Apr-May-Jun 2021

NETWORKcomputing 

I N F O R M A T I O N A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S – N E T W O R K E D www.networkcomputing.co.uk 

SAFE TO NETWORK? 

Protecting your data in a post-pandemic environment 

IoT TO THE RESCUE? 

How IoT tech can boost 

and support the economy 

MONITORING 

PROGRESS 

Monitoring your network 

in the time of COVID-19 

THE CUTTING EDGE 

Examining the evolution of 

edge computing 

MAY/JUNE 2021 VOL 30 NO 02

We will be opening nominations soon for the 2021 Awards. Once again, we will be asking you 

to tell us which products, companies and individuals have impressed you. Look out for further 

announcements from us over the coming weeks. 

ATTENTION VENDORS: 

There is still time - if you are quick - to ensure that your chosen solutions join the list of 

contenders in the BENCH TESTED PRODUCT OF THE YEAR category. You will need to book 

them in to be independently reviewed for Network Computing as soon as possible and ensure 

that the solution can be made available to a reviewer from that moment. 

We also want to hear about impressive work you have done to help your customers so we may 

consider it for the NETWORK PROJECT OF THE YEAR. 

Finally, there will also be opportunities to be involved as a sponsor. 

To discuss any of the above , please contact dave.bonner@btc.co.uk 

WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTINGAWARDS.CO.UK

COMMENT 

COMMENT 

NEW THREATS IN THE PIPELINE 

At the time of going to press the US fuel pipeline operated by Colonial Pipeline has been 

taken offline due to a ransomware attack by the hacking group DarkSide. The cyberattack 

was so significant (Colonial has never taken its entire network offline before) that it 

was addressed directly by President Biden, who said that his administration "will be pursuing a 

global effort of ransomware attacks by transnational criminals who often use global moneylaundering 

networks to carry them out." The pipeline supplies millions of gallons of fuel a day, 

and it appears that the hacking group stole around 100 gigabytes of data before encrpyting 

Colonial's network. It's still unclear whether any of the ransom has actually been paid, but 

DarkSide subsequently posted a press release on their website stating that "Our goal is to make 

money, and not creating problems for society." So that's alright then... 

Commenting on the attack Andy Norton, European Cyber Risk Officer at Armis said: "These 

'Cyber Physical' attacks are a big deal, because they demonstrate just how fragile the provision 

of critical services are into society. A few weeks ago a water treatment plant was compromised 

leading to the potential for poisoning of the water. Now, 45% of the US oil energy provision has 

been switched off to the East coast. Prolonged shortages in critical services lead to civil unrest, 

economic pressures, and a general lack of confidence in public administration. What is equally 

troubling is the lack of progress critical infrastructure providers seem to be making in being 

resilient to these attacks." 

For some this attack is another high profile indication of how cybercrime has both flourished 

and expanded its attack vectors during the pandemic. "We used to separate cybercrime versus 

physical world crime and view the impact differently. Even legislation is more documented for 

physical crime, compared to cybercrime where we are now slowly maturing," said Calvin Gan, 

Senior Manager with F-Secure's Tactical Defense Unit. "However, if there's one thing the pandemic 

has changed, it's the acceleration rate of cybercrime. With convergence of technologies being 

connected through the Internet, we now have a concrete view of how cybercrime impact has 

spread not only across the Internet but also to the physical world. Attacks such as ransomware 

on Critical National Infrastructure is just one example of how cybercrime can affect people 

directly or indirectly. With emergency laws needed to be passed to respond to cyber attacks, this 

is a clear sign that there is now increased interest by attackers to target these industries." 

To this end you'll find a number of articles in this issue that explore how we can best safeguard 

our data: from the importance of cloud backups to the value of prioritising data security over 

network security, and the ramifications of potential real-world disasters such as the recent fire at 

the OVHCloud data centre in Strasbourg. Back in 2017 The Economist famously stated that 

"The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data." Is your business prepared for the 

threats coming down the pipeline? NC 

REVIEWS: 

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MAY/JUNE 2021 NETWORKcomputing 03

CONTENTS 

CONTENTS 

M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 1 

A CRITICAL TEST....................8 

The NetAlly LinkSprinter® Pocket Network 

Tester has enabled a non-profit healthcare 

organisation to provide assured connectivity 

into its critical patient bedside monitoring 

VLAN for COVID-19 patients 

COMMENT.....................................3 

New threats in the pipeline 

INDUSTRY NEWS.............................6 

The latest networking news 

ARTICLES 

REDEFINING ENTERPRISE 

NETWORKS.......................................9 

By Alan Hayward at SEH Technology 

5G: THE YEAR AHEAD.......................10 

By Jeremy Spencer at BT Enterprise 

DEVICE MANAGEMENT IN A 

CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT...........12 

By Nadav Avni at Radix Technology 

ENSURING SD-WAN CONVERSION 

SUCCESS........................................14 

By Sanjay Radia at NETSCOUT 

DATA PROTECTION.............16 

Our data protection feature considers the 

growing importance of cloud backup for SMBs 

and the value of prioritising data security over 

that of the network. Will our data protection 

policies need to adapt post-pandemic? 

MONITORING PROGRESS...27 

If 2020 taught us anything it's that network 

monitoring has become more important than 

ever, writes Mark Towler at Progress 

EDGE AND IoT........................22 

Is Network-as-a-Service set to redefine 

edge computing, and how will the growth 

of IoT and edge devices impact businesses 

moving forward? Read our feature in this 

issue to find out 

THE CONNECTIVITY 

CONUNDRUM......................30 

Lee Wade of Exponential-e explains why 

connectivity is the final piece in the home 

working productivity puzzle 

THE CLOUD BACKUP OPPORTUNITY 

FOR MSPS.........................................16 

By Carl Oliver at Giacom 

WHY THE SECURITY INDUSTRY IS 

PROTECTING THE WRONG THING...18 

By Paul German at Certes Networks 

DATA PROTECTION IN A POST- 

PANDEMIC ENVIRONMENT............20 

By Adam Strange at Titus 

NOW’S THE TIME FOR NAAS............22 

By Simon Wilson at Aruba UK&I 

IoT TO THE RESCUE?......................24 

By Nick Sacke at Comms365 

CLOSER TO THE EDGE...................26 

By Simon Michie at Pulsant 

THE VISIBLE BENEFITS OF 

AUTOMATION..............................28 

By Adrian Rowley at Gigamon 

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 

DILEMMA......................................29 

By The Workforce Institute at UKG 

THE WEAK LINK IN THE CHAIN.......32 

By Steph Charbonneau at HelpSystems 

IS YOUR DATA FIREPROOF?...........34 

By Stephen Young at AssureStor 

PRODUCT REVIEW 

WHATSUP GOLD 2021......................15 

EXAGRID TIERED BACKUP STORAGE....21 

04 NETWORKcomputing MAY/JUNE 2021 @NCMagAndAwards 

WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTING.CO.UK

INDUSTRYNEWS 

NEWS NEWS NEWS 

NEWS NEWSNEWS 

NEWS 

NEWS 

Palo Alto forms new cybersecurity consulting group 

Palo Alto Networks is establishing a new cybersecurity 

consulting group to help enterprises respond to emerging 

threats as they navigate an increase in costly, crippling 

cyberattacks. The newly expanded Unit 42 combines formerly 

Crypsis security consultants, who respond to 1,300+ incidents a 

year, with the company's veteran Unit 42 threat research team, 

which has been fighting emerging cyberthreats since 2014. 

Together, they will help organisations tackle the most complex 

cyberthreats, from ransomware to state-sponsored espionage. 

Wendi Whitmore, 

Palo Alto Networks 

Since it was founded in 2014, Unit 42 has produced more 

than 650 reports and regularly partners with governments 

around the globe to fight cybercrime. "Our increasing reliance 

on technology has turned cybersecurity into an existential 

matter," said Wendi Whitmore, senior vice president of cyber 

consulting and threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks. "We 

wake up every day focused on collecting and analysing the 

most up-to-date threat intelligence and applying our analysis to 

respond to cyberattacks." 

Velociraptor adds bite to Rapid7 

Rapid7 has acquired Velociraptor, a leading open-source 

technology and community used for endpoint monitoring, 

digital forensics, and incident response. Velociraptor was 

developed for digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) 

professionals who need a powerful and efficient way to hunt for 

and monitor malicious activities across endpoints. 

Velociraptor's community-driven approach allows the collective 

wisdom of the DFIR community to be gathered in one place and 

made accessible to others. Velociraptor is unique in that it allows 

custom detections, collections and analyses capabilities to be 

written in queries, rather than code. Those queries can then 

easily be shared, strengthening the knowledge of the community 

and allowing teams to hunt for new threats more quickly. 

Network security issues prolong pandemic downtime 

More than a year after the mass shift to remote working, over 

half (54%) of organisations are still suffering downtime and 

disruption as a result of network security issues, according to new 

data from the Neustar International Security Council (NISC). 

Surveying security professionals across EMEA and the US, 61% of 

respondents reported suffering either significant or moderate 

downtime or disruption in the first six months of the pandemic, 

caused by employees having to work from home. However the 

majority of respondents (89%) agreed that the challenges posed 

by the pandemic have strengthened their organisation's network 

security against potential future attacks. In addition, 79% believed 

that the situation over the last year has triggered an improvement 

to their corporate VPNs to make them more secure. 

"The challenge with using VPNs to allow approximately 95% of 

the workforce to log on remotely is that cybercriminals 

understand that the hardening of connectivity from a denial-ofservice 

point of view hasn't always been done," Joffe continued. 

"A DDoS attack that is encapsulated in a VPN packet will only 

be revealed when the packet reaches the VPN server and is 

opened up – by then, it's too late. For this reason, VPNs will 

continue to be the target of choice, it's down to the organisation 

itself to make them as secure as possible." 

iTrinegy receives Queen's Award for Enterprise 

itrinegy has been honoured with a Queen's Award for 

Enterprise for International Trade. Stevenage-based iTrinegy is 

one of a few organisations to be recognised with the annual 

Queen's Award for Enterprise which is the UK's most prestigious 

award for business success and presented by Her Majesty The 

Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. iTrinegy was set up in 

2006 and its Software Defined Test Networks (Network 

Emulation) technology provides organisations with a way to 

create real-world network conditions in which to analyse, predict 

and verify application performance before deploying 

applications into potentially challenging network environments. 

"We are thrilled to have been chosen for this award," said 

Graham Wood, Director at iTrinegy. "Although iTrinegy has been 

widely recognised for our technical achievements and is the 

proud recipient of many awards over the years, we are a 

business and can only be successful if our technology is valued 

by our customers resulting in sales growth. The Queen's Award 

for Enterprise: International Trade 2021 is a fantastic 

endorsement for iTrinegy as a successful business as well as a 

great technology company." 



INDUSTRYNEWS 

Consortium established to test IoT network security 

Acisco-led consortium of partners will demonstrate how 

artificial intelligence and blockchain can robustly secure 

Internet of Things (IoT) networks through i-Trace, a partgovernment 

funded, co-innovation project that will serve as a 

step forward in the digital transformation of national 

infrastructure. Integrated smart infrastructure solutions 

company, Costain, has joined the i-Trace consortium to 

conduct real-world cybersecurity trials in construction machine 

telematics and connected sites sensing and monitoring. 

Using real-world data from live Costain project sites, the 

project will demonstrate how the unique i-Trace solution brings 

together two complementary technologies to secure critical 

data. Firstly, using machine learning systems to detect security 

threats on IoT devices via the network. Secondly, using 

distributed ledger technology (DLT) to guarantee that the data 

generated by these IoT devices is tamperproof and immutable, 

wherever it is in the network. These technologies will be 

deployed across Costain's networks to secure M2M telematics, 

connected IoT sensors and monitoring equipment. The 

consortium is comprised of experts from Cisco, BT, Senseon, 

the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of 

Warwick, and Costain. i-Trace is part-government funded 

through Innovate UK and the UKRI's Strategic Priorities Fund. 

UK Department for Education loses nearly 200 devices 

The Department for Education (DFE) has seen nearly 200 

devices including laptops and mobile phones lost or stolen 

over the last two years, according to official figures. The data, 

which was obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 

inquiry by the Parliament Street think tank has revealed the 

number of lost and stolen gadgets since 2019. Overseen by 

Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson, the DFE is 

responsible for child protection, education, apprenticeships, 

and wider skills in England, and has seen remote working surge 

due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the total 196 devices 

reported missing, mobile phones were the most common, with 

145 missing in total since 2019, 22 of which were Blackberries. 

In April 2020 the Department for Education launched a free 

online learning platform to help people pick up digital and 

cyber skills while in lockdown. The DFE has also dispatched 

1.29 million laptops and tablets as part of a scheme to provide 

over 1.3 million devices to disadvantaged and vulnerable 

children and young people with devices and connectivity to 

access remote learning during the 2020/21 academic year. 

