Southern California Dry Lakes Racing History

Southern California...I've heard it defined as "extended wasteland parking to the beach". But it wasn't constantly like this. Some 18,000 years ago, components of So Cal had HUGE inland lakes. Everything changes given enough time and nowadays those lakes are long empty. They at the moment are Southern California's dry lake beds. So why write approximately geology in a piece of writing about cars? I'm just putting the again drop for one of the maximum exciting periods inside the development of Hot Rodding. Read on my buddies and find out some cool car history!

Southern California's dry lake beds, locations like Muroc, Harper, Rosamond, and El Mirage have attracted vehicle racers considering the beginning of the 1900's. Shortly after a few man made more than one changes to his vehicle, he commenced searching out a very good region to test them out and not be disturbed inside the technique. These dry lake beds healthy the invoice to a "T", pardon the pun!

By the 1930s, mounted dry lakes racing started to evolve in response to several elements. Young men with mechanical capacity and a love for tinkering with their ample and reasonably-priced project automobiles were meeting every different, organizing into golf equipment, and racing to peer what the repay turned into for all their efforts. Racers from the L.A. And Orange County vicinity started to "centralize", running their automobiles at the Muroc dry lake. Because of its size, Muroc became the earliest famous spot. It ultimately got taken over while Edwards Air Force Base was constructed. Racing persevered to develop, no matter dropping Muroc. Other popular web sites sprang up (Harper, Rosamond, and later El Mirage) to fill the space for an area to run motors.

Accidents and accidents had been an unfortunate (and unwelcome) spinoff of this young interest. The Southern California Timing Association, began in 1937, become the result of numerous clubs cooperating within the hobby of company, safety and maintaining the nearby government off racers backs. In those days, maximum of the motors running on the lakes have been street motors. Once there, off got here whatever that didn't make a automobile "gow". Some racers went to extremes, extensively Dick Kraft, who pulled off the body and sat on a board over the rearend even as racing in a washing healthy!

Modifications, like swapping carbs or walking alcohol became commonplace. The Ford Model A and B four-cylinders had been the engines of choice. Two or four port overhead conversions were done on them. The SCTA Racing News recognized cars by their heads (Winfield, Riley, Cragar, and others). At first, 4-bangers held their personal in opposition to the more moderen V-eight Flatheads, basically due to the amount of pace device that existed for them. However, history suggests that shear length gained out in the end and 4's gave manner to 8's fast.

Side via facet drag racing wasn't the preliminary gadget used either. At first, automobiles ran singly to qualify for classes based totally on velocity. Then all the automobiles from every magnificence could line up for one remaining race with anybody walking right away to decide "king of the hill". Eventually, a four-car limit became imposed. The SCTA commenced to broaden extra particular instructions. Before World War II, cars raced in Roadster, Modified, or Streamliner instructions. It changed into quite primitive and differences had been no longer constantly tough and fast. Later, classes have been more standardized, that specialize in factors like engine length and changes.

This quick golden age of racing turned into marked by using limitless experimenting and domestic brewed fabrication. Ed Iskenderian became as soon as quoted as announcing "It was just amusing. Everyone had their personal ideas, and you'd research from the alternative guys - what they had executed. That's the way you found out what you would possibly need to put together."

Read More

Moving an SME Into a Virtual Desktop

What is a digital laptop?

Virtual Desktop generation has been round for a while, however has largely refrained from the reach of small corporations due to the bandwidth requirements... Till now. Large net connections have turn out to be low cost and more quite simply available because of improved competition, which has introduced Virtual Desktop mainstream. But what's the elusive Virtual Desktop everybody talks approximately? In layman's terms, the computer a consumer experiences on their pc or laptop is hosted centrally on a server, including all of the programs, information and personal settings. The laptop or laptop effectively becomes a thin patron, serving no different motive than to provide get right of entry to to the Virtual Desktop.

The blessings include:

* centralised control, which means that most issues may be resolved from the server
* the processing movements from the pc or laptop to this negating the want to upgrade neighborhood hardware to meet the today's OS and minimal hardware necessities
* access to this will be restricted to a tool and/ or region and no statistics is stored domestically
* it is able to be accessed from everywhere and on any device along with cell telephones and drugs allowing for bendy working and far flung get entry to

Providers offer the service on a fee per user per month foundation, whereby typically the user matter can be extended right away and reduced with 30 days' word. The flexibility of Virtual Desktop is very appealing, mainly to small companies, because you simplest pay for what you operate. The charges are based totally on the variety of customers (and the related economies of scale) and the software program and garage requirements.

What takes place to current software program and hardware whilst you migrate to Virtual Desktop?

You use your current workstations and laptops to access the Virtual Desktop, but you now not require any other software apart from the running gadget, as all your software is provisioned and authorized with the aid of your Virtual Desktop issuer. The computer systems can therefore be stripped right again to the working machine to provide them a brand new rent of existence and also you may not need to improve them for some time due to the fact all the paintings is completed inside the Virtual Desktop. Local servers may be decommissioned, or redeployed in other roles.

What are the considerations for Virtual Desktop migration?

