Five Tips for Creating New Oracle Analytics Cloud Services (OACS) Instances

Recently, I have been assisting customers with creating new Oracle PaaS instances – specifically OACS – and I have come up with a few tips for those new to the process.

Tip #1:  Keep a copy of the certificate pair you generate.

PaaS instances require key pair for communication between instances and are also required for remote SSH/SCP access.  I am able to reduce clutter by using the same key pair for all instances in a single identity domain.  Keep copies of the keys you generate and name them appropriately.

Tip #2:  Use a password vault

I quickly learned that memorizing user accounts and passwords for a single identity domain was impossible – for me.  Using a password vault has given me a secure means to organize accounts used during configuration and creation of new PaaS instances.

Tip #3:  Use generic service type accounts

Provision a generic service administrator account for use when creating PaaS instances.  Maybe this is a pet peeve, but I do not like seeing named email addresses in configuration information.  For example, the configured network name in OACS includes the user name that created it.

Tip #4:  Take screen shots… lots of them

I have had to create the same instances, from scratch, three times due to the frequency of patches and the early OACS release’s ability to accept patches.  Prior to OACS 17.4, the only method of obtaining new functionality and bug fixes was to scrape away the current instance and create it again.  Since I’ve had to do this a few times now, I have assembled screen shots of every configuration screen.

Tip #5:  Check your license – twice

The compute shape and number of database instances are tied to your license.  Oracle will merrily bill you if you exceed the number of OCPU (in an unmetered subscription).

Oracle Analytics Cloud Service (Essbase) has a handy command line interface that’s useful for remote execution of Essbase and system type functions such as running a backup.  This short article is simply a means to share a script that I use to run a simple Lifecycle Manager extract of one Essbase application.  This works well for smaller applications, however, you may want to make some changes for larger Essbase applications – specifically with regards to the data export.  I have been using this simple batch file for weeks to run a quick backup of our application prior to making a change that could cost me a bunch of time to recover from.  When the script completes, you will have a Zip of your application and data on the machine you run this from.

First things first though.  Here’s a summary of prerequisites you need to complete before you can run a batch file that uses the Essbase CLI.

1. Download and install the latest Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK). I used the default installation path.
2. Download and unzip the Essbase CLI.
3. Modify this script. I’ll point out with remarks lines that you should change.

::***************************************************************

::* Script Name:  backupOACS.bat

::* Author:  C Dunn, Perficient, Inc

::* Date:  2017/08/25

::* Description:  Exports all artifacts and data from the

::*               OACS FinRpt application to the path specified

::*               in the variables.

::***************************************************************

:: Set the JAVA_HOME to the path the JDK was installed.

SET JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_144

:: Set the CLI_PATH to the location the Essbase CLI was unzipped to.

SET CLI_PATH=C:\MyScripts\CommandLineInterface

:: Output is captured and logged.  This path can be changed to the location you want a log file.

SET LOG_PATH=C:\MyScripts\Logs\backupDev.log

SET TODAYSDATE=%date:~10,4%-%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%

:: Extracted artifacts and data will zipped on the OACS server then downloaded to the EXPORT_PATH.

SET EXPORT_PATH=C:\MyScripts\Backups

:: Set the file name.  I usually include the date in the file name so

:: I can schedule the script to run once per day.

SET ZIP_NAME=FinRpt_%TODAYSDATE%.zip

:: The URL is the URL for the OACS Essbase instance you will be connecting to.  Replace <IPADDRESS> with the IP of your instance.

SET URL=https://<IPADDRESS>/essbase

:: Set the USR and PW to an OACS Essbase account and password with administrator privileges.

SET USR=<ADMINISTRATOR>

SET PW=<PASSWORD>

:: Set the name of the application you will be exporting.

SET APP=FinRpt

ECHO %CLI_PATH%>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %TODAYSDATE%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %EXPORT_PATH%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %ZIP_NAME%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %URL%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %USR%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %APP%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO %JAVA_HOME%>>%LOG_PATH%

ECHO .

CD %CLI_PATH%

:: CALL is required because ESSCS prevents further execution in the same process.

:: Use the Essbase CLI to log in to the OACS Essbase instance.

