The Remarketer

Vibrant acquires TechWorks

2017-05-09T12:38:00-05:00

We are very excited to announce that we are welcoming the Techworks team to Vibrant Technologies this week, continuing our 2017 expansion and growth. Techworks CEO, Jon Maring, will lead our Networking Division going forward.

Read the announcement below:

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Vibrant Technologies Announces Acquisition of TechWorks

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Vibrant Technologies, Inc. (Vibrant) today announced the acquisition of TechWorks, LLC (TechWorks). TechWorks, LLC, a leading networking remarketer, specializes in Cisco and HP networking equipment. This acquisition represents Vibrant’s increasing commitment to remarketing of networking equipment. Jon Maring, TechWorks Founder, will join Vibrant Technologies beginning immediately and will lead Vibrant’s newly established Networking Division.

TechWorks brings category expertise and industry leadership to Vibrant in refurbished and off-lease Cisco Networking switches and routers, Juniper equipment, HP ProCurve Networking, Dell PowerConnect Switches, and additional brands of new and used network hardware. TechWorks will be integrated into the existing Vibrant team.

According to Vibrant co-founder Dave Larson, “This transaction represents a significant opportunity to accelerate the continued growth of Vibrant and substantially enhance the Company’s strategic expansion of the networking equipment division.”

“We are thrilled to welcome the TechWorks staff as a vital part of Vibrant’s growing team,” said Jennifer Larson, CEO of Vibrant Technologies. “Jon Maring is a leader in networking resale whom we have been impressed by for many years, as both a partner and client. TechWorks quickly made its mark in the networking industry and we can’t wait to put additional resources behind this team’s substantial expertise to bolster Vibrant’s capabilities in the networking space.”

Jon Maring, founder of TechWorks commented, “I am very excited by the opportunity to work with Vibrant to establish the same market leadership in networking that they’ve delivered on in servers and data storage since the 1990s. Vibrant’s resources will allow us to provide more selection and value to our customers while also offering a great environment for our employees to thrive in.”

Jim Litzau, Cisco UCS Product Manager at Vibrant stated, “I am truly looking forward to working alongside Jon Maring and his team as we take our networking group to the next level. As a specialist in Cisco servers, I’ve gotten to know Jon and am more than confident that he will thrive at Vibrant and challenge for position as the leading network equipment dealer in the industry.”

About Vibrant Technologies

Vibrant Technologies is the leading buyer and seller of new and used Enterprise IT equipment, including Servers, Networking Hardware and Data Storage Equipment. Established in 1998, Vibrant has had ongoing growth throughout its nearly 20-year history and recently expanded into a 75,000 square foot warehouse and refurbishment facility in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area where they house nearly 200,000 systems and parts. Clients rely on Vibrant because of their reputation for quality, tested equipment and product expertise, a commitment to customer satisfaction, and a massive on-demand inventory. Systems and features can be shipped immediately and custom configured to meet each client’s needs.

For more information on Vibrant Technologies and its products, please visit www.Vibrant.com

On the Move: Vibrant Builds Out 75,000 Sq Ft IT Refurbishment Center

2017-03-30T09:09:00-05:00

This January, Vibrant moved into a new, custom-built 75,000 sq ft warehouse and professional refurbishment facility near Minneapolis, MN. We've geared up for continued inventory growth in 2017 and beyond!

Drone Tour Video: Fly with us as we celebrate our new space!

Highlights:

- Double the tech center size and power. We can test all major models of Servers, Storage and Networking in our professional technical refurbishment center.

- Huge warehouse expansion, tripling our inventory capacity. With 24' clear height we not only have tens of thousands additional horizontal square footage, but expanded space above as well.

- Capacity for 3000 pallets and server cabinets, plus more than 500,000 SKUs!

- Modern offices and meeting rooms built out to facilitate collaboration and a fun team environment with a huge break room for staff.

- A workout facility on site with showers and changing rooms.

- A secure, monitored erasure cage for performing data erasure for clients with high level security requirements and certs.

- 8 total docks for shipping, receiving and also for docking our Vibrant owned delivery trucks.

- Custom designed shipping area, where our products are carefully prepared for shipping to safely meet the world.

With our expansion, Vibrant is looking to buy more used Servers, Networking Hardware and Data Storage Equipment than ever before. Whether you are looking to buy or sell, new or used, it's a great time to reach out to us!

Your First Month as a Systems Administrator

2016-07-17T20:08:00-05:00

Congratulations on getting that systems administration job that you’ve worked hard for! Now, it’s time to get both feet wet and get after it.

What to focus on during your first month:

As with any job, there are two general areas that you should excel in when you first become a sysadmin. One is the work itself. You should be able to function well as the systems admin and get a grasp on what you are doing overall. And two, you should work on your people skills because you’re not going to be working exclusively with machines, the network, software and programming. A large part of what you will be doing involved interacting with people.

So what do you tackle in month one? Here are some considerations.

1. Full audit of all IT resources and equipment.

Right off the bat you will want to familiarize yourself with the equipment that you’re going to use and administer. First conduct a visual audit of your equipment and then a physical audit.

When conducting a physical audit, you need to take note of the machine’s specifications, the operating systems, the hardware, and the software installed.

Check out how licenses are being tracked, which ones are expiring soon, and which are in need of renewal.

You should also work out the infrastructure, the cables, and even the wireless appliances.

If there are any helpdesk systems in place, you should familiarize yourself with that as well.

More importantly, examine how secure the organization’s systems are, network vulnerabilities, security controls, encryptions used, passwords, user accounts and other security features being used.

2. Talk with your subordinates as well as with other employees in the company.

If you are in a management position, you may be the boss, but it would really help if you talk to your subordinates in order to find out their needs, before making policies and changes. Take note of their skills and training to fully understand what they can do and for what functions you could tap them for when the need arises.

As a system administrator, you will also be tasked to help other non-IT employees with their IT-related problems. During your first month, it would help people from other departments to get to know you, so you should try to make the rounds and talk to key people in other departments.

Introduce yourself, and if you can, ask a few questions about how they are using IT resources.

During the first month, you should take time to introduce yourself to other employees and give off the impression that you are approachable. This will make it easier for you to build rapport with them.

Furthermore, ask them what they would like see and what problems they usually encounter in terms of the IT infrastructure. It could be as simple as not being able to connect to the company’s Wi-Fi network, or having difficulty with a slow and under performing desktop computer.

This way, you would know what problems are prevalent and see whether this is something you can fix. Gaining immediate wins is a great way to start off a new job.

This is also an opportune way to know what FAQs and information you need to come up with. You could even come up with information, relevant to your organization, on how to troubleshoot simple IT problems – such as rebooting a Wi-Fi router or troubleshooting the department printer.

In effect, you are educating employees on how to do simple troubleshooting, freeing you from having to do these in the future.

This will also help you know what types of training and in-house seminars the employees need. Are there a lot of employees who use the network and don’t know how to troubleshoot it? You can suggest a networking seminar to the management to help employees with it. Are employees using their own devices ( BYOD), only the users don’t know the first thing about securing their devices? Conduct a security training!

3. Do a little housekeeping.

During your first few days on the job, you should make sure that you have all the necessary login information (usernames, passwords, PINs, etc) that you need to perform your duties.

It would be advisable to change sensitive information, such as the passwords, to ensure that no unauthorized people would have access to secured equipment and systems.

4. Learn!

If there is any documentation left by your predecessor, you will want to read those to ensure that you know what to do or where to look should a system break down. Also, make sure that the installed programs, systems and software developed internally have proper documentation. If you cannot find any, ask the previous system administrator for a copy if you are able to. If not, ask any of the staff if they were able to assist and come up with or create new documentation instead.

Also, see if there are any software and systems that are being used that you are unfamiliar with. For example, if you’re not familiar with a certain network management software, then spend time looking for manuals or online resources that would help you learn it. If you have time during your first month, look over the materials you have to learn about the software and how to operate it.

The People You Should Know

It is ideal that you should get to know each and every employee in your company, but we know that this is very time consuming. So focus on the people you would be working closely with and those you need to know in order to do your job well.

Of course, you would need to get to know your team, as well as your superiors. This will help you work better, especially in bigger organizations where there are people (such as IT architects and quality assurance personnel) who will be sharing your work and doing some of the things that a systems admin in a smaller organization would do.

If you get to know the heads of various departments and the big bosses, this will help you get to know what they require of you. Also, if you should ever need resources, you’ll have an easier time in negotiations for those assets.

Standard Rules Apply

Soon enough, they might even bake you a cake!

Remember that even as a systems administrator, you will still be starting a new job. You’ll be a newbie in a new company. Be observant of the “rules” and “norms” of the company. If the atmosphere is generally laid back and informal, there is probably no sense to be stiff and formal when talking or dealing with people.