As the Virtual Desktop is hosted externally, it requires an good enough and reliable internet connection to offer the most beneficial person revel in. Businesses will even must spend money on a secondary or failover net connection for resilience. On the whole, processor extensive applications e.G. Media and design related packages like Photoshop and AutoCAD can not virtualised, in which case corporations may need to don't forget a hybrid approach. Finding a provider that suits your precise business wishes can be complex and therefore it's far critical to conduct adequate due diligence to choose a resilient and reliable answer.

Among the key issues are:
* uptime (and downtime)
* security
* resilience and disaster healing
* connectivity
* infrastructure and compatibility
* scalability
* support

A exact provider will deliver a relaxed and seamless consumer experience, permitting your employees to work uninhibited and leave you secure inside the know-how that your information is relaxed.

What about my records?

All of your facts which include e-mails, files and databases stays your property always. The Virtual Desktop company ought to not withhold bodily access to the information (assuming there aren't any excellent payments). This is generally finished by way of copying data to an encrypted USB tough drive within the records centre. Even although your facts is sponsored up in the cloud, it is good exercise to implement a supplementary backup strategy to lower back up your data to any other place.

Is it easy to trade vendors?

Switching vendors is a relatively seamless process, nearly like converting current debts. Your surroundings is configured and examined at any other provider, your records is transferred and your users log into the brand new platform and keep to paintings as normal.

What are the dangers?

You need to make certain your local infrastructure can provide dependable get right of entry to to the Virtual Desktop. Network and connectivity troubles will hinder your potential to paintings and the downtime will reason monstrous frustration on your employees. A resilient internet connection is imperative.

You want to ensure you associate with a good and reliable partner, capable of turning in a Virtual Desktop provider this is right in your enterprise. Apart from making sure the obvious namely; that it works, they want to be attentive and responsive, as it is simple to drown within the bureaucratic pink tape of trade request and SLAs, with the intention to make you rue the day you migrated to the cloud.

Read More

How to Get Maximum ROI From Cloud Deployment

Enterprises continuously attempt to increase their overall performance and reduce running costs at the same time as retaining a high great of carrier. Many businesses have migrated to the cloud within the beyond few years due to growing advocacy for this generation through commercial enterprise users.

Cloud ROI is hard to understand and measure for even the most experienced commercial enterprise managers. Below are a few tips to useful resource you in maximizing the ROI of your cloud deployment.

    Maximize Use of Cloud Resources

Enterprises ought to use historical records to are expecting future use of cloud sources and purchase sources as a consequence. If sources are being optimally utilized, there may be no unused capacity that wishes to be reallocated to a specific task. Cloud deployment permits bendy scaling. Therefore, should the need get up increasing capability isn't always a trouble. Utilizing cloud sources to the fullest is the important thing to growing ROI.

    Minimize Security Risks

Many enterprises are exposed to security risks like statistics theft and lack of treasured records. To maximize ROI, it's far necessary to appoint ok security measures. Most cloud carrier carriers already include this option into their services, but organisations ought to make sure that there are not any security dangers because of inaccurate configuration or misguided use of a resource.

    Deploy Cloud Applications with a Wide Footprint

To maximize the ROI of cloud deployments, corporations must install applications that have a extensive footprint. The footprint of an application way the quantity of methods it will automate or take over completely. For instance, if an business enterprise uses a cloud application to act as an upload-on to its HR branch, it'll still require a full-size personnel to run day-to-day operations in that department. However, a similar application having a huge footprint will automate a multitude of responsibilities. This method that workforce may be redeployed and applied to fulfil other desires of the branch. This will increase efficiency and save capital, which in turn maximizes ROI.

    Minimize Hidden Costs

When an employer purchases services from a cloud provider issuer, there are numerous limitations on the usage of packages and APIs which might be being furnished. These barriers may not appear to be a threat when the machine is being deployed, however as the operation grows, those might prove very costly for the customers. Business managers should attempt to negotiate to get maximum use of packages and APIs in the settlement even though it is not required at the contemporary time. The excessive scalability of the cloud model is not very beneficial if there are strict limitations on use of sources.

    Convert CAPEX to OPEX:

Business managers must try to convert the maximum quantity of CAPEX (capital expenditure) to OPEX (operational expenditure). This is executed routinely to a point due to the fact the cost of buying servers, workstations and licences is eliminated. However, managers can maximize this conversion through signing a win-win address the provider provider to offer different value introduced offerings like full scale IT support and maintenance contracts. This can also help in launching new services at a totally affordable value.

    Accurate ROI Analysis:

Cloud is a much-mentioned phenomenon in commercial enterprise circles and among IT managers. However, there are definitely only a few human beings that fully apprehend it. Executives should attempt their quality to take a look at each and every issue of Cloud before acting ROI analysis for an agency or a task. An accurate calculation of ROI can assist companies take the rights steps for maximizing ROI.

    Ensuring Easy Cloud Adaptability

Cloud computing has many tangible and intangible benefits that may be reaped with the aid of nicely-deliberate organisation deployment. An crucial factor to ensure successful deployment is selling the use of cloud among all employees so that they benefit self assurance and quickly adapt to this new generation. This will assist control do away with legacy structures as soon as viable with out a whole lot resistance from personnel. There is a direct correlation to an boom in cloud ROI and its good sized use in an business enterprise.