CALL esscs login -user %USR% -password %PW% -url %URL% >>%LOG_PATH%

:: Use the Essbase CLI to execute an LCM export of the application specified.  –skipdata false is used to include data in the export.  You may want to change the value to true if you have a large application.

esscs lcmexport -application %APP% -skipdata  false -zipFileName %ZIP_NAME% -overwrite true -localDirectory %EXPORT_PATH% >>%LOG_PATH%

esscs logout >>%LOG_PATH%

Moving members in an Oracle Analytic Cloud Essbase outline is not as easy as it is in EAS Console. Here’s an overview of a not-so-genius method I found.

Scenario: An account moves to a different parent. There is no move method in the OACS outline editor and if the account is shared elsewhere, we cannot just delete and re-add the member. Also moving requires that the prototype and the shared members be deleted, the outline saved, then the members added in the new location. This will obviously kill any data associated with the original member.

Assumption: The prototype member will always precede the shared member in the outline.

1. Create a new load rule that allows moves for the dimension. The default is “Not OK” so this must be changed.
2. Create a text file with ONLY the member(s) that are moving with the new parent.
3. Upload the text file to the OACS instance.
4. Create and run a build dimension job that uses the rule created in step one and the text file uploaded in step three.

When planning an out-of-town vacation, do you diligently ensure that you have someone lined up to water your plants, feed your goldfish, and keep an eye on your home?   What about your Hyperion environment? Do you hire a managed services provider to take care of your systems and watch over your applications while you are away? Who keeps the lights on?

Below are a couple vacation scenarios with my two cents worth of advice:

Scenario 1:  I’m the Hyperion admin and I NEED this vacation! (or any other type of absence).

Advice:  Partner with a managed services provider who has a strong Oracle EPM practice as well as a history of product, application, and infrastructure support. In fact, do it now. Agile providers can offer a variety of low cost services to support you while you are working and can scale their support when the time comes for you to take a break. The existence of a successful Oracle EPM practice ensures the provider will have the skills available that are necessary to support you for unexpected events but also to provide a surge in staff when you finally decide to disconnect.

Scenario 2:  I’m a Systems Admin and I’m the one the Hyperion Administrator calls when something is not working. My boss might let me take vacation if I complain to HR.

Advice:  Seek out a managed services provider who can not only be that lifeline when something breaks but can also work on your behalf during your vacation to establish a more proactive approach to monitoring your systems. This can be a long term engagement where the provider performs the monitoring or a very short project before you leave to coach you in best practices for monitoring.  While you are away, you will know that your systems are being handled by skilled sys admins who want your functional counterpart to be successful too.

There are a number of things to consider when hiring a managed service provider to support you and your system. Here’s some advice.

What’s included?  If you have to pay a monthly fee, there should be something in return, like guaranteed service levels or a block of support/consulting hours.

Ask the candidate about service levels.  Managed services providers offer a variety of service level agreements to customers.  Here are some of the more common service levels offered in this industry.

• Response Time is the maximum elapsed time before a viable response is provided. Key word here is VIABLE.  An automated email reply is NOT a viable response – it’s lazy. A call back with an answer or a request for a specific screenshot, log file, or a web based screen sharing session are viable.
• Work (or Resolution) Plan Time is the maximum amount of time that will elapse before a resolution or work plan is provided. Keep in mind that many fire-fighting events (break-fix) would skip this step and move right into troubleshooting and remediation.  Work plans may vary widely in detail.  Remember, someone is getting paid to put a plan together. Expect costs to be higher for detailed work plans that include requirements.
• Work Commencement Time is the maximum amount of time that will elapse before work will start. This service level is typically encountered for work requested that has a healthy duration such as the development of complex business logic or reports.

Ask questions about the tools that the candidate will expect to use in your on-premises environments. Many organizations are particularly sensitive about vendors using any tools that may facilitate remote access to systems without regard to corporate VPN systems.  We use tools so we can be more agile, keep our labor costs down, and help us keep our finger on the pulse of your systems.  Most remote management and monitoring (RMM) tools are quite robust and secure. Ask how the tools are secured and how they will document system access and changes.

Accountability is important too.  Ask the candidate how they account for billable time. How much visibility will you have of time entries?  What happens when the vendor exceeds estimates?  How are resolutions for incidents documented?

Crowded overseas call centers tend to frustrate those in need of help. Ask the prospect about their call centers. You should know if the first line of support is going to be qualified to address most of your issues.  Ask them how their support is tiered. Busy organizations follow a multi-tiered support model which typically reduces response times, however, the first tier may be nothing more than someone to document additional details about your issue.

