Tablets will be dead? Interesting….

Hi folks! So Thorsten Heins from BlackBerry says the Tablet will be obsolete soon. Now I find that very interesting indeed.

Why? Because, he’s making an assumption based on the failure of his own PlayBook. I find that absolutely hilarious. Sure BlackBerry hasn’t been doing well, but you can judge a whole industry by that. After all the tablet market has been taking off with pretty much every other major vendor.

To say tablets will be obsolete and that smartphones are all you will ever need is bold to say the least. I think there will always remain a place for the tablet. It’s the perfect device for a lot of things!

-RP

Great VMware Forum Event!

Hi folks! If you didn’t have a chance to visit the VMware Forum event in Winnipeg, you missed out!

There was a great turnout, over 300 people by my estimate, and some great presentations! The afternoon had a great presentation on Horizon Suite and if you haven’t had a chance to demo it, you should head over to the VMware site to check it out!

Thanks to the great folks at VMware for putting on such a fabulous event!

-RP

VMware Forum Winnipeg!

Hi folks! If you live in Manitoba, don’t forget to attend the VMware Forum in Winnipeg!

VMware forum will be a great day of virtualization and your opportunity to have discussions with other customers and partners. You can register for the event here.

Hope to see you there!

-RP

Managing Trends in Technology with Cisco

Hi folks! Cisco is holding a technology event in Winnipeg again! This will be on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 from 8:30 am to 11:00 am central time. It will be held at the Delta Winnipeg Hotel.

To quote Cisco below:

”

Today’s leaders know that the future is just around the corner. They recognize that technology disrupts the market and creates new opportunities and challenges.   They know that now is the time to seize those opportunities and understand the challenges… and they know that they want to be ahead of the game! 

Collaboration and communication are crucial components of any successful business.  Our customers today are trying to manage strategies such as BYOD,  operational and capital expenses while also increasing productivity to stay ahead of the competition.   Cisco offers a full range of networking and unified communications capabilities that can provide reliable business connectivity, an innovative user experience, accelerate decision making and drive true customer intimacy.
We invite you to join other business leaders on May 14^th, 2013 for an informative interchange to learn how CISCO is addressing the technology transformation and how we are transforming the way our customers do business! ”

You can register for the event here.

-RP

HTC One in Canada

Hi folks! So if you haven’t heard, the HTC One is shipping in Canada now.

You can get it on a 3 year plan for $149.99 or you can buy it without a plan for $650.00.  If you signed up for the HTC One credit, you can get up to $100 credit back for your old HTC phone.

If you put in a pre-order, apparently those units are shipping already!

-RP

BlackBerry Q10

Hi folks! So for those of you that love BlackBerry’s almighty keyboard, you’ll be happy!

The BlackBerry Q10 is the device that is for you. With the abilities of touch screen phones, but the convenience of the keyboard, I predict the Q10 will really help BlackBerry out.

This is the phone that BlackBerry needed to make ages ago. I hope this helps this once great company see success again!

-RP

IPV6 Compliant Hardware

Hi folks! So IPV6 was supposed to be here by now but it isn’t. Sure some people are using it, but it really hasn’t reached wide spread adoption.

I for one thought it would be here by now but there is an IPV4 black market that is keeping things at bay. Having said that, it doesn’t mean you can turn a blind eye to it.

When buying hardware, make sure you buy hardware that is IPV6 compliant. This way you have a clear upgrade path without archaic hardware!

-RP

Whole Disk Encryption and Choosing a CPU

Hi folks! In this day and age, whole disk encryption or full disk encryption as it’s called, is a necessary evil.

With the plethora of laptops out there, it’s easy to lose data if you forget your laptop somewhere or if it’s stolen. This is why encryption is necessary. Even if you lose the hardware, nobody can access your data and you can breathe easy.

What’s the problem? Encryption is slow. It can bring your computer to it’s knees. You can mitigate this by using newer computers with SSD hard drives and faster processors. However there are some CPUs that specifically support encryption at the hardware level in the CPU.

If you’re buying a new laptop you can checkout the link of supported processors here.

-RP

What’s SDN?

Hi folks! So what’s SDN? It stands for Software Defined Networking!

What does that mean to you? Basically SDN is abstracting the complexties of the network from the hardware and putting it in software. Theoretically this is supposed to simplify things and make things easier for the network administrator.

Unfortunately a lot of people are throwing around the SDN term, but don’t really have a strategy. It kind of reminds me of the word “cloud” and how it’s been thrown around in IT over the past few years.

Before you buy into SDN, make sure you verify and test what works and what doesn’t!

-RP

BES 10

Hi folks! So BES 10 is available and lots of people are interested in how this new product will affect the marketplace.

What’s interesting to me is how people are just flocking to it based on the name without any actual testing of their own. They automatically assume BES will be the best for their environment without checking out the competition. Granted BES will probably be the best for BlackBerry management, but can you say the same for other platforms?

My recommendation is to do your due diligence and then decide which MDM platform is right for you. Don’t just assume BES is great because of the BlackBerry!

-RP