Moussavi is the Managing Director of Financial Services Technical Solutions Practice at BearingPoint.

Copyright ©2006 PodTech.net. All rights reserved. Privacy policy

Tags: Farid Moussavi, BearingPoint

This Juniper Networks podcast is part of the Juniper Networks Master of IT program.

Transcript:
Host: John Furrier - PodTech
Guest: Eric Walters - 7-eleven

John Furrier - PodTech
Welcome to the PodTech.net, Master of IT Podcasts, we are here with Eric Walters the 7-eleven Manager of Network Services, is that your title, what’s your title Eric?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Manager of Network Services.

John Furrier - PodTech
Tell us what’s involved in being the manager of network services for 7-eleven, big corporation, lot of activity, lot of locations?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
It is, I am in charge of the Network for North American Stores including the continental US and Canada as well as, we have 60 yard field sides around the continental US and Canada as well.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, tell us how did you get to where you are as Master of IT, tell us about what led you to being a Master of IT at 7-eleven?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, I have always been in IT; I have worked in many areas of IT in the network side specifically, done a lot in the areas of security and networking from large corporations.

John Furrier - PodTech
Eric, tell us something a little about managing the 7-eleven network, I mean it’s not your standard corporate organization, I mean every one knows 7-eleven, who has had to have make quick stops, talk about the security environment over there and a little about the network.

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, the challenges are wide spread, depending on if you’re talking about stores or just the general corporate network, but the biggest challenge, we have today is really our stores, where we have a lot of change going on, we’re using a lot of technology in our stores and providing a robust network to support those new requirements as an ongoing challenge.

John Furrier - PodTech
What kind of technologies are we talking about over there?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, we are implementing a lot of new technologies for, we have a particular technology called vCom, which is a virtual commerce and that is an ATM machine that does a lot of transactions including check cashing, money orders as well as carrying standard ATM transactions.

John Furrier - PodTech
You must have had a lot of challenges, how many stores do you guys have?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
We’re trying about 53 hundred in the US and 500 stores in Canada.

John Furrier - PodTech
And your network includes all of those?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Yes, correct.

John Furrier - PodTech
Tell us about your security challenge, that you guys face over there at 7-eleven.

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, I think with any company doing financial services or financial transactions, PCI certification has to be the largest challenge and we’re currently implementing a lot of different technologies to make sure that our network is highly secure and that we can carry customers transactions without any compromise of their data.

John Furrier - PodTech
Can you give an example of something that happened recently?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, one of the things is we are adding into our stores, a wireless network, that we’re using for a running use, not for a wireless hotspot, but we’re using it for carrying a wireless device in a store called MOT and it’s a Mobile Operations Terminal, it’s used to do store ordering and product check-in and the like and obviously implementing a technology like that in our stores we wanted to do it very securely, but also giving some flexibility to expand the capabilities of it.

John Furrier - PodTech
Eric, tell us about some of the access challenges, is wireless a challenge as everyone wireless these days, so talk about that?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
The biggest challenge is making sure that the wireless network in a store is secure against any outside access, obviously wireless Sting what it is, it can be accessed from both inside our location, as well as in outside of our location so we have to be careful in making sure that the level of security is at — what it needs to be to prevent access and not only that to monitor against access by an outside party.

John Furrier - PodTech
Juniper has the Master of IT program and also you’ve been designated as one, talk about a little about what Juniper has brought to the table, what they’ve done with you?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well they’ve tapped out significantly both internally with our network as well as, all the way down to the stores, where we’re rolling out those wireless access points. The Juniper product is working out very well for us in that area, provides a very robust wireless access point, basically it’s a firewall with wireless access point built on top of it, as to our a lot of the other applications, there’re our other access points that are out there in the industry are really kind of the reverse, but there was an access point first and they kind of bolted some security on top of it.

We’re already very familiar with the platform that Juniper added this wireless capability too, so that was obviously a big benefit to us because we knew the capabilities of the device from a security perspective. So adding wireless on to that was a natural fit and really met the challenges that we had facing is quite well.