Edward Blake, Area Vice President, Absolute Software UK&I 

comments: "For under-pressure IT teams, managing and 

ensuring each and every device is cyber secure and accounted 

for is no easy task. Therefore, it is more critical than ever to 

have a permanent digital connection to every endpoint, as well 

as the ability to lock, freeze or wipe the device if it is at risk of 

being compromised. Young people must be able to learn 

remotely without risk of cyber attack." 

Fluke Networks launches LinkIQ Cable+Network tester 

Fluke Networks has launched the LinkIQ Cable+Network 

tester, which combines switch diagnostics with state-of-theart 

cable measurement technology to enable installers, system 

integrators and network support professionals to easily 

troubleshoot network cabling and/or connect Power over 

Ethernet (PoE) devices to the network. The product provides 

simple pass/fail test reports using the company's innovative 

LinkWare PC Cable Test Management Software. It can also 

verify the performance of switches, including those that provide 

Power over Ethernet. 

The LinkIQ is based on a single-test approach that 

automatically provides the appropriate measurements based on 

what is at the other end of the cable. For an open cable, it shows 

the length and pairing. If this is terminated with the supplied 

remote, the test result shows the maximum data rate the cable 

can support – up to 10 Gb/s. However, if the cable is connected 

to a switch port, LinkIQ will show the name of the switch plus the 

port name, VLAN, speed, and duplex. If PoE is advertised, it will 

display the power and class (up to 90 W or Class 8) and then 

load the switch to verify the power can be delivered. 

The LinkIQ uses LinkWare PC, Fluke Networks' reporting 

software, which is the industry's de facto standard reporting 

solution. The simplest way to manage report data is with a free 

copy of LinkWare. The results from a wide variety of Fluke 

products can be stored and accessed, or PDF reports may be 

generated using the software. 

NEWS NEWSNEWS 

NEWS 

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS 

NEWS 



CASESTUDY 

COVID IMPACTS REQUIRE ACCURATE NETWORK TESTING 

THE NETALLY LINKSPRINTER POCKET NETWORK TESTER HAS ENABLED A NON-PROFIT HEALTHCARE 

ORGANISATION TO PROVIDE ASSURED CONNECTIVITY INTO ITS CRITICAL PATIENT BEDSIDE MONITORING 

VLAN FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS 

the critical slot/port and VLAN 

configuration 

DHCP and DNS network services 

Connectivity to user-defined internal or 

external resources 

WWith the COVID-19 pandemic, 

healthcare systems around the world 

needed to rapidly expand capacity to 

effectively treat a large number of critical care 

patients. With this possible exponential growth 

in the numbers of patients needing treatment, 

this healthcare provider embarked on a plan 

to convert standard patient wards in their 

hospitals to ICU-level (intensive care unit) 

emergency overflow wards. 

While many departments rely on bedside 

telemetry systems that can utilise Wi-Fi 

networks for connectivity, COVID-19 surge 

patients require full bedside monitors (and the 

respirator systems needed for treatment of 

COVID-19) that rely on wired network 

connections to meet the standard for ICU-level 

care. That link must provide assured 

connectivity into the critical patient bedside 

monitoring VLAN. 

The provider's biomedical device technicians 

needed the ability to effectively and quickly 

survey the available network connections in the 

wards that were being converted. This involved 

identifying which switch/slot/port served each 

jack in the ward that would be utilised for the 

bedside systems, and creating a document of 

the current configuration which would be 

supplied to their network operations team so 

that the proper port reassignment work could 

be completed. 

The problem was that they had no quick and 

easy way to identify the port assignments. 

Manual methods, such as utilising a 

cumbersome laptop, hand-writing the 

information (including the room, wall-plate, 

and jack numbers), and collating that data for 

the report to the network team was time 

consuming and open to error. In the delivery of 

patient care, errors are simply unacceptable. 

SOLUTION 

Their biomed technician team turned to the 

NetAlly LinkSprinter® Pocket Network Tester 

and the secure Link-Live cloud service. As a 

small device, LinkSprinter is easily carried to 

and around the wards. One-button 

automation ensures that every test is executed 

consistently, across the entire team of 

technicians, and a comprehensive connectivity 

test is completed in less than 10 seconds. This 

test returns data about: 

Power over Ethernet (PoE) if present 

Ethernet link speed and duplex 

Connected switch information, including 

The technicians can verify the progress of the 

testing with the unit's color-coded test icons, 

and view detailed test data by connecting their 

phone to the embedded Wi-Fi radio. The test 

result is annotated with the patient room 

number, and jack identification. The 

LinkSprinter was able to assess the hospital's 

network port configurations quickly and 

accurately, automatically uploading results into 

the Link-Live Cloud Service. 

Best of all, the test results are automatically 

uploaded to the secure Link-Live cloud portal, 

where centralised job supervisors can easily 

see and manage the progress of the testing, 

and quickly create accurate documentation for 

the change order needed by network 

operations. Once the port assignments have 

been changed, LinkSprinter provides the team 

with a fast way to verify that the port is up, 

assigned to the critical VLAN, with connectivity 

to essential services. 

RESULTS 

"With the segmentation of the biomedical 

equipment on these special VLANs, we have to 

be very precise on connectivity," explains their 

Medical Device Integration Manager. "Using 

LinkSprinter with the data upload and reporting 

in Link-Live eliminates the margin of error, 

which is critical in this environment. The time 

savings is huge, and the data quality prevents 

mistakes - we love it!" NC 

For more information on the NetAlly 

LinkSprinter® Pocket Tester visit: 

www.netally.com/products/linksprinter/ 



OPINION 

REDEFINING ENTERPRISE NETWORKS 

IT'S NOW TIME TO TAKE THE LESSONS LEARNT IN THE PANDEMIC 

AND LOOK FORWARD TO NEW ENTERPRISE NETWORK TRENDS, 

ACCORDING TO ALAN HAYWARD, SALES & MARKETING MANAGER 

AT SEH TECHNOLOGY 

The coronavirus has changed the way we 

work forever. With most employees now 

working from home, we have seen the 

rise of online workspaces. In this new digital 

age, technologies have been vital in improving 

communication and collaboration, to ensure 

workers can complete their work as effectively 

and efficiently as they would have in the office 

environment. These include cloud-based 

communication and data solutions which 

allow businesses to run from anywhere in the 

world, with ease. 

Many companies have been maximising the 

benefits of using cloud-based solutions as they 

create secure environments to easily access 

and share data, as well as facilitating the tools 

needed to communicate with colleagues in 

real time. As a result, employees have been 

able to better adapt to working remotely using 

devices like laptops or desktops at home. 

The recent Future Forum Research from 

Slack found that out of 4,700 knowledge 

workers surveyed, the majority never want to 

return to their old ways of working. In fact, 

only 12% want to return to full-time office 

work and a staggering 72% want their 

employers to implement a hybrid remoteoffice 

model moving forward. This puts more 

pressure on companies to meet the increasing 

'work-from-anywhere' expectations, and it's 

likely that we will see more businesses 

investing in resources to safely simplify and 

automate network complexity. 

INCREASING SECURITY MEASURES 

Many traditional network infrastructures were 

not created to support rapidly developing 

digital ecosystems, and can no longer provide 

the levels of security and control required. With 

traffic no longer from one central company 

data centre, but multiple cloud-based 

locations and virtual workspaces, it has 

become increasingly difficult to manage. 

Businesses should take a step back to consider 

the emerging security risks of working from 

home, in terms of systems access, internal 

network infrastructures and bandwidth. One of 

the easiest ways that organisations can secure 

data as it moves from internal systems to 

external devices is to deploy a VPN. This 

provides an additional layer of security by 

hiding the user's IP address and encrypting 

data transfers in transit. 

It's also important to make sure up-to-date 

security protection is installed and active on all 

devices used by employees at home and in the 

office. This includes virus checkers, firewalls 

and device encryption. Businesses may also 

consider running an audit on employee 

passcodes, to ensure that all are reset and 

redefined in line with the company's security 

policy. Alphanumeric codes and two-factor 

authentication are recommended as this 

applies the strongest possible security 

protection across all employee devices. 

INVESTING IN A REMOTE ACCESS 

SOLUTIONS 

When employees are working from the 

office, it's easy for them to access the 

company's network. However, with remote 

working becoming a more permanent 

solution, employees will continue to require 

access to resources from home, meaning 

many companies are considering tools that 

offer scalability and flexibility as we move 

into 2021. 

Dongle servers will easily allow employees to 

access their work from home and share USB 

dongle devices via the network. Not only can 

dongles be used via LAN connections, but also 

via VPN, VLAN, and the Internet. This ensures 

employees can stay productive whether they 

are working from home or in the office. With 

an encrypted point-to-point connection 

between the user and the dongle server, 

businesses can dynamically assign which 

employee is authorised to access each dongle, 

ensuring everyone can retrieve everything they 

need. Users can also request access as soon 

as a license becomes available, and once the 

software has been used by that individual, it 

will be securely relocated to the next in line. 

FUTURE OF ENTERPRISE NETWORKS 

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the 

way that businesses operate, and its effects will 

last for the foreseeable future. At the start of 

the coronavirus, many companies were left 

grappling to adapt to remote working 

environments and unprecedented 

circumstances. While the new normal is still on 

the horizon, it's time to look to the future and 

adjust to new enterprise network trends. 

The biggest ongoing challenge will be 

facilitating the demand for remote working, 

as most employees have now become 

accustomed to the flexibility and convenience 

that it brings. We can expect to see a rise in 

hybrid working, as COVID-19 has clearly 

demonstrated that work can happen 

anywhere when it's digitised and connected. 

Hybrid environments will support flexible 

arrangements, replace dedicated offices and 

allow resources to be deployed when 

necessary. As a result, it's important for 

businesses to make sure that they have the 

right software and hardware tools available 

to support their enterprise networks, in 

addition to solid security measures and 

remote access capabilities. NC 



OPINION 

5G: THE YEAR AHEAD 

JEREMY SPENCER, GENERAL MANAGER OF CORPORATE 

PROPOSITIONS, BT ENTERPRISE, EXPLAINS HOW 5G CAN BETTER 

ENABLE THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY 

For the past decade, 5G, as with many 

emerging technologies, has often fallen 

into the trap of being seen as more of a 

buzzword than a technology with true business 

impact. In fact, recent research conducted by 

BT highlights that many business leaders are 

still unclear on how the technology can be best 

leveraged, and importantly, how it can tie into 

and support core organisational and 

commercial goals. Of the 1,000 UK business 

leaders we surveyed, only 11% of respondents 

said they are currently using 5G. 

But as the rollout of the 5G network continues 

across the UK this year, there will be no doubt 

that when adopted and implemented in the 

right way, 5G will bring enormous and exciting 

potential to save time, boost productivity, 

unlock innovation and contribute to a 

sustainable business future. The main 

challenge for businesses over the coming year 

will be for leaders to make the link between 5G 

adoption and their strategic objectives. 

Outside of enterprise, 5G adoption is steadily 

on the rise. Recent research from CCS Insight 

suggests that by next year, almost two-thirds of 

new phones in 2021 will be 5G-enabled. This 

is relevant, as it is widespread consumer 

acceptance and adoption which will lay the 

foundations for the same uptake in an 

enterprise setting. Over the past couple of 

years, 5G testbeds have been emerging across 

the country as businesses across all sectors start 

to experiment with the technology to test its 

potential and seek an early adopter advantage 

over their competitors. This year we can expect 

to see this trial and testing phase evolve into 

widespread commercial deployment of the 

technology, as businesses from all sectors look 

to capitalise on the benefits that ultrafast, 

uninterrupted connectivity can bring them. 

5G IN MANUFACTURING 

The work we're doing with the Worcestershire 

5G Testbed (W5G) is a fantastic example of 

how the technology can be used, and what it 

can power. We're working to accelerate the 

testbed's vision of smart manufacturing - 

delivered through the UK's first live 5G factory 

installation. By creating a smart factory where 

machines can learn and adapt to changes on 

the factory floor as they happen, productivity 

will be boosted through instant, autonomous 

decisions which will benefit the production line. 

The insight gleaned from the W5G will be used 

to stimulate innovation across the 

manufacturing sector in the region and beyond. 

SMART DEVICES TOP THE AGENDA 

With the introduction of 5G-enabled smart 

devices, such as collision detection sensors, 

the emerging technology will provide an 

almost immediate benefit to the 

manufacturing industry, but other sectors will 

be able to learn and benefit from these 

testbeds too. As commercial adoption of 5G 

increases, retailers can look to leverage the 

emerging technology to provide a more 

personalised experience for consumers via 

mobile applications and potentially even 

smart glasses. 

Experiential shopping is a major draw for 

consumers, particularly as brick-and-mortar 

stores find themselves under pressure from 

declining footfall amidst Covid-19. Adoption 

of 5G-connected smart glasses could one day 

offer consumers the ability to view items such 

as clothing without having to try them on. 

