Thu, 25 February 2021 - By Barry Angell
Significant investment in product development has always been a huge priority for Juriba as we pursue our mission to cement our status as the world's leading software platform for enterprise Evergreen IT and IT transformation management.
But in 2021, thanks to our almost explosive growth and the investment by BGF in 2020, Juriba is able to kick it's product development into hyper-drive. I am thrilled to announce that we have recently committed to a significant multi-million dollar, multi-year investment focusing on cloud capabilities, enhancing Dashworks' feature set, deepening the platform's integrations, and much more.
Thu, 04 February 2021 - By Neil Wheeler
There is no doubt that Microsoft 365 (M365) is one of the biggest drivers for revenue and new business at the moment for Microsoft. Due to the pandemic and the shift to remote work, Microsoft Teams usage has grown by 894% since the pandemic began (Aternity). According to Forrester, remote work levels will settle in at about three times more than what they were pre-pandemic by the end of 2021. This means that enterprises now need to move quickly to a more permanent solution to keep employees happy and productivity up.
But organizations with complex on-premise email environments who are looking to move to M365 are finding the transition rocky and cumbersome if done using spreadsheets or cobbled together databases.
But there is a better (and much faster) way! Over the past few years, we at Juriba have been fortunate to help enterprises manage several very large and complex Exchange on-premise to Microsoft 365 migration projects — readying more than one million mailboxes for migration so far. This allowed us to fine tune an already highly automated (and therefore accelerated) transformation process — condensing dozens of manual, repetitive, and labour-intensive tasks into a simple 2-click process. Here is how it is done.
Tue, 26 January 2021 - By Barry Angell
In the past few years, we have published way over 50 pieces of content on Evergreen IT Management in an effort to inspire you, help you get started, manage your upgrades as efficiently as possible, and make your job easier. But the topic — often also referred to as Continuous IT Transformation Management, Business-as-Usual Management, or Release Management — is huge and can cause a lot of confusion and frustration. In an effort to provide you with an overview of the entire subject, as well as neatly organize all relevant articles, we created "The Ultimate Guide To Evergreen IT Management".
Tue, 12 January 2021 - By Barry Angell
While remote work has become increasingly common over the past years, the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has certainly pushed the fast-forward button. In fact, a recent survey published by the World Economic Forum revealed that 98% of the workforce would like to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their working lives. This newly found work flexibility is especially important for working parents. In the past, only 46% of parents wanted to work remotely, but the pandemic has increased that number to 86%.
Here at Juriba, we have been working remotely from the start and we certainly understand the benefits that come with the new demand to be able to Work-From-Anywhere. We also know it comes with its own set of challenges, e.g., maintaining a healthy work-life balance and making a point to facilitate open communication and collaboration.
Thu, 07 January 2021 - By Barry Angell
Application packaging and testing hasn't changed much over the past twenty years — until now. Last month, we detailed some of the major historical changes up until the present, from MSI Installer to MSIX and beyond. Today, I want to walk you through why self-service is intrinsically linked with the future of app packaging and testing and how Juriba's Application Manager enables you to do this right now.
Mon, 06 April 2020 - By Barry Angell
It's hard to keep up with the news these days as things move so rapidly in this unprecedented and uncertain time. But there are also rays of hope. Companies are finding innovative ways to serve their customers, extending leniencies in terms of support and payment plans, or even finding new ways how their products and services can be applied in this new working environment.
Microsoft has trickled out several announcements over the last few weeks regarding their Windows 10 support model, release schedule changes, and more. While you might have seen one or two already, we will summarize all of them below because you have other things to do right now than read two dozen news articles.
Mon, 03 February 2020 - By Barry Angell
Now that Windows 7 is a thing of the past, enterprises have no choice but to complete their Windows 10 migrations — and with that, get on the treadmill of Windows 10 upgrade management as Microsoft is releasing two major feature upgrades every year: one in spring (18 months support) and one in fall (30 months support).
Microsoft's preferred way for organizations to manage their Windows-as-a-Service is to adopt an Evergreen IT approach that allows you to organize your IT environment in such a way that you can upgrade all of your users within six to nine months in Business-as-Usual mode.
