Cisco readies move into the server hardware market

I’ve bought “Cisco” servers many times before.  They were always HP or IBM servers with a Cisco logo tagged on the bezel and came with ridiculously high support contract and spare part costs, but they were Cisco servers.  It seems that Cisco was not satisfied with playing at that level, however, and now they are moving forward with a true line of Cisco server hardware, part of their Unified Computing System platform.

The newest component of this platform – the servers – is a blade server chassis designed to plug in to the existing fiber and copper switching infrastructure as well as work with their storage management tools.  It all sounds great, I suppose, but I’m not entirely sure that the move will be compelling for an enterprise.

For starters, the hardware platform is all unproven.  Sure, the vast majority of the parts in any of these systems are OEM from known manufacturers but there is still a ton that goes in to the final assembly of those systems.  After all, how else can you explain just how badly the Dell Blade systems are assembled relative to the HP or IBM blades?  And even if they have better and cheaper hardware (like Sun did with their x86 server platform) , there is still a huge unknown about how well Cisco will be able to support the server infrastructure.  They are generally very reliable when it comes to supporting their switching hardware, but after that things tend to tail off. 

And, of course, since this is the era of virtualization, it is critical that any story about data center infrastructure include mention of the ability for the platform to be “fully virtualized” or support non-virtual solutions.  I love marketing buzz.  The hardware will be available with both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V platforms, so they are continuing to partner with the big players on that front.

Only time will tell just how astute a move this is from Cisco, but there are certainly plenty of open questions (like when they are actually going to have hardware available in the channel) to ponder in the meantime.

Updates on the mobile front

Mobile access to email is, in many cases, a base requirement now for power users.  So anytime a new option appears to enable or enhance such access my eyes light up, as I’m all about having that connectivity and making sure my users do, too.  This week’s World Mobile Congress trade show in Barcelona has seen many such announcements, including a few that I find particularly intriguing.

First up, a new partnership between Lenovo and Research In Motion (RIM).  They’ve agreed on a specification for a communication link between Lenovo ThinkPad laptops and RIM Blackberry devices that works even when the laptop is powered off.  The card will be called “Lenovo Constant Connect” and appears to be providing a wireless tethering of the laptop to the Blackberry without the hassle of loading third-party software onto the device.  It will sync Outlook data in the background using the data link that the Blackberry provides so that when the laptop is powered on the offline copy of Outlook is already up-to-date.  It only works with Outlook right now; a Lotus Notes version is expected soon.  The card is expected to retail for less than $150 when it comes out in the second quarter of this year. 

The other interesting announcement comes from Acer.  They are a huge PC manufacturer and already makes some pretty small mobile devices (I love my AspireOne Netbook).  Now they making the leap into the mobile phone arena in a major way.  They unveiled eight new phone models at the conference yesterday.  They are looking at this as a long term investment, with a 3-5 year horizon before the segment becomes profitable for them.  The products are expected to range in cost from ~$65 - $600, depending on the model.  All of the initial eight will run Windows Mobile, and they are also looking at Google’s Android platform as an option.  I’m not particularly impressed by either of those platforms, but I like the idea of more options on the market, especially from a company that understands what it takes to make a functional portable device.

And, last but not least, another Android-based phone was announced and is expected to be available in Europe this spring.  Yeah, that’s great and maybe they’ll finally get some better traction in the enterprise space, but I’m not betting on it as the software really doesn’t have much in the way of administrative control, integration to enterprise systems or other things that companies find helpful.

So there you have it.  Lots of new toys coming down the pike in the next few months.  Have fun!

The many faces of Windows 7

Hoping for a simpler licensing scheme with the upcoming Windows 7 release?  Keep dreaming.  Microsoft announced their plans for the various versions yesterday, and there are six different versions on the roadmap, not to mention special versions for the European and Korean markets.

The versions are:

• Windows 7 Starter Edition (for emerging market and netbook users)
• Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging market customers only)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (the main “Media Center” equivalent)
• Windows 7 Professional (the business SKU for home users and non-enterprise licensees)
• Windows 7 Enterprise (for volume licensees)
• Windows 7 Ultimate (for consumers who want/need business features)

Some interesting things to note on the list.  First off, there is no formal definition of what a “netbook” is, so there is no way to control who will use that license.  The bad news on that front is that the Starter version will be artificially limited to only run three applications at a time.  That renders it pretty useless, even on a netbook.  I’m sure that Microsoft is claiming that it is to ensure reasonable performance or something like that, but the reality is that they are trying to force people into the more expensive versions.  I cannot imagine anyone running only three applications at a time.  I know I certainly couldn’t.

