Business

Business

Does BYOD Present Security Issues?

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The BYOD model is becoming increasingly prevalent, as employers and employees alike embrace the smartphone boom. Now productivity can be increased as employees can have constant access to their company’s online services.

However, with this ease of access come security risks that are worth considering. If you have, or are intending, to adopt BYOD solutions in your business it’s important to be aware of the effect, both positive and negative, that it could have on your business.

One of the major problems in the BYOD market is the lack of enhanced mobile security in communications between devices. At the moment, many BYOD enabled networks use the built-in security measures that employee’s smartphones come with. This could be a potential security vulnerability that could be exploited.

Another challenge for the BYOD market is the difficulty for businesses in tracking deployed assets. This is because once a mobile device is deployed in an organisation, tracking it becomes increasingly difficult, even with the implementation of BYOD security solutions. Both of the above areas have been considered in more depth in a market report by Infinity Research that found several security vulnerabilities in the BYOD model.

Security vulnerabilities

The report stated that one of the major drivers in the BYOD market is the need for enhanced mobile communication security. Most businesses are not properly safeguarding online networks and proper mobile device management (MDM) is paramount. Using MDM enterprise software allows an organisation to better protect and control data and configuration amongst mobile devices within an organisational network.

Business

How to Make Your Data Centre More Eco-friendly

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There are a number of factors that cause data centres to consume significant amounts of energy and these days, this is something that is less acceptable to many businesses that may want to choose a data centre that allows them to be billed as a ‘green’ company. Can data centres be eco-friendly or are they energy-consuming monsters by nature?

Let’s start with what data centres are designed to do. 

The core of the IT infrastructure

The data centre is at the core of an organisation’s IT operation, where its data is stored, managed and from where key information is distributed for use elsewhere. It is a key part of the organisation’s infrastructure, housing a network’s most critical systems. Ensuring reliability and the security of the data centre is paramount for any organisation. Data centres are now more widely used than ever as they also serve cloud computing models, from application (SaaS) and web hosting to hosting entire IT infrastructures (IaaS).

Business

Big Data – is it possible to define it?

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This is a big question and one which, once fully considered, has massive implications for any business. Every day, businesses are amassing an increasing amount of data and the scope of what can be measured is also expanding at an incredible rate. While businesses are still getting to grips with how to use this data meaningfully, some are struggling to manage it effectively.

Sometimes that means databases becoming corrupt at an increasing rate as they become larger, or more difficult to store effectively in-house. Massive databases may be creating too much demand on infrastructure when being processed at speed or being that diverse in nature that it is difficult to know where to start when organising them into a usable format.

What is Big Data?

Once upon a time, a business would store essential information such as client names and invoice details, order history and accounts records for example. This information would be structured into usable format and, with the dawn of the computer age, tied up with software making it easy to access. Looking back to that era, data was gathered conscientiously and with a definite purpose in mind. The bigger the business was, the bigger the databases required to store its prized information.

Business

How to Build a Data Centre

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Building a data centre is a massive undertaking, but it’s one that many companies may have to face in the near future. Cloud computing and the increasing reliance on web applications and intranets means that current data centres, designed for storage and web hosting, are constantly hitting the wall in terms of capacity and more than 40% of IT architects are now considering expansion of their current centre, or a total new build.

Demand for data centres, whether they be rented spaces or proprietary units, is set to increase dramatically and data storage has even been labelled as “the new oil.” Corporations that simply rent server space are having to up their game and consider moving into data centre builds or face being held to ransom by the industry.

If you’re one of them then it’s important to know what you’re letting yourself in for and to plan for the future.

Think Small, Grow Big                              

The data centres currently out there have become big and slow and the way we’re going, half the world will be covered with huge shipping containers filled with racks of servers. The next generation need to be smaller, streamlined, more effective and energy efficient. It’s time for a total rethink from the ground-up when it comes to what’s required of the modern data centre, so if you’re already investing in the planning process, then you have to think about ways to reduce the company footprint.

Business

The Truth about BYOD

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Virtually everybody is armed with an internet ready phone or tablet in the modern world and in a large company, this means a mass of potential security breaches marching through the door each and every day. Most companies operate some kind of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy now, but it’s a complex and costly animal to control.

Information Week claims that 45% of the 424 managers it surveyed had suffered data loss through the BYOD programme in the past year. 11% were forced to disclose it publicly, which inevitably damaged the company’s reputation.

Mobile Boosts Productivity

In the old days, of course, when a mobile phone was simply a phone, the company provided laptops and other items deemed essential for everyday tasks. Now, almost every employee owns a smartphone and there are huge advantages, as mobility boosts productivity and employees can tap into the work system at any time or in any place.

Business

How to reduce your ICT energy costs

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The larger your company, the higher your ICT energy levels are likely to be if you rely substantially on computers, data banks and/or large networks to operate your day to day business. As an example, many universities and colleges here in the UK spend approximately £147 million per year (opens PDF) on ICT related energy costs (correct at the time of the linked report). For this particular market sector, the UK climate change act of 2008, which targets higher and further education establishments has decreed that they must reduce their carbon footprint by 34% by the year 2020, and 80% by the year 2050, when compared to their energy level consumption back in 1990.

Of course, it’s not only desirable from an environmental point of view, but companies would also benefit from a financial and ethical standpoint too.

Business

5 Top Tech Trends for 2014

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Yup, it’s that time of year again when we all speculate on what’s going to be hot this coming year in the world of technology and what’s on the way out. As the majority of our readers already know, technology moves at an increasingly fast pace, so let’s have a look at what we can expect to be hearing more about in 2014.

Business

Wired vs. Wireless for SME’s

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Wi-Fi is nothing new but it has rocketed in popularity over the course of the last decade. For the individual private consumer, it is both the height of fashion and the height of convenience too. In addition, with more and more people now taking their personal devices into the workplace, under the auspices of BYOD, the decision to use a structured cabling solution, or a wireless one can be tricky.

The Dividing Line between Large Enterprises and SMEs

The only thing that is quite clear in the wireless v wired debate in the business world, is the easily seen dividing line being drawn between large enterprises, and SMEs, whereby the decision of bigger businesses is often more straight forward to make. The larger enterprises are for now sticking with wired LANs in the main, using wireless only as an addition for the convenience of top brass, and facilitate visitor access. But for how long?

Business

10 Questions to ask your Network Design Provider

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To help you to gain a better understanding of a network, whether it’s something that is already in place, or something that is being considered for installation, here are 10 questions that you can put to network design providers before setting on which is the best for you.

#1: How Robust is your Network?

Understanding the topology of a network will give you a better picture and feel for how solid that network is. There are two types of topology relating to computer networks. First, there is physical topology which deals with the way that the cabling is laid out. But the one we’re more interested in in this particular instance, is the one that is referred to as logical topology.

Business

Which Network Cabling Solution is Right for your Business?

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Most businesses today, especially those with several employees, all of whom need to access a common database and/or bespoke programs, and/or access the Internet, have a computer network in place. It’s generally accepted that a cable network is better than a wireless one, although this is something that can be said to be swiftly changing. However, for larger firms cable networks are usually faster, more stable, and more secure from external interference.

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