About Brian Gardner

Brian is the founder and CEO of Pronto Recovery, a global company providing business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. Brian’s entrepreneurial mindset and bold vision has developed the company into a world class organization with coverage in 120 countries. Brian is a self-taught technology expert with a wealth of computer networking knowledge and a passion for developing new ideas and businesses. With this background, Brian has founded several successful B2B companies within the technology industry. This entrepreneurial drive is the reason he was awarded the “30 Under 30” award. As a thought leader and innovator, Brian constantly looks to the future to find cutting-edge solutions for businesses, helping them stay ahead of the curve.
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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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13 05, 2019

Communicating after a Cyber Attack

2021-02-19T16:55:22-06:00May 13th, 2019|Tags: , , , , |

Organizations of all sizes are at risk for cyber attacks that can cripple operations and cause lasting damage. Businesses must have a plan in place for communicating with customers in the event of an attack so as to minimize losses. We are happy to share some information from our partners at Pronto Recovery about planning your communication and response after a cyber attack. The costs of a cyber crime The price tag of a security breach is staggering, with an average cost of $1.2 million. Cyber crime will cost the world in excess of $6 trillion annually by 2021 and financial costs are not the only consequences. Ransomware attacks are the #1 cyber threat to businesses and are growing at a yearly rate of 350%. These often start with a simple phishing email and can lead to the complete shutdown of business operations. One-third of companies surveyed claimed their company lost intellectual property due to a cyber-attack and 36% of them believe the attack reduced their competitive advantage. In today’s globalized business environment, organizations of all sizes face the prospect of falling victim to a cyber-attack or IT outage that could cause serious damage to its infrastructure and ability to operate. Despite the improvement of cybersecurity techniques, criminals continue to develop sophisticated ways to disrupt systems and steal data. The need to prepare for cyber-attacks is more important than ever. According to Cisco’s 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report more than one third of the organizations that experienced a cyber breach in 2016 reported a loss of customers, business opportunities and [...]

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15 03, 2019

Growing Your MSP Business in the 2020’s

2021-01-27T00:14:19-06:00March 15th, 2019|Tags: , , , , , |

In a highly competitive market and with growing customer demands MSPs must focus on core strengths. MSPs benefit by handing network system configuration and maintenance over to a specialist. Introduction: The Shoemaker’s Children MSPs convince their customers of the benefits of offloading maintenance tasks to third party specialists. Ironically, many ignore the potential benefits that they themselves can gain by making such a change. Terms, like digital disruption and gig economy, illustrate that nowadays, technology evolves at a brisk pace. Consequently, the burden of taking care of all of their customers’ technical needs strains many MSPs’ resources and decreases their margins. What can be done? MSPs must heed their own advice. They need to determine where they add value and focus their energies there. For many, network maintenance has become an onerous burden. Hiring a specialist to oversee customer network deployments and maintenance enables MSPs to expand their reach, improve their service, and reduce their costs. The Network Maintenance Challenge Monitoring customers’ IT systems is a complex undertaking, one that becomes more complicated every day. New solutions, such as the Internet of Things; artificial intelligence and machine learn; and Augmented Reality/Virtual reality, emerge. The traditional office is expanding. The Internet frees employees from desktop systems in central office cubicles. Today, they use a variety of devices, desktops, smartphones, and tablets to access information and work from home, branch locations, customers’ offices, and the local coffee shop. Configuring and managing all of these devices, applications, and connections has become time consuming. MSPs need to maximize [...]

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