Solutions Guide Autumn 18

AUTUMN 2018
HYBRID IT
+ FULL-SCALE
TRANSFORMATION

4
Data Centre Transformation
14
Device as a Service
6
The Final Frontier
New to Zones and don’t have
a dedicated account executive?
Contact us at +44 20 7608
7676. Our IT experts are
available and ready to work
with you.
Your First Choice for IT. TM
We enable positive business outcomes through innovative
solutions that leverage technology from best-of-breed partners
and exceptional service from our team of certified sales,
technical engineering, and supply chain specialists.
2 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

contents
20
Cross Pollination
30
Lifecycle Services
26
Security Fortification
6 The Final Frontier 20 Cross Pollination
Explore the future of
digital transformation
with Dan Pickett.
Hyperconverged infrastructure
brings storage, compute, and
networking together.
14
Device as a Service
Discover a smarter way
to equip your team.
30
Customer Satisfaction
Delivered
Acquiring new technology is
often viewed as an end goal,
but it’s just the beginning.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 3

THATWAS
THEN.

THIS IS NOW.
The way businesses store, share, and access their data has come a long way
from when it first began. From the early beginnings of on-premise servers to
cloud-based platforms and now, far beyond. But when it comes to data, one
thing’s for sure – one size does not fit all.
Your First Choice for IT.
UK.ZONES.COM | +44 20 7608 7676

TAKE A JOURNEY INTO
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
AN INTERVIEW WITH DAN PICKETT
6 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 7

To learn more about the
history and trajectory of
hybrid IT, our editor recently
sat down with Dan Pickett,
CEO of Zones nfrastructure,
the Services Company of
Zones. The following is a
transcript of their interaction.
Editor: Thanks for
agreeing to talk with
me today, Dan.
Pickett: My pleasure.
Editor: Getting right
into it, we’re seeing
more hybrid situations
– mixtures between
on-prem and the cloud.
Talk to me about how
data, storage, security,
and hybrid IT have
evolved over time.
Pickett: Today, there
are legacy companies
that have been in
business for a long
time, and there are
companies that are
“born digital,” meaning
they started after
the digital revolution.
The difference
between those two
methodologies is
typically that older
companies have
invested significantly
more money into their
own infrastructure –
their own private clouds
– because there was no
other choice.
When public cloud
gained in performance,
security, and steam,
enterprises suddenly
had alternatives: they
could run workloads
in their own data
centres, private clouds,
etc., or they could run
workloads in the public
cloud with a provider
like Azure, AWS,
or Google.
What we’ve seen
from these digital
initiatives is an overall
increase in both
enterprise workloads
and the amount of
thought that went into
deciding where to run
and maintain those
workloads. And that’s
how we end up with
hybrid cloud. We’re
8 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

now seeing increased
investment in the ability
to manage your hybrid
cloud through a single
pane of glass too –
letting businesses focus
on their workloads
while managing it all in
more efficient ways.
Editor: On the topic
of legacy businesses
versus today’s more
modern startups, what
are the newer businesses
using? And do they
differ from their
predecessors?
Pickett: Thinking about
it now, there really
aren’t any exclusively
private cloud enterprises
left – everything has
evolved into a hybrid
of some sort. To learn
how that evolution
starts, you need to take
a look at it from an
enterprise perspective.
When a company has
a business need or
problem, the leaders
investigate potential
solutions – specifically,
compute and the ways
they can use that
technology to address
their workloads. Today,
you’ll see analysis
beyond just workload –
performance, capacity,
security, budgetary,
scalability, etc. All of
those things are going
to determine which
solution the company
selects to run their
business.
Editor: What are some
of the additional
benefits that a hybrid
cloud workplace has
to offer?
Pickett: One of public
cloud’s benefits is the
ease with which it can
turn up environments
for a large scope of
work. The cloud lets
you turn up massive
environments very
quickly for a team of
one to a thousand and
one to develop and
test applications – all
without CapEx. Best of
all, you can turn it all off
when it’s not in use.
Business intelligence
is another example of
how it’s improving the
way we work. If you
want to perform BI on
a significant amount
of data, you can turn
up an environment and
do all the analysis and
modeling you need,
form your conclusions,
and then turn the
environment back down
at the end of any job.
Editor: Sounds great for
staging – get in, and get
out fast.
Pickett: Right. Another
benefit is the variety
of features providers
are building into their
public clouds. They’re
finding common
functions and offering
them as incentives for
moving workloads.
These services can be
huge time-savers for
development teams,
who’d otherwise need
to write their own code.
Editor: So, what role
do service providers
like Zones nfrastructure
play in this evolution?
Pickett: For all these
new apps to run,
businesses require
a sound and secure
infrastructure – servers,
storage, data centre,
network, workplace,
and tight technologies.
Zones nfrastructure
focuses all our efforts
on being the first
choice when it comes
to designing, building,
and running all of that
for our customers.
If we think about all
of this in terms of
the “assess, design,
implement, manage”
process, our first step
involves understanding
what the customer’s
business drivers and
requirements are. From
there, we work through
the available product
and service options
before making any kind
of recommendation.
The second thing Zones
nfrastructure focuses
on is implementation.
Thanks to our
worldwide, certified
integration centres, we
can implement all of the
infrastructure we design
for our customers
anywhere on the planet.
We can source the
required technology
products from top
OEMs; configure and
tailor that technology
for a customer’s
specific environment
locally; and set it all
up, test it, and train
entire workforces on
its use. And thanks to
our nterprise platform,
every stakeholder
has total visibility
into every step of
the implementation
process. When you
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 9

