Managing the network for a business based across multiple locations comes with additional challenges compared with single site operations. Firstly, there’s the pressure to deliver consistent, cohesive and reliable network capability across every site. Secondly, the additional challenges from having multiple sites puts an extra strain on budgets, resource and security.

We’ve all been asked to fill out forms, or complete a short survey and let’s be honest, even the most conscientious of us don’t usually do so unless there’s an incentive involved and certainly not without knowing its purpose. And it’s for this reason we at LAN3 wanted to be really transparent about why we seek the opinions and expertise of people in the education sector through our ‘State of IT in Education’ survey.

"I’ve got Teams, I love Teams, I just Wish the Call Plans were Not so expensive and the Reporting was better!"

Microsoft Teams is good in so many ways and is entrenched in so many companies, but it lacks desired functionality, including enterprise call handling, reporting and reliability. 

The truth is Teams is a good platform that ticks a lot of boxes. It has a wide install base and the interface is simple and easy to use. However, look a little closer and it lacks some key functionality that deters the ‘enterprise’ from taking it seriously as anything more than a messaging app.

Capacity, efficiency, and performance for advanced connectivity

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to appreciate the advancement of technology over time. From Artificial Intelligence (AI) to driverless cars, ‘smart technology’ is all around us and - like a rocket scientist - the sky’s the limit.

As predicted in our previous article, it’s been a strong start to the year for Wi-Fi 6. Evolutions in its technology and speed have given it a further lease of life while the jump up to the 6GHz band spectrum comes at a time where the technology becomes available around the world. 

With software and hardware development showing no signs of slowing down, modern IT infrastructures have become more powerful and flexible, yet, often more complex and challenging to manage. The challenge is, therefore, to provide all the benefits of new technology without creating an infrastructure that has an excessive resource or cost overhead. 

An ‘agile’ approach to development is often very rapid and adaptable, and Cloud Innovation is best served using such a methodology. As a partner of Extreme Networks, we’re (sometimes) frightened of the pace of development, and I’m also aware of the suspicion that comes with such fast-paced development:

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is on the rise. Allowing users to make sense of increasingly large data sets in real-time, coupled with its much-documented long-term potential, AI is becoming a key focus for businesses looking to embrace emerging technologies, develop new strategies, and stay one step ahead in competitive markets.

The rollout of the highly anticipated Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is around the corner, and like all product launches, there’s going to be questions asked around the next generation of Wi-Fi wireless technology.

2020 is set to be a massive year for the next generation Wi-Fi wireless technology.

Aerohive recently announced an Amazon Echo Skill that allows you to manage your wireless network using only your voice.

The perception sometimes exists that once you’ve put in a network, it can just be left to run on its own.

Five years ago, you would have gone into a networking conversation at a school or an enterprise and they would have effectively said ‘my switch is this and it's configured in this way and I need this bandwidth and number of switches to do X, Y, and Z’. The scenario was, and still is for a chunk of customers, hardware-driven and it would be managed almost exclusively by the IT team. The solution would have been sold based on ‘speeds and feeds’ as well as a quantity of hardware, with minimal consideration for insight, analytics, ROI etc.

In a previous video blog we looked at how organisations can gain control over who can access their network using one of 802.1x or a private pre-shared key.

Sitting behind either of these solutions are user profiles, which are stored on either a RADIUS server, access point or Aerohive's HiveManager.

In this video blog we take a closer look at user profiles, and how they can be provisioned to help network managers give each wireless user a unique experience, while increasing security.

Businesses around the world continue a ‘strong and co-ordinated global expansion’, the Financial Times reported last year. Uncertainty around Brexit notwithstanding, ‘over two thirds (69 percent) of UK businesses will expand internationally in the next three years’, a survey of 500 key decision makers by Elements Global Services reveals.

The most common way for users and devices to connect to the wireless network is via a pre-shared key, or password. 

Some organisations have implemented 802.1x and already have some control over who can access their network.

Another option is a Private Pre-Shared Key, which we believe has many of the benefits of 802.1x without any of the additional infrastructure requirements.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Below we outline the pros and cons of Pre-Shared Keys, 802.1x and Private Pre-Shared Keys, to help you decide what's right for your organisation.

It’s hard to escape mention of digital transformation at present, particularly in regard to the growing requirement for business flexibility and agility. Far from being just a catchword, digital transformation is a necessity for many businesses, with many undertaking this just to survive in a competitive landscape.

