http://weblog.demon.net/ en Copyright 2008 Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:58:11 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss VoIP has been a funny technology really, it has been around since the late ‘90s and ever since its emergence, analysts and vendors alike have been predicting its inexorable rise to dominance. Most still believe this will happen, but it is taking longer than predicted. Sure enough, there has been a slow and steady increase in adoption, but how far are we away from the ‘tipping point’ towards mass take-up? I predict 2009 will prove to be the year we see many more of our customers enjoying the OPEX savings VoIP can offer. A note of caution should be struck here, however. VoIP can save money, but only if the business case stacks up! Whatever size your business, it is essential that you ensure your migration to VoIP really will deliver ROI. We are still at the stage where the decision to deploy VoIP should be taken on a case-by-case basis and we advise all our customers to weigh up their needs carefully to see if they are just such a business. VoIP, you see, does not mean automatic cost savings – there are a number of key factors that need to be considered before these are assured. The most obvious of these is, of course, investment in new hardware as well as the ongoing maintenance costs of systems. These short-term costs though, must be considered against the longer-term reduction in phone bills as well as the benefits of more advanced IP applications such as unified communications and video conferencing. Sometimes, the initial outlay in terms of CAPEX will simply prove too much to justify the move to VoIP, but there are ways that companies can manage the business case to ensure that VoIP delivers on its cost promises. The timing of a deployment is, of course, highly important. If your business is already due a network upgrade, be it in the LAN or the WAN, the costs of migrating to VoIP can largely be absorbed in these already necessary costs. The same is true for businesses moving to a green-field site where the cost of deploying other necessary cables has already been considered. So, if you want VoIP telephony for your business you should ask yourself the following questions: how long is the lease on your current communication system? Will the company be relocating or opening a new office in the near future? Are there any features that IP telephony provides that will benefit the business and are not currently available on the TDM telephony platform? The long-long envisioned days of an all-VoIP world are still a little way off, but the technology works and the cost savings are real. If IT managers can provide the right business case, I fully expect to see the technology continue to grow in 2009 and perhaps at a much faster rate. Matt Cantwell – Head of Product Portfolio]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2008/11/when_will_voip_reach_tipping_point.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/11/when_will_voip_reach_tipping_point.html VoIP Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:58:11 +0000 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. http://weblog.demon.net/2008/07/there_is_more_to_broadband_val.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/07/there_is_more_to_broadband_val.html Broadband Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:54:45 +0000 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... http://weblog.demon.net/2008/07/staying_safe_in_the_sun.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/07/staying_safe_in_the_sun.html Remote Working Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:52:58 +0000 The Times suggests that within two years, mobile connectivity will have toppled its older brother, fixed-line Internet. This year has seen an explosion in the uptake of mobile broadband and now one in 10 in the UK are already using a mobile connection to surf the web (according to You Gov), leading some to suggest that it is becoming a real threat to fixed-line broadband providers. In some ways it’s a fair point. Mobile broadband really is an excellent technology for consumers and businesses alike. For business, mobile broadband allows you to work on the move, and is ideal for temporary Internet connection needs (such as on construction sites). Added to this, prices continue to fall – making it an affordable as well as an exciting proposition. The case for mobile broadband is not that clear cut; for all its good points, mobile broadband shouldn’t really be seen as a replacement to fixed-line broadband - its real strength lies in being part of a complete networking solution. The thing is, mobile broadband has a number of limiting factors which stop it being a complete access technology. For example, advertised data rates on mobile broadband are faster than the UK fixed-line average (3.6Mbps vs 2.95Mbps according to online comparison site Broadband Expert) but this isn’t the case in reality. Speeds can drop down into hundreds of Kbps - and while this might be acceptable for someone while they are connecting on the move, this just won’t wash when working in the office environment. Moreover, 3G coverage is still quite patchy - especially in rural areas. If your office is in one of these areas of low coverage, you will constantly have slow speeds making the user experience almost impossible to work with. Then there is the fact that many offerings have fair usage policies slapped onto them - restricting users to just 2-3Gbps worth of data download per month - hardly adequate for any serious business use. It is true that as the technology develops, mobile broadband will become faster and the coverage wider, improving the overall quality. Fixed-line broadband though will also continue to improve - and at a much faster rate. Mobile broadband has its plus points, allowing operators to offer businesses the right access method to get the right applications to them at the right time. So while it is useful addition, fixed-line offerings will continue to provide businesses the best form of connectivity for the office.]