28 01, 2022

Five Steps to Reduce Network Latency

2022-01-28T17:38:39-06:00January 28th, 2022|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Instant access is the new normal. When customers, employees, or partners hit the Enter key, they expect an immediate response. An inability to meet such high expectations diminishes a brand’s reputation, lowers productivity, and increases churn. A number of items impact network performance, so let’s take a look at what latency is, how it arises, and how to reduce it. Latency is the time that elapses between when a request for data is made and the delivery of it occurs. Moving information from an end point to a central server and back again involves coordination among many different elements. Slowdowns can occur at many points. With networks, the focus is often on routers and switches. However, server processors, storage systems, end-user devices, application software, and a wide range of infrastructure software (security, operating systems, management tools) also impact response times. A delay at any intersection disrupts communications, and problems follow.  Web page load times increase, audio and video streams (which are very sensitive to disruptions) fail, and applications drone on. Illustrating the impatience of today’s user, more than half (53%) of them will abandon a web page that takes three seconds or longer to load. Since businesses require an average of 15 seconds to perform that task, latency impacts companies much more than they realize. So, how can your firm avoid the problem? Get a Measurement Tool or Service The first step to ensuring adequate response times is understanding how well your network is working. Vendors sell performance management tools. In addition, Managed Service [...]

15 10, 2021

Secure Company Data with Virtual Private Networks

2022-02-28T16:38:44-06:00October 15th, 2021|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Corporate networks are constantly under siege by hackers. Consequently, organizations need solutions that protect their information. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer them an effective technique for ensuring that intruders do not sneak off with their data as they traverse the enterprise network. Mobility is the biggest benefits that Wi-Fi networks offer Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). The widespread adoption of wireless connections has changed how work gets done. Employees are no longer chained to their desks. They often work remotely, getting closer to customers or having quiet time, so they can focus on tasks at home. Such connectivity makes workers more productive. But like any advancement, wireless networking comes with a price. As employees roam at remote corporate offices and beyond, they open themselves up to possible intrusion. Make no mistake, the bad guys are quite busy trying to break into business computers. In fact, a hacker attacks a system somewhere every 39 seconds, according to a study at the University of Maryland. While breaches at large organizations gain national headlines, 76% of SMBs reported a cyberattack within the previous 12 months, according to a Ponemon Institute. Security Holes Open Up Hackers attack because networks offer them – as well as legit users -- an entryway. Such openings are plentiful when employees work off site from their home or public Wi-Fi hotspots, such as a coffee shop, airport, or hotel. In many cases, these networks do not have any security checks, leaving personal data open to intrusion. Compounding the problem, wireless network designs have [...]

24 09, 2020

Public Cloud’s Impact on Enterprise Networks

2021-02-19T16:45:55-06:00September 24th, 2020|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Corporations are moving to public cloud in growing numbers, and the increasing use of these services is having an impact on enterprise networks. Potential bottlenecks are shifting away from the company data center to network entry and exit points. Corporations must understand why the changes are occurring and their impact, and then take steps to ensure their networks deliver acceptable response times. Organizations are embracing cloud computing. Worldwide spending on public cloud services was forecasted to increase from $227.8 billion in 2019 to $266.4 billion in 2020, a 17% annual jump, according to market research firm Gartner, Inc. As workloads move from the company data center to the public cloud, enterprise network traffic patterns shift. The first change is corporations are deploying more applications: mobile, social media, data analytics, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. The result is they work with more information and need to carry it over their corporate networks. The volume of data generated annually is expected to grow from 33 zettabytes (1 trillion gigabytes) in 2018 to 175ZB in 2025, a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 61%. Changing Traffic Patterns Faster networking techniques are required as more information flows over enterprise networks. Recently, vendors started to roll out Wi-Fi 6, which increases wireless networks’ top speed from 1G bps to 2G bps to 10G bps. In addition, traffic flows shift. In the past, processing was monolithic: almost all was done in central data centers. Cloud distributes computing infrastructure: keeping some work on site but moving some off to public [...]

