The 10 Most Trusted Networking Solution Providers 2018

www.insightssuccess.com JUNE 2018

10

THE

Most Trusted NETWORKING SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Industry Insight An Insight on the Opportunities in the Big Data Industry

Editor’s Pick The Impressive Impact of Organic Networking

The Network Modernization to Host Business Applications and Continuity

T

he term Trust is a fiduciary relationship that is generally expected from every public and private organization. It is maintained by most of the business organizations in sectors like real estate, retail, hospitals and others to develop a fixed wired network between the customers and organizations.

In the present era, networking has gained popularity with an innovative range of technologies, protocols and configurations developed and deployed. It seems a safe bet that Wi-Fi will remain the preferred source of internet access for essentially most of the users. On the other hand, mobile-centric wireless LANs are dominating the edge of the network but are underpinned by wired Ethernet for backhaul and interconnect.

Most enterprises are expecting to provide data center solutions to host business applications and to have business continuity. Companies are taking necessary steps in order to deploy a next-generation data center switching network from the current mainstream and widespread adoption of server virtualization. This helps to create much more forward-looking opportunities of cloud computing and desktop virtualization. They are also planning to offer comprehensive data center solutions and have a large pool of skilled professionals to understand and deploy these solutions.

In the next generation of networking, with the help of cloud-first approach, it can be expected that there will be changes in some of the key areas where network modernization can take place.

This includes branch office connectivity, network intelligence & analytics, networking security, and much more.

Thus, with great enthusiasm, Insights Success has shortlisted, “The 10 Most Trusted Networking Solution Providers, 2018” that are ensuring optimal network efficiency and security.

Our shortlisted companies include, Turn-key Technologies, is a leader in networking, communications and security; Redpine Signals, which is headquartered in San Jose, California, is a wireless semiconductor and system solutions company focusing on innovative, ultra-low power and high-performance products for next-generation wireless applications; CloudGenix, a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution that provides agile, intelligent, secure, and performant connectivity for all apps over any WAN transport; GeoLinks, headquartered in Southern California, is a leading telecommunications company and competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) public utility, nationally recognized for its innovative Internet and Hosted Voice solutions; and Massive Networks, which specializes in Premium-Blended Internet and layer 2 Private Line Transport connections from office-to-office, data centers, and cloud applications, even for hard-to-reach facilities.

Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.

Kaustav Roy

CloudGenix: Delivering World-Class Networking Solutions

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GeoLinks: 22

Connecting Clients with Innovative Telecom Solutions

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36

44

Massive Networks:

Redpine Signals:

Turn-key Technologies:

Seamless Businesses Operations

Driving Wireless Convergence

A Networking Key to Thrive in IT

Articles 14

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Industry Insight

Editor’s Perspectives

An Insight on the Opportunities in the Big Data Industry

Network Security Threats and Solutions

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46

Technology Views

Editor’s Pick

Networking Industry: an Innovative Future for Enterprises

The Impressive Impact of Organic Networking

10 Mentor’s View Are You Staying In Network Secure Zone?

18 Expert’s Talk Hunting New Opportunities Taking the Business to the Next Level

Tech Perspective Rising Mobile Workforce and its Challenges in the Mobile-Cloud Era

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Key Cognizance What GDPR forgets: The physical security

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Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editors Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kaustav Roy Jenny Fernandes Sourav Mukherjee Ishan Mittal Kedar Kulkarni David King Amol Kamble Nagesh Tembhekar Aparna Vanzul

Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Bhushan Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Vijay Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

June, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Most Trusted

The

Ne working 10 Solution Providers 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

Aviat Networks aviatnetworks.com

Mike Pangia President & CEO

Aviat exists to provide dependable products, services, and support to its customers and is the trusted expert in microwave networking.

CloudGenix cloudgenix.com

Kumar Ramachandran Founder & CEO

CloudGenix is a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution that provides agile, intelligent, secure, and performant connectivity for all apps over any WAN transport.

GeoLinks geolinks.com

Skyler Ditchfield Co-founder & CEO Ryan Hauf Co-founder & CTO

Headquartered in Southern California, GeoLinks is a leading telecommunications company and competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) public utility, nationally recognized for its innovative Internet and Hosted Voice solutions.

Massive Networks massivenetworks.com

Paul Mako CEO & CTO

Massive Networks specializes in Premium-Blended Internet and layer 2 Private Line Transport connections from office-to-office, data centers, and cloud applications, even for hard-to-reach facilities.

Redpine Signals redpinesignals.com

Venkat Mattela Chairman & CEO

Headquartered in San Jose, California, Redpine Signals, is a wireless semiconductor and system solutions company focusing on innovative, ultra-low power and high-performance products for next-generation wireless applications.

Saisei saisei.com

Julia Sartini COO

Based in the heart of Silicon Valley, Saisei is at the core of bleeding-edge technology.

Senet senetco.com

Bruce Chatterley President & CEO

Senet’s public network, Managed Network Services for IoT (MNSi) and Low Power Wide Area Virtual Network (LVN) are built on a common cloud-based services architecture and powered by our proprietary Network Operating System.

Sierra Wireless sierrawireless.com

Kent Thexton Interim President & CEO

Sierra Wireless is an IoT pioneer, empowering businesses and industries to transform and thrive in the connected economy.

Turn-key Technologies, Inc turn-keytechnologies.com

Craig Badrick President & CEO

Turn-Key Technologies is a leading provider of network, security, and communication solutions.

Zentera Systems zentera.net

Jaushin Lee Founder, President & CEO

Zentera Systems, is the leading vendor of enclave-based security and connectivity for the multicloud.

Mentor’s View

Are you staying in network secure zone?

O ne word can sum up the most common strategy for network defense - “boxy.” Building and maintaining a strong perimeter has a long and storied history. Consider a castle with its moat, high walls and drawbridge. That is how most networks are defended. In a box. Currently, the mentality is: “Do you want to protect a new system?” Put it inside the box. “Processing personal information?” Put it inside the box.

This evolution started with the rise in mobile usage. Early on, traditional security teams focused efforts on stopping mobile usage. Eventually, they acquiesced and accepted mobile devices, but only those that were “approved.”

Ultimately, reason triumphed and mobile is now treated in a more logical fashion. While still four letters, “BYOD” is no longer a bad word. Unfortunately, we are now seeing the same cycle with cloud services.

While the “box” approach was successful in the past, it’s an antiquated model. And, while the conventional approach has been occupied with defending the castle from a ground attack, adversaries have deployed an air assault with the latest modern weapons.

Consumer is the new business Consumer-focused services are making significant inroads into enterprises around the world. It is fairly common to see large volumes of outbound network traffic utilizing services such as Dropbox, Google Apps, Github or any number of other cloud-based applications. In fact, these services have begun to incorporate features and functionality specifically targeted to the size and scope of various business operations.

User’s choice Over the past decade, there has been a quiet revolution with how IT systems and services are used within organizations.

Fed up with a lack of options, viable solutions and a general disconnect with the business, users have taken matters into their own hands.

Think of this as a “bottom-up” approach. It is a sign that users in organizations are pushing technology adoption just as much - if not more - than a traditional “top-down” approach. Overall, this should be seen as a positive. The shift is now aligning IT with the actual focus of the organization. It is a move toward technology that works in the “real world,” instead of simply looking good “on paper.”

However, it’s not all unicorns and rainbows.

Crumbling walls While productivity might be up, it is extremely difficult to maintain a strong perimeter around this new blend of traditional, mobile and cloud infrastructure. There action to this is: “Then why try? Isn’t there a better approach?” This response is rational, but not the sentiment of a vast majority of the security industry.

Just as with mobile adoption, the common security response to cloud services is to attempt to block user’s access and, instead, guide them toward an “approved” (and typically less usable) server. That isn’t embracing reality and, quite simply, is no longer feasible.

Mark Nunnikhoven Vice President Trend Micro

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The architecture diagram for current networks no longer fits cleanly into a simple box. Trying to wedge it into one is counterproductive and can lead to frustration among employees. It is imperative to accept the fact that the perimeter as it has been known is now gone. Which leads to the core of the issue - what strategies can be adopted to defend today’s networks?