Read More

The myths and truths of the Cloud, in 5 keys

The existence of the word Cloud has been circulating in the network for quite some time now. Even so, many of these times it is used without understanding it in its fullness. What benefits can it bring to IT professionals? What is understood as Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing, what is it?

Cloud computing has become a standard for most IT organizations, but the idea is not fully understood. The term "CLOUD" seems to mean almost anything, that depending on the context and who mentioned it, generates different responses that cause confusion in all areas.

The language created around the cloud does not help. In the Information Technology sector, acronyms love them and the cloud does not disappoint in this aspect. From SaaS, through PaaS, to IaaS and beyond. With the memory of the old days and how simple it was to refer to Cloud Computing as something public, now we are mixing different models of hybrid, private implementation and in multiple clouds that distort the message. In addition, with so much information, and so much exaggeration, it is difficult to distinguish the fictitious from the true.

Because we like to be clear, we are going to test up to five common assumptions about cloud computing.

Are these claims about a true multi-cloud environment or myths?

1. Your cloud vendor always manages the services you use in the cloud: MYTH . 
   Cloud does not necessarily need to be completely managed by another. IT teams can enjoy considerably high control over their cloud resources based on their level of sophistication, technologies and management capabilities and business drivers, especially if they are using services based on IaaS and PaaS.
2. The cloud creates a culture of "use and throw": TRUTH . 
   This is a significant difference between the standard IT infrastructure and a multi-cloud environment. Previously, companies invested in hardware and software assets, and then did everything possible to make the most of them and maximize the return on investment. The cloud changes that. In a multi-cloud environment, it may be appropriate to destroy current resources, fix deployment configurations, and then generate a new instance. It depends on how an application is designed and the type of cloud resources used when you need to change an application or solve a problem in an application running in the cloud .
3. The cloud is highly dynamic: TRUTH . 
   In a certain sense, this is very good; The dynamic nature of cloud resources is a major reason why they have become so popular. Most current multi-cloud environments are at least as dynamic (if not more so) than traditional IT due to the inherent automation and configuration of cloud services. This makes them flexible, scalable, agile, all those good things, but it also results in greater complexity when managing changes in applications.
4. The proliferation of new services is much faster than ever thanks to the cloud: TRUTH . 
   The pace of change is an important differentiator between solutions and services in the cloud and traditional IT. The cadence in which the main cloud providers launch new services is faster than anything we have seen before. The advantage for cloud users is that updates are often automatic and services are available for immediate use. At the same time, however, frequent updates and updates require a close eye to configure and manage effectively.
5. The management processes are so individual and automated that the best service management practices no longer apply: MYTH . 
   Although the administration of services plays an even more important role in the management of its multi-cloud environment, since the documentation of changes, problems and incidents is still necessary and will require more automation. Following configuration management best practices and having an automatically populated configuration management database through multi-cloud discovery provides the only point of reference for service management processes to relate to cloud resources .
   The complexity of the cloud can feel like something good and cursed at the same time. While it has opened countless doors for IT to add more and better value to the business, cloud computing also requires a unique and often innovative approach to manage and optimize.

Read More

HOW TO CALCULATE THE ROI OF YOUR CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE

 When a client invests in technology, the first question asked is: What will be my return on the investment? Whether in social networks or in the cloud, knowing how to calculate the ROI is essential to convince the company's director and give continuity to the project, and even to revalue some points of the strategy.   The fact is that calculating the ROI in Cloud services is a challenge. The benefits, some intangibles, can not simply be translated into numbers. Especially for companies that already have part of their virtualized environments and that already optimize resources at another level.   However, at the time of making the accounts, the first sum that comes in favor of Cloud Computing, is all its ability to offer the user access at any time, from any place and device that have an Internet connection. The second is the reduction in maintenance costs with the investment of new hardware and specialized equipment, as well as the continuous updates of their software.   The reduction of costs is just one of the benefits of the Cloud, which can be accounted for in the ROI. Probably, the greatest potential for return is that the cloud provides the company with possibilities that did not exist before. Mobility is one of them. The connection between several collaborators sharing data and files in real time is another.   The increase in productivity is something that has to be added to that account, since the ease of access to work information depends only on an Internet signal. Technically, the implementation of apps in the cloud is much easier and faster, decreasing the overall costs of development.   Another important point is the security of information: the most strategic data can be shielded in a Private Cloud, with limited access to certain collaborators. The most common, can be in a public cloud, with access to several users.   An extremely positive point of the Cloud is its network and storage capacity. Companies that migrate for Cloud Computing solutions have an extraordinary gain in these issues, paying little for them.   As with any major technological change, transferring data to the cloud requires a different formula to calculate the return on investment. For companies with a focus on short-term costs and traditional metrics, the implementation of applications in the Cloud may or may not be added to the planning. But for organizations that value business agility, development productivity, customer retention and market leadership, this technology becomes much more attractive.   In fact, the Cloud ROI calculation varies according to the business methodologies of each company and the problems that were solved by Cloud Computing.   Find a specialist who can help you make that calculation, thinking about the before and after the hiring of Cloud. Evaluate the agility that the company has when responding to customer demands, both at the beginning of the implementation and afterwards. Consider also the improvement of the total cost of ownership, which helps users plan production in a way that is more suitable for the business. Finally, evaluate the capacity that the company has to prevent the impact of the changes according to the rhythm of the market.

