Wireless networking has transformed the way enterprises do business and serve customers, but until now, virtually all enterprise WLANs use short-range unlicensed Wi-Fi as for connectivity. However, as organizations become more distributed and require expanded wireless range, capacity and security, they run into the limits of Wi-Fi technology that require more equipment and complex designs to overcome. Even… Read More »
Levi’s Stadium, where the Broncos and Panthers will tangle in the Golden State’s golden anniversary Super Bowl, bills itself as the most technologically advanced stadium in the world. How could it be otherwise for the newest home to an NFL team right in the heart of Silicon Valley? Sitting just a mile from corporate sponsor Intel’s headquarters, with… Read More »
LTE availability and performance make it a viable option for branch office, retail WAN redundancy: Some options and considerations This column summarizes a report done for Channel Partners available here (with registration). Reliable network connectivity is such a fundamental requirement for the digital business and mobile lifestyle that most people consider it on par with power and water:… Read More »
It has long been clear that the days of wired Ethernet networks were numbered as an endpoint connection and while most homes long ago ditched switches and CAT5 cables for an all-in-one Wi-Fi router, however building a business-class WLANs still takes planning and skill. WLAN configuration and management is still something of a black art that often leaves… Read More »
This article originally appeared in Forbes as The Omni-Connected World: Bell Labs Plans For Future Although it’s a shadow of the R&D powerhouse that brought us the transistor, laser, fiber optics and evidence of the Big Bang, Bell Labs is still around and planning for a future beyond the horizon of today’s technology. The latest evidence of the organization’s… Read More »
An overarching trend sweeping the industries that combine to create IT infrastructure is the embrace of open, inter-company collaboration on core technology. There have been plenty of examples of corporate affection for open source of late, however the trend was on full display at the recent OpenDaylight Summit where network hardware vendors, component suppliers, telecom companies, software developers… Read More »
A version of this article, with complete coverage of branch office WAN appliances, use cases and recommendations is available this Channel Partners report. With the pressure on IT to deliver new services without bigger budgets, organizations large and small are under pressure to cut costs and increase efficiency while simultaneously improving application performance and security. It’s a tall… Read More »
I take an in-depth look at IoT network design in a new InformationWeek Report (available here, registration required), but the key takeaways in this summary column are that the Internet of Things demands reliable connectivity, yet standards are up in the air. While consumers and Wall Street analysts tend to conflate “IoT” with “wearables tethered to smartphones,” most… Read More »
If necessity is the mother of invention, then the need for cheap, efficient, compact servers and network equipment has made Facebook an innovator of gear optimized for cloud data centers and workloads. It’s leadership in the development of standard, hyper scale hardware using interchangeable commodity components led to the Open Compute Project (OCP), bootstrapped by designs and hardware… Read More »
Protecting your data from prying eyes while on the move is important and easier than ever. Here’s why. An axiom among network security pros is that you should treat public Wi-Fi hotspots like the cyber equivalent of public bathrooms: a convenience we all use, but only with the requisite hygiene. You wouldn’t share personal items like a toothbrush… Read More »