Changing the Way We Work

We’ve already seen self-checkout technology reduce the retail workforce, and AI-powered live chat is driving the customer support profession to extinction. Self-driven vehicles may completely change the transport industry, putting truck drivers and logistics workers out of business. Automated phone and scheduling services may also end the need for office administration staff.

Many other professions won’t be safe for long, either. Hospitals and pharmaceutical chains are using automated machines to replace human pharmacists. Surgeons are now competing with sophisticated surgical robots. Recently, a law algorithm obtained a 70 percent success rate when tested in thousands of cases.

Predictions are that AI will transform the global economy, affecting as high as 40 percent of jobs as we know them today. However, in all things where there is change, there are both negative and positive. AI in the workplace offers both and could potentially transform industries for the better.

Potential Benefits of AI Integration

Boost Efficiency and Productivity

One of AI’s key benefits is increased efficiency and productivity. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, user performance improved by 66% across three case studies. AI-powered systems can automate repetitive tasks, saving time and resources and allowing employees to focus on more strategic, complex work. For example, AI can optimize manufacturing production processes, reducing errors and increasing efficiency.

Improve Data Analyzation

AI integration will allow for quicker, improved decision-making since it can analyze large amounts of data and find trends and patterns that may not be apparent to humans. Using AI in the financial industry could mean an increase in the GDP by 7% since AI algorithms can analyze market data to make investment recommendations and help businesses make data-driven decisions that gain a competitive edge.

Skills and Training for the AI Workforce

AI is also initiating many new job opportunities for the next generation directly related to the AI field and several associated with IT, including computer support specialists and software developers, with nearly a half-million additional positions are expected in the next decade. Additional skill sets will be needed in coding, data analytics, and systems infrastructure.

The future AI job market demands both formal education and continuous learning. While it will necessitate educational institutions to offer AI-related courses and programs, AI’s rapid advancement will require lifelong learning, critical thinking skills, and ongoing development to stay updated in the field.

Ethical Considerations in AI Employment

The potential for bias is one of the key ethical considerations in AI algorithms. Since AI systems learn from data, biased or discriminatory data may perpetuate those biases in AI output. For example, an AI algorithm used in hiring could discriminate against certain demographic groups, so establishing diverse and unbiased datasets will be needed.

Data privacy and protection are other ethical considerations that AI could impact, leading to concerns about privacy and the security of personal information. It will be crucial to establish robust data protection policies that give individuals control over their personal data being used within AI systems.

The bottom line is that transparency and accountability will be important in using AI systems because they can be complex and challenging to understand. AI integration in employment will mean establishing fair, explainable, and ethically used systems.

The Future Outlook in the Age of AI

The job market will likely undergo significant changes as AI continues to advance. However, the job outlook depends greatly on the adoption and implementation of AI technologies. Businesses and policymakers will play a huge role in determining its inclusion in the workplace and, therefore, the extent to which it impacts jobs.

The future of work in the age of AI is dynamic and evolving. While there are concerns about job displacement, there are opportunities for new roles and job functions. Balancing automation and human-based labor will be essential to ensure a sustainable and inclusive workplace.

By embracing AI technologies and investing in skills development, individuals and organizations can navigate the changing work landscape and thrive in an AI-driven economy.

Fascinated by the possibilities of AI?

AI is weaving its intricate web deeper into the fabric of our daily lives and will soon become an indispensable tool in the workplace. But do we truly comprehend its capabilities or what we may be relinquishing by letting it in? Our upcoming Tech Strategy Summit on September 19 was built for business leaders and IT professionals looking to dive into the world of artificial intelligence, with a special focus on Microsoft Copilot.

Check out this video by Marc Laliberte, a Tech Strategy Summit speaker with WatchGuard Technologies. He discusses the good, the bad and the ugly of AI in cybersecurity.

Don’t miss it. Sign up today!

The post Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work appeared first on CCB Technology.

