NC May-Jun 2022

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 

ZERO TRUST: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE 

Do you believe in your network security architecture? 

REMOTE CONTROL 

A resilient approach 

to hybrid working 

GOING CLOUD-NATIVE 

Is a brave new world on 

the horizon? 

CAPITAL GAINS 

How a London-based IoT 

project could benefit us all 

MAY/JUNE 2022 VOL 31 NO 02

COMMENT 

COMMENT 

TRUST ISSUES 

Working from home kept so many of us safe during the Covid-19 pandemic - but 

can the same be said for our networks? With the pandemic receding and hybrid 

working here to stay it's starting to feel like the network perimeter is now a thing of 

the past. We have embraced the flexibility of remote working but with that comes an even 

greater need to ensure that employees aren't the weak link when it comes to keeping the 

network secure. "Even before the pandemic, the safeguarding of corporate networks was a 

high priority for IT teams," writes Rodolphe Harand at YesWeHack in his article on hybrid 

working in this issue. "Now, with the rise of hybrid working, IT team concerns have only 

amplified as more employees are using unsecured public Wi-Fi networks in places such as 

coffee shops, hotels and libraries." 

If so many of us are now moving away from legacy networks, both literally and metaphorically, 

then the onus of security has to come with us. "The truth is that legacy security solutions 

cannot support a zero trust network," according to Matthew Margetts at Smarter 

Technologies in his article on Zero Trust. "In the legacy model, security measures are reliant 

on a closed perimeter security model that assumes that all users and applications are coming 

from the same network location and entry points. This approach is no longer sufficient, 

which is why Zero Trust security is becoming the preferred network security architecture." 

With a Zero Trust security architecture we are all treated as outsiders to the network, 

regardless of our location. "Everyone now sees that the real need is not for users to access 

networks, but rather just to access the applications as though they are all cloud accessible. 

That's the Zero Trust-based future for us all," according to Kevin Peterson, Senior 

Cybersecurity Strategist at Xalient. "Most enterprises realise that it is time to enhance remote 

access strategies and eliminate sole reliance on perimeter-based protection, with employees 

instead connecting from a Zero Trust standpoint. However, most organisations will find that 

their Zero Trust journey is not an overnight accomplishment - particularly if they have legacy 

systems or mindsets that don't transition well to this model." 

For Paul German at Certes Networks a High Assurance SD-WAN framework is the ideal 

way to facilitate Zero Trust: "There are no constraints on network redesign; no barriers to the 

types of data or applications that can be migrated to the cloud, which ensures both operational 

agility and a consistent data security posture that can evolve throughout the Digital 

Transformation journey, from on premise, through hybrid, to the cloud." It's a move that Paul 

urges the UK Government to make in this issue. Can we trust them to do the right thing? 

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MAY/JUNE 2022 NETWORKcomputing 03

CONTENTS 

CONTENTS 

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

IoT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR...19 

Tim Kidd at Hitachi Solutions shares his 

experience of working on a leading London 

IoT project, and Nick Sacke at Comms365 

explains how IoT can help overcome the 

challenges now facing local authorities 

ZERO TOLERANCE...............12 

Our Zero Trust feature looks at how 

enterprises can no longer assume they have 

full control over closed networks, and 

explains why a Zero Trust architecture is the 

ideal way to mitigate a network breach 

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

Trust issues 

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

The latest networking news 

ARTICLES 

BRIDGING THE TECHNOLOGY 

SKILLS GAP.......................................8 

By Ciara Campbell at Tenable 

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE................12 

By Matthew Margetts at Smarter Technologies 

ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURE: FIVE 

REASONS YOU NEED IT...................14 

By Adrian Taylor at A10 Networks 

IMPLEMENTING IOT TO ADDRESS 

COUNTY COUNCIL CHALLENGES...20 

By Nick Sacke at Comms365 

THE FUTURE OF CLOUD-NATIVE....22 

By Erez Yalon at Checkmarx 

GOVERNMENT CLOUD 

ON-RAMPING................................24 

By Paul German at Certes Networks 

THE DATA CENTRE IN 2022 

AND BEYOND.......................32 

The times they are a-changin’ for the data 

centre, according to Peter Miller at ETB 

Technologies 

GOING CLOUD-NATIVE.......22 

Our cloud feature this issue explains how 

to best ensure that your cloud-native 

solutions are secure and explores how to 

unleash your untapped data potential with 

a modern cloud strategy 

A RESILIENT APPROACH TO 

HYBRID WORKING..............34 

Hybrid working presents a number of 

security challenges for IT teams. 

Rodolphe Harand at YesWeHack looks at 

how to address them 

LEVERAGING THE DATA DELUGE...26 

By Laura Malins at Matillion 

STRENGTHENING THE UK’S 

CYBER RESILIENCE..........................28 

By Mike Foster at VIPRE 

CASE STUDIES 

A SEAWORTHY SOLUTION..............16 

How Seajacks migrated its business-critical 

infrastructure with ServerChoice 

LEADING BETTER LIVES WITH IoT....19 

Tim Kidd at Hitachi Solutions shares his 

experience of working on a leading Internet of 

Things project in London 

PRODUCT REVIEW 

TREND NETWORKS LANTEK IV-S............9 

EXAGRID X COMMVAULT EX84.......10 

CLOUDCALL....................................17 

PERLE IOLAN SCG.............................18 

PROGRESS WHATSUP GOLD 2022......27 

FLUKE NETWORKS FIBERLERT.........31 

04 NETWORKcomputing MAY/JUNE 2022 @NCMagAndAwards 

WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTING.CO.UK

INDUSTRY NEWS 

NEWSNEWS 

NEWS NEWS 

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS 

NEWS NEWS 

New Fluke HQ has the customer experience at heart 

Fluke has launched its new European Headquarters in 

Eindhoven, Netherlands, which includes a 400sqm 

customer experience centre. For the first time, customers will 

not only be able to see Fluke's range of world-class tools, but 

experience using them in a variety of real-world applications. 

The individual environments in which each of Fluke's tools are 

used have been reimagined in the heart of the building. From 

miniaturised electrical substations to small scale factories, a 

scene has been set for each. 

"The best way to offer training is to do so in a hands-on 

environment such as this. If customers are unable to attend in 

person, we can make demonstration videos to show the best of 

our equipments," said Fluke Strategic support and training 

manager, Eric van Riet. "It's working, our customers love it." 

The environments include a small factory set up, an Industrial 

Island complete with a motor driven pump pushing water in a 

closed-loop system, a traditional data centre, as well as a 

window into networking of the future with communications 

cabling channelled through our ceiling tile infrastructure. There 

is also a miniaturised high-voltage substation complete with 

intricate 3D printed scale models and a tesla coil to simulate 

partial discharge. 

Hybrid working shifts priorities for IT teams 

ManageEngine has unveiled the results of its new survey, 

"The State of ITSM Two Years Into the COVID-19 

Pandemic", following up on a similar survey conducted in 

2020 to understand the challenges the pandemic has caused 

for IT service teams. The latest findings indicate that 

organisations are now grappling with a new set of problems 

that were not previously deemed the top priorities. 

With three-fifths of the workforce now working in a hybrid 

mode, managing IT assets (46%) and communication and 

collaboration (41%) have emerged as the biggest challenges. 

Both jumped to the top spots, registering a positive difference 

of 11% and 7%, respectively, when compared to the 2020 

figures. The most significant shift in reported challenges was a 

drop from 36% to 22% for securing company and client data 

in a distributed network. This change is likely the result of the 

proactive efforts of IT teams to ensure remote working risks 

were minimised. 

"ITSM teams played a critical role in ensuring that business 

operations continued during the pandemic, from overseeing 

BYOD policies and the provision of mobile assets to 

implementing self-service features and chatbots, investing 

more in business continuity planning and offering IT service 

delivery and support," commented Kumaravel Ramakrishnan, 

evangelist at ManageEngine. 

A hardened approach to endpoint security 

VIPRE has introduced Vulnerability and Patch Management 

(Endpoint Hardening) to its Endpoint Security Cloud service. 

These two features work together to give IT admins and 

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) increased visibility into 

network and device vulnerabilities, and enables them to apply 

patches right from the intuitive management portal. 

With the addition of vulnerability and patch management 

VIPRE’s enhanced Endpoint Security Cloud give increased 

visibility to the risks posed by third-party applications within an 

organisation, while prioritising the weaknesses to address. It then 

delivers embedded patch management to close discovered 

vulnerabilities automatically while restricting other potential 

attacks with intrusion prevention, DNS Protection, and URL 

blockers. It also offers multi-layered protection, against file, 

application, and network layer attacks. Through powerful 

technologies such as signature-based detection, heuristic 

analysis, and behavioural analysis, VIPRE Endpoint Security 

Cloud proactively spots vulnerabilities, including zero-day threats. 

Changes ahead for Cyber Certified Professional scheme 

Responsibility for running the cyber security industry's Cyber 

Certified Professional scheme has transferred from the 

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to the UK Cyber Security 

Council. As part of its oversight role, the Council will be 

reviewing the Cyber Certified Professional (CCP) scheme and 

launching a six-month pilot to inform new chartered standards. 



INDUSTRY NEWS 

The Council, which has been formed to act as the voice of 

the cyber security industry and has a key focus on creating 

aligned standards and qualifications for the sector, will now 

conduct a six-month review of the CCP scheme. As part of the 

review, the Council will be running a pilot scheme of new 

chartered standards for the industry. The Ministry of Defence, 

NCSC and Department for Work and Pensions will be 

participatingialong with existing qualification providers BCS, 

APMG and CIISec. 

KnowBe4 wins UK's Best Workplaces recognition 

KnowBe4 has been recognised as one of the 290 UK's Best 

Workplaces (2022) by Great Place to Work, the global 

authority on workplace culture. "We are so proud to be 

recognised as one of the UK's Best Workplaces this year," said 

Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. "Company culture is 

something we strive to perfect every day by creating an 

environment where open communication, transparency and 

positive attitudes are valued." 

To determine the 2022 UK's Best Workplaces list, Great Place to 

Work performed rigorous evaluate hundreds of employee survey 

responses alongside Culture Audit submissions from leaders at 

each company. They then used these data insights to benchmark 

the effectiveness of companies' employee value propositions 

against the culture their employees actually experience. "This was 

the best onboarding experience ever! From the recruiting/interview 

process to onboarding and training, I felt so supported and 

welcomed. The company culture is amazing and they really do like 

to have fun. I love the transparency and the overall opportunities 

to continue to learn," said a KnowBe4 employee. 

Progressing Managed File Transfers with MOVEit 2022 

Progress has released its secure, automated Managed File 

Transfer software, Progress MOVEit 2022, which can be 

deployed both on premise and in the cloud. Progress MOVEit 

is used by thousands of organisations worldwide and enables 

users to manage, view, secure and control all file transfer 

activity. The new release includes an add-in for Microsoft 

Outlook and advanced security and usability features. 