Just be yourself, do your job well, and you will be fine.

What IT Leaders can Learn from Iron Man

2015-08-09T19:08:00-05:00

The action, the mayhem, the battle between good and evil – Comic book action movies are always fun to watch. Plus the fact that the good guys always win in the end makes for a great escape from reality, even if it is just for a couple of hours or so.

Iron Man has a great story. But did you know that there are (or we could make up) business lessons that every tech leader could learn from – and some you could probably avoid – but we’ll stick with the positive today!

Iron Man doesn’t need much in the way of an introduction, but just in case you limit yourself to watching green screen terminals… The Marvel superhero, Iron Man, is the alter ego of billionaire Tony Stark. Stark was kidnapped by terrorists and forced to create a deadly weapon, powerful enough to kill people at a massive scale.

Instead, Stark creates a powerful armor to escape his masters, with the help of an assistant who doesn’t make it out alive. This experience marks the start of Iron Man’s career as your every day world-saving mech-suit-clad billionaire.

The Iron Man movies were generally well-received by fans and critics alike, earning billions of dollars for the movie franchise. The most recent installment, Iron Man 3 is estimated to have grossed $1.2 billion worldwide alone.

1. Look ahead and around corners

Whether you’re creating software, or writing a script, there will eventually be a better idea than your go-to approaches and there probably already is.

Tony Stark was obsessed with finding the perfect Iron Man suit, and over the course of three Iron Mans, you’ll see a lot of suits, each one better than the previous. Stark was never really satisfied with his current suit, even though the Mark XLII suit served its purpose in the finale battle.The best thing about tech is that you can always release a product or feature to market and then roll out improvements ongoing, practically as soon as they’re developed. Versioning, upgrades, patches, lean development, etc…

Nevertheless, one thing holds true if you stay with version 1 all your life: the usefulness of the software, script or tactic will diminish over time. It will become obsolete and so will your role. Learn, update and iterate to stay relevant. Subscribe to blogs and forums, follow topic-expert users on social media and network with peers to stay ahead. You should be going through dev and test cycles on a regular basis with the new solutions you come across.

2. Don’t give up.

Iron Man can’t stop, won’t stop, especially in his technology development process. From the same example, by planting a stake in the ground with his first build, Stark knew his competitors would copy him (see everything Apple), so he had to relentlessly innovate and iterate to stay ahead. Not every iteration worked out or met the environmental challenges (aka bad dudes trying to pulverize him). By the time Iron Man ended, he was on suit #42.

Every tech leader has experienced failure in his or her work. The trick is to never give up. If you don’t worship comic book heroes, you can instead follow the examples of Bill Gates, Steve Job or go way back to Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. If Edison had believed his teachers when they said he was too stupid to learn, he wouldn’t have carved his name into history and we would not know him as we do now. If Telsa had bowed to Edison, the world would be worse for it.

3. Recognize and nurture opportunities

In Iron Man 3, the Mandarin made Tony Stark’s life a living hell, putting his life and everyone he loved in danger. But did you know that the Mandarin, aka Aldrich Killian, once sought Stark’s help for a project Killian called Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM)?

Stark ignored and then shunned Killian, so he was left with no choice but to work on the project on his own. Along the way, Killian created a profitable business for himself, always with a chip on his shoulder and a big target visualized on Stark’s back.

This story line sounds dubiously like the Yahoo and Google story. Back in the day when Google was nothing but a ridiculous word and every middle schooler’s favorite number, Yahoo lorded over the search engine market, Sergey Brin and Larry Page tried to sell their algorithms to Yahoo for a mere $1 million. Brin and Page figured that they wanted to stay in the academic world, doing research, teaching, and perhaps coming up with the occasional software development. Trying to run a business would definitely put a crimp in that plan, so they considered dumping their algorithm in a sale to Yahoo.

After ignoring Google in 1997, Yahoo tried to acquire Google in 2002 – the business and its algorithm, for $3 billion (3000X more than what they would’ve paid five years earlier). As we all know, Google would proceed to all but knock Yahoo out of the search engine game. Today, Google is one of the biggest tech companies in the world while Yahoo’s only (long) shot at a turnaround is from the leadership of a former Googler.

Tech leaders rule their workplace, but you never know what alliance or partnership will become valuable, so it’s best to treat everyone you meet with respect. That pesky junior architect can very well become the Google to your Yahoo, the Mandarin to your Iron Man. But more than this, you would need to see the potential in people and the gem behind the idea. Even if the new idea doesn’t fit with your current approach, as long as it has merit, give it some legs or at least sincere review. Do the same with promising talents.

4. There should always be a Plan B, Plan C, and yes, even a Plan D.

As Stark came to the realization that his business brought more harm than good, he didn’t have any qualms about shutting down his company’s weapons division for a new direction in his business.

Evolve. The true mark of a tech leader leading a great tech business is the ability to adapt. You need to be aware when your current way of doing business has become ineffective and outdated.

Be sure to adapt to the current market and business circumstances, embrace change, and look for ways that would effectively address the situation. Don’t be afraid of getting out of your comfort zone. Take a cue from Iron Man and Elon Musk (basically the closest real-life thing we have to Tony Stark).

Elon Musk has worn many (ten-thousand-gallon) hats in companies across a swath of industries. ATt Paypal, Musk offered his talent and entrepreneurial spirit to help change how people exchanged money.

He was instrumental in bringing clean energy to thousands of rooftops and installs with SolarCity and electric vehicles at Tesla Motors (If you’ve seen the launch/fail rate of that niche since the 70s, you know how incredibly amazing this is). Now Musk is taking on another side-job, trying to send everyday people beyond Earth with SpaceX, and who knows what else is in Musk’s plans for 2014 and beyond!

Vision and peering around corners (whether at a worldwide scale or industry/department-level) are the things that IT leaders can learn from stories – fictional or otherwise. So feel free to geek out on your favorite blockbuster, visionary or historic legend – it might just inspire you.

Seven Facts about Sys Admins – A SysAdmin Day Infographic

2014-07-26T19:56:00-05:00

Today was the 14th annual SysAdmin day and to celebrate, we’ve curated some of the best facts and figures we could find about the modern systems administrator. Please feel free to share or embed our infographic as you celebrate today.

Embed this infographic: Copy and Paste the Code Below
<img src="http://www.vibrant.com/sysadmin-infographic.jpg" width="540" /><br>SysAdmin Day Infographic: 7 Facts about Sys Admins - from <a href="http://www.vibrant.com">Vibrant Technologies</a>

Here are a handful of key figures from the infographic:

The Average Sys Admin earns $69,160 annually
Computer Systems/ Design is the top vertical for Sys Admin pay ($74.230) & employment (13.9%)
SysAdmins in Educational Services lag those in other industries. Pay averages $59,230
SysAdmins are expected to be paid 27.8% more by 2020 (compared to 14% for all jobs)
88% of SysAdmins want to be SysAdmins
Sys Admins prefer Email (47%), Private IM (30%) and Public IM (14%) for communications.
90% of Sys Admins feel more responsibility and time demands, but 75% are satisfied in their career.
Sys Admins most enjoy Solving Problems, Helping Users, Thinking on their feet & New Tech:
System Administrators prefer Beer (29%), Soda (19%) and Coffee (10%) when off duty.

Special Offers for Sys Admins:

* SysAdmin Day discounts on Servers and Data Storage.

* Contest – win a Google ChromeCast!
-> Enter here! (or here for mobile users)
- enter by Monday, June 29th 2013

Kudos to Solarwinds and the Standalone SysAdmin, whose excellent research enabled this infographic, along with statistics from the US Bureau of Labor.

To all of the sys admins out there, here’s hoping your staff shows you the adulation you deserve today and tell the boss we said it’s ok to skip out early. :)

Cheers and Happy SysAdmin Day!

IT Sharknado Relief! Emergency Parts In Stock

2013-07-12T20:13:00-05:00

Was your server room or data center swamped by last night’s Sharknado? We’ve got open phone lines and a warehouse full of servers, networking hardware and data storage equipment ready to get your business back up and running. As a network admin or sys admin, you can’t wait for the LAPD or a guy with a chainsaw – your users demand access to their inboxes and systems now.

If you think we’ve completely lost it and/or haven’t heard of the Sharknado, it was a campy film aired last night on SyFy starring 90s TV stars, and as you might guess – melding peoples fears of super storms and sharks. The Twitters went crazy over it.

Here on the blog, we’re obviously having a little bit of fun with the film, but actually illustrating a true facet of our business and a common reason clients first discover Vibrant: emergency systems and parts.