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2008/06/will_mobile_broadband_spell_the_end.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/06/will_mobile_broadband_spell_the_end.html Broadband Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:06:44 +0000 Lets face it, everyone likes getting a good deal and when it comes to internet services, there appears to be no shortage of ‘good deals’ on the market – at least on the surface. However, the way we are using broadband is changing as more and more people organise their work, home, life and leisure around online services. The fact is, if you provide a service, people will want to use it. In the case of broadband they want to use it for data-rich video and audio applications – and why shouldn’t they! Some consumer ISPs, however, are throwing their toys out the pram as this does not fit with their “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” business model. They want to put as many customers as they can onto a network so they can sell their products cheap and undercut the opposition. This is all well and good as long as their users only want to check a bit of email or do a spot of online shopping; heaven forbid that consumers may actually want to use the Internet for something more, something that may actually require low contention and a bit of bandwidth. So, this goes back to the age old saying - you get what you pay for. If you opt for a cheap Internet service then you need to be aware that you will be sharing your bandwidth with lots of other users. If you have a broadband connection of up to 8Mbps, then if you’re close to an exchange, theoretically that’s the download speed you’ll get. However, if all your neighbours are online at the same time playing World of Warcraft or downloading large video files then you’ll be lucky if you get 1Mbps, let alone eight! Let’s face facts – it is the consumer ISPs’ business models that are fundamentally flawed. With strong competition between consumer ISPs all wanting to provide the cheapest broadband, the service customer’s get is going to be severely compromised. While you’re getting that cheap deal, you’ll be suffering from high contention, usually with a very restrictive fair usage policy slapped on for good measure – all working to limit the amount of content that you can download. It is time for consumer ISPs to wake up to the reality of the modern Internet. Consumers need to be offered packages based on how they want to use it - if someone only requires basic surfing with a small amount of download capability, then offer them a basic package. If customers want to download or stream from iPlayer or similar high bandwidth services, then a different type of package is required. Consumer ISPs need to stop focussing on offering the lowest prices to secure the most customers and need to adopt more of business ISP model, providing a scalable range of products and services that meet the needs of the customer depending on the usage that’s required. By making it clear to customers exactly what they will be receiving for their hard earned cash, ISPs can sell products that actually meet the customers needs. That’s not just a business model approach – it makes good business sense. http://weblog.demon.net/2008/05/are_consumers_getting_a_raw_de.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/05/are_consumers_getting_a_raw_de.html Broadband Thu, 22 May 2008 09:11:36 +0000 Recent reports suggest that as a nation, Brits are overworked, regularly spending well over 40 hours a week in the office. Dr Cary Cooper, a professor at Lancaster University believes that the explosion of technology, which has lead to a ‘long working hours epidemic’ is at the heart of the problem. He believes that technology stresses instead of supports, as businesses increasingly demand an immediacy of response. There is no doubt that a wider range of technology is much more readily available for companies, and that a higher proportion of the workforce is mobile. But is it fair that technology has to take the wrap for this ‘overworked’ phenomenon? Technology – since the launch of the mobile phone in the eighties, has allowed us to work on the move – to clinch that all important business deal while on the train, or to ‘buy buy buy!’ while queuing for a lunchtime sandwich. Fast forward twenty years and technology is much more advanced. People now use technology as an extension to the office; BlackBerrys and laptops give people the choice of working where and when they want - as more and more people can replicate the same working conditions found in the office, on the move. Mobile technology has a number of benefits – staff are retained if office locations change as they can work from home - and performance increases as employees work in their most productive environment. If your company employs a remote or flexible working policy and you work on your commute to the office, you have