June 2018

Level up First, it is important to understand that traditional controls still have a place in modern defense. There is a need for firewalls, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, filtering, etc.

These traditional elements serve as a strong component, but they play a smaller role and cannot be considered the endall, be-all of security. Instead of focusing on individual components of the network, it should be viewed according to the way specific data flows.

systems are controlled by the enterprise, some are not. With this view, the real challenge comes to the forefront - how can the safety of orders (items purchased, quantities, shipping info, etc.) and processing data be ensured by at least three different entities? In addition, payment information resides on at least two systems. How does that affect Payment Card Industry compliance? This is the level where security should be applied - and it must be acted upon holistically.

Security in isolation Take a typical e-commerce transaction, for example: In a traditional approach, each of these systems would reside in relative isolation. First, there must be a firewall on the site and anti-malware so it is “secure.” Second, the shopping cart is delivered to the user via HTTPS so it is “secure.” Third, the payment information is encrypted, thus it is “secure.”

Finally, the shipping system is only internal so it is “secure” through access control.

Next steps The top priority for security must be monitoring. It is clear that controlling every element of the network can be overwhelming. With the variety of services, endpoints and connections, the aforementioned “box” model has been demolished. Thus, the traditional perimeter is gone. What takes place in networks requires more transparency to read and react accordingly.

While none of these controls are bad, they do not take into account the realities of today’s networks. Now, shopping carts are provided via PaaS, payments are provided via SaaS ans all shipping is done through a third-party API. These providers inherently change over time cteating more variables and avenues for breaches.

Data flow In addition to adding basic security to each system or service, it is critical to examine how data flows. When a high-level view of data flow is incorporated into the typical e-commerce transaction, the following occurs: It is immediately apparent that there is a variety of information shared across multiple systems. Some of the

June 2018

A modern monitoring practice not only pulls in log data from network devices and application servers (as has traditionally occurred), but also logs and reports from IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and mobile systems. This in itself cteates a new challenge with an immense amount of diverse data needing to be processed. Fortunately, “big data” analytics can be applied to resolve this issue.

There is very little value in denying where network infrastructure design, and access, is headed. The soundest strategy is to welcome this reality and work to increase security of the current network to focus on monitoring. It is essential to be cognizant of data workflows within the overall enterprise. Once that is established, taking steps to protect data, regardless of where it is stored and processed, is far less daunting.

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Industry Insight

An Insight on the Opportunities in the

BIG DATA INDUSTRY

I

n this era of changing technologies, the Big Data domain has evolved in a very short period of time. It plays the most pivotal role across all industries. The ability of Big Data to mine critical data has radically altered the dynamics of the way businesses function, drive sales, and attract customers. It has become an essential component of business strategy nowadays. A business tastes success by uncovering insights locked inside data. The overlaying trends will examine the evolving ways enterprises can realize better business value with Big Data and how improving business intelligence can help transform organizational processes and the customer experience. There is a demand for better data management from most of the business executives for compliance and increased confidence to steer the business. It will help them in more rapid adoption of Big Data and innovative and transformative data analytic technologies.

analytics which will become a major area of investment and will grow swiftly. It is necessary for the enterprises and the government agencies to upgrade their security systems to next-generation software which can address ultra-modern security threats.

Insight-driven Organizations In this present year, businesses will move beyond just data handling to leveraging the insights that Big Data uncovers.

As understanding, managing, and manipulating Big Data has now become fairly ubiquitous, most of the companies have the ability to deal with it. Mining data will be the center of attraction and it will help effectively to meet organizational requirements and for precise targeting of products and services. An insight-driven approach will facilitate an evolved customer experience, competitiveness, advanced security and operational efficiency.

Bridging the talent gap If the demand expands further, the talent gap in data analytics will soar. It is expected that organizations and academic institutions will collaborate closely to generate skills and talent to meet the demand for data engineers. The functions of all corporate employees will be expected to understand, appreciate and work with analytics since it emerges as one of the key instruments in every organization. The academic institutions are also looking forward to put together degree programs in data science.

Cyber security Applications Today, everyone is dependent on the digital technology and our dependence has reached an unprecedented level. Cyberattacks have also become much more prevalent. An increased occurrence of ransomware has been registered across the globe and cyber criminals are now targeting personal data and devices. Concerning the prime industry, cyber security can only be possible through big data

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Analytics across the enterprise It can be said that the analytics will not remain isolated to a few departments like marketing and risk management. On the other hand it will infuse the entire enterprise. To understand the dynamics of business operations, data analytics will be utilized and will also reveal ways and means to increase efficiency. Hence to derive overall business strategy, insights from multiple departments will be integrated and redundant processes will be eliminated. It will also help the departments to increase efficiency, growth, and productivity.

IoT and People There will be a transition from Internet of Things (IoT) to Internet of People (IoP). Interactions, predictive analytics around human behavior, and other subjective areas will grow and start to filter all industry verticals. For example, hospitals will increasingly deploy machine learning techniques to predict the likelihood of the relapse of a disease. This will enable them to work out a patient’s readmission precisely at the time of the initial discharge.

June 2018

Business-science collaboration Businesses will have to learn and deploy traditional, scientific techniques of pattern-matching and artificial intelligence for analytics use cases. For example, techniques to analyze gene sequences in DNA are being used in text-matching algorithms to process bulk emails. It is expected to see very close collaboration between data scientists and the scientific community. For example, image processing is widely used in ‘tagging’ in social media, while voice recognition is used in apps.

Technology There will be brisk moving in the organizations from on-premise platforms to cloud and hybrid environments. Around 44 percent of applications used by Fortune 500 organizations are already on the cloud, and more than 50 percent of IT applications will move to the cloud by the end of the year. There will be a rise in demand for analytics tools that are simple, flexible, and capable of handling a variety of data sources. Hadoop enables to store an extremely large volume of data at a significantly lower price point and hence it will continue to become increasingly popular. The share of unstructured data in the data warehouse will continue to increase, which will further cause for Hadoop. Hadoop, now, is past the business relevance and scalability assessment phase and its adoption is expected to accelerate strongly.

We are advancing towards a completely new era in the domain of analytics. Big data is disruptive and it has paved the way for pioneering ideas and innovative techniques across industry verticals. It is now driving the stream of disruption and expanding the scope of opportunities for previously untouched market segments. Organizations need to leverage Big Data analytics to its full capacity so as to thrive in this competitive world.

June 2018

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Most Trusted

The

Ne working 10 Solution Providers 2018

CloudGenix: Delivering World-Class Networking Solutions

C

loudGenix is a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution provider which transforms the WAN from an expensive and complex hindrance to an enabler of business innovation.

The company’s AppFabric platform provides secure, high performing and reliable connectivity between users in remote sites and applications regardless of where they are deployed, be it in the data center, cloud or as software-as-aservice (SaaS). Unlike legacy WAN gear, which uses packets as the fundamental unit of operation, AppFabric understands the behavior, performance, and health of applications, and uses that information as a means of enabling the information and technology to craft policies that are relevant to the business. The organization’s vision is one where the network is automated, continually learning usage patterns, and aligning resources with the expectations of the business.

A Learned Leader Kumar Ramachandran is the Founder and CEO of CloudGenix. Kumar helped create the future of the WAN while at Cisco, contributing to creation of several successful product lines including branch routing and application delivery. Additionally, he’s been on the other side of the product, having worked for large financial institutions managing applications and infrastructure, giving him keen insight into what customers need and how

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products must be built to address those needs. On a personal level, Kumar is known for his amiable demeanor, kind heartedness, and ability to craft an engaging and exciting story.

Surpassing Challenges CloudGenix was founded in 2013 by a team of experienced networking professionals that had produced award-winning products deployed by the largest companies worldwide.

Since then, the company has received massive interest from customers and has successfully deployed the world’s largest SD-WAN implementations. Its largest struggles have been based largely on our ability to meet the voracious demand of our customers for our technology.