There there is the Professional/Enterprise schism.  Enterprise is actually pretty much the same as Ultimate, according to this review, with the difference being how they will be purchased.  Both will have all the features available, including BitLocker, but will no longer be required to get the Media Center features.  That will be available in the Home Premium and Professional versions.  For companies it will only be possible to get Enterprise if they purchase Software Assurance.  This is basically Microsoft extorting a 50% premium on the OS charges from their corporate customers.  It is particularly egregious when you consider that most customers will have to pay the manufacturers for the OS and then buy-up directly from Microsoft.  Today one has to buy Software Assurance to have the luxury of paying a bit more to buy the Desktop Optimization Pack – a wise investment for most large organizations – so this isn’t a particularly new thing that Microsoft is doing.  But it does demonstrate how they continue to struggle to provide legitimate value with the Software Assurance product.  The good news is that most folks will probably be fine with Professional, so it shouldn’t be too big a deal.

Another interesting bit is in the upgrade options.  For home users there will be an upgrade product from XP Home to Windows 7 Home Premium, but it will only be a discount on the license cost; technically it will require a clean install still.  For business users the upgrade path will only be from the Vista product line.  While that is a bit of a slap at business users the reality is that very few business users buy the OS directly or upgrade the OS on existing hardware, so that isn’t such a big deal.

At the end of the day it looks like the vast majority of users will be buying either Professional or Home Premium, with enterprise license users getting their hands on Enterprise.  No pricing released yet, which isn’t too surprising.  The media frenzy is starting to ramp up.  This should make for a fun few months until the actual release.

Virtualization coming to the desktop

No, the concept of OS virtualization on the desktop is not new.  But that won’t stop Citrix and Intel from trying to convince you otherwise.  The two vendors are teaming up to provide what they claim are some intriguing options on the workstation virtualization front these days.

The combined technology will let information technology professionals dynamically stream a centrally managed corporate desktop, and all related applications, directly into a secure, isolated, client-based virtual machine, Citrix officials said.

Unlike server-based desktop virtualization technologies, this approach caches and executes desktop and application software directly on the PC client, enabling high-performance, rich graphics and full off-network mobility for laptop users, the officials said.

What does any of that mean?  I have no idea.  It sounds like they might be putting together some infrastructure that allows for centralized management of the virtual OS images that are deployed to the desktops, but that isn’t particularly clear.

Either way, look for this great new technology to be hitting the street in the second half of this year.

Are NetBooks viable in a business environment?

There’s an old adage that goes something like “Fast, good and cheap; pick any two.”  In the case of mobile computing the phrasing changes slightly to “fast, light and cheap,” but the general concept remains the same:  If you want to have a functional and lightweight computer you should expect to pay for it.  Lenovo has always charged a premium for their lightweight laptops as have Sony and Dell.  Over the past year or so, however, the NetBook form factor seems to bee shifting the balance of this equation, with good, lightweight computers now available at dirt cheap prices.

So can these NetBooks be a viable option for users in a business environment?  I think the answer is a resounding yes, despite some media reports to the contrary.  Yes, they are small.  Is that a problem?  The screen is small, but certainly functional for a Citrix XenApps client, Outlook or web browsing.  And the keyboard is slightly smaller than a standard one, but it took me all of 15 minutes to get used to typing on the new keyboard, and I now have to “adjust” when going back to a full-size laptop or desktop keyboard.  Moreover, many of the limitations bandied about in the media really aren’t that big a deal.

Sure, they run on a processor and chipset that is slower and less powerful than the latest and greatest Core 2 Duo processors that you can get in a laptop.  But, honestly, how much processing power does running Outlook, Word or other applications really take?  Not much.  No, they do not have the processing power to handle the huge graphics overhead that the Vista Aero UI requires, but they are plenty powerful to run Windows XP (the OS the vast majority of businesses are still running) and even graphics-intensive applications like Google Earth.

The deciding factor for users may just be the weight.  They are ridiculously light.  Coming in at under 2 pounds in many configurations there is truly no comparison with the traditional laptop configurations. 