John Furrier - PodTech
Eric, you’re a master of IT, which is a great accomplishment, share with the folks out there about some of the things that you’ve learned, share with them something that you could help them way, so someone is out there who may have some of the similar issues that you had, what could you tell them?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, I think the key is being flexible. In today’s changing IT world, things are changing very rapidly, being able to be flexible and being able to have a vision towards where you want your organization or where you want your network to go and marrying that up with, what the executives at the organization are looking for is really challenging. It’s quite fun, but there’s a lot of challenge with staying up in IT these days, so really staying intend with the industry and with your peers in the industry is key to understanding the different ways that other organizations are addressing their security and network concerns and being able to carry that in your own organization as well.

John Furrier - PodTech
As you go forward, for the next few years, what do you see out there as the future challenges around the corner and the security and being just a master of IT, what does that outlook look like to you?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, I think the future challenges are that we are continuing to become more and more a Webified world and we’re seeing a lot of security challenges, all around the industry and in point security has become a really hot topic and how do you protect the in points in your network, whether it be an individual, whether desktop or a laptop mobile user, or our systems down in our stores, so security is really continuing to be at the fore front of every network manager’s mind.

John Furrier - PodTech
What you’re doing out there to keep on the cutting edge of the security issue, because security is really not going away, it’s always changing in morphing thing, what are the some of the things that you’re doing?

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Well, I think the biggest thing is staying in touch with my vendors and making sure that the manufacturers of the products that I use within our network are really in tune with what my issues are and also identifying whether the issues that I’m looking at are marrying up with where the products are going and making sure that I can address everything that we need to with as fewer vendors as possible and making sure that the security that they provide marries up with what we want to do.

John Furrier - PodTech
Eric, what do you enjoy the most about your job obviously being a Master of IT is a great accomplishment, what do you like the most about what you do?

John Furrier - PodTech
Well I think the thing that’s — the most intriguing is that it’s an ever changing world, there are constantly new challenges, which require you to stretch your thought process and coming up with new and creative ideas and ways of dealing with those challenges, this industry, there’s no way you can know everything there is to know about technology. And so there is always more to learn and more to get to know and that is the thing that enjoy the most about this, the work that I do is that you can never know it all, there’s just way too much that is out there.
We’re here at the Juniper Networks, Master of IT Podcast, talking about all masters of IT across the board.

For more information just see where all the Masters of IT are located, there’s a website www.masterofit.net, we’re here with Eric Walters, Manager of Network Services for 7-eleven, great company, good business, IT is a big part of it, a lot of locations. Eric thanks so much for the Podcast.

Eric Walters - 7-eleven
Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2006 PodTech.net. All rights reserved. Privacy policy

Tags: Eric Walters, 7-eleven, Juniper Networks, Master of IT, PodTech, John Furrier

Transcript:
Host: John Furrier - PodTech
Guest: Bill Watkins - Seagate

John Furrier - PodTech
We are here with Bill Watkins, the CEO of Seagate for the quarterly earnings. Congratulations, I guess some big numbers. Tell us a little bit some of the things that went on, came off CES, great launch there, new consumer brand. Last quarter numbers were different, we talked about that. Tell us, what happened this quarter?

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, again I think it really was an outstanding quarter and outstanding in all levels of the company. As we looked at the quarter, I think from our introduction of new products, yield improvement in cost savings, the ending or finishing up, if you will, of the Maxtor integration on that merger that got completed. I think that in certain parts of desktop market pricing was a little bit better than we thought, but net-net it was just across the board, company wide people executing little a bit better than planned. So, we end up beating the guy in this place - that’s for sure.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, you beat the guys. Let’s talk numbers. What were the numbers?

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, we came in $3 billion of revenue, which is the first time…

John Furrier - PodTech
Huge.

Bill Watkins – Seagate
For the first time, we’ve ever done $3 billion as a storage company and again you think about that stuff. That’s probably 30-40% on an annual basis up. So, again very, very great attraction of the products as you saw on CES, where the new products come out the consumer retailed it almost 200 million in the retail, 180 and 190 retails. So, again I think it was across the Board, it was just a great quarter. We obviously had in the gaming section a big quarter in gaming for the Christmas rush. So, again it was three billion of revenue.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, the Maxtor thing is complete.