Read More

Depicting a Herd of Woolly Mammoths Using Prehistoric Animal Models

Using Mammoth Models to Make a Realistic Herd

Dinosaur model fanatics and version creditors are capable of create a number of exciting scenes the usage of numerous distinctive scale models of dinosaurs. The scale sizes of the fashions can vary drastically and from our perspective, the wider variety of scale models available offers a version maker extra freedom in phrases of the scenes they can create. Interestingly, with regards to Ice Age mammals together with Woolly Mammoths, there are some of desirable high-quality models around, but most of the people of these tend to be the same scale - 1:20. Creating a sensible-looking scene the use of Woolly Mammoth models takes giant care and judgement. However, a number of mainstream model makers now provide Woolly Mammoth models as a part of a much broader prehistoric animal and dinosaur version series. Companies such as Schleich and Papo have additionally made models of baby and juvenile Mammoths. These museum first-rate models all in about 1:20 scale offers scene designers the danger to depict their very personal Woolly Mammoth circle of relatives.

Woolly Mammoths - Extinct Elephants

Woolly Mammoths are contributors of the elephant family (Elephantidae), they lived in herds just like their extant cousins the African and Indian elephants of today. Palaeontologists consider that the herd shape of Woolly Mammoths which include Mammuthus primigenius, became the same as that visible in dwelling species of elephants. A matriarch might manage the herd which would be constituted of her daughters, sisters and their younger. Bulls very in all likelihood lived a solitary lifestyles whilst absolutely mature. Young males would be pushed from the herd by using the matriarch when they reached maturity and breeding age. These younger males might probable live in small agencies made from other adult males of similar age (bachelor herds). Bulls would compete for the right to mate with the women and the herds would likely have moved superb distances each season in search of fresh grazing.

Create Your Own Prehistoric Scene

Recreating a prehistoric scene featuring a herd of Woolly Mammoths is pretty complex. The herd might be produced from a number of individuals and there might be huge size and age difference among herd members. The animals might variety in size from calves that has been born that year to the older women who would possibly properly be sisters of the dominant matriarch. The matriarch herself might be greater than fifty years of age. Mixing different Woolly Mammoth fashions from exceptional manufacturers, instead of spoiling the effect might simply enhance it. As there would be range within the herd, version creditors need to experience assured to mix Papo models with Schleich fashions as an example. Both those firms produce hand-painted, anatomically accurate fashions of these prehistoric elephants so model collectors can blend those  units of Mammoth fashions as much as create the effect of a diverse variety of individuals living in a herd.

Choosing the Models According to Size

It is not simply the dimensions of the fashions that the scene designer has to get proper, but the coats of these animals might all differ. The Papo grownup Woolly Mammoth model has a darker shading than the Schleich Mammoth replica, these two portions together might appearance first-class in any diorarma being built. Scientists studying the frozen hairs preserved on the remains of Siberian Mammoths which might be found thawing out of the permafrost inside the most northerly components of Russia, realize that there has been vast variant in vast coat colour.

The coat consisted of two awesome layers. A "shaggy" topcoat with an undercoat of denser hair for insulation. The coat can be coloured various sunglasses of brown or reddish, possibly bordering on ginger, to almost jet black. Albino Mammoths had been possible but those animals would had been not likely to survive inside the wild. No version maker has produced a white Mammoth but but the coloration variant between producers together with Papo, Schleich and Collecta is greater than ok for any typical prehistoric animal model scene.

Scale Replicas

There are some of correct 1:20 scale or thereabouts replicas to be had. Papo, Schleich and a number of other mainstream version and determine makers now have prehistoric Mammoths of their model stages. Creating a herd of Woolly Mammoths has been made simpler with the advent of the juvenile and toddler Woolly Mammoths from the French manufacturer Papo earlier this year. When choosing a Woolly Mammoth reproduction it's miles helpful to remember the fact that not like present day elephants they'd pretty brief tails and small ears - each adaptations for a cold climate. Look out for those features on any substantial model you is probably interested by purchasing.

Getting the Tusks Right

The tusks of these animals grew for as long as the animal lived. Both women and men had giant tusks, similar to us human beings with our left or right hand bias, palaeontologists accept as true with that Woolly Mammoths had a desire for using both their right or left tusk. Differences in the wear sample seen on pairs of significant tusks recovered from person specimens provides proof to the scientists as to whether or not this particular animal became right-tusked or left-tusked. Tusk size might consequently have various at some point of the herd, it would have been dependent on the age of the person animal. A number of Woolly Mammoth species and sub-species had been defined, at least eight from the Americas by myself. The tusks of Mammoths tended to curl outwards however there was sizable variant. The form and length of the top incisors (tusks) is simply another difficulty for the model maker to situation themselves with. The Papo huge Mammoth model has a particularly nice set of tusks and the model itself measures greater than twenty-5 centimetres lengthy. This massive model can play the role of any bull in the prehistoric scene, must one be required.

