For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: WAN Optimization, Q4 2009

Blue Coat And Riverbed Lead, With Expand And Cisco Close Behind

by Chris Silva, November 10, 2009

In Forrester's 65-criteria evaluation of wide-area network (WAN) optimization vendors, we found that Blue Coat Systems and Riverbed Technology lead the pack, in part due to the changes these vendors made over the past year through acquisition of complementary . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Trends In Enterprise 802.11n Adoption, 2009  (427 KB PPT)

by Chris Silva, October 15, 2009

A data chart that looks at 802.11 adoption trends.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Case Study: How PerkettPR — An All-Virtual Organization — Is Powered By Remote Workers

How A Virtual Firm's IT Can Be Greener, More Accessible, And More Redundant Than Traditional Office Environments

by Chris Silva, Doug Washburn, July 28, 2009

PerkettPR made its strategic, and definitive, decision to focus investment on quality staff — not office space. Since its inception in 1998, the company has been a virtual organization with no intent of transitioning to a traditional office environment. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Green Checklist For Remote Workers  (32 KB XLS)

by Chris Silva, Doug Washburn, July 27, 2009

This worksheet acts as a simple yes/no checklist for green capabilities that remote workers can adopt.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Home Office Checklist For Remote Workers  (32 KB XLS)

by Chris Silva, Doug Washburn, July 27, 2009

A workbook spreadsheet detailing the requirements that all remote workers should follow.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Vendor Landscape: Enterprise 802.11n Infrastructure

by Chris Silva, July 24, 2009

The most recent iteration of the Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, has held out great hope, with greater speeds and greatly improved signal range, but as a newly ratified technology it has yet to be widely adopted due to perceived interoperability issues, higher . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Remote Worker Process And People Readiness Checklist  (30 KB XLS)

by Chris Silva, Doug Washburn, June 30, 2009

This workbook is a checklist to measure the readiness of remote workers and processes.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Identifying Components Of The Network Skills Gap

Identify Roles And Skills That Are Significantly Important For Successful Network Management

by Chris Silva, Usman Sindhu, June 12, 2009

Organizations are upgrading their infrastructure with technologies that improve network efficiency, performance, security, and management. As a result, IT ops pros' roles must also evolve in network, system, service, and operation management skills. These . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TechRadar™ For IT Infrastructure And Operations Professionals: Branch Office Technologies, Q2 2009

Core Technologies Ripe For Consolidation And Centralization

by Chris Silva, May 26, 2009

As businesses look to IT for the efficiencies, savings, and streamlining that will improve the bottom line, consolidation of branch office infrastructure represents a distributed but easy-to-optimize area of IT infrastructure. All the technologies included . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Wireless Architect - Job Profile And Description  (36 KB XLS)

by Chris Silva, March 31, 2009

Position overview: Wireless architect professional has the expertise to design and manage wireless networks by making mission-critical and business-critical wireless network decision.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Mobile Operations - Job Profile And Description  (38 KB XLS)

by Chris Silva, March 31, 2009

Position overview: Mobile operations professionals are tasked with managing mobile networks internal and external to the organization, managing device choice, and ensuring devices and applications reliant on these networks are properly secured and managed.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

End-Of-Life: The Forrester Wave™ SSL VPN Appliances

by Chris Silva, March 6, 2009

SSL VPN use among enterprises has increased in response to growing numbers of remote users and increased demand for Web-exposed applications and resources. SSL VPN for most remote access is a mature technology — most innovation is now occurring around . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Understanding The Network Skills Gap

Emerging Network Technologies Exacerbate Skills Shortcomings

by Chris Silva, March 5, 2009

Organizations are looking to IT to bring cost savings and efficiency to the business in the unsure future of 2009. In most organizations, this has led to IT being tasked with increasing network design complexity through the uptake of higher-level networking . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Making I&O Investments To Save The Business