Need it yesterday?
You’ve probably been there – an urgent need comes up, or a part goes down and the manufacturer is back-ordered several days, weeks or even months. Vibrant sits on an inventory of over 100,000 SKUs in stock here in our 50,000 sq ft facility, ready to ship. Our engineers work faster than a shark falling from the sky (sorry) at building custom systems and pulling and testing parts. Vibrant’s logistics team is world class at finding hot shot options to get product to you safely and on time, sometimes even same day.

What I’m saying is simply that we can deliver when others can’t – because we’ve got the stock and the expertise, plus you’ll also save a great amount over new. While this post is a bit of a sendup of an opportunistic carpetbagger approach, albeit for a fictional campy movie / weather event, we don’t take advantage of IT users in a pinch. You’ll always find great savings and quick turnaround on both the quotation and the delivery. We’ll also take back damaged IT equipment from users and insurance companies to salvage what we can and appropriately recycle the rest for you. Just contact us if you have any questions.

Scenarios where users take advantage of our emergency parts and systems:
1) IT Project was on hold for months, but now has to happen this week. You need the systems asap.
2) A drive went down and your existing warranty coverage falls down due to lack of supply.
3) Self maintenance scenarios where a part has failed and you need a replacement.
4) Actual emergencies – we don’t solicit this, but we do get calls from and help people out in need when natural disasters strike. Hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes, etc… no snakenamis yet though. ;)

So how are you weathering the Sharknado?

When Whiteboxes Attack! The Server Market in 2013

2013-06-20T20:18:00-05:00

Just five years ago, the server manufacturing industry was pretty tight-knit. You only had HP, IBM, Oracle and Dell. Big name brands. Upstarts might try to get into the server space, but these big brands will only use their scale to cut their prices and put you out of business.

Today, the landscape has changed. Quanta, Super Micro and other hardware companies are eating away a very significant chunk of the market that was once dominated by the Big 4. On top of that, these kings have been distracted by other problems, such as getting sidelined by the cloud server providers.

The Numbers

In May 2013, market research specialist Gartner delivered an astonishing report confirming that HP, IBM and Oracle are losing market share to Fujitsu, Cisco and original design manufacturing (ODM) vendors.

Dell, to their credit, saw the biggest increase in market share, going up from 21.5% in the first quarter of 2012 to 22.2% in the first quarter of this year. An increase of 0.7 percentage points might seem like a small rise, but that translated to Dell’s being the second biggest server manufacturer, next only to HP by a slight margin.

According to PCWorld, Dell raked in $2.1 billion in revenues during the first quarter for the server segment. This number represents a 14.4% increase year on year, making Dell the only big server vendor that posted an increase.

On the other hand, relative newcomer Cisco reported a 33% increase in server revenues, selling more than 53,800 servers.

Meanwhile, HP and IBM took the biggest plunge both in terms of market share and server revenues.

IBM posted a little more than $3 billion in revenues for the first quarter of 2013.

HP, on the other hand, sold 580,563 servers, a decrease of a staggering 15.2% from the previous corresponding period when it sold 685,015 units. Its share of the revenues went down to only 25%.

So even when the big-name brands are still lording over the server space, they are weakening, except for one. Much of this is because of the rise of ODMs.

Whitebox Servers Gain

What many people don’t know is that most of the servers and/or assembly parts sold by HP and other top brand names are actually made by smaller companies. Companies like Quanta, Inventec, Wistron and Compal supply the big brands with the servers that the latter sell for a much higher price. So the servers are made by mostly Asian companies for IBM and HP. IBM and HP put their name on these servers and make a profit from this.

So what happens when these Asian companies cut HP and IBM out of the deal?

At scale, it delivers tremendous cost savings for the end user, that’s what. This is what Google realized when it started building its own servers years ago, before it started doing it themselves.

This idea is illustrated in the case of Rackspace. For years, the web hosting company has been sourcing its servers from HP and Dell. And with more than 90,000 servers utilized, HP and Dell surely made a lot of money with Rackspace.

Not anymore. The hosting company is now banking on Quanta and Wistron to help build the servers that it designs.

The advantage is more than just cost savings that you get by cutting out big name brands and paying for a much-reduced price. For example, Facebook has been using ODM manufacturers such as Quanta to build the servers that it designed, making these servers much more compatible to its needs. In doing so, Facebook also got additional cost savings and energy efficiency gains.

The result? ODM server vendors altogether reported revenues of $434 million for the first quarter of 2013. This represents a 34.5% increase year on year.

The move to ODM manufacturers has created a big gain for whitebox manufacturers. Digitimes reports that both Quanta and Wistron are expected to see a 30% growth in their ODM operations for 2013.

Quanta reportedly sold a lot of servers in 2012. Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Register notes that the Taiwanese company sold one out of every seven servers in the past year. According to El Reg, Quanta shipped more than 1 million server nodes during the year. Definitely not bad for a company whose forte are contract notebooks.

Another clue as to how these ODM companies are gaining at the expense of the big brand names may come from suppliers. As early as September 2012, Intel provided us with clues that HP, IBM and Dell might be losing market share when it comes to servers.

Wired.com’s Cade Metz quoted Intel’s Diane Bryant as saying that in four years, things have definitely changed in the server market. Bryant said that three out of every four Intel processors that were used for servers went to IBM, Dell and HP.

But four years later, eight different companies were buying 75% of all server chips made by Intel. Bryant related that some of these companies were working with ODM companies for their own server requirements.

Bryant’s revelations definitely paint a decline of IBM’s, HP’s and Dell’s server business.

What Happened?

At least for 2012, the overall server market slowed down, with shipments weakening by 0.7%. This is likely due to the feeble economies of European countries. As more and more companies are feeling the crunch, they would certainly look for a more cost-effective alternative to their server requirements, whether that’s with used servers or white boxes.

Also, more and more companies are getting into virtualization and the cloud. As Rackspace has demonstrated, not every cloud provider is putting its trust on the big brands.

As we have seen with both Google and Facebook, and a slew of big Web properties, including Amazon, they are more inclined to deal directly with smaller ODM companies rather than the Big 4. Not only do they get save money by getting their own servers built by Quanta, Wistron and the like, but they also get to have the hardware built their way.

The shift is very palpable. According to Chris Gonsalves at ChannelNomics, Dell warned both Quanta and Wistron to get out of whitebox server manufacturing. Quanta did not heed the warning and lost some sales from Dell, which transferred to Inventec, Hon Hai Precision and Wistron.

Will this trend signal the fall of the big brands in the server market? Probably not yet. But if the trends continue, the combined benefits of working with ODM manufacturers just might tilt the scales in their favor. Much more, if Quanta, Wistron and other smaller server manufacturers decide to bring their whitebox servers to more distributors and maybe the broader end-user. Just keep in mind that these whiteboxes are very similar servers to what Dell, IBM and HP are selling, but at a steep discount.

Innovative IT Companies that Beat the Street

2013-06-17T20:21:00-05:00

Plagued by recession and financial uncertainties? Not the top IT companies. These businesses withstood this century’s most devastating financial meltdown and continue to soar.

So, who are these top performing corporations? What made them succeed in trying times? What are their secrets? This article will examine some of the top IT organizations that have beaten every estimate made by economists, financial analysts and investment analysts.

And no, we’re not going to talk about the usual suspects like Apple, Google and Microsoft. They’re a given when it comes to discussing tech companies that did well despite all odds and you probably know their secret: lots of moolah to spend, innovation and being unwilling to sit on their laurels.

So, who are these intriguing IT companies that have been silently beating Wall Street?

1. Workday (www.workday.com)

Workday is an enterprise software company that deals with financial management and HR solutions. It was founded by former PeopleSoft chief strategist Aneel Bhusri in 2005.

Although it reported a loss of 15 cents per share in the first quarter ending April 30, 2013, its financials are strong. Revenues for the period were up 61% compared to the year ago results. Analysts on Wall Street have predicted a loss of 18 cents per share and underestimated revenues by $5 million.

It is difficult to ignore a company that has improving revenues and income. But the difference with Workday is that it has consistently been raking in good news. From the time it debuted, its stock has been steadily rising. They earned a place on the 2013 Midas List from Forbes, making it second only to Facebook.

And it would seem that the company is poised to rise even further. Brian Deagon at Investor’s Business Daily reported that the company is steadily getting customers who are moving away from both SAP and Oracle. Deagon also quoted Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Davis as saying that the company is expected to beat Wall Street expectations quarter after quarter.

2. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (www.cognizant.com)

Cognizant, which is a direct competitor of WiPro, Accenture, IBM, Infosys and Tata Consultancy, have consistently been beating Wall Street and analyst estimates.