Displaying your Models

The fashions may be presented in opposition to a painted backdrop or picture. None of the mainstream manufacturers present their fashions of prehistoric elephants in presentation containers but model creditors can easily conquer this slight problem. Mammoths have been creatures of the open plains, even though a number of species are associated with extra closed forested environments so the dressmaker has huge desire as to what heritage to use. A scene depicting early spring or overdue autumn, instances in the year when Mammoth herds might have come together to form top notch-herds as those elephants made their annual migration to the quality feeding grounds, is probably appropriate. Posing the animals on artificial grass or the use of grass within the foreground is satisfactory. The models get up properly on this medium and animals which include W. Primigenius fed on grasses and small sedges (finely serrated enamel with dense plates, indicate a grazing food plan as does stomach content material evaluation of frozen mammoths).

Although Woolly Mammoths had been depicted in cave art, no residing character has seen a big herd. In truth, nobody has visible the Woolly Mammoth for hundreds of years, so version makers and architects can use their imaginations based totally round some clinical ideas to guide them as to what sort of scene they would really like to create.

Read More

Key Cloud Migration Considerations

The business case has been made and you have appointed your venture sources for cloud migration. It's now time to scope and plan your migration. Moving your Enterprise IT workloads to the general public cloud is a huge decision and immediately alters the way you use your commercial enterprise. It has to be approached strategically and should not to be taken lightly. There are many advantages to cloud IT, but you should carefully planned and plan. The wrong decision is going to fee you in more approaches than you care to calculate.

Many mind ought to have cluttered your mind along with, which of the cloud carrier companies exceptional meets your wishes? How could you calculate the value of cloud migration and operation? How are you able to make certain provider continuity throughout and after the circulate? What kind of security measures need to you take and what do you need to prepare for? How are you able to confirm regulatory compliance? There are many more questions that you need to answer prior to migrating to the cloud.

In this article, we can talk few of the maximum urgent troubles to consider when planning the pass.

Private, public or hybrid?

One of the primary matters to decide while migrating to cloud is whether or not you will move personal, public or hybrid.

On a private cloud, you will have a dedicated infrastructure for your enterprise, controlled both with the aid of your groups or 1/3-birthday celebration companies. Your organisation may have its personal dedicated hardware, walking to your private community, and positioned on or off premises.

A public cloud affords its services over a community that is not your personal one and it is available for others to use. Usually it is off-website and offers a pay-in step with-utilization billing version that would bring about a cheaper answer, as soon as it correctly shares sources over the diverse customers.

Hybrid cloud combines your private or traditional facts generation (IT) with a public cloud. Usually it is used to scale up and down your infrastructure systems to meet demand wishes for seasonal groups, spikes or economic closings, or to address the application other than the statistics storage, consisting of setting up the utility layer in a public environment (for instance a software as a provider) at the same time as storing sensitive records in a private one.

Current infrastructure usage

This is virtually one of the things you need to assess while thinking about a pass to cloud. In traditional IT, companies generally buy their hardware based on usage spikes so that you can avoid issues whilst those eventualities arise. By doing that, businesses may also grow to be with underutilized equipment, which could bring about a large waste of money. Taking a take a look at your overall performance and capacity reports can help you deal with those workloads on cloud and decide whether to launch unused capability for other workloads or really pass them over and avoid new investments.

Cloud Workload Analysis

Out of your IT workloads running for your datacenter, a few might not be suitable for migrating to the cloud. It isn't always smooth to generalize the criteria for selecting the proper packages for migration, but you need to bear in mind all aspects of the execution surroundings. Given the service parameters promised with the aid of the provider, are you able to obtain the identical degree of ability, overall performance, usage, safety, and availability? Can you do higher? Can you have the funds for less?

Your destiny increase must be factored into the choice. Can the cloud infrastructure scale as your useful resource consumption grows? Will your software be compliant with regulatory rules whilst hosted inside the public cloud? How does the cloud infrastructure cope with compliance, if at all?

In order to make the proper decision, you ought to very well understand your modern workloads and determine how carefully their necessities, both for present and destiny evolution, can be happy.

Application Migration strategies

There are multiple ranges of adjustments you can want to do in your utility relying in your brief term and long time commercial enterprise/technical dreams.

Virtualization - This model helps a brief and smooth migration to cloud as no changes might be required to the application. Ideal candidate for legacy applications.

Application Migration - In this example your software will go through minimum architecture and layout modifications so that you can make it most reliable for a cloud model of deployment. For instance, you could choose to apply a No SQL database available on cloud.

Application Refactoring - This model would require a first-rate overhaul of your application proper from the architecture. This is typically performed when you want to leverage the state-of-the-art era stack.

Backup policies and disaster recovery

How are your backup regulations running these days? Do they healthy along with your cloud provider? This is also an crucial point that corporations ought to cautiously do not forget. Cloud carriers can have wellknown backup policies with a few stage of customization. It is really worth it to have a take a look at those and spot if they may be appropriate to your company before they become a ability roadblock. You'll want to take note of retention frequency, backup kind (which include full, incremental and so forth) and versioning.

