The saying that ‘there is a time and a place for that’ can apply to almost anything in our daily lives, but nowhere is it truer than in technology. The pace of change in some tech areas go at breakneck speed, while others move slower. But the constant for either is that there is always change. For example, there was a ‘time and a place’ for 2-way pagers years ago, but that time is gone now replaced by all manner of smartphones, tablets, and even the IoT’s. Just as there was a ‘time and a place’ for MPLS, it will be - in the not too distant future, added to the historical shelf of technology there was a ‘time and a place for’, just like Frame ...
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Before you dig into this piece, know that if you have multiple networking certifications, or have been designing and implementing networks for years – this article is probably not for you. If, however, you are interested to learn more about what Software-Defined Networking is (SDN) is and how it can potentially drive cost out of your technology spend and ease the manageability of your network – read on. The network hardware niche is like many others in the technology supplier market. The technology cartel lines up to lock in customers with expensive, proprietary hardware, coupled with complicated firmware to run it all, then typically charge ...
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Information technology has always been in one state of disruption or another almost by definition as the science of technology evolves and market forces change, and IT Infrastructure is no exception -- particularly in the manner in which we host and manage our data center centric resources. There is dynamic change all around us as the cloud transforms the ideas of traditional ‘on premise’ big iron investments. Whether on premise or in the cloud, our clients are experiencing a tectonic shift to faster, lighter and easier to manage platforms that deliver a higher level of performance, a simplified operational interface, a much less costly ...
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Not surprisingly, investments in Cybersecurity are on a significant upward trend in all categories. This past summer 2014, Gartner reported global numbers from businesses and governments that indicate they will have spent an estimated $71.1B protecting their information assets in 2014, up 7.9% from the previous year. The research firm also predicts the growth rate will increase to 8.1% this year, for an estimated total of $76.9 billion of spend in this area in 2015. This growth is expected to accelerate significantly from there, reaching an estimated $155.74 billion in spend by 2019. As NET(net) reviews the IT spend of our clients, seeking ...
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In our November 2012 issue of The Net Effect, we published a White Paper titled “Top 10 Reasons Why Clients Spend WAY TOO MUCH...For Telecommunications”. This is the fourth in a series of blog entries that will explore each of these topics in more detail, moving on to #7 Inefficient Wireless Rate Plan Management. Each employee mobile wireless subscriber on a corporate agreement is associated with one or more rate plans that specify the number of voice, data and texting limits. In addition some plans single out email, video and image transmissions, as well as a myriad of other plans for international travel and out-calling from domestic to ...
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Recounting the news earlier this year out of West Virginia where state auditors are accusing Cisco of selling routers that are not needed or router models that are way overkill for the purpose, got me thinking about the approach Cisco and many of its peers in the IT industry take to selling technology to their customers. Simply put, IT related acquisitions, be it hardware, software or services, are fraught with a cartel mentality between the OEM, reseller and the enterprise IT organization that often result in purchasing more than needed or acquiring advanced functionality without a purpose. The IT organization shares some of this blame with ...
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In our November 2012 issue of The Net Effect, we published a White Paper titled “Top 10 Reasons Why Clients Spend WAY TOO MUCH...For Telecommunications”. This is the third in a series of blog entries that will explore each of these topics in more detail, moving on to #8: Poor Wireless Mobility Governance. How things have changed in a few short years. There was a time, not so long ago, that wireless mobility in the enterprise meant a Blackberry or a basic cell phone for voice calls and not much more. Access to data on the Blackberry didn’t amount to much because the web browsing interface was so basic and the “app” was not yet part of our ...
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In our November 2012 issue of The Net Effect, we published a White Paper titled “Top 10 Reasons Why Clients Spend WAY TOO MUCH...For Telecommunications”. This is the second in a series of blog entries that will explore each of these topics in more detail, moving on to #9 Unused Services. If you consider the volume and multitude of service types of telecommunications consumed by the average enterprise and then factor in the number of telecommunications suppliers that make up the typical portfolio of telecommunications in the enterprise, particularly for organizations with many remote locations, it’s no wonder its challenging to keep on top of ...
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In our November 2012 issue of The Net Effect, we published a White Paper titled “Top 10 Reasons Why Clients Spend WAY TOO MUCH...For Telecommunications.” This is the first in a series of blog entries that will explore each of these topics in more detail, starting with #10 Incorrect Rate Implementation in New Agreement. You would certainly want to believe that for organizations which have been around for a very long time, implementing a new agreement into their billing systems would be a well-documented and routine process for telecommunications companies. However, more often than not, this is not the case; and as a consumer of these services ...
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Competition is good for the consumer and in enterprise networking, it almost always leads to better deals for our clients. However, there continues to be a love affair with Cisco gear, both on the edge and the core that makes the job of introducing a legitimate competitive threat difficult. Cisco has great gear in most cases, particularly in the core, but at what price? Cisco is consistently more expensive apples to apples, with legitimate lower cost options from Brocade (including legacy Foundry), Juniper and Huawei, as the most notable examples, with comparable functionality that meets most enterprises’ need. Sure, there might be some ...
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