How to Create an Authoring InfrastructureAuthoring Infrastructure that Supports 24/7 Global Content Development

Emmelyn Wang (王兆馨)Technical Communication Specialist

Vi t l B idVi t l B idVirtual BridgesVirtual Bridges

Audience This presentation is for anyone who is interested in creating a more efficient authoring infrastructure. Managing an efficient infrastructure means scalable and responsive practices for creating content on a global level. This presentation explains why virtualization (specifically for desktops) is so pertinent to Technical Communications professionals who want to take advantage of cloud authoring and setting it up within their organization. This presentation is for anyone who wants to understand why managing a team of TC professionals and even social media users authoring content in a virtualized environment is:

More cost-effective Faster More secure Less complex

Goals Establish the urgency and need for high

quality digital content specifically for growing needs projected in AP

Characteristics of a successful 24/7 Global Content Development Authoring Structure Explain the advantages of

Virtualization Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Gen2 over Gen1 (History and Barriers)

Highlight one use case of setting up and deploying a desktop publishing environment for a global doc team

The overall solution is to integrate project management skills/tools with the best type of infrastructure (working closely with IT) for global content development

Streamline the verification/validation, authoring, editing, and publishing process while preparing it for translation

Support 24/7 Global Content Development? Collaboration and Authoring Across Geographically

Dispersed Teams Platforms Devices Languages Locales Cultures Connectivity Time Zones Technologies Producing more with less...

Companies are looking for project management and IT skills in how we set up and deliver Tech Comm.

Consider the Market

McKinsey has published several articles following the need for digital content in Asia.

Internet usage is poised for explosive growth across Asia, driving massive consumer demand for digital content and services. The biggest challenge for businesses hoping to meet this demand is how to make money will while creating low-cost content.

Let’s consider how technical communication professionals on this side of the world can contribute to this growing need.

How do we fit in the picture and take part in this conversation? What value is gained and what lessons can we learn from the high volume of interactivity? How do we apply TC principles to technologies and organizations poised for growth in

developing countries? How do you create an authoring infrastructure that supports 24/7 content development?

Phenomenally Projected Growth • Internet Usage • Social Media Usage • Content for support

and conversion

Source: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Digital_Marketing/Riding_Asias_digital_tiger_2667?gp=1

What Will Limit the Growth?

High hardware costs Inconsistent network quality Limited access

…could check these optimistic growth prospects.

–McKinsey & Co.

What Will Limit the Growth? Security concerns Incompatibility of devices, operating

systems, and applications Failing to meet the transient nature of

workers needing mobility across various locations across multiple devices. They expect their desktops, applications, and data to be available to them wherever they go.

Focusing only on physical endpoint management

Not utilizing centralized virtual desktop infrastructures for content development [allowing for scaled-down workstations running minimal hardware configurations and mobility]

What Will Limit the Growth?

• Lack of talent to harness the work and lack of management needed to oversee digital content projects

• Organizations around the world, especially developing countries, are still trying to understand the value of TC Professionals as evidenced by limited and limiting job postings

What is Virtualization?

Source: http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/pdf/Virtualization/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux-5-Virtualization-en-US.pdf

According to the Red Hat Linux Enterprise… Virtualization is a broad computing term for running software, usually operating systems, concurrently and isolated from other programs on one system. Most existing implementations of virtualization use a hypervisor, a software layer that controls hardware and provides guest operating systems with access to underlying hardware devices. The hypervisor allows multiple operating systems to run on the same physical system by offering virtualized hardware to the guest operating system.

Why Author in a Virtualized Environment?

Organizations are learning how to do much more with far less. Technical Communications Professionals such as Content Strategists, Information

Architects, and others are also learning how to tackle high demands with far less resources.

Tech Comm Managers can combine TC skills, project management skills, and work closely with IT to create effective virtualized ecosystems that bring down costs while leverating content creation tools globally

Why not? Disaster recovery, compliance measures, and managing global outsourcing So, it’s not just about using smarter tools, it’s about changing the way you use them.

The TV and digital media production industry did just that and realized valuable results. Source: http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/bto/pointofview/pdf/DigitalMediaproduction_fall2003.pdf

Why Author in a Virtualized Environment? Virtualization essentially turns hardware needs into software needs by

consolidating resources to reduce costs and provide a rich user experience. Generally hardware is harder to upgrade, more expensive (especially certain types of storage), and has greater limitations. However, centralized virtual desktops can help save

– Money – Energy/Power – Materials – Staff – Time

Graphic Source: http://cioes.org/tag/vdi/

Why Author in a Virtualized Environment?

