Volume III, Issue 2 (February, 2017)

Industry News

Arris bidding for Brocade-Ruckus

Just a year after gobbling up Pace for $2.1 billion, Arris is now reportedly bidding to buy Brocade’s networking equipment business for up to $1 billion. In a story last month, Reuters reported that Arris Group Inc. is one of several companies angling to acquire the networking unit of Brocade Communications Systems Inc., which is now being bought by Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) for $5.9 billion. If carried out, such a deal would enable Arris to boost its presence in the wireless equipment market, which it has targeted as a hot “adjacent” area for expansion. It would also enable Broadcom to get rid of a unit that competes directly with some of its biggest customers, such as Cisco Systems Inc. All three companies have declined to comment on the reported talks so far. But Broadcom has announced publicly that it intends to sell off Brocade’s networking business as part of a planned divestiture of Brocade into three separate units. Most of the assets of Brocade’s networking unit, which makes WiFi controllers and access points, were obtained by that company when it acquired Ruckus Wireless for $1.5 billion earlier last year.

CensorNet Multi-Factor Authentication completes Citrix safety verification

CensorNet, the complete cloud security company, today announced that CensorNet Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) has successfully completed the verification as part of the Citrix Ready Secure Remote Access program. This program showcases partner products that integrate with Citrix products and add an extra layer of security to enhance secure remote access. Through this program, we aim to help IT heads of organizations to quickly find solutions for secure remote access needs. Through these joint solutions offerings, we can help secure your corporate network from data theft and other security attacks.  The Citrix Ready program makes it easy for customers to identify complementary products and solutions that can enhance Citrix environments. Customers can be confident that CensorNet MFA has successfully passed a series of tests established by Citrix, and can be trusted to work effectively with Citrix NetScaler in order to provide secure remote access for enterprises and user-friendly authentication for users.

Tegile named finalist for Storage/SearchStorage for all-flash technologies

The seven finalists in the Storage magazine/SearchStorage all-flash storage system category underscore the steady enterprise adoption of all-flash technologies, and Tegile Systems made the list. Most of these all-flash vendors represent familiar names in the storage world, and the arrays are a mix of systems created specifically for flash and platforms adopted from hybrid arrays. With IntelliFlash HD, Tegile launched a high-capacity system that delivers two tiers of flash storage. The base hardware building block is a 3U InfiniFlash IF100 all-flash chassis by SanDisk Corp. (now part of Western Digital Corp.). Tegile stuffs IF100 with 512 TB of SanDisk PCIe NAND flash, its Tegile 2U controller and performance-optimized enterprise MLC flash drives as a caching and deduplication layer. A 42U rack tops out at 10 PB of effective capacity.

 

 

I Didn’t Know You Did That!

Flash Storage As a Service – Giving you flexibility in your storage needs

Flash Storage As a Service allows companies of all sizes to take advantage of the benefits of faster performing storage, and Verus offers this option through our data center in downtown Minneapolis.

There have been two very powerful, but opposing forces in the storage portion of the data center. One side is pulling mostly second tier applications into the public cloud to move capex into opex. The other side is implementing flash to accelerate applications that sit right next to the company’s income statement.

At Verus, through our partner Tegile, we believe there is a better answer: build private cloud that has the performance, security and control of on-premise IT, but carries the economics that are even more attractive than public cloud providers.

Watch Principal Analyst George Crump from Storage Switzerland and Tegile CMO Narayan Venkat discuss “Flash as a Service” and what that can mean for your business in this webinar below.

 

To find out how you can benefit from Flash Storage As a Service, contact Verus today at sales@veruscorp.com or by calling 763.354.2200.

 

 

News & Notes

Join Verus and WatchGuard for an evening of
light learning and fun at Kitchen Window on Thursday,  March 16

Verus and WatchGuard will be co-hosting an event for our customers to enjoy a late afternoon/evening at Kitchen Window, where we will be cooking a five-course meal together after learning about what’s new from WatchGuard. The event will be held from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Kitchen Window’s Cooking School and Event Center in Calhoun Square, 3001 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

The event will begin with a very brief update from representatives of WatchGuard, followed by splitting up into teams to cook the various courses for the meal. Then we will sit down together to enjoy the fruits of our labors. There will also be a special surprise gift for all attendees.