"With MOVEit 2022, users can manage all of their sensitive 

data transfers between partners, customers, users and systems 

from a single pane of glass, giving them complete visibility and 

control over where data goes and ensuring the highest levels 

of security," said John Ainsworth, EVP Enterprise Application 

Experience Products, Progress. 

Talend Data Fabric enhancements boost data health 

Data integration and management vendor Talend, based in 

Maidenhead, has updated its namesake data fabric all-inone 

data management solution. By understanding data health 

by dataset groups, these new features, which are set to be 

available from June, will help businesses analyse combined 

data quality metrics to evaluate data trust at macro and micro 

levels, across networks - including all datasets, customisable 

groups of datasets or individual datasets. 

Talend Trust Score, which was introduced by Talend in 2020, 

helps businesses assess the quality of their datasets. The 2021 

iteration added the ability to measure trust of data shred by 

APIs. With the new update Talend Trust Score can now provide 

a micro- or macro-level quality visualisation into datasets. 

Users can also see the impact of data interventions and detect 

how data quality has changed over time. In addition to Talend 

Trust Score updates the new update accelerates productivity 

with collaborative workflows that can serve as a conduit 

between users at different technical levels. 

Intel-based accelerators for new Supermicro solutions 

S 

uper Micro Computer, Inc. has launched a range of new 

systems that include two new Intel-based accelerators for 

demanding cloud gaming, media delivery, AI and ML 

workloads, enabling customers to deploy the latest 

acceleration technology from Intel and Intel Habana. The 

Habana LabsGaudi2 (above) excels at a range of workloads 

that include vision applications such as image classification, 

object detection, Natural Language Processing (NLP) models, 

and recommendation systems. The new AI Training server will 

be the first commercial implementation with the new Habana 

Gaudi2 (HL-225) in an 8U chassis. This server will accelerate 

AI training to new performance levels combined with dual 3rd 

Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and up to 8TB DRAM. 

NEWS NEWSNEWS 

NEWS 

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS 

NEWS 



OPINION: IT SKILLS 

BRIDGING THE TECHNOLOGY SKILLS GAP 

DOES DIVERSITY IN CYBSECURITY ACTUALLY MATTER? CIARA CAMPBELL, SENIOR SECURITY 

ENGINEER, TENABLE GIVES US HER TAKE 

The technology skills gap, particularly 

in cybersecurity, has been a 

recurring challenge for years. Harvey 

Nash Group suggests that there has been 

a shortfall of 10,000 people a year in the 

UK's cybersecurity talent pool. According 

to Microsoft, there are 2.5 million unfilled 

cybersecurity jobs worldwide. Can 

anything be done to overcome this 

shortfall? 

In short, yes. During the pandemic, 

technology became increasingly 

incorporated into our daily lives. The way 

we work has moved from physical offices 

to hybrid work environments and 

organisations just need to think a little 

more creatively about what they offer to 

their workforce. 

Companies should broaden their thinking 

when it comes to finding the right talent. 

Embrace running intern or graduate 

programs, and how best to support 

women and/or men returning to the 

workforce who might have taken time out 

for family or health reasons. Offer training 

and mentor programs that support new 

hires and existing employees to keep 

everyone at the top of their game. I myself 

started my career through intern and 

graduate programs. 

Security can be about prevention and 

detection but it doesn't just come down to 

those two aspects. There are many layers 

to security, which is what makes it such a 

fun industry to work in. Of course, it's not 

all a bed of roses. Sometimes, keeping up 

with all the technical knowledge can be 

hard and it's so vast. But that also presents 

an opportunity. 

POWERED BY DIVERSITY 

No matter if it's working in IT, cybersecurity, 

or any industry, it's really important for teams 

to have different inputs and ways of thinking. 

By having diversity, different ideas and 

perspectives are brought to the table that 

can lead to the creation of amazing 

innovation. It empowers us all to achieve 

greater creativity, to think outside the box, 

and drive alternative viewpoints that enables 

us to grow both individually and as a team. 

Diversity also makes the workplace far more 

enjoyable and a more interesting 

environment to work in. It makes a very 

boring work environment when everyone is 

the same - you need the diversity for different 

perspectives and opinions. 

When it comes to cyber talent, flexibility in 

location and adaptability to schedule 

changes is almost a requirement. Businesses 

that have embraced a remote working 

environment have been able to successfully 

widen their candidate pool considerably and 

found it advantageous in the battle for talent. 

When you break it down, a business is 

nothing more than a group of people, often 

organised by a common set of values and 

interests that carry forward a shared business 

mission. Even the smallest community (our 

friends, our families) are diverse by nature: 

the most obvious one being diversity of 

gender. That said, there will still be 

differences in opinions and contributions that 

each member brings to the table. For 

companies, and cybersecurity specifically, if 

everyone on the team thinks the same way, 

you've already lost the race with attackers. 

Only through increased inclusion and 

diversity-of race, gender, perspective and 

thought can we achieve greater creativity 

and innovation, think outside the box, and 

outmanoeuvre our adversaries. 

It's also important to recognise that no 

candidate is perfect, in terms of experience 

and expertise. One solution is for companies 

to hire people with less experience, or even an 

intern program, and spend time and money to 

train and upskill recruits. It's not just about new 

hires, but employers investing in their people 

through certifications and training that 

nurtures career longevity and retention. 

Thinking long term, the underrepresentation 

of diverse backgrounds in 

cybersecurity is linked to the broader 

problem of a lower rate enrolling in science, 

technology, engineering and mathematics 

(STEM) fields. Diversity breeds diversity. We 

need to foster relationships and show the 

next generation of the cyber workforce there 

are people like them in the industry. It sends 

a message that "you can do it too." NC 




TREND Networks 

LanTEK IV-S 


PRODUCT 

REVIEWPRODUCT RE 

TREND Networks has an excellent 

reputation in the network cable 

certification world and its LanTEK IV-S 

takes this to the next level. Building on the 

successes of its well-respected LanTEK IV 

model, the IV-S boasts a faster v3.0 operating 

system, a dual-core CPU, double the system 

RAM and room to store up to 5,000 test 

results - twice that of its predecessor. 

This extra horsepower makes its mark as the 

IV-S can run a full certification test on Cat6A 

cabling in only 7 seconds, making it one of 

the fastest in the world. It also incorporates 

valuable future-proofing as it can certify 

Cat8.1 and Cat8.2 links up to 3,000MHz. 

The kit we tested includes LanTEK IV-S 

3000MHz display and IV-S remote handsets 

supplied in a rugged transport case. It also 

includes two power adapters, shoulder straps, 

Cat8 channel adapters and TREND's Cat8 

RJ45 VisiLINQ permanent link adapters. 

Installers working in noisy data centres will 

approve of the VisiLINQ adapters as these 

provide clear visual cues for link status and test 

results. Their integral LEDs turn blue to confirm 

a connection between the handsets, yellow for 

a marginal test pass and red for a test failure, 

while pressing on their collar activates a white 

torch mode - handy when working in the dingy 

depths of a rack cabinet. The adapters also 

incorporate field-replaceable RJ45 tips rated 

for at least 2,000 insertions. 

The handset's LCD touchscreen makes light 

work of configuration and with the aid of its 

quick start wizard, we easily created our first 

certification job. After providing a meaningful 

name, we added identifiers such as the 

building, floor, room and rack cabinet and 

assigned a sequence of tests. 

For each test, you select standards from the 

extensive list, choose link and cable types and 

pick a cable brand, which can be generic or 

manufacturer-specific (there's a big choice). 

We performed a range of certification tests on 

the lab's Cat6A cabling infrastructure and 

were mightily impressed with the levels of 

information presented. And yes, all full cable 

tests were completed in precisely 7 seconds. 

Tapping on a completed test in the screen 

brings up all the results which can be scrolled 

through and selected for more detail. Cable 

lengths are revealed, the wiremap screen 

shows connection issues along with the 

distance to detected faults, and you can use 

the live wiremap view to check consistency 

prior to running a full test. 

Below this onscreen are the results of all the 

certification tests you elected to run - there 

are far too many to list here but rest assured 

the LanTEK IV-S supports all the important 

ones. Tapping on each result brings up 

graphs or tables of the measurements and 

you can view all or selected cable pairs 

where appropriate, and swap between the 

main display and remote handsets. 

Integration with TREND's AnyWARE cloud 

portal allows project managers to work 

remotely with their field engineers and create 

pre-defined certification tests for direct 

download to the handset. It worked perfectly 

for us as after connecting our handset to the 

lab's wireless network - we synced it with our 

cloud account, pulled down jobs and 

uploaded test results. 

Choose a set of tests and the portal creates 

professional certification reports for 

presentation to customers. Another smart 

feature is that the handset runs the 

TeamViewer server component and we had 

no problems setting up sessions and 

controlling it remotely. 

The powerful LanTEK IV-S makes cable 

certification a breeze as it combines a 

wealth of standards-based tests with extreme 

ease of use. Performance is on the money, 

integration with AnyWARE accelerates 

project management and TREND's Sapphire 

Care Plans will significantly reduce the total 

cost of ownership. NC 

Product: LanTEK IV-S 

Supplier: TREND Networks 

Web site: www.trend-networks.com 

Tel: +44 (0)1925 428 380 

Price: Model R163009 from £10,110 

exc VAT 

WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTING.CO.UK MAY/JUNE 09 


@NCMagAndAwards


ExaGrid x 

Commvault = 

Enhanced Storage 

Economics 


PRODUCT 


ExaGrid stands tall in the enterprise data 

backup and disaster recovery market as 

its Tiered Backup Storage family of EX 

appliances deliver a unique data protection 

solution with a sharp focus on performance 

and reduced storage costs. Even more 

compelling is ExaGrid's data deduplication 

technology, as its patented Landing Zone with 

Adaptive Deduplication solves the performance 

challenges inherent in traditional inline data 

reduction techniques. That's not to say that 

ExaGrid wants to replace your existing data 

protection solution. Far from it, as its Tiered 

Backup Storage solution works hand in glove 

with over 25 leading enterprise backup 

applications where it can enhance their 

capabilities immensely. 

Commvault fans will approve of this approach 

as they can retain their existing data protection 

infrastructure and integrate ExaGrid into it to 

provide the backend storage. More importantly, 

they can continue to enjoy the clear benefits of 

Commvault's deduplication engine and allow 

ExaGrid to deduplicate backup data further on 

its target storage, with combined reduction 

ratios improved up to an impressive 20:1. 

These numbers are very compelling, as 

combining ExaGrid and Commvault into one 

backup strategy will reduce its storage footprint 

by as much as 300%. Extrapolate this over a 

number of years and it's clear that substantial 

savings can be made. 

A key feature of ExaGrid's appliances is their 

Landing Zone, where data from the Commvault 

backup application is written directly to a disk 

cache. 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. 