Tue, 14 January 2020 - By Barry Angell
This blog post has been updated as of November 16, 2020, and will continue to be updated when there are changes to Windows 10 release and EOL dates, and other major revisions.
Over the last few years, Microsoft has changed the EOL dates of its Windows 10 versions — some of them multiple times — leading to confusion as to when specific versions are actually going to finish their support cycle. A lot of the confusion is due to the following facts:
Mon, 30 December 2019 - By Barry Angell
On December 16th 2019, Microsoft's Senior Program Manager for the Windows Insider Program, Brandon LeBlanc, announced in a blog post that the new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19536 (an early version of the 20H1) was available. However, other parts of his article made seasoned Microsoft experts wonder whether or not the software giant decouples its feature releases from its official Windows 10 upgrade releases.
Mon, 25 November 2019 - By Barry Angell
The title is one of the biggest questions enterprises face when deciding on a Windows 10 migration and/or upgrade approach for their estate. In other words, how will they determine when to migrate whom?
Generally, there are two ways you could do this:
While both ways have their pros and cons, one is definitely better suited for today's fast-paced changes and to manage Evergreen IT. Let's take a closer look.
Thu, 30 January 2020 - By Barry Angell
While Windows 10 was touted initially as the fastest adopted OS in Microsoft history and Gartner predicted that 80% of enterprises would have completed or at least started their migration by the end of 2018, Windows 10 reached more than 50 percent market share in August 2019 — more than four years after its initial release!
As of January 14th, 2020, Windows 7 is officially dead. While you can buy extended support until 2023, every month you are not moving to Windows 10 is going to cost you dearly. In addition to the pricey ESU fees, you are exposing your environment to security vulnerabilities that can result in costly data breaches, malware attacks, or other problems. Your employee technology experience will decline, resulting in lower talent retention rates as well as productivity loss. And the list goes on. The point is, enterprises simply cannot afford to not upgrade as quickly as possible.
Fri, 14 June 2019 - By Clio Ionni
On May 30 and July 2, Juriba's CTO, Barry Angell, presented a session entitled 'How to get your executive management fired up about Evergreen IT after your Windows 10 migration' at the Ivanti Windows 10 Summit. The conference was hosted entirely online and it is still available to watch on-demand.
Mon, 15 April 2019 - By Barry Angell
A few weeks ago, I participated in two interesting sessions at the Microsoft Ignite Tour: one about Microsoft Autopilot, which we have extensively covered in the past, and one about Desktop Analytics, which is the forthcoming upgrade to Microsoft's Windows Analytics telemetry tool. With the release due shortly, we thought we would share some information on this significant update.
Thu, 11 April 2019 - By Barry Angell
Last month, we partnered with Flexera to present the webinar entitled "Time is up for Windows 7: How to position your organization for Windows 10 and beyond" hosted by myself and Adam Jeffries, Senior Solution Engineer at Flexera.
Mon, 25 March 2019 - By Barry Angell
We all know that hindsight is always 20/20. There is probably nothing more frustrating than realizing that you just made a huge mistake, and then looking back and realizing that you should have known that that was a bad idea. But sometimes, we also receive really bad advice that overrides our gut feeling or better judgement.
Whatever caused the misstep, we all learn from mistakes — but it's always easier to learn through someone else's mistakes. So, we compiled below the worst pieces of advice we have ever heard on the topic of managing an effective IT Transformation. This way, if you hear one of these common myths, you'll know to be wary of it and consider it twice.
Thu, 04 February 2021 - By Neil Wheeler
There is no doubt that Microsoft 365 (M365) is one of the biggest drivers for revenue and new business at the moment for Microsoft. Due to the pandemic and the shift to remote work, Microsoft Teams usage has grown by 894% since the pandemic began (Aternity). According to Forrester, remote work levels will settle in at about three times more than what they were pre-pandemic by the end of 2021. This means that enterprises now need to move quickly to a more permanent solution to keep employees happy and productivity up.
But organizations with complex on-premise email environments who are looking to move to M365 are finding the transition rocky and cumbersome if done using spreadsheets or cobbled together databases.