Due to limited capacity, this event is available on a first-come, first-served basis. To register for this event, please email events@veruscorp.com or call Steve at 763.354.2266 today.

 

Fill out your customer satisfaction survey,
and be registered to win a great prize each month!

In an effort to improve our customer service and technical skills at Verus, we would like to announce a new program that will give you, our customer, incentive to give us your insight and feedback into how we are doing in our work for you.

While we have always had a survey available for you to fill out upon completion of our work, beginning in February, we will be giving you even more incentive to fill it out and let us know how we are doing.

Each month, Verus will do a random drawing of all customers who filled out the customer satisfaction survey in that month, and the winner will receive a prize worth $50 – whether that’s a drone, a personal firewall, a gift card to a local business – the prizes will change each month to keep people interested.

The February prize drawing will be a Syma X5C Explorers 2.4G 4CH 6-Axis Gyro RC Quadcopter with HD Camera (pictured here).

So let us know how we are doing, and you might just win a cool prize in the process!

 

IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALL:
HP Notebook Computer Battery Safety Recall and Replacement Program

In January 2017, in cooperation with various government regulatory agencies, HP announced an expansion of its ongoing worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program for certain notebook computer batteries, which was announced in June 2016. The program has been expanded to include additional batteries that were shipped with the same notebook products. These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers.

Because these batteries pose a fire and burn hazard, it is essential to recheck your battery, even if you did so previously and were informed that it was not affected. However if you have already received a replacement battery, you are not affected by this expansion.

The affected batteries were shipped with specific HP, Compaq, HP ProBook, HP ENVY, Compaq Presario, and HP Pavilion Notebook Computers sold worldwide from March 2013 through October 2016, and/or were sold as accessories or spares, or provided as replacements through Support.

Customers should cease use of affected batteries immediately. Customers may continue to use their notebook computer without the battery installed, by connecting the notebook to external power. HP’s primary concern is for the safety of our customers. HP is proactively notifying customers, and will provide a replacement battery for each verified, eligible battery, at no cost. For customers with 10 or more potentially affected batteries, HP has put in place a process to assist with the validation and ordering process.

For more information on the recall and replacement process, please click this link and follow the instructions on the page.

 

 

Food For Thought

Try a healthy alternative Cauliflower Fettuccine “Alfredo”

Yield
4 servings (or 3 cups sauce)

Prep Time
20 Minutes

Cook time
30 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 heaping cups cauliflower florets (1 small/medium cauliflower)
• 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (from 2 med/lg cloves)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened and unflavored almond milk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon pepper, to taste
• Fettuccine pasta of choice
• Fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. Add cauliflower florets in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a low boil. Once boiling, cook for another 3-7 minutes until fork tender. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, add the oil into a skillet and saute the minced garlic over low heat for 4-5 minutes until softened and fragrant, but not browned.
3. In a high speed blender, add the cooked and drained cauliflower, sauteed garlic, milk, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Blend until a super smooth sauce forms. If using a Vitamix use the tamper stick as needed. The key here is to get a really smooth sauce so don’t be afraid to let it run for a minute or so. Set aside.
4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add your desired amount of pasta and boil for the time instructed on the package. Drain pasta.
5. Add cauliflower sauce into the pot (you can use the same pot!) and add the drained pasta. Heat over low-medium until heated enough to your liking. Salt again to taste (the pasta dilutes the flavor).
6. Serve with fresh minced parsley and black pepper. Feel free to add in your favourite sauteed or roasted vegetables. I think peas, spinach, or broccoli would work very nicely! I added mushrooms, but I wasn’t overly crazy about them in this dish.

Pro tips: 1) To make this pasta sauce extra decadent-tasting, add a tablespoon or two of vegan butter into the sauce. 2) To make this dish gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta. 3) To make this nut-free, use a nut-free non-dairy milk such as soy milk instead of almond milk. Be sure to use unsweetened and unflavored milk.

 

 

Good Medicine