Operating as cloud first: What it really takes
Let’s take a look back to a time before COVID-19. Systems engineers walked the datacenter floor and managed the infrastructure on-site. A team could purchase, physically receive, and rack-and-stack new infrastructure if needed to run critical platforms on an OpEx model. For many, this former reality seems like a long lost memory.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, price instability has limited predictive budgeting, manufacturers have faced debilitating delays and individuals can no longer enter and exit a datacenter at will. The demand for web-based applications has increased as consumers change the way they interact with everything from grocery shopping to entertainment. Many organizations are facing a harsh reality of working to meet demand while relying on an unstable supply chain.
Bomaker Polaris is an ultra-short-throw 4K laser projector that promises top-notch picture quality at a (relatively) affordable price [Update]
Bomaker has announced that it will soon launch a 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector on Indiegogo, and early birds can grab a substantial discount on the device when it goes live for crowdfunding.
Bomaker, which manufactures sound bars as well as projectors, has revealed the specs of the Polaris 4K Laser TV, which the firm promises delivers much better results than rival projectors (DLP or laser).
The challenges of video conferencing interoperability
It’s a scenario we all know too well and one that has happened in workplaces around the world. As colleagues gather together in the boardroom to start an important video meeting with a client, they’re stopped in their tracks when they realize they are waiting in a Microsoft Teams Room and the client is on Google Meet.
Then the IT department find themselves on the other end of frantic calls and the inevitable question -- 'How do we get this to work?' This can be a frustrating experience, especially for organizations that have invested in expensive hardware or unified communication services.
Delivering value to a remote workforce: A practical approach
The overnight switch to remote working triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented amount of change to the usual ways of working. The impact will continue to be felt for the foreseeable future -- and as a result, IT departments’ approach to delivering services to their organizations will need to keep pace with the evolving requirements of this newly remote staff.
To that end, IT needs to embed itself deeper in the organization to understand the unique requirements of every single stakeholder -- be it the C-suite or the manager answering the customer call -- so that those professionals can do their jobs effectively, enabling the business to realize its strategic goals. In practical terms, what does this mean? How can IT departments put these tactics into practice in their enterprises?
Redefining Security post-pandemic: Empowering change control in the new normal
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has added a new dimension to the security, compliance, and digital transformation demand landscape. Now, more than ever, it is increasingly important for organizations to embed security solutions and processes that reduce complexity and massively increase the automation of killer manual tasks.
Last month, our team at New Net Technologies had the opportunity to host a virtual panel on securing digital transformation and what COVID-19 means for cybersecurity as we continue to navigate the growing remote workforce. The panel, which consisted of several security experts, focused on the topic of redefining security in a post-pandemic world. The session kicked off with the question, 'Have you noticed a more compliant workforce?'.
The importance of TLS/SSL decryption in a zero-trust model
With upwards of two-thirds of UK adults set to work remotely for the remainder of this year, it’s clear that the pandemic will create a larger attack surface, and increase opportunities for cyber criminals. In effect, the enterprise perimeter has not only expanded but it has also become much more distributed.
Likewise, modern cyber attacks are not just limited to network intrusion from the outside. Internal threat actors can often be found at the center of sophisticated attacks. Therefore, today, threats come from both inside and outside the organization, via the business partner and supplier ecosystem, and through employees working remotely. This means we need to re-assess and re-think the way we defend our networks, users and data. For example, organizations will need more support around connecting and managing BYOD devices on the home network, including sharing of policies and tools around sensitive data, which could be accessed via insecure Wi-Fi. Additionally, with ransomware, phishing and DDoS attacks growing exponentially, they will also be looking for technologies that enable them to protect networks from cyber attacks, especially those that threaten network availability.
How MSPs can gain a competitive edge with automations
It’s been quite a year for MSPs and IT service providers. Across the country, work volume increased rapidly in the early days of the pandemic, with businesses scrambling to enable remote operations and set up employees to work from home.
As the year progresses, many MSPs are considering how to work more efficiently and effectively to meet customer demand while combatting pandemic-related challenges. They are now looking for ways to improve workload management, maximize revenue and gain a competitive edge.
BYO e-commerce: Harnessing the trend for future growth by overcoming operational challenges
It’s no surprise e-commerce activity is growing at unprecedented rates as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and local governments’ stay-at-home orders. In fact, e-commerce spending came in at $77 billion higher than expected from March-June of 2020.