actually already completed a portion of your day before you hit the office – allowing you to leave earlier. If used properly it actually saves you time. The real problem to be tackled here is that people believe that their company expects them to carry on working once they have completed their hours – they don’t, or at least they shouldn’t! For technology to be recognised for the help that it is, policy and implementation needs to be effectively managed. Employers must accept that once the workforce has completed their hours, they should not be expected to work long into the night, just because their BlackBerry continues to flash. It has an off button for a reason. While it is true that there will always be a proportion of people glued to their mobile, or chained to their laptop, they are the people who would have worked long into the night anyway – and it doesn’t mean that normal people should follow their example, as this method of working doesn’t suit everyone. In the fast paced world that we live, people sometimes do require an immediacy of response – technology enables this. However, mobile technology is about more than immediacy. It is all about flexibility, efficiency and working smart. It allows you to make your own hours, work where you want and puts you in control. After all, who did win that race, the rabbit or the tortoise? Of course it was the tortoise (in a close finish) but you can’t fault the rabbit for its flexible approach to the task. http://weblog.demon.net/2008/04/can_an_overworked_nation_blame.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/04/can_an_overworked_nation_blame.html Mobile Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:26:41 +0000 Mobile broadband suddenly seems to be the technology of the moment. Judging by the sudden rash of advertising plastered across busses and evening papers, it is as if a veil has been lifted and mobile operators can suddenly see the huge demand for a truly mobile access technology. Ericsson rates its ‘dongles’ so highly, that it has predicted the technology will spell the end of WiFi and relegate it to the broadband version of a telephone box. There is no doubting that mobile broadband is a great way of connecting while out and about, but will it really spell the end of the ubiquitous hot-spot? WiFi, when it popped on to the scene, was pretty impressive. Internet surfers were unshackled from their fixed-pipes and suddenly Starbucks became the de rigueur place for aspiring novelists and trendy businessmen to ply their trade. Mobile broadband, however, can do all that as well. WiFi is wireless, but it is not mobile. That means your connection is limited to within range of the router. Mobile broadband offers much more than this. As long as you are within range of a 3G base station you can access high-speed broadband. In theory this means you can sit on a train, or in a car, or anywhere at home and still be able to check your latest company emails or eBay auction bid. In terms of pure technology, when operating properly, mobile broadband can pose a serious challenge to WiFi. The problem with mobile broadband is that at present 3G coverage is not quite good enough to support a faultless service. There is still patchy coverage across parts of the county and this will lead to the service being slowed down or even dropped on occasions. Not great if you are hooked up to a corporate network and you have been working on a document for the past two hours – or that auction is about to close! Pricing is a bit of an issue too. Some consumer services out there are charging a lot for monthly subscriptions to mobile broadband. Although a lot of this would be recouped as users could do away with their fixed-line broadband and some providers charge a nasty fee if you go over your usage limits and while that might be fine for a personal service, businesses should look for providers that can deliver mobile broadband as part of a wider remote working strategy. Roaming fees can also be quite high; users wishing to connect abroad should use local WiFi services to avoid nasty phone bills (especially if you are visiting the US where many WiFi hot-spots are free). There is no doubt that mobile broadband is a very exciting technology and will be one to watch in the future. But it shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for WiFi – each technology has its place and users should spend time establishing what sort of service they actually need before they make the switch. http://weblog.demon.net/2008/03/will_wifi_beat_the_mobile_broa.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/03/will_wifi_beat_the_mobile_broa.html Remote Working Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000 It is now pretty well known that when it comes to broadband speeds, what you buy is not necessarily what you get. This debate will no doubt rumble on until some sort of regulation is passed to make sure consumers know exactly what they are paying for, or what they are paying for and not getting. Still it is not altogether clear how the industry will do this. In the midst of all the furore and indignation, it seems to me that a rather important element is being forgotten here. When a consumer or business buys a broadband package, at least they have some idea of what downstream speeds they are being promised. Sure they may not always hit these top speeds, but it is at least one way for users to compare broadband products on offer. So, here is my question, why can’t the same be said of upstream speeds? If you look