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Is the Cloud Right for you?

Transforming business operations to the cloud, has for some changed the way their data is stored, accessed and secured.  With an “Always On”, “Improved Mobility” and “Improved Collaboration” perspective, does the “Cloud” offer real value, or is it mostly hype.  Our session will provide you with a personal approach to review your present day business operations and evaluate your needs to determine, if the “cloud is right for you”.

Our workshop will assist you in understanding, if your business can benefit from the “cloud”:

• Do you know how the cloud works?
• Is the data secure?
• Can it simplify your current IT management?
• Where does the data reside? Canada or USA?  Does it matter?
• Can it save you money?

Personalized ½ day one-on-one session with our experts, discussing Cloud concepts, practices, scenarios and how it specifically relates to you and your business.

 A Discussion pertaining to your current environment will include: 

1. Cloud/Hybrid concepts, structure and management
2. Data Storage Requirements: File storage & sharing
3. Data Accessibility – VPN, RDS and VDI
4. Resident in-house applications vs. web applications
5. Data Security, Backup and Recoverability
6. Best Business Practices – tips and industry insights (O365 Backup)
7. In-house training requirements
8. Cloud Managed Services and Support
9. Cloud Costs Comparisons and ROI

Since 1986, our specialty has been the world of emerging technologies, focusing on security and networking. We take the time to understand your business needs and then we go above and beyond to help create innovative solutions designed with your business goals in mind. When you partner with Lanworks, you get more than just a line card of products and services – you gain a professional, hands-on technology partner who is dedicated to giving your business a competitive advantage.

Mist Wireless LAN Platform

Gartner has release two very good reports recently.  It has been a while, but finally, the 2019 Magic Quadrant report for Wired/Wireless LAN is out.  Gartner also released their wired/wireless buyer’s guide, or as they call it, The Critical Capabilities for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure

Over the past three or four years, Juniper/Mist has risen in Gartner’s opinion and is now showing as a strong contender in the wired-wireless enterprise marketplace.   It was not too long ago that many analysts, including Gartner, had essentially written Juniper off.

Through strong leadership and acquisition strategies, Juniper has re-built a very strong enterprise portfolio of wired and wireless access solutions to complement its market leading carrier/ISP product lines.

It is looking more and more like MIST wireless is becoming the outright leader in next generation wireless AI technologies. Mist’s artificial-intelligence-based wireless platform that makes Wi-Fi more predictable, reliable and measurable. Mist’s cloud-based system features an AI-driven virtual assistant called Marvis which brings patented dynamic packet capture and machine learning technology to automatically identify, adapt and fix network issues

I have included excerpts from the two recent Gartner’s reports.  I hope that this information helps with your organization’s technology decision making.

If you have any questions, or would like to receive either of the full Gartner reports, please give Lanworks a call.

Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure

Published 24 September 2019 – Gartner, Inc.
Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure

Juniper Networks (Mist Systems)

Juniper Networks is a public vendor based in Sunnyvale, California. In April 2019, Juniper acquired Mist Systems, which is based in Cupertino, California. The combined organization has a broad access layer portfolio that includes multigigabit EX switching (from Juniper Networks) and prestandards-based 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) with a third radio for spectrum monitoring and security threat detection (from Mist). The vendor also offers a patented 16-element BLE antenna array access points. The acquisition addresses Juniper’s lack of in-house Wi-Fi domain expertise and provides Mist with an established access layer switching portfolio.

The new organization is expanding on Mist’s historical market message of the “AI-driven enterprise” that has been gaining significant traction for the last two years in major enterprise access layer decisions. Mist’s cloud-native, microservices-based architecture provides guest access, network management and policy applications, as well as analytics, IoT segmentation, hybrid cloud and AI-driven behavioral analysis at scale. Organizations will need to assure that Juniper-Mist can effectively add the Juniper switching portfolio into the Mist architecture at the level needed to achieve the differentiation that Mist has been able to provide to the wireless community. This will include integration in terms of proactive operations and predictive recommendations to provide network assurance and automation.

