Upgrading LANs the Smart Way

How do you ensure your LAN is future ready while retaining flexibil- ity – and managing TCO?

Previously separate systems and platforms are increasingly converg- ing, and at the same time bandwidth requirements are growing fast, driven by cloud applications, IoT, Wi-Fi 6 and more. This calls for future-ready LANs, capable of supporting several generations of technology. However, upgrading a LAN can be challenging for a variety of reasons. The network im- pacts a wide range of users and the overall company IT infrastructure, while supporting many different functions - from VOIP and Cloud applications to wireless access and security. Scope for downtime is limited. What do you need to bear in mind when (re-) designing or expanding an enterprise or facility network? How might FTTO help solve some of the issues?

There are several technology-relat- ed challenges to take into account, related to fast-growing bandwidth required for new applications, powering large numbers of distributed devices, and network flexibility, largely driven by convergence of previously disparate systems. Furthermore, upgrading office IT infrastructure also brings quite a few physical and logistical challenges - architectural limitations, for example in listed buildings, or the changing functions of departments or entire buildings. As WiFi6 makes more advanced applications possible, the LAN needs to provide ubiquitous capacity, with plenty of bandwidth reserves, to the Wireless Access Point. After all, as more devices share wireless bandwidth it becomes increasingly diluted, possibly even to the point of becoming unusable. With the fast increase of connected LED lighting, sensor technology, and IP-equipped devices, Power over Ethernet is becoming a necessity. Providing current over Ethernet ca- bling allows devices to be installed and moved around without having to worry whether there’s an electri- cal outlet close by. Power delivered through new generations of PoE is more than six times the level of the initial PoE standard. Without the right cable design, this may signifi- cantly increase heat build-up inside cable bundles. Often, a building will impose limitations to where cable can run. Older buildings may have protected status, and often spaces are simply too confined, or have cramped conduits and cable racks twisting at sharp angles. With fibre cables, the required bending can present significant problems. As the functions of spaces in a building change over the years, it is vital that extensive rebuilding isn’t required each time, and data transmission and power capacity can simply be re-routed. The number of people in a building may increase or decrease and new applications may be introduced over time. From a technical perspective, that means you’ll need to ensure you can deliver enough bandwidth for even the most demanding requirements, as well as a growing number of mobile devices. Labour costs can also add up, especially when cabling has to be spliced on site, additional power outlets need to be introduced, or technical rooms have to be created.

A Fibre To The Office (FTTO) solu- tion can help with the challenges described, avoiding the need to provide power outlets for individual devices, while ensuring vast band- width reserves as well as flexibility and providing the ability to scale up easily and cost-effectively. Fibre is laid up from the central switch to a connection point in the office or workplace. Here, a dedicated Ether- net switch ensures intelligent media conversion from copper to fibre. Gigabit speeds can be realised while at the same time PoE is supported. Copper cables supporting PoE over standard RJ45 interfaces allow a single network cable to be used to provide data connection as well as electric power. Whenever building layout changes, devices can simply be re-patched or added. They are immediately powered up and con- nected to the network. No floor distributor is required, which saves a considerable amount of space per floor. Thick cable bun- dles are avoided, thanks to the use of pre-terminated fibre, optimised for fast and easy installation. Heat buildup and flammability are also avoided in this way, as well as by smart cable design. Of course, as networks increase in size, or configurations change, keeping track of network configuration becomes increasingly difficult and every new connection is a potential point of failure. Cost and time investments are also reduced by automated monitoring, control and asset management and high bandwidth reserves and redundancy. Total Cost of Ownership can be optimised, while growth and energy consumption are balanced.

Within the next two years, Gartner predicts that over 50% of data will be generated at the edge of networks. As the world recovers from the pandemic, this data will play a big role in helping companies survive and thrive in the new order. We have already seen an unprecedented amount of change over the past couple of months, which has led to many organisations accelerate their digital transformation journey – with data sitting at the heart of their strategies. However, data is a commodity which is not necessarily valuable in and of itself. In order to evolve, organisations need to be able to process and store data securely, they need to analyse and derive insights from it, and they need to drive business outcomes from those insights. To successfully unlock the potential of data at the intelligent edge, organisations must have a fortified, resilient and secure network in place. With this in mind, here are three network manage- ment components that are integral to digital transformation (and therefore data success) in the post-COVID era.