– Transparency – Dynamically served desktops – Seamlessly update and deploy tools for content creation – Virtualized environments are excellent for staging test scenarios – Removal of traditional barriers – Track session usage – Lowering risks – Accessible

Untapped Markets Following the McKinsey Quarterly Profile of China, India, and

Malaysia is this comment: …the authors should have also profiled Indonesia, another large Asian country with untapped potential for advertisers online.

Al Cadena |Senior Director, Social Media Strategy Beeby Clark Meyler New York, NY USA I agree with Al’s comment based on the following research about Social Media usage in 2011.

High Level of Interactivity

In the article entitled “Tweetonomic v Appanomic” from the Salingsilang engine in an Acer Indonesia publication, we note the following:

Indonesia only started paying attention to Twitter in 2010 which is only four years after it started. – Yet, Indonesia produces approximately 15% of all global tweets. – Indonesia is the second largest group of Facebook users. – Indonesia is the third largest and most active group of Twitter users

(with the U.S. and Brazil leading the top spots).

What does “low cost content” really mean?

Balancing low cost content with high quality delivered through the right channels at the right time.

Low cost, but still a high quality experience/usability. Why? Our AP counterparts now have more money to

spend so they are making smarter shopping decisions. Research and and word-of-mouth make TC materials very important in the world of digital and traditional marketing. Customers will look for accurate information that reflects the sophistication and pragmatic qualities of a product/service.

Collectivistic cultures are driven by group values:

Chinese consumers do much more research before purchasing a product than average consumers in the developed world do, so middle-class consumers often take a long time to make decisions, if only because some things can cost more than their monthly income. In a survey on PC purchases, for example, Chinese consumers said they might take three to six months to buy a computer and visit a store three to five times. Decision making is especially protracted for big-ticket items but can take quite a while for foods, beverages, and personal-care offerings, as well, given the increasing number of brands and new products available. Source:

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Chinas_new_pragmatic_consumers_2683

http://www.mckinsey.com/en/Client_Service/Marketing_and_sales/Latest_thinking/Finding_growth_in_Asias_digital_revolution.aspx

Graphic Source: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/digital-marketing/content-is-not-created-equal/

Characteristics of a Successful 24/7 Global Content Development Authoring Structure

Highly Collaborative Efficient

Resources | Users, Hardware, software, deployment modes, Up and Running / Less to no down time Organizational synchronization of process and tools for doc teams

working with various departments Agile/Flexible Secure Monitored

Accountability Metrics Real-time Reports Visibility

Why Desktop Publishing and VDI Makes Sense

The power and functionality of specialized desktop publishing tools paired with the accessibility of almost any client device including mobile apps and a centralized image management dashboard allows you to serve up desktops as a cloud service (either public or private).

Scalable Security – role/task-based provisioning, user/group policies,

encrypted offline use. Organizations who require additional security can set up isolated gateways as well.

Agility/Efficiency Authoring and Collaborating in the Cloud Consistent Authoring Experience with LAN-like performance

o Personalized Desktop with Persistent User Data o Collaboration Despite Device Type, Connectivity, Location o TC Managers give input to the types of tools their teams use – versioning

stays the same. Tool upgrades happen just once in the Gold Image.

Sample Case Resource Requirements At the very least

– A laptop or desktop can serve up hundreds of desktop sessions as a host server:

• Hardware – X86_64 bit virtualization (VT) enabled – 12 GB RAM

• Software – VERDE + VERDEOS / Linux OS + Image

OS iso’s – Internet browser

In an enterprise environment, a cluster of servers with a designated cluster master with failover capability

– Users can access a desktop session

(guest image / VDI – 20%) from a browser by logging into a secure dashboard on a client workstation

– Financially: Pay only for usage/per desktop

– Linux administration knowledge

Creating an Authoring Environment

• What is VERDE? Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment • What is VDI? Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – The mechanism of serving desktop

sessions to remote users from servers as discrete environments

What is VDI Gen1?

VDI Gen1 • Server-based instead of

being purpose-built • Cost – Much Higher • Complexity – Much Higher • Coverage – Limited

VDI Gen2 • Built for desktop virtualization • Cost – Much Lower • Complexity – Greatly Reduced

with separate GUI’s for administrators and users

• Coverage – Expanded to offline, branch, WIN + Linux + Mobile

What is VDI Gen2?

What is VDI Gen2?

What is VDI Gen2?

Use Case

In the VERDE environment, this is how you can administer open source versioning software and desktop publishing software to multiple users in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI Gen2).

Preparing the Desktop Session for How the Gold Image can be Accessed

The normal setting is important since session users will always get the latest updates while the user’s data in the session remains persistent.