Longevity isn’t a word we associate with any of our personal digital devices, yet the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” philosophy seems to be the rule when it comes to our work devices. While most business owners want to stretch their asset dollars as far as possible, waiting until your computers are outdated can mean decreased productivity and increased downtime and repairs. 

Your employees’ work devices directly affect your cybersecurity, so developing a healthy replacement cycle is an essential business consideration. Figuring out the right upgrade schedule for business computers can be challenging, but it will help avoid the significant issues of waiting too long to refresh.

What‘s a good replacement cycle for business devices? 

Today’s computers run at peak for roughly 3-5 years, though most IT pros say it’s closer to 3 years. A “wait till it dies” mentality can be costly when applied to the devices your employees use daily – financially and even from an employee morale standpoint. Frustrating tools can quickly create a frustrated workforce. 

A study from Microsoft found that employees spend, on average, a day per year waiting for old computers to boot up. Their study also found that a PC beyond year four: 

• Runs slower and struggles to run multiple applications at once 

• Consumes more power and has a shorter battery life 
• Is 2.7x more likely to require repair than in year three 
• Decreases user productivity by 112 hours per year (nearly three weeks!) 
• Costs a company an average of $2,636 per year per device 

Further, these aging computers have twice the downtime and are three times more susceptible to security breaches and data loss. This translates to a significant upswing in the cost of ownership, making it more cost-effective to replace two or more PCs than to keep an old PC operational for more than four years. 

How do you spend your tech budget wisely? 

If your computers have hit the three-year mark, don’t pour more resources into old devices. The “make it last longer” philosophy can backfire where your computers are concerned, draining money and resources away from your business in other ways. Considering all the costs of outdated PCs, new devices are your best investment. 

Plan a computer refresh now.  

CCB can show you cost-effective solutions to meet your budget needs. You have options. Let’s talk. 

The post When is a Computer Outdated? appeared first on CCB Technology.

For decades, technology innovation, including HCI (hyperconverged infrastructure), has been geared toward the enterprise level rather than SMB organizations. This has created a challenge for IT departments in most midsize companies, providing enterprise-level services with a staff size best suited for a small organization. It can be a high-stress environment with administrators working nights and weekends on top of normal business hours to complete projects.

Luckily, the benefits of HCI solutions are available to midsize companies and have alleviated that burden for their IT departments.

IT Challenges for Midsize Companies

Let’s look first at the hurdles that these IT departments are facing:

Lack of expertise

Midsize IT departments are often small with only a handful of IT professionals. It can be difficult and very expensive to recruit the right experts to handle all of the technologies they need to juggle including storage, virtualization, networking, security, and much more.

Understaffed

Midsize IT departments are generally not adequately staffed to deliver the types of solutions they are asked to provide. This is especially difficult when they have complex infrastructures to manage that require a lot of monitoring and tweaking to keep things running.

Underfunded

Midsize IT departments are often asked to do more with less in almost every area, making it very challenging to tackle big projects. When larger asset purchases are approved, the investment is expected to meet the company’s needs for many years to come, though trying to predict this is very difficult.

Benefits of HCI for Midsize Companies

Good hyperconverged infrastructure solutions have several immediate, tangible benefits for IT professionals that help them address the challenges of the midsize IT department including:

Rapid deployment

Replacing IT infrastructure in the past has been an arduous process. It can take weeks to get hardware installed and operational so that the migration of existing systems can begin. With HCI, the new infrastructure can be deployed in as little as a matter of hours, saving weeks of labor that could intrude on nights and weekends.

Ease of use

HCI solutions typically consolidate the management of storage, servers, and virtualization into a single intuitive interface. This consolidation can dramatically decrease training and management time, freeing up IT professionals to work on other tasks. Better HCI solutions automate many common management tasks such as storage configuration to further simplify administration and the need for deep expertise.