The huge increase in the number of devices generating data means that network traffic is busier than ever. Today’s IT teams require closed-loop, end-to-end access control from the moment devices join the network. However, given the enormous variety of devices connecting to the network, manual human intervention is no longer practical. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. Adopted as a ‘sixth-sense’, AI allows teams to develop policies that leverage context, such as the user role, device type, certificate status, location or application to make quick and accurate automated decisions each and every time. When leveraged correctly, AI can even make adjustments before network issues arise. AI-based analytics can ensure that when a device begins to act suspiciously, it is automatically isolated, keeping other traffic separate and secure. While even the best network engineers can spend hours trying to identify a problem – AI-based platforms do this work automatically with 95% accuracy. What’s more, through automation AI-driven platforms can redeploy time to IT staff, allowing them to focus more on critical thinking, innovation and value-add tasks.

COVID-19 has also exacerbated the issue of overly complex networks based on disperate architectures as organisations attempt to right size for a given location. To address this issue, organisations should focus on network platforms with a unified infrastructure. This allows the entire network to be managed centrally from a single platform, rather than with separate applications across wired, wireless and SD-WAN. It also relieves the IT team from having to manually replicate changes, from campus to branch, and data centre to remote workers. No longer having to swivel chair manage multiple systems, a central platform allows network managers to operate with greater speed and agility. The rise in remote working, and the need for network managers to seek better visibility and control over increasingly disparate networks, has also led to a stronger emphasis on cloud management. Cloud-native network management platforms allow organ- isations greater flexibility, offering a simple and intuitive way to manage the deployment and network assurance for wireless, wired and SD-WAN topolo- gies from a single console. A cloud-based network solution will become increasingly relevant for companies as they adapt to the ‘new normal’ and must find ways to support remote working, social distancing requirements and Track and Trace solutions. When managed from a central hub, a network management platform can correlate cross-domain events to reduce issue resolution time and manual errors, ultimately improving business agility.

Workforce mobility and work from home scenarios continue to expand the IT perimeter, as employees often access corporate resources on personal devices and from public Wi-Fi networks that are not secure. With more applications moving to the cloud – whether sanctioned by IT or not – protecting an organisation’s data has become even more challenging. Given this, organisations must consider adopting a security framework based on the concept that all entities – both inside and outside the network perime- ter – should and must be handled with care (i.e. Zero Trust). In practicality, this approach should ensure the identity of an endpoint, then enforce the policies applied to those endpoints with an application aware firewall. What’s more, network platforms should be underpinned by a collaborative approach which involves sharing information with other security platforms and dynamically adjusting policies to endpoints on the network.

According to IDC, 55 billion devices will be connecting to networks within the next two years and are expected to generate 79.4ZB of data by 2025. When you combine that with the irreversible shifts to a remote and distributed workforce, you can see that the network and IT need the right tools to keep pace. And automation, unified infrastructure and security are good starting points to consider these tools.