Choosing the right networking solution for your business has never been more important. Regardless of industry, everybody seems to be feeling the pinch of shrinking budgets, and large estates are often manned by an insufficiently staffed IT Team. With the ever growing demand for a stable and secure network which can support the latest speeds and content, and including the additional considerations such as BYOD, it’s a downplay to call it a headache.

Oxford United have signed a multi-year deal with local IT company LAN3, which will see the company install market-leading networking and cyber-security infrastructure across the club’s new training facility.

Those who’ve reached ten years of marriage will recognise the milestone is celebrated with the exchanging of gifts made from tin.

We can’t always control what places a demand on our time, but if connectivity isn’t already one of your top priorities, we’re willing to bet it will rear its head soon.

As the number, and performance, of devices exponentially increases, so does the demand placed upon the wireless network.

Healthcare providers are under increasing pressure to provide Wi-Fi for service users. In fact, there is a government directive for the NHS to have Wi-Fi in operation by the end of 2018.

So far, two statistics in particular have stood out. Here we look at what these statistics say, how you might be affected, and why they could be happening.

Many independent schools celebrate a rich heritage stretching back hundreds of years. But what happens when tradition meets twenty-first century networking needs?

Before thoughts turn completely to turkey and mince pies, it's worth considering how you're going to maintain network security while everyone is away from the office.

With today’s universities operating more and more like businesses, could transfer of IT best practices from the business sector be the answer to their most pressing challenges?

In 2017's The State of Networking in Education report, your peers revealed their biggest network-related frustrations. What are they—and can you relate?

If you find yourself under increasing pressure to repair your school’s technology on a case-by-case basis, a regular health check could be the answer.

In this article we identify common IT infrastructure problems faced by public and independent schools and offer a single, long-term solution for fixing all of them.

It was this morning revealed every Wi-Fi network is potentially at risk as a result of a vulnerability called 'Wi-Fi KRACK'.

It allows 'snoopers' to eavesdrop on traffic between network devices (i.e. computers, laptops and tablets) and a wireless access point.

Your network works, right? So what’s there to worry about? Well actually, quite a lot.

It goes without saying that these days, almost all businesses and organisations rely on their IT for virtually everything. And the network is the backbone on which all their IT services depend. 

Despite this, many businesses and organisations have either inappropriate hardware and/or software, or appropriate infrastructure that has not been optimally configured, secured or managed.

One of the main reasons for this is that IT is a fast-moving world, and today’s networks - and the context they are operating in - are substantially different from those of even a decade ago.

I commonly hear people say "Does Project Management Matter, we just need to book in some people to do some work, what could go wrong?"

The reality for many IT departments in the education sector today is that budgets are under pressure.

As Ferris Bueller famously said, ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’

In 2011 the Silicon Valley magnate Marc Andreessen stated in a Wall Street Journal article that 'software is eating the world.'

LAN3 netted a hattrick of awards at the LogRhythm EMEA Partner Summit, in London last week, including the blue ribbon Partner of the Year Award.

We are currently compiling our annual report looking into the state of networking in education. Based on the results so far and the conversations that we are currently having with customers, there are some interesting insights already appearing.

Increasingly, higher education institutions are choosing to set up physical access controls across their campuses.

Such controls involve issuing access cards to those who need them, and installing readers or other infrastructure on doors and entrances.

Making such a change is crucial to future-proofing campuses and providing the expected level of care and service.

But why?

Famously, the UK has an output problem. In 2014 – the last complete year for which a figure is available - output per hour worked in the UK was a full 18 percentage points below the average for the remaining six members of the G7 group of industrial nations.

The reasons behind this are complex, but it is clearly in the interests of UK businesses to pick the low hanging fruit in terms of improving productivity and output. IT is one of those fruit; these days almost every business is reliant on technology. Without reliable, safe and secure IT infrastructure, you can’t possibly get the most of your employees.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was approved earlier this year, and businesses and organisations across the UK started to think about how they would prepare for it coming into force in May 2018.

But now that the UK is on the path to leaving the EU, does Brexit and the General Data Protection Regulation still have any relevance? The answer is yes.

It’s something we keep hearing, and something we can’t get away from - the demand for access has heightened dramatically in the last few years. More of us are carrying multiple devices, and hand in hand with that has come an expectation for Wi-Fi in the places we spend our time.