Juniper was the No. 6 global campus switch vendor in 2018 but ranked below the top 10 in market share for enterprise WLAN equipment, according to Gartner figures. Juniper-Mist should be evaluated globally for all wired and wireless access layer opportunities.

Multigig is the term for a link that runs at speeds of more than 1G on existing Cat5e and Cat6a copper cables. Everyone is used to running gigabit connections on these cables, but this technology will allow higher speeds – 2.5G and 5G – and with no  need to run a new class of cable, or fiber.  If you have Cat6a, some Multigig implementations will even run 10gig over that copper. Your mileage on this particular speed may vary.

Short version – Multigig allows you to run 2.5, 5, and maybe 10G on your existing copper cable installations.

Technically, this is called NBASE-T 802.3bz – but since no one is going to remember that, everyone is sticking with ‘MultiGig’.

The main benefit of Multigig right now is in places where the latest and greatest WLAN Access Points are being deployed. Both 802.11ac Wave 2 and 802.11ax access points can provide well in excess of 1G of aggregate throughput. 802.11ac has a practical speed of 1.7-2.5Gbps, and 802.11ax , as it rolls out, promises to be significantly faster, with speeds per stream of up to 3.5Gbps.

These are very fast WLAN technologies. You can put users on these access points, and really take advantage of 3.5Gbps of bandwidth for each access point; the connection to the switch is now the bottleneck.

The connection on a standard switch is only 1Gbps.  This is a hard limitation on how much bandwidth goes to an access point.

What good is a 2.5Gbps 802.11ac wireless access point if the uplink to the switch is only 1Gbps?

There are two choices. If you want to get more bandwidth to your AP, you need to either have an AP with 2 ethernet ports and trunk them – AND use twice as many switch ports – and the associated cost of cabling using 2 cables per AP has to be counted.  And to make it workse, you still only get 2Gbps on an AP that will do 2.5Gbps , or more, if you are getting new 802.11ax equipment. Hardly an efficient use of cables, equipment, or bandwidth.

This is a real issue – its costly, and it makes 802.11ac and better a little more difficult to rationalize; both small and largescale WiFi deployments are suddenly using twice as much infrastructure – that’s a significant increase in cost, and a lot of points to fail, and tough places to troubleshoot.

Instead – use a switch that can run 2.5Gbps on a single link – and it will work on existing, older Cat5E cable.  There are 1.7-2.5Gbps capable 802.11ac WiFi systems, and these can be purchased, installed, and connected to the switch with one existing cable.  If the switch is equipped 5Gbps capability, there’s both the initial 2.5Gbps with all the .ac Wifi systems, and then there are additional faster speeds as 802.11ax systems are deployed.

This is also going to assist with IoT devices as they come online; many of these will be designed to take advantage of Multigig infrastructures; having a 1G bottleneck at the switch, or requiring fiber to be run everywhere to get higher bandwidth just doesn’t make sense.

Multigig switching helps futureproof the infrastructure; 2.5Gig and 5Gig speeds on existing cables have the potential to breathe new life into your wired infrastructure while you expand and improve WiFi, while providing the ability to add in high-bandwidth IoT capabilities as they arrive – without replacing your cabling plant.

On January 14, 2020, Microsoft will be officially ending its support for Windows Server 2008 R2 editions.

Organizations will find that they can no longer get support for their Server 2008 environment unless they upgrade to newer version.  Lanworks has many customers who are just now preparing to upgrade their environment.  There are a lot of reasons why you should upgrade and a lot or common reasons why you haven’t yet started.   We have summarized the main reasons for both below.

Have a read and then begin to think about getting started before the rush.  Don’t wait too much longer to begin the process.  We are currently getting booked up and the industry expects there to be a rush in the coming months.  Expect delays.