Scalable

Another benefit of HCI is that solutions are known for being easy to scale, with clustered architecture that allows expansion with the seamless addition of new cluster nodes. This allows IT departments to start with only the infrastructure resources they need with the ability to scale as their resource needs grow, eliminating the struggle of predicting 3-5 years into the future when purchasing hardware.

High availability

The clustered architecture of HCI solutions enables high availability without the deep expertise associated with traditional server clustering that uses shared storage configurations. The traditional cluster architectures are more prone to instability and single points of failure. Good HCI solutions are inherently more highly available and less at risk when components fail.

Better support

Most IT professionals have dealt with the nightmare of having multiple vendors involved in a support issue, often with more finger pointing than problem solving happening in these scenarios. When you are a midsize IT department you need quick support resolution because many issues can affect the entire organization. HCI typically eliminates multiple vendors by consolidating infrastructure components like servers, storage, and virtualization under a single vendor, dramatically improving support resolution times.

HCI provides simplicity for midsize organizations that have enterprise-sized needs and small-sized resources. It eliminates the complexities and liabilities that can be inherent in infrastructure architectures designed exclusively for enterprises. The reduction in complexity can lead to lower costs and frees up IT pros to work on projects that are more innovative, productive, and beneficial to the whole organization.

Are you ready to give up those long nights and weekends working on your IT projects? The benefits of HCI have become a reality for midsize companies with solutions designed uniquely for them. A hyperconverged infrastructure from Scale Computing can bring you much-needed relief and we can set up a demo for you to see it firsthand. Let’s have a conversation about the options available and how CCB can help you make it happen!

The post Benefits of HCI for Midsize Companies appeared first on CCB Technology.

In this blog, I’ll answer these questions and show you the value with four concrete ways Azure can be used by your business and the real benefits you can gain today.

What is Azure?

At its core, Azure is a public cloud computing platform—with solutions including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) that can be used for services such as analytics, virtual computing, storage, networking, and much more. It can be used to replace or supplement your on-premise servers.

Here are some quick facts about Azure.

Azure is a fast, flexible, and affordable platform, and its pricing and capabilities make it the best public cloud offering on the market. Now let’s take a look at how to put it to work for you.

1. Enhance and Implement Backup and Disaster Recovery

Azure is a backup and disaster recovery dream tool. Why? Because of its flexibility, advanced site recovery, and built-in integration.

As a cloud-based solution, Azure is innately flexible – it can back up your data in almost any language, on any OS, and from any location. Plus, you define the frequency and extent of your backup schedule (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).

Tape backup has a time and place, but it has limited abilities as a stand-alone backup and disaster recovery solution. Azure site recovery can enhance your tape backup with offsite replication, minimal onsite maintenance, up to ninety-nine years of data retention, minimal or no capital investment, and minimal operational costs. Azure backup stores three copies of your data in three different locations in the data center, and then another three copies in a remote Azure data center, so you never have to worry about losing data.

If you’re in a Windows virtual environment, Azure’s built-in integration for additional backup will be a quick and painless solution. Azure site recovery integrates with System Center and HyperV architectures, creating a robust and seamless cohesion between Azure, System Center, and HyperV.

2. Host and Develop Web and Mobile Apps

Whether you’re looking for a platform for hosting, developing, or managing a web or mobile app, Azure makes those apps autonomous and adaptive with patch management, AutoScale, and integration for on-premise apps.

With Automatic patch management for your virtual machines, you can spend less time managing your infrastructure and focus on improving your apps. Azure also comes with continuous deployment support, which allows you to streamline ongoing code updates.

AutoScale is a feature built into Azure Web Apps that adjusts your resources automatically based on customer web traffic so you have the resources you need when traffic is high, and save money when you’re not in peak times.

Through Azure, you can seamlessly link your web app to an on-premise app. Connecting apps in both locations lets both employees and partners securely access resources inside your firewall—resources that would otherwise be difficult to access externally.