Despite a push for more sophisticated e-commerce strategies even pre-pandemic, many retailers are hesitant to adopt new technology to manage the growing trend and often lose out on potential avenues of revenue as a result.
The most vulnerable tech professions during COVID-19
In May, the United States hit a 14.7 percent unemployment rate and more than 20 million jobs lost since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the highest level of job loss to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression. While things have improved since then, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent for September 2020, the economy remains in an uncertain position.
While many industries have been hit hard by the COVID crisis, from airlines to restaurants to live music venues, the pandemic and its economic reverberations have touched every business in some way. A litmus test is the tech sector. What was once a booming part of the American economy is now struggling with the same challenges as every other industry.
Making the most out of your technology stack in times of economic uncertainty
Variations on the expression "to make do" are found throughout the western world. They are typically used in connection with managing situations where some of the resources you would prefer to have are missing, as in 'making do' by preparing a meal with several key ingredients missing. However, the concept of making do doesn’t just apply to domestic life; it applies with equal force to business life -- particularly at a time when corporate finances are strained and securing an ideal mix of resources may not be an option.
The economic shock triggered by the global pandemic has been precisely that sort of situation for many businesses -- companies that have seen their revenues plummet and been forced to slash back on spending. While their ideal stack of digital assets might include new licenses for sexy enterprise software, that sort of outlay may not be possible. Yet the organization’s need for operational efficiency has become more critical than ever -- even a matter of survival.
How to solve your data storage dilemma with cloud object storage
In a world that thrives on the consumption of data, it is not surprising that today we are witnessing tremendous data growth to the point that it is now in danger of overwhelming organizations.
This is creating massive data sprawl whereby many organizations are experiencing a slowdown in operational productivity and efficiency and this sprawl is hampering future innovation and growth.
Why cloud security is more important than ever
In today’s modern, digitized world, persuading organizations to move to the cloud is like pushing against an open door. The business case for cloud is clear -- flexibility, agility, and cost savings. Likewise, cloud technology makes scaling faster, smarter, and more affordable than on-premise servers. No wonder 90 percent of companies are in the cloud. This confirms that cloud usage was already mainstream in 2019; this has increased exponentially in 2020.
Operating in the cloud undoubtedly delivers significant advantages and likewise security improvements for most organizations, but with the increasing number of data breaches and cyber attacks, organizations do need to be more cognizant of what cloud security they have put in place.
Could your business benefit from a cloud backup solution?
The average cost of downtime has been estimated at £193K per hour, so every minute counts if your systems are down or your data has been compromised. Data loss and security breaches are becoming increasingly common events in today’s world. It is not a matter of when, but if a disaster of any kind will happen. All of an organization's information must be protected and readily available at all times in order for a business to survive. Considering this fact, the importance of backups cannot be overestimated and backing up vital data is an integral part of any business’s IT strategy.
Ensuring effective off-site backup solutions is essential to any business, whether large or small. If an organization's backups are not well-managed, comprehensive disaster recovery becomes difficult, if not impossible. Business interruptions happen. It’s how you respond that is important to your bottom line.
Zero Trust Network Access: Bringing trust to BYOD and remote work
Productivity and security can pull enterprises in different directions. Especially in the age of remote work when IT decisions are largely being dictated by the needs of a dispersed workforce. Let’s not forget, that remote work isn’t about an employee in a satellite office equipped with on-premise security infrastructure.
Remote work is about end users who work whenever, wherever, and from any device they choose. While this model has great productivity benefits, it’s placing IT and security teams on the backfoot and forcing them to protect business critical data in more places than ever before.
Bouncing back: Disaster recovery and data protection during a pandemic
Even organizations with solid disaster recovery (DR) and data protection plans in place now need to re-visit their strategies due to the significant changes levied by COVID-19. However, the fact is, most companies were unprepared to begin with, and data protection and DR -- already a tricky proposition -- became even more difficult and complex during the pandemic.
Overnight, companies of all sizes went remote. Initially, IT handed out laptops to staff as they left the building or relied on employee-owned devices. Many users connected to the corporate server via virtual private network (VPN), which were complex for IT to manage, difficult to provision, hard to scale and often providing poor performance.
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