Here at LAN3 we like to fill our meeting room with dry ice, sit around in pointy black hats, and wave our gnarled fingers over our state of the art crystal ball.

Well, none of that is strictly true, but we definitely like to keep one eye on the future. So much so, that one of the things you will hear us say is that we don’t just want to provide our clients with what they need now, but with what they will need two years from now.

But why - and how - do we do that?

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that we have changed the LAN3 tagline from ‘networking solutions’ to ‘secure infrastructure’. While this may not have changed the course of global history, or realigned the planets, this change feels significant to us - because it better reflects the business we have become.

For many years, networking was what we did, and what most people knew us for. But as time has passed, we’ve responded to a changing world - and our customer’s needs – and our company has matured.

Implementing Bring your own device (BYOD) is understandably popular with both end users (who have a growing expectation that this should be possible at their place of study) and with institutions (who want to save on hardware costs).

BYOD is often considered a sure-fire headache, combining a potential security quagmire with the need for complicated infrastructure.

But with a proper plan in place, and support from experts if needed, BYOD can be straightforward to implement and brings many benefits with it.

There is always pressure from some to use the school IT budget for new laptops, tablets, interactive whiteboards or other ‘visible’ infrastructure. This is understandable—new hardware can help motivate pupils and impress parents, and offers immediate impact.

In an increasingly competitive education market schools are keen to make a statement that they provide up to date learning technologies for pupils.

The technology landscape has dramatically changed in the last decade with the rise of mobility. Offices, schools, stores, hospitals, our homes, all not so long ago had very limited sources of technology, utilizing basic computers and networking. Now it’s near impossible to find an object that doesn’t have a chip embedded somewhere. Smart watches, cars, homes… did you know you can even get Wi-Fi enabled Barbie now? Everything seems to be ‘smart’ now, but are we making smart decisions when it comes to the underpinning network infrastructure?

Effective cyber security defence: the bugbear of the network manager, but something expected (and taken for granted) by the Board and end users. As cyber-criminals constantly create new strains of ransomware, simply opting for antivirus software and then moving onto the next thing and hoping for the best is no longer a viable strategy.

Over the past few years the provision of free Wi-Fi has gone from a nice to have, to something often expected by visitors. In fact, it can even be the deciding factor between a long visitor stay and a fleeting one.

With the increased use of smartphones, the fears of giving access to cheaper options online is no longer a rational one, as through mobile data they could access this anyway. The finer point here is that by offering the ability to stop burning through mobile data, you are increasing the chances of a longer stay and opening the door to further engagement and loyalty.

As cyber crime continues to evolve, we see increased innovation in the hacking tools and techniques used to evade security mechanisms. The past few years have seen more advanced, targeted incidents, where hackers spent ample time investigating the target and tailoring the threat to increase impact.

Ransomware attacks are more than just a nuisance. They can impact negatively on productivity across a business and question whether we can ever escape the threat of a ‘zero-day’ attack.

News that three hospitals in the US were last week hit by a ransomware attack shocked many.

In the first post looking at the upcoming EU GDPR Nick Baskett looked at its scope and the sorts of areas it's likely to cover.

Remember when the information commissioner was first established and the holy principles of the rights of data subjects were pronounced? Back then it felt like a watershed moment in computer security.

The security of your network and the data it contains is critical to your business.

We speak to businesses regularly about Managed Services and know that as much as you can be told the benefits, many have very real and legitimate concerns which do need to be addressed.

The growth in the utilisation of the Internet has had a huge impact on the education system, with a stark contrast in the resources available now, compared to five or ten years ago.

As a result, IT teams are facing an increasing need to make sure that highly effective and reliable foundations are in place to avoid disruptions.

It was therefore unsurprising that in our report on The State of Networking in Education, 68% of respondents stated improvements to 'wireless access' as their top priority over the next three years. This is not unexpected as an effective foundation for technology in education has become mandatory.

Diners are increasingly expecting Wi-Fi in restaurants. And in turn restaurants are increasingly offering guest Wi-Fi to satisfy these expectations.

There's considerable excitement about the potential for retailers to offer in-store Wi-Fi in order to gain customer insight and deliver a personalised shopping experience.

Daryl Reseigh from Eggar's School outlines the five bring your own device (BYOD) considerations for schools looking to implement a BYOD strategy.