APPLYING 5G TO HEALTHCARE 

Once widespread adoption levels have been 

reached, 5G is going to revolutionise the 

healthcare industry. We are beginning to see this 

take place already. Last year, BT demonstrated a 

powerful example of how 5G can transform 

healthcare and emergency services, with the 

UK's first remote-controlled ultrasound scan 

over a public 5G network. In practice, this 

means that an ultrasound could be performed 

by a paramedic inside a moving ambulance. 

Remote, real-time diagnostics is a key trend 

we can expect to see develop in 2021, as 5G 

adoption increases, and consumers become 

more and more familiar and comfortable with 

remote interaction, a familiarity that will extend 

to critical sectors such as healthcare. 

However, there is still much work to be done. 

Excluding VOIP, nearly half (48%) of our survey 

respondents said they aren't using any of the 

emerging technologies we listed - including 5G 

- with 38% saying they don't have a plan to 

adopt any of them in the next five years. The 

healthcare sector is under more pressure than 

ever, and technology should play a key role in 

making its work more efficient and effective. 

CHANGE BEGINS AT THE TOP 

2021 will see 5G shift from a boardroom 

buzzword to the subject of a more meaningful 

conversation around how it can help achieve 

business priorities. Covid-19 has ushered in a 

huge wave of digital transformation, as 

businesses race to meet rapidly shifting 

customer and employee expectations. If 

businesses want to keep up with the times, and 

continue to deliver value, adoption of emerging 

technologies, particularly 5G, will help them on 

their journey. NC 



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OPINION 

OPTIMISING AND SECURING DEVICE 

MANAGEMENT IN A CORPORATE 

ENVIRONMENT 

IS THERE A DEVICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION POWERFUL 

ENOUGH TO SUPPORT YOUR CORPORATE NEEDS? NADAV 

AVNI AT RADIX TECHNOLOGY OFFERS A GUIDE 

The proliferation of digital devices used 

in every organisation has only grown in 

the past few years. Digital devices 

provide greater flexibility and mobility for 

companies, but they also create more of a 

burden on IT teams and administrators to 

manage it all. Mobile devices have more 

capabilities than ever before - and they're 

accessing more sensitive and property data, 

too. In fact, 42% of enterprises now 

consider themselves mobile-first. As more 

employees moved to remote work, it 

underscored the need for greater security. At 

the same time, it made device management 

more difficult for IT teams. 

Mobile Device Management (MDM) allows 

the remote management of every device in 

an organisation's fleet from a centralised 

platform that's accessible from anywhere. It 

gives complete control of devices and 

provides a way to manage settings, policies, 

and security in one place. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF MDM 

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of CFOs said 

they expect to keep some employees 

working from home and shift others to 

remote work permanently. The need to 

manage devices remotely isn't going away 

even when the pandemic is over. Even when 

employees are working on-site, they still use 

mobile devices. 

Smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other 

single-use devices all need management. 

Workers may be in different locations than 

IT administrators. MDM allows efficient 

remote management of every device in the 

fleet regardless of the administrators' and 

employees' location. 

Some of the core functions of mobile 

device management include: 

Managing setting and policies 

Monitoring app usage and performance 

Updating equipment, software, and 

applications 

Monitoring health of equipment 

Monitoring equipment location, status, 

and activity 

Remote device control for diagnosis and 

troubleshooting 

Encryption of email and files 

Segregation for work and personal 

device use, creating separate and 

secured environments for work data. 

MORE THAN SECURITY 

Most MDM solutions focus mainly on 

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and 

the security layer. A fully-featured 

MDM/EMM system adds another layer that 

provides comprehensive device 

management. This gives IT administrators 

the ability to manage nearly every type of 

device running on every major operating 

system from one platform. 

Flexible solutions can be installed as an 

on-premises solution or in the cloud for 

reduced latency, redundancy, and end-toend 

security with encryption. When you're 

running a mobile device management 

platform in the cloud, the service provider 

automatically applies updates and 

patches. Hence, it's one more thing you 

won't need to worry about. It also makes it 

easier for administrators to access the 

platform remotely. 

MANAGING COMPLIANCE 

Mobile devices increase the possibility of 

data breaches or leaks. Besides the 

possibility of cyber-attacks, a staggering 

number of laptops and smartphones are lost 

or stolen. On average, 70 million devices 

are lost or stolen annually, with less than 

10% ever being recovered. This is an 

exceptionally big problem for managing 



OPINION 

compliance in regulated industries, such as 

healthcare, financial, and other businesses. 

A robust MDM/EMM software provides 

end-to-end security and encryption to protect 

data. Devices can be tracked with geofence 

and anti-theft filters. If a device leaves an 

authorised area, it triggers a warning note to 

administrators, who can remotely lock the 

device or wipe the data. MDM/EMM apps 

with advanced security features also create 

snapshots on the fly even while devices are 

running to make restoring or recovery from 

virus attacks or system crashes easier. 

Besides automated data audits, these 

functions help organisations comply with 

even the most stringent compliance 

regulations, including GDPR, the EU's 

General Data Privacy Regulations. It also 

acts as an essential element in complying 

with HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, PCI DSS, and 

other regulations. 

MORE EFFICIENT DEPLOYMENT 

Devices can be deployed in batches with 

preset configuration, settings, and corporate 

policies. By automating enrollment tasks, the 

devices can be up and running in your 

environment without user intervention. It all 

happens in the background the first time a 

device is fired up and connected to a network. 

Besides the platform's native and priority 

enrollment modules, devices can also be 

deployed using a range of platforms. This 

provides an extremely friendly out-of-box 

experience (OOBE) for employees without 

tying up IT teams for hours to configure 

new devices. 

TOOLS FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS 

Modern MDM/EMM tools also provide 

sophisticated reporting tools to all 

stakeholders in the organisation. IT teams 

can manage the entire device fleet 

holistically or drill down to any individual 

device. Managers can look at adoption and 

usage rates. CFOs can look at the ROI. 

Each automated report can be customised to 

show what each group of stakeholders needs 

to make data-driven business decisions. 

TOOLS FOR OEMS AND VENDORS 

APIs are usually available for solution 

developers. That means the platform can be 

embedded in device firmware and integrated 

at the factory level for OEMs. System-level 

integration is also possible, so mobile device 

management software can be pre-installed 

and ready to go upon device delivery. 

MANAGING USE AND CONTENT 

Not every employee needs every functionality 

on every device. MDM software allows you 

to apply single-app or multi-app kiosk mode. 

This creates an encapsulated environment 

with access to the functionality and apps you 

determine. It creates a consistent look and 

feel for devices and control device elements, 

such as locking down external ports or 

preventing unauthorised interaction of noncompany 

installed apps. You can limit 

external internet use or enable/disable Wi-Fi 

or Bluetooth connections. 

DEVICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION 

One of the biggest barriers to continued 

remote work is the lack of technology and 

infrastructure to allow remote employees to 

work productively. Therefore, implementing 

a modular and flexible MDM/EMM solution 

is key to successfully and efficiently 

managing your devices. Look for one that 

not only accomplishes the points listed 

above but one that also allows 

customisation for just about any use case. 

Take control of your entire mobile device 

fleet and gain the ability to finally manage 

nearly every aspect with ease. NC 



OPINION 

ENSURING SD-WAN CONVERSION SUCCESS 

SANJAY RADIA, SALES ENGINEERING MANAGER AT NETSCOUT, 

EXPLAINS HOW TO DEPLOY AN SD-WAN WITHOUT INTERRUPTING 

BUSINESS CONTINUITY 

It has been a year since lockdown 

restrictions forced businesses to shift their 

entire workforces to remote working 

overnight. Some businesses were more 

prepared than others, having already enabled 

a level of remote working or having expanded 

to multiple locations, both of which require 

remote-office network changes. However, very 

few businesses were prepared for the sheer 

scale of the changes and demands that workfrom-home 

orders put on the network. 

To ensure the continued operation of 

businesses, overcoming these challenges and 

assuring reliable business service access for 

at-home workers became the key theme of 

2020. Many businesses opted for softwaredefined 

WAN (SD-WAN) solutions as a more 

cost effective and performant solution than 

traditional hardware-based WAN operations 

that were holding them back. However, 

although SD-WAN can reduce complexity, 

making the transition to SD-WAN is by no 

means a simple one. 

ASSURING SD-WAN CONVERSION 

SUCCESS 

A seamless transition to working from home 

involves the use and interaction of many 

different technologies to keep business 

running as usual. These include expanded 

virtual private networks (VPN) and virtual 

desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments, as 

well as Voice Over IP (VoIP) services. However, 

SD-WAN services do not always support these 

critical services. 

The first step to converting from a 

hardware-based WAN to SD-WAN solution 

is to identify the solution that will work best 

for the requirements of the business. The aim 

is generally for this process to be as lighttouch 

as possible to ensure a smooth 

deployment with minimal hands-on 

involvement. With this in mind, it is common 

for businesses to look for an SD-WAN 

solution that already packages up the 

offerings of multiple technology vendors, 

such as VoIP services and Virtual Network 

Function (VNF) vendor solutions. 

However, despite all best intentions and 

research, it is possible for issues to arise as IT 

teams start to test the solution as part of the 

pre-deployment process. For example, the 

VoIP technology may not perform reliably over 

SD-WAN and the testing might produce false 

negatives. As we've all experienced over the 

past year, VoIP is critical for businesses to 

function remotely, so an issue arising at this 

stage could be devastating for a company, 

especially considering the time and money 

that will have already been invested in the SD- 

WAN conversion. 

VIRTUAL VISIBILITY TO THE RESCUE 

The scenario described above is a worst-case 

example, the good news is that this example 

was missing the vital component in SD-WAN 

conversion: visibility. With visibility this situation 

would not have occurred because the 

company's IT team would have been able to 

troubleshoot and resolve the VoIP over SD- 

WAN testing issues. 

Virtual visibility can identify the causes of 

problems that IT are not able to spot 

themselves. For instance, with the above 

example, visibility would reveal that the false 

negatives occurring during the testing were 

related to the IP address being used for the 

VoIP scripting data. 

Another problem that can arise in the 

process of conversion is that the business 

applications may be sensitive to data transfer 

processes on SD-WAN. This is where unified 

communications (UC) analytics can provide 

real-time monitoring of the issue and inform 

the fine-tuning that the IT team need to make. 

Virtual visibility and unified communications 

(UC) analytics are vital for troubleshooting 

and monitoring the conversion process. With 

these tools, IT teams can resolve issues in the 

virtual testing environment and fix them before 

the roll out process. 

Converting to SD-WAN is advisable for the 

many businesses adapting to the 'new normal' 

as well as ensuring future proofing. But only 

virtual visibility and UC analytics will assure 

conversion success and delivery of 

uninterrupted business services. NC 



PRODUCTREVIEW 

Progress Software 

WhatsUp Gold 2021 


PRODUCT 

REVIEWPRODUCT RE 

Progress Software's WhatsUp Gold (WUG) 

is a great network monitoring choice for 

SMBs and enterprises and this latest 

version aims to make it even more appealing. 

WUG 2021 introduces enhanced log 

management and has the ability to collect 

Windows Event Logs plus Syslog events and 

present all the information in its main web 

console for easy analysis. 

WhatsUp Gold 2021 integrates tightly with the 

Elasticsearch analytics engine and provides 

extensive log search, filtering and export 

facilities. You can choose what events you want 

to collect, link events, conditions or trends with 

alerts and actions and create customisable 

dashboards in the main console for at-a-glance 

log status views. 

The simple points-based system employed by 

WUG 2021 takes all the guesswork out of 

licensing costs. Each device, regardless of the 

number of network interfaces, CPUs and so on 

is considered one element and costs one point 

while each monitored application or log 

management source costs ten points. 

Two versions are available with the Premium 

edition providing core functions such as 

discovery, interactive mapping, alerting and 

reporting plus cloud, device, network, storage 

and wireless monitoring. Optional add-on 

modules are available for virtualisation and 

application monitoring, network traffic analysis 

(NTA) and log management, which are all 

included in the Total Plus version. 

Installing WUG 2021 on a Windows Server 

2019 host was simple and the routine also 

loaded SQL Server 2017 Express and IIS. You 

don't have to do anything for your first network 

discovery as it runs this for on your local IP 

subnet and populates its dashboard with all 

network devices. 

Elasticsearch installation is included in the 

initial routine and you can choose the basic 

OSS version, which only accepts connections 

from the WUG 2021 host. If you want the 

version with authentication and encryption, you'll 

need to source and install this separately and 

point the WUG host at it. 

The WhatsUp Gold console is easy to use as it 

presents four menu options in its upper ribbon bar. 

You can swiftly run discoveries, view all network 

devices, pull up a wealth of analysis dashboards 

and access all WUG and add-on module settings. 

Analysis dashboards are a great feature as you 

can create multiple custom views, add columns 

and choose what you want to see. Anything 

WUG is capable of monitoring can be included 

making it easy to create NOC (network 

operations center) views for your support teams. 