According to Kumar, the challenges in the WAN industry are driven by vendor confusion. He exclaims, “Large vendors have come to market with solutions that, on the surface, seem to be an evolution but in reality, do not advance customer agility or freedom. IT as a category is moving from a cost center where engineers manage components and individual pieces into a model where it is becoming a business enabler driven by company strategy.”

To cater to this need, the operation of products and services leveraged by CloudGenix are in alignment with business goals, and its infrastructure is programmable to enable integration and simplification of business process.

The Blueprints of Excellence CloudGenix is fundamentally different and is aware of the running applications, using advanced detection techniques including session fingerprinting. It understands how application transactions and sessions are performing and more importantly, it understands how those applications perform across each of the various WAN links. This allows AppFabric to align WAN resources with the desired user experience, rather than a perception and conclusion based on network-only metrics such as bandwidth and packet loss.

Further, CloudGenix exposes this application-centric and network-centric information as consumable and actionable insights, giving businesses unparalleled visibility into the health and performance of their applications and WAN links. By delivering through channel partners the company enables new levels of freedom from service providers rather June 2018

than creating more lock-in. Best amongst all, the platform is completely programmable, enabling levels of integration and automation that were previously not possible.

The Steps Towards Innovation CloudGenix has witnessed a fundamental shift in how distributed businesses operate. Over the past twenty years businesses have connected remote offices using expensive, low-bandwidth lines from service providers, and then had to deploy additional stacks of hardware at these remote offices to better manage their WAN and improve application performance.

“The cloud has completely transformed the way businesses deploy and integrate applications, and legacy networking doesn’t allow for a top-down model to dictate business objectives for applications and sites,” states Kumar. This in turn led CloudGenix to take a clean-slate approach to building a WAN, which has allowed the company to help countless Fortune 500 customers with tens, hundreds, and thousands of branch offices, radically shift their WAN from a hindrance and cost center to an enabler of agility and value.

“

Our mission is to provide the world with the ability to build and manage their WAN the way it should have been done in the rst place.

”

A Progress-Centric Tomorrow CloudGenix is witnessing two dramatic changes in how enterprise networking products are built. The IT demands a top-down model to define the behavior of a product or solution as opposed to needing deep technical understanding of its inner workings. This is commonly-called “intent-based networking,” where the intent of the business dictates the behavior of a product or system. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are becoming pervasive within enterprise products. CloudGenix has successfully combined the two evident changes innovatively. Within the company, system behavior is defined by policies that are relevant to business objectives for performance, security, and compliance whereas, machine learning and artificial intelligence are used to understand and predict application behavior under various network conditions, which influence how it responds and enforces policy. The company displays continued investment in both the areas.

June 2018

Kumar Ramachandran Founder & CEO

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Expert’s Talk

About the Author Fatima Al Shirawi, Founder of The Gracious F is the leading Color Consultant in the Middle East who has been collaborating with International luxury brands through the years.

As an educator, she works with Government and Corporate Entities and Educational Institutes on delivering the Science of Colour to learners in their elds of expertise.

Fatima Al Shirawi Founder Gracious F

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June 2018

New

Hunting

Business

OPPORTUNITIES Taking The

To The Next

LEVEL

L

aunching a niche business concept in a competitive environment requires a mindset that constantly looks for new challenges to explore new ventures and set precedents. I launched a fully-edged color consultancy business in the Middle East a decade ago at a time when the region was just establishing itself as an international hub for arts and creativity.

Many perceive color consultancy as a business that assesses individuals’ color proďŹ les hence its association with fashion and styling. In an age where knowledge is the core driver of creativity and versatility, I have transformed the perception of this individual-centric business to a business that services key sectors that involve human interaction.

The science of color psychology is accurate to the extent that it can be used to achieve sales targets for any business. International brands have always been ahead of the game in using innovative methods to

June 2018

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Expert’s Talk

drive their sales. With the Middle East being a key market for growth, I worked with these brands by utilizing the science and psychology of color to enhance the shopping experience for their target clients. From engineering the store interiors and visual merchandise to the actual selection of goods that appeal to the sophisticated buyer meanwhile standing out in a competitive landscape. Time after time the science of color did not fail our expectations.

Another important element of success is collaborating with businesses operating in different sectors. Social Media channels have made it simpler to keep up with trends which paves the way for successful collaborations to tap into new markets and challenge business’s creativity. The collaboration of businesses from different sectors has become increasingly common in this day and age, as they all aim to innovate a new experience for their customers.

Local and regional businesses are challenged to outperform as they are constantly compared to their international counterparts on social media channels and online media platforms.

The key benefit of research and keeping up with trends is understanding the challenges that businesses face, which creates the opportunity to collaborate successfully. A good example of a cross-sector collaboration would be aligning my color consultancy business with the F&B sector, which has witnessed growth in recent years, where customers are always on the lookout for the next new dining experience.

Utilizing color psychology of human behavior and people’s perception of colors was the core success factor behind such collaboration. Where the fine dining restaurant set a precedent in designing a customized menu incorporating the flavors and colors that best suit Middle Eastern diners meanwhile maintaining its French cuisine offering. Diners enjoyed the experiences that activated their senses whilst they were briefed on the psychology of color and flavors behind every course of their dinner. Thanks to the Color Affects theory, they left with satisfied taste buds and inquisitive thoughts of the color groups they belonged to.

landscape in the Middle East and having worked alongside regional and international entities, it was time to share the know-how with young minds. The Academic sector is one of the key sectors that interacts with young minds and exports knowledge. It is therefore extremely important to me to work with academic institutions by training young students from both arts and business realms on understanding the impact of color psychology and the importance of implementing it in their areas of specialization, with the aim of growing their skill sets and improving their career prospects.

Taking the business to the next level means exploring new sectors that you can work alongside with and understanding the challenges of the ever-evolving business landscape.

Confidence in your business and its offering makes that possible. It is important to highlight that deep knowledge of the new sector you plan on working with, creates a better opportunity and transforms collaborations to partnerships.

Creativity remains the core challenge to businesses across sectors. It is important to understand the psychology of the consumer and color psychology is one of the methods used to decipher consumer behavior. Commitment to your business and business counterparts is the key to sustainable success. It is important to bear in mind that along with the high risk comes rewards which is what sets your business apart from its competitors, by emerging as a key player in the market.

Color consultancy remains a niche business, yet it was eminent to hunt for opportunities that capitalize on such a science in an age where our eyes are busy with our portable devices and our minds are constantly distracted. Versatility, adaptability and venturing into new business areas has transformed the perception of my business from one that is associated with fashion and arts to a business consultancy that comprehends customer psychology, visual merchandize, and engineers interior designs of homes and stores.

Sharing knowledge is the key to growth. With over a decade of know-how and expertise in the evolving 20

June 2018

Most Trusted

The

Ne working 10 Solution Providers 2018

GeoLinks: Connecting Clients with Innovative Telecom Solutions

H

eadquartered in Southern California, GeoLinks is a leading telecommunications company, competitive local exchange carrier, and regulated public utility, nationally recognized for its innovative Internet and Digital Voice solutions. The company delivers Enterprise-Grade Internet, Digital Voice, SD-WAN, Cloud On-ramping, Layer 2 Transport, and both Public and Private Turnkey Network Construction expertly tailored for businesses and Anchor Institutions nationwide.

GeoLinks’ accelerated success is largely due to its flagship product, ClearFiber™, which offers dedicated business-class Internet with unlimited bandwidth, true network redundancy, and guaranteed speeds reaching up to 10 Gbps. Named “Most Disruptive Technology” in the 2018 Central Coast Innovation Awards, GeoLinks’ ClearFiber™ network is backed by a carrier-grade Service Level Agreement boasting 99.999% uptime and 24/7 in-house customer support. With an average installation period of 4 to 7 days, GeoLinks is proud to offer the most resilient and scalable fixed wireless network on the market.

