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The article discusses the increasing importance of networks and digital performance in business, particularly in light of the pandemic. Data consumption has surged, driven by hybrid work models and the blurring of boundaries between home and office. Companies are faced with the challenge of efficiently and cost-effectively expanding network coverage worldwide.

An interview with Ed Higgs, group director of information technology shared services at Rentokil Initial is presented. He and his teams deliver high-performing technology that supports effective working practices to create "delightful colleague experiences" for employees globally. He further gives the example of Rentokil Initial being an early adopter of SD-WAN technology and more recently, testing and deploying connected rodent traps based on the internet.

The article focuses on idea of "lift and shift" that makes no sense in the cloud. Topics include examines Matt Hoag, chief technology officer for Koch Business Solutions, points out that while lifting and shifting workloads may work as a short-term measure, buying organizations time to develop cloud-native software, enterprise networking simply cannot be lifted and shifted to the cloud.

The article explores The University of Edinburgh is extending the reach of its data science knowledge to schoolchildren in its catchment area of south-east Scotland. It is leading the way in a Scottish and UK government-backed initiative that also links to climate change. At the core of it is the use of internet of things (IoT) sensors to collect environmental data for analysis by primary and secondary school students to train the data scientists of tomorrow.

The article offers information about how digital transformation has impacted the infrastructure, defining business processes, changing organizational structure and completely upgrading technology. It mentions about the difficulties in the management of secure access service edge (SASE) implementations.

The article focuses on information technology departments are being urged to refresh branch wide area network (WAN) equipment with software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) as they migrate applications to the cloud and renew network contracts. It mentions that the SD-WANs benefit both the management of network equipment and network services, and potentially pave the way to business culture changes.

The article focuses on the software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) has become an important option for many enterprises migrating branch and other edge communications to the cloud. It mentions the views of Patrick Hubbard, head geek at IT monitoring firm, there are a great many SD-WAN offers putting out different messages and aligning with particular product sets; and also mentions the evolution of SD-WAN and its security capabilities definitely matters when it comes to multicloud.

The article discusses how the arrival of software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology has removed telecommunication industry's lock-in for WAN services. It mentions that SD-WAN router combines intelligent path control with over-the-top (OTT) connection to internet cloud services. It also reveals that Cisco expanded its SD-WAN presence with its acquisition of Viptela.

The article offers information technology (IT) news briefs. The United Kingdom's (UK) Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) asked police and crown prosecutors to stop the collection of sensitive personal information from victims of rape and sexual assault. OVHCloud is facing a class action lawsuit filed by clients whose business operations were affected by the March 2021 fire at its campus in Strasbourg, France.

Network provider Vanco has been awarded a £500,000 contract by Laura Ashley to manage the clothing and home furnishings retailer's existing wide area network. The network will connect Laura Ashley's […]

Systems integrator Global 20 has been awarded a £2.75m contract by the BSS Group to supply and support the mechanical services equipment manufacturer's wide area network (Wan). Global 20 will […]

The article reports several news briefs related to Information Technology(IT) industry. Topics include Private sector organisations should continue preparing for the onset of the private sector IR35 reforms in April 2020; how only 16% of IT professionals are women; and claims by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Chief Executive Officer, Andy Jassy on how because of political interference the company lost out to Microsoft on securing a cloud contract with the US Department of Defense.

The article discusses the challenges and opportunities of dealing with an international workforce in the information technology (IT) profession. Tilly Travers, head of communications at sector skills council E-Skills UK, says, globalisation, offshoring and competition have changed the face of the IT industry. The article also presents the case study of Unilever, which is the world's largest consumer goods manufacturer. The company's intranet-hosted IT career framework enables the 5,000 members of the IT community at Unilever to develop skills that are based on a guide to best practice in the IT industry.