This has no impact on performance, and as 

copies of the most recent backups are retained 

in the Landing Zone, restore operations are 

much faster as data doesn't need rehydration 

and decompression. Data security and 

protection against ransomware attacks are 

further enhanced as while the Landing Zone is 

network facing, the repository has a tiered air 

gap between the network-facing Landing Zone 

and the non-network-facing retention repository 

which is only visible to ExaGrid. From the 

Commvault administrator's perspective, there is 

very little they need to change as ExaGrid 

storage is presented as CIFS/NFS shares, so all 

they need do is declare them to Commvault 

storage policies as backup destinations. They 

can leave the Commvault MediaAgent inline 

deduplication and data integrity validation 

services enabled as well. 

Keeping Commvault's deduplication in play 

brings extra rewards by reducing space 

requirements for the ExaGrid Landing Zone, as 

it is already receiving deduplicated data. 

Conversely, disabling Commvault's 

deduplication and only using ExaGrid's services 

means the MediaAgents can be installed on less 

powerful host systems. 

This solution clearly works very well and 

demonstrates significant storage savings. For 

testing, ExaGrid used a 15.5TB dataset 

comprising system data, SQL Server databases 

and multiple VMware VMs. ExaGrid's mighty 

EX84 appliance was called up to provide the 

backend storage plus an 84TB landing zone 

which was presented to Commvault as a 

CIFS/SMB network share. A 15-day simulation 

comprising multiple full and incremental 

backups generated a total of over 123TB of 

backup data. On completion, Commvault's 

own deduplication had only sent 27TB to the 

EX84, resulting in an initial 4.5:1 reduction 

ratio. ExaGrid's adaptive deduplication 

subsequently squashed this down further to only 

8.7TB resulting in an impressive overall 

reduction ratio of 14:1. 

Enterprises looking for new ways to energise 

their data protection strategies and reduce 

ongoing storage costs will find this ExaGrid and 

Commvault team provides an innovative 

solution. ExaGrid's scale-out architecture 

delivers huge, cost-effective backup capacities, 

its smart Landing Zone provides a boost in 

performance, and combining its Adaptive 

Deduplication with Commvault's own highly 

efficient data reduction technologies offers 

industry-leading storage savings. NC 

Product: EX84 

Supplier: ExaGrid 

Web site: www.exagrid.com 

Tel: +44 (0) 1189 497 051 



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FEATURE: ZERO TRUST 

ZERO TRUST: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE 

THE CONNECTED WORLD IS A CHANGED WORLD, AND ENTERPRISES CAN NO LONGER ASSUME THEY 

HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER CLOSED NETWORKS, ACCORDING TO MATTHEW MARGETTS, DIRECTOR OF 

SALES AND MARKETING AT SMARTER TECHNOLOGIES 

The COVID-19 pandemic further 

accelerated the new normal, which shifted 

a large proportion of the workforce to 

remote working and forced businesses to 

increase their use of cloud platforms to support 

a variety of devices and networks. 

Unfortunately, criminals can take advantage of 

this upheaval and attempt to increase network 

infiltrations for nefarious gains. 

The truth is that legacy security solutions 

cannot support a Zero Trust network. In the 

legacy model, security measures are reliant on 

a closed perimeter security model that assumes 

that all users and applications are coming from 

the same network location and entry points. 

This approach is no longer sufficient, which is 

why Zero Trust security is becoming the 

preferred network security architecture. 

WHAT IS ZERO TRUST SECURITY? 

Zero Trust architecture is an approach to IT 

system design where inherent trust in the 

network is removed. The network is assumed 

to be hostile, and each request is verified 

based on an access policy. Regardless of the 

device, network and user activity, Zero Trust 

architecture is built on access management 

checks at every level. 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) 

says: "In a Zero Trust architecture, inherent trust 

is removed from the network. Just because 

you're connected to a network doesn't mean 

you should be able to access everything on that 

network. This is commonly seen in breaches; 

an attacker gains a foothold in a network and 

is able to move laterally because everything on 

the network is trusted. In a Zero Trust 

architecture, the network is treated as hostile." 

The key concepts of Zero Trust are: 

The network is hostile and should be 

treated as compromised 

Inherent trust is removed from the network 

Every request to access data or a service 

should be authenticated and authorised 

against an access policy 

Gain confidence dynamically by 

continuously evaluating the trustworthiness 

of connections 

THE 8 DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF A ZERO 

TRUST NETWORK 

The NCSC has introduced eight Zero Trust 

architecture design principles that are paving 

the way for future networks for the government. 

These eight principles are intended to help the 

public sector and large organisations to 

implement a Zero Trust network architecture in 

an enterprise environment. 

1. Know your architecture, including users, 

devices, services and data 

2. Know your user, service and device 

identities 

3. Assess user behaviour, service and device 

health 

4. Use policies to authorise requests 

5. Authenticate and authorise everywhere 

6. Focus your monitoring on users, devices 

and services 

7. Don't trust any network, including your own 

8. Choose services that have been designed 

for Zero Trust. 

Let's take a closer look at the eight 

principles' objectives: 

1. Know your architecture, including users, 

devices, services and data 

To get the benefits from Zero Trust, you need to 

have a clear understanding about each 

component of your architecture so that you 

can identify: 

Where your key resources are 

The main risks to your architecture 

How to avoid integrating legacy services 

that do not support Zero Trust 

2. Know your user, service and device identities 

An identity can represent a: 

User (human) 

Service (Software Process) 

Device 

Each identity should be uniquely identifiable 

in a Zero Trust architecture. This is the most 




important factor in deciding whether or not 

something or someone should be allowed 

access to data or services. 

3. Assess your user behaviour, devices and 

services health 

The most important indicators when looking to 

establish confidence in the security of your 

systems are: 

User behaviour 

Service health 

Device health 

Zero Trust policy engines need to be able to 

measure user behaviour, device health and 

service health. 

4. Use policies to authorise requests 

The power of a Zero Trust architecture lies in 

the defined access policies. Each request for 

services or data should be authorised against a 

specific security policy. These policies also help 

to facilitate safer sharing of data or services 

with partner organisations or guest users. The 

key characteristics of a policy engine in a Zero 

Trust architecture are: 

Uses multiple signals 

Provides a secure and flexible access 

control mechanism 

Adapts to the resources being requested 

5. Authenticate & authorise everywhere 

Any authentication and authorisation activities 

should consider multiple signals, such as: 

Device health 

Device location 

User identity 

Status to evaluate the risk associated with 

the request. 

Because the network is assumed to be 

hostile, a Zero Trust architecture ensures that 

all connections that access your organisation's 

data or services are authenticated and 

authorised. 

6. Focus your monitoring on users, devices 

and services 

In a Zero Trust architecture, monitoring should 

always link back to the policies you have set 

with regards to gaining assurance. A Zero Trust 

monitoring strategy focuses on individual users, 

user behaviour, devices and services to help 

organisations establish their health. 

7. Don't trust any network, including your own 

In a Zero Trust architecture, traditional user 

protections such as phishing protection and 

malicious website filtering may be 

implemented differently and may require 

different solutions. A key principle of Zero 

Trust is to remove inherent trust from any 

network between a device and a service - 

including the local network. Any 

communication over a network to access data 

or services should use a secure transport 

protocol to ensure that the traffic is protected 

in transit and is less susceptible to threats. 

8. Choose services designed for Zero Trust 

Not all services support Zero Trust, which 

means that they may require additional 

resources to integrate Zero Trust architecture. 

This causes an increased support overhead, so 

it's advisable to consider alternative services 

and products that have been designed with 

Zero Trust architecture in mind. Products with 

Zero Trust capabilities allow for easier 

integration and simpler interoperability. 

ADOPTING ZERO TRUST PRINCIPLES IN 

YOUR ORGANISATIONS 

If you are new to Zero Trust or if you're 

unsure whether it is the right network 

architecture for your needs, it's a good idea 

to engage with a digital transformation 

partner to help you design and review a 

Zero Trust architecture that meets your 

organisation's specific requirements. NC 




ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURE: 5 REASONS YOU NEED IT 

ADRIAN TAYLOR AT A10 NETWORKS EXPLAINS WHY A ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURE IS THE IDEAL WAY TO 

MITIGATE A BREACH IN YOUR NETWORK 

There's a relatable metaphor that best 

describes how network security 

architectures have evolved. People 

living in small towns usually know all their 

neighbours, so hardly anyone locks their 

doors. But for people living in bigger towns, 

it's much harder to know who their 

neighbours are, so everyone starts locking 

their doors. People not only lock their 

doors, they also install security systems, put 

bars on their windows, and might even get 

a guard dog. 

In other words, when you have limited risk, 

your network security architecture can be 

simple but as the risks become greater - 

when certainty in your security decreases - 

then you need to rethink how to keep your 

property safe. As a consequence, security 

becomes more complicated. 

In the late '80s through the early '90s, 

network security was simple; once an entity (a 

person, a machine, a process) was inside 

your network and authenticated with your 

security service it was assumed that entity was 

trustworthy. Of course, this couldn't last for 

long. As networks started to become more 

central to business operations and the need 

arose for external connections for business 

partners, network complexity increased 

exponentially. By the late '90s, these networks 

began connecting to the internet, and by the 

2000s, hundreds of service providers 

complicated networks further by offering 

software-as-a-service (SaaS). 

THE END OF SIMPLE NETWORK 

SECURITY 

By 2010, the network no longer had a single, 

unbroken network perimeter. It had become 

"porous" to support mobile and remote 

workers, as well as business partners and new 

third-party services. "One and done" 

authentication of entities requesting access 

became inadequate. You could no longer 

assume that anyone on your network, 

including your staff, could be trusted. 




A BETTER NETWORK SECURITY 

ARCHITECTURE 

In 2010, John Kindervag, an analyst at 

Forrester Research, wrote a paper that 

popularised the idea of the Zero Trust 

architecture. Over the next few years, as 

enterprise computing embraced cloud 

computing and the problems with perimeter 

security became more pressing, the concept 

of the Zero Trust architecture gained 

traction. The fundamental concept of the 

Zero Trust architecture is simple: Never trust, 

always verify. 

HOW TO BUILD A ZERO TRUST 

ARCHITECTURE 

Zero Trust network architectures have four 

main requirements: 

The use of micro-perimeters and microsegments 

to restrict traffic flow and limit 

user privileges and access as much as 

possible. Micro-perimeters take the 

concept of a secured network perimeter 

that defines what is inside of the network 

and what is outside and applies similar 

access controls to smaller groupings of 

network entities, sometimes even to a 

single device. Micro-segmentation creates 

zones within data centres and cloud 

environments to isolate workloads and 

secure them individually 

Effective incident detection and response 

using comprehensive analytics and 

automation 

Integrated multi-vendor network solutions 

to ensure seamless compliance and 

unified cybersecurity 

Comprehensive and centralised visibility 

into all entities and workflows including 

users, devices, data, the network itself, 

and workflows. Including visibility into all 

encrypted communications. 

To reiterate, the Zero Trust security 

architectures are based on not trusting 

anyone or anything on your network. Every 

access attempt by any entity, even if known, 

must be validated at multiple points to make 

sure no unauthorised entity moves into or 

within the network without being detected. 

Making a Zero Trust network work requires 

in-depth traffic inspection and analytics. 