Recognized as a thought-leader in closing the digital divide, GeoLinks proudly sits on an array of national boards, coalitions, and working groups including the Schools, Healthcare & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) 22

Coalition, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), the Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast (BCPC), and the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s (BDAC) Streamlining Federal Siting Working Group.

The Passionate Leader Born in Ojai, California, Skyler Ditchfield is the Cofounder and CEO of GeoLinks, which is the No. 1 Fastest Growing Fixed Wireless ISP in the country, and Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing WISP in America.

Nationally recognized for its innovative Internet and Hosted Voice Solutions, and dedication to closing the U.S. Digital Divide, GeoLinks is determined to bring connectivity to every unconnected Anchor Institution in America over the next seven7 years.

To accomplish this goal, Skyler is aggressively looking to change the landscape of Internet across America by influencing the reform of broadband funding and spectrum policy on both the state and federal levels.

Believing that action fuels influence, Skyler led GeoLinks to successfully connect more schools than any other ISP in both 2016 and 2017 and was an instrumental lobbyist in the passing of AB1665, the Internet for All Act, which brought $330m in new funding to the state of California.

Within his company, Ditchfield is passionate about cultivating the best company culture around—one that combines respect, collaboration, and a “best idea wins mantra.” Both his dedication to closing the digital divide and commitment towards developing an exceptional company culture have won Skyler a variety of accolades including “World’s Top 5 Best Businessmen of 2017,” “Top Innovator in Diversity and Inclusion,” and “2018 Entrepreneur of the Year”.

Thriving on Challenges According to GeoLinks, the telecom industry is heavily dominated by multi-billion dollar virtual monopolies that receive massive tax credits and federal subsidies.

Furthermore, the regulatory landscape and funding on both the state and federal level are tilted heavily to favor these “incumbent” providers—furthering their “perceived” monopoly status. However, GeoLinks thrives on challenges, and are aggressively working to reform and overcome these obstacles.

June 2018

GeoLinks’ ongoing strategy is to out-maneuver incumbent providers in competitive markets nationwide by providing a quality of service they can’t offer and maintain, and by going after businesses they either don’t want or can’t service. It’s in GeoLinks’ DNA to consistently innovate new methods and technologies that pushes it far ahead of the crowd.

Tackling Bad Patches and Preparing for a Better Future In its early days, cousins and co-founders Ditchfield, CEO, and Ryan Hauf, CTO, decided that they will build their Internet Service Provider (ISP) business model to compete head-tohead with all the big guys—which was not very traditional for a smaller ISP provider. GeoLinks decided that to be successful and to make its goal of becoming a major national carrier a reality, they needed to penetrate the most competitive markets.

Over the past seven years, GeoLinks’ innovative flagship product, ClearFiber™, named “Most Disruptive Technology” in the 2018 Central Coast Innovation Awards, the organization’s superior customer service, and its industryleading Service Level Agreement has led the organization to become the fastest growing telecom in California.

“GeoLinks’ Golden Rule: We treat you like we want to be treated.

”

When reflecting on the company’s rapid growth, Ditchfield comments that every struggle has been unique in its needs and solutions. In the beginning, many of these hurdles were finance-based, as the telecom didn’t have a significant financial backer. The organization had to remain as fiscally responsible as possible and fold all its revenue back into the company. As a business, it has learned that being honest and putting customers first always pays off in the long-run. So even in the case of a wrong step, GeoLinks has admitted it, fixed it, and been able to move on swiftly.

In the near future, you can expect to see GeoLinks continuing to expand rapidly delivering gigabit and multigigabit access to new markets across the United States. This also includes working on new technologies and experimental spectrum to deliver gigabit speeds to residential clients. Furthermore, leadership plans to partner with like-minded organizations to expand into sensor networks and specific projects that encompass public safety, research, education, and much more.

June 2018

Skyler Ditcheld Co-founder & CEO

Ryan Hauf Co-founder & CTO

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Editor’s Perspectives

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ovember 3, 1988, is considered as a turning point in the world of Internet. 25 Years ago a Cornell University graduate student created first computer worm on the Internet, “Morris Worm.” The Morris worm was not a destructive worm, but it permanently changed the culture of the Internet. Before Morris unleashed his worm, the Internet was like a small town where people thought little of leaving their doors unlocked. Internet security was seen as a mostly theoretical problem, and software vendors treated security flaws as a low priority.

Let’s Take a Look at Recurrent Security Threats TypesDenial of Service Attacks A denial of service (DoS) attack is an incident in which a user or organization is deprived of the services of a resource they would normally expect to have. These attacks are very common, accounting for more than one-third of all network attacks reviewed in the report. A standard approach is to overload the resource with illegitimate requests for service.

Brute Force Attacks

Today, there is a paradigm shift, Morris worm was motivated more by intellectual curiosity than malice, but it is not the case today. According to a 2015 Report, 71% of represented organizations experienced, at least, one successful cyber attack in the preceding 12 months (up from 62% the year prior).

According to survey report, discloses that, among 5500 companies in 26 countries around the world, 90% of businesses admitted a security incident. Additionally, 46% of the firms lost sensitive data due to an internal or external security threat. On average enterprises pay US$551,000 to recover from a security breach. Small and Medium business spend 38K. Incidents involving the security failure of a third-party contractor, fraud by employees, cyber espionage, and network intrusion appear to be the most damaging for large enterprises, with average total losses significantly above other types of the security incident.

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Brute force attack tries to kick down the front door. It’s a trial-and-error attempt to guess a system’s password. The Brute Force Attack password cracker software simply uses all possible combinations to figure out passwords for a computer or a network server. It is simple and does not employ any inventive techniques.

Identity Spoofing IP spoofing, also known as IP address forgery. The hijacker obtains the IP address of a legitimate host and alters packet headers so that the regular host appears to be the source. An attacker might also use special programs to construct IP packets that seem to originate from valid addresses inside the corporate intranet.

Browser Attacks Browser-based attacks target end users who are browsing the internet which in turn can spread in the whole enterprise June 2018

network. The attacks may encourage them to unwittingly download malware disguised as a fake software update or application. Malicious and compromised websites can also force malware onto visitors’ systems.

SSL/TLS Attacks Transport layer security (TLS) ensures the integrity of data transmitted between two parties (server and client) and also provides strong authentication for both sides. SSL/TLS attacks aim to intercept data that is sent over an encrypted connection. A successful attack enables access to the unencrypted information. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) attacks were more widespread in late 2014, but they remain prominent today, accounting for 6% of all network attacks analyzed.

Network Security is an essential element in any organization’s network infrastructure. Companies are boosting their investments in proactive control and threat intelligence services, along with better wireless security, next-generation firewalls and increasingly advanced malware detection. The U.S. Federal Government has spent $100 billion on cyber security over the past decade, $14 billion budgeted for 2016.

Increased use of technology helps enterprises to maintain the competitive edge, most businesses are required to employ IT security personnel full-time to ensure networks are shielded from the rapidly growing industry of cyber crime. Following are the methods used by security specialists to full proof enterprise network systemJune 2018

Penetration Testing Penetration testing is a form of hacking which network security professionals use as a tool to test a network for any vulnerabilities. During penetration testing IT professionals use the same methods that hackers use to exploit a network to identify network security breaches.

Intrusion Detection Intrusion detection systems are capable of identifying suspicious activities or acts of unauthorized access over an enterprise network. The examination includes a malware scan, review of general network activity, system vulnerability check, illegal program check, file settings monitoring, and any other activities that are out of the ordinary.

Network Access Control Network Access Controls are delivered using different methods to control network access by the end user. NACs offer a defined security policy which is supported by a network access server that provides the necessary access authentication and authorization.

Network Security is a race against threats, and many organizations are a part of this race to help enterprises to secure their network systems. Organizations like IBM, Symantec, Microsoft have created solutions to counter the global problem of network security threat. These cuttingedge products show genuine promise and are already being used by enlightened companies.