Onboarding is the process of analyzing and documenting current system state which is also the time a vendor will install tools for monitoring and remote management of systems.  Ask the vendor about their onboarding process. Don’t forget to ask about price. Don’t let yourself be surprised to see a billable line item for onboarding or installation from some vendors when your contract arrives.

What about off-boarding? Yes, that’s a technical term. Removing their tools will be easy. Ask if they have a graceful process for facilitating knowledge transfer to you and your team when they pull out.

Yes, this is a lot to consider when choosing a managed services partner. You do want to relax during your time away from the office right?

The Essbase Block Storage (BSO) database is a powerful calculation engine capable of executing oodles of formulae with very few lines of code. But there’s a catch. You need to learn how to do it right.

A poorly written calculation in an Essbase BSO cube can yield some pretty spectacular results.  Here are a few examples that I have seen:

• An individual wrote a calculation script to seed a forecast with actual data. The author omitted reference to the year and completely overwrote all historical years in the forecast with actual data.
• A poorly written calculation script kept running until the Essbase server ran out of disk space.
• An inexperienced developer wrote a very complex calculation script that yielded correct data but took days to run.

Some people can learn to avoid mistakes like these by reading and study. Others need mentoring or a classroom setting. On June 13^th I’ll be teaching the two-day Oracle Essbase 11.1.2 Calculate Block Storage Databases class at our education facility in Houston, Texas.  This Oracle University course is a great way to see some of these types of mistakes in action as well as learn how to avoid them. You’ll also learn:

• Some great methods for improving performance of your existing calculations.
• The calculation development life cycle.
• Calculation script design principles.
• How to use AGGMISSG, UPDATECALC, and CALCCACHE to optimize calculation performance.
• And a bunch more…

Instruction from the Essbase Calculation Block Storage Databases course applies to anyone developing calculations directly in Essbase or those developing business rules for Hyperion Planning.

Click here if you want to know more about Oracle Training at Perficient.

I breathed a sigh of relief last Friday when I learned that Microsoft had patched a vulnerability in March that was recently exploited by the WannaCrypt0r ransomware.  I opt to have Windows OS updates installed automatically on my workstation so I was protected before the ransomware poked through the crust from the bowels of its maker.

So what is the best practice for managing Windows patches on Oracle EPM (Hyperion) servers?

“Manage patches, don’t inflict them.”

This is the same philosophy I have with change control. Manage in lieu of inflicting. Be proactive. So here are a couple pointers to help you manage Windows patches on your EPM servers:

1. Get informed by subscribing to the Microsoft Technical Security Notification Services. Create a Microsoft Live account if don’t already have one then update your subscription preferences:  https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/subscriptionwizard.aspx?wizid=5a2a311b-5189-4c9b-9f1a-d5e913a26c2e&lcid=1033
2. Stay up to date on Oracle security updates by subscribing to Oracle Security Alerts. Log in to Oracle Technical Network then select the Account link at the top of the page.  Select the Subscriptions page of your Profile then subscribe to Security Alerts in the “Oracle privacy policy and security notifications” section.

According to GI Joe, “Knowing is only half the battle.” Getting the security alerts is step one. The next step is to take action. I won’t insult your intelligence by describing how you should read the security notices and patch release notes, but, you must read them. Only then can you make an informed decision as to whether you need to apply patches or other updates based on your organization’s tolerance for risk.

I also recommend you take action for your home computers. The Guardian published a nice article¹ last week about how to defend against the ransomware here:  http://theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/15/windows-xp-patch-wannacry-ransomware-wecry-wanacrypt0r. I couldn’t write it better.

1. Hern, Alex. “How to protect your computer against the ransomware attack”, theguardian, 15 May 2017, theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/15/windows-xp-patch-wannacry-ransomware-wecry-wanacrypt0r. Accessed 16 May 2017.

Do you like being awakened by a phone call from an unfriendly manager because a system you are responsible for has failed?

Do you enjoy a good old-fashioned scolding by an executive because a financial system you support is running so slow that the user community has become unproductive?

Do you have so much time available that you avoid scripting a little automation for those routine and repeatable tasks?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, please stop reading and call your doctor. You are sick.

Scenario

You are a system administrator responsible for supporting and managing a multi-server production environment where a variety of crucial transaction and analytic applications are running to produce financial data that drives a number of key C level decisions. You are confident that a failure could not occur because you have spent countless hours tweaking the operating system and virtual machine settings on those systems. In fact, you haven’t seen a failure or received a performance complaint since going live last month.