The form factor of a desktop PC has been ever changing Under the hood, the MSI Cubi 5 10M is powered by Intel’s with new categories being introduced onto the market from 10th Generation Core i processors – you can choose from i3, time to time. While many form factors have come and gone, i5 or i7. Our review unit came with an i5 processor and Intel’s a few have stuck around due to the efficiency and conveniUHD 630 Graphics. The CPU is cooled down using an active ence they offer. One such form factor is the Mini PC. cooling system, so the processors should be able to turbo There are many players in the Mini PC arena and one of the trusted names is MSI. The company recently announced the The MSI Cubi 5 10M supports up to 64 GB of DDR4-2666 launch of the MSI Cubi 5 10M Mini PC onto the regional memory through its two SO-DIMM memory slots. You also market and they sent us a unit for review. get an M.2 slot for an SSD, and a 2.5-inch bay for additional The Cubi 5 10M measures 124-by-124-by-53.7 mm and RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. weighs around 550 grams, thus making it one of the most compact PCs available on the market, justifying the “palmTo gauge real world performance, we used the MSI Cubi 5 sized” form factor. The overall design and build quality is 10M as our primary PC for our day to day work. That inpretty good – the device is built using a mix of metal and cluded productivity, photo editing, design, video editing, and hard plastic. multimedia playback. Unlike most mini PCs on the market In terms of connectivity, you get a boat load! On the front keep costs low, the MSI Cubi 5 10M packs in the 10th Gen edge, you get dedicated headphones and microphone jacks, Intel Core i5 processor. one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connector, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, an LED indicator that indicates disk activity, and As such, the overall performance was very good. The Mini PC the power button. was able to handle almost all the tasks we threw at it with On the right edge, you get an external power button switch loads such as video rendering for example and the occasional connector, in case you want to have an easy access for gaming sessions. switching the device on and off, if the device is VESA mount- ed to the back of a display. There is also a Kensington Lock For a price of around AED 2000, the MSI Cubi 5 10M Mini right next to it on the right edge to secure the Mini PC in its PC offers top-notch performance for day to day office work place. and occasional graphics-intensive workloads, offers all the On the back of the device, you get an HDMI 1.4 port, a Disthrough its HDMI and DP ports, and is easy to upgrade its playPort 1.2, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A storage and memory options. If you are looking for a Mini ports, a RJ45 GbE (Intel WGI219V) port, and the power PC that is almost invisible on the desk and can offer good port. Inside the box, you get the MSI Cubi 5 10M, a 65 W performance, you should consider the MSI Cubi 5 10M external power brick, an external power switch and the user Mini PC. manuals. fairly often. storage. Our review unit already came kitted with 8GB of that are powered by low-performance based processors to aplomb. It was even able to handle graphics-intensive worklatest connectivity options, supports dual monitor setup

ASUS has been at the forefront of technology innovakeyboard is covered by glass. With a single press of the tions for decades now. While you may know ASUS as a toggle button, the touchpad turns into an ASUS Numgaming giant, they also produce products for content berPad. The LED-illuminated numeric keypad makes creators under the ProArt series. And today we are reit much easier to key in numbers. You get two colour viewing the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 laptop. options with the ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 – Star Grey The ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 comes with a magnesium-alloy chassis with angled diamond-cut edges. A The laptop derives its power from a 57Wh 3-cell 180° hinge allows you to lay it completely flat on a desk lithium-polymer battery. One of the highlights of this for easy screen sharing. Its thin 18.4mm profile makes it laptop is that it is also certified to be used with per- one of the world’s thinnest Quadro laptops. formance-hungry applications such as After Effects, Under the hood, the StudioBook Pro 17 is powered by an Intel Xeon processor with 64GB DDR4 memory. In terms of audio quality, the ProArt StudioBook Pro 17 You also get NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 graphics with comes packed with ASUS Sonic Master Premium. This Max-Q Design – which means this laptop can deliver is a mix of hardware, software, and tuning technologies the performance required by graphics and media profes- that were developed to deliver the best possible audio. sionals. The laptop also meets the 810G military standard for As you open the lid of the laptop, you come face to face with a 17-inch PANTONE Validated display that In terms of performance, we used Adobe InDesign, Au- offers an aspect ratio of 16:10. The display itself is todesk AutoCAD and even Da Vinci Resolve. For Adobe an LED-backlit FHD offering a resolution of 1920- Indesign we used it to design the pages of Arabian by-1200. ASUS has managed to squeeze in a 17-inch Reseller magazine and we found the performance to screen into a 15-inch laptop chassis. be fast and the workflow to be smooth. While using Da The cooling system helps with stable performance and video files was effortless/ We also tried 2D and 3D in keeping the noise levels down to 35 dB. In terms of object design on AutoCAD and the overall experience connectivity, you get a boatload of ports. This includes was flawless. a Thunderbolt 3 (with DisplayPort 1.4 support), 3 USB and Turquoise Grey. AutoCAD, Premiere, 3D Max, and so on. reliability and durability. Vinci Resolve, editing, colour correction, and rendering 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 HDMI 2.0, 1 SD card reader, 1 ComThis was possible because of the 64GB RAM, the Intel bo audio jack, and one 3.5mm headphone jack. Xeon processor and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 graphics. The laptop is now available for a price of AED You also get Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology, which 13,999. So if you are a content creator who’s always on provides superfast online connectivity. In terms of the move and looking for a compact and mighty power- storage, you get 2TB of NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 SSD house that can bring your ideas to life, we recommend with support for RAID 0 /1. The touchpad below the the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro 17.