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Editor’s Perspectives

Good Network Security Solutions Traits A real security solution should have four major characteristics; Detect Threats Targeted attacks are multi-faceted and specially designed to evade many point technologies attempting to identify and block them. Once they are inside, the only way to find these cyber threats is to understand the behavior of the individual attack components and use analytics to understand their relationships.

Respond Continuously Today it is not important that an organization will be attacked, but important and more crucial is to identify when and how much they can limit the impact and contain their exposure. This means having the capability to respond quickly once the initial incident has been discovered.

Prevent Attacks Malware is gettings quick-witted day by day. They utilize heuristics to change their code dynamically. A capable solution should have an adaptive architecture that evolves with the changing environment, and threats today’s business faces.

Integration Today’s threats have multiple facets, and a single software or solution is not sufficient. Protection system should have the capability to integrate with other security tools from different vendors to work together as a single protection system, acting as connective tissue for today’s disjointed cyber security infrastructure.

Solutions In Market Like infectious diseases, cyber threats will never be eradicated entirely, but they can be better contained and understood, and their effects minimized. How can this be achieved? IBM has built an enterprise-level “immune system,” an adaptive security architecture to battle today’s cyber pathogens. IBM has developed a vast fleet of products, QRadar, X-Force Threat Intelligence, Trusteer Pinpoint Malware Detection, IBM Threat Protection System a dynamic, integrated system to meddle the lifecycle of advanced attacks and prevent loss.

The IBM Threat Protection System integrates with 450 security tools from over 100 vendors acting as connective tissue for today’s disjointed cyber security infrastructure.

Symantec is another major player in catering enterprise network security systems with Symantec Advanced Threat Protection. Symantec ATP operates via a single console and works across endpoints, networks, and emails, integrating with Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP), and Symantec Email Security cloud, which means organizations do not need to deploy any new endpoint agents. Symantec says, ATP is the only threat protection appliance that can work with all three sensors without requiring additional endpoint agents. With ATP, Symantec’s goal is to deliver end-to-end threat protection, prevention, detection, and response in a single pane of glass, offering more value to businesses than individual point products can provide. Symantec Advanced Threat Protection combines multiple layers of prevention, detection, and response.

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June 2018

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Massive Networks: Seamless Businesses Operations

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t is virtually impossible to imagine our professional and personal lives without the Internet. Even fiveminute lapse of downtime can wreak havoc on an organization. Massive Networks ensures that never happens.

Massive Networks specializes in Premium-Blended Internet and Layer 2 Private Line Transport connections from officeto-office, data centers, and cloud applications for facilities, including those that are hard to reach.

With a network of over than 1.7 million fiber-lit buildings nation-wide, the company can transform clients’ network connectivity from bandwidth-intensive services with its One Pipe Multi-Connect Solution. Within its solution sets, it builds custom-designed networks for each customer using its blended network approach of Layer 2 and Layer 3 network technologies.

This revolutionary technology design offers multiple and dynamic streams of data through a single pipe, providing superior performance and value for bandwidth-intensive services like voice, data, web services, video, and backups.

Best of all, this is delivered on a single handoff from its fiber backbone.

Streamlining Enterprise-Class Data Paul Mako is the CEO and CTO of Massive Networks.

Born and raised in Minnesota, he graduated at the top of his class in computer science and literature from the University of Colorado.

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Paul began his journey in custom network engineering in 1996 with Internet Service Provider, RockyNet. He designed a proprietary T1 and security service system that went unchallenged until the advent of VLANs in 2000.

Besides the significant innovations in technology, Paul was also able to expand the infrastructure within a building on a success-based build-out. This allowed him to light up both large and small buildings at a low cost. While the security technology has since surpassed, the inexpensive model for lighting small buildings continues to thrive and find widespread appeal.

Today, Paul oversees the network customization. His goal is to streamline enterprise-class data transport services across the entire domestic carrier system and to 181 countries worldwide. This equates to over 1.7 million buildings.

With his experience in the mergers and acquisitions field, Paul is actively pursuing expansions that can benefit the enterprise sector.

Tackling Challenges and Competition According to Massive Networks, the two most common mistakes that network providers make are using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and deploying Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLs) devices that traverse the public Internet. This exposes businesses to data breaches on the backend. Massive Networks eliminates this by delivering solutions through a Layer 2 platform that takes businesscritical data off the public Internet.

Thanks to the Massive One Pipe Multi-Connect Solution, the organization is now able to penetrate existing infrastructure and merge multiple and dynamic streams of data through a single pipe.

This approach provides the company’s clients with superior performance from bandwidth-intensive services like voice, data, web services, video, and backups. It gives them the speed, performance, and security they need for their daily operations.

Providing Fully-Managed Solutions Massive Networks core competency is in Carrier Ethernet and Managed Networking with blended bandwidth for many years.

Most carriers offer bandwidth through one connection; Massive distinguishes itself in its unique ability to merge up to 12 carrier connections on a single solution. Though their primary focus is not bandwidth, this blended approach provides clients with an “always on, always available” solution to give the customer with reliable Internet.

June 2018

Additionally, Massive Networks is known for its multitasking circuit expertise.

Massive has fully adopted the cloud-service approach that the telecom industry is now facing. By offering cloud exchange services that connect directly to all primary cloud providers, the Massive Cloud Exchange connections can bypass the public Internet. Keeping business data within compliance regulations and secure.

Massive Networks can extend an organization’s Wide Area Network (WAN) to include significant cloud platforms from any location, eliminating the need to buy VPNs and MPLs. These platforms deliver advanced high-performance connections that are secure and dedicated to the business.

Tough Problems, Innovative Solutions Massive Networks has been designing, procuring, building, and managing networks for two decades. Its relationships with the primary providers are invaluable, and supported by a large number of tie-ups it has with local and regional vendors.

“

Our blended managed network can deliver high-speed Internet and private line connections to 1.7 million ber-lit buildings, data centers, and cloud providers nationwide.

”

The company rolled out its Cloud Marketplace platform in the fourth quarter of 2017. As with all new services and solutions, spreading the word, building relationships, and developing the product brand can be a bumpy road. However, the quality, scalability, and security of Massive’s products have translated into widespread appeal and uptake.

The company’s primary goal is to increase their penetration of fiber lit-buildings from 2 million to 5 million. Additionally, Massive Networks would like to expand its Cloud Marketplace reach within the private and hybrid cloud sectors from 6 providers to hundreds.

According to Massive Networks, there has been a significant push towards Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) over the past two years. Some of the benefits of SD-WAN are cloud security, easier hybrid cloud deployment, and application performance management. The main problem with this is that it is delivered over an increasingly insecure Internet.

The time for private networking and multitasking larger pipes is now. Carrier Ethernet, unlike SD-WAN, is built in a private network outside of the Internet. The days when only Banks could afford this are gone. Carrier Ethernet offers a significant upgrade to any system, and can even be used in a hybrid with SD-WAN where SD-WAN is the only solution.

June 2018

Paul Mako CEO & CTO

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Tech Perspective

Rising Mobile Workforce and its

Challenges in the

Mobile-Cloud Era: Data & Endpoint Management

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obility and cloud computing are rapidly becoming the norm for enterprises around the world. In turn, enterprise IT departments are facing new management and security challenges as the amount of business data soars and the number of endpoints explodes. The question that is doing the rounds is what IT teams need to consider to manage and secure their businesses in this new era.

Mathivanan V Vice President ManageEngine

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Industry analysts predict deep penetration of enterprise mobility by the year 2020.

IDC, for instance, forecasts June 2018

that mobile workers will account for almost 75 percent of the total workforce in the U.S. Meanwhile, Strategy Analytics projects that the global mobile workforce will reach 1.75 billion users and account for 42 percent of the global workforce overall.

The economic perspective is just as bright as a button. The global enterprise mobility market will be worth as much as $140 billion, predicts the National Association of Software and Services Companies.

And the investments are paying off.

To date, 84 percent of all companies who consider themselves on the cutting edge of mobility report an increase in overall productivity as a direct result of incorporating mobile apps into their business, according to a survey by AppsFreedom.