It’s 0’dark thirty and you are comfortably asleep with your face buried in your overly soft pillow dreaming that you are in the CIO’s office and she is offering you that director position that just recently became vacant. Just as you are accepting the position, you notice outside her window a police car passing with its siren blaring… and you wake up, realizing that the siren is really your mobile phone.  Thankfully, you forgot to place your phone on “vibrate.” Key users of a system you support have been calling the help desk because they can’t log in.  You answer the phone and learn that users in Europe and Asia have been unable to log in since around 3:00 AM.

After a brief apology to your spouse for the early AM wake up, you rub the sleep out of your eyes and run to the kitchen to fire up your laptop.  After what seems like an eternity (really only 8 minutes) you are connected to the corporate VPN and launch a remote desktop to one of your EPM servers.  You quickly realize that all of the Oracle EPM services are stopped on the Windows servers and reflexively kick off the startup script. After another 30 minutes, you are able to verify that everything is operational and communicate this to the after-hours help desk.  Your deed is done.  Only an hour of lost sleep… for now.

The next Wednesday morning around the same time, you get another rude awakening that the same thing has occurred.  This time, it was your boss calling to find out what is going on and she wants root cause.  So, you break out the laptop again, apologize to your spouse, connect to the VPN and kick off a startup script.  You are wide awake this time knowing that this is not an isolated occurrence so you are determined to find the cause of the failure.  After a ten minute scan through the Windows event logs, you find the culprit.  Your bright and shiny servers were not put into a Windows update rotation during planned maintenance periods.  The servers had received updates two weeks in a row that were automatically installed and the servers restarted as a result of those updates.

Problem

You do not have any tools in place to identify issues, automatically resolve issues, or alert you when some issues cannot be automatically resolved.

Solution

You need a Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tool.

What is Remote Monitoring and Management?

Remote monitoring and management is the proactive monitoring of system activity and often includes capability for reactive remediation and alerting of issues identified.  There are a number of software vendors that produce RMM suites of tools.  A few of the more populate vendors of RMM software are Computer Associates, Nagios, Manage Engine, ConnectWise, and Kaseya.  Most RMM suites provide the following functionality:

• Monitor services, processes, URLs, and ports for up/down and trigger alerts when down conditions arise.
• Secure tunneled remote desktop / VNC capability without the need for a separate VPN connection.
• Automatic remediation of condition based failures such as system restarts, process failures, or excessive resource utilization.
• Manage Windows patching by adhering specific maintenance windows.

Sounds pretty smart huh?  Well, it can be.  Let’s break down your situation described above and identify how just about any RMM system could have helped you these past two weeks.

There are a lot of ways to accomplish much of the same results without investing in another software package.  We decided to invest in RMM software after doing this the hard way for several years for a number of customers we were providing managed services for.  These tools have enabled our SupportNet team to keep our finger on the pulse of the systems we support.  Use of these tools for monitoring not only provides alerting for actual failures, but also for expected failures based on symptoms such as excessive resource utilization, stuck WebLogic threads, and even latency in URL response.

The benefits? Increased availability, reduced response time when failures occur, improved forensics capability (post mortem), and fewer apologies to your spouse.

At Perficient, our SupportNet team uses a variety of tools for analyzing logs across the Oracle applications. There are a number of different file formats, which often makes parsing logs troublesome. We have adopted use of regular expressions to help parse the variety of formats that we have to routinely analyze.

“A regular expression (regex or regexp for short) is a special text string for describing a search pattern. You can think of regular expressions as wildcards on steroids.”¹

LogMX is a commercial software package from LightlySoft which provides a nifty interface for parsing log files. The tool utilizes regular expressions for parsing logs so you can essentially parse any text log provided you spend the time necessary developing the format for the regular expression.

The tool is very handy for parsing the various Oracle Diagnostic Log (ODL) formatted logs as well as application logs from JVMs running under WebLogic.  When a file is opened in LogMX, it is quickly analyzed to determine if any of your defined parsers (named regex) match the format of the file.  When if finds a parser, it very quickly parses the file into columns and rows in accordance with the regular expression.  For example, the regular expression “\[(.*?)\](.*?)/(.*?)/(.*?)/(.*?)/(.*?)/(.*?)\((.*?)\)\n(.*?)” will provide a parsed Essbase application log into this:

Row background colors are defined based on the severity level of the error.  From here, I can right-click any cell and filter the result set to all rows with the same or with different values.  For example, I can filter on the MessageID and display all calc script completion messages:

The message level is indexed so the tool can very quickly prune the display to only a specific severity of message, i.e. just a severity of ERROR.