Central to this is the use of SSL inspection 

solutions that decrypt and analyse encrypted 

network traffic (sometimes called "break and 

inspect") to ensure policy compliance and 

maintain privacy standards. 

By monitoring encrypted traffic to detect 

suspicious network communications and 

malware payloads as well as attempts to 

exfiltrate controlled data, for example, credit 

card and social security numbers, SSL 

inspection makes it possible for the Zero Trust 

model to protect networks from both internal 

and external threats. 

WHY YOU NEED TO MIGRATE TO A 

ZERO TRUST SECURITY ARCHITECTURE 

Here are the five crucial reasons to move to a 

Zero Trust network: 

The complexity of your network - the 

number of users, where they work, the 

devices they use, the number of 

workloads, your use of SaaS, a hybrid 

cloud environment, and so on - is just 

going to increase. A Zero Trust network 

reduces the complexity of securing your 

assets and isolating problems 

As the complexity of your network is 

increasing rapidly, the attack surface of 

the network has also expanded. To 

reduce vulnerability and regain 

control, you must establish microperimeters 

and micro-segments 

Third-party services such as 

SaaS and PaaS can't be 

trusted: it takes one breach 

to compromise your 

network. Creating 

robust microperimeters 

around 

these services is an 

absolute must 

The internet is, 

essentially, an unsecured network, and 

cyberattacks from amateurs, organised 

crime, and hostile state actors are 

increasing rapidly. In addition, the costs of 

mitigating a breach or a ransomware 

attack have increased enormously. The 

financial risks have become profound and 

will drastically change IT budgets 

Insider threats have also increased rapidly. 

A mix of employees working from home 

and from branch offices and 

simultaneously providing access externally 

requires robust and well-structured 

security controls. 

If you've started down the path to a Zero 

Trust network, are you moving fast enough? 

Does the C-suite understand the issues, and 

will it fund a strategy that might be all that 

stands between business success and 

irreversible failure? If you've not yet started to 

plan and implement a Zero Trust architecture, 

there's no time like the present. NC 

Adrian Taylor, 

A10 Networks 



CASE STUDY 

A SEAWORTHY DATA CENTRE SOLUTION 

HOW SEAJACKS MIGRATED ITS BUSINESS-CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AFTER ITS INCUMBENT DATA 

CENTRE ENTERED ADMINISTRATION 

Seajacks' fleet of the world's most advanced 

self-propelled jack-up vessels provide safe 

and efficient offshore oil, gas and wind 

solutions across the globe. Seajacks has 

completed over 500 wind turbine installations 

and has brought a new dimension to the 

construction, maintenance and 

decommissioning of off-shore platforms. 

SEAJACKS' CHALLENGES: 

With its incumbent data centre provider 

unexpectedly entering administration, Seajacks 

had extremely limited time to identify a new 

supplier and migrate its business-critical 

infrastructure that supports its global fleet of offshore 

vessels. 

The challenge for Seajacks was to research, 

shortlist, select and onboard with a data centre 

operator that could work flexibly to 

accommodate varied requirements. The short 

3-month timeframe and hard deadline meant 

the new provider would also have to offer 

thorough support at every step of the way. In 

addition to securely hosting its primary 

operations in a rock-solid data centre, Seajacks 

needed commercially critical connectivity links 

between its UK HQ in Norfolk and all satellite 

offices and vessels. 

THE SERVERCHOICE EXPERIENCE 

ServerChoice was able to react quickly and 

work flexibly to meet all of Seajacks' technical 

and operational needs, keeping well within the 

tight deadline. Seajacks IT Co-Ordinator, 

Daniel Bird, outlines his ServerChoice 

experience. 

Accessibility: "We needed somewhere with 

good road connections and a low riskprofile 

that we could pop-out to on a Friday 

afternoon. ServerChoice provided a toptier, 

secure data centre in just the right 

location." 

Tailored Cost-Package: "In the first 

instance, we explored a number of 

different configuration options with 

ServerChoice. They helpfully quoted all 

these across 3 to 5 years to provide us 

with a range of price options." 

Responsive Service: "Adam has been our 

contact from our initial sales call. He's been 

there from the site tour through to 

onboarding, and it's him we contact on the 

rare occasions we have a question." 

THE SERVERCHOICE SOLUTION 

Smarter thinking 

ServerChoice offered space in its awardwinning 

Harlow Data Centre, just north of 

London, in the UK's largest and most innovative 

data centre campus. Its location puts it within 

easy reach, but crucially provides a much lower 

risk profile than London-based facilities, which 

was a vital consideration for Seajacks' missioncritical 

global operations. 

The resilience, efficiency and security of 

Harlow Data Centre is immediately apparent 

from a tour of the state-of-the-art site. Built to a 

minimum of Tier 3 Standards throughout, the 

data centre uses 100% renewable energy and 

features advanced security, including threefactor 

authentication and biometric access 

controls. The facility is provisioned with highdensity 

racks, is OCP-Ready, and is truly carrierneutral, 

with low-latency fibre routes directly 

connecting to major tier1 provider and strategic 

PoPs across Europe. 

"The facility is better than Tier 4 in many 

regards, and the high level of security exceeded 

our expectations," says Daniel Bird. 

A trusted partner 

The original Internet requirement was for 200 

Mbps, but after listening to Seajacks' 

challenges, ServerChoice upgraded the 

connection to 1 Gbps. This provided a highperformance, 

future-proof and cost-effective 

connection that also lowered future upgrade 

costs. ServerChoice also offered FlexMove®, its 

free relocation service. 

ServerChoice was on-hand to offer support 

and guidance through every stage of the 

process, from Seajacks' initial sales enquiry call 

right through to go-live, to ensure that Seajacks 

were up and running smoothly and successfully. 

And with ServerChoice's proven 100% uptime 

track record, there's been little need for 

Seajacks to test the on-site 24/7 support. 

Bird adds, "It sits in the background and ticks 

along nicely. It's a great service and I know we 

can rely on it." NC 




CloudCall - The CRM 

Centric 

Communications 

Platform 


PRODUCT 


As businesses move their phone system 

into the cloud, it makes perfect sense to 

integrate it with their customer 

relationship management (CRM) solution. 

Aligning a cloud phone system with a CRM 

can improve communications, provide 

accurate customer and prospect interaction 

and data tracking which allows for streamlined 

sales processes. 

The intelligent phone system from CloudCall 

stands out from its competitors as it is 

designed to help integrate seamlessly with all 

major CRM vendors. The list is extensive and 

includes the likes of, but not limited to, 

Salesforce, Bullhorn, Microsoft Dynamics 365, 

Vincere, Access, Tracker and Zoho. 

At its foundation, CloudCall provides cloudhosted 

business VoIP solutions and employs inhouse 

developers to work with partner teams 

for all CRM integrations. This allows 

businesses to use CloudCall to maintain a 

single source of information and provide an 

accurate viewpoint of what is happening in the 

business relating to customer activities. 

The CloudCall Click-2-dial feature is a 

perfect example as it allows staff to instantly 

initiate calls directly from a CRM record. 

Furthermore, when a call is made from the 

CRM, CloudCall automatically logs all call 

details and opens a note file linked to the 

recipient, making sure all your call data is 

automatically synced into one central source. 

An SMS can be sent directly from a CRM 

record and its list of contacts used to swiftly 

broadcast SMS to multiple recipients. The 

CloudCall Chrome extension allows mobile 

SMS to be sent directly, simply by hovering the 

mouse pointer on a web page that contains a 

phone number. 

The embedded Power Dialler feature reduces 

the manual effort required when making 

multiple calls to customers and candidates. 

Using lists built from your CRM or uploaded to 

the dialer, it will call the contacts in sequence 

and can be used to prioritise calls so you can 

reach out to the most promising prospects first. 

It can also be combined with CloudCall's 

voicemail drop, where users can set up to five 

pre-recorded messages making sure you leave 

the correct information with each recipient. 

Inbound calls and SMS are handled just as 

efficiently by CloudCall's Screen Pops. These 

present a pop-up window feature allowing the 

user to open the associated CRM record 

instantly without having to waste valuable time 

searching for it. 

Call recording features are equally 

impressive as CloudCall saves all the CRM 

contact activity history, so they can be easily 

accessed for download or playback 

purposes. If a verbal consent prior to call 

recording is a business requirement, 

CloudCall will capture and store these details 

while a user is on the phone. 

The extensive call handling features of 

CloudCall offer valuable monitoring and 

training aids to help managers. These 

include the CloudCall web portal which can 

monitor all calls being made, listen to them 

in real-time and use features such as the 

whisper function to provide guidance and 

training, the barge function in times of need 

if required, and can even turn it into a 

conference call to help you connect teams. 

The portal provides a central 

administrative point where you can create 

custom activity dashboards to present 

advanced real-time analytics. It can 

manage your organisation's call profiles 

while access to all activities and 

communications reports, detailed call 

logs, notes and recordings are never more 

than a few clicks away. 

CloudCall solves the challenges faced by 

businesses that have invested heavily in 

cloud phone services and CRM. With 

support for all key CRM providers, 

CloudCall removes all the manual effort 

required by administrators to keep these 

two core systems constantly updated and 

aligned to deliver a measurable boost to 

productivity and business growth. NC 

Product: CloudCall 

Supplier: CloudCall 

Web site: www.cloudcall.com 

Tel: +44 (0)203 854 4000 

WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTING.CO.UK MAY/JUNE 17 


@NCMagAndAwards


Perle IOLAN SCG 


PRODUCT 


Managing data centres and large 

distributed networks demands remote 

access to critical infrastructure 

devices as issues can be quickly resolved 

before they become disasters. This avoids 

tedious and expensive site visits, but if the 

network at the remote site fails, support staff 

will lose access to these devices. 

Perle Systems has the ideal solution as its 

IOLAN remote console servers provide highly 

redundant OOB (out-of-band) management 

access to critical network devices. They look to 

have every eventuality covered as along with 

dual, redundant Gigabit copper and fibre 

ports for WAN access, they can fall back to a 

wireless network, an integral V.92 modem or a 

high-speed 4G LTE cellular network. 

The IOLAN SCG on review is highly 

versatile as its modular design allows up to 

three 16-port serial interface cards to be 

installed for a total of 50 management ports. 

The RJ45 modules support softwareselectable 

RS232, RS422 and RS485 modes 

and can be mixed with USB versions. 

Teaming the latter up with the two USB ports 

at the front allows Perle to claim an industryleading 

USB serial port density. 

The appliance provides full IPv4/IPv6 routing 

capabilities plus support for RIP, OSPF, and 

BGP protocols for easy integration into data 

centres including VRRPv3 for network 

redundancy support. Zero-touch provisioning 

ensures a swift initial deployment while 

RESTFul API and VPN support allows it to work 

closely with customer's third-party 

management systems. 

Deployment is simple and the appliance's 

web console dashboard shows plenty of detail 

on the system while a list of all interfaces 

below reveals their link status along with 

inbound and outbound traffic. Interface high 

availability and failover are handled by health 

profiles which use Ping and traceroute tests to 

determine their availability. If the primary 

WAN connection goes down, you can elect to 

automatically swap to another available WAN 

connection or assign priorities to them for 

load sharing. 

