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Small Business Technology Myths

Selling Information technology solutions to small business is actually big business. All technology providers have a product line selling to organisations which fall into the small business category.

There are no exact definitions of what measurements make a business small, as it varies depending on which country you are in.

Some measure revenue, others measure the number of employees or a mixture of both.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business

According to the Federation of Small Business (FSB), small business accounts for 99.3% of private sector business in the UK.

The other end of the market is the Enterprise market with large organisations with international offices and thousands of employees.

Technology providers also have product lines especially for this target market.

How do Small Business and Enterprise products differ?

The first most obvious difference is price.

You can expect to pay a lot more for Enterprise products. Small Business products are generally cheaper because they have a number of key features removed, or the number of users is restricted.

The myth here is that features deemed as Enterprise are not required in a small business and they are removed.

This creates an entry level product for the small business and gives them enterprise products which they can aspire and grow into.

I use the word myth, because the assumption is wrong.

Modern small business requires the same technology features as enterprise, just on a smaller scale.

Small Business Networking products are a good example of this.

They often can not be configured, if they do have a management interface it is via a very basic web interface.

Important security features are removed, traffic management features for high bandwidth traffic are removed, and the ability to divide up the network into sections and separate types of traffic is removed.

The ability to power devices via a network patch cable is restricted or removed entirely.

These features are deemed as Enterprise features. This is a mistake.

You can walk into a small business of 20 people and you will observe them using Terabytes of Network Attached Storage (NAS), they will be using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone systems, They will have a CCTV system connected to the network, They provide site visitors with Guest WIFI. The list goes on.

All the features that were removed for Small Business now make it hard for a business to function. Often a business owner will have to prematurely remove equipment because of restricted features.

Whatever money that was saved by buying these Small Business switches is now lost.

Small Business is business none the less than larger business.

This is why network design is so important. We can help you select the correct features and equipment right for your business.

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Why Should I love my Local Area Network?

A Local Area Network or LAN, is the plumbing which enables all your laptops, desktops and WIFI mobile devices to talk to each other.

It is called Local Area, well because it local , it is in your building. You will often find network devices hiding under tables or in the corner of a hot dusty cabinet where the device is slowly overheating and going slightly mad.

In this article I'm going to show you why you need to show you network some love

There are many types of devices which create a Local Area Network, the most common is the Ethernet switch. This is the device that you connect to directly

Even if you are using WIFI you are still connecting to a Ethernet switch of some kind.

You can often spot them hiding under desks with blinky lights and lots of untidy Ethernet cables piled up in front of it.

You may have a small dinky one for small work groups. Or Big Iron for connecting hundreds of users.

Either way the Local Area Network is often misused. forgotten and abused.

Its time to show your Local Area Network some love.

Your network is the foundation of everything that you do with your computers. We now demand that our networks carry voice traffic, Network attached storage, IP Cameras, Bring Your Own Device, Guest and Staff WIFI and mission critical Cloud services.

It does not matter how great your cloud services are , or how responsive your new social media 3.0 Big data website is, If your network is feeling unloved so will all your applications.

3 Easy ways to show your network some love

(1) Replace those tired switches

Those switches you bought back in 1995 are not going to be able to do all the fancy new things asked of them.. This is because they are likely to be a lot slower, and have a lot of the techie nerd knobs missing to make all this new fancy stuff work.

Its time to replace those 20 year old devices which you have plugged together over the years with some new switches which have the required nerd knobs to enable the new functionality required.

Now don't run out and by the best branded most expensive devices, or go the other way and buy the cheapest you can find at your local supermarket. That would be stupid.

I will have another article coming soon showing you how to select the correct devices.

(2) Apply some network design ( No more plug and pray !)

How you plug these devices together and want nerd knobs you turn on or off is called “network design”. This is based on security, performance types of devices, number of users and a few other things. However this is the essence of network design. And you will need some, network design

(3) Look after your cables

Don't forget your cables, Be kind to them. I have found cables with broken clips, crushed under the wheels of chairs, fibre cables nailed to walls and other murderous things you could do to a cable. All bad things to make your network sulk and feel sorry for itself.

