Skip to content
The Little Things: Incidental Network Intrusions and Protection for SMBs
Twice a month the network at Clear Blue Pools slowed to a crawl. The office manager would call the company IT provider who would scan the network and invariably find new viruses and malware. Like clockwork, every other Monday, the network became infected and operations were interrupted. After much investigation, it was discovered that the owner of the company brought [...]
The Practical Costs of Disaster Recovery and Data Backup Systems
The small financial firm was storing tape backups in a safe deposit box. They had been doing so for years, rotating different tapes through the box every couple of days. The ad hoc system worked just fine over the years, but the new IT service provider suggested something different: “We’ll put all your backups in the cloud, it will be [...]
DD Oh-No! Understanding the Many Forms of DDoS Attacks
Janet called in before 7am and Adam answered on the second ring. “Adam, the site is down. It’s the biggest sales day of the year and our site is down! It was working ten minutes ago and now it won’t load. ” Janet was nervous because this was the busiest shopping day of the year and a big sales day [...]
Simple Security Steps: Monitoring and Managing a Small Business Network
“No thank you, we have a firewall already.” The office manager of Ed Wells Construction Company politely declined the suggestion of her IT Managed Service provider, who had proposed that a new, enterprise-grade firewall be installed to protect the network. The current firewall was built into the router provided by the telecom company and the provider was concerned it wouldn’t [...]
Reshaping the Data Transport Sector: The History of Dark Fiber Networks
In 2004, 12 universities in the Midwest banded together to build a new optical data network. The universities, including Northwestern University near Chicago, saw the benefits of having a high-speed, uninterrupted, private network on which to share research that might otherwise bog down slower networks shared by many different people. The group utilized the Chicago Fiber Ring to create this [...]
Cloud Control: Wisely Choosing IaaS and SaaS Solutions for Your Business
I bought a new phone over the weekend. The battery in my old phone was not keeping a charge for very long and it was starting to impact my ability to work during the day and keep in touch with friends and family after work. Who wants to carry a charging cable around all the time, looking for a power [...]