Each RJ45 serial interface offers a wide 

range of services with the Console 

Management profile used to create a serial 

port for Telnet or SSH access. Other profiles 

include Trueport virtual COM ports, TCP and 

UDP sockets, virtual modem and Modbus 

gateway emulation while the USB ports can 

use Console Management, Trueport and TCP 

socket service profiles. 

Access security is excellent as along with an 

integral firewall, you can enable 2FA on 

selected user accounts and apply a range of 

AAA (authentication, authorisation, 

accounting) services using Radius, TACACS+ 

or LDAP. When creating user accounts, you 

can set them as operators so they can't 

manage the appliance and decide which ports 

they are allowed to access. 

Operators have two options for accessing 

serial port devices as they can use their 

personal web console to view the ports they 

are permitted to see, choose one from the 

Monitor and Stats screen and click on the 

Easyport button to load an SSH session in a 

new browser. The other alternative is to use a 

client such as PuTTY to SSH to the appliance 

using the port number assigned to the serial 

port they want to connect to, login in with 

their IOLAN username and then supply the 

device credentials. 

It's very simple to use and we had no 

problems connecting the RJ45 console ports 

of our lab switches to the appliance with 

standard Cat6 network cables. Using either 

method, we could quickly set up SSH sessions 

and access their CLIs. 

Perle's IOLAN SCG is the perfect solution 

for support staff that need always-on remote 

OOB access to their core network devices. 

The appliance is easy to manage, its 

modular design makes it very flexible and its 

tough security measures allow access to be 

strictly controlled. NC 

Product: IOLAN SCG 

Supplier: Perle 

Web site: www.perle.com 

Sales: +44 1280 825 540 



FEATURE: PUBLIC SECTOR IoT 

IoT: THE KEY TO HELPING PEOPLE LIVE BETTER AND HEALTHIER LIVES 

TIM KIDD, HEAD OF UK PUBLIC SECTOR AT HITACHI SOLUTIONS, SHARES HIS EXPERIENCE OF 

WORKING ON A LEADING INTERNET OF THINGS PROJECT IN LONDON 

As technology advances, a huge volume 

of data is being produced that can 

help public sector decision makers 

make the right choices for society's 

happiness, health, and prosperity. The 

problem is making the information easily 

understood and readily available. 

THE INNOVATE PROJECT 

The InnOvaTe project is a collection of 40 

yearlong trials across five London boroughs 

that uses sensors to gather information about 

a range of social issues. The work, organised 

by the South London Partnership (SLP), has 

been gathering data on a range of issues, 

from air pollution to social care, to help 

improve society. The results aren't just 

theoretical. IoT sensors installed in homes of 

vulnerable people to monitor movements 

were able to alert carers when a resident, 

Maureen, fell at home. Ambulance staff who 

attended the scene credited the quick 

response with saving her life. 

The InnOvaTe trial has clearly been a huge 

success for the five boroughs involved. The 

volume of data provided, and individual stories 

like Maureen's prove it. However, the question 

remains how we convert huge amounts of data 

into easily understood and readily available 

information so that decision makers in the 

public sector can use it effectively. 

MAKING DATA READILY AVAILABLE 

AND EASILY UNDERSTOOD 

Following a comprehensive procurement 

process, the SLP team selected Hitachi 

Solutions and our partners at Microsoft to take 

on the challenge of making the information 

gathered by the InnOvaTe project readily 

available and easily accessible. It is no small 

task given the volume of invaluable data 

collected. We are also keenly aware that our 

work is directly linked to achieving better 

outcomes for society; keeping residents safe, 

improving quality of life, making urban areas 

cleaner, ensuring transport infrastructure keeps 

moving and expediting the move to other 

greener travel modes. 

Our solution has been to use Microsoft's 

Azure cloud platform to create a single unified 

platform that draws in all the data being 

collected for the different sensors. The system 

creates visualisations and dashboards to help 

the maximum number of people access, 

understand and ultimately use the data. 

KEEPING DATA SAFE 

Given the sensitivity of the data we are 

handling, the solution was designed with 

GDPR and data privacy in mind as a first 

principle, with data encryption at rest and in 

transit. Secure access is achieved through Role 

Based Access Controls meaning only named 

users are granted access to relevant aspects of 

the data that they have a need to use and are 

authorised to view. This access is tied to their 

Active Directory account. Azure has granular 

audit logs that can see who accesses what 

and when. Whilst Microsoft ultimately host the 

data within the Azure cloud, due to the multilayered 

security approach of their personnel, 

no one person can ever have direct access to 

the data making it a safe and secure 

integrated platform. 

SUPPORTING PUBLIC SECTOR 

DECISION MAKING WITH DATA 

Data, IoT and Smart solutions are rapidly 

becoming key components of local authority 

infrastructures, both in cities and rural areas. 

The ability to analyse real-time information to 

better understand our societies has huge 

potential to make lives happier, healthier, and 

more prosperous. In the future, we hope the 

technology will contribute to improving the 

lives of people and businesses up and down 

the UK and beyond. 

At its core, IoT is about connecting our 

physical environment to a digital world. There 

is still a lot of untapped potential in the IoT, 

but this partnership showcases the importance 

of working together to solve complex 

challenges with the best solutions for the 

benefit of all. NC 


MAY/JUNE NETWORKcomputing 19


ROLLING OUT IoT TO ADDRESS COUNTY COUNCIL CHALLENGES 

NICK SACKE, HEAD OF IoT SOLUTIONS AT COMMS365 ADDRESSES SOME OF THE AREAS WHERE IOT 

SOLUTIONS CAN BE RAPIDLY ROLLED OUT, TO NOT JUST OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES LOCAL 

AUTHORITIES ARE FACING, BUT EXCEED THEM 

As the country emerges from the COVID- 

19 pandemic 2022 will be a year of 

recovery, and local authorities have a 

crucial role to play in leading this process. 

However, pressures continue to increase from 

the government to meet targets on climate 

change, improve health and social care and 

ensure that local infrastructure continues to 

meet increasing demand after the pandemic - 

all with restricted financial support. So how 

can technology help councils to address and 

meet these challenges? 

SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE 

CHANGE 

It is well known that we are still producing 

masses of waste across the UK. With 

traditional and non-efficient processes still in 

place for collecting waste from public places 

and homes, it leaves councils and third-party 

contractors with a massive challenge. But by 

investing in IoT technology, current ineffective 

processes can be easily and dramatically 

improved - from creating an optimally efficient 

route to collect waste to reduce carbon 

emissions, to emptying the right bins, at the 

right time, to further improve green objectives. 

Sensor technology, for example, can not only 

indicate how full a bin is, but can also detect 

temperature and motion, to see if somebody 

has thrown something flammable in the 

container, as well as the bin tipping over or 

being misplaced. This information can then be 

used to build a data profile, which will in turn, 

provide a more efficient collections schedule, 

and also identify hotspot areas with potential 

problems including fly tipping. 

Also, technology is becoming more 

efficient at determining different types of 

waste, particularly within underground 

storage, that can be useful for recycling 

efforts. By deploying IoT solutions, sensors 

can check how much glass is in a specific 

container, by comparing the sonic 'signature' 

via intelligent algorithms for different types 

of waste materials. 

IoT can additionally help councils and thirdparty 

contractors plan in advance by knowing 

how much waste they will be collecting, by 

real-time monitoring of waste in the bin lorry 

itself, which can help the business to forecast 

cost and / or revenue. In turn, this has the 

potential to revolutionise payment models for 

contractors that are paid by weight. 

With heavy regulations coming into play 

around air quality, and as we as a society 

strive towards a greener future, there is a need 

for local authorities to be more proactive and 

involved in their citizens' health. By tracking 

environmental elements such as pollution 

levels, CO2 concentrations in offices and 

classrooms and chemical pollutants, 

environmental monitoring will become a big 

part of both our indoor and outdoor future. 

INTEGRATING HEALTHCARE SERVICES 

The IoT healthcare market is expected to reach 

$188.2 billion by 2025, driven by the 

pandemic and increasing focus on patientcentric 

services. It's clear that technology can 

transform industries, helping to reduce the 

burden on primary, acute and community care, 

as well as local councils. This was highlighted 

during the peak of the pandemic, with 

hospitals across the NHS implementing virtual 

clinics and remote monitoring technology to 

care for patients at home, while focusing on 

the ever-increasing COVID-19 cases. 

IoT technology enabled the use of health and 

care devices to collect valuable and real-time 

data to provide care to patients both in and out 

of hospital, while keeping them connected to 

health care professionals. The data collected 

helps to automate the mapping of activities into 

a profile around an individual, which can then 

be analysed and shared every day with the 

care organisation and local authority. 

Ongoing patient health and vital signs can be 

recorded from home, such as heart rates, 

blood pressure and temperature, meaning 

clinicians' time can be used elsewhere, 

enhancing the efficiency of existing processes. 

Specialists can be alerted when deterioration or 

health concerns are detected to allow for 

immediate intervention and deliver targeted 

care. Targeted intervention allows expansion of 

existing resources, and a rapid return on 




investment in care-assistive technology. By 

flagging any issues earlier and preventing the 

escalation of problems while the individual is 

at home, the need for them to go to the 

hospital for check-ups or treatment is 

mitigated, in turn reducing pressure on the 

public purse. 

Technology can also be used to reduce 

inequality of or variation in care by 

identifying patients who may be at risk and 

have not seen their GP, or those who are in 

rural and remote areas, by providing access 

to interact with and monitor people in places 

that have been traditionally harder to reach. 

IoT technology has greatly improved 

accessibility and productivity in healthcare, 

while keeping patients safe and in the 

comfort of their own homes. This provides a 

mechanism to help the NHS with extending 

their care beyond the hospital, with another 

significant return on investment. 

LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE 

With almost 50 shops closing a day on the 

high street during the first six months of 

2021, and UK shopper footfall dropping, 

local authorities are now looking for 

alternative initiatives to encourage people 

back to the high street. If shoppers are 

looking to travel to physical stores once 

more, the parking experience should be 

painless - or else they'll just return to the 

convenience of online shopping. 

It's estimated that motorists spend two 

months of their lifetime searching for a 

parking space. But what if this could be cut 

down with the use of technology? What if an 

individual's mobile device was to alert them in 

real-time where a parking space was? Better 

yet, what if this space could be reserved, or 

set up a subscription model to park monthly? 

It's all about data collection and a better, 

more informed use of this data. By 

incorporating electric charging and disabled 

bays, as well as the use of innovative 

technology, re-engineered and revitalised 

parking solutions will boost council revenue 

and provide more efficient and customerpleasing 

services, in turn, regenerating the 

high street shopping experience 

THE RISING COST OF LIVING, ENERGY 

AND FUEL POVERTY 

At the time of writing, inflation had just 

breached 5.5% and is on course to exceed 

7%, another record. The price of oil and gas 

are rising, producing knock-on effects in the 

cost of raw materials and transportation costs, 

energy to heat the home, shopping basket 

prices, and more. The current economic 

climate is creating a punishing set of 

circumstances for all, but especially the 

elderly, those on low incomes and families 

where one or other partner has lost their job 

during the pandemic. It has been reported in 

the media that in several cases the vulnerable 

are already making choices between heating 

or eating, which is of grave concern to all. 

