Let’s discuss the Simplification and Automation Powered by 1E Nomad Peer-to-Peer Technologies. Simplification and Automation are two key adoption factors in the modern workplace. ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM) has already started the journey of cloud adoption, simplification, and modernization.
Let’s examine the power of 1E Peer-to-Peer Technologies to simplify and automate your workplace investments and see how Simplification and Automation Powered by 1E Nomad Peer-to-Peer Technologies can help modernize the workplace.
The significance of peer-to-peer technology has increased in the modern workplace. There are many scenarios where peer-to-peer communication can help optimize performance. ConfigMgr peer cache and Teams peer-to-peer media communication are some examples.
Peer-to-peer technologies also help to drive a simplified architecture. The peer-to-peer communication of the Microsoft Teams application (especially in the VDI world) helps to provide a better user experience.
Microsoft is putting much effort into Power Apps and Flow to simplify automation for many organizations. The ability to automate tasks using machine learning is another major factor organisations seek in modern workplace scenarios.
Let’s check how the 1E agent can help you simplify and automate the modern workplace environment for organizations. For many organizations, the essential decision factor is not to waste existing investments and the possibility of modernizing the environment.
Table of Contents
Introduction – Simplification and Automation Powered by 1E Nomad Peer-to-Peer Technologies
1E Nomad has delivered a comprehensive peer-to-peer solution that includes content distribution, PXE services, and user state migration to some of the largest ConfigMgr customers for over fifteen (15+) years. 1E consolidated all the following agents into a single agent called the 1E client.
- 1E NightWatchman
- IE Nomad
- 1E PXE Everywhere
- 1E Shopping
- 1E Tachyon
- 1E Tachyon Experience
- Etc…
- Reduce Device Management Overheads with 1E Agent
- 10 Questions You Should Ask About Adaptiva OneSite and 1E Nomad
- SCCM Comparison Between Adaptiva Onesite Vs 1E Nomad
SCCM’s biggest challenge is transferring files/content to remote branch offices via the WAN link. 1E Nomad provides an efficient file transfer mechanism that integrates with SCCM. Peer-to-peer file transfer helps branch office scenarios where reducing WAN traffic is critical.
This is more critical than ever with a remote workforce dependent on reliable bandwidth to make Teams or Zoom calls. The 1E Nomad’s ability to protect business network traffic is vital here.
Suppose your organization plans to move all workloads to the cloud(perhaps considering Azure-based DPs). In that case, you may feel the impact on your internet link or Azure costs when people return to the office, as many clients connect for content.
1E Nomad provides the best opportunity to remove your server infra from remote branch offices and switch to cloud DP without overwhelming your site’s internet link or racking up a vast Azure bill. This would be your first step towards cloud migration, and peer-to-peer file transfer technologies like Nomad can help you with this.
NOTE! – More details about 1E Nomad are available Working with Nomad – https://help.1e.com/display/NMD70/Working+with+Nomad
Simplification
Consolidating all solutions into the 1E agent is the first step towards simplification. Maintaining the excellent health of software agents is a painful and costly affair for most organizations. Agent consolidation helps to reduce the operational costs in many organizations.
There is always a debate between agent and agentless workflows. Each type of solution has pros and cons. Even though I like agentless solutions more, I understand their limitations. Some limitations depend on the operating system’s core functionality and minimal control of feature delivery.
Let’s examine the 1E agent’s core simplification functions. 1E agent (Nomad) peer-to-peer technology allows organizations to simplify ConfigMgr design and massively remove servers from their environment, saving on management and license costs. The peer-to-peer content distribution solution gets content from local peers when available.
I have seen environments with 100s (hundreds) DPs and many secondary servers. Imagine the operational cost of managing that kind of ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM) infrastructure. The most significant pain points (in my experience) of these types of environments are given below:
- Content distribution issues on remote DPs
- Secondary server SQL-based replication issues
Patch management and distribution of software update content are always high-priority tasks for most admins. The content distribution issues for remote DPs are expensive and time-consuming. You can eliminate remote branch office servers using 1E Nomad peer-to-peer technology. Let’s check some of the SCCM site system servers that can be removed:
- Remote Distribution Point (DP)
- PXE points hosted with remote DPs
- Remote Management Points (MP)
- Secondary Servers
- Etc…
Security
How many still think SMB protocol is used for SCCM content download? I don’t think any of the enterprise-class solutions use SMB protocol. Also, secure peer-to-peer communication is a priority for all organizations. Nomad provides encryption for most of its communications.
1E Nomad provides all the security options for the customers. In the software distribution scenario, organizations usually use signed source files from the vendors, so there is no secret data.
- Peer-to-Peer sharing
- HTTP
- HTTPS
- eHttp
- Internal PKI
- Content
- Signed
- Compressed
- IPv6 protocol support
Automation
Automation is one of the critical pillars of the modern workplace. All successful products are in that position because they solve one or more real-world customer issues. Also, each workplace environment has many repetitive tasks. I think each product from the 1E was developed to reduce repetitive tasks and improve productivity.
Let’s start with 1E’s flagship product, Tachyon. Tachyon is another product from 1E that uses Machine Learning and real-time data to troubleshoot in real-time and automate repetitive tasks. The 1E Client includes the Tachyon components.
Tachyon is a real-time endpoint management tool that allows queries or instructions to be run on one or all endpoints instantaneously. One of the Tachyon components, Guaranteed State, drives the new client health capabilities bundled with the latest versions of 1E Nomad.
Windows Self-Service is a toolset that helps the organization automate the end-to-end workflow of Windows 10 migration scenarios.
Future
The traditional IT operations team can handle day-to-day operational tasks if they’re straightforward. Most of the modern applications are developed using ML (Machine Learning). I think the digital transformation of workplace environments with the help of modern applications raises the need for AIOps (Algorithmic IT Operations).
Modern applications built with AI (and ML) power help create complex multi-tiered technology solutions. Let’s consider whether traditional IT teams can handle these solutions. I don’t think they would be fully equipped to have this support system. AIOps can help us deliver the framework to enhance IT operations through real-time data analytics and Machine Learning (ML).
The next-generation support tools should be well-equipped with AIOps. I think 1E already started down this path with the help of ServiceNow integration (https://www.1e.com/products/servicenow-automation/).
Augmenting ServiceNow’s workflow with real-time endpoint task automation reduces incident volume, resulting in significant productivity gains for IT teams.
Resources
- Gartner says Algorithmic IT Operations Drives Digital Business – https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2017-04-11-gartner-says-algorithmic-it-operations-drives-digital-business
- 1E product documentation – https://help.1e.com/display/HLP/Product+documentation
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Author
Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His primary focus is Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.