3. Distribute and Supplement Active Directory

Azure can integrate with your Active Directory to supplement your identity and access capabilities—this gives your DNS a global reach, centralized management, and robust security.

With Azure, you can globally distribute an Active Directory environment that is direct connect enabled. No other cloud provider has the ability to extend the reach of your domain controller and consolidate AD management like Azure.

If you have multiple locations or use on-premise apps or cloud apps like Microsoft 365, Active Directory integration with Azure will be the central tool for managing and maintaining access to all of these tools.

Azure also enables you to utilize multi-factor authentication, adding a new layer of security to your data and applications with zero hassle for your users. You can also easily implement single sign-on for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS cloud apps.

4. Innovate with IoT Industry Solutions

The scalability, flexibility, and security of Microsoft Azure makes it the perfect resource for companies moving toward IoT solutions. You can connect your devices to the cloud using solutions that integrate with your existing infrastructure and start collecting new data about your company.

Within the Azure IoT Hub, you can monitor and manage billions of devices and gain insights to help you make better business decisions, improve customer experiences, reduce complexity, lower costs, and speed up development.

The enhanced security of Azure is a huge asset for IoT solutions, which traditionally have security gaps that hackers can take advantage of. Other benefits include remote monitoring and predictive maintenance and analytics.

Getting started is easy with Azure IoT solution accelerators, preconfigured templates that are customizable to your needs.

How will you use Azure?

These four services are just a glimpse of what Azure can do for your environment. Besides Microsoft’s defined services, it is full of cloud-computing potential that you can utilize in almost any way imaginable.

If you’re ready to try out one of these services, you can get your feet wet with a trial and $200 in Azure credits. You can also get an idea of cost by using the pricing calculator. If you have questions about other ways you could use Azure or need help implementing a service, talk to one of our sales engineers and we’ll help you plan and implement the right tools to meet your needs.

The post Microsoft Azure Explained: What It Is and Why It Matters appeared first on CCB Technology.

As I listened to him share his vision, I was intrigued by the concept since we were considering opening a new remote office. There were questions that I struggled with though… Was it possible to not have servers on-site? What happens if the connection between the central and remote locations goes down? When that happens, how are business-critical resources accessed? I put Azure vs traditional infrastructure side by side to find out. 

Traditional Infrastructure

Traditional infrastructures offer a sense of control and security over relevant business data, applications, and infrastructure and that control is why many stay with a traditional infrastructure instead of moving to a cloud-based platform. Owning the physical equipment and software and having it on-premises, allows control of physical access and if implemented well, can yield many benefits.

However, some limitations hinder their potential:

• Traditional infrastructures can be complex and rigid, preventing them from adapting to changes necessitated by business situations.

• Traditional infrastructures require comprehensive planning from the start to prevent ad hoc infrastructures that can jeopardize business goals.

• Traditional infrastructures can be challenging to scale to meet changing business requirements outside of virtualization, which requires in-depth knowledge of the virtualization platform and the physical hardware to support it.

• One of the biggest limiters of traditional infrastructure is that businesses must continue to purchase updated hardware and software.

Introducing Microsoft Azure 

Today, we can take the whole concept of centralizing the core servers, etc., one step further and place the core infrastructure in Microsoft Azure, keeping only switches and vendor-provided devices such as modems and firewalls onsite. All critical infrastructure services like Active Directory, print and file servers, business-critical applications and more would move into the cloud utilizing one or several of the cloud solutions models.

Just as virtualization transformed the scalability and efficiency of traditional on-premises infrastructure and reduced the overall total cost of ownership (TCO), cloud providers have changed how IT professionals strategize when planning their networks.

Microsoft joined Amazon (AWS) in the cloud by creating the Azure platform, first as an internal initiative codenamed Project Red Dog, then released to developers in 2008 at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference. Now they are the world-leading enterprise-cloud provider, used by 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

Microsoft offers an extensive portfolio of cloud services ranging from compute to storage to IoT and more. The Azure platform provides businesses with the following benefits over traditional infrastructures.