But there is a better (and much faster) way! Over the past few years, we at Juriba have been fortunate to help enterprises manage several very large and complex Exchange on-premise to Microsoft 365 migration projects — readying more than one million mailboxes for migration so far. This allowed us to fine tune an already highly automated (and therefore accelerated) transformation process — condensing dozens of manual, repetitive, and labour-intensive tasks into a simple 2-click process. Here is how it is done.
Tue, 21 July 2020 - By Barry Angell
Office 365, Microsoft's SaaS version of its Office Suite, has grown even more popular in recent months. Organizations, especially those that have already moved over to Windows 10, are starting or planning to adopt Office 365 across their IT environment. The move to Office 365 also needs to go fast for enterprises that are still running Office 2010, as that product goes end-of-life in October, and there will be no extended support from Microsoft.
Taking the above into consideration, many businesses have turned to Microsoft's Readiness Toolkit for Office add-ins and VBA (hereafter referred to as Readiness Toolkit) to help prepare for the migration. This post will take a closer look at what the Readiness Toolkit is, what it can and can't do, and how to maximize its potential.
Mon, 14 May 2018 - By Barry Angell
Over the past few years, we have seen our fair share of failed and dangerously inefficient enterprise attempts to keep Windows 10 and Office 365 Servicing up-to-date. Often, the organization took longer than anticipated to run through the first initial migration, skipped an update to come up for air, just to drown under the workload of the feature update roll out, for which it had vastly underestimated the risk and work effort. Ever worse, these updates are often managed manually, with antiquated and inadequate project management practices!
Mon, 09 April 2018 - By Barry Angell
If you recently tried to find anything on Microsoft Office — for example on the enterprise section of Office.com — you might have noticed that there isn't much mention of Microsoft's on-premise productivity application suite anymore.
The vast majority of Microsoft's marketing communication and sales conversation is about Office 365! This is not an oversight or a temporary marketing campaign — but rather a strategic push to move enterprise customers away from the perpetually licensed Office fat client and onto the subscription-based, always up-to-date Office 365. Moreover, now that Office 2019 is about to be released, many enterprises are asking themselves: "Should we consider Office 2019, or is it not the right time to switch to Office 365 ProPlus?"
Mon, 05 March 2018 - By Barry Angell
Rolling out Office 365 can be very exciting considering the value it will add to your organization in terms of unified communication, collaboration, and business processes! But it can be equally terrifying if you think about all the dependencies of users, mailboxes, delegates, mail archives, public folders, groups, instant messaging, ... the list goes on and on.
After the initial migration is completed, Microsoft will release two larger Office client feature updates and monthly security updates to increase productivity for your end users and tighten security. However, just like Windows as a Service, these larger feature updates will need to be rolled out effectively as they can also be considered a mini-migration.
Wed, 03 July 2019 - By Clio Ionni
LONDON, 3 July 2019 -- Juriba has announced that its flagship software Dashworks has been accepted into the G-Cloud 11 framework, part of the UK Government’s digital marketplace.
Mon, 20 May 2019 - By Barry Angell
It's been a long time coming, but it is finally here — our brand-new Windows-as-a-Service Management Project Plan Template! And I am thrilled to finally share with you some details on it.
This brand-new project plan template is the sequel to our extremely successful Windows 10 Enterprise Migration Project Plan that was originally published in September of 2015. While the previous project plan focused on the initial migration to Microsoft's new operating system, this new project plan enables technology executives, IT pros, and BAU managers to plan and execute their ongoing Windows-as-a-Service update management in the most effective way possible.
Mon, 02 July 2018 - By Clio Ionni
LONDON, 2 July 2018 -- Juriba has announced that its flagship software Dashworks has been accepted into the G-Cloud 10 framework, part of the UK Government’s digital marketplace.
Wed, 14 February 2018 - By Barry Angell
If you look at how IT traditionally spent its investment dollars, there would be a distinct requirement for a positive return on investment by the end of the first three years. Many were long-term IT investments that would determine how you would operate in the next ten to twelve years, and resulted in the definition of many established IT management practices.