A well loved and well designed network is a major asset to your business.

• It is the cheapest form of bandwidth available to you.
• No Fair usage policy
• No penalties for going over your transfer rate
• enables you to take advantage of the latest trends in computing

The trend is to move a lot of key services outside of the LAN to the Cloud, I have a few of warnings here:

1.  Even if you are using cloud services you STILL need a well designed network.
2.  Depending the service used, you could end up hair-pinning your data. This is a techie term for waste of bandwidth and reduce capacity.
3. Moving your key services outside your LAN means that your bandwidth costs will go up. Don’t forget the word unlimited has taken on a different meaning in modern marketing.
4. Bandwidth costs money, and the Internet Providers are desperate to make money to cover the explosion in bandwidth consumption. They are currently fighting to charge more for different services used on the Internet, this is argument is called network neutrality

How will these changes affect your business if you have pushed all your keys services into the cloud.

Your Local Area Network is working hard to protect your interests, show it some love.

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Windows Server 2003 – Why so Popular?

‘Windows Server 2003 operating systems take the best of Windows 2000 Server technology and make it easier to deploy, manage, and use. The result: a highly productive infrastructure that helps make your network a strategic asset for your organization.

Windows Server 2003 includes all the functionality customers need today from a Windows Server operating system to do more with less, such as security, reliability, availability, and scalability. In addition, Microsoft has improved and extended the Windows server operating systems to incorporate the benefits of Microsoft .NET for connecting information, people, systems, and devices.

Windows Server 2003 SP1 provides enhanced security, increased reliability, and a simplified administration to help enterprise customers across all industries.’

http://www.easeus.com/resource/windows-2003.htm

No wonder Windows Server 2003 was so popular. A reported 11 million systems were still running Windows Server 2003 a year ago.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/windows_server_2003_hp/
Some other reports set it at as many as 24 million for both physical & virtual systems globally. And now with less than 5 months to go, other reports say that 1.6 million may miss the deadline of July 14th to migrate away from Windows Server 2003.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/10/late_windows_server_2003_migration_now_what/

Why is that?

‘research analyst Wes Miller of Directions on Microsoft believes the installed based for Windows Server 2003 is sizable: "There are a surprising number of them [Windows Server 2003 installations] out there, in SMBs, and we're still seeing it pretty regularly in the enterprise space."’
‘Forrester analyst Mark Bartrick offered a concurring view: "While it's a common occurrence to see support for older products retired by software vendors, it's annoying if either the old stuff is still running perfectly well or if the upgrade option is financially onerous, will significantly disrupt the business or offers little in the way of real added benefit."’
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2607968/windows-server/windows-2003--microsoft-s-next-support-sinkhole.html

And another reason......

‘"Depending on what is running on those servers, it can be a significant effort," Vanden Boom said of replacing Server 2003.
Although Microsoft publishes support deadlines long in advance -- and has been beating the drum to dump Server 2003 for months -- it's not unusual for customers to hang on too long.’
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2872316/laggards-face-looming-windows-server-2003-retirement.html

‘HP has predicted that mid-sized firms will be among the worst affected by the demise of Windows Server 2003 when all support ceases later this year.

Microsoft is bringing the end-of-life (EOL) death knell down on Windows Server 2003 on 14 July, 2015 and it will see all support including hot fixes and patches for new vulnerabilities come to a halt from that day forwards.

It's predicted by HP that mid-sized firms will be the worst hit and Iain Stephen, HP's VP and general manager for servers in EMEA, told V3 the number of servers that need to be updated at each firm will cause a big headache.

"The customer that worries me is the one that has 30 or more servers, probably of mixed ages, and they may have heard something about the end of life deadline, but they may not be doing anything about it," he said.’

http://www.techradar.com/news/servers/software/computing/outlook-bleak-for-mid-sized-firms-still-using-windows-server-2003-1284707

So what is the trend, what are others doing about it?

