There has been an outage on the O2 network, resulting in loss of service for some customers.  Link-Connect lost most of the O2 connections for 4 hours overnight, though no multilink Stonegate or classic Smart-Connects went down.

The team at Link-Connect has put together a list of the top five trends in networking technology and business connectivity that we think will impact the IT department in 2012. But we don’t leave it there –we make some suggestions about how IT professionals can prepare for them.

 1  Live streaming of TV will eat your bandwidth

The Olympics, Wimbledon, Euro 2012 and the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations are just four major events this year that people at work will want to watch – live. As more and more events are streamed over the Internet the temptation to tune in at work is growing.

What are the impacts?

Aside from the obvious lost productivity you also have increased pressure on your corporate network as people in your company tune in to watch their favourite sport or celebration – we could certainly see a blip when the men’s football gold medal match kicks off at 3pm on August 11th!

What can you do?

If you decide that this type of activity is acceptable you could prevent the corporate network from being used in this way during core business hours but allow early morning, lunchtime and evening access. To overcome bandwidth issues, if you have a main line and a backup you can load balance across the two to make the most of all the available bandwidth. Or choose a burstable connectivity package that allows you to meet peaks in demand easily.

 2  Web 2.0 use will explode making first generation firewalls obsolete

The business use of Web 2.0 applications like LinkedIn, Skype, FaceBook, Twitter and Yousendit will soar. As people look to reduce costs, reach more people via social media and communicate more effectively the use of these applications during working hours is increasing and becoming harder to control. . In addition many are becoming legitimate business tools to which you may want to allow access, but control who does what during office time.

What are the impacts?

Again, aside from the obvious downside of lost productivity you are at risk from hacking and viruses. Unlike an email or download, which are one off activities, web 2.0 applications are like permanent online connections between your client and the web server. Once the application is active, your client will poll for updates on a constant basis and will receive anything that is sent – a perfect hiding place for malicious content.

What can you do?

Arrange a firewall penetration test to find out if you are vulnerable. When your firewall refresh is due install next generation technology. Our recommendation is StoneGate next generation firewall or Intrusion prevention technology.

 3. Cost savings and green aspirations will drive virtual meetings

As companies look to cut costs and reduce carbon emissions they will focus on reducing corporate travel. More meetings will take place via webinar or video conferencing and the need to share desktops and information across the organisation will increase.

What are the impacts?

While your business can save on travel costs and potentially improve productivity, you will need to invest in hardware, technical support and bandwidth to enable colleagues to communicate effectively. The use of web 2.0 applications for video and online meetings for internal and external communications may compromise your network security.

What can you do?

Introduce additional bandwidth and load balancing technology to allow you to maximise the use of all available bandwidth at all times. Replace your firewalls -again we recommend StoneGate next generation technology. 

4  Home, remote and mobile working will increase

A number of factors will combine to bring about an increased demand for comms technologies that support flexible working. Recruitment freezes mean staff may have to cover bigger territories and drives to cut costs will encourage companies to downsize their office space forcing more people to work at home. However, companies still expect a high level of productivity, collaboration and flexibility from their geographically spread employee base.

What are the impacts?

You need to provide applications, high speed connectivity and security to people in environments over which you have little or no control. With people on the move they expect to access personal, work, business applications and data from any device, anytime and anywhere making your corporate data more at risk from loss or theft than ever before.

What can you do?

Implement a home/mobile worker policy and work with a trusted supplier to design a solution that meets your business needs which may include:

• Keeping your corporate network separate from employees’ direct Internet traffic.
• Giving people access to corporate networks over their personal broadband circuit and/or mobile networks.
• Incorporating home workers into the corporate telephony pool

Implement an SSL VPN to give your remote users secure access to Web applications, client/server applications and internal network connections via a standard Web browser. Take the option for ‘spike licences’ to cover exceptional circumstances such as snow or flu outbreak where more employees have to work from home for a period of time. Unlike the traditional Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) VPN, there is no need to install specialised client software on the end user’s computer. 