Many of these vulnerable citizens live in local 

authority housing, so what can IoT technology 

do to assist? 

Specifically in the case of fuel poverty, 

monitoring temperature and environmental 

conditions in vulnerable households, together 

with energy consumption from the boiler will 

create a profile of energy use, highlighting 

which of the population require targeted 

interventions to assist with fuel bills and other 

assistance that the local authority has at its 

disposal. Smart radiator solutions can also be 

implemented to heat sections of the home that 

require it at different times of day, providing 

energy savings and improved living conditions. 

The IoT data collected could also profile and 

identify potential dwellings that have insulation, 

leaks, and other structural issues that affect the 

housing asset integrity and prioritise 

intervention. The business case for this type of 

technological intervention is already proven 

through current projects in the UK. 

CONCLUSION 

IoT technology is advancing to meet ever more 

imposing challenges and requirements. We're 

not only seeing an uptake in interest and the 

use of these solutions, but the technology itself 

is becoming increasingly cost-effective, 

adaptable, and easier to deploy and maintain. 

The COVID-19 crisis has prompted a greater 

need and priority for local councils to be 

forward-thinking in how digital technology and 

data can help towns recover now and strive in 

the future. The value of IoT technology and the 

real-time data it collects is being recognised, 

and will help to inform better decision-making, 

introduce early interventions and reduce the 

cost of changing practices. But for this to work 

in practice, there is a significant need for a 

cultural shift in the relationship local 

governments have with technology. 

The technological solutions must be designed 

around the user, creating a better customer 

experience, while ensuring any potential 

barriers to adoption are removed. The guiding 

principle for deploying technology as an 

enabler of these more streamlined processes is 

simplicity and invisibility to the user, while 

collecting valuable data for insight. NC 



FEATURE: CLOUD 

THE FUTURE OF CLOUD-NATIVE IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD 

HOW CAN ORGANISATIONS AND THEIR DEVELOPERS CREATING 

CLOUD NATIVE SOLUTIONS ENSURE THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF 

SECURITY? EREZ YALON, VP OF SECURITY RESEARCH, CHECKMARX 

SHARES HIS THOUGHTS 

Over the last couple of years, the 

global workforce has 

experienced a seismic digital 

shift, forcing many organisations to turn 

to the cloud to maintain business 

continuity. According to one report the 

growth in cloud services has been 

accelerating, with forecasts that the 

cloud market could eventually be worth 

$1 trillion. 

Part of this shift has been the evolution 

of cloud-native. A modern approach to 

building and running applications, 

cloud-native has gone from a 

marketing term to a highly 

desirable and useful architecture choice. 

Yielding benefits around the design, 

building, and deployment of applications, 

it's easy to see why it's become the default 

approach for many organisations. 

Although convenient, cloud-native 

applications have intricate and layered 

attack surfaces which are widely 

misunderstood and thus under-secured. 

As a result, they have introduced a new 

series of challenges for application 

security (AppSec), proving that it is now 

imperative for organisations to learn how 

to effectively secure their interconnected, 

cloud-based solutions. 

With investment in digital technologies 

underpinned by cloud solutions set to 

increase, how can organisations and their 

developers creating cloud native solutions 

ensure the highest levels of security? 




SECURING THE NEW HYBRID 

ECOSYSTEM 

We know that in today's modern software 

era, with the continued explosion of 

emerging technologies, digital 

transformation journeys, and the move to 

cloud-native, demands on developer teams 

to create secure code have increased. 

Here are three best practice steps to 

which developers should adhere to in 

order to effectively secure their 

interconnected, cloud-based solutions: 

1. Testing code from the first line: No 

portion of a code base is inherently 

secure, and every line needs to be 

inspected from the beginning of 

development to ensure vulnerabilities 

are found and addressed. It is also 

important to remember that, when 

new features and functionalities are 

added to the application, the 

introduced code blocks must be 

given the same time and attention as 

all other pieces in the bigger 

software puzzle. 

2. Ensuring each component is secure: 

It's vital to test everything, including 

third-party components and APIs, as 

it's common for vulnerabilities to lurk 

in their shadows. A 'trust and verify' 

approach is paramount - meaning 

organisations trust but make a 

concentrated effort to also verify and 

validate - third-party solutions and 

components before using them. As we 

continue to build applications from a 

diverse set of components, blindly 

trusting that third-party technologies 

are secure is a recipe for disaster. 

3. Test the infrastructure as code (IaC): 

With the transition to the cloud came 

new challenges for software 

developers, namely the abundance of 

IaC. This is evidenced by our survey, 

which found that one in six developers 

aren't performing any security testing 

when building cloud-native 

applications, having a major impact 

on the security of their applications. 

Therefore, just as you take careful 

steps to testing and securing 

applications, the same must be done 

when it comes to IaC. 

COMMON PITFALLS WHICH 

HINDER PROGRESS 

Time and time again, we have seen 

examples of software full of exploitable 

vulnerabilities being released and 

subsequently abused by malicious actors. 

Moreover, new applications are being 

rushed to market every day, further 

expanding the attack surface at an 

unprecedented pace. 

There are a number of pitfalls which 

developers are falling for that are 

hindering their progress and allowing 

attackers easy access into their solutions. 

These include: 

1. Not embedding application security 

testing (AST) early enough in the 

application development process: 

AST solutions do not replace security 

awareness and common sense but 

they do deploy a safety net and 

enable security to become an 

inherent part of development; 

however, developers frequently 

implement security solutions after 

development is completed. This 

perspective needs to change as it is 

cheaper and easier to fix security 

vulnerabilities earlier in the lifecycle. 

2. Not understanding the nuances 

between traditional AppSec vs. cloudnative 

security: To properly secure 

cloud-native apps, these nuances must 

be understood. Generally, traditional 

AppSec is more contained; whereas 

with cloud-native, there are many 

more components and connections 

interacting and "speaking" to each 

other to make it all work. While this 

makes for more dynamic applications, 

it also creates an exponentially larger 

attack surface. Security teams and 

software developers are now tasked 

with learning to build applications in a 

completely new environment while 

evolving the way they test for security 

vulnerabilities. 

3. Dispersed security responsibilities: The 

ownership of security has changed 

hands too. With dispersed code and 

responsibility for digital transformation 

projects sitting across multiple teams, 

comes dispersed security 

responsibilities. Now, developers, 

DevOps, and IT teams need to take 

on this responsibility together. This 

shared ownership may be complex, 

but it's necessary given how easy it is 

for security to be an afterthought. 

LOOKING AHEAD 

Cloud-native is the future. Undoubtedly, it 

is a central part of software development 

in the brave new world in which we find 

ourselves living. However, with the 

additional challenges it brings and the 

pace at which it's being implemented, 

organisations must consider the security 

practices needed to ensure that 

developers see security as a vital step in 

software development, rather than an 

added layer of complexity. 

With greater awareness of the 

challenges the new hybrid ecosystem 

brings, and by adopting the 

aforementioned best practices to 

overcome these obstacles, organisations 

can ensure their teams are utilising the 

full benefits of cloud native, while 

significantly lowering the risk. NC 




GOVERNMENT CLOUD ON-RAMPING 

NOW'S THE TIME FOR UK GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS TO FULLY 

EMBRACE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACCORDING TO PAUL 

GERMAN, CEO, CERTES NETWORKS 

The UK Treasury is becoming 

increasingly frustrated by the billions 

of pounds wasted by government 

departments on legacy technology and 

proprietary infrastructure. With Digital 

Transformation now imperative, there is 

little patience for the endemic delays in 

decision making that are adding untenable 

costs to a government that simply has no 

more resources. 

Why are departments still spending 

£millions every month on expensive 

proprietary connectivity when the tried, tested 

and proven Software Defined Wide Area 

Network (SD-WAN) alternative costs just a 

fraction? How can departments justify the 

use of outdated legacy systems that demand 

huge expenditure just to keep up and 

running when reliable, lower cost cloudbased 

alternatives are so accessible? 

With the High Assurance SD-WAN 

framework now generally available, there 

are no more excuses. Digital Transformation 

must progress, quickly, and while the risks 

used to outweigh the rewards the rewards 

now significantly outweigh the risks. 

WEAK EXCUSES 

Digital Transformation is now vital for 

government departments. After two years of 

pandemic delayed projects and facing 

unprecedented financial pressures, there is 

zero tolerance for excuses. Not only are 

legacy systems both unreliable and 

expensive, but the cloud offers many benefits 

in flexibility, agility and cost reduction. And 

yet, an estimated 80% of UK government 

departments are still failing to make the 

move, with their cloud strategies on hold. 




So what's going on? Many departments have 

clearly defined Digital Transformation 

roadmaps; cloud providers have been 

selected - often more than one to provide 

resilience and contingency - and application 

migration plans have been defined. The one 

remaining sticking point is data security - most 

notably, the safeguarding of data in transit 

between the on site systems and the cloud. 

With departments typically opting for a hybrid 

environment during the incremental Digital 

Transformation process, rather than a 

wholesale move to the cloud, it is clearly 

important to extend the data security posture 

between the current environment and the 

cloud. Furthermore, there is no argument that 

Government departments have stringent data 

security requirements - much of the data is 

highly sensitive. Compromising security due to 

the impact on network performance is, clearly, 

not a viable option - or for those organisations 

who have chosen that route, an extremely high 

risk alternative, particularly given increasingly 

concerning geopolitical circumstances. 

Claims that the use of low cost SD-WANs to 

provide the vital link to the cloud are inherently 

lacking in the security required to safeguard 

sensitive data, however, are out of date. Yes, 

SD-WANs use public infrastructure, but the 

Common Criteria accredited High Assurance 

SD-WAN framework that couples a High 

Assurance security overlay with market leading 

SD-WAN technologies, is proven and being 

used by governments and organisations 

across the world to safely accelerate Digital 

Transformation plans. 

SECURITY STAND-OFF 

The only beneficiaries of this endemic 

decision-making paralysis are technology 

vendors and service providers raking in 

£millions every month to support and 

maintain outdated, often inadequate, 

technology. Given the huge cost differential 

between legacy and cloud-based solutions, 

the biggest risk now facing UK government is 

that individuals tasked with achieving Digital 

Transformation and radically reducing IT 

spend will feel compelled to simply ignore 

data security issues. 

With a desire to achieve a stable, effective 

and scalable technology infrastructure, it is a 

hugely frustrating situation for IT and network 

teams - not to mention those with budgetary 

sign off. While the risks associated with failing 

to consider the security implications are 

profoundly serious, there is no more money: 

unless this stand-off is addressed, everyone 

involved stands to lose. 