Adding Windows and Syslog log data sources 

is a breeze as you choose monitored devices 

from the log settings page. For Windows Event 

Log sources, you can gather application, system 

and security logs and decide whether you want 

critical, error and warning levels as well. 

WhatsUp Gold's viewer window reveals all the 

log action over the selected time period and its 

search facility quickly finds a log of interest. 

Advanced filters can be used to fine-tune the 

information further by applying sets of log type 

criteria and you can add alert thresholds to 

provide notifications of unusual activity. 

Log management isn't the only new feature, as 

WUG's inbound REST API performance monitor 

has been enhanced with an outbound version 

allowing you to send information to WUG from 

third-party apps such as Microsoft 365 and 

Salesforce. Reporting also gets a boost with the 

improved rendering engine notably improving 

its appearance, and there's also a new 

application performance monitor (APM) profile 

for MySQL 8.0. 

WhatsUpGold 2021 is a sophisticated network 

monitoring solution that delivers an impressive 

range of tools integrated seamlessly into a single 

console. The simplified licensing schemes make 

it very affordable for SMBs, it's scalable enough 

for enterprises and the new log management 

features add even more versatility. NC 

Product: WhatsUp Gold 2021 

Supplier: Progress Software Ltd 

Tel: +44 (0)1344 360444 

Web site: www.whatsupgold.com 

Price: Premium - 25 devices from $2,740 



OPINION 

THE CLOUD BACKUP OPPORTUNITY FOR MSPs 

CARL OLIVER, PRODUCT MANAGER, GIACOM EXPLAINS WHY 

CLOUD BACKUP IS INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR SMBS, 

AND WHERE THE OPPORTUNITY LIES FOR MANAGED SERVICE 

PROVIDERS 

Depending on who you talk to, 

digitalisation across the globe has 

been accelerated by around five to 

eight years because of Covid-19. 

Transitioning towards the use of cloud-based 

technologies has formed a key component of 

this transformation. But, as organisations 

shift from using on-premise solutions to the 

cloud, many will not have considered that 

data - despite being located in the cloud - 

still needs to be backed up. This is 

particularly true of the SMB market. 

The channel, therefore, needs to educate 

and support SMB organisations as they 

develop and deploy their cloud strategies. But, 

it also means that ITCs need to work with their 

CSP partners to capitalise on the potential 

recurring revenue generating opportunities 

that backup provisioning can offer. 

ON-PREMISE BACK-UP SOLUTIONS 

AREN'T FAIL SAFE 

It won't come as a surprise to the IT channel 

that protecting data and backing it up is 

critical. But, what is the difference between 

backing up data on-premise compared with 

cloud backup solutions? 

As you can imagine, an on-premises backup 

solution stores data securely on officebased 

hard drives. In principle, this is a 

feasible option, but what if a natural disaster 

occurs such as a pandemic, flood or fire? 

Accessing data becomes problematic and 

depending on the situation, data could be 

lost forever. A case in point is this last year, 

as pandemic work-from-home restrictions 

prevented many people from working in 

offices, making the idea of accessing office 

technology and IT backups difficult. So, 

many businesses turned to the cloud for 

support. Which, rightly, highlighted the need 

for cloud data security. 

HOW SECURE IS DATA WHEN 

STORED IN THE CLOUD? 

There's a common misconception that, just 

because you shift your applications and 

workloads into the cloud, all of your data is 

completely secure. While the cloud offers 

many benefits, including the availability of 

data, it doesn't entirely protect organisations 

from data loss or corruption alone. 

For instance, a recent study by SkyKick 

found that 32 percent of companies using 

cloud had experienced data loss in the cloud 

across numerous threats. It points out that 64 

percent of this data loss was accidental and 

that 20 percent was down to malicious 

intent. Worse yet, the average cost of this 

data loss without a backup solution in place 

equates to almost $4,000 - not counting the 

potential reputational damage and fines 

from regulators. So, while cloud has enabled 

businesses to evolve and thrive, especially 

through the current pandemic, it's clear that 

data stored in the cloud still needs to be 

backed up via a dedicated method. 

This is why it is important for organisations 

to factor cloud backup solutions into their 

long-term cloud and data protection 

strategies. They are crucial and help address 

this growing risk of data loss that takes 

place, be that through accidental or 

malicious means. 

ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD BACKUP 

SOLUTIONS 

Using cloud backup solutions offers 

organisations a host of benefits too. Many 

modern backup tools include enhanced 

security features and the ability to scale 

backups as required. They also generally 

offer quicker recovery times if and when 

backed up data is needed. Further, better 

security protocols, encryption, software 

patches and updates mean that there are 

more effective security options for ITCs to 

provide to their end user customers in the 

cloud too. 



OPINION 

Moreover, by using the cloud, 

organisations can scale more easily too. 

They have the option and capability to move 

their data efficiently and quickly across the 

world. However, as with all technology there 

are security risks to consider, which ITCs 

need to advise clients on. 

This is where the relationship between CSP 

and ITC is important. Modern and effective 

CSPs work with their ITCs to support them 

with cloud deployment consultancy and 

execution to customers. This usually 

includes providing collaborative insights 

about managing data privacy, security and 

infrastructure maintenance. Equally, this is 

an area where the SMB market requires 

more support - since 37 percent of SMBs, 

according to Forrester, are not adopting 

cloud due to security concerns. 

SUPPORTING SMBs WITH CLOUD 

BACKUP IN A COVID WORLD 

Through the pandemic, many organisations 

turned to remote working to maintain 

productivity. Many of these applications are 

cloud-based; and for some, this meant that 

their IT estate had to evolve. There was an 

explosion in the use of collaboration 

technologies across the world, and this is 

set to continue. Research from the Cloud 

Industry Forum indicates that 88 percent of 

organisations expect their adoption of 

cloud services to increase in the next 12 

months. 

This trend towards cloud application 

adoption amplifies the need to move away 

from depending on on-premise backups 

towards relying on cloud backup solutions 

instead. Further, since technology operates 

in an 'always on' state of play, businesses 

can't afford to wait for someone to 

physically attend an on-premise site to 

perform maintenance, especially during a 

pandemic. 

Aside from this, it is crucial to note that 

during any crisis malevolent actors will seek 

to cause mayhem and exploit vulnerable 

situations. For instance, according to the 

Office of National Statistics cybercrime 

greatly increased during the last year - 

added to that, not a week goes by either 

without hearing about a high-profile 

cybersecurity incident. For instance, 

recently, North Korean hackers attacked 

Pfizer and Serco experienced a cyber-attack 

related to NHS Test and Trace. 

Clearly, Covid-19 has created the perfect 

situation for cybercriminals to exploit. With 

many IT teams stretched - either by work at 

home restrictions, cloud/digital 

transformation projects or cyber-attacks - 

they have their work cut out for them. The 

pressure they face is unprecedented, and 

emphasises the importance of putting in 

place robust data recovery and business 

continuity strategies to support their 

businesses. Evidently, there is a significant 

opportunity for the channel to step in and 

provide advisory and execution support and 

services to SMB customers. 

CONCLUSION 

Even though cloud solves many problems 

for organisations, it does come with data 

protection challenges. One answer to this 

problem involves using dedicated cloud 

backup solutions to protect data. The other 

answer lies in market education about how 

best to secure cloud applications and data. 

Within this scenario, CSPs and ITCs must 

work together to educate the market - 

especially SMBs - about how to secure and 

back up data effectively. By doing this, ITCs 

can take advantage of their CSP partner's 

knowledge - positioning themselves as trusted 

advisors to clients - and also take advantage 

of the available lucrative recurring revenue 

generating opportunity. NC 



FEATUREDATA PROTECTION 

THREE REASONS WHY THE SECURITY INDUSTRY IS PROTECTING THE 

WRONG THING 

WHY IS IT THAT THE SECURITY INDUSTRY TALKS ABOUT NETWORK SECURITY, BUT NOT DATA 

BREACHES? IT'S CLEAR THAT SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE, AND ACCORDING TO PAUL GERMAN, 

CEO, CERTES NETWORKS, THE CHANGE IS SIMPLE 

For too long now, organisations have 

been focusing on protecting their 

network, when in fact they should 

have been protecting their data. Paul 

outlines three reasons why the security 

industry has been protecting the wrong 

thing and what they can do to secure their 

data as we move into 2021. 

REASON ONE: THEY'RE CALLED 

DATA BREACHES, NOT NETWORK 

BREACHES, FOR A REASON 

Looking back on some of the biggest data 

breaches the world has ever seen, it's clear 

that cyber hackers always seem to be one 

step ahead of organisations that seemingly 

have sufficient protection and technology 

in place. From the Adobe data breach way 

back in 2013 that resulted in 153 million 

user records stolen, to the Equifax data 

breach in 2017 that exposed the data of 

147.9 million consumers, the lengthy 

Marriott International data breach that 

compromised the data from 500 million 

customers over four years, to the recent 

SolarWinds data breach at the end of 

2020, over time it's looked like no 

organisation is exempt from the 

devastating consequences of a cyber hack. 

When these breaches hit the media 

headlines, they're called 'data breaches', 




yet the default approach to data security 

for all these organisations has been 

focused on protecting the network - to little 

effect. In many cases, these data breaches 

have seen malicious actors infiltrate the 

organisation's network, sometimes for long 

periods of time, and then have their pick of 

the data that's left unprotected right in front 

of them. 

So what's the rationale behind 

maintaining this flawed approach to data 

protection? The fact is that current 

approaches mean it is simply not possible 

to implement the level of security that 

sensitive data demands while it is in transit 

without compromising network 

performance. Facing an either/or decision, 

companies have blindly followed the same 

old path of attempting to secure the 

network perimeter, and hoping that they 

won't suffer the same fate as so many 

before them. 

However, consider separating data 

security from the network through an 

encryption-based information assurance 

overlay. By doing so organisations can 

seamlessly ensure that even when 

malicious actors enter the network, the 

data will still be unattainable and 

unreadable, keeping the integrity, 

authentication and confidentiality of the 

data intact without impacting overall 

performance of the underlying 

infrastructure. 

REASON TWO: REGULATIONS AND 

COMPLIANCE REVOLVE AROUND 

DATA 

Back in 2018, GDPR caused many 

headaches for businesses across the world. 

There are numerous data regulations 

businesses must adhere to, but GDPR in 

particular highlighted how important it is 

for organisations to protect their sensitive 

data. In the case of GDPR, organisations 

are not fined based on a network breach; 

in fact, if a cyber hacker were to enter an 

organisation's network but not compromise 

any data, the organisation wouldn't actually 

be in breach of the regulation at all. 

GDPR, alongside many other regulations 

such as HIPAA, CCPA, CJIS or PCI-DSS, is 

concerned with protecting data, whether it's 

financial data, healthcare data or law 

enforcement data. The point is: it all 

revolves around data, but the way in which 

data needs to be protected will depend on 

business intent. With new regulations 

constantly coming into play and 

compliance another huge concern for 

organisations as we continue into 2021, 

protecting data has never been more 

important, but by developing an intentbased 

policy, organisations can ensure 

their data is being treated and secured in a 

way that will meet business goals and 

deliver provable and measurable 

outcomes, rather than with a one-size-fitsall 

approach. 

REASON THREE: NETWORK 

BREACHES ARE INEVITABLE, BUT 

DATA BREACHES ARE NOT 

Data has become extremely valuable 

across all business sectors and the increase 

in digitisation means that there is now 

more data available to waiting malicious 

actors. From credit card information to 

highly sensitive data held about law 

enforcement cases and crime scenes, to 

data such as passport numbers and social 

ID numbers in the US, organisations are 

responsible for keeping this data safe for 

their customers, but many are falling short 

of this duty. 

With the high price tag that data now has, 

doing everything possible to keep data 

secure seems like an obvious task for every 

CISO and IT Manager to prioritise, yet the 

constant stream of data breaches shows 

this isn't the case. 

But what can organisations do to keep this 

data safe? To start with, a change in 

mindset is needed to truly put data at the 

forefront of all cybersecurity decisions and 

investments. Essential questions a CISO 

must ask include: Will this solution protect 

my data as it travels throughout the 

network? Will this technology enable data 

to be kept safe, even if hackers are able to 

infiltrate the network? Will this strategy 

ensure the business is compliant with 

regulations regarding data security, and that 

if a network breach does occur, the business 

won't risk facing any fines? The answer to 

these questions must be yes in order for any 

CISO to trust that their data is safe and that 

their IT security policy is effective. 

Furthermore, with such a vast volume of 

data to protect, real-time monitoring of the 

organisation's information assurance 

posture is essential in order to react to an 

issue, and remediate it, at lightning speed. 

With real-time, contextual meta-data, any 

non-compliant traffic flows or policy 

changes can be quickly detected on a 

continuous basis to ensure the security 

posture is not affected, so that even if an 

inevitable network breach occurs, a data 

breach does not follow in its wake. 