And the deciding factor on the business side of the house will likely be the cost.  At ~$350-400 per system they are WAY cheaper than traditional laptops of a similar weight.

Hardware manufacturers are pooh-poohing the idea of NetBooks as business tools, but they are wrong (and likely desperately trying to defend their rapidly shrinking margins).

Dell, for now, suggests business users stick with full-size laptops, spokesman Jeremy Bolen says.

…

Meanwhile, at the Consumer Electronics Show this month, HP rolled out "road warrior" models aimed at business travelers.

"This is a new market that is absolutely developing before our eyes," says Carol Hess-Nickels, marketing director for Mini-Note PCs.

There are definitely applications where it isn’t the correct solution.  The screen is a little small for heavy document review or graphics manipulation work.  But for the vast majority of Information Workers (Microsoft’s fancy term for white collar folks) the NetBook is a great option.  And they are cheap enough that trying them out in your business isn’t a huge investment. 

Give them a try.  You might manage to please the CFO and the users at the same time.

Dual screens – now on the go

Dual screen setups are all the rage these days.  The monitors are relatively cheap, many new computers can easily support it out of the box and the LCDs are way smaller on a desk than CRTs, so they actually fit pretty well, even in small cubicle.  The benefits of a dual screen environment are hard to argue against.  The extra desktop space – whether for managing large spreadsheets, comparing documents side-by-side or managing remote systems on one screen and local resources on another – is a great thing to have available.  But mobile users could never really take advantage of such an option on the go.

Until now.

Some pictures have been making the rounds recently of a new Lenovo laptop that offers a 17” primary screen and an additional 10” screen that slides out from the primary.  I don’t really expect that this will become the next mainstream laptop design that everyone will be clamoring for, but it does look pretty cool, if not heavy as a brick.

Smokin’ fast storage

For many years now the benchmark for storage speed has been the 15K RPM drive.  There’s a new game in town now, however, and it seems that Fusion-io is looking to raise the bar quite a bit with their new ioDrive.

First, the good news.  The drive has breathtaking read/write stats: it can write at up to 368 megabits/s and read at 473 megabits/s.  That’s crazy fast.

Now, the bad news.  It connects to your computer using a PCI-Express x4 slot, so it isn’t a normal disk drive.  The pricing is rather ridiculous, starting at $3,000 for an 80 GB model, and it maxes out at 320 GB right now.  And the current iteration of the drives are not bootable.

So there are a lot of technical issues that need to be overcome, not the least of which is getting a fast enough drive bus in place to allow multiple drives to be mounted in some sort of RAID array and keep these speeds.  But there seems to be a lot of potential up-side for such a technology moving forward.  I’d guess a year or so until we see these in production in some reasonable capacity.

Multi-user EvDO on the go

I’m a huge fan of cellular WAN cards and the connectivity options that they provide.  Extending that access to a group of people was always a bit of work, but made it real easy to set up an office on the go or otherwise share the joy of being online. 

Novatel is addressing the complexities of the sharing with their new line of EvDO routers.  The device is a combination of a cellular WAN card and wireless router.  A single device to handle both the LAN and WAN halves of the connection.  Plus, it looks good.  It even runs on a battery rather than requiring a plug, so you can set up your own personal hotspot on the train.  I’m officially in lust.

Setting up a war room, conference site or remote office site just got a LOT easier.

Hitting the (memory) wall

One of the issues that comes with increasing the number of cores in a processor is memory access.  Back when AMD initially came out with their dual-core processors they were WAY better than the Intel models, in large part because their chipset allowed for faster access to the memory.  That gave them a pretty huge in-road in the processor market for servers and a solid couple month head start over Intel in the multi-core processor battles.

Now chip manufacturers are starting to worry about memory bottlenecks in upcoming generations of multi-core processors.  Recent testing at Sandia National Labs suggests that going past an 8-core processor actually causes problems with memory access.  A 16-core processor actually performed at about the same rate as a dual-core processor.  Oops. 

Apparently Intel knows about the problem and they’re working on it, but it is still somewhat worrisome that the future of virtualization and other fun improvements in system performance and functionality pretty much depends on this working.  Processor speeds are slower now than they used to be and future growth is going to be in the number of cores, not processor speed.  If the performance issues can’t be solved then we’re in big trouble.