Preparing Applications

Decide where you want to download your package creation tool. You can generally download it to a client workstation, dedicated IT server, or other non host server device. These are desktop and end-user computing tools that package applications for use on servers and cluster servers. – Examples of package creation tools include

ThinApp SPOON ZENworks Cameyo InstallFree

ThinApp and InstallFree cannot be installed on the host server for the following reasons: If the host server OS is Linux-based (because they are dependent on Windows

environments) Host servers must receive applications in package format to install correctly

Delivering Authoring Tools

Download the following tools to a client workstation, dedicated IT server, or other non host server device. Source control software such as Tortoise

SVN (http://tortoisesvn.net). Desktop publishing tool that allows

simultaneous and multi-authoring for code resolution (not binary) such as MadCap Flare.

Put the applications in appropriate packages (.exe or .msi, for example). You may also need to have .zip package installers on each host server to handle imported virtual applications. Use your packaging tool to upload the applications from the VERDE Console (management dashboard) to the VERDE Server.

Graphic Source: http://mashstream.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Single_source_authoring.jpg

Preparing the Application Layer

• Next, from an Internet browser, access the VERDE Management Console (VERDE Console) and create a new Application Layer.

• Import/upload the application package files from the VERDE Console to the VERDE Server.

Preparing Each End User’s Authoring Session

1. Assign your application layers to the corresponding Gold Image that you want your end user to work from (Windows or Linux).

2. Make sure you have proper licensing of all types of software. Find out if it is per server or per user and apply licenses accordingly.

3. Set up local directories for each end user’s session. These directories will keep persistent user data and the Tortoise SVN client will recognize check-in/check-outs.

Run End User Tools from Sessions

Internet-Based • Ticketing systems

– Assembla – GitHub

• Google Apps • 37-Signal Apps

Application Layering • Skype • Evernote • Adobe CS5 • Many more!

Security

Security Changj, Thank you for your question. Data at rest security is implemented across the board. Since important data is stored on the servers and not on the clients, files are not stored or transmitted unless policy permits it to a device. If a device is lost, destroyed, or stolen, the data sits on the server and is not affected. We implement policy-based access control regarding printing, usage, and device access. Additional policies can also be used to restrict sharing, printing, clipboard sharing, and even local USB device access. VERDE follows Authentication, Authorization, and Auditing security protocols. In addition, VERDE has protocol encryption (SSL) to make sure that granular items such as keystrokes and pixels are secured. This means that even the bits and pieces that hackers could use to put together data are safely encrypted.

-Leo Reiter, CTO of Virtual Bridges

Security

Isolated Gateway Configuration

Project Management for 24/7 Authoring Making sure users always have access

to their desktops, applications, and data help keep up the productivity

Source: Joomla! Development Cycle Documentation featuring the Montano Wheel http://docs.joomla.org/Development_Cycle

Project Management for 24/7 Authoring

The infrastructure shouldn’t ever replace face-to-face or real-time interaction, but the primary goal is to generate discussion between development and doc teams using methods such as internal crowdsourcing.

Focus on the audience/the true end-users and work closely with testers to avoid groupthink

Make sure your team has tools that are: Accessible Secure Accountable Trackable Fosters communication/collaboration

Project Management for 24/7 Authoring

Mike Markel’s advice about collaboration: Distribute and act on information

quickly...Acting fast to get collaborators the information they need will help ensure that the group makes effective decisions and makes steady progress toward completing the project.

Be flexible regarding schedule and

responsibilities. Adjust your plan and methods...Move forward by listening…

Integrate project management skills/tools with the best type of infrastructure for global content development: Needs analyses Information plans Specifications Project plans Put decisions in writing... Aggregate conversations... Use Groupware: Combine technologies to achieve effective digital collaboration methods. Keep it simple.

Project Management for 24/7 Authoring Collaboration types should be

considered: Mesh and manage based on job specialty, stages of the writing process, and the section of the document. But, it is important to have a review of all aspects within the entire context to make sure the content strategy is sound. Plan and edit to avoid disjointed content.

Well-defined projects and cycles Keep an internally global calendar that tracks all holidays and nuances of cultures working together Daylight Savings Time Religious/Government/National Holidays What do you do when it is all written in English, but it is not clear?

oPlan effective overlaps using time and date tools. o Plan in time cushions to resolve issues.

Project Management for 24/7 Authuring

Enable your content development ecosystem to hand all kinds of interactions and connectivity

Work with countries where technology could be Disconnected Offline Compromised bandwidth

Build intracorporate social networking where the web of interaction is tight and communication aggregated.

Platform, environment, interaction | Cloud services, data portability, stickiness Empower authors to collaborate and create content with powerful desktop publishing software, applications, and other tools using thin clients, tablets, mobile devices, bare minimum so that the most up to date information can be captured and easily tested How do you deal with multi-media that may require higher, faster bandwidth? Allow moderation, metrics, secure interactions