• Elasticity and Resilience: Traditional infrastructures are susceptible to downtime, have limited capacity and cannot guarantee a consistently high level of server performance. Azure excels in providing elasticity and resilience enabling you to build a structure that can add or reduce compute power or storage as needed.

• Flexibility and Scalability: There are two ways to scale a traditional infrastructure: purchase physical hardware or virtualize. Whereas Azure provides the ability to quickly build, deploy and manage applications or systems as it best serves the business.

• Deployment: Adding new servers and/or applications within a traditional infrastructure requires IT staff taking time to procure new hardware/software, set it up, then test and implement it. In Azure, businesses can deploy mission-critical applications often without upfront costs and with minimal provisioning time, allowing IT staff to focus on more pressing activities and objectives.

• Reliability: For reliability, traditional infrastructures need to have redundancy requiring dual firewalls, ISP providers, power sources, etc., which gets expensive in time and money. With Azure, Microsoft provides the hardware and dedicated teams for implementation and maintenance. They’ve built in redundancy, from failover hardware to datacenters located worldwide. 

• Automation: A conventional infrastructure requires in-house IT personnel to monitor all systems and handle the day to day duties like patch management and maintaining threat protection. In Azure, this is all handled by Microsoft ensuring the infrastructure continues to run smoothly, and that required security measures are in place.

You can find a full list of Azure services on Microsoft’s site. 

Azure vs Traditional Infrastructure

The advantages of moving part or all of your company’s infrastructure to the cloud include increased flexibility, scalability, ease of management and cost savings. Successful infrastructure migrations to Azure require a lot of planning. If you’re looking to move to Azure, I outline all of the things you need to consider in this article. If you’d like to learn more or want help getting started, our engineers can help you throughout the process.

The post Microsoft Azure vs Traditional Infrastructure appeared first on CCB Technology.

In my former life as an IT manager, I had the same apprehensions and experienced firsthand the mixed emotions of considering a cloud-based solution. I was unsure about where our data would be residing or who might have access to it. There was something falsely reassuring thinking that if it was on-premise, it had to be secure!

Finally, like so many others, after years of staying on the ground with our infrastructure, we started to explore the benefits of cloud solutions and increased efficiencies they could provide our business. A huge impact that caused us to take a serious look at the cloud was realizing that if a disaster were to hit the office, all of our critical applications would still be functional with the right cloud solution in place.

As the number of cloud-based solutions grow every day, researching and comparing solutions can be time consuming, and in the IT world, time is a sacred commodity. Although I can’t make your final platform selections for you, I hope to provide you with insight into the advantages of cloud over on-prem options and the types of cloud solutions available to give you a foundation to work from.

Cloud vs. On-premise Infrastructures

Cloud solutions provide major benefits to both businesses and individuals over traditional infrastructure, including:

• Accessibility: With cloud solutions, users can access data anywhere on any device, providing collaboration across all aspects of a business. Writing this blog is a perfect example – I have my Microsoft Word file open on an iPad, MacBook Pro and Surface Book. All show progress in real time as I write, whereas without a Microsoft 365 subscription, I would have three different versions of my document between the devices.

• Cost Control: The cloud helps control costs through predictable subscriptions for enterprise-class infrastructure solutions, eliminating the heavy capital expenditure of an on-premise infrastructure. Additionally, pay-as-you-go models for some solutions mean you can add or subtract individual services and only pay for what you use.

• Scalability: Cloud solutions provide easy and often instantaneous scalability versus the cumbersome process of procuring hardware and software for a traditional infrastructure, which can take weeks or longer.

• Deployment: With cloud solutions, businesses can deploy mission-critical applications without any upfront costs and with minimal provisioning time, allowing IT staff to focus on more pressing activities and objectives. It can also help to reduce the time needed to get new applications and services to market.