Disaster recuperation and commercial enterprise continuity are important even for the smallest businesses. Recovery time goal (RTO) and healing factor objective (RPO) are essential values that outline how a great deal facts you're inclined to lose and what quantity of time you are willing to permit for the statistics to be restored.

Licensing

Is the utility licensed in keeping with VM, consistent with core, or for general infrastructure footprint? This can have big value implications. If the licensing version calls for that each one to be had resources be taken into consideration despite the fact that no longer allotted to the client, licensing prices will increase if migrated to a public-cloud platform. Similarly, if the software licensing is primarily based in line with middle and the cloud company does now not offer the ability to configure your cloud surroundings consistent with center, this may have an unfavourable effect to your licensing cost.

Integration

Organizations frequently discover application dependencies too late within the method of migrating workloads, resulting in unplanned outages and limited functionality to systems even as those dependencies are addressed. Understanding the relationships among programs is essential to planning the series and manner wherein cloud migrations occur. Can the application exist at the cloud in isolation whilst other systems are migrated?

Compatible operational gadget

Clouds are all approximately standards, and also you need to keep versions of your operating systems and middleware up to date while you aim to migrate them to a cloud issuer. You want to think about that cloud provider vendors (CSPs) do not support give up-of-lifestyles working structures or the ones which are being phased out. The equal likely applies in your middleware and databases.

Hopefully this publish will assist you make selections about your cloud migration.

Read More

How to Perform an Exchange Migration

In this phase, existing mail accounts and messages are migrated from the existing messaging environment to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 environment. Your migration strategy must be executed in a manner that is transparent and that has the minimum possible impact on your current e-mail users.

To accomplish these goals, an effective migration strategy and appropriate migration tools must be designed and implemented. They must address all aspects of system migration, including networking, external interfaces, account synchronization, management systems, and parallel operations.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Developing a Migration Strategy

Preparing the Migration Plan

Using Migration Utilities

Tips for a Successful Migration

Refer to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 Migration Guide for complete information on migration.

Developing a Migration Strategy
The typical site where Microsoft Exchange 2003 is installed has an existing mail system that provides messaging services to its users. Migration is the act of moving or copying the data for all users from the legacy (existing) system to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system. Migration is performed so that all customers can be serviced by the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system, not simply those new subscribers following the installation of Microsoft Exchange 2003.

Migration is the most complex facet of any deployment project. Even though this document provides a framework to follow for migration, no two migrations are exactly alike, due to the differences in each site's legacy mail system and its integrated systems and procedures. A successful migration depends upon accurately identifying all unique aspects of the system that are to be duplicated in Microsoft Exchange and then duplicating these conditions through development and testing prior to the actual physical migration.

The principal issues of concern in any migration to a new mail service are data integrity and transparent cutover to production. Data integrity guarantees that all mail accounts, stored messages, and associated personal information and preferences (for example, address books, passwords, and so forth) are accurately retained in the new mail system. Transparent cutover to production means that the transition is handled quickly, cleanly, and with no disruption to the end-user experience.

In typical migrations, the total amount of time required for a successful transition is a function of system complexity. Both the total number of mail accounts and the total number of stored messages are significant factors. In addition, migration time can be affected by system and site-specific issues.

Any migration strategy must address:

Migrating accounts

Migrating mailboxes

Migrating Accounts
This migration involves all of the information that uniquely identifies and describes a user, including class-of-service data that defines the service for which users are subscribed. Account data must be placed in the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system before message data. The first task is therefore to collect and transfer account data from the legacy system and then transfer it to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system.

If your legacy system has domains and organizational units, you must prepare to migrate these also.

Migrating Mailboxes
This migration involves message data--the actual messages to be migrated that belong to the user. The mailbox is simply a collection of the messages belonging to a particular account.

Preparing the Migration Plan
Migration involves significant planning, more so than any other deployment task. This planning is necessary because the activity is exposed to existing users and will, in most cases, be the initial experience that users have of the new system. It is very important to plan for every eventuality in order to avoid problems during the migration.

Refer to Appendix A for information on how to obtain a sample migration plan.

Migration is 95 percent planning and 5 percent execution. A multitude of factors that must be considered in order for a migration to succeed.

The Migration Plan provides a detailed, step-by-step procedure for migrating accounts and mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange 2003. The deployment team should make several dry runs of this plan, with each dry run resulting in a subsequent refinement of the plan.

Any migration plan should address these considerations:

Ensuring systems readiness

Coordinating with other groups and identifying dependencies

Verifying software installation and configuration

Setting up the test system

Providing provisioning connectivity

Testing the migration

Choosing full or limited migration

Resuming service

Ensuring Systems Readiness
All systems to be tested must be ready and operational before testing begins. In addition networks must be implemented as defined in the architecture design (see Chapter 2).

