AMF bowls for customers with video sharing over managed IP

AMF Bowling Centers Inc. is wrapping up the roll-out of a $2 million nationwide network equipment upgrade that supports Voice over IP (VoIP) and video streaming, and includes turning over all network management to Verizon Business for three more years. As part of a contract with Verizon, the company is now relying on Verizon for an IP network that supports VoIP, point of sale devices and credit card transactions, and web hosting. AMF has 300 bowling centers in 38 states with more than 9,000 employees. The IP network also supports a centralized video surveillance system that is now being launched, as well as a centralized energy management system being tested in several bowling centers.

The contract with Verizon, signed early this year, will cost AMF about $800,000 a year, in addition to the $2 million equipment cost for Adtran routers in each center and cabling installations, he said. Additionally, because bowling has become a multimedia experience for customers, video and audio streaming of music videos is piped to most of the bowling centers using the IP network, said Harsha Bellur, vice president of IT at AMF. "We have extreme sound and light shows over projection screens in most locations with music videos that play while people are bowling," Bellur said. AMF's annual network services cost has gone up slightly with the Verizon managed service, but the number of IP applications and network reliability have far exceeded what was previously available, Bellur said. "The ROI was on the wall, but we had to do this and it made a lot of sense to invest, even with the recession," Bellur said in an interview. With cable modems and DSL there was not consistent bandwidth, while demanding applications like video were not possible. Before hiring Verizon for the managed IP service, AMF was using Verizon to provide a site-to-site VPN service, which relied on cable modems and DSL, and required AMF to work with 36 different ISPs. One of the biggest advantages of using a managed service from a nationwide provider like Verizon is having Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to guarantee service, Bellur said. The SLAs have already come in handy, resulting in a credit from Verizon because VoIP service in Atlanta and Virginia Beach, Va., was knocked out recently more than 3.5 hours - a provision of the SLA - due to regional flooding, Bellur said. "Verizon has kept up with its SLAs and offered a financial remedy," he said.

Because of the recent flood-related outages, AMF is planning to provision at least one analog phone line in each center to provide an automatic failover for voice services. "It's back to the future with the analog failover," he said, noting that AMF is now testing existing analog lines that were not being used to see which are resilient enough for failover duty. "The voice outages were a challenge and we learned the hard way with the floods," he said. "It caused some heartburn and was not something we anticipated, but we have options." The managed services contract with Verizon has not led to layoffs in the 29-person IT staff, although Verizon is managing all circuits, routers and cloud computing services. While the Verizon VoIP quality is generally good, one downside is that voice service goes down whenever there is a data network outage. The added Verizon support has meant AMF can strengthen its end-user computer support desk, which now is staffed by seven of the 29 in IT, Bellur said. AT&T Inc. and regional service provider Paetec also bid. Bellur and others picked Verizon partly because of its nationwide network, he said.

The centralized energy management system for AMF is undergoing trial runs now, to test the IP network automatically turning on and off heating and air conditioning according to hours of each bowling center. While AMF centers are actively using the network to support video and audio, Bellur said his team is contemplating using video displays as digital signs that would show pricing and examples of products on sale, including food and alcohol. The video surveillance system is designed to prevent theft and is just being installed to use the IP network, Bellur said. In addition, training videos could be piped over the IP network, Bellur said. Potentially, self-service kiosks for ordering food are possible, and online posting of scores could take place, shared over the nationwide network. "Teams between two cities could host a tournament sharing tournament brackets," he said. "We're brainstorming, but it all comes down to costs."

A longer term conceptual project has been discussed to stream videos of bowlers or birthday parties being held at bowling centers to relatives in other cities.

Seven tips to migrate and manage Windows 7

Enterprise IT organizations eager to upgrade aging Windows XP and Vista systems to Microsoft's just released Windows 7 could make the process a whole lot smoother by investigating a handful of management technologies and processes aimed at greasing the skids of such a major software update. 7 tools to ease your Windows rollout  "At some point, Windows users will need to transition over to Windows 7 because XP will no longer be supported and Vista just didn't take off in terms of adoption," says Steve Brasen, principal analyst at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). "The ability to manage and automate the processes around upgrading to Windows 7 will be critical for midsize and enterprise organizations." Here industry watchers share seven essential steps enterprise IT managers must take when considering a move to Microsoft's Win 7. 1. Test desktop durability. The research also shows that those considering an upgrade won't be able to take a direct path from XP to Windows 7 - which represents a few challenges. According to data from Forrester Research, even two-and-a-half years after the general availability of Windows Vista, Windows XP still runs 86% of all enterprise PCs powered by Windows.