HUAWEI’s new Y9a is a mid-range smartphone that is designed for photography and super performance. It offers a super camera experience with a 64MP Quad Camera, 40W HUAWEI SuperCharge, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage space, and a sleek design for an affordable price point. The stunning smartphone comes in three stylish colour options such as Midnight Black, Space Silver and Sakura Pink. The 64MP Quad Camera setup also allows for low light photography thanks to AIS Night Mode 2.0 capable of shooting at 51200 ISO. Wide Angle photography is also taken care of thanks to the 120° Wide Angle Photo lens. Meanwhile, the pop-up selfie camera upfront boasts AI beautification and EIS anti-shake technology, so that you can be sure of always capturing perfect social media-ready selfies. The HUAWEI Y9a also features an industry-leading 40W (10V 4A) HUAWEI SuperCharge technology. Using this solution, users can charge the device up by nearly 70% in a 30-minute charging session. The 4200mAh large battery can support 44 hours of voice call, 108 hours of music playback, 14 hours of Internet browsing, 9 hours of video watching, or 9 hours of gaming. In addition to this, the AI Power Saving 7.0 feature further helps in managing battery life. The phone also comes with 6.63-inch Ultra Fullview FHD display and super narrow bezels with the enhanced auto selfie pop-up camera rated at 16MP. The HUAWEI Y9a comes with the latest EMUI 10.1 software update as standard, allowing users to enjoy seamless, intelligent experiences and stay connected with ease. New features include HUAWEI MeeTime, a powerful application that offers video calling between Huawei devices in all scenarios. Smart Collage is a feature that eliminates the trouble of using third-party apps for editing. According to the number of photos (2-9) you choose, a collage template is automatically provided. Huawei’s knuckle gesture supports multi-shape, or sectional screenshots, swipe to screenshot longer images or screen recording, making it more convenient for users to share what they see. The phone also comes with innovative features such as Game Assistant for a better gaming experience, Multi window split screen for better performance and even an e-book reading mode. Music lovers can also enjoy features like Party Mode, while gaming or watching movies is made more immersive with Ultra Shadow Enhancement that improves contrast and dynamic range. The HUAWEI Y9a is available for a price of AED 1049.

So NVIDIA announced its GeForce RTX 3080 powered by reach 1,905 MHz by default in Gaming Mode, which is way the Ampere architecture a couple of days ago and we have beyond other custom cards. started seeing manufacturers announcing graphics cards based on this architecture. The Asus TUF Gaming RTX By enabling OC Mode, you can increase the card’s peak 3080 OC graphics card is one of the cards based on the clock speed to 1,935 MHz, a 13.2% increase over the new architecture. boost clock of the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. The ROG The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 features a buffed-up The card measures 318.5 x 140.1 x 57.8 mm, for reference, design with better thermal performance. From top to botmaking it a 2.9-slot card. tom, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 has been radically improved to accommodate the impressive new Ampere In order to gauge the real-world tests, we ran a few benchchips from NVIDIA and to deliver the next wave of gaming marks on the ROG STRIX RTX 3080 OC Edition graphics performance innovation to the market. A fresh design and card. On 3DMark: Night Raid the graphics score recorded more metal surrounds a grouping of Axial-tech fans. was 126955, while on 3DMark: Fire Strike, the graphics ASUS’ Axial-tech fan design has been optimised for a new, Ultra threw the graphics score as 11268, while 3DMark larger heatsink that features more fins and surface area TimeSpy gave the GPU score as 18189. than last gen. The blade count has been increased on all three fans, with 13 on the center fan and 11 on the auxilia- Of course, quality and top notch performance comes at a ry fans. The barrier ring on the side fans has been slimmed price. The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition down to allow for more lateral intake and to provide better comes in at a pricing of AED 4500. Professional Gamers airflow through the cooling array. The center fan’s extra will truly appreciate the value the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce blades and full-height ring provide boosted static pressure RTX 3080 OC Edition brings to the table. to blast air directly onto the GPU heat spreader. The STRIX RTX 3080 comes with 10GB of GDDR6X revamped and better cooling system, overclocking capaVRAM. The current batches of RTX 3080 cards also have bilities, and blockbuster performance, all the while keeping 8704 CUDA cores, along with a 320-bit memory interface itself cool under all circumstances. The ASUS ROG Strix and VRAM that operates at 19 Gbps. The ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition thus gets our RecommendRTX 3080 OC is currently the fastest RTX 3080 of the ed stamp. lot, though. The OC has a 1,440 MHz base clock and can STRIX RTX 3080 OC requires 3x 8-pin power connectors. score stood at 44199. Meanwhile, 3DMark: Fire Strike It offers brilliant build quality and top-end components,