How IT Operations Can Help Improve Its Business' Bottom Line

by Chris Silva, February 9, 2009

Organizations across industries and continents are facing a bleak 2009, and many managers are tasked to find elusive savings and cut costs while keeping their organizations afloat and fully staffed. While there has been much said about the withering effect . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: WAN Optimization, Q1 2009

by Chris Silva, January 29, 2009

Companies today are pushing more and more traffic over their WANs from a number of different sources. Whether it be new content delivery networks, mission-critical network-dependent apps, or mobile user and branch office traffic, networks can quickly . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Cut Costs On Voice: Prepare For Wi-Fi Calling Now

Market Overview: Firms Will Get Wi-Fi/Cellular Calling

by Chris Silva, December 23, 2008

As mobile device usage continues its uptick — as do its associated carrier costs — many companies are looking at dual-mode devices that can make calls over both carrier cellular and local area wireless networks (WLAN). By using WLAN for mobile calling, . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Market Overview: Firms Will Get Wi-Fi/Cellular Calling

But Adoption Will Take At Least Three Years

by Henry Dewing, Chris Silva, November 4, 2008

A single mobile device that allows calling over a mobile and wireless local area network (WLAN) network promises IT executives a potential way to decrease mounting mobile voice costs as minutes of use continue to increase. Firms face the challenge of . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Remote Access, Q4 2008

by Chris Silva, October 17, 2008

IT infrastructure and operations professionals are tasked with building an appropriate remote access strategy for the growing number of mobile users inside and outside the organization. This is no easy task and thus no surprise that Forrester fielded . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Enterprise Mobility, Q4 2008

by Benjamin Gray, Chris Silva, October 7, 2008

From January to June 2008, Forrester's IT infrastructure and operations team fielded 1,332 inquiries, which included a myriad of wide-ranging enterprise mobility technology adoption and strategy questions. As firms evolve their investments in enterprise . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

WiMAX In The US: How It Could Affect The Enterprise Wireless Infrastructure

by Chris Silva, Lisa Pierce, August 1, 2008

As standards have matured, WiMAX has garnered increased enterprise interest and vendor hype. If key providers in the US, notably Clearwire and Sprint, deploy the service as planned over the next 12 to 18 months, enterprises can look at WiMAX as a WAN . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The State Of Mobile Infrastructure: 2008

What Critical Elements Are IT Organizations Evaluating This Year?

by Chris Silva, August 1, 2008

Mobility is a priority for the majority of enterprises today. Whether formalizing and executing a mobile strategy, providing more mobility support to employees, or implementing a solution to ensure seamless coverage across multiple networks, enterprises . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Forrester TechRadar™: Enterprise Mobility Infrastructure, Q3 2008

Infrastructure And Services Converge To Make The Workplace Place-Agnostic

by Chris Silva, July 14, 2008

Enterprises see mobility as a top priority and seek to provide more mobility support to employees, implement solutions that provide seamless movement between networks, and formalize mobile policies. However, simply making mobility a key success goal is . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Training And Recruiting Mobile Operations Professionals

IEEE Steps In With A Benchmark For Mobility Infrastructure Experts

by Chris Silva, June 9, 2008

As mobility increases in complexity, multiplying the hardware, software, and services an organization regularly invests in and must support, the mobile operations role — a subrole within IT operations — will emerge as a central point of expertise and . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Business Mobility Imperative

To Remain Competitive, Establish A Mobile Operations Role Within Your Organization

by Chris Silva, Benjamin Gray, June 9, 2008

Whether brought in by employees or distributed by employers, mobile devices enable flexibility, increase productivity, and protect business continuity. However, most companies take a scattered approach to usage, procurement, management, security, and . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Q&A: Is Mobile WAN Optimization Right For You?

Enhancing Mobile Computing Inside And Outside The Organization

by Chris Silva, June 3, 2008

WAN optimization is no only longer only a point-to-point technology for accelerating traffic among branches and data centers. Instead, companies that have turned to the Internet as their corporate WAN are looking to apply WAN optimization to all of their . . .