hard enough at the small print, somewhere it will tell you the upstream speeds you can expect – but they are not nearly as well publicised as the downstream speeds. In fact, no contest. This makes absolute sense for home users, who will download much more data than they will need to upload, but surely businesses should be taking more than a passing interest in their upstream speeds? Most businesses only need sufficient download speeds to ensure that their email system works correctly, and that it doesn’t take up a lot of bandwidth. Upstream speeds are often far more important, especially if the business in question needs to send out large files on a regular basis – architects, media companies and surveyors for instance. They must ensure that their broadband can cope with sending larger files, not only so their colleagues and clients receive them promptly, but also so that it does not affect other, important applications. If anything, upstream speeds are only going to increase in importance for businesses as new applications enter the mainstream - VoIP is a case in point. VoIP is equally reliant on upstream and downstream data flows. If a small business is using a highly contended public broadband connection while also using a large number of VoIP clients, the upstream can run red-hot and will potentially crash the system if there is not enough capacity available. Upstream speeds are so important to many companies that installing SDSL broadband rather than ADSL, giving upstream speeds that match the downstream flow, seems like rather a good idea! This will give businesses the peace of mind that whatever their upstream needs, be it sending large files to clients, running VoIP or allowing remote access to their network for staff working from home, their needs will be met. So while the argument rages about download speeds, perhaps it is time for the industry, or customers, to start being a bit more vocal about this aspect of business connectivity. Dan Cole, Head of Product Management]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2008/03/what_about_the_upstream.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/03/what_about_the_upstream.html Broadband Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:00:00 +0000 It is nice to remember those heady, early days of the Internet, when corporations, politicians and users alike waxed lyrical about the freest flow of information humankind has ever seen. Fast forward 17 years and we are faced with yet another call for ISPs to do more to stop file-sharing – this time with a somewhat reactionary proposal that illegal file-sharers be booted off the Internet by their service providers. These calls are, not surprisingly, coming from those with the most to lose from a truly free Internet, with the music and film industries leading the assault. Logically it seems they may have right on their side – they own the IP rights for the tunes and movies so why should they be robbed of their profits? But then why should it be the ISP’s job to keep its users in check? Should manufacturers of tape-decks and CD players be required to monitor their devices and report back to the government every time a copy is made? Should car manufacturers be made to remotely shut down any vehicle they produce once its driver exceeds the speed limit? Of course not – it is absurd, and so is the idea that ISPs have any businesses policing their users. Quite frankly, as a musician and owner of copyright material myself I welcome the Internet and all it brings. Sure there's been a revolution and I'm struggling to sell as much vinyl as I once did (DJs having joined the laptop party recently). However the cost of entry into the market has dropped and I can now release more interesting and experimental material more easily. As an artist I do like to see people buying my music. However, whilst music piracy may be theft, I am aware that the majority of people with copies are not ripping me off. They are still copies - this isn't theft that necessarily deprives me of something I would otherwise have had! Many people who copy this material are not going to simply buy it instead, even if piracy was difficult. The music and film industries should worry less about enforcement and more about how they are going to take advantage of what is a much cheaper and more effective means of distribution. Things will change massively and profits may be insecure for a while, but ultimately the Internet provides a wealth of opportunities for artists and distribution companies – they just need to recapture some of the initial excitement of the Internet and worry less about maintaining the status quo. Jim Credland, security consultant, THUS]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2008/02/should_isps_really_be_the_internet_police.