It is really tough to handle the barrage of PC lan information. The field is so broad, and there is so much to read, that it is easy to get […]

THE DIVIDENDS FROM CO-OPERATION The holy grail of the information systems community is cooperative processing. Today's emphasis is on enterprise wide systems, with appropriate processors plugged in at various parts […]

CAN YOU GET THE OFFICE TALKING? Most PC network users in medium and large organisations soon find they want to connect several different offices, each of which has its local […]

Global Crossing is to provide a managed wide area network to the Royal Mail in a £23m deal overseen by main contractor Lockheed Martin as part of the Address Integration […]

The article provides insights from a panel of academic experts about issues and the future of the internet, including its fragility, the ease with which it can be disrupted, and its apparent resistance to change. Experts Timothy Roscoe, a professor at Zurich's science, technology and mathematics university, and Laurent Vanbever, an assistant professor, discuss internet protocols such as border gateway protocol.

UNRAVEL THOSE LAN PROBLEMS Installing a large lan manager can be complex, but David Ferris offers some tips on how to handle the challenges Many organisations plan to implement large […]

SET YOUR SIGHTS ON A WIDE AREA In last month's discussion of connecting different PC network sites, we saw there are four types of link you can use: X.25, at […]

TAXING LIFE OF THE REVENUE Two years ago the readers of a Dublin magazine were asked to vote for the most boring street in their fair city. Furthermore they had […]

The article offers information on the Computer Weekly seminar sponsored by Easynet Global Services and Cisco Systems Inc. The seminar examined how the wide area network optimisation addresses issues such as reduction of complexity, improvement in management and security capabilities. According to Claudio Scola, the product manager of Easynet Global Enterprise, the key to this is Virtualisation. She also states that main goals of this optimization are bandwidth control and latency mitigation.

The article discusses the importance and need of virtualisation of computer networks. It is stated that virtualisation separates a logical resource from a physical one when applied to networks. The most common network virtualisation technique is said to be the virtual local area network (Vlan) which creates a number of different logical networks that share a physical connection. Malcolm Price, technical director of network training and consulting firm LanBase Technologies, says that security is one of the reasons which makes virtualisation vital as it is making harder for hackers to access networks and exploit traffic streams. Vlans are designed to be used locally rather than wide network area links.

The article offers news briefs related to computers in Great Britain in 2007. SAP AG developed a range of on-demand hosted software which is intended for middle-size companies. The software will be offered under a new "try-run-adapt" model allowing firms to test it before using. Sun signs a deal with Intel confirming its commitment to run Xeon processor. Julian Graves is enforcing an Multi Protocol Label Shifting (MPLS) Wan as part of its nationwide Epos upgrade program across 300 outlets.

The article reports that news agency Reuters has signed a £ 1.7bn outsourcing contract with BT, the supplier's biggest ever global outsourcing deal. BT will also acquire loss-making financial services extranet provider Radianz from Reuters for £ 97m. BT will supply network services to Reuters for eight-and-a-half years. About 80% of Great Britain firms manage IT security in-house rather than outsourcing, research by Unisys has revealed. Of 300 enterprise security managers surveyed, 88% said loss of control was the main barrier to outsourcing. Microsoft has appointed Ray Ozzie, famed for developing Lotus Notes, as its chief technical officer, following its acquisition of Groove Networks Inc. Groove will become part of Microsoft's information worker group.Ozzie will have responsibility for influencing corporate-wide communication and collaboration products and associated platform infrastructure, and will report to Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates.

The article reports on the lawsuit filed by British telecommunications company BT Group plc against National Health Service (NHS) National Services Scotland (NSS) after losing the bid for the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) in 2014.

The article offers world news briefs related to the computer industry in 2011. The implementation of a self-service information technology (IT) system has allowed the Lambeth Borough Council in London, England to lessen costs by 220,000 British pounds. To support a migration to cloud computing, law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore has used Silver Peak wide area network (WAN) acceleration. The U.S. federal government has strongly supported the adoption of cloud computing.