TRUSTING INFORMATION 

ASSURANCE 

An information assurance approach that 

removes the misdirected focus on 

protecting an organisation's network and 

instead looks at protecting data, is the only 

way that the security industry can move 

away from the damaging data breaches of 

the past. There really is no reason for these 

data breaches to continue hitting the 

media headlines; the technology needed to 

keep data secure is ready and waiting for 

the industry to take advantage of. 

In the same way that no one would leave 

their finest jewellery on display in the 

kitchen window, or leave their passport 

out for the postman to see, organisations 

must safeguard their most valuable asset 

and protect themselves and their 

reputation from suffering the same fate as 

all those other organisations that have not 

protected their data. NC 




DATA PROTECTION IN A POST-PANDEMIC 

ENVIRONMENT 

ADAM STRANGE, A DATA CLASSIFICATION SPECIALIST AT TITUS, 

IDENTIFIES THE KEY PROCESSES AND TECHNOLOGIES BUSINESS 

MUST ADOPT IN THE WAKE OF COVID-19 

The rapid rise in remote working under 

COVID-19 delivered far-reaching 

changes in how we do business, with 

significant implications for CISOs, Compliance 

and Data Governance Officers. With 

accessibility, bandwidth, data volumes and 

usage demands surging under the pandemic, 

the challenge to keep data safe, whilst 

facilitating access and usability for multiple 

external user groups, became a core concern 

for data leaders. Now, as data from multiple 

and often external sources continues to grow in 

volume, issues around data management, 

control and protection are a priority concern 

for business. 

The forward-thinking companies, with 

technology development strategies already in 

place, were able to quickly adapt under the 

pandemic and act on the clear business 

opportunity to "reinvent" data protection and 

flexible user access. But the organisations that 

maintained a fixed mindset on data protection 

are today finding it more difficult to recover and 

harder to provide their users with the tools 

required to do their jobs safely. 

SUPPORTING REMOTE WORKING 

With the expectation that post-pandemic 

remote working will almost double from prepandemic 

levels, maintaining a centrally driven 

robust data governance strategy that prioritises 

data security and regulatory requirements 

whilst ensuring appropriate and safe access to 

information, whenever and wherever needed, 

is a must. Businesses must recognise the data 

protection lessons learnt and move beyond 

short-term security compromises to a futureproofed 

data governance protocol that is 

technology and user-centric. As a starting 

point, data protection must adapt to the new 

workplace environment. It is likely that in the 

post-pandemic environment, employees will 

split their working hours between home and 

office permanently. So organisations must 

look at the impact of high-volume remote 

working and what this means to their existing 

security controls. 

A reinforcement of corporate policies around 

data creation and linked protection facilities, 

such as Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technology, 

will be critical to facilitate large remote 

workforces, to reduce accidental failings and 

to ensure that data transfer is confined to 

authorised recipients only. By identifying the 

true value and protection requirements of 

data, organisations will be able to make 

intelligent decisions on how to safely handle it. 

All data must be classified so it can be 

managed and handled appropriately, with 

robust classification facilities. 

AUTOMATING DATA CLASSIFICATION 

Businesses that adapt best to the post-pandemic 

era will use automation, data-driven digital 

access technologies and cloud to effect 

improved operations and efficiencies. All 

organisations will need to focus on the resultsdriven 

benefits that new and extended working 

practices can provide and enabling safe user 

and data access must be at the heart of these 

strategies. Automation will help improve 

processing efficiency and reduce the burden on 

frontline security and data management staff. To 

drive integration and automation as quickly as 

possible, data classification tools will not only 

help organisations to protect their data by 

applying appropriate security labels but will also 

help educate users to understand how to treat 

different types of data with different levels of 

classification and sensitivity. 

ESTABLISH A DATA SECURITY CULTURE 

Businesses must apply and enforce PII data 

protection rules to safeguard personal data. 

Data leaders must be able to identify it, 

classify its sensitivity and level of threat were it 

to be lost in any way, apply acceptable usage 

policies and appropriate levels of protection. 

Establishing a PII culture must be gradual and 

based on buy-in and defined responsibilities 

that are recognised and accepted from the 

top down. 

Given employees play such a vital role in 

ensuring that business maintains a strong data 

privacy posture, the ability to work with 

stakeholders and users to understand data 

protection requirements and policies is key. 

Security and data protection education must be 

conducted company-wide and must exist at a 

level that is workable and sustainable. Regular 

security awareness training and a companywide 

inclusive security culture within the firm will 

ensure that data security becomes a part of 

everyday working practice, embedded into all 

actions and the very heart of the business. 

A robust data protection protocol is critical 

for all organisations, and will particularly be 

the case as we move beyond COVID-19. 

Delivering optimal operational efficiencies, 

data management and data classification 

provision under post-pandemic budget 

constraints will be an ongoing business-critical 

challenge. Data leaders must be selective and 

identify the combination of technologies, 

processes and people investments that will 

deliver the greatest security controls to meet 

new productivity targets, to extend and support 

remote-working strategies and to adequately 

support the ever-increasing volumes of data, 

now and into the future. NC 



PRODUCTREVIEW 

ExaGrid Tiered 

Backup Storage - 

Retention Time-Lock 

for Ransomware 

Recovery 


PRODUCT 

REVIEWPRODUCT RE 

Ransomware attacks are proving to be 

extremely profitable for hackers, and 

organisations that think their backups 

provide sufficient protection could be in for a 

nasty surprise. These attacks are constantly 

evolving and the latest threats specifically 

target backup applications with the aim of 

deleting all backups before the primary 

storage encryption process is triggered. 

ExaGrid's Tiered Backup Storage offers a 

unique approach that protects backups from 

ransomware and provides fast recovery services 

in the event of an attack. Included with all 

ExaGrid EX appliances, the Retention Time- 

Lock feature takes advantage of their two-tier 

architecture to place an air gap between the 

network-facing tier and non-network-facing tier. 

ExaGrid's Tiered Backup Storage uses 

patented Landing Zone and Adaptive 

Deduplication features to provide fast 

backups and restores without the 

performance impact of data deduplication 

from which traditional data reduction 

solutions suffer. It's highly scalable as a site 

supports up to 32 EX appliances (a 2.7PB full 

backup) and each is a complete system with 

its own storage, CPU, memory and 

networking, so compute power and network 

bandwidth increase in step with capacity. 

Data received from the backup application is 

written directly to a disk cache in 

undeduplicated format. As backups complete, 

the data in the Landing Zone is 'tiered' and 

written to a separate long-term retention 

repository where it is compressed and 

deduplicated. 

ExaGrid's Retention Time-Lock feature comes 

into play by delaying delete requests to the 

deduplicated long-term retention data in the 

offline repository. Delete requests will be 

carried out in the repository, but only once the 

time-lock period has expired, so that there is 

no impact on the desired long-term retention 

in the repository. It's more cost-effective than 

solutions that use additional hardware as it 

only requires about 10% of an existing storage 

repository to be allocated to it. The Retention 

Time-Lock period defaults to 10 days but can 

be as long as 30 days, and this delayed 

delete setting is separate from the system's 

backup retention policy that can be any 

number of days, weeks, months or years. 

ExaGrid's scale-out sites are managed from a 

central console which provides colour-coded 

status views of site capacities and free space 

plus Landing Zone and retention repository 

utilisation. To configure a site Retention Time- 

Lock period you simply click on its icon in the 

main dashboard and enter the value in days. 

Even the Retention Time-Lock setting is 

protected as changes to this must be verified 

by a user with the ExaGrid Security Officer 

role. Any attempts to change it result in a 

request being sent to this user where it appears 

in their console awaiting approval. 

If an attack is detected, the ExaGrid system 

issues warnings and allows administrators to 

respond immediately by suspending all further 

share access and taking them offline. And if 

the attack does succeed in encrypting data, 

ExaGrid has immutable data objects that are 

not modified or overwritten so all previous 

retention does not change. 

It's a simple process to recover from a 

ransomware attack as you browse the 

retention repository for the latest unencrypted 

backup. Selecting a date and time enables all 

previous backups from that period and 

initiating a recovery makes the selected pointin-time 

backup available to the application for 

subsequent restoration. 

Ransomware threats are becoming more 

devious, but ExaGrid's Tiered Backup Storage 

and its innovative Retention Time-Lock feature 

deliver essential protection with a secure, airgapped 

retention repository, delayed deletes 

and immutable data objects. It ensures critical 

backups are safe from malicious deletion and 

even if an attack does succeed in encrypting 

primary data, ExaGrid's highly efficient 

recovery services will have you up and running 

in no time. NC 

Product: Retention Time-Lock for 

Ransomware Recovery 

Supplier: ExaGrid 

Web site: www.exagrid.com 

Tel: +44 (0) 1189 497 051 



FEATUREEDGE 

NOW'S THE TIME FOR NAAS 

NETWORK-AS-A-SERVICE (NAAS) IS POISED TO RESHAPE 

EXPERIENCES AT THE EDGE, ACCORDING TO SIMON WILSON, 

CTO AT ARUBA UK&I 

Flexible consumption services for storage 

and compute power seem to be 

mainstream today, with customers taking 

"as a Service" approaches more often than not - 

and it's easy to see why. Even prior to the 

COVID-19 pandemic, organisations were 

pushed to address fluctuating markets and 

economic uncertainty. 

CAPEX planning has long been known to 

leave organisations with long product lifecycles 

and an inability to pivot quickly, locking 

businesses into costly spending patterns and 

damaging their capacity to meet today's shifting 

business dynamics. Enter OPEX, the 

subscription approach that brings flexibility and 

fluidity to operating expenses and on-demand 

payments, underscoring business agility. 

While flexible financing is one of the core 

reasons for the uptake in as-a-service models, 

there are a number of other factors deemed as, 

if not more, important than cost alone. We now 

see that NaaS is gaining traction, with the latest 

IDC 'IT Procurement Trends and Consumption 

Models' Survey, reporting that flexible 

consumption models for enterprise networking 

software and hardware continue to gain favour 

in the market. 

LEVERAGING IT STAFF TO SPEND MORE 

TIME ON WHAT MATTERS 

Within IDC's report, the desire to reduce IT staff 

workloads came out as one of the top factors 

driving as-a-service deployments - this is 

particularly relevant for networks. More 

frequently than not, IT teams find their days 

filled with requests to address network 

problems. Resources, time and expenses are 

focused on troubleshooting, finding the root 

cause, and remediating the latest network event 

or breach, leaving IT teams unable to focus on 

more critical and strategic tasks. 

The rollout of subscription offerings across key 

departments, including deployment and 

decommissioning, means that IT staff can spend 

more time on complex, value-adding tasks for 

the business. This means truly optimising staff 

with the right tools to improve business and 

drive new outcomes. 

Network-as-a-Service includes data analytics, 

expanded telemetry, artificial intelligence and 

automation, which come together to deliver 

critical efficiency gains in network operations. 

With network management increasingly 

complex in the new age of remote working, 

replacing manual interventions with advanced 

automation and analytics also provides 

increased visibility from a security perspective 

from usage through to bandwidth. 

HAVING AN EXTRA PAIR OF EYES ON 

SECURITY ISSUES 

As the pandemic has pushed networks to 

support remote workforces over the past year, 

increased security remains a top priority for 

businesses. With NaaS, most providers can rely 

on the security of the entire voice and data 

network so that all transactions, applications, 

and data are kept safe and secure. The number 

of IoT devices in particular are growing at an 

exponential rate, especially during this new 

working paradigm. Control and visibility issues 

are heightening risks and leaving networks more 

vulnerable than ever to potential breaches. But if 

IT staff are spending their time troubleshooting, 

they won't be able to protect their network 

properly and detect threats in real-time. 

NaaS deployment can provide an extra pair of 

hands for IT staff by running the most up-todate 

versions of security software and ensuring 

that hotfixes are installed as soon as they 

become available. For small businesses in 

particular, the ability to scale up and down as 

needed, depending on networking capacity, has 

been helpful as business needs have changed. 

MEETING EXPECTATIONS AT THE EDGE 

As organisations increase their reliance on 

cloud services, they have also needed their 

networks to extend beyond the perimeter of the 

office walls. Networks must now embrace the 

Edge - the place where data is created, 

captured, stored, and processed. 

Businesses that are able to connect to the 

Edge efficiently and securely, and leverage the 

data they collect, will be well positioned for the 

future. Research even shows that 72% of global 

IT leaders are actively using Edge technologies 

to deliver new outcomes. Those with more 

mature Edge deployments are even increasing 

their business value from that data. Coupled 

with the expansion of the enterprise network that 

accompanies Edge activity, strain legacy 

network operations and management, NaaS 

presents an opportunity for businesses to 

outsource the day-to-day management of the 

network and gain access to the most advanced 

hardware and software technology. 