Security must be at the heart of any Digital 

Transformation journey - and that requires a 

shift towards a Zero Trust mindset. It means 

stepping away from the concept of a trusted 

environment and a focus on securing the data 

irrespective of its location. This is where High 

Assurance SD-WAN frameworks change the 

game, using crypto-segmentation to protect 

and ensure the integrity of sensitive data - 

without any impact on network performance. 

ACCELERATING CHANGE 

With this Zero Trust approach, a High 

Assurance SD-WAN overlay makes the 

underlying network infrastructure irrelevant, 

whether it is public or private, trusted or 

untrusted. The data security team simply needs 

to define the policy and, with ownership of the 

cryptography keys, can be confident that data 

is protected at all times wherever it goes. 

The model is akin to the transfer of gold or 

cash between banks. Security at each bank is 

established and accepted - it is the movement 

between the banks that raises concerns. The 

use of a secured armoured vehicle is 

reinforced by locking the gold away in a 

secure environment using keys that only the 

bank - not the guards - have access to. 

Similarly with crypto-segmentation, even if the 

data is compromised in transit, the only 

people who have access to the keys are the 

owners of the data: no one else can do 

anything with that data. Irrespective of where 

that data is travelling, it is protected. 

For government departments the High 

Assurance approach to SD WAN enables the 

secure utilisation of low-cost SD-WAN 

connectivity, which is a huge financial 

incentive. Furthermore, there are no 

constraints on network redesign; no barriers to 

the types of data or applications that can be 

migrated to the cloud, which ensures both 

operational agility and a consistent data 

security posture that can evolve throughout the 

Digital Transformation journey, from on 

premise, through hybrid, to the cloud. This 

means Digital Transformation plans can be 

accelerated and departments can quickly 

realise economies of scale. 


Delaying Digital Transformation is creating 

unacceptable risk and incurring unacceptable 

costs. Every postponed decision compromises 

progress and leaves government departments 

at the mercy of vendors who are continuously 

inflating maintenance and support charges. 

The transformation away from legacy to 

current technology is an absolute must - a fact 

clearly recognised by government department 

heads who are having to explain, under fire, 

why they are continuing to spend Treasury 

money on outdated IT projects. 

Right now, most decision making committees 

are using the concept of data risk as an 

excuse for not progressing Digital 

Transformation. But any claim that plans 

cannot move forward due to regulatory 

compliance or internal controls are no longer 

true - that risk argument has been addressed 

and resolved. 

The benefits of Digital Transformation are 

indisputable, from systems stability to hugely 

significant cost savings: so just what is the 

excuse for continued mis-spend of public 

money and failure to follow well established 

routes to the cloud? NC 




LEVERAGING THE DATA DELUGE 

LAURA MALINS, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT AT 

MATILLION, EXPLAINS HOW TO UNLEASH YOUR UNTAPPED 

DATA POTENTIAL WITH A MODERN CLOUD STRATEGY 

Only as recently as five years ago, 

mining data insights in sufficient time 

to deliver outcomes was almost 

unheard of. The arrival of cloud data analytics 

changed all that, with many business leaders 

now counting on data to inform real-time 

decisions and maintain relevance in the market. 

The evolution of modern data analytics means 

organisations now have the right ingredients to 

deliver meaningful improvements to businesses, 

but managing the complexity and volume of 

data they produce requires very specific tools. 

Right now those tools aren't up to the task. 

Our research suggests three quarters of UK 

data professionals believe outdated and 

inefficient data integration processes are 

wasting business resources and hampering 

productivity. Despite the boom in cloud 

investment, the reality is that most organisations 

are grappling with legacy tools and struggling 

to deliver meaningful insights as a result. In the 

context of an ongoing data talent war, if this 

failure to adapt technology offerings to meet 

the needs of the workforce persists, it could 

make the situation untenable. 

So, what is the solution? For businesses aiming 

to take advantage of the scale and performance 

benefits of the cloud, a modern cloud data 

stack has a pivotal part to play. Adopting this 

approach starts with considering the challenges 

that can present barriers to data engineers in 

their quest to deliver transformation: 

The "Three Vs" of data pools: As modern 

data evolves, it grows in volume, variety, 

and velocity. Assessing these metrics is key 

to understanding how big data can be 

measured, yet the complexity involved can 

often hinder data migration efforts. 

War for data talent: As demand for tech 

skills soars, organisations clearly recognise 

the value of big data to boost innovation 

and the bottom line. Having the talent to 

act on it is another conversation, however. 

Nearly half (46 per cent) of businesses have 

struggled to recruit for data roles over the 

last two years, according to the DCMS. 

Legacy data management: Outdated data 

tools and process could be costing 

organisations up to £32.5 million a year, 

according to McKinsey estimates. The 

subsequent cascading impacts of inefficient 

data maintenance can be felt companywide, 

ultimately making data 

democratisation more difficult to achieve. 

CLOUD DATA ANALYTICS 

A business' ability to overcome these issues 

depends on how effectively teams can implement 

a modern cloud data stack. Data teams, unable 

to realise the full power of cloud data analytics, 

tend to be restrained by manual integration and 

therefore deprived of time. Strategic and 

analytical work to prioritise their data needs 

however can help data engineers benefit from 

enhanced automation, and transform their raw 

data into analytics-ready data. 

The "Three Vs" of data can then be better 

managed if it is refined as quickly as possible 

once generated, opening up vast data sets to 

immediate business application. Streamlining the 

data integration process in this way empowers 

typically overloaded data teams to deliver critical 

insights much faster than previously. 

As business leaders try to tackle the data skills 

gap, they need to rethink how they can 

accommodate the needs and nurture the 

capabilities of the workforce. Deploying lowcode 

and no-code interfaces is another route 

to improving data democratisation from the 

bottom up. Typically with little knowledge of 

programming, business users need to quickly 

tap into key business insights with minimal effort 

to progress their analytics projects. Such an 

approach makes data accessible and usable 

for the wider team and allows data engineers to 

reallocate time to taking advantage of what the 

cloud has to offer. 

To truly keep pace with the paradigms of the 

cloud and data needs of the enterprise though, 

a modern cloud data strategy, underpinned by 

a single cloud platform, merits consideration. 

For some time, legacy Extraction, 

Transformation, and Loading (ETL) processes 

for data have been rigid, time-consuming, and 

simply incapable of managing the new, 

unprecedented volume of data. Yet, modern 

ELT processes - taking place in the cloud - are 

much more agile and can help teams across 

organisations ingest data and make strategic 

decisions at speed. 

THE COLLECTIVE BENEFIT 

The evolution of the modern data fabric 

shows no sign of slowing down. Yet the 

increasing volume, complexity, and speed at 

which business's data footprints are growing 

means a shift towards a modern cloud data 

stack is imminent. 

An influx of unstructured data requires 

seamless management, automation, and 

analysis if organisations are to extract and 

operationalise insights. The workforce should 

be equipped with the processes to leverage 

data more easily and effectively if businesses 

are to improve productivity and allow the 

wider organisation to benefit from collective 

insight. NC 




Progress WhatsUp 

Gold 2022 


PRODUCT 


In the world of network monitoring, WhatsUp 

Gold (WUG) has a remarkable track record 

going back to the early 1990s. It's easy to 

see why as it has consistently offered an 

unbeatable range of monitoring tools ideally 

suited to SMBs and enterprises. Not content to 

rest on its laurels, Progress has implemented a 

vigorous development program and the latest 

WUG 2022 adds even more valuable features. 

Centre stage is support for the Progress 

Loadmaster and Flowmon appliances as WUG 

2022 can discover and monitor them. 

Alerting gets a boost as it can now send 

notifications to Microsoft Teams groups and 

users. Access security is even tighter, as the 

WUG dashboards offer new customisation 

features for greater visibility and the log 

management service provides regulatory 

compliant archiving. 

Progress offers flexible licensing options with 

the Premium edition available on device-based 

yearly subscriptions or with a perpetual license. 

An alternative is points-based licensing where 

each device, regardless of hardware 

components, costs one point while NetFlow 

data sources or monitored applications cost 

ten points each. 

The Premium edition includes core features 

such as discovery, interactive mapping, alerting 

and reporting plus cloud, wireless network and 

storage monitoring. The optional add-on 

modules can be purchased separately while 

the Total Plus version includes them all, and 

smaller businesses will love the new free 

edition which includes a perpetual 20 points of 

monitoring goodness. 

Installation on a Windows Server 2019 host 

took 30 minutes and discovery is also swift. A 

wizard helped conjure up the first one and 

after we'd added all our credentials, it reported 

back in 10 minutes with a complete list of all 

our network devices. The WUG web console is 

a pleasure to use as it's simple to navigate with 

only four main options in its upper menu 

ribbon. We could easily create custom network 

discoveries, pull up network topology views, 

swap to a network map and create custom 

analysis dashboards. 

The Analyse tab provides deep insights into 

device status with the home dashboard 

presenting a real-time graphical network 

overview along with predefined tabs showing 

the top 10 busiest devices, actions, critical 

errors and storage status. You can add more 

tabs as required and increase the number of 

columns, making it easy to create your perfect 

NOC (network operations centre) views. 

We run the Progress VMware Flowmon 

Collector appliance in the lab for application 

security and anomaly detection, and after 

adding SNMP and REST API credentials, 

WUG discovered and correctly identified it 

by assigning a special Flowmon icon to it. 

The Analyse tab also has a new option for 

accessing dashboards and events for 

Flowmon appliances. We could view details 

such as total traffic, packets, responses and 

flows for areas such as users, QoS/ToS, mail, 

services and so on. The Home dashboards 

offer seven reports specifically for Flowmon 

data so you can quickly add these graphs to 

NOC views. 

WUG provides great alerting features and 

uses policies to link device state changes with 

a range of actions including running a 

program, restarting a service, sending emails 

and posting alerts. A Post to MS Teams is 

provided in the actions menu, and we had no 

problems adding our account using the Teams 

Incoming Webhook connector and 

customising the example JSON template to 

add specific details in the alert messages we 

wanted sent out. 

WhatsUp Gold 2022 offers a remarkable 

range of network monitoring tools and its 

smart dashboard is clearly capable of 

presenting a wealth of valuable information 

about your network. It's easy to deploy and 

use, the flexible licensing options make it very 

affordable and the seamless integration with 

LoadMaster and Flowmon appliances makes it 

even more appealing. NC 

Product: WhatsUp Gold 2022 

Supplier: Progress Software Ltd 

Tel: +44 (0)1344 360444 

Web site: www.whatsupgold.com 



OPINION: CYBER RESILIENCE 

STRENGTHENING THE UK'S CYBERSECURITY RESILIENCE 

NEW LAWS ARE BEING PROPOSED BY THE UK GOVERNMENT TO DRIVE SECURITY STANDARDS IN 

OUTSOURCED IT SERVICES USED BY ALMOST ALL UK BUSINESSES 

The proposed laws come in the wake 

of recent high profile cyber attacks 

targeting SolarWinds and Microsoft 

Exchange Servers, which highlighted 

vulnerabilities in third-party products and 

services which can be exploited by 

cybercriminals. Mike Foster, Channel 

Manager, VIPRE explains how these laws 

will affect the channel market and help to 

strengthen the country's cyber resilience, 

with MSPs taking on a more important 

trusted advisor role than ever before. 