The article presents an interview with Colin Rees, information technology (IT) director at Domino's Pizza Inc., on the fast-food chain's IT outsourcing. According to Rees, the first area to see change is the datacenter. He comments on the cloud computing approach and on the wide area network (WAN) project. Rees plans to look out for developments in the areas of mobile and tablet based applications. He also envisions the company's business and development projects, and commends the employees.

The article reports on the Riverbed wide area network optimisation project which has led 70 small police stations with better access to central resources in Devon and Cornwall, England. Jim Goodwin, network manager with Devon & Cornwall police, said the new system will help officers in spending more time out in the communities they protect, which is what neighbourhood policing is all about.

The article reports that Unified Communications Inc. has been supporting the renovation of VT Group PLC. It reports that VT Group PLC has been acquired by engineering support services firm Babcock International Group PLC. The Unified Communications approach is reported to be a way to improve collaboration between employees and increase operational efficiency. It reports on the necessity of design, planning and a detailed analysis of the wide area network.

The article reports that Deutsche Post is launching a managed wide area network across 67 countries to improve its tracking capabilities and provide access to bespoke applications. It informs that Vodafone Global Enterprise will provide a fully managed Multiprotocol Label Switching network connecting more than 400 sites across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The article reports that company Fujitsu UK has signed a multimillion pound contract with network and security systems specialist, ITC Global Security for providing local and wide area network (WAN) transit technology and WAN optimisation in 48 sites globally. ITC will supply and install a switching solution and incorporate enterprise products for each site.

The article presents information that the British Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has awarded a 237 million pounds contract extension to BT Global Services. The three year deal commits BT to provide voice, data network and contact centre Information Technology (IT) systems. The firm will also provide converged Internet Protocol (IP) local and wide area networks, and several conferencing services.

The article focuses on the findings of a study related to cost savings by telecommunication industry firms in Europe. The study was conducted by market researcher Forrester Consulting LLC on behalf of network operator Colt. The findings highlights the fact that most firms can save 30 percent of their telecommunications bill by switching to Ethernet and optimizing their wide area networks. It also found that data traffic growth was accelerating.

The article discusses the type of communications network required to control the smart energy meters in Great Britain. According to Jason Brogden, project manager for the smart meter project of the Energy Retail Association (ERA), wide area network, home area network and the user interface can be used to control the meters. Others argue usage of existing telephone, data or television networks and electrical power grid.

The article reports that fire fighters at the Shropshire Fire & Rescue service are being given better access to emergency incident risk data on route to incidents. They are being assisted by a new secure virtual private network (VPN) carried out by wide area networking specialist. Risk data is sent to the county's fire stations over the VPN and downloaded to touchscreen computers located on emergency vehicles or appliances via wireless network connections within each station. Furthermore, there are plans to create a secondary failover site from which data can be accessed in case of an operational disaster at the Shrewsbury site.

The article focuses on a five-year networking contract signed by Procter & Gamble Co. with BT Group PLC. It informs that under the contract, BT will supply and manage Procter & Gamble's local and wide area network infrastructure across several locations in more than 82 countries. BT will migrate the services to a high-speed internet protocol (IP)-based global multi-protocol label switching infrastructure to improve data transfer. It will also offer and manage services like firewall, conferencing, IP telephony, and internet. Jim Fortner, director of workplace and infrastructure solutions at Procter & Gamble said that they are confident that BT can bring world-class innovation to transform their network.

The article presents questions and answers related to information technology including the purpose of International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM) Websphere Application Server Community Edition (CE), the features that makes it unique and special as compared with other system and the systems does it runs with.

The article reports that Multi-Service Forum (MSF), a global association of telecommunication service providers, is set to certify a range of telecoms products that are capable of fully supporting next-generation internet protocol (IP) networks. The certification process is designed to help users ensure that their telecoms provider can deliver the IP-based service they need. The initiative will allow enterprises to question their provider about the testing and reliability of the hardware used in their networks to deliver next-generation IP services.