We can expect NaaS to be a critical enabling 

platform for extending enterprise networks to the 

Edge in the coming months and years. This 

business model is increasingly being 

championed for its flexible approach and the 

subscription service is becoming highly 

recognised for a wealth of reasons. 

Organisations are waking up to the impact 

that NaaS deployment can have on IT staff 

workloads, its ability to stabilise security 

concerns, and unlock the true potential of Edge 

technologies - now and in the future. NC 



NETWORKcomputing 

We introduced the Network Computing "Masterclass" into the magazine a few years back. A 

Masterclass series in the magazine run for at least a year. Some have successfully run for longer. This 

concept enables us, with the help of a an expert vendor, to cover a subject area in a far more 

detailed way than could ever be covered in a single article. We feel that the Masterclasses we have 

carried have done a valuable job in guiding readers through many of the issues that they need to be 

aware of - issues that are perhaps not being talked about elsewhere. Vendor branding appears on 

the Masterclass page to distinguish a Masterclass article from the many "one-off" articles that we 

carry in Network Computing. 

We have identified a number of key subject areas which we feel would benefit from a Masterclass. 

These are: 

Network Testing and Monitoring 

Cabling and cable management 

Network access control 

Powering a Network 

The transition to unified comms 

Desktop virtualisation 

Traffic management 

Using a Data Centre 

Advantages and challenges of relying on an increasingly mobile workforce 

Cloud security 

Education and training 

If any of these subject areas are to be covered in a Masterclass we will be 

seeking a Partner to work with. A Masterclass Partner will ideally be a vendor 

with a track record of expertise in the particular area. Are you a vendor 

who could help us in launching a Masterclass covering one of the subjects 

listed above ? Alternatively, could you recommend an organisation who 

could help us ? Your suggestions will be very welcome. 

Please contact david.bonner@btc.co.uk

FEATUREIOT 

IoT TO THE RESCUE? 

NICK SACKE, HEAD OF IoT AND PRODUCTS AT 

COMMS365 DISCUSSES HOW IoT TECHNOLOGIES 

AND THE USE OF DATA CAN BOOST AND SUPPORT 

INDUSTRIES AND THE WIDER ECONOMY 

With the UK going into its first 

financial recession since 2009 as a 

consequence of COVID-19, many 

businesses are struggling to stay alive in the 

current business climate. The economy has 

shrunk by 20.4% compared with the first three 

months of 2020 following months of 

businesses being forced to stay shut, 

furloughed workforces and a reduction in 

consumer expenditure. Additional restrictions 

in place at the time of writing are ratcheting 

up the financial pressure on multiple 

industries, with the prospect of a 'double-dip' 

recession an increasing prospect. 

Without the right technology and continuity 

processes in place, many organisations were 

unable to adapt their models quickly enough 

to survive when they needed to. Now it's a 

wake-up call to get the right solutions 

implemented to ride the waves of any future 

economic storms that come their way. 

COVID-19 has accelerated the need to work 

collaboratively and stay connected to protect 

both society and the economy. 

BIG DATA ANALYTICS AND IoT 

With the increase in the volume of data that is 

being produced, identifying, analysing and 

using the useful information that is scattered 

around an organisation is a key business 

challenge, but also an opportunity. This can 

be addressed by the optimal use of data, 

deploying innovative IoT technologies 

including sensors, and targeted insights from 

'Big Data' analytics systems. 

Key information (data) is vital to ensuring 

businesses have 24/7 insight across their 

operations so that pinch points and potential 

problems can be identified and remedied 

almost in real-time. A good example of this is 

in the freight and cargo industry, where realtime 

monitoring of consignments using 

sensors can be analysed and used by 

operations executives to identify problems in 

the flow of goods, so that service level 

agreement can be met, and 'just in time' 

economic models can be reinforced. 

IoT, smart sensors and connected 

technologies are starting to play a key role in 

providing valuable data for effective decision 

making across all industries. Improving 

products and processes through data 

collection and analysis is now necessary for 

companies to future-proof their businesses in 

a highly volatile global market and identify 

additional revenue streams or alternative 

routes to market to soften the blow from any 

economic fallout. The more data we gather, 

the more centralised and secure organisations 

can become to limit the potentially devastating 

impact of future pandemics. 

DATA IN HEALTHCARE 

As part of the fight against the pandemic, the 

healthcare industry had to quickly adapt and 

digitally transform in order to continue the 

provision of healthcare services to patients 

across the world. Moreover, to understand the 

nature of the virus and curb its spread, the 

NHS was required to streamline the way it 

used data in order to make informed 

decisions. One element of this approach was 

the development of the NHS' data platform to 

provide national organisations with secure, 

reliable and timely data. By storing masses of 

information about those infected with COVID- 

19, this data can be effectively used for 

spotting trends, case identification, allocating 

resources and implementing national 

lockdowns in areas with rising cases. 

COVID-SAFE TECHNOLOGIES 

Elements that have had a significant impact 

on the economy are the need for social 

distancing measures, restrictions in gatherings 

and other safety elements that have had to be 

implemented. Particularly for industries such 



FEATUREIOT 

as manufacturing, retail and logistics, with 

less staff able to be present within the same 

environment, organisations faced significant 

challenges to meet demand. But this is where 

IoT technology is playing a vital role, 

especially once businesses start preparing for 

employees to return to their original work 

environments. 

The use of IoT technology can support 

additional sanitisation measures and the 

automation of shared touchpoints needed to 

limit cross-contamination. For example, 

detecting sanitiser bottle fill levels, monitoring 

the distance between people via infrared 

beams, alerting when social distancing 

thresholds are crossed, and analysing 

movement around working spaces with 

thermal imaging camera systems. By 

deploying innovative technologies such as 

these, businesses can still operate safely and 

more productively while generating revenue 

to remain operational and ultimately, boost 

the economy. 

GREEN AGENDA 

Sustainable supply chains can help to futureproof 

businesses and provide long-term 

resilience for organisations during challenging 

times. By taking a circular economy approach, 

which is an economic system which keeps 

resources in use for as long as possible, 

extracts the maximum value from them whilst 

in use, then recover and regenerate products 

and materials at the end of each service life 

(Wrap), organisations can reduce waste, 

extract the most value and obtain cost savings 

by optimising their use of resources. 

Advanced digital technologies can help to 

unlock the benefits from the circularity of 

resources. Through the collection and 

analysis of data, digital technology such as 

intelligent, interconnected devices, have the 

potential to identify challenges, outline the key 

areas of waste of resources and inform more 

effective decision-making on how to address 

these issues as they occur. By capitalising on 

innovation which will underpin sustained 

growth, businesses can benefit from a rise of 

new economic opportunities, such as 

substantial savings, mitigation of supply risks 

and long-term resilience of the economy, 

while ensuring that assets are used to their 

maximum potential and value. 

Moreover, particularly in a manufacturing 

environment, by having visual insight into the 

location and the condition and availability of 

each asset, this overview is of value to 

businesses to enhance their productivity 

through factors such as predictive 

maintenance. Overall, this helps to make 

products and services more effective and 

efficient, while reducing costs and waste in the 

supply chain. Initiatives supporting a circular 

economy offers businesses a more resilient 

and sustainable future, potentially creating 

over 500,000 more jobs and saving EU 

businesses 8% of their annual turnover. 

5G AND CONNECTIVITY 

Parts of our global critical infrastructure 

remain siloed, unconnected or with varying 

connectivity quality. In a pandemic when 

social distancing measures are in place, and 

workforces are remote, it's vital for businesses 

to have a robust, high-quality Internet 

connection and IoT connected devices on-site 

in factories, warehouses, construction sites, 

power plants, transport grids, hospitals, 

schools, government buildings and utility 

distribution networks. This will provide visibility 

on-site and remote access as required, 

resulting in reducing the need for engineers 

and IT teams to make unnecessary and 

potentially risky site visits. 

The deployment of 5G will help to increase 

network capacity and data flow; supporting 

connections of one million devices per 

square kilometre. By supercharging the 

potential of IoT with new 5G networks, 

connected buildings, vehicles, transport 

infrastructure and healthcare devices could 

all benefit from the value this enhanced 

connectivity will bring. 

For example, 5G could help to revolutionise 

traffic and congestion management, in turn, 

reducing delays and allowing quicker access 

for emergency services. Smart buildings are 

the future, and post-COVID-19, can help to 

boost the economy by reducing the costs of 

running the public sector estate, such as the 

introduction of smart lighting and optimising 

the use of air conditioning. 

Optimisation of facilities management will 

be especially important now that the 

population is set to be a nation of remote 

workers for the foreseeable future - heating 

and cooling entire buildings is now 

unnecessary. Building managers should be 

able to rely on intuitive technology to heat 

and light only those areas that are in use to 

save money and help support environmental 

initiatives in the process. Ventilation is now 

acknowledged to be a critical factor in 

preventing the spread of viruses such as 

COVID-19 in buildings. The monitoring of 

indoor environmental conditions and 

ventilation systems will be another tool in the 

new facilities management service portfolio. 

CONCLUSION 

If businesses were to embrace innovative 

technology and use the data they collect and 

store in the right way, the 'new normal' post- 

COVID-19 may be a smoother transition for 

many, while preparing them for any future 

unprecedented crisis. The opportunity to 

deploy innovative sensor-based technologies 

and data analytics services has given a 

growing number of start-ups and small 

businesses entry to enterprise and government 

supply chains, and lucrative contracts to aid 

the collection and optimal use of data. 

By leveraging the most value from their data 

and resources, as well as the management 

and more efficient use of resources to meet 

green agenda objectives, organisations can 

help to keep their running costs low, which is 

particularly important during uncertain times 

with reduced services and furloughed staff. 

This preparation, in turn, will help businesses 

to ride the waves of uncertainty and keep 

them trading to ultimately boost the economy 

in both the short and long-term. NC 



OPINION 

CLOSER TO THE EDGE 

SIMON MICHIE, CTO, PULSANT OFFERS A GUIDE TO THE ROLE 

OF EDGE AND IoT IN MODERN DATA CENTRES 

Reflective of the exponential growth of 

data is the 200% increase from 2016 

of connected IoT devices that are 

predicted to become active this year. As IoT 

devices enter more industries such as 

agriculture, healthcare, IT and critical 

services, it’s imperative for businesses to 

harness these technologies to make more 

informed data decisions. The challenge 

though is how it is used and analysed for 

real-time decision making. 

The answer to this for many is connection to 

the digital edge, but this raises the question of 

the role that edge computing and IoT plays in 

the data centre and colocation space. With 

this in mind, there are a number of aspects for 

you to consider: 

The uptake of IoT – IoT has been heavily 

verticalised in recent years and centered 

around healthcare, retail and manufacturing. It 

is however now starting to benefit other sectors 

such as health and safety initiatives, including 

track-and-trace and smart building technology. 

The increasing maturity of 5G – While 5G 

brings great promise as its rollout across the 

UK continues, there is still not widespread 

coverage to fully support this advancement. 

The adoption of data analytics – In much the 

same way as IoT, data analytics represents 

tremendous potential. However, mirroring the 

uptake and optimisation of IoT, the opportunity 

around analytics is still largely limited to 

verticalised applications 

The viability of regional colocation for the 

edge – Mobilising location-specific edge 

instances and the ability to spin-up the 

required communications hinges on 

strategically placed regional data centre 

locations and mitigating the cost and 

performance restrictions of public cloud. 

The expansion of customer data lakes – The 

maturation of customer data lakes curated 

outside of cloud boundaries with the potential 

to support edge applications before wider 

consolidated cloud publishing. 

The location of edge requirements – Edge 

positioning, both in terms of its physical 

location and architecture, has a high 

economic weighting in this model. 

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 

DATA CENTRE AND THE EDGE 

The role that edge computing plays in data 

centre operations closely depends on the 

above elements in order to capture, transfer, 

process, store and manage data. As it stands 

in the industry, interaction between many of 

these factors is taking place, but consistent 

integration between them is needed to 

establish a business case for an edge instance 

for IoT. 

When analysing the location of edge 

requirements, it's increasingly the case that the 

edge could be anything from a plane to a 

temporary site. For data centre providers, it's 

imperative to think beyond infrastructure 

change and deploy facilities closer to the 

customer instance, enabling business users to 

benefit from lower latency. 

While extension of remote services is likely 

with managed service providers, the 

economics of location, latency and capacity 

are vital for data centre providers. In many 

cases, it is hoped that the infrastructure 

footprint of the colocation provider will be 

sufficient, but this doesn't form the foundation 

of a sustainable edge colocation business 

model. This requires an effective, responsive 

and economic mobilisation of 

communications, which will be time-bound in 

many instances. 