want new technology
up and running in your
organisation as fast
as possible, nobody’s
better at doing that
globally than Zones
nfrastructure.
Editor: And what
happens after
implementation?
Pickett: Well, companies
need to be able to
support the new
digital infrastructure
on day one. Our highavailability
command
centres proactively
monitor customers’
systems and networks
immediately. If we
have someone like a
retailer with a thousand
locations, we can use
our command centre to
measure performance,
security, and more
across those thousand
locations in real time.
Proactive management
aims to be as predictive
and preventative as
possible up front so
there’s never an outage
or interruption in
workflow. All the utility
you never think about
is always there, always
performing, always
secure – so you can
execute your business
strategy seamlessly.
The second part of
our managed services
deals with outages
themselves. Our help
desk has the availability
and architecture
to handle a million
interactions a year
across the globe. When
a problem is identified,
we have a concierge
to help the customer
work through it. And if
we realize that we need
an engineer to help
fix something or that
we need equipment
shipped to support
that repair, our global
capabilities come into
play once again. Zones
can get smarts and
parts to customers
anywhere in the world.
Editor: Whatever it
takes, right? Clearly,
our service doesn’t
end at the point of sale.
Pickett: That’s very
true. And well said.
Editor: It’s all about
that ongoing relationship.
It sounds like we don’t
reactively rush into
a situation. We take
our time to develop a
thoughtful plan that
fits our customer’s
needs first. Then, we
jump into action.
Pickett: Absolutely.
And our goal with
customers is to create
an increasing returns
model – the more work
we do together, the
more best practices
and scale we can put in
place, and the more we
get that practice into
nterprise to manage it
across all stakeholders,
the more efficient
every subsequent
project becomes.
Editor: Some of our
partners still function
predominantly in data
centre racks. As someone
on the leading edge of
IT, where do you see
the technology headed
in the future? What
should we keep our
eyes on?
Pickett: I think we’re
going to see continued
exponential growth
driven by a couple of
really specific things.
The first driver will be
greater adoption of
technologies already
available today. There’s
far more technology
available than what
enterprises have
embraced so far.
Embracing it requires
you to go through the
process we discussed
earlier – assess, design,
implement, manage,
and trust. That takes
time and talent, and
there’s always a
shortage of both. This
is where someone like
Zones can help.
The second driver will
be the embrace of
10 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

emerging technologies.
We need to be thinking
about IoT growing
more mainstream,
about machine learning
and AI and robotics.
As more of those
technologies become
readily available,
that’s where we’re
going to see linear
market growth turn
exponential.
Editor: At what rate
do you foresee all of
that happening?
Pickett: I think
Moore’s Law is alive
and well. If you look
at technologies that
are out there today
and how they can be
used – whether they’re
autonomous vehicles,
big data, or anything
else – the growth rate is
impressive, and it shows
no signs of slowing.
It also involves the
dynamic nature of the
field. No enterprise
is static, and the X.0
enterprise is less static
than anything prior.
That means leaders
need to be flexible in
their ability to support
their own infrastructure
and be able to quickly
handle moves, adds,
and changes. Our
nterprise platform is
perfectly suited for this
– it’s tailored to deliver
complex IT solutions
simply, and it gives all
the stakeholders total
visibility throughout
the entire digital
transformation.
Everybody from
the IT group to
the audit group
gets transparency
into everything
happening throughout
implementation.
Editor: I heard an
interesting quote the
other day: “It’s so weird
that we’re actually
living in the future –
the future’s here and
now.” So much of this
seems like the stuff we
were dreaming about
five years ago.
Pickett: The pace of
progress is definitely
exciting. I always wonder
if innovation can
continue at the pace it
has, but history hasn’t
let me down so far.
Editor: Thank you so
much for your time,
Dan. This has certainly
been insightful.
Pickett: My pleasure.
Looking forward to
where the future
takes us next.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 11