For one, hardware could be lacking the necessary drivers, memory and other components. "Migrating XP to Win 7 will challenge many IT administrators because you can't upgrade directly. Unlike previous Windows operating systems, such as XP, Win 7 offers several editions, or options, enterprise IT departments must consider when planning to migrate to the latest software. Some are suggesting companies buy all new hardware or perform a complete refresh of the computer," explains Katherine Wattwood, vice president of product development for Persystent Software.   Persystent Suite offers customers features that test existing PCs for hard disk space and other components required in Win 7. The software can help IT managers determine which PCs could handle the updated operating systems and which would need to be swapped out or updated themselves. "Pre-migration planning and hardware compatibility testing would be critical to determine which PCs are Win 7-ready," Wattwood says. 2. Plan for licensing. Industry analysts say three should be considered by IT managers. Windows 7 Enterprise is the edition the companies have the right to deploy if they own a Windows license covered with Microsoft Software Assurance, the vendor's software maintenance program offered as an option with volume licensing. First, Windows 7 Professional - comparable to Vista Business - could be the least expensive option, according to Forrester Research, which points out this edition is available via OEM, retail or volume licensing.

This enterprise version offers additional features that global organizations might find useful, such as DirectAccess, which gives mobile users access to corporate accounts without a VPN or BranchCache, a feature Microsoft says decreases the time users at remote offices spend waiting to download files across the network. Forrester advises in a recent research report that companies take into consideration many factors when planning for Win 7 licenses. Windows 7 Ultimate, Forrester says, could be considered as more of a consumer option and isn't sold via volume licensing - but could be put to use as a media PC in a corporate environment. Existing licenses, software agreements and the upgrade path should be among the considerations. "Your historical approach to refreshing your desktops and laptops combined with the age of your infrastructure by the time you're ready to start your Windows 7 deployment will impact whether you should introduce it via a forklift or 'big bang' approach or via the natural rolling refresh cycle," the report reads. "Your license plans should not just be limited to your Windows upgrade strategy. Not only does hardware need to be tested to see if it can take Windows 7, but software applications must also be checked for compatibility with the new version. "There are a few aversions enterprise IT has to an upgrade right now," EMA's Brasen says. "One of them being there is still a big problem with proprietary applications and drivers that are just not compatible with Vista or Win 7. Until companies can reach a level of compatibility and applications are brought up to speed, a transition will be difficult." In fact, Brasen says he is "not aware of a systems management vendor that doesn't have an upgrade path for Windows 7. They know it's coming. There can be opportunities to take advantage of bundles that can drive down costs across your Microsoft investments." 3. Ensure application compatibility.

Even if their current subscribers aren't planning for it in the next few months, it is going to happen at some point." That's why enterprise IT organizations should be testing application compatibility now, and products from companies like Persystent and CA, among many others, offer application compatibility testing. Manually conducting such tests would be extremely time-consuming, analysts say. This sort of testing would point out the potential problems and foreseeable performance issues desktops could incur when running Windows 7. Applications from vendors run automatically, detect the problematic machines and applications, perform an inventory and report back to IT managers about the issues. Vendors argue by adding automation to this process, they reduce costs and time to deployment. For many companies, acquiring enterprise software to help with a migration of enterprise software might be cost-prohibitive. For instance, CA IT Client Manager uses policies to reduce hands-on labor. "Our software allows IT to set policies that allow a set of individuals to have certain applications on their systems, while another group would have a different policy applied to them," says Laural Gentry, senior principal product manager at CA. "Our product supports the decision-making, planning process by performing asset inventory, application and infrastructure compatibility tests in order to ensure the entire migration runs more smoothly." 4. Take advantage of automation.

But industry watchers argue that attempting to migrate or manage a Win 7 environment without automation technology will overwhelm IT staff and nearly guarantee problems with the implementation. "An automated system management platform, available from many vendors, could bundle up the image and send it out to many machines as part of an automated process," Brasen says. "Companies will experience a lot of pain upgrading to Windows 7 if they can't get an automated platform in place." For many larger organizations the automated features could likely already be a part of their client systems management products from the likes of LANDesk, CA, Persystent, Kace, BigFix and several others. But Microsoft has considered this and made available a free tool to address this situation. But for small to midsize organizations, automated deployment isn't a technology they already have in house. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 is software optimized to support Windows 7 deployments and includes built-in capabilities to support customers migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7, the company says. The release of Windows 7 has companies considering another new technology: virtual desktops. MDT 2010 Beta 2 is currently available for free download here.  "Microsoft is offering compelling reasons for customers to migrate to Windows 7," says Benjamin Gray, senior analyst with Forrester Research. 5. Consider client virtualization.