‘When it comes to updating the company’s software and hardware, 69 per cent of SMBs listed refreshing infrastructure as a key consideration when adopting the cloud. In terms of the type of cloud model that SMBs prefer, an impressive 75 per cent admitted to opting for a hybrid model that combines cloud services with on-premise IT.
“SMBs are clearly already favoring a hybrid approach. Our view is that 9 out of 10 companies will continue to invest in on-premise IT alongside and integrated with remote cloud solutions,” East added.’

http://www.itproportal.com/2014/07/14/uk-smbs-face-ticking-time-bomb-windows-server-2003-end-life/#ixzz3RrsuDsKC

‘The survey also found a fair amount of uncertainty about how the migration should be managed: 40 per cent of respondents had not yet decided whether they would move to the cloud as part of the upgrade.
Of the remainder, 38 per cent said they would move all or some of their applications to the cloud and 22 per cent said they would not move to the cloud at all.’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/04/ws2003_migration/

Other reports say......

‘Presumably, Microsoft will offer expensive Custom Support Agreements for enterprises to continue getting patch support after that date, but there's been no official announcement yet. In the meantime, new security vulnerabilities keep cropping up for the aging OS. During the last full year, 2013, Microsoft released 37 critical updates for Windows Server 2003.’
http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/09/18/server-2003-end-of-support.aspx

Presumably indeed because it seems that companies using Windows Server 2003 are already being left in the cold. When a major bug was found it was not feasible to offer the fix to Windows Server 2003 system users.
‘On Patch Tuesday, Microsoft addressed a total of 56 vulnerabilities in its products, including a major Windows flaw, dubbed “JASBUG,” that could allow remote code execution (RCE).
In a security bulletin, MS15-011, the tech giant revealed that the critical vulnerability impacts all supported editions of Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows RT 8.1.
“The architecture to properly support the fix provided in the update does not exist on Windows Server 2003 systems, making it infeasible to build the fix for Windows Server 2003,” Microsoft said in its bulletin. “To do so would require re-architecture a very significant amount of the Windows Server 2003 operating system, not just the affected component. The product of such a re-architecture effort would be sufficiently incompatible with Windows Server 2003 that there would be no assurance that applications designed to run on Windows Server 2003 would continue to operate on the updated system.”
http://www.scmagazine.com/microsoft-addressed-56-bugs-issues-fix-for-jasbug/article/397477/

Should I be worried?

Yes. Unfortunately, anything to do with IT systems these day are worrying. After July 14th there will be no security updates or patches. Windows had 37 critical updates alone in 2013. They are probably still counting last years’. This means that both physical & virtual servers are at risk to security threats.
Many companies still have not got round to migrating or even thinking of it for a variety of reasons. Microsoft are trying their best to help these ones by offering their cloud solutions.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-server-2003/default.aspx

So should I just throw away my Windows Server 2003?

You are the one that knows your business well and how you prefer to work. After all, the server may have been working fine for all these years with not much problems. You may want to keep control your data and have it where you want and when you want it. You may want to keep the choice of on premises IT Systems.
A report made this interest discovery:
‘the needs of smaller businesses can be very specialised, and as such may be better served by dedicated staff in-house.
We surveyed a sample of 120 IT managers at UK firms with between five and 250 employees. Fifty-eight per cent operated from a single building, while at the other end of the scale five per cent had more than 10 premises. All sectors were represented, but as subscribers to Computing, the sample was slightly skewed towards the technical, so one might expect the respondents to be more receptive to the benefits proffered by cloud than average.
Nevertheless, one-half of the respondents said they run all their IT in-house. Equally the sample was split pretty much down the middle between those who perceived cloud to offer particular benefits to small businesses and those that did not.’

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2327162/cloud-computing-no-way-say-half-of-smes
And let’s face it – nobody likes to be forced to do something they are unsure about. Not everybody wants to move to the cloud.........it might rain.
Business News Daily gave 8 Reasons to Fear Cloud Computing back in October 2013. Nearly 1 ½ years later, we have to ask ourselves are those fears still viable?
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5215-dangers-cloud-computing.html
Maybe this is why many SMBs prefer in-house or hybrid IT Systems. Only you can answer what you prefer.