LOOKING FORWARD 

Without doubt, the expansion of IoT and edge 

devices will continue to have an impact on 

businesses moving forward. The role that it 

plays in the data centre and colocation market 

however is defined largely on the interplay 

between a number of elements that will shape 

the industry moving forward. From gradual 

adoption of 5G technologies to changing 

colocation models, the coming years will dictate 

whether IoT and resulting data lakes will truly 

transform the data centre as we know it. NC 



OPINION 

MONITORING YOUR NETWORK IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 

BY MARK TOWLER, SENIOR PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER, PROGRESS 

If 2020 taught us anything, it's that network 

monitoring is more important than ever. 

While there's always been the background 

awareness that network outages are expensive 

and the business can't run without a functioning 

network, the onslaught of COVID-19 brought 

that awareness firmly to the forefront. 

First off, everyone went home and network 

administrators had to cope - almost literally 

overnight - with supporting a remote workforce 

with the network they had. The VPN and the 

firewall systems suddenly became even more 

urgently critical resources than they'd been a 

week ago. For a few weeks administrators 

struggled to adapt, to support more remote 

workers than normal and to shore up systems 

that were suddenly under strain. Those with 

comprehensive network monitoring systems 

found this far easier to do than those without. 

However, once this task was complete there 

came months of adapting to the new reality. 

Workers literally could not work if they couldn't 

access the network. They couldn't just move to 

a different office, or an unused conference 

room or the cafeteria if they had network 

problems. They couldn't just walk down to the 

IT department to get a loaner laptop if their 

own stopped working. They couldn't even run 

down to the nearest coffee shop or library to 

use free WiFi. On top of all of this, every single 

employee was now consuming massive 

amounts of bandwidth for videoconferencing. 

Those smart enough to buy stock in Zoom 

were rewarded, but the network admins 

responsible for providing the stable 

connections that made it work found it a 

challenge. Again, those with a comprehensive 

network monitoring solution had an easier 

time of it. In fact, one of the key questions 

answered by network monitoring 

is, "Where is all my 

bandwidth going?" 

As a result, the 

organisations 

that adapted 

to the new 

COVID 

normal 

(and 

not 

all of them did) are now dealing with a world 

where the health of their network has become 

more important than ever. When an employee 

can't connect in order to do any work all day, 

the cost of network downtime escalates 

dramatically. As a result, we're seeing changes 

in the priorities of network monitoring 

customers. Solutions that simply monitor status 

and report upon it are no longer adequate; 

network administrators need to be alerted 

before network issues start to impact end-users 

so they can fix them. 

In addition, network monitoring systems that 

can apply 'self-healing' actions are becoming 

far more popular since they can automate 

responses to common issues. For example, if 

your network monitoring solution can 

automatically allocate more bandwidth to a 

server when traffic levels exceed 85%, that can 

mean the difference between an emergency 

midnight phone call and a minor notification 

the next day. 

Finally, the ongoing trend towards systems 

integration is reaching a tipping point. It's now 

easier than ever to integrate physical, virtual 

and cloud resources with any business system - 

and the advantages of doing so are legion. 

The network monitoring industry is keeping 

pace with a shift towards open APIs that allow 

easy integration and automation. Not only 

should your solution monitor these diverse 

environments, it should be able to feed 

monitoring data to any system that can use it. 

Similarly, other systems should be able to 

provide information to the network monitoring 

system so it can use that data to make 

changes to either the network itself, or how it 

monitors the network. 

Your organisation has become more agile and 

adaptable in the face of our new reality; your 

network monitoring system will need to do the 

same. NC 



OPINION 

THE VISIBLE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION 

ADRIAN ROWLEY, SENIOR DIRECTOR EMEA, GIGAMON ON WHY 

NETWORK AUTOMATION AND VISIBILITY ARE KEY FOR DIGITAL 

TRANSFORMATION 

Just over a year ago, business leaders 

across the UK were forced to make tough 

decisions surrounding how to enable and 

secure their workforce in the mass shift to 

remote working. For some, the IT 

infrastructure was already in place to make 

the transition smooth, but 12 months of 

home working has stretched it to its limits. For 

others, with little digitisation to support them, 

quick responses were taken in a patchwork 

fashion, and the solution often became an 

acceleration towards hybrid cloud 

infrastructures. 

With such fast and dramatic changes, 

security risks increased, and network 

performance often suffered. What's more, 

visibility into data-in-motion became 

clouded, as networks were clogged up with 

an abundance of traffic from personal and 

unsecured devices, while the rapid growth in 

hybrid infrastructure created dangerous blind 

spots. Now, with fluid workforces set to stay, 

it is essential that businesses find ways to 

regain control over their increasingly 

complex networks. 

EMBRACE AUTOMATION 

Data volumes are growing far beyond the 

capacity for human analysis. Not only does 

5G have a role to play in this deluge of data, 

but the vast amounts of new traffic from 

personal devices will also have a detrimental 

effect on a business' network efficiency. 

Network automation is one way to solve this 

issue, and according to a recent survey, 97% 

of IT leaders agree that process automation is 

an essential part of digital transformation. 

However, what and how we automate has 

changed dramatically across the last ten years. 

Today, automating delivery of data to service 

triage and performance management tools is 

a simple process, despite its complexity in the 

past. Automating data intelligence has also 

become more popular for organisations 

looking for ways to free up their workforce, 

find potential bottlenecks in their infrastructure 

and mitigate the impact of cyberattacks. 

Ultimately, automation allows data-in-motion 

to be transformed into valuable insights that 

will improve processes and support the 

overstretched workforce, without the need for 

human intervention. 

INVEST IN PEOPLE AND ADJUST 

YOUR STRATEGY 

In a year where we have all been siloed and 

separated, working collaboratively is often no 

longer possible without technology as the 

enabler. However, this technology will not 

function efficiently without an experienced and 

skilled workforce behind it. While network 

automation supports IT teams as they struggle 

with the digital skills gap, organisations must 

ensure they have an expert team working 

alongside smart automation. With this 

combination, ROI becomes more measurable, 

and business processes begin to improve. 

The last 12 months have also demonstrated 

to many IT teams and C-suite leaders that 

organisations not only need to be willing to 

adjust their technology and infrastructure, but 

also change their policies and work processes. 

To meet the demand for a mass-shift to home 

working, many businesses had to change their 

approach, or risk losing staff and clients - it 

was a case of innovate or fail. The fluid 

workforce is looking set to stay, meaning 

companies must prioritise agility and be 

prepared to adapt their strategies, especially 

their cybersecurity defence systems, based on 

the current changeable climate. 

ALWAYS PRIORITISE VISIBILITY 

Regardless of whether visibility is needed to 

embrace automation or to bolster 

cybersecurity, establishing a clear view across 

a network is essential to regain control over 

data-in-motion and push forward with digital 

transformation initiatives. NetOps teams must 

be able to see into all on-premise, public, 

private and hybrid cloud infrastructure. No 

traffic - even encrypted data - should be out of 

view. To make this visibility possible, businesses 

should ensure they take a holistic approach to 

managing their IT infrastructure, monitoring all 

their technology assets as if through a single 

pane of glass. The level visibility will allow for 

more insights into network traffic that can 

improve business processes and ease the 

pressure on IT teams. 

NetOps teams are still facing the need to do 

more with less, as digital transformation 

initiatives continue but budgets remain tight. 

Network automation has therefore become a 

viable and valuable option for IT experts, and 

by ensuring that visibility is prioritised, these 

automation solutions can flourish. Business 

leaders must now understand that choosing 

whether or not to automate processes will 

significantly impact business success - or lack 

of - in the future. NC 



OPINION 

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DILEMMA 

U.K. EMPLOYEES WANT PANDEMIC-ERA TECH TO STAY, ACCORDING 

TO NEW RESEARCH FROM THE WORKFORCE INSTITUTE AT UKG 

As the U.K. prepares to return to normal 

in the coming months and industries 

reopen, research from The Workforce 

Institute at UKG reveals that as a result of the 

COVID-19 pandemic, 87% of U.K. workers 

have been propelled into the future of work 

by accelerating their digital transformation 

projects. Furthermore, 86% are enjoying the 

benefits of these new technologies, and 38% 

are fearful that their organisation will go back 

to the "old way" of doing things postpandemic. 

The global research commissioned by The 

Workforce Institute at UKG and conducted by 

Workplace Intelligence dissects the feelings of 

nearly 4,000 employees and business leaders 

across 11 countries to understand what digital 

transformation initiatives took place during the 

COVID-19 pandemic, how leaders and 

employees felt about these new technologies, 

and what they hope to see in the postpandemic 

world of work. 

ACCELERATED DIGITAL 

TRANSFORMATION 

The vast majority (87%) of U.K. decision 

makers said that digital transformation 

projects were sped up as a result of the 

pandemic. When asked to what degree they 

felt the pandemic accelerated these projects, 

75% said between 1 to 3 years! 

This is evidenced by more than three 

quarters (76%) of employees saying that they 

used at least one new technology or 

application during the crisis. Of those new 

technologies, more than a third (36%) started 

using mobile applications to complete some 

work activities and nearly a quarter (24%) 

were empowered to leverage more selfservice 

solutions. 

Reflecting on their preparation, leaders are 

varied on 

the actions 

they took during 

the crisis, with 34% 

accelerating a critical 

technology deployment, 30% 

deciding to replace a software vendor, and 

29% saying that they "found" budget to pursue 

a technology improvement that was previously 

thought to be too expensive or unnecessary. 

EMPLOYEES WELCOMED NEW 

TECHNOLOGIES 

These new technology implementations were 

well received, with 86% of U.K. employees 

giving their organisation a passing grade (A, 

B, or C) for its use or deployment of new 

technology during the COVID-19 pandemic 

to help them do their job more safely, 

efficiently, or from an alternative location. 

However, almost half (44%) of all U.K. 

workers regardless of level said that their 

company's pandemic response would have 

been smoother if they had implemented 

modern technologies as part of their standard 

strategy instead of waiting for the crisis to 

occur. And 42% feel that their organisation 

was slow to embrace new technologies prior 

to the pandemic. 

Looking to the future, employees hope to 

keep these technologies in their arsenal to 

better perform in their roles, as 60% hope 

their organisation keeps many of the 

technology and policy changes that were 

implemented during the COVID-19 

pandemic response. However, 38% believe 

their organisation will roll back the changes, 

going back to the "old way" of doing things. 

MODERN TECHNOLOGIES SHOW 

BENEFITS, DESPITE ROADBLOCKS 

Despite fear of rolling back technological 

improvements, U.K. workers remain optimistic 

about 

potential 

business benefits, 

with about half or 

more hoping their 

company's digital 

transformation efforts: 

create a better customer 

experience (54%); 

create a better employee experience 

(51%); and 

improve decision making (44%). 

Though they see barriers to these benefits, 

with more than one third feeling that their 

companies main challenge to selecting or 

implementing new technologies is: 

budget restraints (40%); 

security and privacy concerns (34%); and 

culture change and employee adoption 

(35%). 

"COVID-19 turned the world of work 

upside down and clearly forced the digital 

transformation hand in a very short period of 

time," said Peter Harte, group VP, EMEA, 

UKG. "Some organisations were simply 

trying to survive - and still are - but others 

have been thriving. One year later, 

organisations are seeing the fruits of their 

digital transformation labour. 

"It's now imperative to have a technology 

roadmap to aid them in thriving throughout 

the remainder of 2021 and into the future, 

to keep pace with developments to not only 

protect their bottom line, but also meet the 

needs of their people and customers." NC 



OPINION 

THE CONNECTIVITY CONUNDRUM 

LEE WADE, CEO OF EXPONENTIAL-E EXPLAINS WHY CONNECTIVITY IS THE FINAL PIECE IN THE HOME 

WORKING PRODUCTIVITY PUZZLE 

In our new world of work, lots of attention 

has been paid to how we connect 

individual employees and their homes to 

office networks. Why? So businesses can 

protect their bottom line. According to The 

World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs 

Report 2020, most business leaders believe 

their employees are less productive when out 

of the office. In fact, it says that 78% of 

business leaders think hybrid and homeworking 

will have a negative impact on 

employees' productivity. 

Understandably it's difficult to determine 

exactly how productive or efficient staff are at 

completing tasks when working from home. 

It's something that varies massively from one 

business to another, with the quality of 

technology provision a key determining factor. 

Whether business leaders like it or not, one 

thing is clear - hybrid working is here to stay. 

MAKING HOME WORKING WORK 

And it can't be all bad. If home working 

wasn't conducive to people doing their jobs, 

some of the world's most recognisable firms, 

including Spotify, Twitter and Microsoft 

wouldn't have committed to letting their 

employees work from home permanently 

should they choose to. 

Companies all around the world are 

considering following their lead, or at least 

guaranteeing the right to work from home for 

large portions of the week in employment 

contracts and workplace policies. But it's one 

thing to promise staff the benefit and another 

thing entirely to provide them with a set-up 

that ensures they are equally productive when 

working from home. 

That's where the need for constant 

connectivity comes in. Home networks need 

to provide an equal performance to that of 

company offices to make the current trend a 

consolidated reality. It's an achievable vision, 

and one that major firms such as Spotify 

begun to realise, thanks to their investment in 

best-in-class tech infrastructure. 