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/02/should_isps_really_be_the_internet_police.html Broadband Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:28:41 +0000 The technology press does seem to like a good scare story, and VoIP has seen more than its fair share. This month it was the turn of BT to get in the firing line as an ‘ethical hacking’ group claimed to have found a serious flaw in its Home Hub product which meant it could be used as a platform to launch nefarious VoIP frauds. It turns out that this was probably no more than a storm in a tea-cup as BT issued a strenuous denial and pointed out that they had spotted the flaw months ago and fixed it. Regardless, this incident did serve some value in once again raising the issue of Internet fraud. Phishing and pharming attacks are almost old hat by now. I received two phishing attacks this week alone – one telling me I had won the lottery and the other from a ‘businessman’ asking me to partner with him in an exciting (undisclosed) project. Both would have involved me sending my bank details to the fraudsters and shortly after, no doubt, my account would have been cleaned out. Pharming can be a bit trickier to spot and involves fraudsters mimicking legitimate Internet sites (usually retail outlets or banks) to once again part their victims from their bank details. Businesses, however, have not been slow to counter these threats, and with a combination of good firewalls, SPAM filters and employee education there is no reason for anyone to fall victim to these rather unsophisticated fraud threats. Vishing, however, is a different kettle of fish and it is here that VoIP is getting an entirely undeserved reputation. Vishing is where a user is called, or makes a call to an automated system that asks them for personal information (bank details for example) and then records the answer. The recordings are then used by fraudsters to liberate money from the victims account. The victim doesn't have to actually have a VoIP system either - it's just that the VoIP technology reduces the costs to the fraudster. Unfortunately the association between this particular use of VoIP for fraudulent purposes tends to tarnish the entire technology with the same dirty brush. It's a little like assuming all automobiles are evil simply because some of them are used as get-away cars after a robbery. Sure, the VoIP system here has enabled this new type of crime. But there are reasons for this, the VoIP system is flexible, relatively cheap, quick to implement, based on standard IP components and provides a great set of customisable features. Bear in mind the entire crime is possible with older technology - it was just too much of a pain in the neck to carry out. Whatever we do, we must make sure that we reclaim VoIP from the fraudsters and let legitimate businesses and home users claim the benefits for themselves. Matt Cantwell – Head of Product Portfolio]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2008/02/dont_let_the_fraudsters_ruin_voip.html http://weblog.demon.net/2008/02/dont_let_the_fraudsters_ruin_voip.html VoIP Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:49:25 +0000 You’re probably familiar with WiFi, the wireless networking standard, from the numerous ‘hot spots’ springing up in towns and cities. Today though, the technology is expanding out of the coffee shops and airport lounges and into the office environment. The reasons for this are, as with most things in life, many and varied… Flexibility and cost are a major factor. A wireless network allows you to provide networking services in places where there is limited access to the fixed network. Instead of densely running cables throughout your building, you can rely on wireless access points covering areas where there is either lower usage or fewer employees. It is also quick to update; rather than having to re-cable a building, base stations are easily installed. The flexibility of wireless means employees do not have to be tied to their desks. Staff equipped with laptops can move around the office while retaining connectivity enabling increased flexibility in meetings, and the opportunity to ‘hot-desk’. The use of WiFi at work though is not without its problems – not least the issue of security. Any signal which can be received inside your office is also likely to be received outside too; and you never know who might be listening in. To combat this, your network should be using WPA encryption rather than the older WEP standard, and have MAC filtering (allowing you to specify which MAC addresses – unique codes embedded in every networking interface – are able to connect to the network). Finally, change the password for your wireless network frequently. WiFi is rarely a complete replacement for fixed networks. Gigabit Ethernet offers speeds of up to four times faster; and like any radio-based system, WiFi can be affected by interference (from atmospheric conditions or from poorly shielded electrical equipment). That said, the flexibility of wireless does make it an ideal complement to a fixed network infrastructure. This, combined with the advantages of offering the chance to implement new ways of working while reducing the need for excessive cabling, means that WiFi is something that every company should be investigating. Though, you will have to find another excuse to enjoy a visit to the coffee shop. Dan Cole – Head of Product Management]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2007/12/why_wifi_at_work.html http://weblog.demon.net/2007/12/why_wifi_at_work.html SMB's Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:09:18 +0000 The Broadband Stakeholder Group’s warning in April 2007, that the government had just two years to encourage private-sector investment to prevent the UK from falling behind the likes of the US, Germany and Japan, was a direct challenge to Ofcom. So when Ofcom published its September consultation on the matter, it made for interesting reading. Not only did it go a long way to open up the conversation as to how we go about doing this, it also injected some economic thinking into the debate. With an estimated price tag of £15bn to roll out ultra-fast broadband network across the UK, it’s important to get the timing