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Yeah, we’ve really finished the whole integration of Maxtor. We currently have approximately 200,000 drivers left to sell, but all the manufacturing is done, all the restructuring, the layouts are pretty much finished and what will remain will trick out this quarter.

John Furrier - PodTech
So, we were at Seagate booth at CES we had the Bloghaus, with all the bloggers, which is great, a lot of fun, but those all the new products were out there. Talk about the new stuff that’s coming out.

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, again I think what’s excited about being Seagate and being as a part of any storage company today, is this onslaught of video applications content we moved around and what we saw at CES, was Seagate’s newest product rollout, is really to take advantage of all this content being moved electronically around. So, we opened up with the whole new backup that drives that. That not only backup, your data allows you to accessing your world, it allows you to synchronizing with all your devices, so immediately if you backup of song, video, it goes to your devices, whether it’s a video iPod et cetera, or whatever. It allows you access those backup data.

We also launched a whole group of products that are mobile products, which give you same functionality, but allow you to take it into your hand and go and so you can download onto one of your mobile external devices all your settings, your PC, your favorite IP sections, et cetera, take that with you and go. Wherever you’ve got a keyboard and screen, you’ve got an instant computer, with all your personal settings. So, again it’s all about giving you mobility, giving you security, giving you ways of backing up and accessing that data and then synchronizing that data through all these multiple devices that you use.

John Furrier - PodTech
The consumer finds it sexier too. I mean, they were really nice designed products. At the Bloghaus, everyone was talking about it the lights and it looks cool. Talk about like the new products that are coming. Any new cooler drives…

Bill Watkins – Seagate
Well, again we think — we’re going to see a whole list of products. We started with a launch — I think we’re going to talk about — we’ve new external drives that are going to be wireless that allow you access these handheld devices phones, our storage capabilities allow you to back and load more data in a handheld device. We’re going to have a whole new rollout of our Maxtor brand coming out, that is really based on reliability and backup, but again we’re going to launch some new products. We’ve gone to kind of new concept here, where we’re bringing in a frog designed it actually did the same, we’re bringing in people who we think have expertise in consumer designs and they’re helping us design.

At Seagate, we’re very focused on the technology and we much more looking at industrial applications, so again sort of creative ideas and things like that. We’ve reached out to those people that do a great job and Frog (Inaudible) has done some stuff for us, but again it’s really bringing in a whole new sort of coolness to hard drives. Again, like I said this before John, we’ve always been kind of like in Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain. No one knew about us and it didn’t matter, we weren’t cool.

Today, we’re not brought in then forefront, you see them out there, they’re utilized, they’re enabling you to move this content without storage device you cannot move this content electronically. So, it’s really changed, the face of company is changed, where we going as direction and is really made this (Inaudible) exciting place to be.

John Furrier - PodTech
They’re all just fundamental, almost like a microprocessor was in original PC, you had to have it and now people are embedding in their lives. Just quick back on the revenue, three billion that’s huge number. You said storage company has never done that before. You blew away earnings; talk about the outlook from a numbers perspective, also Maxtor is fully integrated perhaps just coming out at CES we’re seeing that. What’s the outlook for next quarter and the quarter after?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well can — we are doing something kind of usual, usually coming off in December quarter, our business is somewhat cyclical and ideally at Christmas — there is so much storage bought for Christmas whether it is in gaming, DVR, set-top boxes et cetera, PCs, notebooks. And so, historically you tend to have a 10% down quarter coming off of December in the March quarter. We had actually given a forecast for the March quarter very different than that, what we are saying is revenue will be flat at three billion. We’ll improve gross margins and earnings will be in the $0.55 or $0.60 range, which would be a tremendous again, over and proven again.

So, the reason for this is, that the Maxtor products are behind us and so this would be the first quarter where we actually 100% manufacturing, if you will, the Seagate product lines. We’ve got new 1.8 inch drives that now we’ve announced and now launching, we are in fact qualifying, we’ll start to see revenue and earnings this quarter from those programs.