Filtering is very strong and custom filters can be saved.  I keep a white list of MessageID values that I know are not bad and add a lot of junk to the log for me to analyze. Instead of scrolling past these errors, I filter them out and am left with messages I am either unfamiliar with or know to be bad. This filtering saves us weeks of effort over the period of a year.

LogMX is a slick tool for postmortem analysis and even for proactive analysis of logs.  I also consider it a “gateway” tool to more robust enterprise log monitoring systems such as SumoLogic and Splunk. What you learn about regular expressions in LogMX can easily be applied to many of the enterprise grade log monitoring systems.

1. “Welcome to Regular-Expressions.info.” Regular-Expressions.info, http://www.regular-expressions.info, Accessed 3 May 2017.

Smart View 11.1.2.5.700 was released on Friday and brings a few new anticipated features. Here is a recap from the patch readme:

• You can now insert Planning forms as charts into Microsoft PowerPoint, giving you a graphical display of the information in the form.
• The Oracle Journals extension now supports opening Oracle Hyperion Financial Management journal reports in Excel. You can view journal reports to check journal status and to review journal adjustments. This also brings a handful of new VBA functions to support Journals. To take advantage of all of the new functions, you will need to apply the Financial Management 11.1.2.4.204 and the 11.1.2.5.204 PSE 25575655 patches.
• Two new VBA functions for Essbase – one to retrieve a calculation script into a string variable and the other to execute a calculation script string.
• A new Smart View function, HsAlias, is now available. The HsAlias function displays the alias of the specified dimension member. This function is supported for Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud platform services, including Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud, Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud, Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, and Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud.
• The HsDescription function is now supported by Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud, Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud, Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud, and Oracle Analytics Cloud – Essbase.
• You can now define cell styles specific to Oracle Profitability and Cost Management Cloud using the “PCM” category in the Cell Styles page of the Options dialog box.

You can download the latest Smart View release from My Oracle Support. Search for the Oracle Knowledge Article, 1923582.1.

Cisco recently released their Annual Cybersecurity report for 2017, which revealed several statistics I thought were real eye openers. You can pick up a copy here: http://b2me.cisco.com/en-us-annual-cybersecurity-report-2017.

Of the major findings in this document, I consider a few quite concerning, in particular:

“Spam accounts for nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of total email volume… about 8 percent to 10 percent of the global spam observed in 2016 could be classified as malicious” (Cisco, Inc).  As an IT or Finance professional, your email application sits in the foreground of your work space for most of your day.  Cisco’s researchers give credit to the recent increase in global spam to the Necurs botnet which they indicate is the primary vector for the Locky ransomware.

Ransomware is a malicious software that blocks your access to a computer system until a ransom is paid. Locky is particularly nasty in that it encrypts information on PC or server hard drives. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was a victim when Locky gained entry into the network and proceeded to encrypt data. Hospital administrators chose to pay the $17,000 ransom to obtain the decryption key so they could resume operations.

I don’t have $17,000 to spare. You probably don’t either so here are a few ideas to protect yourself personally from this kind of nastiness. These really only scratch the surface but these steps are something most people can do without too much help.

1. Use antivirus and anti-malware software. Pay the annual subscription fees if required. Some internet service providers offer a limited number of installations of popular antivirus software that include regular updates.
2. Don’t store important data on your PC or laptop. If you get infected, wipe and reuse.
3. If you must store important data on your PC or laptop, keep two backups. Yes, two. I know it’s inconvenient.  Your first should be an external hard drive that is only connected when you are performing your backup.  The second should be in the cloud, for example Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive.  Your cloud storage should not be automatically connected when you start your computer.  This gives the malware opportunity to spread.  Instead, only run the sync program once per day when you are performing a backup.
4. Keep your operating system and software you use updated.  Don’t be that person who only updates when a new version is released.  That person gets infected.  Be the person who routinely applies updates to software – especially your operating system and antivirus software.