21 08, 2020

Network Traffic Shifts from East/West to North/South

2021-01-27T00:14:07-06:00August 21st, 2020|Tags: , , , , , |

The growth of public cloud services boosts enterprise network traffic Public cloud has become popular because it offers organizations flexibility, lower costs, and more rapid deployment. One ripple effect from its growth is a significant change in corporate network traffic patterns. Typically, most traffic, traveled East-West, inside the data center, but cloud alters that equation so more data moves North-South from inside to outside. As they embrace these services, corporations often need to upgrade their networks to ensure adequate response time. Vendors, like Amazon Web Service, Microsoft, and Google Inc., are locked in an intense battle to emerge as the top public cloud provider. In response, they have been expanding their services and lowering pricing with the goal of attracting more customers. Their plans have been very successful. Worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure is expected to grow from $229 billion in 2019 to nearly $500 billion in 2023, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.3%, according to market research firm International Data Corp. A Lack of Focus When examining these services, businesses often focus on the impact on their applications and data center staffing. With public cloud, organizations deliver software updates more quickly. In many cases, businesses also reduce their data center operations staff needs. While the business drivers are compelling, one area that is often overlooked is public cloud’s impact on the enterprise network, which is quite dramatic. The perception that public cloud makes computing infrastructure invisible is a misconception. Whether organizations themselves deal with the computer infrastructure or someone [...]

24 06, 2020

Wi-Fi 6 Supports Faster Speeds & New Naming Conventions

2021-01-27T00:14:11-06:00June 24th, 2020|Tags: , , , , , |

Technology constantly improves: more processing power, more features, and more options. Consequently, a need for more bandwidth follows. Wireless connections are quite popular, so recently, the Wi-Fi Forum completed the latest version of its standard, Wi-Fi 6, which increases the top speed to 10Gbps. Wi-Fi standards have been evolving since the first version was created at the turn of the millennium. The solutions are popular because they support a diverse group of devices: desktops, tablets, smartphones, and notebooks and a growing variety of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, such as sensors, health care monitors, and video cameras. The latest iteration, which is the first upgrade since 2014, differs from its predecessors in design, bandwidth, features, and naming conventions. Two Bands are Better than One Traditionally, Wi-Fi solutions operated over the 5GHz wireless frequency band. Wi-Fi 6 runs over two bands: 2.4GHz in addition to 5GHz. The 2.4GHz band was selected because it offers flexible, high speed connections, but it is not backward compatible with previous iterations of the standard. Speed is often the main attraction with new network options, and Wi-Fi 6 operates at 10Gbps compared to the 3.5Gbps available with Wi-Fi 5. When examining top speeds, the listed high water marks are usually more theoretical than actual because they focus on best case network design scenarios. Enterprises usually do not reach the maximum, but they should gain a significant boost in raw performance with the new networking approach. Design Changes Wi-Fi 6 supports a few new features that provide the extra speed. The [...]

12 11, 2019

TAG Austin 2019 Recap

2020-07-14T16:55:52-05:00November 12th, 2019|Tags: , , , , , , |

Our team enjoyed TAG in Austin and we’ve got some highlights to share with you! Technology Assurance Group (TAG) hosted their big event on November 7 - 8 in Austin, TX focused on Planning Your Success in 2020. TAG is an organization of over 100 leading MSPs and other technology companies. Members benefit from best business and management practices, advanced sales training programs and processes, in-depth financial analysis and industry benchmarking, professionally led peer group interaction, marketing and lead generation programs, and strategic partnerships with technology manufacturers. Here’s our recap of the event: Notes from the Conference Floor We have exhibited at TAG events before and once again we found the event to be worth our time and effort. This was the first time TAG did all the regions in one location, normally they host three smaller meetings. We liked this approach better and hope to see them do more events in this format. There were around 70 people in attendance, which is about what we expected for the meeting. While this number is lower than an average-sized conference that we attend, the ‘quality’ of attendee was through the roof! Just about every attendee was a decision maker which made for great conversations. The size of the show and venue made it easy to move around the floor, while still being compact enough to be perfect for networking. The conference had a lot of good speakers and information about security and the importance of making sure you have the appropriate insurance coverage. MSPs are [...]

31 10, 2019

IFMA World Workplace 2019 Recap

2019-11-12T22:40:04-06:00October 31st, 2019|Tags: , , |

Our team is back from IFMA’s World Workplace 2019 and we’ve got some highlights to share with you! IFMA’s World Workplace was held October 16-18 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, AZ. Held annually in cities across the U.S., World Workplace is the most longstanding and well-respected learning and networking event for facility management and related professions. The facilities conference was attended by over 300 exhibitors and we estimate approximately 1000 FM professionals. Here’s our recap: Notes from the Conference Floor This was our first time exhibiting at World Workplace and we were very well received. Imagit was the only technology company exhibiting and attendees were excited to talk to us about how we could help them with structured cabling and more. Many facilities managers are directly affected by inefficient IT solutions or a lack of resources, so they were very happy to learn more about our offerings and make introductions to the IT decision makers within their organizations. The show had an efficient layout and the expo hours yielded a comfortable flow of traffic, ensuring we could comfortably speak with all attendees. The whole operation was a well-oiled machine. We were happy with the connections made overall and found the show to be a good value. Networking Opportunities We stopped by a couple of events during the show which were solid but not especially notable. We would love to see more attention in this area, encouraging attendees to mingle outside of the conference. That said, we were able to tee up meetings [...]