For the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2012, the company had a modestly bigger net income at 92 cents per share, as opposed to analyst forecasts of 90 cents per share. This was because of increasing demand in Europe.

In the previous quarter, the company reported an EPS of 91 cents per share on total revenues of $1.89 billion. This is way above expectations of EPS at 87 cents per share on revenues of only $1.88 billion.

For the most recent quarter, the company continued that trend. At face value, the company would tell you that its success is hinged on strong demand, and a better pricing model than their competitors’.

3. Teradata (www.teradata.com)

Teradata has routinely been beating analyst estimates quarter after quarter. They continued this trend with the results they got from the first quarter of 2013 when they reported earnings of 60 cents per share, beating estimates by 4 cents. They also reported higher than expected revenues of $613 million, beating expectations by around $25 million. What’s more, the company has experienced double-digit revenue growth in recent quarters.

It certainly helps that the company is into markets that are experiencing high growth: big data analytics, data warehousing and market management. But what drives much of Teradata’s success are its strong relationships with vendors such as Cisco. It has also been aggressively expanding into other markets and has introduced new products.

4. LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)

LinkedIn has always been touted as an also-ran (mostly by those outside of B2B). The professional social networking site has always been the dark horse when compared to a 1 billion user-strong Facebook. LinkedIn went public in 2011. Sure it created ripples, but only because the IPO helped break the freeze on tech stocks.

Facebook, on the other hand, was wildly anticipated years before it actually went public.

But look at where Facebook and LinkedIn are now. The former has become the textbook case when it comes to failed IPOs, while the later has become the prime example of companies that have defied Wall Street expectations repeatedly.

In the first quarter of 2013, LinkedIn posted Non-GAAP earnings of around $324.7 million, and analysts forecast a revenue of just about $317 million.

The result also beat out the company’s own expectation of earning only $305 million to $310 million in the said time period.

In December 2012, LinkedIn reported earnings of $11.5 million, a 66% increase from the previous corresponding period.

All in all, LinkedIn has stumped Wall Street forecasts for eight straight quarters.

The reason for its success?

LinkedIn never intended to be a Facebook clone. This segmentation and differentiation allowed it to have its own identity. Sure, Facebook is the #1 and the biggest social networking site, but LinkedIn is a professional social networking site.

LinkedIn focused on this aspect to create its branding and build its credibility. Now, as Facebook struggles to monetize the site with advertisements, LinkedIn has taken a totally new approach: enterprise software.

The company now sells software that helps companies recruit new employees on the site. It also has premium subscriptions and marketing solutions. In short, it does not really rely on advertising to keep itself alive. Instead, they have leveraged their strong branding and used that to create multiple income streams.

5. 3D Systems (www.3dsystems.com)

For the first quarter of 2013, 3D Systems reported a 31% increase in revenue year on year and earned 21 cents per share. It slightly beat the market with the top line while analysts were spot on about its profit.

The previous quarter, analysts missed by a penny when the company reported EPS of 19 cents per share on revenues of $101.6 million.

Nevertheless, 3D Systems is a must watch because it is one of the pioneers in 3D printing. 3D printing is a growing area in tech and is expected to expand at a rapid pace, making it into a $5.2 billion industry by the year 2020.

—————

These five IT companies ignored the recession and are pulling in impressive results – that beat the street, quarter after quarter and year after year. They’re not only tough and remarkable, they’re model organizations that all start-ups should emulate.

Apple, Google and Microsoft – innovate or look out!

Stories Behind Classic IT Book Covers

2013-06-04T20:47:00-05:00

When we think of IT books, we often have that futuristic image of keyboards and Matrix-like illustrations on the front cover. That or it will just be plain text on a solid color background. In short, we have come to see IT and technology books as bland, boring and predicable.

However, cover illustrations do help sell books. And for this reason, authors and publishers have been thinking out of the box to provide us with interesting and eye catching book covers. Sometimes, it depicts something totally related to the subject matter – like an image of a toolbox for a book that talks about programming tools.

However, if you are like us, you must have observed that some IT books have weird or unrelated cover illustrations. What gives? What is the story behind these illustrations? Why were these images chosen?

Lucky for you, we did not stop at being curious and dug deeper. Here are some answers to some questions you might have about famous IT books and their covers:

First, why does the sea otter appear on “Perl for System Administration: Managing multi-platform environments with Perl?”

The answer, actually, is quite simple.

It seems that the author, David N. Blank-Edelman, is an environmentalist and is a big fan of sea otters. Blank-Edelman is a member of the advocacy group Friends of the Sea Otter and encourages people to join the group. On his blog, he often writes about saving the sea otters and about how these little creatures help the earth, such as in combating global warming.

Other than this, Blank-Edelman also seems to liken sea otters to system administrators. In the book itself, he notes that sea otters are intelligent and agile. They are able to do more than one thing at a time. Sea otters, the author writes, are able to use tools ingeniously. Very much like the systems administrator who has to juggle a lot of things on his or her plate, has the intelligence to do all the tasks required of him or her, and knows which tools to use for every situation.

Additionally, O’Reilly Media, the book’s publisher, is also known for using animals for its book covers. Edie Freedman, who is now the creative director for the publishing firm, used animals on the first O’Reilly covers. It generated a lot of buzz and it made for great branding for the books, so O’Reilly continued putting animals on its book covers.

Just take a look at the book cover illustrations from other IT titles published by O’Reilly:

Maven: The Definitive Guide

Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Learning the bash Shell: Unix Shell Programming

Bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Bash Users

So it would be a given that an animal would be used for the cover illustration of Blank-Edelman’s book. Given the author’s love for the sea otter, it would follow that the otter would be used.

And what a great decision it was. Blank-Edelman’s books on the same topics have become collectively known as The Otter Books. The author has even used the moniker for his Web site URL at http://www.otterbook.com and he uses @otterbook as his Twitter handle.

——————————————-

Next, how about this crazy boat scene on the cover of UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook?

Some people have suggested that the boat is a reference to main author Evi Nemeth’s love for boats. This was something written in the “about the author” blurb, as well as mentioned in not a few interviews about the book.

A closer look at the illustration, however, reveals a much simpler explanation. Some of the drawings are literal translations of Linux and Unix terms as well as computer-related words, such as perl, files, booting up, python, spam, spyware, core, cron and Apache.

Others are depictions of famous people, such as Linus Torvalds, who is influential in developing the Linux kernel and Ken Thompson, a computer science pioneer and designer of the original Unix system.

Others reference the illustrations used in the chapter cartoons inside the book, such as the Windows Gorilla.

And yes, Evi Nemeth is on the cover too, which is a throwback to the covers of previous editions.

So, it may look like a hodgepodge of unrelated cartoony characters at first glance, but it is actually a well-planned and carefully thought out cover illustration.

Lastly, why is a tribal man prominently featured on the cover of Unlocking Android: A Developer’s Guide?

Android books come out very often nowadays. Usually, you have the Android logo or the Android robot on the cover, along with the title on most of these books.

Not on this one.

Unlocking Android: A Developer’s Guide features a man without anything but a piece of cloth to cover his groin area, his naked body full of tattoo.

The illustration was taken from a French book published in 1796, the Encyclopedie des Voyages by JG St. Saveur. The travel guide was largely a book about dress customs.

The book shows that these dress codes were enough to tell apart different people and cultures, even if they have lived very near each other. It denoted uniqueness, inventiveness and initiative on their part.

Manning, the publisher of the book, uses illustrations from this book for its other covers. This is to celebrate the inventiveness, fun and initiative of people in the computer business.

We do think that this is largely a branding decision. All Manning books have similar illustrations taken from the same book. So much so that if you are looking at a list of IT books on Amazon or on a bookstore shelf, it would be easy to identify a Manning book even without reading anything.

They say that it is never wise to judge a book by its cover, and these three are the prime examples for that. If a reader fails to look past the cartoony, unrelated and weird cover illustrations of these titles, they would never know just how helpful these books are. Some consider these books as the definitive guide for their subject matter and even profess that these are the IT versions of the bible that they couldn’t live without.

Have you read these books? Which IT book covers do you appreciate?

From Network Admin to CIO

2013-05-23T09:42:00-05:00

We all know the feeling. You are busy taking care of the network, but there is a clueless employee who needs help changing his or her passwords. Day in and day out, you do nothing but to attend to the network problems and the various emergencies from the users.

But you tell yourself, someday soon, you would be calling the shots and there would be others who will do these things for you. Someday, you would be the CIO, the Chief Information Officer, a superstar in the company.

So how do you get there?

Temper your expectations: Not everyone can be CIO.

Everyone dreams of being the boss! The pay, the perks and the power is enough motivation for people to want to become the top honcho. But not everyone is cut out to be a CIO.

