Owner operator of London-based data centres

Is Cisco the de-facto standard for communications?

Cisco is often the first choice for mainstream data communications within the enterprise and service provider environments. Often they are more expensive than other competitors due to their reputation and support within the market place.

Cisco Systems, at the height of the dot com boom, were in fact the world’s most valuable company before the crash at the turn of the millennium, with stories of many employees becoming overnight millionaires after cashing in on lucrative stock options. Since then other technology companies such as Microsoft and more recently Apple have moved ahead of Cisco, with Cisco now not even featuring in the Top 200 companies.

Cisco’s technologies can be split into four basic business areas, Routing and Switching, Security, Multi-media and Systems. (more…)

Windows Server 2012 De-dupe – Any good?

Windows Server 2012 De-dupe – Any good?

With the launch of Windows Server 2012, Microsoft introduced their new de-duplication feature that promised a very high saving in terms of disk space per volume. We found the perfect opportunity to test this out and implement it for a customer.

As a service provider we have our own cloud backup solution that we sell to our customers, but every now and then a customer wants a specific product that they use as a corporate standard. We specialise in bespoke design and installation of services and platforms, so when one of our larger customers decided they wanted a dedicated backup environment using Veeam, they tasked us with producing a design that would satisfy a number of business and technical requirements.

As with any customer they were looking at keeping the costs fairly low on this solution but required quite a high volume in terms of TB of disk space. (more…)

Open yourself up to hosting events seamlessly; the answer is in the Cloud

While Cloud Computing remains a hot topic, the definition of ‘Cloud‘ seems vaguer by the day. Many suppliers will obfuscate what they really mean by ‘the Cloud ‘ in order to claim intellectual superiority and sell services you don’t really need.

So let us demystify an area of Cloud computing with a specific example: using Cloud storage to host events seamlessly. (more…)

Understanding threats to your network security

Every business has a duty to secure its network and data in order to protect both their clients and in turn, their clients’ reputation. Many business leaders, however, see IT security as a static attribute of their IT infrastructure. We buy in the security software and let it run – job done. But, unfortunately, IT security is a very active task requiring constant vigilance by all staff. (more…)

The big problem with Big Data

As the digital world has expanded, so too has the volume of data that companies are able to gather on their customers. Enterprises must now gather as much customer information as possible in order to manage their demanding online communities and to enhance their marketing efforts. However, the sheer volume of data now being collected has posed a huge problem for many businesses, and Big Data needs a big solution. (more…)

Facilitating BYOD in the workplace

The consumerisation of IT means most businesses are facing a ‘to BYOD or to not BYOD’ dilemma. A Forrester survey of European businesses found that 93% of IT decision makers expect admin professionals and knowledge workers to consume or create content on tablets by 2013. By 2016 Forrester predict that 200 million of the 350 million mobile devices used by employees will be personal devices and not supplied by the company. So, in reality, the dilemma for businesses is how to safely and effectively deploy BYOD rather than whether to deploy. (more…)

Cisco Nexus overcomes the STP ‘infinite loop’

As networks grow, with the introduction of data centres in particular, with Layer 2 domains spanning multiple locations and data centres, switching through the network becomes much more complex. Networks rely on redundant paths as backup in case the primary path fails, but configuring a complicated network of switches running STP in a large Layer 2 domain can get a little complex to handle in today’s world. (more…)

Cloud backup and storage options for businesses

A large amount of businesses have already converted, or are looking to convert, to cloud storage for backup or file sharing. This essentially involves outsourcing some of your storage requirements to a provider and is especially useful when enabling flexible working for your staff. Employees, partners and even clients can be provided with rights to access your data stored on the cloud and so can access that data from anywhere. (more…)

Is it time to dump blacklists in favour of whitelists?

Blacklists attempt to stop known bad people or things. Whitelists only allow known good people or things. Both concepts are well understood in network security: whitelists are used for standard access control lists; blacklists are used in standard anti-malware applications.

The arguments are simple. With ACLs, there are far more people you want to keep off your network than people you want to allow on to it – so it makes mathematical sense to allow the few people you like, and block everyone else. (more…)

INFOGRAPHIC: How Secure Is Your Business Data?