The future won’t wait.
It’s time to get serious about speeding innovation and IT transformation
with an infrastructure built for the journey ahead.
Dell EMC’s next-gen server, storage, data protection, cloud, networking,
and converged infrastructure technologies give you everything business
needs to take IT to the next level.
And meet the future head-on.
For more information, contact your Zones
account manager on +44 207 608 7676
©2018 Dell Technologies. All Rights Reserved.

14 Solutions by Zones Summer 2018

15

Like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-
Service (IaaS) offerings, the Zones Device-as-a-Service (DaaS)
program offers businesses a way to get the technology
and services they need on a monthly subscription basis,
freeing up capital and providing the flexibility to upgrade,
downgrade, scale, and alter underlying components during
the term of the agreement.
With DaaS, organisations can combine devices from
manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft
Surface (desktops, notebooks, tablets, smartphones, etc.)
as well as all related software, accessories, peripherals,
professional and managed services, and accidental damage
protection under a single, flexible agreement at a convenient
and transparent per-user, per-month subscription rate.
From a business standpoint, DaaS offers advantages that financing
and leasing simply cannot. Beyond freeing up capital for use in
other strategic initiatives, DaaS lets you outsource configuration,
deployment, and lifecycle services, freeing up staff to focus on core
objectives. With DaaS, the business wins, IT wins, and workers win.
DaaS also brings an accounting advantage to the table. Under the
new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) lease accounting
standards, entities are required to separate the lease and nonlease
components. Nonlease components are typically managed support
services such as help desk. With DaaS, both assets and services can
be included, making it a more attractive financial instrument for
many businesses.
16 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

When structuring your DaaS agreement, your Zones account
executive will work with our finance department to present
you with options about financing your subscriptions, either
through Zones or through a partner program.
While Zones DaaS subscriptions are available with 12-, 24-,
and 36-month terms, businesses have more flexibility to
trade up over the life of the subscription. Of course, the cost
of a new device may affect the overall subscription rate to a
degree, but the real benefit is not being locked into a lease
on equipment you’re unhappy with.
That flexibility also applies to the software running on
devices. For example, if you took delivery of 1,000 tablets
loaded with existing subscriptions but found that only 60
percent of your team actually used the package, you could
cancel the 400 subscriptions and receive a rate reduction
reflecting the change. That would not happen under a lease.
To help customers make the most of a DaaS agreement,
Zones can conduct a DaaS Assessment that will help identify
the best fleet of devices and software according to user roles
and business needs.
When it’s time to refresh devices at the end of the
subscription term, there are no “dollar buyouts” or
disposition issues to worry about; you simply return
the devices or choose to continue the subscription
at a predetermined monthly rate.
For complete details on the Zones DaaS program, reach
out to your Zones account executive, who will be happy
to walk you through your options.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 17

ENGAGING THE
MINDS OF
TOMORROW

Today, people are more flexible,
more available, and more remote
than ever before. That’s why we offer
workplace solutions designed to keep your
entire workforce aligned – whether they’re across
the hall or on the other side of the world. And we’ll show
you how to keep them all connected well into tomorrow.
Your First Choice for IT.
UK.ZONES.COM | +44 20 7608 7676

Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)
Combining storage, compute, and networking into a
single-vendor system of appliances for our customers.
STORAGE COMPUTE NETWORKING
ONE
VENDOR
ONE SOURCE TO TRUST
HCI REDUCES DATA CENTRE:
COST – Lower cost of entry & staffing requirements
COMPLEXITY – Single-vendor “building blocks”
vs. multi-vendor components
SPRAWL – Improved resource utilisation
20 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