There are many projector brands available on the market and BenQ is one of the front runners in this category. And they recently announced a wireless portable DLP projector called GS2, which has been designed for indoor and outdoor entertainment. In terms of design, the GS2 is near cubical looking projector, coming in off-white colour. It weighs around 1.6 kgs and comes in a dimension of 139-by-144-by139 mm. The overall build quality is pretty good and it comes in a completely rubberised body. This is because it is IPX2 rated, which means it can withstand half-a meter drop and is also splash-proof up to a certain extent. On the top of the projector, you will find the soft control buttons needed to operate it. There is a power button, three LEDs that indicates the battery life left, and the IR receiver. The GS2 also comes with two speakers built in, each driven by a 2W amplifier. There is also a USB Type-A socket in the deep bay which can be used to insert the dual band WiFi dongle, which comes packed with the device. At the rear, you will find the speaker grilles, the cooling vents and the magnetic power port. The projector can be used for front projection, rear projection and even ceiling projection. Now lets talk about the specifications. So, the heart of any projector its projection technology and the lamp it uses. The BenQ GS2 is a DLP projector that uses an LED lamp. It offers a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and a native aspect ratio of 16:9. Under the hood the GS2 is powered by an MStar 648 SoC. It comes with Android 6.0 operating system. You also get 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage space. Since the GS2 is wireless portable projector, it comes with a built-in rechargeable battery. The battery offers around four hours worth of battery life. In terms of charging, we were able to go from 20% battery to 100% battery in less than an hour. We used the BenQ GS2 about 6-7 hours daily for a week. We found it to be very silent and there was no heating issue either. During our review period, we used various interfaces to project content – either through HDMI, USB, or wirelessly by screen casting. In terms of the picture quality, the colours were vibrant and the brightness was up to point. The projector was placed about 6 feet away from the wall. Even in a dimly lit room, the picture quality’s quite clear. The text display on the screen was quite crisp and sharp and the overall experience was pretty good. As the GS2 is powered by Android 6.0 operating system, you can also install third party apps through Apptoide TV which comes preinstalled. Apptoide TV is a third party Android app marketplace that offers more than 2500 apps. In terms of connectivity to external audio, you get two options – Bluetooth and Bluetooth Speaker Mode. The Bluetooth option allows you connect the GS2 to external audio sources like Bluetooth speakers and audio accessories. The Bluetooth Speaker Mode will let you go from a Projector Mode to Speaker Mode by turning off the lamp. The BenQ GS2 is priced at $680. For that price point, you are getting a wireless portable projector that can be used for indoor and outdoor entertainment. You also get the flexibility of increasing the screen size as per your requirement and installing third party apps onto the device.