Is there an Alternative?

Yes there is and it is local to you. As part of the FSB we strive to keep business local. We can help your migration to an up to date IT system that may not involve throwing your hardware away. Where, you can keep your data in-house.

A system that brings the originality of what Windows Server 2003 was all about: It was a IT System that just let you get on with your work without too much fuss and bother. You do have a choice.

Don’t put either your server or yourself in a vulnerable position. Get the facts on what you can do about Window Server 2003 EOL now.

Call Trenchant Systems for advice on how we can help you migrate to an IT Systems that just let’s you get on with your business and even save you money.

Call us on 01536 425996/01908 888337. Quoting ‘Help with Server 2003’ today.

The post Windows Server 2003, Game over appeared first on Trenchant Systems.

As you know Trenchant Systems are Ruckus wireless resellers. We have selected Ruckus as our go to provider for wireless solutions. Some of you have seen first hand the difference that Ruckus wireless produces.

Ruckus have  recently  produced a video which explains in a non technical way the reasons why they make "Simply Better wireless"

Could I encourage you all to spare 4 minutes whilst you have a cup of tea to view their video which breaks down the key features.
It is not technical, but very straight forward.

If you still have not finished that cup of tea, read our article Slow Wifi, Why you have it and what to do about it

The post Simply better wireless Ruckus beamFlex explained appeared first on Trenchant Systems.

You have just signed up with your new superfast fibre internet provider, but something is not right!

Your WIFI network is slow, it takes a long time to connect and when it does, the connection is not reliable.

Your staff are frustrated and complaining on a regular basis. Out of desperation you are convinced by your supplier that the problem is because you do not have enough access points.

You purchase and install the latest “future proof” gigabit WIFI access points. However, the problem actually gets worse and now the CFO is frowning heavily at you.

Does that sound familiar?

Bad slow WIFI is like watching a High Definition 4K television with dirty and scratched glasses.

Before you can fix the problem, it is best to understand what is occurring to find the best approach. In this article, we are going to show you the most common issues, which cause slow WIFI.
Finally, we will show you how you can get rid of these common problems.

Problem 1: Trying to talk in a crowded room

At some point, you must have been in a busy bar on a Friday evening, trying to talk with a friend standing opposite you.

The room is very crowded full of people doing the same thing. To have your conversation, you and your friend are both shouting at each other, and often asking each other to repeat certain sentences because you did not understand the words that were spoken.

This is exactly the same principle with WIFI clients and WIFI access points. We use our voices to manipulate the air around us using vibrations, and our hearing detects the vibrations in the air and we decipher the words that have been transmitted. WIFI use’s vibrations in a higher wavelength, but is still subject to the same principles.

When you are struggling to hear your friend when in the bar, you might take your drinks to another room, or move outside where there is less noise. You no longer have to shout and ask each other to repeat words.

In WIFI these rooms are called channels. When one particular channel becomes very crowded it is best to move to another channel where it is less crowded and less chatter. This is the most common cause for slow WIFI.

What if I can’t find a less crowded room?

If you can’t find another room or channel to have your conversation, what about trying upstairs. Go up to the next floor and see if you have any room up there.

In WIFI terms, going upstairs is called changing Band.

There are two floors in WIFI terms:

• Ground floor 2Ghz Band (Very popular and most common)
• Upper floor 5Ghz Band

Instead of screaming at each other asking each other to repeat words, you can move to a different room (change channel) on the same floor, or go upstairs (change band) and find a room up there.

Problem 2: The barman is too slow

To continue with our Bar scenario, How do we get our drinks? To get our drinks we have to wait for the Barman to give us attention so we can give him our order. If there are many people at the bar, you may have to wait a while for the Barman to give you attention.

The common and most obvious answer is to get more Barmen behind the bar taking orders.

However, there is a fine balance.

More Barmen means more noise as more people will be shouting orders (see problem 1)

More Barmen behind the bar, means that the Barmen start to slow each other down, this is because there is only so much room behind the bar for them to work.

