Information Technology

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group, specialists in secure IP infrastructure solutions, looks at five key IT security trends and solutions for 2015:

1. Rise in security breaches

The current high level of security breaches, from the largest organization down to the smallest, will continue unabated. What will also grow in 2015 will be the acceptance that security breaches are pretty well unavoidable for the majority of organizations. Companies will need to change their approach to security in order to reflect this. Security spending will continue to increase, with spending growth higher on asset security over perimeter security.

The workplace can be hectic during the month of January, especially given the fact that employees arrive back at work with their fancy new devices. New laptops, mobile devices, and smartphones are among common gifts given and received over the holidays. For companies that use a “Bring Your Own Device” system, this surge in technology changes can present some difficult challenges.

When you think of all the major technical trends discussed lately (e.g. cloud computing or mobile,) you may have noticed another one beginning to throw itself into the conversation, virtualization. While virtualization has been around for more than a decade, we're only just beginning to unleash its true potential.

With news of security breaches happening at major corporations all over the world, it’s easy for business leaders to start focusing all of their attention on outside threats. Hackers seem to be everywhere these days, so a strategy that heightens network security against cyber attacks is usually a good idea. If your business has adopted bring your own device (BYOD) policies, however, all that preparation for avoiding outside risks may be misdirected.

London ranked 26 out of 33 in index of European capital cities broadband speeds

9 December 2014, London, UK: London’s digital economy is failing to be supported with fit-for-task broadband infrastructure, according to an index published today, ranking European capital cities by broadband speeds.

The index was developed to give insight into London’s historical and current broadband speeds and investigate how it compared to other European capital cities. Hyperoptic, the UK’s leading Fibre-to-the-Home provider, compiled the index, sourcing the data from Ookla’s speedtest.net, the global standard in Internet connection testing.

As part of any business, one must be concerned about how to manage all the data and applications that a part of an organization’s infrastructure especially with BYOD policies on the rise in both large and small companies. Part of that is a company’s storage system, which not only handles storing data but retrieving and processing it. Years ago, this could be accomplished mostly through traditional storage options like hard disk drives (HDD), but these methods have proven to be ineffective as business demands have evolved with changing technologies.

It’s amazing the influence technology has. All these new gadgets have made our lives easier in so many ways, but they have also dramatically changed the cultures that embrace them. For example, digital theft is becoming a more common threat than physical theft.

We’ve heard examples of large corporations having their customer information hacked, or even celebrities having their personal photos stolen. And while we think criminals would only go after the big guys, small businesses aren’t in the clear. Without massive IT budgets and industry professionals, their networks are often left unprotected and become easy targets for intruders.

Over the years, I've talked about building a range of simple websites for personal use to implementing very complicated proprietary and open source enterprise content management systems. What I haven't talked about is the cost of building and maintaining those websites. Honestly, I've been too embarrassed for how little I spend and too stunned by the price tag for what the big companies pay for their websites. Who Is Hosting This? sent us a graphic that we thought represented the typical costs small to medium size businesses can expect when building and hosting their new websites. So good was the infographic that we decided to post it here.

Bring your own device (BYOD) is considered by many to be a real game changer in the business world. Companies have adopted it as a new strategy aimed at getting more productivity from employees while also helping them be happier at work. While BYOD has certainly made inroads in businesses all over the world, other organizations and institutions are starting to see the benefits of having people use their own devices in areas that were previously considered off limits. Perhaps most fascinating of all these potential adopters is the United States military. Though at first reluctant to allow servicemen and women to use their personal devices, the military has begun exploring how BYOD can benefit everybody.

Bring your own device (BYOD) may not exactly be new, but many companies are still trying to figure out if it’s the right move for them. While roughly half of all organizations have instituted some kind of BYOD policy, that still leaves the same number looking at their options and wondering if allowing employees to use their own devices for work is really worth it. There are many reasons BYOD may be adopted, but the two biggest benefits cited by BYOD supporters are the increases in employee productivity and overall job satisfaction. But do employees who use their own devices actually get more work done, and does it also make them happier while on the job?