Increase Your Data Centre Agility with HCI.
For decades, evolution in the data
centre moved at a predictable
pace, with incremental progress in
accordance with Moore’s Law. Every
year, processors went faster, drive
capacity grew larger (and cheaper),
and the network got faster and a little
more stable. While always improving
in terms of performance, the siloed
nature of data centre resources, with
one set of resources “walled off”
from others, meant there was a lot of
redundancy and a good deal of idled
resources at any given time.
Fast forward to 2018, and the data
centre is undergoing a revolution as
hyperconverged infrastructure’s (HCI’s)
cloudlike economics, scale, and ease
of use win more converts every day.
Unlike traditional three-tier
architecture, hyperconverged unites
compute, storage, and networking
along with control software in a single
appliance or node – all pretested,
prevalidated, and manufactured
by a single vendor or partnership
of vendors. That means full system
control from a single pane of glass,
even as you scale out with additional
nodes within the data centre.
And the advantages offered by
hyperconverged architecture don’t
stop there. Companies moving to
hyperconverged can expect to enjoy
lower CAPEX due to lower upfront
infrastructure costs, lower OPEX from
reductions in operational costs and
personnel, and faster time-to-value
for their investment.
Speaking of personnel requirements,
hyperconverged architecture does
away with the need for siloed groups
of resource engineers for compute,
storage, and networking. All of these
are administered through a single
pane of glass, meaning members of
today’s generation of IT generalists
can readily oversee system activities.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 21

Flexibility. Scalability.
Savings.
With hyperconverged, there are other
economies as well. The easy scalability
and deployment of hyperconverged
architecture’s “building blocks” allow
a company to respond quickly as
needs change. Instead of expensive
forklift upgrades, hyperconverged
lets you add clusters, increasing
compute, storage, and networking to
fit the need. In this way, you can scale
without buying a lot of unnecessary
headroom in the data centre.
“As engineers, we tend to plan for
worst-case scenarios,” said Garth
Doverspike, a director with Zones
nfrastructure, the services company
of Zones. “If marketing says plan for
1,000 users or 10,000 users, that’s
what we build because we don’t
want to be seen as not supporting
the business. Hyperconverged gives
us a way to grow without a lot of
unnecessary planning for an
uncertain future.
“With traditional three-tier scaleup
architecture, if I believe that two
years from now I’m going to need to
support 700 users more than the 300
I do now, I might want to buy for that
1,000 now,” explained Doverspike.
“Otherwise, I’m going to have to buy
new equipment and do that forklift
upgrade. With hyperconverged, I can
say, ‘Let’s just plan for the 300, and if I
do hit the 1,000 target, I’ll just slap in
more bricks.
“If I buy large systems to start off and
sink that capital equipment in early,
I’m not getting much real value out of
that size right away, and I don’t know
whether I’m going to hit my 1,000
target,” added Doverspike. “On the
other hand, with the hyperconverged
platform, I can start off small, support
LOWER
COSTS.
59%
lower cost
of operations
22%
less money spent
on hardware, power,
and maintenance
the 300 users, and not have a huge
sunk-capital cost. Then, if we hit
those targets, I have the capability of
growing as needed.”
“One of the distinct advantages that
a large solution provider like Zones
offers is a wide choice of vendors
in the hyperconverged space,” said
Zones PPM director for data centre
Brad Barnhart. “Our relationships with
major players like Cisco, Dell EMC,
HPE, and Nutanix give clients the
ability to choose the best solution for
their specific needs and preferences.”
619 %
average
five-year
ROI
HIGHER
EFFICIENCY.
22 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