Eggar's School became one of the first academies in the country to adopt the technology and deliver a personalised learning experience to students using tablet computers.

As has been Lincolnshire County Council have recently experienced, ransomware attacks are more than just a nuisance.

It’s unsurprising that cyber security has been a buzzword recently, considering the number of high profile hacks and subsequent clamour for preventative measures. Often high on the agenda for blue-chip enterprises, is cyber security provision a priority for the education sector?

At the moment, seemingly not.

Our last report into the State of Networking in Education found that cyber-security appears low down the list of priorities for educational organisations, featuring below wireless, cloud hosted services, wired networking, BYOD and MDM. It was certainly a shock when we analysed the results and discovered that security isn't prioritised as much in education as it is in our other markets.

As a result of the Government’s Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, from July 2015 schools and providers of higher education have a duty “to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.

The Prevent Duty document can be found here for a deeper look.

The online and physical worlds of retail often seemed opposing, with no hope for reconciliation. After all, with the rapid increase in use of smartphones and tablets, shoppers can easily compare the price of a product with the same version on Amazon, going for the cheaper option with no hesitation.

A disclaimer before this blog post kicks off. Clearly some readers will have knowledge on the subject matter and the reason cables are just as important as ever, however I do not expect all readers, or the colleagues of readers, to share this insider knowledge.

1. Cyber-security at the Endpoint

Following the vast numbers of high profile network attacks in 2015 we understandably expect to see an increased investment in cyber-security technologies in 2016.  Analysts are predicting growth in all manner of attacks including ransomware, meaning that enterprises need to develop and enhance their cyber defences.  In the latter months of 2015 we witnessed a surge in customers looking to protect the endpoint, with growing acceptance that traditional anti-virus does not provide effective protection.  I expect to observe real momentum for the ‘Next Generation’ endpoint malware technologies, as the corporate workforce is ever more mobile (and thus not always protected by corporate gateway security).

This week the European Government proposed the first EU-wide legislation on cybersecurity.

Many of today's savvy organisations understand that an IT managed service can trade the worry of unpredictable IT management costs for an assured level of service at a fixed, pre-arranged cost and the comfort of knowing that professionals are maintaining your network 24/7. 

The education industry has been undergoing serious change in its use of IT and the networks that underpin it.

Following on from our blog post looking at How Retailers Can Profit From Wi-Fi, it is worth taking a look at the technology that enables this cleverness - iBeacons.

Should you outsource the management of your network, or keep it in-house?

The practice of shoppers visiting a store to run the rule over a particular product, only to return to their computer and buy it online has become so commonplace it has earned its own name - showrooming.

The PwC Information Security Breaches Survey, commissioned by the British Government, has found that almost all companies suffered a data breach in 2014.

Antivirus (AV) software doesn’t work, is cumbersome and poor value for money, leading many to believe traditional antivirus is dead.

Almost everyone has deployed a wireless network. I’m sure you have, or at least know someone who has, likely more than once. Whenever you plug in a new home router you are deploying a new wireless network.

Following on from my recent blog on fibre cabling, this blog will assess why we still use copper wires.

Quite simply, the answer is, copper still does the job.

For years our mothers have been telling us how important a steady supply of fibre is good for us, and how right she was.

This blog is not intended to show these two essential organisations as competitors, but as two sides of a conversation striving to reach the same conclusion.

As organisations slowly come to terms with the fact that attackers will, in likelihood, find a way past even the most sophisticated preventative methods, defending borderless networks using context based authentication becomes more of a consideration.

LAN3 was yesterday awarded UK and Ireland Deal of the Year at Westcon's Engage event in central London.

Wearable technology seems to have taken off in our office over the last few weeks. Everyone is using these wonderful little gizmos predominantly as a fitness enhancement, to keep track of steps taken, calories burnt and a multitude of other health based measurements that I’m sure are useful to them in some capacity.

IT budgets are forever being squeezed and IT departments are required to cope with an ever-expanding list of systems. The inevitable stretch, and subsequent dilution of knowledge as a result of these pressures has led to companies needing to outsource the management of different aspects of their systems, including networks from the likes of Aerohive and Extreme. 

For the past few months I have been working on improving the iBeacons and Wi-Fi at Kew to help enable a new mobile app that provides relevant, timely and quality information as visitors journey around the site.