We have a very new two-and-a-half inch 10,000 RPM, and 15,000 RPM, which in fact is the fastest drive in the world for the enterprise market that we are getting tremendous acceptance on so. Again, we are announcing really, actually we’re saying, “We’ve got a whole revenue of three billion in our March quarter,” which is probably 10-15% above what historically would be. And we are going to grow earnings to that $0.55 to $0.60 range. Again, in a down quarter, but again a lot of the things in work that the teams have been doing are really show down and show up.

John Furrier - PodTech
That’s great. Actually storage is growing like crazy in everyone’s life, you guys have great traction. Talk about the leadership from Seagate, in terms of in the marketplace, obviously have the technology leadership, talk about that and then talk about how you guys are going to be competing in the consumer area?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well, again as we think about, what’s critical to us at Seagate, it’s has really taken this technology leadership and transferring that into product leadership and in cost leadership. We think that — I think historically a lot of companies tried to be a technology leader, they tried to be a product leader or tried to be a cost leader. What we think is critical for our business, is really fitting all three things take your technology, but, it’s not enough, just to not to be a technology, you’ve got to turn into product leadership, and it’s just not enough to just be the product leader, you’ve got to have cost leadership there.

So, we think with our vertical integration strategies, our tremendous investments and how we platform those investments that allows us to really access technology, and bring it to market to cheaper than anybody else, just this tremendous advantage. And again that’s how — I think right now, over the t third of every drive in the world, the Seagate drive, and we obviously intend to improve on it.

John Furrier - PodTech
Tell, about the Seagate brand, changing — you mentioned some the changes, leadership is obviously there, how do you want people to know the Seagate brand in the market?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well, I think — obviously we think about it from a consumer application and again I think to some extent it’s a same principle to OEM or Dell. You want to trust us, I mean as we think about — it’s one thing to put your data on a hard drive or your spreadsheet and that implies a certain amount of confidence or liability et cetera, but when you put your pictures, your files, your music, your video, your home pictures, I mean these are priceless things, and I think what’s important for us, that not only we developed the products and the services for you, we have to deliver a product from a reliability that you trust us, you are trusting us or myself, well trusting is the most important things in life.

So, as we start looking at consumer branding, we are going after that sort of attitude that and making maybe real life how important is that back it up, put it on reliable person or reliable company that’s going to value that and take care of that data, to that data is not $5 or $10 or $9.99 that’s you and your life and your most important things.

John Furrier - PodTech
How about the macro market conditions out there for your growth and leadership out there, what are the key things that you think about?

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well again, as we think about it, we think is about getting content electronic distributed. And again we — anytime we move a song, a video or anything electronically, it creates an ecosystem that you need to have a storage at the enterprise level, where that content is held, and it’s delivered to your home. You need a storage device at your home to receive it, and then you move it your hand where you’re going to need a storage device, and then normally you’re going to move it to your car. And then everywhere along that cycle you need to back it up.

So, just the idea, or the behavior of moving content electronically, create six are seven drives or storage systems force. Sometimes, it’s going to be a flash in the hand, but again most that is going to be a hard drive, and so we get the benefit. More content is moved, whether it’s through the Internet, through your PCs et cetera. It created tremendous ecosystem, where we get to play it all every areas of those markets.

John Furrier - PodTech
We are here with Bill Watkins, the CEO of Seagate. Sum up for me the quarter that you just did and then the next quarter coming forward in your words.

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Well, again I think it’s very easy, to kind of excited about a quarter or whatever, I think that what — if I was to look at this, this quarter, next quarter, what you see is the opportunity. And it’s not of whatever we satisfied with $0.58 in March, or satisfy the fact we hit three billion. It’s the opportunity set is out there. And if we execute as a company, we can be in a dominating position in this industry. We can’t be a very large storage company; point-billion, those type of numbers are not impossible for us. The opportunity sets out there, we need to continue our execution.

John Furrier - PodTech
Storage of the center of the universe and people’s lives, great opportunity, you’ve blown away the number three billion in a quarter, blown away estimates, lot of leaderships, congratulations and thanks for the Podcast.

Bill Watkins - Seagate
Yeah, still more to come. Thanks.

Copyright ©2006 PodTech.net. All rights reserved. Privacy policy

Tags: John Furrier, Seagate, Bill Watkins, Maxtor