Computing in the cloud

“Cloud Computing” has been in the news a lot lately, almost as much as “virtualization.”  And, just like virtualization, what it is and why it matters seems to vary wildly depending on who is doing the talking.  For some, such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison, cloud computing is “complete gibberish,” and I cannot really argue with him based on some of the places I’ve seen the term used.  Still, there are some companies that are making progress in the field and some of it actually looks pretty interesting.

The basic concept behind cloud computing is that all of the processing, storage and data transfer is billed as a commodity.  Instead of owning a server on a shelf bits get processed and the bill is based on those cycles on the server.  Even better, a cloud environment that is built out appropriately can allow for localized access to data around the world, effectively improving performance by replicating the data and application(s) in the background and serving them up from the closest point to the customer. 

One of the biggest issues with the cloud, however, is that the existing solutions are proprietary and generally do not work with commodity software.  In other words, applications have to be built to the specifications of the cloud company.  That locks a customer in to the platform, which is a bad situation to be in.  Even with Microsoft’s expected move into the space at the end of the month, the platform still appears to be proprietary.  Amazon is apparently adding Windows-based servers to their EC2 platform, but it doesn’t appear that such a move is really for line-of-business applications as much as it is for web hosting and data warehousing solutions.  I’ve been working with one company on a similar solution with a pretty wide open server solution that is completely transparent, allowing any server OS or application set to be run.  But they don’t have the global coverage or background data migration working yet, so that’s not perfect either.  That being said, it does make for a pretty impressive platform on which to run a Hosted Exchange environment.

Ultimately, the cloud computing initiative is just an extension of the recent drive to centralize all computing into a data center.  No more paying for the individual components to build a network nor costs for the idle resources that aren’t being fully utilized.  And if with the cloud solutions mirroring data between multiple locations business continuity comes as part of the package.  That’s a big win, assuming such a solution really exists.  I haven’t seen one fully baked yet, but it is getting much closer.  And not having to build out a dedicated colo facility to get such benefits would be really nice.

Citrix confronts corporate computer challenges

And they’re taking a rather interesting approach: Bring Your Own Computer.  As part of a small pilot program (200 users) Citrix is giving folks a reasonable budget ($2100) and set of guidelines (Mac or Windows, 3-year full warranty and anti-virus subscription) and then letting them buy whatever they want.  Claiming that they generally spend $25-2600 per person over the same time frame for a managed system, this move seems to be both about making the users happy and also about saving money.

By depending on the laptop vendors for supporting the system Citrix will off-load a pretty significant burden.  And all of their business applications are already running in either a virtualized or Citrix environment, all with a pretty simple client deployment.  But there is also the need to isolate an unknown/unmanaged system on the network, the potential for support calls to the main help desk anyway.  But Citrix is hopeful.

The pundits are reasonably split among two camps.  One says that this makes user happier and happy users are more productive.  The other camp is not quite as convincing in their argument:

However, Sara Radicati, an analyst whose Radicati Group tracks business computing use, said she doesn't see what problem the Citrix program fixes, and she's unsure how useful it will be.

"We live in a complex world, so it is easier to manage and know where your data is and what is being done with company-sensitive information if you have a little more control," Radicati said.

Apparently she doesn’t realize that all that company-sensitive information is running in a thin client session.  But there is the question of what problem this reall is addressing.  Ultimately the success of the program will depend on Citrix extracting themselves from the management of the system, as that is going to drive the costs of the program up or down.  And that still doesn’t take in to account the infrastructure changes that are probably prudent to accommodate the unmanaged workstations on the network.  Sure, Citrix has some tools that help with that, so they should be able to get a good deal on the hardware costs, but there are still engineering costs that they have to deal with. 

I’m on the side of the nay-sayers.  I think that the management costs aren’t going to come down enough to really reduce the TCO numbers enough for this to be viable.  And the lack of centralized management further reduces the benefit of this program.  I guess we’ll see who’s right eventually.

Oh, and if you have a more traditional client-server application setup then this is a non-starter from day one, so don’t even think about it.

The biggest benefit of the G1 phone

At least thus far, the most significant benefit of the device that has been realized is that TMobile has removed the bandwidth consumption cap from their data plan contracts. Considering that Verizon Wireless and Sprint both added caps on their “unlimited” plans, TMo choosing to remove it is a pretty interesting move.