But those ancient IT processes and policies used to manage legacy apps are inadequate to handle modern technology updates. Today, most enterprises are much more agile, having moved applications into the cloud, or utilizing the power of Software-as-a-Service. However, most are still maintaining a layer of dinosaur legacy applications and other mission-critical on-premise software in massive data centers. Since most IT organizations are unable or unwilling to change how they manage IT, they still use IT processes and policies that date back more than twenty years!
Thu, 14 December 2017 - By Barry Angell
The quality of customer service has a massive impact on how consumers interact with the service provider — whether that provider is an internal department, an outsource partner, or a company providing goods and services externally. Studies have shown that one out of two customers will stop doing business with a company because of a poor service experience.
That is why most consumers, 71% in fact, prefer firms that give them the ability to solve most service issues on their own. While this might not surprise you, it might shock you to know that an astonishing 38% of consumers would rather clean a toilet than speak to a customer service representative!
Thu, 24 November 2016 - By Barry Angell
In the last few years, enterprise IT departments have faced a unique set of challenges: On the one hand, they have morphed from a supporting entity to a business enabler, and are maintaining increasingly complex IT landscapes whilst battling significantly larger cyber security threats than ever before. On the other hand, they have to manage more change with fewer resources and stagnant or minimally-increasing budgets.
Fri, 30 September 2016 - By Barry Angell
A few weeks ago, we spoke about the Digital Workplace and how it came a long way from being an abstract concept that a lot of companies saw value in, but did not have the technology to support their needs properly, to becoming a reality for a lot of enterprises as they embraced server-hosted virtual desktops.
As organizations are now embarking on their Windows 10 migrations, as well as considering Evergreen IT as a long-term IT goal in order to become more agile, scalable and flexible, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is experiencing a technology-induced revival. It's been a much slower adoption than many analysts expected, but more companies are now virtualizing desktops than ever before!
Gartner expected the hosted virtual desktop market to grow to 76 million users by the end of this year. And it seems the growth is not slowing down anytime soon. Most analysts forecast anywhere from 8.9% CAGR (IDC for the entire VCC market) up to 27% (depending on the analysts' definition of VDI) during the period 2016-2020.
Mon, 26 September 2016 - By Barry Angell
As more and more enterprises are starting to embrace Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to save costs, tighten security and improve manageability and compliance as well as give their employees more device flexibility and accessibility options, many fail to consider the generational change in the workforce that is happening right now.
Tue, 19 January 2021 - By Barry Angell
A few weeks ago, I attended the Flexera's Application Packaging Roundtable webinar about MSIX which was very interesting and included application management people from both customer organizations and service integrators. It got me thinking: Microsoft has been touting MSIX for two years now and despite the tremendous benefits the new packaging format brings, it seems like neither software vendors or end-user enterprises have really embraced it yet.
There is no doubt in my mind that MSIX is the future of application packaging — so why haven't enterprises fully bought into it yet? What are the roadblocks they are facing? Let's have a closer look at that today.
Thu, 07 January 2021 - By Barry Angell
Application packaging and testing hasn't changed much over the past twenty years — until now. Last month, we detailed some of the major historical changes up until the present, from MSI Installer to MSIX and beyond. Today, I want to walk you through why self-service is intrinsically linked with the future of app packaging and testing and how Juriba's Application Manager enables you to do this right now.
Wed, 23 December 2020 - By Barry Angell
Last week, we talked about the 20+ years of innovation drought in the application packaging and testing space and explained why this space is about to change. But in addition to MSIX and application containerization, there are six distinct ways we expect application packaging and testing to improve over the next few years.
Fri, 27 November 2020 - By Iain Fraser
The combination of Juriba’s leading Evergreen IT Command & Control Platform and AppAvail’s Automated Application Smoke Testing, UAT and Packaging Software, Enables Modern Enterprise IT Management.
Wed, 25 November 2020 - By Barry Angell
On November 13th 2020, we announced the acquisition of AppAvail, a best-in-class application packaging and testing automation solution that enables non-technical product owners, developers, operations, and other team members to package and test their applications using self-service, making it a significantly faster, more reliable, and more cost-effective alternative to traditional tools. The new Juriba Dashworks Application Manager brings a tremendous amount of value-add, so I will highlight some of my favorite features to give you a glimpse of the power under the hood of our new automated packaging and smoke testing solution.