The promise of ease of management and increased security that virtual desktop technology offers could drive customers to consider the technology when they have budget dollars for a PC refresh. But Microsoft isn't the only vendor touting virtualization as an option. For its part, Microsoft offers two products that take advantage of virtualization and could be considered a means to managing a migration to or ongoing deployment of Windows 7. Microsoft Application Virtualization, the company says, helps reduce downtime for customers by turning Windows applications into "centrally managing virtual services that are delivered to any licensed Windows desktop or laptop." And Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization allows desktop administrators to create, deliver and centrally manage a virtual Windows XP or 2000 environment (based on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007) and run legacy applications on Windows Vista desktops, the vendor says. VMware and Citrix also boast virtual desktop infrastructure and could provide viable alternatives to a full-blown Windows 7 migration, industry watchers say. "IT managers would be able to go with a virtualization solution as well. It would be as simple as setting one up and deploying it out to many," Brasen says. "Microsoft, VMware and Citrix would all have options for customers here." 6. Replace hardware.

If you are doing desktop virtualization, you can deploy your virtual container for the new desktop environment down to each one of the client endpoints. For some IT organizations, a migration plan could morph into a replacement plan. According to industry watchers, the economic recession had many IT decision-makers postponing hardware upgrades and equipment investments until a recovery was in sight. Outdated desktops and laptops could be easier to swap out than update and vendors working with Microsoft would equip new hardware with the most recent operating system. Now couple the Windows 7 availability with a need to refresh hardware, and some might just kill two birds with one stone - making the migration challenge a moot point. "Many organizations with aging infrastructure could do a massive PC refresh by mid-2010 and replace existing hardware with new desktops and laptops," Forrester's Gray says. If a customer buys a Windows 7 PC and maintains the pre-loaded optimization features, they could experience benefits such as faster reboot and shutdown times, which ultimately provide productivity improvements to end users, says Bob Dieterle, executive director of worldwide services at Lenovo. "When looking at our customer engagements, almost 40% of PCs under management are out of warrantee, and not really able to take advantage of the new features offered," he says. "Our customers would get optimized performance, battery life and even applications, which have been redesigned for Windows 7." 7. Prepare for patch management.

PC vendors have worked with Microsoft to deliver machines optimized to work with Windows 7, such as the new Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience. Any client system management plan must include patch management. Many of the vendors offering automated features in migration packages also would be able to deploy patches on a one-to-many basis for organizations adopting Windows 7," EMA's Brasen says. "IT managers want to get to the point of doing one download of the patch from the site and distributing it out internally, essentially a process that is much faster and much less intrusive on the client devices." Do you Tweet? Before migrating to a new operating system, enterprise IT managers must be aware of how the upgrade will impact existing patch management procedures and also ensure they have any new and necessary policies in place before the rollout. "Maintaining the environment would mandate proven patch management technologies. Follow Denise Dubie on Twitter here.

Cloud Engines updates Pogoplug media sharing device

On Friday, Cloud Engines introduced the second generation of its Pogoplug multimedia sharing device. The new version adds several new features. The Pogoplug is designed to plug into your home or small office network and let you access and share content of USB hard drives over the Internet using a standard Web browser.

First off, it now has four USB 2.0 ports instead of one so you can connect multiple USB hard drives or flash drives without the need for a USB hub. It works with H.264 video, as well as common photo types, but doesn't support DRM media. Along with that, there's now support for global search across multiple drives. (It still connects to your router using gigabit Ethernet.) Also new are improved transcoding and wider support for streaming movies on the Web or to an iPhone app; the ability to automatically sync photos, music, videos, and other content from apps such as iTunes and iPhoto; tighter integration with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace; automatic organization of your music, photos, and videos; and an address book that remembers the e-mail addresses with which you've shared content for future sharing. (Many of the enhancements will be available to current Pogoplug owners as well.) Pogoplug supports OS X 10.4 and higher as well as Windows XP and Vista, and Linux; Safari, Firefox 3, IE 7, IE 8, and Chrome Web browsers; and hard drives formatted as NTFS, FAT32, Max OS Extended Journaled and non-Journaled (HFS+), and EXT-2/EXT-3. Although there are no specific bandwidth requirements listed, the company says that a typical DSL connection (with 512 Kbps upload speed) works fine. Cloud Engines expects to ship the new Pogoplug before the end of the year for $129, and is currently taking pre-orders.

RemoteSight turns an iSight into CCTV

Do you wish your iSight were more like the unblinking, ever-vigilant Eye of Sauron? RemoteSight can act as an integrated camera source for Ben Software's SecuritySpy, which aggregates video feeds from multiple cameras into a heads-up multi-video display. Then you might be interested in Ben Software's new RemoteSight, an application that turns an iSight camera into a CCTV-style security camera, accessible over a network via Web browser.