Oh, and it looks like a decent device, too. Except for the part where TMobile’s 3G network is still pretty limited in size and runs on a different set of frequencies than any other 3G service in the rest of the world, meaning that global roaming with the device will be limited to EDGE speeds. And no Exchange support.

So it probably isn’t a very good business device, at least not until the Android software gets an update.

Update (10:36pm): I was wrong about the frequencies; it has 2100MHz support for Europe 3G, too. But still no Exchange support.

New Treo out there

For folks who are torn between getting a new iPhone or Blackberry, here’s some good news: There is a new Treo model out that might meet your needs.  The Treo Pro was announced earlier this week and is expected to be on sale in Europe at some point in September.  Palm couldn’t get a US-based carrier to carry the phone, so if you want one in the US you’ll need to buy an unlocked model – at $549 – and then pop it on to either ATT or T-Mobile, as it appears to be GSM-only.  The device will run Windows Mobile 6.1 and was GPS and WiFi, among all the other usual bits for a mobile device.

And if you are still not convinced the Blackberry Bold is being released in Canada this week, so that’s an option, too.

Dell unveils new laptop models

Earlier this week Dell announced the details on the latest models of their Latitude line of laptops.  There are seven new models coming out, with one that will cover just about every aspect of the market, from the thin and light to a concept model 17” display, 16G RAM beast.  They are talking about up to 19 hour battery life in some configurations, though that doesn’t appear to be in a full Windows OS boot mode, multiple forms of connectivity, from WiMAX to WWAN and multiple colors, because everyone knows that mauve has the most RAM.

These announcements are all well and good, but they aren’t the announcement that the market was really hoping for – the new NetBook option.  NetBooks are ultra-light and ultra-portable, with very long battery life even running a full Windows (XP) session, but at the expense of processing power.  These are all the rage and folks are justifiably disappointed in their absence from this announcement.

Also, Dell has added a digit to all the model numbers and moved from D to E as the leading character, so these laptops really are the next big thing.  Enjoy.

Intel announces the next family of processors

This is clearly more of a marketing announcement than at technical announcement, as there is no real technical information in the release.  But at least we now know what the next generation of processors are going to be called: the “Intel Core i7 processor.”  Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it??  The i7 processors will be sold for desktop computers, while presumable the Centrino line will continue to be used for laptops and he Xeon line for servers.

Midori materializing at Microsoft?

So the Vista deployments haven't been running as quickly as Microsoft has hoped. And despite their best efforts to show the world that people really do like the Vista interface even though they say they don't (the Mojave Project), it seems that Microsoft isn't sitting ilde on the issue. Windows 7 is almost certainly going to be an incremental upgrade to Vista, adding in all the features that were cut to make the release date, but that doesn't mean that Microsoft can't also be working on other OS projects. That is where Midori (supposedly) comes in to play.

The concept behind the Midori project is actually pretty interesting. Rather than a massive, fully integrated OS build, the folks on the Midori project are starting from the bottom and building everything on a componentized basis. The isolation between the processes "provide[s] the strong isolation guarantees of OS processes (isolated object space, separate GCs, separate runtimes) without the overhead of hardware-enforced protection domains." In other words, it is like application virtualization layers but without any overhead. A great concept, if they can pull it off. Midori seems to be based on the Microsoft Research project known as Singularity, and it actually looks very cool, but it will also almost certainly require a new paradigm for applications and data storage. I suppose that it should come as no surprise then that the Midori project is rumored to have very strong ties with the Microsoft Live Mesh service, which keeps data and procesing in the cloud rather than locally. This sort of OS is actually a great option for that sort of architecture.

If I had to guess I'd say that Midori will start to really show up in the same timeframe as Windows 7, but with a focus on the NetBook sub-notebook hardware market. Those machines generally don't have the power to run Vista anyways and they don't need all the features, so having them run a stripped down OS that depends on the cloud more than the local system makes a lot of sense. And that way Microsoft can finally retire XP, or so they hope.

VMware makes the hypervisor a freebie

Lending further proof to the theory I recently bought into regarding the impending demise of the hypervisor as a competitive advantage, VMware announced this week that they will no longer charge for their ESXi embedded hypervisor effective July 28, 2008.