3 10, 2019

Application Changes Drive Need for Network Upgrades

2021-01-27T00:14:14-06:00October 3rd, 2019|Tags: , , |

Application Changes Drive Need for Network Upgrades An influx of new applications slows down enterprise networks The signs sometimes are subtle but increasing. The time needed to complete a transaction takes a bit longer, the number of user complaints rises, and web site performance diminishes. The corporate network, which has hummed along without incident for years, suddenly needs a tune up. What is driving the change? The nature of business applications today is evolving. New solutions are being deployed on a continuous basis. In addition, they are built on different foundations than in the past. They are more network and less server centric, so the end result is corporate networks require more bandwidth. Here are several increasingly popular applications that are pushing organizations toward network upgrades. Public Cloud This design approach has become very popular. Revenue spent on these systems has been increasing at a rapid clip with no signs of a slowdown. In fact, worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure is forecast to reach $210 billion in 2019, an increase of 23.8% over 2018, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Here are a few reasons for public cloud’s popularity. These systems are simple to deploy. They are based on a modern architecture, so making a change requires a few clicks rather than several steps. These solutions include high levels of automation, so they are easy to manage. Because of these benefits, vendors need less staff resources to manage them and pass the savings along to customers. While beneficial, these applications generate [...]

25 09, 2019

Channel Partners Evolution 2019 Recap

2019-10-09T18:52:52-05:00September 25th, 2019|Tags: , , |

Our team is back from Channel Partners Evolution 2019 and we’ve got some highlights to share with you! Channel Partners Evolution (CPEvolution) was held September 9 to September 12 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. The channel tech conference was attended by 3000 of the industry’s leading solution providers, vendors, distributors, IT professionals and media, with over 150 exhibitors. Here’s our recap: Notes from the Conference Floor Though it didn’t always feel like it with the trade show floor being open for 11 hour days, the Imagit booth was busy. We met a lot of new people in the new channel and found several prospective new partnerships. We walked away with over 100 new contacts from scans at the booth, and business cards acquired throughout the show. One common theme was channel convergence. It’s affecting different companies in different ways, but the one thing that resonates across the board is a need to add more capabilities to take on new types of projects and add more value to customers.  Imagit is well positioned to help with this need thanks to our team of 400 network and systems engineers + smarthands who can almost any project need for partners across the US and Canada. The demand for more ‘as a service’ offerings also remains prevalent, and we are feeling very excited to launch our new LAN as a Service (LANaaS) offering after some great conversations with channel partners. If you didn’t get a chance to learn about that, we are offering [...]

19 08, 2019

ChannelCon 2019 Recap

2019-08-19T18:08:41-05:00August 19th, 2019|Tags: , , , |

Our team enjoyed ChannelCon in Las Vegas and we’ve got some highlights to share with you! The 2019 CompTIA ChannelCon took place in Las Vegas, NV at The Bellagio on Aug 5 – 7, 2019. Here’s our recap of the event: Notes from the Conference Floor The 3 day event was very well attended and we were pleased to network with many of our current partners as well as new leads. The Executive Council run breakout sessions were also well attended and participants were very active, coming up with many great ideas during the roundtables, flipchart sessions, and think-tank exercises. The legendary Shaquille O’Neal was the keynote speaker, and the audience was very engaged with his session. Shaq discussed his career, current business interests, and love for tech. Read more about the keynote on CompTIA’s website.  Many people overlook this “larger-than-life” character as just that…a character due to his jovial personality and relentless wit and comic relief during his broadcasts as a color-commentator in live sporting events. Yet, the former backboard breaker is quite the business mogul in the tech space and has spoken at other tech conferences in addition to ChannelCon! Overall we were extremely happy with this event and it was great to meet so many people who were really interested in speaking with us.  The CompTIA community continues to be one of the most engaged audiences we encounter, which is why we have boothed for the last 3 years. Our partnership with MSPs is a logical marriage where 2 entities that [...]

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