FREE UP
YOUR IT STAFF.
64 %
less staff time to complete
business extensions.
less staff time
to deploy storage.
less staff time to run VxRail,
VxRack environments.
FASTER SERVER
(APPLIANCE NODE)
DEPLOYMENTS
83%
81%
56%
Real-world
advantages.
By the very nature of the way
hyperconverged works, virtual
desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a
typical use case for the technology.
“It is great for VDI as you can scale out
the solution as you scale users and get
predictable performance for the end
user as you scale,” Doverspike said.
“And of course, the built-in replication
capabilities mean you can support
high availability and low latency in
geographically disparate sites.”
One national airline recently turned
to Zones for a hyperconverged
implementation after years of
outsourcing its infrastructure to
colocation facilities. “They had some
outages that severely impacted them,”
Barnhart explained. “So, they decided
to take matters into their own hands.”
Now, the airline is running some
of their workloads in their new
hyperconverged environment, but
they’re looking to bring all of that
infrastructure in house – with a good
majority of that running on HCI –
including their critical tier-one apps
and their ecommerce platform as well.
“Hyperconverged infrastructure also
presents a natural evolution to a
software-defined data centre and the
cloud,” said Doverspike. “In addition to
being able to manage their nodes or
clusters through intuitive, easy-to-use
software from a centralized location,
our key hyperconverged partners offer
RESTful APIs and direct integration
with the major cloud players. As a
result, hyperconverged infrastructure
plays a critical role in our customers’
hybrid IT environments.”
Hyperconverged infrastructure
also allows clients with traditional
three-tier architecture to take a
phased approach to upgrading the
data centre. “In some cases, clients
might rely on legacy systems to run
mission-critical apps but may be
concerned about migrating them to
a new technology since they know
their existing environment more or
less works,” Barnhart added. “We
see such customers initially use
hyperconverged with a tier-two
app and then scale out over time
as they realize the benefits that
hyperconverged provides. I can’t
recall an example where a customer
migrated a workload from their legacy
environment to a hyperconverged
environment and – after running
it in their new hyperconverged
environment – moved it back to their
three-tier architecture for any reason.”
“We have clients who may decide to
keep their legacy architecture in place
for older apps and then build out a
whole new paradigm around software
defined, slowly growing their app
collection,” Doverspike commented.
“Eventually, they’ll start moving over
tier-one business apps a little at a time
– never taking a big risk – until such
time as they can totally decommission
the old systems.” It’s a process of
building up a repertoire of scale-out
architecture and scale-out apps.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 23

BETTER
PERFORMANCE.
IMPROVED
42% application performance on average.
FASTER
39% business transactions.
LESS
98% unplanned downtime.
FEWER
83% impactful unplanned outages.
Remote and branch
office applications.
Clients are also turning to
hyperconverged infrastructure for
the speed and convenience it brings
to distributed computing for remote
and branch offices. “With a onenode
cluster out at a branch office,”
Barnhart said, “we can deliver a little
compute, a little storage, and a little
networking to the remote site and
connect it with a larger centralized
cluster in the data centre. The remote
office gets everything it needs, and
IT can back it all up and manage the
node remotely.”
The advantage of HCI in remote or
branch office (ROBO) applications
is that you manage the ROBO the
same way and with the same tools
(GUI, CLI, or code) you use to manage
your data centre infrastructure. Plus,
capabilities like replication between
the two environments are often “built
Source: IDC White Paper, “The Business Value of Modernizing
Infrastructure with Hyper-Converged Systems,” October 2017.
ACCEPTANCE.
The hyperconverged
infrastructure market
is expected to reach
USD 12,607.4 Million by
2022, at a CAGR of 43.59%
between 2016 and 2022,
according to research firm
MarketsandMarkets.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
Servers + Hypervisors
Storage arrays
Data protection products (backup, replication)
Deduplication appliances
Wide-area network (WAN) optimisation appliances
Public cloud gateways
Replication appliances or software
24 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

in” to the solution so you have a
way of providing backup or disaster
recovery to those ROBOs without
having to integrate new products.
That central management capability
can pay big dividends whenever
changes need to be made. Instead
of needing to fly someone out to a
remote location, you can manage it
remotely, saving time and money for
years to come. “In general, most IT
groups I’ve worked with don’t really
want to fly to some random location
for the week,” noted Doverspike.
“If you’re doing a very large multisite
rollout, we’re the people for
that,” said Barnhart. “Our managed
and professional services team
literally has IP built up around
our nterprise platform, with
methodologies, processes, and a
whole lot of thought having gone
into ways to do it very effectively.”
Zones nfrastructure’s nterprise
platform provides deep visibility
into deployment and implementation
activities, enabling you to monitor key
metrics like detailed inventory levels
and field technician status and view
real-time images from the field to
track progress.
HCI also offers organisations safe
harbor from excessive commitments
they may have made in the cloud.
“There’s actually a fair number of
people that went perhaps a little
overenthusiastically into the public
cloud,” said Doverspike, “and now
they’re finding it actually costs
more money.”
“If a virtual machine is used 24/7/365, you include all the SLAs for each
it actually can cost more money
component. Typically, public cloud
to have it in the public cloud than vendors guarantee each service to
my own data centre or colo,” he
a certain level, and as you add each
continued. “Plus, an on-prem data service the overall availability drops.
centre can deliver uptime of five nines To some organisations, that pointfour-nine-nine
can be worth a lot
or better. Out in the cloud, I’m lucky
if I can get 99.5 percent uptime once of money.”
To find out more about transforming IT
with hyperconverged infrastructure, ask
a Zones account executive to arrange
a briefing today.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 25