Being a CIO, you would be part of senior management. You would become the bridge between the financial and operation side of the business and the technology side. As such, it is not enough for you to become good at programming languages, troubleshooting systems, knowing software and everything IT related. You also have to possess undeniably good interpersonal skills, a lot of business acumen and knowledge about the financial side of the business.

You can be a programming whiz, or a technologist or technology specialist, but unless you can build rapport with people at all levels of the organization and you fully understand how the business is operated, then you are not qualified at being CIO.

The CIO vs. the IT Director: What’s the difference?

Also, a lot of people tend to confuse a CIO with an IT director. Some people use these interchangeably because both are considered to be the top man when it comes to IT departments, as well as holding senior management positions.

Technically, however, an IT director oversees the IT department and interacts more with the tech staff. The CIO, on the other hand, focuses more on the business.

Your career path: from Network Administrator to CIO

There is no secret or magic formula to becoming CIO. In fact, you’re expected to be a risk taker and a go-getter. You cannot be a CIO if you just follow the natural career path of an IT-related job. If you just wait to be promoted from, say a junior network admin to a senior network admin to a network admin head and so on, you will never become a CIO.

Because of the disparity and diversity of skills you need to have to become a successful CIO, it would do you well to be proactive. You should pursue jobs that would give you the necessary skills, knowledge and know-how to become a CIO.

For the first years of your career, consider an entry-level IT-related job such as a programmer or, better yet, as a network administrator.

Being a network administrator is a great springboard to a CIO seat. You will get to learn all the tech stuff you need to know.

As a network administrator, you will be working with networks, as well as the peripherals, equipment, hardware and software that make up a network.

You will also touch on security and even network management.

This experience will give you the opportunity to learn the ropes and to stock up on your technical know-how.
Another area that you should be looking at during this stage is service delivery.However, by the time you enter your third job, you should be switching to a business-related and customer facing role. However, be sure that this is still IT related. By the 4th or 5th year of your career, you should aim to be in a management position, wherein you are managing small teams. You should be able to handle projects efficiently, and as such, you should be developing project management skills.

In short, from the technology focused network administrator job, you should ease into a more customer facing or management oriented job, such as being the team lead for business solutions or a software development head.

After this, you should be able to get a job that would allow you to interact, not only with customers, but also with suppliers and other professionals.

It would help you network with other people who are into IT and who are into running businesses. From these people, you should be able to find a mentor who could help hone your strengths and correct your weaknesses.

Good leadership skills are the key!

Become a great leader from day one. You might be a network administrator now, but it does not mean that you cannot be a leader. Start developing the skills and cultivate the personality of a great leader early on.

Remember how we differentiated being an IT director and the CIO? Let’s add another difference: a CIO is an IT director that could lead effectively.

Leadership is not simple management. You should have a set of values that you live by. These are principles that could guide you in making tough decisions and help you accept the consequences. This way, you develop credibility and you get to build a strong track record as well.

Becoming a good leader is as important as getting into the right job.

Focus: You are more than a technologist. You are a businessperson. You are an entrepreneur.

via @lolsnaps

You have to realize early on that CIOs are not glorified IT department heads with bigger salaries. Instead, you should keep in mind that CIOs help run the business.

As such, you will have to shift from code to numbers. From programs to money. The investors, board of directors, and your CEO will not be excited about upgrading to a higher version of the current software you are using. They will probably yawn incessantly when you mention network upgrades. But explain it in such a way that they see the value of these actions in dollars, then you are well on your way. So instead of boring them with the specifications of your new computer, why not tell them how efficient it could be and how it could cut down processing time and in turn increase sales.

Get help.

Somewhere along the way, take stock of your experiences and skills objectively. Then get help where you need it.

For example, if you feel that you are not ready for the boardroom, then get an MBA or other business courses.

If you feel the need to update your technical skills, then consider getting a relevant IT certification.

* * *

Remember, to become a successful CIO, you would need to plan for it. Every step from being just a network administrator to becoming the top honcho should be carefully laid out. You should be deliberately building technical, business, and management skills along the way. Good luck and get planning.

Any tips from those who’ve made it or are on the path?

The Used Cisco Buyer’s Guide

2013-05-07T09:59:00-05:00

As a networking hardware user or network admin, you may not even know how to get started in looking at buying used Cisco. I’ve compiled this resource to shed some light on the second hand market for Cisco hardware.

Who are the main players in the used cisco market?

Cisco Authorized VARs Cisco’s authorized channel partners have access to Cisco’s pool of refurbished Cisco gear. If you’re currently buying new hardware from a partner then you can also buy certified Cisco refurb gear from these same resellers.
This pool is limited to what Cisco currently has available (typically much less than the open market) and discounts aren’t always that great, but the product is certified by Cisco.
Cisco Authorized Refurbished equipment (aka “Cisco reman”) is immediately eligible for maintenance and includes all of the typical licensing. Packaging is similar to new Cisco except that it will include stickers signifying that the hardware has been factory refurbished.
Independent Cisco Resellers AKA brokers, dealers or remarketers.These resellers are not authorized to sell new Cisco, but instead sell equipment that they’ve acquired via lease returns, liquidations or end-user trade-ins.Inventories can far exceed what you’ll find in Cisco’s pool and pricing is much, much lower than new in most cases (up to 90% off new).Used Cisco from independent resellers will include a warranty (from the reseller), but typically has to be recertified by Cisco and licenses need to be acquired in most cases to legally use the equipment and place it under maintenance. Packaging is normally equivalent to new quality, but is sent in plain brown boxes and anti-static bags rather than Cisco labeled packaging.Buyer’s choose independent resellers of used Cisco for benefits such as immediate availability and of course the massive discounts.
Our firm, Vibrant Technologies, fits in this category. (Request a quote)
Auction Sellers, User to User and Scrap resellers Individual Cisco users bring their wares directly to market via auction sites or forums such as eBay, Craigslist and Yahoo Auctions.There is a growing amount of Cisco equipment on these sites, but most of the listers seem to be resellers, not users. You’ll also find a lot of scrap resellers who can’t test the equipment and in other cases – outright scammers. Prices are all over the board.Quality, trust and support are serious concerns here. You want to be sure you don’t get bad equipment or completely scammed. Packaging can really leave something to be desired. We’ve seen actual popcorn (buttery!) used in place of packing peanuts and deli meat bags used to pack memory. Not to mention that the boxes are so thin that it’s amazing more products don’t get damaged.

How soon do Cisco Routers and Switches become available Used?

2-3 Months after a product has been released new, you can typically find it used.

This may come as a surprise to some who assume you can only find 2nd or 3rd generation hardware used.

Due to bankruptcies, mistaken purchases, or demo units, it is possible to find the latest and greatest as well as EOL equipment.

Is Used Cisco the same as Gray Market Cisco?

No, Gray Market product is equipment that has been purchased new from another country in order to be sold in a region where the manufacturer charges more for it. Used Cisco hardware is just previously used equipment given a second life.

If a used Cisco reseller offers you “new Cisco” it is likely gray market product. In some cases, product is available in new/sealed/retail condition from resellers or at auction, because the end-user never got around to opening the item. These products should be referred to as “unused” instead of “new” since ownership has transferred.

Legalities:

Both Used Cisco and “Grey market” hardware is legal to buy and sell in the United States, as upheld in the recent Kirtsaeng v Wiley US Supreme Court decision. The First Sale Doctrine basically allows that if you bought it, you own it – and you have the right to resell it.

Laws may vary by country. For example, the European Union generally restricts the resale of products (used or new) that were originally intended for anywhere outside the EU. In order to resell a branded product in that region, it must be from that region, not imported.

For Vibrant, this limits our exports to Europe, but otherwise we don’t face many other restrictions internationally beyond the usual import tariffs.

What condition of equipment should I expect from Used Cisco hardware?

Just because you’re purchasing used equipment, you shouldn’t have to settle for low quality. Cisco reman and used Cisco gear acquired from legitimate brokers is typically in similar condition to what is currently in your datacenter. Occasionally dealers will offer further discounts on “ugly-duckling” equipment that functions, but has some scratches or dings. You should be informed of any imperfections upfront.

At Vibrant, we like to think of your networking equipment as basic plumbing. It’s not that hard to get it right, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money on it. We help companies save money on their infrastructure, so they can invest in what really matters – people and applications that drive ROI for your business.

How are prices set on the used market?

The used Cisco market is an open market where equipment is traded as a second-hand commodity. Prices rise and fall based on perceived availability and demand in the marketplace. The best way to compare prices is to do so against other resellers because comparing against list is completely arbitrary.

Depending on the model or feature, discounts can range from 30 to 90% off list. See “List Prices and Discounts for Used IT Hardware.”