More troubling, the typical end user has little knowledge of those threats or their ramifications. The result is more users are more likely to leak enterprise data by using compromised websites and rogue online services. The CVE listed 14,712 cybersecurity vulnerabilities for 2017 and has already listed 2,848 for the first two months of 2018. In response, vendors large and small are releasing patches on a daily basis.

Enterprise IT teams clearly need to focus on endpoint security management to ensure business success in the mobile-cloud era.

Endpoint security challenges

Likewise, enterprises are expected to continue relentlessly adopting cloud technologies. By 2020, Gartner forecasts the public cloud services market will reach $383 billion. This includes spending on cloud business process services, cloud application infrastructure services, cloud application services, cloud management and security services, cloud system infrastructure services, and of course, cloud advertising.

Keeping endpoints up to date with the latest versions of their OSes and applications has become a full-time job, one that is getting harder to perform in the mobile enterprise. A growing challenge is the diversity of endpoint operating systems that must be managed, including Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. For each, the IT team must learn that OS along with its corresponding patching technique.

Likewise, applications acquired from the various app stores are managed with different techniques that must be learned and mastered so that the team can secure the endpoints.

The flip side of increasing enterprise mobility and cloud usage is the increasing risk to enterprise security.

Today, most users have at least two endpoints – a laptop and mobile device – and 80 percent of network devices are be endpoints that are constantly connected to the internet and exposed to its threats such as Meltdown, Spectre, Wannacry, and Petya.

Another challenge is managing the endpoints from day one, especially mobile devices. While it’s been relatively easy for IT admins to install agent software on desktops and laptops, smart phones and other mobile devices make life harder for the admins because the devices are rarely if ever connected to the corporate network. Consequently, devices must be provisioned with the

June 2018

necessary mobile device management software before they are given to end users. Devices that are not appropriately managed are security risks, so no business application should be installed or run on them.

Related to the day-one management challenge is updating endpoints that are on the go, anytime and anywhere.

IT teams must be able to install critical patches while employees are traveling, commuting, or otherwise offsite.

Data leakage presents yet another security challenge for IT teams to overcome. Data leakage can happen with or without the users’ knowledge.

For instance, users may knowingly copy business data to a USB device or upload it to a cloud storage service. They may also unknowingly expose that data to a public cloud service when using third-party apps such as document viewers and predictive keyboard apps. Such apps may compromise user IDs and passwords, account numbers, and other sensitive enterprise data by exposing it to public cloud services.

When a user’s device is lost or stolen, the IT team must be able to track and recover the device or wipe the data if the device isn’t recovered.

To maintain the user’s privacy, however, the IT team can not continuously track the location of the user’s device.

BYOD presents another privacy vs security challenge: When users use their own devices for business purposes, privacy needs to be maintained. Photos, contacts, and other personal data should not be

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Tech Perspective

managed by company’s mobile device management app.

On the other hand, security needs to be maintained, too.

To that end, the IT team should create a container on the user’s personal device – a secure, managed area that isolates business email, CRM, and other enterprise apps and data from the rest of user’s personal apps/data.

To establish strong endpoint security and prevent unwanted attacks, IT teams must apply strict security policies on their endpoints. Laptops, for instance, should always run a firewall, prevent the creation of unwanted network shares, and encrypt data via BitLocker or FileVault. Such security policies can protect enterprises from the security risks posed by mobility.

Predicting the development of data and endpoint management Going forward, machine learning and AI will help make data and endpoint management a proactive, rather than a reactive process. For instance, these technologies could prevent data theft by detecting anomalies such as unusual login activities or an unusually large number of documents being uploaded to the cloud. They could analyze the root cause of patch deployment failures and suggest fixes. They could also detect system idle times – during lunch hours, for instance – to deploy patches as

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soon as possible rather wait until after hours or weekends, which can leave systems unnecessarily vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the internet of things (IoT) will introduce many organizations to a new breed of endpoints and connected devices. Unlike their iOS- and Androidpowered predecessors, IoT devices will be running many different OSes and applications, all of which may be vulnerable yet must be managed and secured.

Finally, most business applications are moving to the cloud and accessed via browser, effectively making the browser an endpoint. That means to defend against attacks, IT teams need to manage browsers and perform all security operations for them just as if they were desktops, laptops, or any other device.

As organizations continue to adopt mobility and the cloud, they must also adopt the practices necessary to support this new reality. Data and endpoint security and management are priority one in IT departments. For the vast majority of companies around the world, their future success depends on recognizing and committing to that priority.

June 2018

Most Trusted

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Redpine Signals: Driving Wireless Convergence

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ith a vision of “Driving Wireless Convergence” into new markets by delivering innovative, ultra-low power and multi-protocol products for the Internet-of-Things market, Redpine Signals was founded back in 2001. The IoT markets that Redpine targets include industrial, medical, wearables, home/building automation, home appliances, automotive, audio and video and smart energy sector.

A “Culture of Innovation” is core to Redpine Signals which has - over its 16-year existence - invested over 5000 man-years of effort in the research and development of next-generation wireless technologies.

This has resulted in Redpine having been issued over 65 patents with an additional 100 plus pending. Redpine has evolved its technology portfolio from Wi-Fi only to multi-protocol wireless, to integrated wireless/networking software, to cloud-based solutions with machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to satisfy the ever-increasing requirements of the IoT market. A key differentiator of the company is its continued ability to deliver a complete ultra-low power solution (silicon, device, software, system) that enable IoT designers to get to market quickly and easily.

Redpine Signal’s goal has always been to be an IoT solution provider. The company recognized early-on that most IoT development time was being spent on

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addressing integration issues of chipsets, modules, devices, and cloud. And while the market has always been full of point products, Redpine was the first to offer an end-to-end ultra-low power IoT solution. This strategy continues to benefit Redpine as the company grows its business into new markets and applications that need complete, low power and secure wireless solutions.

An Experienced Leader With experience of more than 30 years in the semiconductor industry, Venkat Mattela is the Chairman and CEO of Redpine Signals. From day one, his vision for the IoT/Embedded industry has been to provide a complete solution that makes it easy for IoT vendors to add connectivity to products that previously were not connected. While the industry has never lacked wireless chipsets, it has always lacked complete solutions with ultra-low power consumption that IoT vendors could use to quickly and cost-effectively get to market. With Redpine Signals, Venkat has brought this solutions focus to the IoT market, and it is what the company continues to offer today as it drives wireless connectivity and low power capabilities into many markets.

Before founding Redpine Signals, Venkat served as Director of the Network Media Platforms Group of Analog Devices (ADI). He was responsible for the product, strategy and business development for wireless media connectivity solutions. Venkat also led the VLSI development from concept engineering to release of multiple industry-leading networking silicon products resulting in a multi-million-dollar product line. Prior to joining ADI, he also served as Director at Infineon Technologies and was responsible for micro-architecture and design of the TriCore MCU-DSP processor. He led the team to take the architecture to multiple silicon implementations.

Tackling Challenges and Competitions The IoT market requires devices that can stay connected to the network round-the-clock, driving the need for ultra-low power connectivity solutions. IoT devices also need to support multiple wireless protocols in order to connect to the cloud, connect to other devices, as well as support provisioning. In addition, security is a major issue for the IoT market, making it critical for device makers to provide multiple levels of security.

June 2018

Redpine’s products address all these challenges. Its technology spans a wide range of wireless protocols (802.11 abgn, dualmode Bluetooth 5, 802.15.4/ZigBee/Thread, 802.11p), integrates security, and is based on an extensive patent portfolio of OFDM, MIMO, embedded processor architectures and low-power techniques. Most recently, in December 2017, the company further advanced its technology leadership by launching the industry’s lowest power wireless MCU and connectivity solutions for battery-operated devices. The ultralow power capabilities of these new products enable batteryoperated devices such as security cameras, smart locks, video doorbells, fitness bands, industrial sensors and location tags to have over three to four times more battery life compared to competing solutions.