Tue, 21 July 2015 - By Barry Angell
With the Windows 2003 Server end of life time bomb now passed on July 14th 2015, we thought we would take the time to document our advice for Server 2003 migration project planning activities based on our own server migration experience. Download our Server 2003 Project Plan for free.
Thu, 25 February 2021 - By Barry Angell
Significant investment in product development has always been a huge priority for Juriba as we pursue our mission to cement our status as the world's leading software platform for enterprise Evergreen IT and IT transformation management.
But in 2021, thanks to our almost explosive growth and the investment by BGF in 2020, Juriba is able to kick it's product development into hyper-drive. I am thrilled to announce that we have recently committed to a significant multi-million dollar, multi-year investment focusing on cloud capabilities, enhancing Dashworks' feature set, deepening the platform's integrations, and much more.
Thu, 29 October 2020 - By Barry Angell
THE COMBINATION OF ATERNITY'S LEADING DIGITAL ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM AND JURIBA'S EVERGREEN IT COMMAND AND CONTROL PLATFORM ENABLES THE MODERN DIGITAL ENTERPRISE.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – October 28, 2020 – Aternity®, the enterprise-class Digital Experience Management Company™, announced today that it is partnering with Juriba, a leader in Enterprise IT migration software to improve the digital transformation experience for the enterprise. The combination of Aternity and Juriba’s powerful software platforms will provide global enterprises with the opportunity to drive accelerated digital transformation projects, while proactively managing end-user experience.
Tue, 08 September 2020 - By Barry Angell
Last week, I introduced our Evergreen IT Process Framework which introduced a generalized framework of processes that can be applied to any Evergreen IT use case, whether it is a hardware refresh, an application lifecycle management, a VDI migration, or any other project. Many of you found the blog post useful. To make it even more actionable for you, I wanted to share with you some ideas on how to build an optimized tool stack around this process framework.
Wed, 01 July 2020 - By Barry Angell
Juriba is delighted to announce that BGF (@BGFinvestments), the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growth businesses, has decided to invest in the company to fuel accelerated product development and drive international scale.
Juriba was created in 2008 and is led by Barry Angell, Julia Bell and Iain Fraser, The company is a fast-growth technology business that specializes in digital transformation software, providing innovative solutions for medium-sized to large corporations and multinational organisations,
Mon, 16 March 2020 - By Barry Angell
A few weeks ago, we walked through a detailed cost calculation of running an Evergreen IT-managed Windows 10 upgrade cycle. We were able to demonstrate significant savings while stressing the point of needing dedicated resources and budget despite the common perception. We felt like we were only telling you half of the story, so here's the other half: the calculation changes when you add more Evergreen IT projects into the mix!
The thing is, Evergreen IT is like a flywheel. It spins faster if you apply force and slows down when you apply friction. By managing more Evergreen IT projects utilizing the same centralized management platform and standardized processes, you create velocity that spins your Evergreen IT process faster — resulting in significantly higher return-on-investment and potential savings.
Wed, 25 November 2020 - By Barry Angell
On November 13th 2020, we announced the acquisition of AppAvail, a best-in-class application packaging and testing automation solution that enables non-technical product owners, developers, operations, and other team members to package and test their applications using self-service, making it a significantly faster, more reliable, and more cost-effective alternative to traditional tools. The new Juriba Dashworks Application Manager brings a tremendous amount of value-add, so I will highlight some of my favorite features to give you a glimpse of the power under the hood of our new automated packaging and smoke testing solution.
Thu, 29 October 2020 - By Barry Angell
THE COMBINATION OF ATERNITY'S LEADING DIGITAL ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM AND JURIBA'S EVERGREEN IT COMMAND AND CONTROL PLATFORM ENABLES THE MODERN DIGITAL ENTERPRISE.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – October 28, 2020 – Aternity®, the enterprise-class Digital Experience Management Company™, announced today that it is partnering with Juriba, a leader in Enterprise IT migration software to improve the digital transformation experience for the enterprise. The combination of Aternity and Juriba’s powerful software platforms will provide global enterprises with the opportunity to drive accelerated digital transformation projects, while proactively managing end-user experience.