RemoteSight captures both audio and video from the host Mac's iSight camera (or any attached video input device), and streams it out through an integrated Web server; video is accompanied by a live timestamp. Any Web browser has the ability to connect to the Web server across an internal network, and Internet remote viewing should be possible if the nonstandard additional ports used by the Web server are opened on the router to allow this traffic. The Web server also provides an option to remotely view what is happening on the Mac's monitor as well. Administrative users can turn off monitoring feeds individually, and you can protect all connections to the Web server by username and password registration. RemoteSight costs $27, and a fully functional demo is available as well, so you can give it a try.

RemoteSight runs as a faceless application, with no indication in the Dock that it is operating; however, a menu-bar item appears that cannot be easily removed, and (where available) the iSight LED light is turned on to indicate that the camera is in use. System requirements call for OS X 10.4.11 or later, 512GB of RAM (I'll assume that's a typo and you only need 512MB), and a video input device, such as a built-in iSight camera or external FireWire or USB camera.

Ex-Ford engineer charged with trade secret theft

A former product engineer at Ford Motor Co. has been charged with stealing sensitive design documents from the auto maker worth millions of dollars. Yu, 47, was charged with theft of trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets and unauthorized access to protected computers. Xiang Dong Yu, of Beijing, also known as Mike Yu, was arrested Wednesday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport upon his entry into the U.S. from China where he is working with a Ford rival.

Each of the theft-related charges carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Yu faces a maximum of five years and $250,000 in fine on the charge of accessing a protected computer. According to the indictment papers, Yu was employed at Ford between 1997 and 2007. In his role as a product engineer at Ford, Yu had access to trade secrets contained in Ford system design specification documents. The arrest was announced by Terrence Berg, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. The documents contained detailed information on performance requirements and associated testing processes for numerous major components in Ford vehicles. According to the indictment papers, Ford has spent "millions of dollars and decades on research, developing and testing" to create the requirements in the system design documents.

The documents are created and maintained by subject matter experts at Ford and are used by Ford design engineers when building new vehicles and by suppliers providing parts to the company. In June 2005, Yu is alleged to have traveled to China in an attempt to find a job in the automotive industry. Yu resumed his job search in August 2006 and was offered a job with electronic and automobile component manufacturer Foxconn, PCE Industry Inc. in November of that year. Before leaving on the trip, Yu is alleged to have downloaded several system design specification documents, including those unrelated to his work, onto an external hard drive which he took with him to China. A few days after Yu accepted the job in December 2006, he is alleged to have downloaded more than 4,000 Ford documents to a hard drive.

Later that same month Yu left to work at Foxconn, PCE's facility in Shenzhen, China, with the stolen Ford documents in his possession. The documents included information on Ford's engine and transmission mounting subsystem, electrical distribution system, front and rear side door structure, steering wheel assembly and instrument panel and console subsystem. Yu did not inform Ford about his new job until January 2007. Slightly more than a year later, Yu apparently attempted to use the stolen trade secrets when applying for a new job with an automotive company in China. It is not clear from the indictment papers how authorities learned about Yu's attempts to use the stolen information in his job search in China. When those efforts proved unsuccessful, he accepted another job offer at Beijing Automotive Co., which was described in court documents as a Ford rival. It is not apparent, for instance, whether the companies that Yu applied to for jobs, informed Ford.

It's also not clear whether any of companies where Yu worked used any of the information that Yu allegedly had stolen. The court papers also mention that Ford's security controls included "marking" sensitive documents. A call requesting comment from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Michigan was not immediately returned. Earlier this month, Hong Meng, a former research scientist at DuPont USA was indicted on charges related to the theft of trade secrets. The incident is similar to other trade-secret thefts involving users with privileged access to corporate systems and data. Meng is alleged to have downloaded sensitive trade secrets pertaining to DuPont's new, thin-computer display technology called "organic light emitting diode" or OLED. The company charged Meng with attempting to profit from the information by using it to commercialize OLED products in China in conjunction with Peking University in Beijing.

Companies should be implementing risk-based access controls to sensitive data where the focus should be on understanding what an individual's role is and then making sure that individual only has access to the specific information needed for the job. In 2007, Gary Min, another former scientist at DuPont admitted to stealing an estimated $400 million worth of proprietary company information . He is serving an 18-month sentence in federal prison . Brian Cleary, vice president of marketing at security vendor Aveksa said the incident is another reminder of why companies need to implement a "governance framework" for managing, monitoring and logging all access and activity involving sensitive data.