When is the best time to buy?

Give yourself time to check out all of your options, but also know that used resellers can typically ship overnight if you’re in a pinch. End of month, end of quarter and end of year are great times to buy as sales reps aim to meet their quotas.

How do I confirm that I’m working with a quality reseller?

Do your due diligence. Check references, confirm years in business,etc…
Check associations. Find out if they’re members of industry associations like UNEDA or ASCDI or if they’re in the BBB.
Get a warranty. Any quality reseller should offer warranties. End-user clients often get 90day to one year warranties on used Cisco (from the reseller). Make sure you get at least 90days.
Ask Questions. Find out if the reseller has Cisco certified techs and ask about recertification, licensing and manufacturer/reseller pre-sales and post-sales support policies.
Get Credit Terms (if you can). Corporations of any decent size should be able to negotiate payment terms of up to 30 days.This basically gives you the opportunity to try before you buy. If the equipment doesn’t meet your standards, you can return it without trying to recover your payment.

Who buys Used Cisco?

Fortune 500s and SMBs alike. Individuals, resellers, government agencies and manufacturers, too.

I’ve personally had countless conversations where somebody says they would never buy used, but then we talk about certain scenarios and they see a fit. Test environments, disaster recovery, training labs, trade shows, etc… Once they see the quality, support and savings, we normally flow into a production scenario from there.

And even those who don’t buy used Cisco end up finding value in having a Used Cisco reseller like Vibrant to sell their excess or decommissioned equipment to. We can offer you cash to save on your next investment and usually beat any trade-in offers from the manufacturer or VAR.

Please contact us if you have Networking, Storage or Server hardware to sell.

Should you consider used Cisco?

You have to decide for yourself, but it is definitely worth getting a quote or two so that you can make an informed decision. Some users start with training or demo hardware and then move to development or production units as they gain confidence in refurb quality and savings.

For more information, please email sales@vibrant.com or call 952-653-1700.

(this article was originally published at Network World’s Cisco Subnet and has been updated for 2013)

IT Hardware Companies do the Harlem Shake

2013-03-07T10:47:00-06:00

Vibrant finally made a Harlem Shake Video (and we’re sorry internets).

As a reseller of remarketed servers and data center hardware, we looked around and were surprised at how few IT Hardware companies had made one, so we thought, why not? Plus, it wasn’t a bad time. Anytime you get to dance on a server rack dressed as a gentleman luchador, you’ve got to do it, right?

Below is a collection of IT hardware companies who have done the Harlem Shake.

Vibrant Technologies

Brocade

EMC

Intel

Rackspace

Tech Data Cisco Team

That’s some pretty (wonderfully) terrible Harlem Shake action all around, and we’re glad we could take part!

5 things all IT buyers MUST ask before buying refurbished IT equipment

2008-01-14T10:16:00-06:00

So you’re considering buying remarketed IT equipment (servers, routers, storage, etc.) but you’re not quite sure what to watch out for. Buying used IT gear is a great decision for stretching your budget but there are some questions you might want to ask when choosing a vendor so you get top-notch quality equipment and don’t get burned.

1. Are you getting the real deal?
Is the quoted equipment true manufacturer-branded hardware? (Example: Is the memory IBM or some 3rd party knock-off?) This is HUGE when you try to add hardware to existing maintenance agreements. No 3rd party hardware is typically supported. Sometimes dealers will try to slide 3rd party components into system quotes and hope you won’t notice – or worse yet, they won’t even mention it. Be sure to ask.

2. Who exactly are you dealing with?
Is the outfit you’re buying from a legit company? Check their website, Google the company name, ask for references, referrals and current customers. You might even do a map search of their address just to see if they’re in an office building (and not some random residential address).

3. Is there a warranty?
What happens if the products show up and don’t work, or cause system errors? Can someone troubleshoot it? Is there tech support? Who do you call? How fast can the problem be solved? A solid warranty as well as a strong technical staff are great indicators of a company that is proud to stand behind its products.

4. Supplier or Broker?
Do they have complete knowledge of the products or are they just buying from other dealers, and don’t own it? Anyone can sell parts, just check eBay. But you will want a company who will warranty products and guarantee work done. These companies own large inventories of products and quality check everything in their own technical labs. Shipments will arrive quicker, cheaper and with greater peace of mind from stocking vendors.

5. Too Good to be True?
If it seems too good to be true, it often is. When offered unbelievable low prices, something is being sacrificed. Is it quality? Authenticity? Be sure to find out and get it in writing (something to the effect of “the following product is in perfect working condition and guaranteed to be IBM original”). There are some great deals on refurbished and used equipment, but sometimes these truly are too good to be true.

Michelle Clough is an account executive at Vibrant Technologies working with clients from various industries and has over 10 years experienced in the remarketed IT industry. Contact her with further questions or if you have IT equipment to buy or sell.

email: sales@vibrant.com
phone: 952-653-1700

Slashdot Anniversary Party Recap

2007-10-19T10:19:00-05:00

Two weeks ago, two of our best techs, Erick and Kris, informed me that Slashdot’s 10th Anniversary was upon us and that we had to host a regional anniversary party for them. Of course I agreed, because all of the following are awesome: Erick and Kris, Slashdot, Slashdotters and Parties.

I reeled in approval from the top to throw some money at this and put the techs in charge of planning and organizing. Last night we had the party here and I think the results were pretty great.

(Lindsi rolled all the photos and videos into a great montage.)

So, what does a Slashdot crowd consider fun and entertaining?

1) Smashing old EMC, Sun, HP, IBM, Cisco and Brocade gear with a sledgehammer, while offering up witty commentary.

2) Playing Guitar Hero and old video games on large projector screens.

3) Mingling with like-minded techie-types and gamers that are proud to be geeks.

4) LOLcats (which were on the drink tickets, walls, cake and who knows what else).

5) Geek Facepainting (OK, the idea of that was funnier than in reality. Only two people got logos painted on their face, Slashdot and Apple, but we were ready to also do Firefox, Tux and Redhat logos).

6) Hot Taco bars, beers and mixed drinks (who doesn’t?)

7) Singing Happy Birthday to a website (my wife really laughed at me for that one).

Thanks to all who came, we had a blast and loved meeting everybody.

Happy 10th Anniversary to Slashdot!

Cable Messes: Want Meatballs With That?

2007-09-26T10:52:00-05:00

Spaghetti Cabling that would make a fully-grown sys admin cry, or… Cable management is for wimps.

Most network and system administrators like a nice tidy cabled cabinet of servers and network equipment.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.

The following are some of my favorite images of nasty cable messes.

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A Cable Mess of Beauty
photo by: Cormac Phelan

=====================

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Racks and Racks of Spaghetti
photo by: Andrew McKaskill
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Cable-Bound Racks

photo by: dM.nyc
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Good Old-Fashioned Telephone Wire Mess in Bangkok
photo by: Nurmi
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able Mess (un)Managed
photo by: gruzuk
====================

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The Spaghetti Man on Sixth Avenue, NYC
photo by: Ken
================================

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Spaghetti Cables on the CMS Tracker at CERN
photo by: Richard Brauer
====================================

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Colorful Cable Salad

photo by: Zenji
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A Fine Mess
photo by: BRphoto
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Cable Mess Frustration
photo by: Jonathan Arehart
====================

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Rat’s Nest Cable Mess
photo by: n8foo
==================

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Stage Cables get messed up too
photo by: Laura A Watt
==============================

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Cable Chaos
photo by: VespaGT

==============

==============================================

LOPSA’s Sys Admin Horrors

LOPSA (League of Professional System Administrators) is a terrific organization that Vibrant wholeheartedly supports. Afterall, they sponsor National SysAdmin Appreciation Day. On their website, they came up with a terrific photo set of Sys Admin horrors including the cable messes below:

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DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THESE WIRES!
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Burnt Spaghetti
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Spaghetti Cable Hurl
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Network Cables or Silly String?
========================

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Patriotic Cable Mess

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Network Floss and Modems(rumored to have run the dialup access at an old ISP)
=======================

Updates:

Transformed: mrbill offers up before, during and after photos of a network mess gone straight

The Lab with Leo LaPorte staff offers a cable tangle photo from on the set with Cali.

A classic server rack mess: Tom Scholten shared the following photo of a server rack seemingly riddled with silly string.

The LAN and phone cables run across eachother (red cables are phone, blue are servers and white/yellow are client computers).

There are also 3 switches hidden in the picture. Enjoy!

Interview with Venderis Founder, Robert Davie

2007-09-06T10:28:00-05:00

Robert Davie, Founder of Venderis was gracious enough to answer a few of our questions regarding his revolutionary new End of Life IT Asset Recovery software solution, Venderis Software Solution Suite.