• Reliability: Though a concern of most during the introduction of the cloud, technology advancements are making cloud solutions even more reliable and consistent than on-premise IT infrastructures. Most providers today offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing close to 95% and higher uptime, and 24/7/365 availability.

• Security: This is a central focus for any cloud provider. Cloud solutions today provide greater security than on-prem counterparts because data is stored throughout multiple highly secured locations yet can be accessed no matter what happens. A very simple example is a user who loses a laptop. If it’s managed using a cloud solution, the company can remotely wipe any sensitive information and protect its most important asset – it’s data.

Cloud Solution Models

Now that you know some key benefits of cloud infrastructures, let’s look at the three types of cloud solutions to find out what’s right for you:

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS replaces traditional IT applications with a cloud model that is a software subscription provided by a third-party vendor. This is the most common cloud solution being utilized by businesses because it provides benefits to an organization such as the elimination of software updates, centralized management, and access through any device over the internet.

Examples of these services include Microsoft 365, Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Services, WatchGuard Cloud, Dropbox and Salesforce. When I was just entering the cloud, these were solutions that greatly reduced the time and energy I was spending on installing and upgrading software.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS provides the foundation for cloud IT infrastructures. This model is all about IT operations and typically provides access to network features, data storage space, and computers, while allowing the highest level of management control and flexibility.

Google, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure are third-party sources for IaaS, providing the ability to only pay for what you use – basically like renting the resource. That means if you’re coming into a slower season of business, you can power down three of the five web servers running and pay accordingly.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS allows organizations to build, run and manage customized applications without the need or worry associated with on-premise infrastructures, making it easier for developers to create efficiencies as a part of the application development process. Among the benefits of PaaS are a reduction in overhead and an increase in the speed of development and deployment. Microsoft Azure would fall into this category as well.

Here’s a good resource if you want a deeper dive into the types of cloud models.

Know What to Look For in a Cloud Solution

When considering a cloud solution for your organization, these are important factors you should know:

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

SLAs outline the service expectations and responsibilities between your company and a cloud supplier. It should state the metrics used for measurement and any penalties if the services don’t meet those expectations. These agreements are for both party’s protection and necessary to build a successful relationship.

High availability is important and is expressed as a percentage of uptime in a given year, or the “number of nines”. (Note that maintenance windows for patching, deploying new systems, etc. are not considered downtime.) I have seen a few providers that promise “five nines”, equating to downtime of only 5 minutes and 15 seconds per year, and fail to meet that goal. You will need to decide what is acceptable for your organization to continue to operate. Discuss this with a potential provider and then get it in writing.

Redundancy

Redundancy or high availability in cloud computing means that multiple copies of your data exist or systems that can be accessed if your cloud solution fails. When talking with a cloud solution provider about their redundancy or disaster recovery plan, make sure to ask:

• How redundant are your data centers regarding power, ISPs and other resources?
• What happens when server solution ‘A’ is installed or goes down?
• How are the backend systems set up (i.e.: web or SQL servers)? Are they clustered?
• What happens if the site where the solution is hosted goes down? Will the cloud solution still be available?
• What automation is in place to make sure my systems remain operational when a disaster happens at a primary site?

Hidden Costs

Even when a vendor provides a quote, there may be hidden costs you should look out for. I learned this the hard way in my previous role when I received the first invoice for our new cloud solution – something that was hard to explain to the executive team! Learn from my mistake and be sure to review the quote’s fine print carefully and ask thorough questions.

How I Learned to Love the Cloud

When I was an IT manager at my previous company, the data we worked with daily was very sensitive (containing PII) and securing it was the highest priority for me, my team, and the success of our company. Part of my hesitation to move to the cloud was due to the data breaches I seemed to be hearing about in the news every other day. It seemed impossible to decide which pieces we could migrate without compromising our security.