What if we could hire Barmen that could work 10 times faster?, that means we can use fewer Barmen, which will give us faster service, more room and less noise.

In WIFI terms, our WIFI access points are the Barmen. Can you see now why buying more access points is not always the best way to fix slow WIFI.

To get better WIFI service we need to find access points that are faster than the normal WIFI access points.

Problem 3: Keep still, I don’t know where you are?

When you order food at the bar, what’s the first thing they always ask you. What’s your table number?
If you move from that table they will not be able to find you to give you your food. The servers will resort to shouting for you and wondering around shouting out your order details hoping someone will respond.

Whilst they are doing that, they are contributing to both problem 1 and problem 2.
To get better service, the Barmen and servers need to know where you are.
To help prevent slow WIFI, the access points need to be able to use resources effectively by knowing where you are.

Problem 4: The manager does not have a clue?

I hope that you have never had to complain to the manager of your favorite bar/restaurant. However, you might have  had to complain because you were not happy with the service or you had to complain about a fellow customer who was causing disruption by being drunk, loud and generally disruptive.

The manager is able to see his customers and staff are working and behaving as expected, if not he has to take action.
In WIFI we also have a Manager. This is called the Wireless LAN Controller (WLC). The WLC has the job of issuing instructions to its staff (Wireless Access Points) and ensuring that the customers are behaving in a non-disruptive or offensive manner.

If the other Wireless Customers are using up all the internet bandwidth, or the Wireless Access Points are not performing as instructed. The WLC has to take action to prevent slow WIFI

Now you know why you have slow WIFI, how do you fix it?

The short sweet answer, to fix the problems outlined above; you need a Ruckus Wireless solution.
Here are the reasons why:

• Reason 1: Ruckus Wireless searches for a less crowded space. So you get the best WIFI coverage.
• Reason 2: Ruckus Wireless access points operate on a schedule of micro-seconds which enables a better WIFI experience than general Access Points.
• Reason 3: Ruckus Wireless Beamforming service uses targeted radio signals to each of the clients. Even if they are hiding round a corner.
• Reason 4:Ruckus Wireless ZoneDirectors act as the Manager of your wireless network and provide easy configuration management for all the WIFI. With easy management, you get a WIFI solution that keeps an eye on performance and any disruption.

How to fix: Problem1, Trying to talk in a crowded room

To avoid trying to use WIFI in a crowded channel or room, the WIFI access points need to be able to detect this and move to another channel automatically. Ruckus Wireless use a technology which they call Channelfly, this technology will automatically detect a crowded channel and accurately move to another less crowded channel, this preventing interference and causing slow WIFI.

[caption id="attachment_247" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Channelfly detects channel interference and moves to avoid it[/caption]

In addition to this Ruckus Wireless also use a technology called Bandsteering. This is a method which tries to assure clients to the other less crowded radio band of 5Ghz (the upper floor). Bandsteering is like have an usher guiding customers upstairs to the 5Ghz floor.
With these technologies, you are able to maximise the opportunity increase the transmission time for all WIFI clients.

ChannelFly Fact sheet

How to fix: Problem 2, The barman is too slow

Ruckus Wireless access points work on a schedule of micro seconds (1 millionth of a second). In general, most of the popular WIFI access points operate on a schedule of milliseconds (1 thousandth of a second).
In 1 second, a Ruckus wireless Access point will have served more clients than your average WIFI AP. This means that to serve the same number of clients, You will need less WIFI Access points.

How to Fix:Problem 3: Keep still, I don’t know where you are?

Ruckus Wireless use specially designed WIFI access points to track your position. It can tell where you are and send directed transmissions to your current position.
The Ruckus Wireless WIFI access points use a technology called Beamforming to send targeted radio signals to each of the clients.

It can even use the environment to bend signals round corners to get to your location.

This provides a snappier performance to each client and less noise in the air reducing the risk of slow WIFI.

How To Fix Problem 4, The manager does not have a clue?

Ruckus Wireless use Wireless LAN Controllers called ZoneDirectors. Zonedirectors are the managers of your wireless network.

They provide easy configuration management for all the WIFI access points, and they can also see how the WIFI clients are behaving.