But for many firms, this vision remains a pipe 



OPINION 

dream. Most of them still have network 

architecture, capacity and security policies in 

place that were designed and implemented to 

only serve a small number of remote workers 

on a 'management approval' basis, and 

prioritise the needs and demands travelling 

for business, rather than facilitate genuinely 

'flexible' working. 

These inadequate policies are either 

creating or exacerbating three common 

obstacles that are affecting staff's ability to 

work effectively when logging in from home: 

1. Bandwidth barriers 

With so many people at home all at the same 

time, competing over Wi-Fi bandwidth, lots of 

connections are crumbling under the heavy 

load. How many times have you been on a 

call where your camera has frozen or a bad 

connection has kicked you out? 

It's up to employers, not employees, to 

remedy this issue. Various software-defined 

networking solutions are available that 

automatically divide up, prioritise and 

distribute the bandwidth coming into homes 

and direct it to where it's needed, so 

employees' meetings run smoothly and aren't 

interrupted by their kids watching Disney+, or 

other family members listening in to the latest 

tunes via Alexa. 

2. Security concerns 

Home networks are inherently insecure, and 

often unprotected by firewalls. Cyber 

attackers can break into home networks easily 

- even through IP-enabled devices, like your 

fridge or your kettle - and once inside, tunnel 

and break into their employer's corporate 

network. Who knew making a cup of tea 

could be so damaging? 

Businesses need a solution that 

automatically extends corporate-level security 

into each employee's home, making all 

offices - whether at home or on-site - equally 

secure, and truly delivering peace of mind as 

a service. Tools like SD-WAN help deliver this 

by integrating on-premise level security, and 

zero-trust access control, so employees' 

homes - and all connected items within them 

- become a secure extension of the corporate 

or office networks. And yes, that does even 

include the games consoles that kids have 

been using when they were meant to be 

doing school-work. 

3. The constant connectivity conundrum 

Most companies' HR policies are closely 

linked with pastoral staff care, and health and 

wellbeing. And for good reason. Staff need to 

be given the tools and support needed to 

maintain their physical and mental wellbeing. 

No one should complain about being given 

occasional free drinks, yoga sessions, or 

subscriptions to mindfulness apps. 

But looking after employees is now about 

more than wellbeing perks. HR policies need 

to evolve to based on our new reality of home 

working, and incorporate constant 

connectivity as a key pillar. Having a 

productive home working environment is now 

critical to the wellbeing of every member of 

staff, as well as their livelihood. Because 

without it, not only might their client 

relationships, performance and the company's 

revenues be affected, but their home life 

could also suffer. Poor connectivity could even 

threaten employees' own sources of income if 

they can't do their work properly. Employers 

therefore need to make sure connectivity is a 

key HR priority, and their networks allow staff 

to not only fulfil, but surpass the expectations 

of their roles. 

It's a no-brainer to invest in a network that 

takes the office to your employees, and gives 

them the ingredients to succeed, in order to 

make a long-term success of home working. 

Regardless of when restrictions end, 

employees now expect and demand that their 

employers provide them with tech 

infrastructure that ensures they're productive, 

wherever they are working from. Employers 

need to wake up and prepare for it. Now. 

Otherwise, they might find they no longer 

have a workforce to return to the office, when 

the time is right. NC 



SECURITYUPDATE 

THE WEAK LINK IN THE CHAIN 

SECTOR ORGANISATIONS NEED TO ADOPT A ZERO- 

COMPROMISE APPROACH TO CYBERSECURITY ACCORDING 

TO STEPH CHARBONNEAU, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT 

STRATEGY, HELPSYSTEMS 

No organisation is immune from the 

risk of supply chain cyber-attacks and 

data breaches, but those with 

especially large and complex supplier 

ecosystems are much more vulnerable. This is 

particularly true of public sector organisations 

and even more so in the light of the 

challenges, these organisations have faced 

during the last 12 months as a result of the 

pandemic. As society has adjusted to the 

ongoing COVID-19 environment, public 

sector entities have had no option but to 

provide the majority of their services online. 

Whether it is local government, social 

services, law enforcement or emergency 

services, organisations across all disciplines 

that depended on in-person processes have 

been forced to pivot to digital alternatives at 

an uncomfortable speed. 

In the space of a year, society has 

transformed beyond recognition, and digitalfirst 

is now an imperative. However, not only 

do public sector organisations handle a 

wealth of sensitive personally identifiable 

information (PII) which makes them a target, 

but they typically have large, complex 

supplier ecosystems and, in the rush to pivot 

to deliver online services that have 

traditionally been human activated, this has 

left a window of opportunity for hackers. 

INCREASED THREAT CAUSED BY AN 

EXPANDED ATTACK SURFACE 

Likewise, the extended attack surface as a 

result of the new remote workforce is also 

creating opportunities for cybercriminals. 

Although the public sector has made great 

advances in cybersecurity over the past four 

or five years, in May 2020 we undertook 

research with public sector cybersecurity 

workers - and the findings from this were 

concerning. 

In general, we found a widespread lack of 

awareness around cybersecurity, with almost 

half of respondents having either not heard 

of, or not knowing what ransomware is. 

Outdated operating systems are a common 

point of entry for cybercriminals, and our 

research found that 11% of public sector 

employees were still using Windows 7 - which 

has not been supported by Microsoft since 

January 2020. 

This all makes very clear the requirement for 

training and best practice guidance for public 

sector employees, especially when dealing 

with the extended ecosystem of suppliers and 

parties that are deemed a trusted source. If 

an employee can at least recognise a 

malicious email, then they will be far less 

likely to click on a link or open a file or 

image containing ransomware. 

This is particularly important in the new work 

environment we now find ourselves in, as a 

distributed workforce lacks the usual corporate 

cybersecurity defences and is perhaps even 

more vulnerable when juggling work with 

home-schooling and other distractions. 

THE MOVE TO MICROSOFT 365 

Additionally, COVID-19 has accelerated the 

trend to digitisation, and one such digital 

transformation trend particularly common in 

public sector organisations is the move to 

Microsoft 365. The effectiveness of this 

collaboration suite is undeniable, with many 

public sector organisations benefitting from its 

cloud-based capabilities. But in the rush for 

cost-effective deployments, are organisations 

missing out on vital security for emails, for 

example, because the level they've bought 

into does not provide adequate protection for 

sensitive data or cyber-attacks? 



SECURITYUPDATE 

To avoid the risk of a data breach, public 

sector organisations need to fully secure their 

business communication channels to ensure 

that sensitive information is only shared 

between authorised parties and detect when 

malware exists in messages, documents, or 

image-based files. And while Microsoft 365 

offers various levels of email security, it does 

not deliver the deep content inspection 

required to automatically detect and remove 

sensitive information (such as PII data or 

payment card information), especially within 

screenshots or scanned documents. Even with 

sandboxing, protection against ransomware is 

limited because the malware threats designed 

to evade these systems can be hidden within 

documents or image-based files. 

It is all too easy to see an email from a trusted 

supplier or partner and assume that it is safe to 

open, therefore, only a zero-compromise 

approach will provide the level of protection 

needed in today's multi-vector environment. 

HOW TO NEUTRALISE SUPPLY 

CHAIN THREATS 

Public sector organisations need layered 

security defences to neutralise any threats 

coming from a supplier. It is essential that 

organisations are adequately protected from 

incoming malware, embedded Advanced 

Persistent Threats, or any other threat that 

could pose a risk to the business. At 

HelpSystems, we offer a Secure Email 

Gateway which works in conjunction with 

Microsoft 365, giving public sector 

organisations the missing element required for 

a robust, comprehensive security posture, one 

that takes into consideration the threat posed 

by the extended supplier ecosystem. 

Data classification tools are also critical to 

ensure that sensitive data is appropriately 

treated, stored, and disposed of during its 

lifetime in accordance with its importance to 

the organisation. Through appropriate 

classification, using visual labelling and 

metadata application to emails and 

documents, this protects the organisation from 

the risk of sensitive data being exposed to 

unauthorised organisations further down the 

line through the supply chain. 

Likewise, data that isn't properly encrypted in 

transit can be at risk of compromise, so 

public sector organisations should use a 

secure and compliant mechanism for 

transferring data within the supply chain to 

reduce risks. Here Managed File Transfer 

(MFT) software can facilitate the automated 

sharing of data with suppliers and provide a 

central platform for information exchanges 

and other file transfer protections. 

AN UNPRECEDENTED YEAR 

At the start of this year, the IT Governance 

blog logged 134 security incidents in 

December, which accounted for more than 

148 million breached records. According to IT 

Governance, this brings the total for 2020 to 

more than 20 billion breached data records, 

and unfortunately, public sector organisations 

were in the top three industries most 

commonly breached. 

Most of these breaches are not sophisticated 

attacks but are a result of either ransomware 

or internal human error, therefore it is 

imperative that public sector organisations 

have the right technologies, policies, and 

training programs in place. NC 

If you are interested in finding out more 

about protecting your supply chain you can 

download the HelpSystems eGuide 

"Managing Cybersecurity Risk in the Supply 

Chain" at: https://bit.ly/3dTC0fe 




LESSONS FROM A DATA CENTRE FIRE 

FOLLOWING THE FIRE AT OVHCLOUD'S DATA CENTRE IN 

STRASBOURG IN MARCH, STEPHEN YOUNG, DIRECTOR 

ASSURESTOR, OFFERS HIS TAKE ON THE KEY LEARNINGS FROM 

THE INCIDENT 

Earlier this year, the fire at the OVHCloud 

data centre caused widespread 

disruption and data loss for customers 

with servers hosted at the site. Many 

companies may have permanently lost data, 

impacting their business, a number of which 

appear to have been hosting their own 

physical servers or virtual private servers. 

Some of these customers believed that data 

centres were so safe and secure that a disaster 

like this was impossible, but that in the event 

there was an issue, their data was being 

backed up as part of the service. Others were 

carrying out some form of backup or 

replication to servers in the same data centre. 

What this means is that a complete loss of 

services can still happen regardless of where 

you are hosted and that responsibility for 

ensuring you can recover systems and data 

quickly falls to the customer. 

There's still a belief amongst users of data 

centres, cloud and SaaS providers, that their 

data is secure, is backed up, and will come 

back online quickly in the event of a disaster. 

But many providers may only provide a 

'reasonable endeavours' service to retrieve lost 

data - and it's not always prominent in the Ts & 

Cs. For this reason it's vital to know exactly 

what's being provided. 

Without their own disaster recovery (DR) 

provisions, users of physical servers don't even 

need their data centre to be destroyed by fire 

to lose their data; server failure on its own 

could have caused this disruption and loss, or 

even some form of malware could 

compromise their service. 

For many, a simple solution of off-site 

replication or backup to a cloud service, such 

as disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) or 

backup-as-a-service (BaaS) provided from 

another data centre, can minimise downtime 

and prevent data loss. The fact that their 

systems and data are being duplicated 

elsewhere provides assurance in knowing it's 

recoverable. 

Until data centre providers offer backups as 

standard to customers, consider taking these 

six steps: 

1. Consider what you deem to be a disaster. 

Some are satisfied knowing their data can 

be recovered from backup, even if it takes 

hours or days. Others cannot afford any 

downtime and need systems back online 

within minutes, even seconds. 

2. Having servers and critical data within a 

data centre environment does not mean 

your systems are impervious to downtime 

or data loss. A data centre brings 

heightened levels of security and resilience, 

but it's still a building that can be affected 

by fire, flood and cyber-attacks. 

3. Whatever solution you decide on to 

protect your data, ensure it's 

geographically diverse. A DR solution with 

an RPO (Recovery Point Objective) of 

seconds and RTO (Recovery Time 

Objective) of minutes is compromised if it's 

in the same data centre or a second 

location close by. 

4. Big-name SaaS platforms, such as 

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, 

typically include some level of backup 

protection. But many of these 'backup 

features' are designed with the SaaS 

provider in mind and may not meet your 

needs. Watch out for ambiguous SLAs and 

missing features, such as granular 

recovery and flexible retention - critical for 

a good backup platform. 

5. Ensure you have the knowledge and time 

to research the right DR solution for your 

requirements and build in tests regularly. 

While you can do this using internal 

resource, you get specialised expertise 

using a DRaaS or external partner to 

deliver data protection/recovery. 

6. Many systems cannot be fully tested 

replicating a true disaster scenario due to 

the disruption it causes. By securing your 

data recovery/backup services via DRaaS 

or an external partner, you're likely to have 

inherent DR testing as part of the service 

with the ability to emulate a complete 

service outage without disruption. 

Finally, do not assume your systems are 

protected, that your data cannot be lost, and 

your organisation can survive downtime with 

little or no business impact. An outage or loss 

of data can have a huge impact, not only in 

our ability to perform tasks, but also on the 

bottom line. NC

Apr-May-Jun 2021

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