For each original e-mail system, separate IP settings (each with unique "A" records in the DNS) must be established for the following:

Host Address This is the permanent IP assignment for the host.
Service Address This is the address that is used by all e-mail clients for a service. The Service Address will be re-assigned to Microsoft Exchange at the time of account migration.
Service Proxy Address There must be a Service Proxy Address for each Service Address. The IP number used for any Service Proxy Address will match its respective Service Address. The Service Proxy Address will be used for proxy targeting where proxy is used on the Microsoft Exchange system. These can be de-assigned after all migrations are complete and when it is determined that a revert procedure is not required.

Coordinating with Other Groups and Identifying Dependencies
Since any migration touches upon many aspects of a company's operations, make sure you coordinate the migration with all affected groups and identify dependencies--that is, determining the order in which systems should be migrated.

Verifying Software Installation and Configuration
In addition to installing Microsoft Exchange 2003 (see Chapter 3) and verifying that all components inter-operate, you must set correct Microsoft Exchange environment settings for the root user. These include the correct $PATH, $LD_LIBARARY_PATH, and $Microsoft Exchange settings in order to access the Microsoft Exchange migration tools.

Setting Up the Test System
To validate a migration plan, the test system should have the capacity of production systems, including the proper storage volume configuration and failover configuration (service continuity). The test system must have Internet connectivity, as Proxy mode operations cannot be tested without this.

Aside from equipment that mimics the production system, test driver machines must also be available to power the migration and capacity tests. The test drivers must be configured with migration utilities as well as with mail clients or other test utilities for accessing and sending mail.

At least one test host is required for migration testing; this host acts as a surrogate for the actual online e-mail hosts and holds all mailbox data required for testing.

Providing Provisioning Connectivity
The provisioning interface must be validated before migration can occur. C API procedures should be tested to ensure that modifications performed on the ISD are successful and are propagated to the provisioning database. The Perl API set for batch account migration also must be tested. Last, administrative routines in the provisioning system or ISD must be validated.

This testing is performed in a dual provisioning environment. The purpose of dual provisioning is to ensure the ability to revert to the legacy mail system in the event that the new mail system in not successful.

For provisioning, automatic mailbox creation must be tested. Zero-length mailboxes are typically not migrated; rather, they are turned on in Microsoft Exchange 2003. The first time mail is received or checked, the mailbox can be created. A large test database (representing the volume of anticipated accounts) must be test-migrated to ensure that the procedure works and that the destination ISD database can handle it.

If possible, you should identify a group of "friendly" users willing to assist in identifying any problems or errors

Testing the Migration
Before the migration can occur, comprehensive testing on the production system must be completed. Migration test activities are "non-intrusive" to the existing mail system and are conducted from a separate system using actual user account information and a test copy of the production user data.

The procedures for extracting account data from the legacy system must be tested. The method and utilities to load these accounts into the ISD must be validated through testing. Each class of service must be included, as well as each combination of account attributes, such as forwarding, aliases, and vacation replies.

In addition, the process of moving mailboxes to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system must be tested. This process includes the method of suspending the account, the physical transfer of messages and attachments, and the return of the account to active status.

You should make any possible configuration changes to prevent network or system loading. In addition, you must establish any special network, host, or storage accommodations that may be required for testing. A special network configuration may be required to prevent traffic complications introduced by migration testing. Another solution may involve localization of the original mailbox storage to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: Depending on the particulars of a given migration, you may need to create new scripts or modify existing migration scripts. All scripts for managing batch processes must be completed and tested prior to migration.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Choosing Full or Limited Migration
Accounts to migrate can be defined based on business rules (for example, all mail accounts in good standing or priority accounts requiring early access to features not offered in the exiting mail system).

If you are not going to migrate the entire population at one time, there are certain considerations you need to plan for. For limited migration, you must configure the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system for POP proxy in order to retrieve mail from the legacy system for unmigrated accounts and mailboxes. The architecture must also account for SMTP relay during Proxy mode in order to deliver appropriate mail to the legacy system as well as to Microsoft Exchange 2003.

The method of migrating account data must be identified and tested. Before the limited account migration can occur, a back-out plan, migration quality assurance, and certification of migration must be resolved and validated by testing.

In many instances, new subscribers to mail service at the customer site are added to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system before migrated accounts from the legacy system. The benefits of handling new registrations in Microsoft Exchange 2003 are that you may be able to:

Offer differentiated service immediately.

Introduce Microsoft Exchange 2003 at a measured pace.

Ensure that no more users are added to an obsolete system.

Resuming Service
Once migration is completed, accounts are automatically switched from Proxy mode to active status. Users regain access to their mailboxes and all messages that were deferred during migration are delivered to their intended recipients. In addition, you must move operations entirely to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system and deactivate the legacy system.

A burn-in period should be identified, over which the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system must be closely monitored for error conditions.

Using Migration Utilities
There are multiple methods for the combined migration of accounts and mailboxes. One method is to transfer all accounts in a single migration. Then, mailboxes can be transferred in batches. Another method is to transfer a batch of accounts, then transfer a batch of corresponding mailboxes, and so on.

Utilities that support the chosen strategy must then be developed and tested. These tests should include timing of the execution of these utilities.

This phase involves the building of the migration utilities themselves and must include the design, development, and testing of the migration utilities that are to be used to migrate the mail from the existing system to the newly implemented Microsoft Exchange 2003 system. New tools have to be built very often because of the different source mail systems that can be in existence.