“Armored trucks, employee background checks, the issues that relate to sending systems off-site are all eliminated by our solution.”

———————————————————————————

In a nutshell, what does Venderis do?

“I need more than a nutshell to describe VenderisÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ but here goes. Venderis has sort of a dual role. It reduces the risk of data stored on PCs from escaping to the public domain, while at the same time it increases the resale value of PC assets.

Venderis accomplishes this dual role in several ways:
1. By erasing hard drives
2. By restoring the original Operating System
3. By running diagnostics important to the resale community
4. By discovering and auditing the level of hardware details necessary for resale

And probably most importantly, Venderis performs its functions across a WAN, LAN or enterprise network thereby making these end-of-life processes automated, fast and easy.”

How did you come up with the idea for Venderis?

“There is an interesting story behind this. Three of us went away to the North Carolina coast to brainstorm and discuss a several ideas for processes that occur at the end of the life of PCs. Utilizing my experience in the used computer industry, taking advantage of an employeeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s strengths, and adding the objective viewpoints of a Harvard MBA, we set off to the beach for a brainstorm session.

After using an entire roll of whiteboard paper, a complete set of magic markers, and exhausting our brains, we came up with five problem areas that needed desperate attention, and that could be automated through software application.”

What is your background in the IT industry?

“I have been in the IT asset remarketing industry since I graduated from college, with the exception of a short stint of three years at IBM, almost 20 years altogether. As the founder of ITParade.com, I was responsible for creating a large marketplace for buyers and sellers of used computer and networking systems.

Over 1500 computer resellers participate in the ITParade.com marketplace and my interaction with them generated unique insights into the inner-workings of the industry that allowed me to launch Venderis.”

Who can benefit from using the Venderis Asset Recovery Software Solution?

“Fortune 5000 companies, large organizations, IT Asset Remarketers, Recovery Specialists. Anyone who is concerned about cutting costs at the end of life of an IT asset. Anyone who is concerned about chain of custody of sensitive data contained within hard drives. Anyone who needs to maximize the resale value of PC assets.”

What is your current go-to-market plan?

“We intend to leverage our network of over 1500 IT resellers developed over a 10-year period at ITParade.com. These relationships represent the leading resellers in the United States and around the world. Venderis will support an initial group of 12 leading resellers, then a larger group of resellers, through an extensive and comprehensive marketing and support system that includes marketing materials, co-selling, Live Support, On-site Training, On-site Support and Webinars.”

Security is a hot-button issue in the asset recovery world, does Venderis help address these concerns?

“Security is an extremely important issue. It was one of the driving factors in the development of Venderis.

Venderis can guarantee that sensitive data stays within an organization by providing the ability to wipe 10 or 10,000 systems on-site and simultaneously. The chain of custody stays with the end user of Venderis, no third-party erasure is required and therefore absolute safety of sensitive data is guaranteed! Armored trucks, employee background checks, the issues that relate to sending systems off-site are all eliminated by our solution.

Finally, there is no limit to the number of Department of Defense-standard erasures Venderis can perform.”

———————————————————————————

Vibrant is proud to be a tier1 reseller of Venderis. We’ll be working the Venderis booth along with Robert at the upcoming E-Scrap IT Asset Recovery Conference where they are a sponsor. If you’re in the Asset Recovery business, please stop by our booth and introduce yourself, meet Robert and learn more about how Venderis can benefit you and your clients.

Vibrant Technologies – Best Place to Work

2007-08-22T10:32:00-05:00

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 9th annual “Best Places to Work” publication came out on Friday, and Vibrant ranked in the top 20 small businesses. It’s a great honor to work for a company that is even considered, and especially for one of the winners.

I love working for Vibrant – and I’m quick to share stories about my time here with friends or family. The “perks” of working for an edgy, innovative company range from Video Game Happy Hours to themed summer and holiday parties – but while those events provide occasional entertainment, the fun part is the bonding that takes place between employees.

It’s true when they say a work environment depends heavily on the people in it. Each person at Vibrant is passionate about what they (we) do (and who we’re doing it with), and I believe that’s what makes us one of the best places to work.

PS3: Your mother(board) was a blade server!

2007-08-09T10:35:00-05:00

The Playstation Blog has drawn the curtain strings a salivating tad to show off their very impressive server cluster of rackmounted PS3s that run it’s multi-player game Warhawk.

The Data Center Knowledge blog keanly observes:

The powerful processor is no stranger to the data center, as it is also being used in IBM System X blade servers and System Z mainframes.

Players of Warhawk on Playstation 3s take advantage of a server method they call IGS or “Integrated Game Server”, which is essentially distributed computing. This allows players to take advantage of PS3s nearby to reduce latency, but Sony also wanted to have dedicated racks of PS3s available to gamers as well.

It is this type of innovation potential which made us choose the PS3 as one of the ten servers that changed the world last year and it’s beginning to fulfill the prophecy, at least in the gaming world.

I would love to get my hands on one of these rackmount kits and rig a PS3 into one of our server racks for our next in-house video game happy hour.

Google runs 100 Billion Servers

2007-08-07T10:45:00-05:00

OK, maybe not quite yet… but Pandia Search Engine News is reporting that Google runs more than 1 million servers.

Pandia cites a Gartner analyst from the fair elven lands of Norway (the article is in Norwegian, so we’ll have to take their word for it).

Google reports that it spends some 200 to 250 million US dollars a year on IT equipment. We know that Google make use of a large number of cheap off the shelf servers using open source (and free) LINUX.
If we say that Google spends 900 USD on each machine, and the same sum on storage and peripherals, it is a fair guess that Google uses some 1 million servers in its data centers.

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Pandia goes on to speculate that Google likely installs 100,000 new servers per quarter in datacenters around the world. That would place Google as the 4th largest server producer in the world after HP, Dell and IBM.

But does Google really have 1 million servers? I’m not so sure. The logic above is fuzzy at best and others have estimated they only have 450,000 systems. My guess is reality falls somewhere in between these impressive numbers.

I wonder how many servers are purely dedicated to facilitating searches for LOLcats?

We know that Google primarily uses white box linux-based server models and blade servers, but should they ever need memory or CPU upgrades, Vibrant sells a wide range of Used Servers. Our sales reps hear “1 million servers” and can’t help but drool.

Open Source Server Hardware?

2007-08-02T11:16:00-05:00

Earlier this year, Nat Torkington of the O’Reilly Radar blog, asked “Is ‘Open Source’ Now Completely Meaningless?”

Nat is ranting about firms who exhibited at the OSCON Open Source Convention this year who probably didn’t fit in. Nonetheless, is the clear definition of open source deteriorating? Is “Open Source” more of a way of thinking than a rigid software term? Let’s pretend for a minute it is, and explain how Vibrant’s line of used servers could be considered open source.

We don’t care what OS you load onto it once you’ve gotten it… Linux, Windows, AIX, Solaris, go for it!
Furthermore, we don’t care which manufacturer you want to buy, we carry Sun, HP, IBM and Dell. If you want to add 3rd party drives or memory, we’ll do that too!
Finally, we don’t lock anybody into set server configurations. Instead, we’ll custom configure a system to meet their needs.

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OK, so can we respectfully call our used server products “open source”?

Nah! It just doesn’t feel right to use the term when it comes to hardware.

(But we will custom paint a server if you prefer your Big Blue IBM server in orange. That has to count for something, right!?)

Seven Wonders of the Tech World

2007-07-07T11:58:00-05:00

Today, 07/07/07, the winners of a popular vote to become the new world wonders will be revealed. Naturally, we’ve also offered our personal picks for the Seven Wonders of the World – Tech Edition. Let the debates begin.

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Googleplex

Google has rapidly become a permanent cornerstone in the technology world, so it’s an obvious first stop on our tour of the Seven Tech Wonders. The building now known as the Googleplex was originally occupied by Silicon Graphics, Inc. and purchased by Google in June of 2006.

Creativity was clearly a priority after Google took over – no expense was spared in designing the luxurious environment. The Google headquarters boasts two swimming pools, gourmet restaurants, game rooms, free laundry and salons complete with a masseuse – definitely not your average American office building. And leave it to Google to over-accommodate their creative people: the amenities are all available 24/7, because the best ideas don’t always come between 9 and 5.

Check out photos on Flickr, Time’s pictorial or Fortune’s video tour. Maybe even run it past your CEO next time he or she is brainstorming employee incentive programs.

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Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)

Industrial Light and Magic’s datacenter is a wonder of the world in any category. Datacenters can be big, they can be expensive, they can be complicated, and then they can be ILM. The ILM facility spans 13,500 square feet with more than 600 miles of network cables; a 3000 processor server farm (expands to 5000 after hours from desktop computers); and about 170 terabytes of storage – all bound together by a 340-node, 10 GB backbone. (For those who may not understand just how big and how fast that actually is: the entire internet doesn’t even run at that speed.)