right. Rolling out too late could hold back economic development, but rolling out too early before there is real demand would also be economically wasteful – and premature public subsidy could distort competition. These are important considerations and it was good to see them getting the kind of national attention they deserve. Putting money and timing to one side however, there does need to be a degree of regulatory certainty to bring to life the broadband network that the UK will eventually need to stay competitive. Ofcom’s premise that our national infrastructure will need upgrading makes perfect sense. From Lerwick to Lewisham, businesses and homes the length and breadth of the country stand to benefit from such a development, so it is vital that we start talking about how to regulate this in the future. I fully support the regulatory discourse and while the consultation itself does not provide regulatory certainty, it is a step in the right direction. However, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that businesses can already get high-quality broadband services. THUS’s next-generation network has been operational since 1999 and businesses of all sizes, including the likes of GCap Media and GNER, are benefiting from faster and more efficient networking resources. On a personal level, it makes my working day a great deal more efficient and the ability to video-conference colleagues from home adds a nice human touch to my day! From a UK perspective, high-quality broadband is less of an issue for businesses since the main driver is likely to be entertainment services for the home. The UK already has one of the highest penetrations of multi-channel digital TV and we also have high availability of first generation broadband and high levels of customer satisfaction. Demand for bandwidth intensive applications is growing and now is the time to start talking about practical ways to achieve this. Richard Sweet - Director of Government Affairs]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2007/11/regulating_an_ultrafast_broadb.html http://weblog.demon.net/2007/11/regulating_an_ultrafast_broadb.html Broadband Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:06:02 +0000 One of my colleagues overheard two guys in the pub last week, one asking the other when he thought his work would move over to VoIP in order to take advantage of the cheap phone calls. Anecdotal maybe, but still a clear indication that the average worker seems to have bought in whole-heartedly to the mantra that VoIP (running voice over the same network as data services) saves you money. Sorry to muddle the seemingly azure waters, but is that really the case? In our experience, VoIP as a standalone technology rarely delivers the cost savings heralded by some in the media or the telecoms industry. But don’t get disheartened just yet; VoIP can be a great cost-saving business tool if it is implemented as part of a wider network convergence. If an SMB is really keen to save money on communication and data charges it should investigate whether a migration to a next-generation network is a viable option. An NGN allows all types of traffic; voice, data and internet to be sent over a single, cohesive platform. So, not only can other media ‘buzz’ applications, such as video-conferencing be supported, it can improve productivity and operational costs across the board. Of course, you need to plan this sort of change carefully – its important to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and make sure that your business is geared up for the transformation. If not managed carefully, the cost of change can outweigh the benefits, especially if you think about the risk that if your single network goes down the cost to your business is felt more widely. When convergence forms part of a wider strategy, however, it means that not just your network, but your applications and your employees can all work more efficiently and effectively. Does this mean that SMB owners will have more time and more money to discuss other new and hyped telecoms technology down the pub? Possibly not! Laura Joseph - Head of Product Portfolio]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2007/10/voip_just_a_load_of_hot_air.html http://weblog.demon.net/2007/10/voip_just_a_load_of_hot_air.html VoIP Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:53:53 +0000 … following a recent report from the Federation of Small Business that claims that just 18 per cent of SMEs are selling on-line, with less than one per cent of those generating all their sales through the internet. SME's main reason for such online reticence is their fear about online fraud and security … Research asks some pretty dumb questions. Reducing the problem to one of ‘fear’ doesn’t make sense. Fear is about risk and business is inherently risky – making money is about taking some risks. According to IMRG, UK e-retail sales hit four billion pounds a month in July this year, so some risks might be worth taking! If you ticked the box “Would like to sell online but worried about security and fraud” in the research questionnaire perhaps now is the time to consider how to reduce those fears into something manageable. The primary tool used by security professionals for thinking about these problems is the risk calculation. In case you’ve not used one of these before it works like this: Risk = Impact * Likelihood It’s a tool that lets you think about risk sensibly, address the issues and in some cases, achieve the holy grail of risk management - quantify the risk you’re exposed to. I’ll use an example, a fictional SME; let’s call them Scared Cat Ltd. Scared Cat have a website that has a phone number but no online e-commerce – remember research shows it’s too scary! Lets also assume that there is a ten percent chance of www.scaredcat.com being hacked in a year and that it costs £10,000 to have it rebuilt. The cost to Scared Cat averaged over lots of years from this risk, using the formula is £1000 pounds a year (1000 = 10,000 * 10 %). For this scenario the business impact of £10,000 is probably a relatively easy calculation: add up the developer rebuilding the website, lost business, lost time, and include some figure to cover damage to their reputation. The probability figure is going to be more of a guess, but they can talk to other people in their industry and harass or employ a security professional. Scared Cat need to decide if the risk is acceptable as it stands, and may want to look at ways of reducing it. Firstly is it acceptable? Well if the website brings in £1000 pounds of profit (not revenue!) a month then a £1000 a year cost is a pretty good deal. Can they reduce the figure? If so then the reduction is effectively profit – well really it’s less risk, but it’s very close to the same thing if the calculations are approximately right. Something that reduces risk in the terms of the security professional is known as a control. The trick is to implement the most cost effective control to reduce the risk – and you tend to get diminishing returns as you implement more and more controls. A good choice of control for a website with custom applications would be some application security testing or penetration testing. Often, because of the custom coding done for web applications, generic security scanning tools are ineffective and real value comes from the manual penetration test. The testing team will do all the things a typical hacker will do with the same tools at their disposal. Manual tests like these aren’t cheap but can be worthwhile. A test team time runs from about £750 a day upwards (you’re paying for all the time they spent prior to your job staying up all night, eating pizza and keeping up to date with the latest techniques).The good news is that you might see a reduction in that 10% ‘likelihood’ figure to around 2% - if it’s done well and often enough. So, using the risk formula should they run a penetration test? The risk has gone down from £1000 pounds a year to £200. The penetration test will cost around £3000 and will only save just £800 a year. So, unless the penetration test will provide protection for the next four years it’s not a great deal, unlikely as few web applications and servers remain untouched that long. It’s important to readdress the controls whenever the impact or likelihood changes. Frequently people focus on the ‘problems’, such as a new type of virus online and forget about the increasing impact figure as their business becomes more valuable. Should Scared Cat decide to tap into their share of this £4 billion pound a year market online by enabling e-commerce functionality on the site then the impact figure will increase dramatically, hopefully offset by huge additional profits. Suddenly the penetration test, or some other effective security controls may look like a bargain. Risk analysis techniques like these, however approximate, are essential for turning fear into a set of rational business decisions. Jim Credland THUS - Head of Product Security]]> http://weblog.demon.net/2007/09/fear_and_longing_for_ecommerce.html http://weblog.demon.net/2007/09/fear_and_longing_for_ecommerce.html SMB's Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:50:46 +0000 So it’s official, following years of speculation about how addictive the BlackBerry really is, Gartner has released a research report predicting a meteoric rise in the use of mobile email. It forecasts that the popularity of text messaging is on the wane, as by 2010 over a fifth of email users will be sending messages wirelessly. Also that within three years wireless email users would have grown from 20million to 350million worldwide. That’s more than 320 million new users - more than the population of the USA! What will this huge upsurge in mobile emailing mean? The short answer is that by 2010 people will think emailing while waiting for a flight is as normal as texting on a bus. This change in how people want to communicate is where SMBs will really notice the impact on their business. As customers begin to email from wherever they are, whenever they want , they will expect a company they are doing business with to be doing the same. Not having a work force equipped to work on the move will mean that that employees will not be as responsive as your increasingly demanding customer base will expect. Your reputation as a company that rides with the times could be seriously tarnished. Some SMBs will be concerned about the cost and hassle of implementing mobile email. But it can be easily enabled through 3G cards for laptops or handheld devices. SMBs should seriously consider if mobile email will help to improve staff efficiency and customer relationships. If so, adoption driven by company foresight, rather than a beleaguered response to unsatisfied customers, is surely a sound business strategy. http://weblog.demon.net/2007/08/the_mobile_email_addiction_is.html http://weblog.demon.net/2007/08/the_mobile_email_addiction_is.html Mobile Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:59:58 +0000