As the business grew, my direction and mindset needed to change regarding cloud solutions. We needed to be able to scale rapidly, collaborate efficiently and have access anywhere at any time. We finally chose to migrate to Microsoft 365 from an on-prem Exchange environment. I was initially blinded to its benefits because of my security fears and wanted to retain total control like I could with our on-premise servers.

However, as we began using Microsoft 365, I quickly started to see the organizational benefits: teams collaborating efficiently in groups, simultaneous sharing and editing of documents, and meetings that no longer required being in the same building. It’s as if my eyes had been opened to a whole new world.

Yes, we still needed to protect sensitive data, but the cloud allowed us to quickly expand our resources at a much lower cost than what we could implement in our on-premise infrastructure. Most importantly, it allowed me to sleep better at night knowing if a disaster hit, we’d still be functional for our clients. I learned to keep my feet on the ground and love the cloud.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CLOUD?

Want to know how your business can benefit from cloud solutions? We’d love to discuss your needs and help you roadmap your migration. Let us help.

The post How I Learned to Love the Cloud & Why You Should appeared first on CCB Technology.

There are numerous vendors that provide wireless solutions, but this article won’t steer you toward one over another. Instead, we’ll address a few key topics to consider when looking for a wireless solution to help you determine what your company needs and narrow the list of options.

1. How do you want to manage your wireless solution?

The answer to this question will have the largest impact on the Wi-Fi solution you choose and depends upon your needs and requirements. There are generally two ways to manage your Wi-Fi – on premises or a hosted cloud solution.

An on-premises solution provides complete control, allowing management of each access point (AP) individually or using a central console. This solution works well for organizations with few APs.

A hosted cloud solution, like the WatchGuard Wi-Fi Cloud, would give you central control over multiple APs from one web portal. This helps simplify management for organizations with many APs. With a hosted cloud solution, however, you will pay a subscription fee and do not own all of the hardware involved in management.

Determining what type of Wi-Fi management your organization needs will help you narrow your search by focusing on the vendors that offer what you need.

2. Thick or thin access points?

Two words you might run into while considering the different types of management for wireless solutions are “thick” or “thin” access points. A thick wireless AP can operate as a standalone unit and doesn’t need a central console to be configured. This option works best if you have one or two access points.

A thin AP requires a central console and cannot be configured without it. It makes managing multiple APs easier as you don’t have to configure each access point. Most vendors will offer both solutions, but thin APs are typically less expensive and easier to deploy.

3. Is it compatible with what you have?

Anyone who has worked with technology can appreciate when “things just work.” Compatibility with existing hardware and software can be a huge factor when choosing a wireless solution. Answer these questions before committing to a solution:

• Which frequency bands does the solution offer?
• Do they allow for a directional or multi-directional antenna?
• Is the wireless solution compatible with your firewall, web filter, or other network devices?

If there is a layer of compatibility, then setting up and managing the wireless solution isn’t going to feel like another island of information separate from all of your other equipment.

4. Does it meet your security needs?

Security is a concern with any type of solution implemented within an organization and choosing a wireless solution is no different. The type of security offered or not offered can be a deal breaker.

Determine what security measures you absolutely need in a Wi-Fi solution. Which flavor of WPA2 do you need? Do you need integration with a RADIUS server? Does the system support 802.1x?

Security is not an area where you want to make a compromise – make sure to choose a solution that fully meets your needs.

Get started with a list.

Hopefully these topics help you start thinking about the different factors involved when researching a wireless solution for your company. It’s a good idea to make a list of items that are important to your organization and make sure that the vendors you’re investigating align with what you need. This will ensure that your company is making the right choice come decision time.

Need some Wi-Fi advice?

Ask CCB about taking a Wireless Network Survey to make sure your decision is based on factors unique to your organization. Contact us and learn more about our projects.

The post 4 Things to Look for in a Wireless Solution appeared first on CCB Technology.

Let’s start from square one – a clear definition of cloud computing (NIST Definition): A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.