n n n ARTICLE NAME HERE
26 Solutions Journal Spring 2015

TO PROTECT & SERVE.
Keeping information secure is the main concern of any business.
But keeping your endpoints, networks, data centers, and the
cloud safe is ours. In fact, we only team up with best-of-breed
partners to make sure your data is always protected.
And our security team is always on alert to serve you anytime.
Your First Choice for IT.
UK.ZONES.COM | +44 20 7608 7676
zones.com 1.800.408.9663 27

More than mere hype.
The Cisco HyperFlex System lives up to the buzz.
This hyperconverged combination brings
together compute, storage, and networking
that can help your infrastructure deliver
one show-stopping performance.
For more information, contact your Zones
account manager on +44 207 608 7676
© 2018 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

How does your
infrastructure
stack up?
Microsoft Azure Stack
can help any business quickly
ramp up or down – bringing the
agility and fast-paced innovation
of cloud computing to any
on-premises environment.
For more information about
Microsoft Azure, visit uk.zones.com/vendors/microsoft
©2018 Zones UK Ltd. All rights reserved. The Microsoft and Azure names,
associated trademarks, and logos are trademarks of Microsoft or related entities.

30 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018
Custo

mer Satisfaction.
DELIVERED.
Acquiring new technology is often
viewed as an end goal, but it’s just
the beginning. The journey certainly
doesn’t end there, and it starts well
before purchasing too.
Logistics and integration at Zones is a great example. We pride ourselves on
delivering customer satisfaction throughout the entire process by carefully
planning, packing, racking, stacking, and tracking orders from the point of
origin all the way to their final destination. No matter the size of a project,
we support it from end to end.
But just what does that end-to-end service look like? Let’s walk through the
full IT lifecycle to find out.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 31

DESIGN & PLAN
The most promising projects can
fizzle out in the early stages without
proper implementation plans in place,
so taking the time to develop them
in advance is vital. That’s why our
process begins with rigorous design
and planning. Project management
services from a knowledgeable
provider like Zones can help you map
out the scope, the cost, and a process
to implement new technologies into
your organisation. Together, we can
create an end-to-end plan that covers
delivery and schedule management,
transportation, and closeouts to
review performance.
PROCURE
Once you’ve consulted with our
experts and developed a plan, you
can proceed to procurement. Between
all of the different platforms for
purchasing and the negotiations
involved in the deals themselves, there
are plenty of complicating factors at
play. But we have a way to simplify all
of them. A single-source procurement
portal like ZonesConnect can
mitigate risk and minimize complexity
– as well as offer greater visibility into
your order status.
It’s also important to take geography
into account – not every provider can
deliver to every location. Fortunately,
Zones has offices, distribution
facilities, and affiliates in more than
80 countries around the world. That
global presence gives us everything
we need to fulfill orders on an
international scale.
STAGE & CONFIGURE
Of course, different businesses have
different needs, and it’s important to
find service providers who recognize
this fact. Seek out professionals who
can stage and configure your assets
to suit your company’s specifications.
That way, your new technology will be
ready to deploy on day one.
What does this customisation look
like? At Zones, we’ve seen – and
delivered – all kinds. It could take
the form of imaging, preinstallation
of hardware/software, or mobility
configuration. It could also bundle
items and services together via
kitting services or our “office in a
box” offering. Perhaps asset tagging
is required to track and sort new
devices. Or maybe specially tailored
packaging or pallets are needed.
Whatever your requirements, you’ll
want a provider who can deliver this
degree of personalized service –
it will save you plenty of time and
resources later.
DEPLOY
When the new IT arrives, you can
begin the deployment process.
It’s smart to enlist the help of an
accomplished provider for this leg
of the journey – you want to ensure
your technology is installed and
outfitted properly. The most proactive
providers will even conduct readiness
assessments to confirm that your
organisation is prepared to support
and utilize the new devices. If possible,
aim for zero-touch deployment – it’s
a holistic installation of your new
resources, including configuration
for end users, that doesn’t require
any action on your part. This can
considerably lighten the load.
nterprise PLATFORM
Our proprietary nterprise platform
enables us to transform the typical
chaos associated with large-scale
deployments into predictable service
delivery for our customers. Even the
most complex technology rollouts
are executed with efficiency thanks
to real-time visibility into the deployment
and implementation activities.
32 Solutions by Zones Autumn 2018

