There is more to broadband value than just low price—Posted on July 29, 2008
Brits are still unhappy with their broadband speeds ... and who can blame them given that they are paying for more than double the speeds they are actually getting, according to a survey by price comparison site uSwitch. Moreover, half the subscribers in the UK are technically unable to get the most commonly advertised headline speed of 8mbps. Disappointing indeed!
But even with the majority of ISPs effectively failing their customers when it comes to delivering the speeds they are being paid for, it is possible most customers could live with this - if only the service was reliable!
This lack of trust in the relationship between providers and customers is problematic for home users but leads to more serious questions and issues for business users. Whether you are a SME or a large corporate, a reliable service, delivering the speed of connectivity actually needed by a business, is a must have.
Companies need to look beyond attention grabbing deals based on speed or price and become more questioning of their service providers. By doing this, they can avoid entrusting their business-critical network services to companies with a questionable track record in service delivery and no apparent understanding of the unique communication needs of particular types of businesses.
What you should be looking for is a company which offers guaranteed low (or no) contention rates so you get the headline speed you are paying for all day, every day. You also need to watch out for any punitive penalties for breaching a ‘Fair Usage Policy’. Bandwidth-intense applications can easily eat-up download limits so you need to make sure that these are above what you expect you will need, taking into account any projected business growth.
Flexible, scalable, reliable, fit for purpose and delivering good value for money: these are key components of a communication infrastructure that will make any customer happy and serve their business needs well.
Staying safe in the sun—Posted on July 15, 2008
The great British summer has arrived! A recent survey by YouGov has found that 79% of people in the UK are getting less than one hour of fresh air a day - leading to many wanting to get out more - without losing access to the Internet. Earlier this month, St James Park in London set up a number of ‘hot desks’, complete with free Wi-Fi, reception area and even a water cooler, so that people could get out of the office and still get on with their work.
And why shouldn’t we be embracing the freedom that technology offers us? With new wireless hotspots popping up everywhere, and increasingly faster broadband speeds, more and more companies - both SMEs and large corporations - are embracing remote working.
This does beg the question however, how safe is remote working? Is leaving the office leaving your secure network?
We all know that viruses have the potential to attack home PCs and laptops, not always as secure as computers at the office. We also know that the human element is ever fallible! Passwords can be lost, unlocking the key to strictly confidential information, or use of laptops via WiFi connections in public places can leave private information open to potential hackers.
But does this mean we should stay cooped up in the office? Of course not - but we must follow some basic rules! Ensuring workers are able to establish a secure connection is essential. Most companies will usually have a firewall in place, which protects the corporate network from the Internet. You can upgrade this further by using an encrypted tunnel; an IPSec Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPNs allow a number of devices to be connected using the Internet, with any data transfers being encrypted. This means that you can be using anyone’s Internet connection - without worrying about security - and still have the same access as if you were at your desk in the office.
Firewalls and VPNs that protect systems from external attack work alongside other IT security tools, such as anti-virus or anti-spyware software. Many workers fail to install these - or if they do, fail to update them. This should be done regularly to keep up with the latest threats.
Then there is the aforementioned human element! Businesses can go that extra mile to protect themselves by educating the workforce, before they let them loose into the outside world. A simple set of ‘do’s and don’ts of remote working usually does the trick. IT departments need to make certain staff only use devices they know about and can control, for accessing the office network. However, a remote working policy for any large organisation should accept that, while IT departments would like staff to only use devices under the IT departments control, some users will, often no matter what obstacles are put in front of them, use their own devices. Technologies such as ‘end-point security verification’ can ensure that appropriate security software is installed, even on these otherwise uncontrolled systems.
Ensuring that files are backed up, installing firewalls to protect against the latest data threats and introducing company wide do and don’ts, plus working with a reliable service provider, all go a long way to protect the security of the remote worker. All you have to do now is wait for the rain to stop...