Conclusion

There are many factors which affect the performance of your wireless network. The four key problems areas we have highlighted in this document are the most common and often misunderstood.

We have focused on Ruckus Wireless because, to use their strap line, it’s “Simply Better Wireless”.

Now you know why.

If you want help with your wireless solution, if you are suffering performance problems, or you just want to know more about Ruckus Wireless products:

Contact Trenchant Systems on 01536 425996 or sales@trensys.co.uk and we can get your WIFI flying.

The post Slow WIFI, Why you have it, and what to do about it appeared first on Trenchant Systems.

Being able to secure your  network requires planning. You need to take into account how your business uses the network and what tools are available to provide security.
A balance has is required between being able to use the network and keeping it secure. Convenience and security are opposed to each other. More convenience often leads to lower security.
In this article, we will be highlighting four key ways to secure your network. Network architecture is divided into different functional groups or layers. The size and use of your network will affect which layers are used.
Here are the typical layers

[caption id="attachment_216" align="aligncenter" width="627"] 3 layers of network design[/caption]

Not every network has all three layers. Some may have a mixture or all three all in one layer combined. The access layer is where your users plug into the network and is the biggest layer of your network.
We will focus on the top four ways to secure your network or access layer network.

What are the some of the threats?

Unidentified users and devices

Your network contains resources and valuable information. We need to ensure that the right people have the required access to those resources. With the increase in mobile computing and users utilise multiple devices to access your network. You need to ensure that the correct authorised device is connected to your network.
An un-authorised device on your network could contain and propagate malware or disrupt the functioning of your network. Therefore, the user and the device need to be authenticated.

Disruption and Denial of service

There are tools, which are freely available on the internet designed to break your network. They are designed to cause disruption or enable access to resources which the user is not authorised to access.

Securing user data

Most of the threats we have discussed so far are about protecting the resources on the network. The users also need protection from each other. Man in the middle (MITM) attacks occur where a user is tricked into divulging secure information via an un-authorized 3rd party.

Four key ways to secure your network.

Now we understand how the network is structured, and also what the threats are, let’s identify the top four ways to protect ourselves. This is not a how-to document, the aim is to provide you with a overview of how to protect yourself from the most common threats.

(1) 802.1x

802.1x is a standard developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE). This standard defines the protocol and methods used to provide device and user authentication.

801.1x ensures that only the authorised users and devices get access to your network. When combined with Microsoft Network Policy server, Active Directory, LDAP and Radius.

Using these tools, you can ensure that the correct users and devices get access to your network.

Enabling 802.1x does reduce operational convenience. Your network administration now requires that you have a process to manage the policy of access, as well as maintain the list of authorised users and devices. This has to be performed effectively to ensure that users who have left the company or devices that are lost or stolen are removed quickly.

(2) DHCP Snooping

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) enables users to be automatically configured to operate on the network. Looking at our diagram highlighting the layers of the network, we will see that our servers and applications reside on the core network.

Therefore all the servers which perform Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol will also reside in the core network. We should not see any DHCP servers residing on the access layer. Access layer is where our users reside.

DHCP is often used as the first stage in a Man In the Middle (MITM) attack. Any user that has access to the network can setup a DHCP server to trick your users to use the configuration that they provide, instead of your DHCP servers.

To protect your network from unauthorised DHCP servers we need to listen to the network and disable these servers when if we see them.
DHCP Snooping does just this. It is configured on your network switches and it will shutdown any ports where it see’s any DHCP servers which you have not authorised. You can tell the switches that the only authorised servers are in the core network. Any other DHCP servers should be disabled.

(3)MAC Address limits

Every device that connects to a network has a Media Access Control (MAC) address. Think of it as a unique serial number. When you connect a device to a network switch it learns the MAC address of your device, and it learns which port the device is using.
A user port will typically have two devices per port. Most deployments will have a desktop pc and a telephone handset connected to the same port on the switch.
This means that the switch will see two MAC address’s. Anything more than two devices means that we are connecting switches together or something suspicious may be occurring on the port.
If it is abnormal for a user to have more than two devices per port, you can tell the switch to shutdown the port whilst you investigate what is occurring.