This is a pretty big step for VMware, though they are really only foregoing about $500 per server sold.  The main point is that they are acknowledging that their role in the industry is no longer to be the standard-bearer for virtualization as a concept.  Instead they are now in a position where they must depend on their management tools and other functions being a value-add and having that drive their sales.  The Virtual Infrastructure management tools will still cost you, as will a standalone license of ESX.  Time to start planning for those ESXi implementations if you aren’t already.

VMware also announced that they were going to be getting “more active in the cloud,” whatever that means.  Of course this is no surprise since the new CEO was formerly responsible for EMC’s Cloud business, but it still doesn’t explain what they’re actually going to do there.  The company will, according to the new CEO, "have a lot of relevance in the cloud, and as an on-ramp into the clouds."  I can’t wait for someone to explain what that actually means, because it makes very little sense to me right now.

New laptop chips hitting the market

Intel has announced their new Centrino 2 line of chips for the laptop market, a move expected to spawn new products from vendors.  Like the previous Centrino family, the moniker describes a collection of components, not a single product.  In the case of Centrino 2, this will include the Mobile Intel 45 Express Chipset and the Wi-Fi Link 5000 series wireless product.  And Centrino 2 will focus on the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, a model that is supposed to provide the best performance in a mobile system while contributing to an approximately 30% reduction in wattage.  This means more performance AND longer battery life, the holy grail of mobile computing. 

The Wi-Fi Link 5000 series of wireless systems is based on the 801.11n, the latest and greatest version of the WiFi protocol.  In addition, some 5050 model of the series will include WiMAX radios as well as the WiFi, allowing for easy switching between the differing radio schemes for users on the move.

The Centrino 2 family of products is expected to start flooding the market in the next 90 days or so, just after the back-to-school rush and just before the holidays.

Wal-Mart getting into the PC repair business

Discount retailer Wal-Mart has teamed up with Dell in an effort to offer PC repair services at “Solution Stations” located in 15 stores in the Dallas area.  Thus far the retail giant is claiming that it is only a pilot effort and that there are no intentions to expand it beyond the current trial at the moment, but it seems reasonable that they will expand it if they get some traction.  The service competes with Best Buy and Circuit City offerings and has basically the same goals – make money off the services side where margins are generally higher than on the hardware sales.

Not surprisingly, a lot of the reaction to this announcement has been negative, focusing on the low quality of service that Wal-Mart seems to provide in their other “technical” efforts, like auto repair.  Plus, it seems pretty likely that their support approach will be similar to that of their direct competitors – pop in the “magic” CD and hope that the scan it performs solves all the problems.  If not, wipe the system and start from scratch.  You didn’t really need that data, did you?  Sure, I’m biased, but why not?  Either way, be careful with your system, and make sure that you understand what the technician is doing with it.  If you don’t and if they can’t explain it to you, you’re probably in a bad situation.

Tracking lost and stolen laptops

Dell is under fire a bit this week (from me, among others) for publishing one of the most ridiculous “studies” I have seen recently.  This one was produced to show just how prevalent lost and stolen laptops are and to help drum up business for their laptop tracking and recovery program.  Don’t get me wrong – the concept is actually a really good one and I think that more folks should look in to the various tracking and recovery options out there – but this report is off the charts.

The report has been covered a lot in the media (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3) and the staggering statistic is this: 637,000 laptops are lost or stolen in airports in the USA every year.  That is 1700+ laptops each day, or just over one per minute.  The number is ridiculous.  It turns out that the organization didn’t actually verify the data they collected, and their collection method was to email a bunch of airport administrators and ask them to guess how many laptops are lost/stolen at their airport each week.  And boy were those folks wrong.  Fortunately, ComputerWorld magazine followed up on the stats to expose them for what they are – the product of wild imagination.  Miami’s reported 1,000 missing laptops per week was actually about 550 for all of 2007.  That’s a 99% margin of error, and that may be one of the more accurate numbers in the study.  Actually, Anchorage’s zero is probably closest in absolute numbers.  The TSA reports that the number of laptops reported missing to them is about 75 per month.

Moral of the story is to not believe all the statistics you read, especially when they are so sensational.  Also make sure that you’ve got the appropriate setup on your laptop to protect its contents from prying eyes and to get it back if it is lost or stolen.  There are a lot of options out there for tracing and encryption, some of which are better than others.  Email us for more information on the various choices and how you can better protect your mobile workforce.