5          Companies will finally leap into the Cloud

Last year we heard a lot of talk and hype about cloud-based services. 2012 will be the year when many companies will finally bite the bullet and adopt “the Cloud”. As the cost of these solutions continues to fall, and the economic climate remains chilly, a ‘cloudy’ approach will be more and more appealing.

What are the impacts?

You will be able to re-deploy IT budget away from investment in shiny new hardware to run increasingly demanding applications and use it to fund projects that help your business to run even more efficiently. This combined with the clear benefits of no longer needing to manage the environment, or keep on top of version control will make the move even more of a no-brainer for medium and small organisations.

What can you do?

Choose a Cloud supplier that places the utmost importance on the technologies and procedures used to protect their hosted services against unauthorised access and who is committed to ensuring the hosted system is reliable and stable. Make sure you ask questions about uptime, data back-up and archiving policies.

Trying to predict the future, when it comes to Internet and communications technology, is a tough call. There are sure to be surprises that will bring both positive opportunities and challenges to all of us in 2012. Whatever happens Link-Connect customers can rest assured that we will be keeping track of any developments to ensure we’re able help them get the most from the power and cost savings that the latest technologies can deliver. 

]]> http://www.link-connect.com/blog/five-2012-technology-predictions/feed 0 http://www.link-connect.com/news/fibre-delivery-during-olympic?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fibre-delivery-during-olympic http://www.link-connect.com/news/fibre-delivery-during-olympic#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:37:21 +0000 admin http://www.link-connect.com/?p=1395 BT Openreach has advised that they will not be digging up roads and pavements near to the Olympic site shortly before the Olympic Games. Therefore, if you are planning to purchase lease lines or ethernet circuits in areas close by, please be aware of the impact this may have on the delivery date. Order early to avoid disappointment.

If this sounds all too familiar, Link-Connect’s SMART Managed Services could be the solution for you.

Join our live demonstration on Firewall penetration on 14 December 2011, at 10am. To register please

Click Here.

For the second time this week there has been a major outage on the BT network resulting in thousands of broadband customers losing service, Link-Connect hves been affected by this, if you have a broadband fault from approximately 8:45 this morning then it likely to be related to this, Link-Connect regrets this interruption to your services from factors outside of its control and is working to minimise the impact of this outage.

We are pleased to be able to announce that our Smart Connect customers are still online, seeing a ‘lights dimmed’ service. If your connectivity is business crucial, please contact us on 01252 740 800 to discuss the High Availability options available to you.

As many of our customers may be aware, BT suffered an outage in the early hours of this morning. A full report into the reasons behind the unexpected downtime is yet to be released, but we are able to confirm that all connections should be back up and running – if you are still experiencing connectivity issues, please reboot your router before calling through to our support team.

We are pleased to announce that none of our Smart Connect customers experienced downtime, merely a ‘lights dimmed’ service, as our policy of using multiple carriers meant they were able to continue with business as usual using the remaining connections.

The Link-Connect team is very excited to welcome you to our new website!

This has been developed to give a clear insight into our SMART approach to linking technology and connecting people. We use next generation technology with the insight and support of our experienced team of technical experts. What we don’t forget is that the crucial element is ensuring people are at the heart of the solution.

Thinking SMART!

- Specific solutions to meet your exact needs
- Managed on your behalf by experts
- Agile to meet the needs of your organisation’s ever changing requirements
- Reliable through the use of innovative load balancing technology and resiliency
- Transparent via our customer portal

Our aim is to use our Cloud computing solutions to suit your specific needs and ensure your entire organisation can access applications no matter where they are working with ultimate reliability.

You don’t have to understand the technology to have a clear understanding of our approach. We hope our new website will give you that initial insight whatever your industry or role may be.

We look forward to sharing more news with you over the coming months and keeping you updated on developments. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy looking around our website.

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