Microsoft Exchange 2003 offers automated migration tools designed to streamline the process of moving your service, including built-in tools for services using Sendmail and Software.com's Post.Office. These flexible, modular, and customizable tools are Perl scripts that handle the export of directory, mailbox, and user information from these other systems to files in Microsoft Exchange 2003-readable format (based on LDIF), which are then imported into Microsoft Exchange 2003. These tools enable you to migrate all accounts at once or as incremental blocks of users. When migrating from a different mail system such as Netscape Messaging Server or SIMS, Microsoft Exchange 2003's proxy features and robust export command set provide a solid foundation for rapid development of custom export scripts.

Tips for a Successful Migration
With the completion of the migration tests, the only anticipated impact will be caused by the difference in functionality between mail systems. Once the migration of accounts has started, the target production environment becomes the production environment.

The migration procedure involves these discrete steps:

Setting up Microsoft Exchange 2003 in Proxy mode

Changing the MX record

Identifying accounts to be migrated

Extracting account information

Creating accounts in Microsoft Exchange 2003

Migrating messages

Setting Up Microsoft Exchange 2003 in Proxy Mode
Microsoft Exchange must be configured for Proxy mode prior to activating the system. The proxy configuration permits the relay of message and service requests to the legacy system until the full migration has been achieved.

In Proxy mode, all incoming mail is directed to Microsoft Exchange 2003. If the mail is for a user that does not have an Microsoft Exchange account, the mail is relayed to the legacy system for delivery. If a user attempts to retrieve mail, but the user's mailbox is not yet located on the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system, the POP server will connect to the legacy system and will retrieve the mail from the legacy mailbox location.

Changing the MX Record
In order for mail to reach the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system (instead of the legacy system), you must change the MX record in the DNS for the mail domain of the site, so that traffic is directed to Microsoft Exchange 2003.

With all of the mail directed to Microsoft Exchange, you can begin to burn-in the system with live loads and become accustomed to operations administration even if there is no account data in the system. However, as soon as the system is activated, accounts are provisioned directly into Microsoft Exchange 2003.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: This step can take a few hours to be propagated over the Internet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Identifying Accounts to Be Migrated
The first step in migration is to determine which existing mail accounts will move to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system. Accounts to migrate can be defined based on business rules (for example, all mail accounts in good standing, or priority accounts requiring early access to features not offered in the existing mail system).

Extracting Account Information
After defining the accounts to migrate, the next step is to extract account information from the existing mail system. Using the target account list, account information is exported into a file in LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF). The standard LDIF format permits the importing of account information from any existing mail system to an Microsoft Exchange system. The scripts used here can be customized to handle any situation.

Creating Accounts in Microsoft Exchange 2003
Next, accounts are created in the Microsoft Exchange directory based on the account information described in the LDIF file. As accounts are created, they are placed in Proxy mode, causing mail delivery to and access from unmigrated accounts to be passed directly through to the old mail system, thus ensuring continuous service to end users. During this phase, if a user logs in and supplies an unknown username, the Microsoft Exchange POP server connects to the current e-mail system.

Migrating Messages
The last phase of migration involves moving mail messages from the existing mail system to the Microsoft Exchange system. Message migration may occur either as separate files or as a single, concatenated file. However, some customization is typically required, since the way a message is stored in the Message Store Server (MSS) can differ from the standard mail format. This phase requires new accounts to run in Maintenance mode, during which time these mailboxes are unavailable. For this reason, message migration is typically performed in small increments during off-peak hours.

Exchange Migration plan for moving forward:

Perform Due Diligence on your network via Remote Terminal Service ( Next Week)

Identify existing components - users, groups, login variables

Document proposed AD structure

Project kickoff meeting (Friday)

Install Windows Server 2003 (Friday Night)

Install Active Directory (Friday Night)

Configure, Patch and Connect (Friday Night)

Review Event Log, resolve any errors (Friday Night)

Connect AD environment to existing Windows 2000 (Friday Night)

Identify existing printers (Saturday)

Identify existing components in Exchange (Saturday)

Build Exchange, configure, patch(Saturday)

Install and configure virus software,Spam solution and Fax

Software(Saturday)

Configure OWA in DMZ(Saturday)

Verify Installation (Saturday)

Perform Mailbox Move (Saturday)

Install Outlook 2003 on all desktops. (Saturday - Sunday)

Review Event Log, resolve any errors (Sunday)

Setup Test workstation/perform testing (Sunday)

On-Site to handle any issues with the migration (Monday)

The above steps are only an estimate of work needed to be perform a successful migration. After we perform the Due Diligence Intercore will have a more definite outline in MS Project to fully detail the breadth of work needed to perform the migration . This Due Diligence will identify issues that we can resolve before the migration is performed.

InterCore Technologies, LLC opened it's doors in May of 1996. Our mission: To Provide a high level of computer consulting services using the most experienced engineers at fair prices. We believe in using a Business Value approach to every aspect of computer consulting. This provides our clients with the most cost effective solutions. We help our clients get more with their current technology investment. Click here to see why Intercore is different from other firms

Read More