Redpine’s offerings include both the hardware and the software as certified (regulatory and protocol compliance) differentiated sub-systems to provide flexibility and ease of integration to the system integrator. This single-stop approach enables Redpine to deliver an optimal wireless solution to meet customer’s requirements at an optimal price point.

“A “Culture of Innovation" is core to Redpine Signals

”

Innovating the Future With more than 65 issued patents and 100 plus pending, Redpine offers technology and products that cover multiple market segments in the IoT market. Redpine continues to innovate by developing the next-generation of wireless technologies, adding more processing power for applications, providing more support for cloud connectivity and further reducing the power consumption of the devices. Redpine has always been a provider of a complete wireless connectivity solution, and will enhance this with application-specific solutions to further reduce time to market for IoT device makers. Redpine Signals will continue its mission of “Driving Wireless Convergence.”

Venkat Mattela Chairman & CEO

June 2018

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Technology Views

Networking Industry: An Innovative Future for Enterprises

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etworking is an inventive idea grouped with other prominent computing terms. If one doesn’t maintain attention and focus while exploring this domain, there might be a genuine damage to the reasoning of progressiveness, and this can result in a breakdown of an organization’s system. In some cases, it possibly is direct and in some cases, it will be indirect, yet on the whole, it always has an effect. The fate of technology is brilliant, and that is essentially reliant on how we influence the assets to oversee what we have today. To make it possible, the networking service providers must include a greater amount of natural sense in their solutions and industry growth.

information capacities, including video, music, and picture downloads.

Networks are under extreme pressure due to the changes in IT trends along with the rise of virtualization and cloud. Instead of traditional hardware speeds and feeds, the networking industry is developing rapidly to focus more on software. This implies a considerable measure of new options and changes in the way of networking professionals.

Advanced innovation has developed from the secondgeneration; TDMA to CDMA, CDMA2000 to WCDMA, a third-generation of CDMA that was consistent with GSM, and Long Term Evolution (LTE), or 4G was presented in 2010 after 3G (UMTS and CDMA2000).

Networking organizations have had to stay aware of this innovation to remain aggressive.

Innovation in Technology

However, another system advancement is in progress, that of 5G. NR, or New Radio, is an economical update of 4G innovation.

Driving interest for networking devices and hardware are progressive in foundation. The First-Generation (1G) system that conveyed straightforward voice services were based on simple technology. Second-Generation (2G) systems were digital, giving enhanced services. 3G infrastructure offered more powerful voice and 38

Service Capabilities The service providers avail monitor data, support, voice and security at 24x7x365 basis from Network and Security Operation Centers (SOC). Their services are June 2018

such as Network Monitoring, Risk management, Autogenerated Problem Alerts, advanced NMS and OSS, Redundant NOC and Customer Portal. Security Services include latest Security Systems, Intrusion Detection and unnecessary SOC. They also provide support in such a manner that the network systems perform to their maximum strength, and you receive responsive technical feed timely. The service provider also enables you to visualize network status and performance.

Required Networking System and Tools The IT Network Solutions Service Providers can secure, unite, and manage all their services, providing organizations, economical ways to connect their business locations to the Internet and business partners.

Networking service providers handle day to day operations and management of networks of an enterprise.

They also provide hardware infrastructure that includes June 2018

Ethernet, cables, DSL, DS3, T1, bonded T1, wireless broadband, and so on. They equip the system with Virtual private networks (VPNs) based on Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to provide remote sites and access to business network securely through internet. The same track is used to transport the voice and data traffic. They manage the complete security system to reduce the risk of attacks, spams, network disturbances, viruses and many more consequences. Installation of tools that are built on to the essential firewall functionality and offer advanced routing options, controlled access, redundancy, deep packet inspection, reporting tools and additional management is their responsibility.

Solution for Data Traffic As per the rapid increase of the industry there is a need of data center solution providers to continue the business 39

Technology Views

and many organizations are accomplishing this need by hosting business applications and maintaining the continuity. These organizations are trying to arrange advanced data center switching network from the available mainstream and global acceptance of server virtualization. This makes significantly more forwardlooking chances of cloud computing and desktop virtualization.

It seems that a wide range of innovations can be observed in key areas such as networking security, network intelligence and analytics, branch office connectivity and many other sections with the involvement of cloud-first approach.

Threat Hunting The fundamental necessity of threat hunting is to search out the indications of security being jeopardized and to resolve the issue before time. It is a procedure of making proactive efforts to recognize advanced risk that by-pass the traditional security solutions. This is the dissimilarity of the exemplary risk management measures.

The procedure of the threat hunting begins by making theories about potential threats. It is trusted that hunting 40

is a repetitive procedure and must be completed in a circle in continuum, beginning with a theory. The theory is additionally expounded in three divisions being examination driven, situational alert driven and insight driven.

Security is an important advantage of including threat hunting in a system and it also allows few different advantages like reduce the reside time, quick accurate response, time to identify and prevent, introduction to attack surfaces, reasonable thought regarding the quantity of openings against the quantity of detections and presentation to external threats, decreasing recurrence of dangers.

For the increment of any enterprise, security is an essential part and if we talk about networking system it’s on priority. To achieve the goals, for a company, security system is necessarily required that increases the importance and requests of the networking service providers. For enhancing the flow of operation in an organization, the entrepreneurs need to ensure that the networking infrastructure used by the corporation must be equipped with the latest technology and of superior quality that can identify even negligible concerns.

June 2018

Key Cognizance

WHAT

GDPR

THE

FORGETS:

PHYSICAL SECURITY he EU’s GDPR legislature will have consequences for every company doing business in Europe, including American companies. The new directive promises sizeable fines to anyone that does not take personal data seriously. Meanwhile, the data center company DigiPlex urges companies to focus on another important aspect: physical security.

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Data security is not just about protecting yourself against hacking and other digital threats. The overall security critically depends on where your data is stored. Companies who actively select a secure data centre to host their data will gain a competitive advantage in the market as the management of personal information is in the spotlight, says Eckhoff.

The General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR) purpose is to harmonize legislation related to personal information across the EU’s member states. It does however also create radical challenges for American businesses holding information on EU customers. Come May 2018, when the legislation enters into force, companies will have publicly disclosed how the data is used, in addition to offering transparency for individuals seeking access to their data.

The GDPR includes a sanction mechanism, and the fines for non-compliance can reach 4 percent of a company’s annual revenue.

Physical security is forgotten

Business will obviously change for everyone not taking personal information seriously. This will clearly raise awareness regarding how the data is secured, but it’s also vital not to forget where the information is located, says DigiPlex CEO, Gisle M. Eckhoff.

Moving data to safety American computer security company, McAfee, published a study of over 800 company leaders from different sectors.

The report reveals that 50 percent of the respondents state that they would like to move their data to a more secure location. A motivating factor is the new EU legislation. The report also reveals that 74 percent of the business leaders specified that they thought protecting the data correctly would attract new customers.

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While EU-based companies are in the process of adapting to the GDPR, Gartner predicted only 50 percent of American firms will be ready for the strict regulation by the end of 2018. It’s primarily the largest companies and public enterprises that are furthest along in the process of adaptation. According to Eckhoff, they are usually the ones that are the most concerned with data security and where it is stored. Fire and operational safety are two obvious challenges, but physical security also includes securing yourself against theft.

Several smaller businesses and organizations keep their data servers at their offices, and the physical security in many of the smaller data centers is almost absent. If your data is stored in such a data center, where someone easily could break in and physically remove the hardware containing your information, then you are very vulnerable — both operationally and in relation to GDPR At DigiPlex’s data centers, several layers of security ensure the safety of the data and the personal information that is stored there. Physical security is one of the most complicated and expensive features when building or updating a data center. That is why newly established data centers have to reach critical mass, allowing them to store enough data to compensate for the large security investment.

June 2018

About The Author Gisle M. Eckhoff joined DigiPlex in August 2014 as Chief Executive Ofcer. He brings nearly thirty years’ experience in senior positions in the IT industry in the US, Sweden, UK and Denmark as well as at home in Norway.