Business impact and risks of not upgrading 2008R2 to a supported version of Windows Server

(i.e., 2012, 2016 or 2019)

• Security vulnerabilities:
  • No new security patches/updates from MSFT
  • 2008R2 servers are & will be increasingly targeted for cyberattacks.
  • Risks:
    • Cost of downtime
    • Reputation/Brand damage.
    • Data and personal information loss/theft

• Software incompatibilities:
  • No new software enhancements from MSFT
  • No software updates form 3^rd party vendors
  • Example: Antivirus protection will be limited

• Risks:
  • Limited capacity to implement new applications
  • Limited capacity to upgrade existing applications
  • Increased vulnerability to attacks
  • Limited ability to implement newer required technologies

• Business Continuity Risks:
  
  • No mainstream support from MSFT
  • No support from 3rd party Vendors which are running their apps on Windows 2008R2
  • Could impact hardware replacement
  • Could impact ability to backup and recover data

• Reasons why firms don’t upgrade
• • Unaware of MSFT decision to end support
  • Cost and time to upgrade
  • Running legacy applications
  • IT Resources (time and skills)
  • Don’t understand what systems are effected

How can Lanworks assist?

Lanworks can customize a server upgrade project no matter how large or small your environment.

• Discovery:  Meet with customer to better understand current situation and overall environment/design.
• Meet to present recommendations: define and present the high level Upgrade/Migration framework, discuss roles and resp.
• Present Quote/Estimate
• Create detailed migration plan
• Execute

Wi-Fi 6 – aka 802.11ax – has already made its way into new installations this year, bringing with it a host of technological upgrades aimed at simplifying wireless network problems.

The first and most notable feature of the standard is that it’s designed to operate in today’s increasingly congested radio environments. It supports multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technology, meaning that a given access point can handle traffic from up to eight users at the same time and at the same speed. Previous-generation APs still divide their attention and bandwidth among simultaneous users.

Better still is orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), a technology borrowed from the licensed, carrier-driven half of the wireless world. What this does is subdivide each of the available independent channels available on a given AP by a further factor of four, meaning even less slowdown for APs servicing up to a couple dozen clients at the same time.

What Is Phishing?

Phishing is the process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity using bulk email which tries to evade spam filters.

A basic phishing attack by “Scammers” or “Phishermen” attempts to trick or lure a user into entering personal details or other confidential information via email, as it’s the most common method of performing these attacks.

Their goal is to obtain, one of more of the following;

• Passwords
• Financial Information
• Personal Identify (Identify Theft)
• Money

Why do people get Phished (Hooked)?

1. They don’t know any better

Most people are unaware of any fraudulent emails that they may receive.  As part of their busy day, they make an assumption that all emails are legitimate, as they assume they work in a corporate, safe, and secure environment.

Generally, people simply don’t have the time to carefully analyze every message which lands in their inbox – phishers know that and use this to their advantage.

2. They know better, but can’t resist the urge to click

Phishers understand Human Instinct.  By simply creating an email (Lure) that requires an Immediate Call to Action or Sense of Urgency, scammers know how to prey on weaknesses.

Email examples include:

• Bank asks you to confirm your balance
• Credit Card has been declined
• CRA is requesting immediate action
• Cell phone service will be cancelled

3. The emails are so targeted and realistic that they are undetectable as fakes

This a popular scam, as the email subject line and the message content look very professional and relevant to the user.  One needs to really analyze this email to find irregularities.  For example, if an email comes from something that looks like the CRA with a “click here” link or other, you may be phished.  In this example, only experience and training will tell you that the CRA does not email individuals.  If you get an email from your Bank or Card company, simply call them directly and ignore the email.

4. They think it will never happen to them

The sheer number of emails sent every single day means that it’s an obvious attack vector for cyber criminals.  According to Symantec, it’s estimated that 3.7 billion people send around 269 billion emails every single day and that 1 in every 2,000 of these emails is a phishing email – meaning around 135 million phishing attacks are attempted every day…and it could happen to You!

5. Email users need to be properly trained

Users need to coached and/or provided with a reasonable awareness of the challenges associated with Phishing and/or other scamming techniques.  As email becomes more and more pervasive for corporate communications, the greater the user awareness and combative knowledge in terms of addressing Cyber Theft, the better and more secure it will be for both the user and the corporate environment.

The Bottom Line is…

When it comes to Phishing……don’t get Hooked!