Okay, thank you National Institute of Standards & Technology for writing a definition that no one understands! To help break it down another way – look at it as a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. There are five main characteristics that help define cloud computing:

• On-demand self-service: the ability to provision computing capabilities (virtual machines, storage, bandwidth, etc.) automatically as needed.
• Broad network access: these services are delivered via the network (wired or WIFI).
• Resource pooling: resources are pooled to serve multiple users via what is called a multi-tenant model. Different physical and virtual resources can be dynamically assigned.
• Rapid elasticity: resources can be elastically provisioned and released, either manually or automatically, to enable rapid scaling to meet demand, giving you the ability to add or delete seasonal or temporary employees, etc.
• Measured service: cloud services automatically measure the resources being used, providing information on the amount of data, applications, or compute power being consumed by users.

Major benefits of cloud computing:

1. Predictable & Manageable Costs

In a recent poll taken by fortune 500 CIOs, top goals for the coming year include reducing cost, improving security and increasing speed (productivity) and flexibility. Companies are achieving these goals by moving to the cloud.

The cloud also shifts spend from capital expenditure to an operational expense, allowing the investment to be made closer to the actual time of the return. The cloud is creating a time like no other for business agility that will allow for higher levels of innovation and customer engagement.

2. Security & Reliability

A cloud solution needs to have complex layers of security, and Microsoft Office 365 is a great example of how it’s done right. On a physical level they provide 24-hour monitoring of data centers that include multi-factor authentication, biometric scanning and motion sensors for data center access. Their internal data center network is segregated from the external network. Any faulty drives and hardware are demagnetized and destroyed, and role separation renders the location of specific customer data unintelligible to the personnel that have physical access.

On a logical level, with Microsoft’s Lockbox processes, human access is limited to your data through a strictly supervised escalation process. Risk from malicious code is minimized by servers only running processes on whitelists, while dedicated threat management teams proactively anticipate, prevent, and mitigate malicious access. Additionally, port scanning, perimeter vulnerability scanning, and intrusion detection prevent or detect any malicious access.

From a data security view, encryption at rest protects your data on all Microsoft servers while encryption in transit with SSL/TLS, protects your data transmitted between you and Microsoft. Further threat management, security monitoring, and file/data integrity prevents or detects any tampering of data. Microsoft has invested billions in their cloud infrastructure and they are setting the standard for cloud security and reliability.

3. Productivity & Flexibility

By the end of this year, more internet connections will be made by mobile phones than computers. The proliferation of mobile users needing access to consume company data in real-time has grown exponentially.

Enabling your employees to be productive from anywhere is critical. Businesses that have embraced remote workers, allowing them to view, communicate and collaborate from anywhere at any time, saw a significant rise in productivity.

What should you be asking about the cloud?

• Governance: Cloud computing enables speed, agility and innovation, but you need to move from the drawing board to deployment. Is your organization ready to adapt?
• Cloud Computing Environments: You need to choose a cloud computing environment that’s right for your organization. Should you consider private cloud, public cloud or a hybrid cloud solution? Which vendors play in this space? Will they be in business 12 months from now?
• Security & Privacy: If someone else is running your computers and software, you need strategies to stay secure. Your security policy depends upon how much you control – the more you own, the more you need to handle. Are you prepared to extend your enterprise security policy to the cloud?

Choosing the Right Partner

The cloud can help you reach your IT transformation goals, but selecting a cloud service provider that helps meet your needs and protects your company from unnecessary risk is critical. With our extensively trained and seasoned IT service professionals, CCB can be the partner you need to get your cloud environment up and running and help manage it as well.

We can help you outline your needs for security, performance and compliance when you meet with one of our IT service engineers. By discussing the operational goals your organization would like to achieve, we can find the right cloud “fit” for your environment, whether it’s all in the cloud or a hybrid model.

Stop running from the cloud.

Learn more about driving the most value from the cloud through operational transformation and performance. Elevate.

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