The need for all this data comes from the digital effects of such films as Transformers, Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. Since creating the first fully computer-generated sequence for a movie in Star Trek II, ILM has been on the bleeding edge of digital effects, and the profits from these movies are vital contributors to datacenter upgrades.

Here’s a thought to wrap your brain around: if you’re downloading movies or music on a T1 line (likely the speed of the connection at your office) 24 hours a day, it would take about 25 years to download ILM’s 150+ terabytes. (Thanks Michael!!)
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International Space Station (ISS)

Next stop on the Tech Wonder tour: the International Space Station. If you look out of the left side of the bus, and maybe slightly upward, you will see the ISS: the stuff Sci-Fi movies are made of. The model for the station had been in the concept stages since the early 80's and was finally put into orbit in 1998.

The ISS recently made the news with what could have become disastrous: computer failure resulted in losing thruster and environmental controls. After less than one day of being inoperative, the computers were brought back online and full control was restored. A power surge from the newly installed solar arrays is believed to have been the major contributor to the failure.

The future is uncertain for the ISS, however there are plans for future missions as far out as 2010. The ISS has been considered a pit stop for missions to the moon and even Mars. And according to NASA, July 9, 2007 will bring an announcement of a new mission to Mars.

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Apple’s Retail Opus

As our tour bus makes its descent back to planet Earth, you’ll notice a bright white light glowing from a glass cube in Manhattan, New York. It’s the first Apple store to stay open 24/7, and is easily one of the most remarkable sites the retail tech world – especially when compared to the measly garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first Apple computer. The grand opening of the underground concept store was hyped by Apple enthusiasts worldwide, and drew thousands of gawkers on opening day. The store is easily the most visual representation of Apple’s modern, clean design experience. Take a virtual tour of the Manhattan store to experience it for yourself.

(Side note: The garage where the first HP computer was built was just recognized as a national landmark. While HP’s inventions changed the business world, the idea of creating a PC for the average user is possibly a more groundbreaking feat, and the impact more profound. How many of us remember playing Oregon Trail or Montezuma’s Revenge on our elementary school’s Apple II? Personally, I loved Captain Goodnight!)

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Fremont Street Experience (sound!)

Next stop: Vegas. The Viva Vision canopy is one of the flashiest examples of technology you’ll see. Twelve million LED’s light up 1400 feet of canopy with 220 speakers producing 550,000 watts of sound providing the music for each show. The previous setup for this light show was controlled by 32 separate computers located in various kiosks along the street. Since the upgrade in 2004, now only 10 computers control the show from a central control room.

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Hubble Space Telescope

Far away from the bright lights of Vegas, orbiting the earth at five miles per second, this marvel of astronomy explores the deepest corners of space. From Hubblesite.org:

The Hubble Space Telescope’s launch in 1990 sped humanity to one of its greatest advances in that journey… Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.
Hubble is one of NASA’s most successful and long-lasting science missions. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy. Its gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.

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Kryptos

This final stop is probably the least well-known tech wonder. The monument was dedicated in 1990 and sits on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. It consists of four encrypted messages, three of which have been solved, initially by hand and then by a Pentium II computer.

The final message requires clues other than the cipher on the monument. The messages probably won’t make sense until the final code is solved, when it is, the mystery to life will be revealed! Then someone will just come up with another complicated, seemingly-uncrackable code.

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Which wonders did we miss? What’s your favorite wonder?
Please drop us a line or leave a comment below.

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Vibrant at Interop 2007

2007-06-05T12:06:00-05:00

Interop Las Vegas 2007 was a successful show for Vibrant. We met many current networking clients as well as hopefully several future ones. There are definitely many end-users and resellers interested in used Cisco, used Servers and the secondary IT hardware market.

The show was very active with close to 20,000 attendees, 450 exhibitors and all varieties of stunts, costumes and give-aways. Vibrant gave away two Night Vision Monoculars (to spot our great Cisco deals ). The winners guessed the correct number of Cisco Thing-a-ma-jigs in a fishbowl (38), which drew many questions and were actually old school cable management kits. Congrats to our two winners!

Here is a shot of Vibrant’s booth along with our terrific staffers in our technical lab coats and our signature “Vibrant” orange shoes:

Best of Interop Schwag 2007

2007-06-05T12:02:00-05:00

Network Computing Magazine hosts an annual “Best of Interop” awards program at the Interop Las Vegas show in the spring for the best new products offered by exhibitors at the show. This really helps the casual networking specialist sort through the hundred of exhibitors and products offered.

Vibrant noticed an important category missing in the awards though and took it upon ourselves to dig up the best “Schwag” or “Tchotchkes” that we could find on the Interop expo floor. I’m really not sure how this was previously overlooked!

Please take a look at the three finalists below and vote for your favorite.

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(apologies for the audio in these clips… the show floor was pretty loud and our external mic didn’t work out)

Extreme Networks Purple Mug

These mugs were everywhere during the Interop Pub Crawl, filled with cold beverages and vividly purple. Extreme Networks had an incredible presence at the show and these mugs that changed color when cold were one of several brilliant concepts in their arsenal. Extreme also had a preacher and gospel singers at their booth as well as a “purple people” lounge. In the video below, Dan Sibille, Sr. Director of Channel Sales & Operations speaks with me about why their mug should win the award.

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Raptor Networks Bottle Opener

Bottle openers that look like a menacing raptor, nice. Raptor Networks had a fun booth too with a giant raptor sculpture out front. I spoke with CFO Bob Van Leyen about their prospects of winning (and their mascot “Rappy”).

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Solarwinds Rubik’s Cube

This certainly isn’t the first time that an exhibitor has given away a Rubik’s cube and as a matter of fact, another vendor was handing them out at Interop. What made the Solarwinds offering impressive was that they also had a guy at their booth who could solve the cube in 20-30 seconds. Check it out.

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Tchotchke Challenge

While not an entrant in the contest, no article about tchotchkes at Interop could be complete without mentioning this terrific idea. The Tchotchke Challenge was a charitable endeavor by Secure Computing where if they were able to fill a chest with Interop giveaways that they would give out $10,000 to the Children’s Heart Foundation.Ã‚Â They will also repurpose the schwag items as charitable give-aways.

Interop Twitter Hunt 2007

2007-05-20T12:09:00-05:00

What is a Twitter hunt?

It’s a simple treasure hunt, except the clues are given out via Twitter. In our case, we’ll be giving out $200 in chips to the person who can find Vibrant’s own Lindsi Gish somewhere within Interop Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Between 2 and 4PM on Wednesday, May 23rd, clues will be given out every 10-15 minutes via Vibrant’s Twitter profile (www.twitter.com/vibrant) regarding the profile and location of Lindsi. The first one to find her wins.

What is Interop?

Interop is a huge networking (hardware, software, security) conference held this week in Las Vegas with over 18,000 attendees expected. Vibrant will be there meeting current and prospective clients who are interested in used Cisco, Juniper, Marconi and so on which we offer at up to 90% off list. If you’re there, participate in the Twitter Hunt and stop by our booth #1878.

Do I have to “friend” Vibrant to play?

The updates or “tweets” will display on our profile if you refresh it so you shouldn’t need to “friend” Vibrant or even be a member of Twitter to play. You may want to do so though because then you could get the updates sent directly to your cell phone or IM instead of constantly refreshing our profile.

What inspired you to do this?

A local Twitter user, Aric McKeown, has been holding his own social Twitter hunts monthly in the Twin Cities which he brilliantly calls the “Least Dangerous Game.” (Yes, inspired by the 1924 short story, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell.)

Should you participate?

If you’re at Interop and would like to have some fun and maybe win something to gamble with… Why not?

www.twitter.com/vibrant

Our CEO is so 40 Under Forty

2007-05-18T12:12:00-05:00

Fun news today at Vibrant Technologies as our CEO, Jennifer VanDerHorst was recognized as one of the top 40 “accomplished professionals” under the age of forty in the annual special section of the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal. She was chosen out of a field of 280 nominees for this prestigious list.

Thanks to Heidi Carpenter of Fafinski Mark & Johnson, P.A. for nominating Jen.
The write-up was spot on in describing Jennifer’s entrepreneurial spirit and detailed how she has started and continues to run two tech companies as well as Holland Center for children with Autism.

Describing Holland Center:

“‘Right now, it’s not a nonprofit – it’s a lose profit,’ she said laughing. ‘The money we make from the other two companies supports the kids.’”

Congrats to all of those named to the 40 Under Forty for 2007.