The article reports that Crystal Cruises company has upgraded its internet satellite connection to offer its customers 24-hour access to the internet. Bjorn Andersson, manager of shipboard and network operations at Crystal Cruises, said, the company is using F5 Networks Inc.'s Big-IP 4500 Web accelerator to help provide maximum connectivity. On board, Crystal Cruises uses Dell Computer Corp.'s desktops with Windows Vista from Microsoft Corp. These are connected via radio to its mobile Wi-Fi/phone system.

The article reports that the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has outsourced its network to enable greater automation and process efficiencies. The aim is to integrate back-office systems with communications data. CBI has signed a three-year managed service agreement with InTechnology PLC, under which the CBI's wide area network and analogue telephone systems will be replaced by the service provider's IP network. It is stated that the outsourcing agreement should improve business continuity, as the CBI will benefit from InTechnology's back-up systems.

The article offers news briefs related to the information network services. It reports that smaller Internet service providers (ISPs) are struggling to compete with larger broadband rivals who set their prices low to attract customers. Blue Coat Systems Inc. has released wide area network optimisation software, Proxyclient, which offers web security and policy control features to mobile users. Aruba Networks Inc. is buying AirWave Wireless Inc. to widen its Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) offering.

The article offers information on various products, technologies and technology trends in networked computing, announced by Cisco Systems Inc. in the Cisco Networkers 2008 conference held in Barcelona, Spain. It reports that Cisco will release more network management hardware and software under its Data Centre 3.0 product suite to speed the delivery of enterprise software applications. It also reports that the tools are designed to provide the network infrastructure and applications to run over the network, such as videoconferencing and voice communications. It mentions that several optimisation products announced at the conference included the Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) 4710 appliance, and Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) mobile software.

The article reports that commercial deployments of Wimax networks by operators have overtaken deployments of trial-only networks. For the Q3 of 2007, 58% of Wimax networks worldwide are now being deployed for commercial use, while only 18% remain trial-only. Sixteen per cent of operators own Wimax spectrum but are doing nothing with it, and 8% of operators are planning a Wimax launch. Although these announcements are good news for the Wimax standard, they will not change businesses' attitude to Wimax overnight, said Ian Fogg, senior broadband analyst at Jupiter Research.

The article reports that this year's Roger Needham Lecture, entitled "Evolving the Internet: Challenges, Opportunities and Consequences", will be held on November 13, 2007, at the Royal Society in London, England. The speaker, Mark Handley, professor of networked systems at University College London, will discuss the challenges faced by networking researchers in getting ideas out of the laboratory and into the core of the Internet.

The article reports that pharmaceuticals firm Pfizer Inc. is running a pilot information-technology (IT) project across three data centers and six remote sites to optimize its wide-area network. The new IT project is meant to improve the performance of software applications across the company. Ron Rapp, associate director in Pfizer's worldwide technology engineering division, says that the company had experienced performance issues in applications, including e-mail, and file and print services. The firm is introducing wide-area-network optimization technology for a series of 30-day trials across its sites in India, Costa Rica, South Africa, Romania and the U.S.

The article reports that security software firm Skype has warned its Voice Over Internet telephone users of an instant messaging worm that is infecting users' Windows-based Personal Computers. Skype users become infected after they download a link in a message and run the malicious software. When a Skype user receives the chat message it includes an Internet link. By clicking on the link, the Windows Run/Save dialog box will pop up, asking for permission to save. If the user accepts the file, their Windows PC will be infected with the w32/Ramex.A virus.

The article reports that Cisco System Inc.'s Network Admission Control (NAC) Network Module for Integrated Services Routers (ISR) introduces a modular security system that is completely integrated into the network infrastructure. The NAC Network Module is supported in the Cisco 2800 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers. It protects businesses by authenticating, authorizing, evaluating and protecting remote user machines connected via wired or wireless links, prior to granting them access to corporate networks. In addition to the ISR network module, Cisco is also enhancing its NAC system with Cisco NAC Profiler.