Wed, 01 July 2020 - By Barry Angell
Juriba is delighted to announce that BGF (@BGFinvestments), the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growth businesses, has decided to invest in the company to fuel accelerated product development and drive international scale.
Juriba was created in 2008 and is led by Barry Angell, Julia Bell and Iain Fraser, The company is a fast-growth technology business that specializes in digital transformation software, providing innovative solutions for medium-sized to large corporations and multinational organisations,
Fri, 17 April 2020 - By Julia Bell
Global Workplace Analytics estimates that "56% of the U.S. workforce holds a job that is compatible (at least partially) with remote work", yet "only 3.6% of the employee workforce works at home half-time or more." There are many reasons for this. Many office-based employees enjoy the social aspect of being physically co-located and, for some younger employees, a hip workplace is a big plus when accepting a job offer. On the hiring side, managers fear losing control of their workforce and not being able to tell if people are slacking off. And, of course, there are the misconceptions from friends and family about whether or not you have a "proper" job.
Mon, 28 October 2019 - By Barry Angell
At Juriba, we know how important it is to work with, and action accurate, up-to-date data during your IT transformation project or BAU change activity. This is why our product, Dashworks, uses read-only data connectors to import data sources such as user directories and organizational hierarchies, computer hardware and software inventory data, application compatibility data, and ITSM information from existing repositories within the organization. But it's not just about importing data. We often want to automate the actions required to automate a workflow such as creating a service request ticket. Today, I am thrilled that Juriba is announcing a new Dashworks Connector for ServiceNow.
Jul 27, 2016 1:00:00 PM / by Barry Angell
Have you ever heard the saying, "You cannot manage what you don't measure?" This is true for projects of all sizes, but even more so for large IT transformation projects, whether they be a virtual desktop infrastructure upgrade, a hardware refresh, Windows 10 or Office 365 migration.
Jul 25, 2016 1:00:00 PM / by Barry Angell
IT professionals don’t always have their preferred tools at their disposal. Sometimes this is because of budgetary issues. Sometimes it's simply because management has always done things a certain way, and nobody wants to rock the boat and challenge their assumptions about workflow and processes.
Jul 22, 2016 9:00:00 AM / by Clio Ionni
The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto has just finished and we can’t wait to do it all over again! As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in his Vision Keynote address on Day 1, "Microsoft has always been a partner-led company, and will always be a partner-led company." And this couldn’t be better said. With over 15,000 attendees and 17,000+ Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners, WPC is the biggest Microsoft event for partners for networking and learning—all with the goal of increasing partner profitability and accelerating business growth.
Jul 15, 2016 8:00:00 AM / by Barry Angell
This article was originally first published at the ITSM Review.
Your business has been relying on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 for some time now, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that you will soon need to have things ready for a transition to Microsoft’s latest offering — Windows 10.
With Windows 10 comes a set of changes that your IT team may not yet be entirely familiar with, such as new security configurations, how to handle application management or creating policies around Windows 10 branching.
As your enterprise prepares to migrate to Windows 10, you have thousands of users to consider. This is no time to be understaffed, as there will be many moving parts for you to keep track of and under control. This naturally raises the question among IT professionals. How are we to staff our Windows 10 migration team correctly?
Jul 8, 2016 5:57:30 PM / by Barry Angell
Let me ask you a question. How would it make you feel if your boss, a line of business manager or C-level management was to walk into your office right now or send you a quick email saying "Hi, can you give me a statistical update on our project?"
Most likely, you wouldn't be very happy, right? Some days, that's all you seem to do: manipulating data, generating graphs, preparing PowerPoint presentations or writing email status updates. In reality, there is no such thing as a quick update. Your information consumers all want something slightly different.
It starts with the different information needs. The C-Level management needs a 30,000 level overview that you are on schedule, on budget and what the return-on-investment looks like. They might like to see a visualization of the global progress on a map and some high-level dashboards. The business managers are more interested in a granular view of their department or line of business, while schedulers need a view on their piece of the overall plan. The engineers need a printed-out drop sheet.
So, how do you serve all these different reporting needs? Easy - with Dashworks Dashboarding.