The BenQ Zowie XL2546K is a 24.5-inch Full HD model that supports a high refresh rate of 240Hz. The liquid crystal panel is TN type, the brightness is 320 cd/m2, and the contrast ratio is 1,000:1. The response time, meanwhile, is rated at 1ms. You also get a wide range of inputs including three HDMI2.0 ports and one DisplayPort1.2, along with a headphone jack. All of the connectivity options can be accessed at the rear of the unit. You also get the power button and the options toggle button (mini joystick) at the back of the device. The overall design and build quality is pretty good and the finishing is that of the matte variety. Inside the box you also get an “S.Switch” that lets you change the display settings with ease, and a pair of screen shield for added privacy during your gaming sessions. The stand of the monitor supports -5 to 23° tilt, -45 to 45° swivel, 90° pivot, and 155mm height adjustment. The VESA mount is 100x100mm pitch, body size is 571mm width, 200mm depth, 443~521mm height, and it weighs around 6.2-kgs. The display comes with a new base that has been designed to take up less space while maintaining the same stability. The Zowie XL2546L eSports Display also comes packed with DyAc technology that makes vigorous in-game actions such as spraying less blur. This allows you to see the position of the crosshair and the impact points more clearly, which can further help with recoil control. The DyAc+ is based on this same technology and through panel optimization, provides you with a different option for actions such as spray control. The size of the stand is smaller than that of the con- ventional model, so that you can use the desk space more effectively. In addition, the vertical movement width of the stand and the tilt angle width have been expanded so that the position of the screen can be finely adjusted during gameplay. There is also a Black eQualizer which lets you increase visibility in dark scenes without overexposing the bright areas. The Colour Vibrance, meanwhile lets you adjust the colour setting and tone to differentiate enemy targets in-game. Also, the Game modes let you switch between presets for different game titles – these are all adjustments that allow players to play with their preferred visual settings. In order to test the performance of the monitor, we played Watch Dogs, CS:Go, and Fortnite. Visuals were stunning to look at thanks to the top notch panel used in the monitor and the gameplay was very smooth due to the high refresh rate. The 1ms response time, mean- while, helps in minimising and preventing smearing or ghosting. The BenQ Zowie XL2546K eSports Display has a lot going on for it. It comes with BenQ’s proprietary DyAc technology, 240Hz Refresh Rate, Black eQualizer, Optimize Gaming Precision, Shield, Personalised Viewing Angles, S-Switch and lots more. And these features make it one of the better displays out there on the market aimed at the eSports sector.

Razer is a well-known brand for quality products in the gaming peripherals and devices arena and the company recently announced its brand new gaming keyboard called Ornata V2. This gaming keyboard is an upgrade over the original Ornata Chroma, as it comes with better-dedicated media controls, an infinite scroll wheel, and a plush leatherette wrist rest which connects magnetically to the front of the keyboard. The keyboard comes in a typical Razer packaging. Upon opening the package, the first thing you see is the Ornata V2 gaming keyboard itself. Remove the keyboard and you will find the leatherette wrist rest just below it. The Ornata V2 is top-notch in design and build quality. The Razer Ornata V2 is designed with grooves that allow you to neatly tuck in its cable and feed it out in any direction. Doing this will keep your desktop clear of clutter and mess. It features Razer’s revolutionary Hybrid Mecha-Membrane switches – these switches provide a soft, comfortable typing feel with the positive clicky feedback of a mechanical switch. The keyboard also features fully programmable keys that can be customized through Razer Synapse 3. The media keys on the Ornata V2 include track skip, play and pause, and volume control in one area. As soon as you plug the keyboard into a PC or a laptop, Razer’s Synapse 3 gets triggered. Through this app, you can program macros, keybindings, and custom profiles. You also get unique lighting effects with Razer Chroma RGB that syncs and works with over 100 game titles, such as Apex Legends, Fortnite, Warframe, and so on. In terms of ergonomics of this keyboard, the entire experience is pretty good. Since the keyboard comes with a detachable wrist rest, extended gaming sessions become quite comfortable. The Razer Ornata V2’s RGB backlighting can be customized through the software on a per-key basis. You can also control the brightness directly on the board, which is a nice addition. While nothing beats a proper mechanical switch, the hybrid mechanical switch on this keyboard feels pretty nice, too. The overall design and build quality is solid, and the user experience with the keyboard is very good. For the price of AED 449, the Razer Ornata V2 might seem a bit expensive. However, the hybrid mecha-membrane switches justify the price point by offering a truly outstanding typing and gaming experience.