(4) Physical port security

Physical port security is one of the easiest forms of security for your network. By taking out the cable or disabling the network port when not in use takes away any form of un-authorised access. You also do not need any special features on your switch to perform physical access controls.
A key point to remember  is that this needs to be part of your administration process, otherwise it will become a burden.

Summary

We have highlighted four key ways to secure your user network. Which ones you use depends on your exposure to threat. If your network is in a building with strong access controls and your network switches are in locked physical cabinets, you could say that your threat level is quite low and you may only use Physical port security.
If your network resides in a school/college or serviced office, you may need to consider using all forms of security.

When choosing network equipment it is important to have an understanding that not every network switch is the same.The network access layer switches will be the most abundant type of switch. It is also for this reason that most business owners will look for the cheapest possible switch with minimal regard for functionality.
Where possible stay away from the “Small Business” switches or the “Smart Managed” switches. These switches are often the most constrained feature less switches, which are only suitable for small work-groups.

Key features to look for when looking for access layer switches:
• IEEE 802.1x
• Port Security
• MAC authentication
• MAC address limit
• Layer 2 MAC filtering
• Layer 3 IP filtering
• Layer 4 TCP/UDP socket filtering
• BPDU guard
• Static MAC forwarding
• Multiple RADIUS servers
• Multiple TACACS+ servers
• RADIUS
• TACACS+
• SSL
• DHCP snooping
• ARP inspection
• UPNP
• Policy-based security filtering
• Port isolation
• IP source guard
• ACL packet filtering

The post Four key ways to secure your network appeared first on Trenchant Systems.

There are many examples of major IT projects that have failed to deploy, often at great expense, and very often public money in the public sector.

Six reasons why the NHS National Programme for IT failed

BBC's DMI project failure is a warning to all organisations

Spreadsheet compiled by Computerweekly.com outlining  IT Project status

If you have read the links above, you will see what I mean. Why is it so hard to complete large information technology  projects ?

John Seddon from managing director from Vanguard and inventor of  "The Vanguard Method" shares his experiences and insights as to why it is so difficult to  deliver large IT projects. I would encourage you to watch the entire playlist ( 45 mins approx).

The post Rethinking Information technology appeared first on Trenchant Systems.

History of the internet

The internet is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communications facilities , consisting of interconnected networks using standardised communication protocols.

The key design criteria of the internet is that it should be a communications network that could survive a nuclear war. This was to be achieved by distributing the communications systems across many nodes (locations). If the communications systems is distributed and not centralised , you avoid a central point of attack which will disable the entire communications system.

In 1964 ,an engineer called Paul Baran created a memorandum outlining the introduction to distributed communications networks. In this memorandum he outlines the concepts and design requirements which will eventually become the foundation of the internet in the form of packet switched networking.

Introduction to distributed communications network (by Paul Baran of RAND)

The Centralisation problem

The actual objective of a survivable network is to enable continued communication, even after severe damage. This means that the actual applications ( Computer applications, human voice communications , and data storage and retrieval services )of the network must also be distributed.

Centralising the applications across a distributed network is counter-intuitive and breaks the original design objective.

The internet is a collection of smaller networks, and every network has some form of application, such as file transfer, email services and terminal access to remote computers.

You could say that each network provides some form of service to the other network. Each network was a provider as well a consumer of each others services.

This created a distributed application resource, transported on a distributed network.

The  modern way to use these applications is to centralise into what we nonchalantly call “clouds” despite the connotations. A few big providers have emerged (Amazon, Google, Rackspace to name a few) which provide these centralised services across a distributed network.

These providers endeavour to increase survivability by increasing the number of nodes they have and the number of connections, but this can only go so far and remain economical.

We now have an imbalance. We have created a disproportionate number of consumers rather than providers. If every organisation/network becomes a consumer rather than a provider we are destroying the distributed model.

Where node to node (or peer to peer) communications does occur, just as the internet was designed for, it is often feared and needs to be managed and centralised.