MAINTAIN
After the new technology is up and
running, the next step involves
maintenance – keeping everything
operating as intended. Look for
providers offering a range of both
preventive and as-needed maintenance
plans. Crises rarely strike at opportune
moments, so it’s worth planning for
the worst.
IMAC
During your technology’s operational
lifespan, you might also need to
address organisational moves or
changes. This could involve bringing
on a new employee, refreshing PCs
for a department, or deploying new
software across the organisation. All of
these tasks involve change, which
is one of our areas of expertise.
ITAD
The last stretch of the IT lifecycle,
ITAD services, involves asset disposal.
When a device runs its course, the
device itself needs to be disposed of
in an environmentally responsible
manner – and that offering can be
more difficult to find than you might
imagine. During the process, any
residual data on the device will also
need to be wiped. As part of our
commitment to social responsibility,
Zones takes proper asset disposal and
data destruction seriously – we even
deliver a Certificate of Destruction to
confirm your data’s proper deletion.
If your device is simply being taken
down for a period of time, having
access to refurbishment, restock,
and/or remarketing resources can be
invaluable as well.
MANAGE & SUPPORT
Throughout this entire process, it’s
also vital to have quick access to
expert support and managed services.
Nobody can prepare for everything,
so it’s worth partnering with a service
provider capable enough to assist you
with any unexpected complications –
whenever you need that assistance.
Finally, with so many options
between providers, it can be hard
to determine which one is right for
your business. Here’s one guidepost
you can look for: industry experience
and recognition. Earning a place on
rankings like CRN’s Managed Service
Provider 500 list, for example, is no
small feat, but we’re proud of our
position in that list’s Elite 150. Industry
certifications such as ISO 9001:2015
are even harder to come by, but
Zones’ logistics and integration
centres meet – and exceed – each of
those rigorous quality-management
standards. This certification attests to
our excellence in aligning employees
with objectives and KPIs, emphasizing
training and ongoing communication,
and actively committing leaders to
process improvement. Keep your
eyes peeled for distinctions like these
in your search to raise your odds of
finding exactly what you’re after.
IT life runs far beyond simple
acquisition, and those lives have
plenty of room for twists, turns,
and bumps along the way. But with
support from the right services
provider, you won’t just survive the
process – you’ll thrive. Make sure
to research ahead of time and form
a partnership with a provider you
trust. The right pairing could be just
around the corner – and having a
knowledgeable resource beside you
every step of the way can turn a rocky
climb into a smooth journey.
uk.zones.com +44 20 7608 7676 33

ThinkSmart Hub 500
The new all-in-one,
purpose-built Skype Room
Systems device.
Say hello to ThinkSmart Hub 500. Easy to deploy
and use, this all-in-one, purpose-built Skype
Room Systems device is the key to more efficient
meetings. Start on time, every time with one tap
of your finger.

Macbook Pro
More power.
More performance.
More pro.
New eighth-generation
Intel 6-core and quad-core
processors.
Up to 32GB of memory for
running multiple pro apps.
Stunning Retina display
with True Tone technology.
Touch Bar for working
more productively.
© Apple, the Apple logo, iPad, iPhone, Mac and OS X are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
zones.com 800.408.9663 35

Zones Solution Environments
Workplace
MODERNISATION
Designing the Workplace of Tomorrow
Network
OPTIMISATION
From WAN to Workplace
Data Center
TRANSFORMATION
Advancing Your Infrastructure
End User Compute
& Productivity
Collaboration
Store & Branch
Modernisation
Networking
Wired & Wireless
WAN
Optimisation
Network
Security
Compute &
Virtualisation
Storage &
Data Protection
Hyperconverged
Infrastructure
Security FORTIFICATION — Protecting Your Users and Your Data
Security
Assessments
Endpoint
Security
Authentication
& Data Security
©2018 Zones (UK) Ltd. All rights reserved. Unauthorised duplication is a violation of EU laws. Zones, Zones nfrastructure, Zones.com, nfrastructure.com, The Mac Zone, Multiple Zones,
and Zones Government & Education are registered trademarks of Zones (UK) Ltd. All partner product names throughout this catalog are trademarks of their respective holders.