Gisle is the former Senior Vice President and Managing Director of CGI’s operation in Norway, and has also held a number of senior management roles at both country and regional levels in CSC Computer Sciences Corporation. The experience and knowledge gained from heading up the Financial Services vertical in the Nordic region, before becoming Vice President and Managing Director of CSC in both Norway and Sweden, is of great value when implementing DigiPlex’ growth strategy in the Nordic markets.

Gisle holds a Degree in Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Management.

Adapting to GDPR One consideration to take, as we are getting closer to the implementation date of GDPR, is where your data center should be located. Several US based companies are already relocating their centers to the EU in order to comply.

Multiple database providers are helping non-EU companies organize and segregate EU data from other personal information. The data center industry is well established in Europe, and some of the most cost and climate efficient centers are located in the Nordic countries.

cooled down solely by electricity. Additionally, the electricity that is required by data centers to run their operations is supplied through easy access to affordable renewable energy.

In recent years, we have seen political turbulence in larger parts of the world, Europe included. The stabile political environment in the Nordic countries is also a climate to consider, as the establishment of data centers is a long-term investment, says Eckhoff.

In the Nordics, the cool climate helps chill down vast amounts of hardware that otherwise would have been

June 2018

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Turn-key Technologies: A Networking Key to Thrive in IT

T

he future is wireless. Wi-Fi networks have become so ubiquitous that most mobile devices connect to the World Wide Web through Wi-Fi hotspots. This is the trend both in the home and in the workplace, and the ease and convenience inherent in wireless technology drives its popularity.

Voice-over-Wi-Fi mobile telephony for enterprise was first rolled out in the late 1990s at healthcare facilities. It was largely unsuccessful as Wi-Fi networks could not adequately support voice data. Furthermore, many networking companies that installed the WiFi networks did not fully understand how that component fit into the bigger picture of wireless technology.

Thousands of companies tried their hand at the emerging technology but very few of them have been able to pull it off globally. Turn-key Technologies (TTI) is one of the few that has.

Evolving to Market Needs Turn-key Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1991.

Its focus was on emergency communications for healthcare and similar organizations with mobile personnel. The company initially utilized radio communications as a means to notify large numbers of staff of emergencies, such as a ‘Code Blue’ within a 44

hospital, or a mass personnel recall to a military base.

The company’s successes in this area made it the go-to resource for Wi-Fi manufacturers who needed successful outcomes.

Originally, TTI’s focus was on wireless communications, not IT, but it expanded the spectrum of its services in response to customers’ demands.

Today, TTI offers a full suite of networking solutions from data center, core, and edge switching to indoor and outdoor wireless. Additionally, it facilitates network security, cloud security and managed solutions. The company also has a physical security division with the latest in IP video surveillance with analytics, lone worker protection, mobile duress alarms and access control.

A third division of TTI is a wholesale cable manufacturer and supplier. The company even has full-time teams of structured cabling installers. This wide array of services has been employed by many global companies working in various verticals.

The prime reason behind TTI’s success is its unwavering focus on its customers and their needs. The company invests considerable time and resources in pre-sales design and consultations. This ensures that the company is taking all of a client’s current and future needs into account in the design process.

After installation, TTI provides one year of unlimited access to its services, 24x7x365 TAC at no charge. The entire team of engineers works extensively to help customers over the hump of learning a new system, and act as an extension of the customer’s IT department for one year.

An Eminent Leader Craig Badrick, President of TTI, is prominent in the Networking arena. He joined TTI in 1992 as a Regional Sales Manager. Craig’s hard work and leadership qualities earned him the appointment as President and CEO in March of 1999.

TTI has experienced growth of over one thousand percent under Mr. Badrick’s guidance. He has been instrumental in securing a contract with the Veterans Administration to supply narrow band emergency communications systems for over one hundred VA June 2018

Hospitals across the USA. TTI completed the transition in less than two years.

Such significant client relations have played an important role in company’s developments. TTI has become a true leader in wireless communications across multiple platforms and manufacturers under Craig’s astute leadership.

Over the past three years alone, TTI has been included on Inc.’s list of 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, 20 Most Promising Wireless Providers and Top 10 Network Design and Integration Service Companies.

Overcoming Early Challenges Craig recalls, “Originally, as we were not a networking company, our growing pains were centered on networking standards and understanding how a network works from A-Z.”

“We make IT simple.

”

The company had a vision but finding the resources required was another challenge. Thus, living up to networking standards was a tough ask. However, the company educated its relatively new but promising engineers, and hired networking specialists. Its focus on assimilating essential certifications also smoothened the process.

Turn-Key Associate Engineers hold the highest manufacturer and agnostic certifications across all facets of business, and play a critical role in delivering the quality solutions for which the company is known.

Gaining Trust with Best-in-Class Solutions TTI is committed to its journey as a trusted advisor to its clients. The primary aim is to provide them the design solutions and support they need with uncompromising agility, and to thrive on the global stage through innovation.

Craig Badrick President & CEO

June 2018

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Editor’s Pick

The

Impressive

Impact of

Organic

Networking T

he main reason for the invention of website, Internet and technology devices that provides the platform for software to run and connect with each other is mainly to make networking of services, products and people possible. Technology leaders such as Cisco, Arista and Apple are dedicating their resources to provide various business enterprises and the masses the ability to communicate their values through technology mediums called as Networking.

The works and provisions of these organizations are very outstanding, and are believed to last for ages. This is because the growth of technology is not going out of style so soon, but rather it is believed to continue into the future.

Technology networking strategies is good, but to make it more eective there is the incessant need to incorporate organic strategies.

You may be asking what I mean by Organic Networking or Strategies. The organization that will survive in the market in the near future, considering the increasing rate of competition are the ones who take the necessary steps, to develop more human connection for their business, more than they do for machines such as provided by AI. The Factors to Consider for an Eective Organic Networking: Even as our age is encouraging more of technology strategies, if we must survive the future of it all, then we must connect more people, than we do for machines. As an

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June 2018

innovative networking solution provider, it is going to pay more, when you include human intelligence and physicality in your networking strategies over machines.

Imagine a day that the machines are going to have a serious breakdown, and the owner organization do not have the capable persons to figure out the cause of the breakdown and possibly provide a feasible solution? What will be the fate of the organization? This means that, there will be a great loss of value and possibly a strike off the industry. I know you would never want that to happen. So, plan from now, to never pay for the loss in the future.

Balance Your People to machine Deployment: Social Medias are for networking, Newspapers and various Medias are also for networking, but there are people behind the arc of this innovation. The more you incorporate AI and machine learning strategies, always remember the need for Control Engineers and those are human beings.

The most successful organizations identify the major importance of June 2018

people networking and how best to utilize human intelligence in their business quest.

For example; if you write an article and share it on a website, who do you expect to read your article; human beings or machines? It is obvious that the organic networking aspect of computing will never go out of style; else, there will be a day in the future that digital connection and values will be measured on the number of bots that read your articles and/or that paid for your services. So, remember to balance the rate of your people to machine deployment, by acknowledging the need of human networking over technology networking.

The Need for Organic Sense in Networking and the Future: Technology is the miracle of our age, Artificial Intelligence is a major molding factor of this development, IoT is the liberator from machine isolation by providing the platform to interconnect millions of them over the virtual platforms, but humans make these things possible.

Networking is an innovative concept with high profile technology terms. If one does not implore deep interest and concentration while exploring this realm, there may be a serious distortion of original motive of indulgence, and this can lead to serious breakdown of enterprise infrastructure. Sometimes, it maybe direct and other times, it will be indirect, but in all, it will always have an impact. The future of technology is very bright, and that is mainly dependent on how available we make the resources to help manage what we have today in the near future. For this to be possible, the networking solution providers must incorporate more of organic sense in their solutions and industry advancements.

Technology will advance, more machines will be connected, devices will be programmed to run independently, but in all these things, the humans in the network will still rule the universe. The more organic you make your networking strategies, the lesser the fear of a disastrous future for your organization.

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