The reason for this is because one of the most popular forms of distributed communication applications is peer to peer file sharing. Peer to Peer communication is feared because it has been used to violate copyright and distribute offensive and illegal material.

Therefore the trend is that peer to peer needs to be actively managed. To enable that management it needs to be discouraged or centralised once again.

The Security Problem

The internet has become the key communication platform of every form. We are free to communicate and share ideas and educate each other across the world. All across this fantastic resilient network.

This ability also enables criminals and nefarious types to also communicate. Therefore this also has to be managed and observed to reduce the risk of crime.

This introduces the need for security forces and law enforcement to be omnipresent across the internet. Therefore this requires the packets flowing across the internet to be corralled, inspected, filtered and even modified.

To perform these activities also requires some form of centralisation where inspection points can be created. This adds to our centralisation problem and further degrades the survivability of the internet.

BBC news, How vulnerable is the internet?

The Commercial Problem

E-commerce would not be possible without the creation of the internet. There are a number of new industries created just to exploit these opportunities. What we communicate and also who we communicate with and what material we watch and consume tells a lot about us as a person.

This information is captured and tied to our personal information to create targeted adverts and to create highly accurate data about our behaviour.

This activity also requires solutions very similar to our security problem. To observe our behaviour and to monetise our actions requires interception points where our data packets can be recorded and even modified according to our demographic or personal tastes.

To compound this problem a new risk to the survivable network is the erosion of network neutrality. Network neutrality is the principle that any of the interconnected networks should be treated equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.

Without network neutrality the internet could break up into a tiered service model. Either as the service provider and ultimately the consumer could end up paying more for the type of traffic such as video or peer to peer traffic.

Ultimately the flow of traffic across this resilient network will have artificial commercial restraints drastically changing how we use the internet.

Contextual Advertising Software

What is Net Neutrality and why is it important?

So what, How does that affect me ?

We depend on the internet to pay our bills, do business, entertain ourselves and communicate with our loved ones. As our dependency increases, the reliability of the internet is decreasing.

Amazon outage caused by storm

Windows Azure service down in Europe

Network upgrade failure takes out Amazon

At some point your key services will go down. This is the point to remember. Hopefully you have will now have some insight into some of the reasons why this will happen.

We are designing the internet to fail.

Despite the innovations in High availability systems and Global Load Balancers and ultra high speed fibre connections and site recovery and replication systems, we will continue to see headline outages.

What can I do about it ?

There are only a few things you can do about it. It takes a collective mindset to fix these problems, after all the internet is a collection of networks owned and run by separate organisations.

Here are some simple steps to reduce your exposure to risk

1. Before centralising your key services into the cloud, think , What will you do when it goes down?, What will you do when you have to pay an “access fee” or move ISP to access your key cloud service?
2. Are you able to manage a service amongst your peers or within your organisation? Are you able to be a service provider as well as a consumer.

Centralised or cloud computing is an important innovation in modern computing. It is a very economical way to utilise large infrastructure without the need for large amounts of investments on the part of the consumer. Only very large organisations have the money and resource to create a computing platform as large as Amazon for example.

However this convenience comes at a cost. That cost is that we are creating large pools of applications which have a low potential for distribution (If you have read this far, then you should know that low distribution is bad). The only way to reduce the exposure to risk, is to augment these applications with distributed peer to peer applications.

Running your own services has been written off as expensive, "don't worry about it, just put it in the cloud".

I say it depends !

The same technology which is in use in the cloud, is available to everybody. It is possible to use this cloud technology for yourself. Before you throw your hands up in the air and cry how expensive it is, or you don't have the resource, at least look at into it.

Hybrid Cloud: Driving the Shift from IT Control to IT Coordination

Research:-2014-Private-Cloud-Survey.html

Gartner Special Report Examines the Outlook for Hybrid Cloud

Summary

Have we broken the internet?. No the internet is not broken. However the design criteria of the internet has changed drastically from it's original inception.The point of this article is to highlight the changes that are occurring, and to enable you to  use the internet with eyes wide open.

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