Cisco, Inc., “Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report”, March 2017, Downloaded from
http://b2me.cisco.com/en-us-annual-cybersecurity-report-2017

Fragmentation of Essbase block storage databases occurs as a result of routine data changes, data loads, and calculations. Essbase has two database statistics that measure database fragmentation: the average clustering ratio and the average fragmentation quotient. Check out this article from the Oracle Customer Engineering & Advocacy Lab for a more thorough description of BSO data fragmentation:

https://blogs.oracle.com/pa/entry/essbase_bso_data_fragmentation

In the recent Essbase version, I have become more dependent on the average fragmentation quotient than the average clustering ratio as a measure of fragmentation because I nearly always multithread database restructures by using RESTRUCTURETHREADS in the Essbase configuration. Because restructures are using multiple threads, I can never get to a fully clustered database, however, multithreaded restructures will significantly reduce the average fragmentation quotient.

You can manually check for fragmentation in an Essbase database using two methods. In Essbase Administration Services (EAS) Console, simply right-click the database you wish to check then select Edit > Properties in the context menu. Select the Statistics tab of the properties window and note the last Blocks statistic displayed, “Average clustering ratio.”

The second method is a single line MAXL command which will output all of the database statistics including the average fragmentation quotient.

query database ‘APPNAME’.’DBNAME’ get dbstats data_block;

The query produces a single row of data with all of the database block properties including the average fragmentation quotient. The image below is a snap of just the two fragmentation properties.

This data can be easily output to a file by using the spool command in a MAXL script as follows:

spool stdout on to ‘E:\Temp\mydbstats.txt’;
query database ‘APPNAME’.’DBNAME’ get dbstats data_block;

When the script is executed, the output looks like this:

I will then run the following command to remove the command from the spooled output so the file is reduced to a very consistent layout.

type E:\Temp\mydbstats.txt | findstr /v MAXL >E:\Temp\essdbstats.txt

And now the output looks like…

The file format is consistent across many versions of Essbase so I can reuse this methodology across nearly all of our support clients.  Once the file is output, I can use a variety of tools to check the contents of the file at the precise position of the statistics I wish to monitor. Nearly all commercial monitoring tools have some sort of text file parser which can be leveraged to extract what is needed.

I use a remote monitoring and management tool which can capture the contents of a text file then use substring functions to return the average clustering ratio and average fragmentation quotient as variables:

Finally, I compare these values to thresholds I set for each database and raise alerts in the monitoring tool accordingly.

Coworking is a style of work where an employee shares a working environment with others who are typically not employed by the same organization. This style of work is attractive to independent contractors, work-at-home professionals, and others who often work in relative isolation.

I expect to see a rise in rural coworking as more companies adopt Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and cloud-based applications like Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS).  Employees whose corporate applications have moved to the cloud will no longer be restricted to doing routine work in the traditional brick-and-mortar office but will be enabled to work from home, or anywhere else they can get a good, secure internet connection.

Since 2006, the number of coworking spaces has roughly doubled each year¹. This trend will likely continue as companies adopt more lenient policies for working remotely. Here are a few benefits to coworking versus working from home:

1. No cubicles. Many of the coworking spaces are very open, unless you pay for a private office.
2. Coworking spaces are usually fully equipped. At the entry level, you can get good internet connectivity and refreshments. More secure and stable internet connectivity provides a healthy alternative to the local coffee shop.
3. The more chic spaces deliberately encourage networking and collaboration by hosting frequent events for members. For example, one company I researched hosts weekly member presentations where you can make a sales pitch or present an idea, and then get feedback.
4. Coworking spaces are not just for nerds. Many industrial coworking spaces are cropping up where members can share bench time on pricey tools such as lathes and 3D printers.

Here are some things you should look for in a coworking space if you are interested in an alternative to the local coffee shop or the home office:

1. Tour the facilities in your area. If you find one you like, ask the proprietor if you can get a free or reduced cost trial. Try before you commit to any contract.  During a trial, talk to other people and get their likes and dislikes.
2. If you find one you like, drop in and check the population and noise level in common work areas during times you expect to frequent it. Some people can tune out background noise easily but you probably need to look elsewhere if you have to crank up Metallica tunes in your headphones to drown it out.
3. Coworking companies are in business to make money. Prices will range widely. Competition is scarce in rural areas but it is growing.

1. “The Future of Coworking: coworking visas, corporate partnerships and real-estate specialists”. Martin Pasquier. Innovation Is Everywhere. Retrieved 25 January 2017.