THE ROLE OF THE TRUSTED 

ADVISOR 

Since 2018, Network and Information 

Systems (NIS) Regulations have been in 

force to improve the cybersecurity of 

companies which provide essential 

services, such as water, energy, transport, 

healthcare and digital infrastructure. These 

regulations require such businesses to 

undertake risk assessments, put in place 

reasonable security measures to protect 

their network, and report any significant 

incidents whilst having plans in place to 

recover if an attack occurs. Those who fail 

to implement effective cybersecurity 

measures can be fined as much as £17 

million. However, the government now 

wants to widen the list of companies that 

comply with such measures to include 

Managed Service Providers (MSPs). 

With more businesses undergoing digital 

transformations and shifting to the cloud, 

which was accelerated over the pandemic 

as a means to survive, there has been an 

increase in dependence on MSPs to act as 

a business' trusted advisor to assist them 

on their digital journey. These IT partners 

are also crucial in boosting the growth of 

the country's £150.6 billion digital sector, 

and therefore play a monumental role in 

the economy. 

Outsourced IT 

services 

should 

create a 

solid 

cyber 

security strategy for the businesses who 

choose them. Security standards should 

therefore be high - especially to battle the 

ever-developing and innovative 

cybersecurity market, with new 

methodology and tactics constantly 

evolving from hackers. As highlighted in the 

Government's recent announcement: "Every 

UK organisation must take their cyber 

resilience seriously as we strive to grow, 

innovate and protect people 

online. Additionally, 

outsourced IT 

providers have 

the 



OPINION: CYBER RESILIENCE 

knowledge, skills and solutions for 

businesses to benefit from and leverage to 

keep their data, networks and users safe. 

By partnering with an established MSP 

who can act as an external security partner 

to help businesses achieve cyber resilience, 

the pressure and responsibility of defending 

the business against cyber threats will lay 

with the expert. This creates a unique 

opportunity for MSPs to guide customers on 

their cybersecurity journey and ensure they 

are receiving relevant education and have 

the right technology and tools in place to 

protect their businesses. By identifying the 

gaps in their cyber needs, or allowing an 

MSP to make these judgments, a strong 

infrastructure can be built upon the 

business' existing setup. 

REPORTING INCIDENTS AND 

DAMAGE LIMITATION 

Other published proposals include 

improving the way organisations report 

cybersecurity incidents and reforming 

legislation so that it is more flexible and 

can react to the speed of technological 

change. This is specifically timely due to the 

increase in ransomware attacks, particularly 

during the peak of COVID-19, which saw 

twice as many ransomware attacks occur - 

taking advantage of remote workers being 

away from the help of IT teams, and of the 

businesses that pay the ransom fee, such as 

in the Colonial Pipeline attack, where the 

cybercriminal group DarkSide were paid 

nearly $5m (£3.6m) in ransom. 

If a ransomware attack were to take 

place, it is important that the organisation 

works with local authorities to try to rectify 

the issue and follow their guidance. Often, 

many ransomware attacks go unreported - 

and this is where a lot of criminal power 

lies. Prevention is always better than cure, 

and damage limitation and containment 

are important right from the outset. Most 

organisations should have a detailed 

disaster recovery plan in place and if they 

don't, they should rectify this immediately. 

The key to every disaster recovery plan is 

backups. Once the breach has been 

contained, businesses can get back up and 

running quickly and relatively easily, 

allowing for maximum business continuity. 

As soon as the main threat has passed, it 

is recommended that all organisations 

conduct a full retrospective audit, ideally 

without blame or scapegoats, and share 

their findings and steps taken with the 

world. Full disclosure is helpful - not only 

for customer, client or patient reassurances, 

but also for other organisations to 

understand how they can prevent an attack 

of this type being successful again. 

EQUIPPING BUSINESSES ON THEIR 

CYBERSECURITY JOURNEY 

The UK Cyber Security Council, which 

regulates the cybersecurity profession, also 

needs powers to raise the bar and create a 

set of agreed qualifications and 

certifications so those working in 

cybersecurity can prove they are properly 

equipped to protect businesses online. 

With security breaches showing no signs 

of slowing down, MSPs must be constantly 

vigilant and develop cyber resilience 

approaches that go beyond deploying 

security solutions. This means having not 

only the market-leading technology 

available, but also the technical expertise 

to support business security plans and 

growth. MSPs must take a proactive role in 

understanding the current state of a 

customer's ability to protect against, prevent 

and respond to modern cyber threats 

when recommending the best 

approaches to true cyber resilience. 

Have they engaged in phishing 

penetration testing? Is sending an 

email to the wrong person an 

embarrassing mistake or a data 

breach? Are they using a 

layered and dedicated security approach or 

settling for security as part of a broader 

'cloud services' package? These are just 

some of the key questions MSPs should be 

asking when they look to fulfil their trusted 

advisor role. 


MSPs have privileged access to their 

client's networks and systems, potentially 

enabling attackers to attack a wide range 

of organisations through a single breach. 

This is why it's of the utmost importance 

for all outsourced IT providers to 

understand the role they play in keeping 

business data secure, while also educating 

their customers on how to become more 

cyber resilient. Combining MSP 

knowledge and expertise with 

government-backed credentials should 

surely be a winning formula for the IT 

security industry and enable MSPs to 

prove to their clients they have what it 

takes to keep their businesses secure. NC 



EVENT ORGANISERS: 

Do you have something coming up that may 

interest readers of Network Computing? 

Contact dave.bonner@btc.co.uk 

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CIO/CISO IRELAND SUMMIT 

Dublin, Ireland 

https://bit.ly/3P0NdLE


Fluke Networks 

FiberLert 


PRODUCT 


Fibre cabling is by far and away the 

predominant choice for connecting highperformance 

networks and is used for 

core networks and backbone connections by 

data centres, data communications providers, 

campus networks and much more. 

With fibre networks carrying so much 

critical data it is imperative that fibre cabling 

is kept in tip-top condition and that faults 

are identified quickly to avoid major 

downtime and loss of services. Often, the 

biggest problems facing network engineers 

are broken or sub-standard cabling, dirty 

cable connections, faulty transceivers and 

failed ports. 

The FiberLert from Fluke Networks is an 

elegantly simple and eminently safe testing 

solution that is designed to detect active fibre 

signals, allowing it to be used to troubleshoot 

switch and host ports, transceivers, cables and 

polarity. It detects active signals in singlemode 

and multimode fibre with an infrared 

range of 850nm to 1625nm and can be used 

for ports and patch cords, SM, MM, UPC and 

APC connections. 

It will appeal to network engineers that only 

have an occasional requirement to test fibre 

connections and don't want to make a big 

investment. The FiberLert is compact, easily 

portable, incredibly simple to use and with a 

price tag that's only a shade over £100, is 

exceedingly good value. 

This Sharpie-sized tool is constructed of 

sturdy impact resistant plastic and has a solid 

pocket clip. It's powered by two AAA batteries 

which are easily accessible by releasing and 

sliding the yellow cover backwards. 

The FiberLert is designed for one-hand use 

and has a single button on its upper surface 

where one quick press turns it on and a two 

second press mutes or enables its internal 

beeper. It'll conserve battery life if you forget 

to turn it off as after five minutes of no 

inactivity, it powers itself off. 

The business end has a single ceramic 

ferrule and its non-contact design reduces 

the likelihood of contamination or 

damage. To test a transceiver, you just hold 

it in front of its ports and it'll tell you if it 

detects a signal. 

Likewise with fibre cabling terminals, as the 

FiberLert's tethered protective cap has a 

ferrule adapter below where you place one 

end over the FiberLert's detector and plug the 

cable ferrule into the other side to ensure 

perfect alignment. The FiberLert really is a 

cinch to use as when turned on, its smart 

LightBeat feature flashes the single red LED in 

front of the button to confirm it is powered on 

and battery life is good. 

When it detects an infra-red light source 

from the device or cable under test, the 

LED turns solid red and the beeper sounds 

continuously. There's nothing to set up, 

read or interpret - there's either a signal or 

there isn't. 

We used it to test a range of lab equipment 

including our TP-Link TL-SX3016F core switch 

which provides sixteen SFP+ 10GbE ports. 

With transceivers inserted, we moved the 

FiberLert probe within a few millimetres of the 

ports on test and it immediately confirmed 

which one was presenting a signal. 

It proved invaluable to us as we'd recently 

been experiencing connectivity issues 

between one of our 10GbE-enabled servers 

and the switch. We confirmed that the server's 

transceiver was functional, used the 

FiberLert's ferrule adapter to verify a signal 

was passing through the cable and that 

polarity was correct, and then found that the 

transceiver in the switch was faulty - all in less 

than a minute. 

The Fluke Network FiberLert takes all the 

guesswork out of troubleshooting fibre 

activity, polarity and connectivity. It's very 

affordable and we found it so simple to use - 

right-thinking network engineers won't leave 

home without it. NC 

Product: FiberLert 

Supplier: Fluke Networks 

Web site: www.flukenetworks.com 

Tel: +44 (0)207 942 0721 

Price: £101 exc VAT 



OPINION: DATA CENTRES 

THE DATA CENTRE IN 2022 AND BEYOND 

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' FOR THE DATA CENTRE, 

ACCORDING TO PETER MILLER, SALES MANAGER AT ETB 

TECHNOLOGIES 

We live in an ever-changing, datahungry 

world - and IT and data 

centre managers need to ensure 

their set-up is fit for purpose, especially with 

the changing nature of work accelerated by 

the pandemic. These managers need to 

question whether their existing estates meet 

the businesses' needs both now and in 

preparation for any future challenges 

caused by external forces - be it regulatory 

or another unprecedented global crisis. 

One side-effect of the pandemic was a 

reallocation of budgets as businesses had 

to rethink their physical office and IT 

needs. According to data from Synergy 

Research Group, cloud spend in 2020 

"dwarfed" investment in on-premise 

solutions, growing by 35% to reach almost 

$130 billion versus just $90 billion for data 

centres. However, as offices reopen and 

the way we work changes once again, it is 

possible that budgets will again change 

and on-premise infrastructure will increase 

in 2022 in beyond. 

With no crystal ball at hand to see exactly 

what will change about business operating 

models, it seems like ensuring IT estates are 

fit for the future is a lost cause; however 

there are some things to consider that will 

help - whatever changes come our way. 

COMMIT TO A FULL REVIEW 

Reopening offices doesn't mean returning to 

the way things were in 2019. Many 

businesses will maintain a hybrid working 

model, so what worked before businesses 

went remote doesn't necessarily mean it will 

work as we return. 

A hybrid model means a high level of 

traffic as team members access and save 

files from multiple locations. IT managers 

must ensure their estate can cope with this, 

and consider where adaptations and 

improvements might be needed, specifically 

concerning storage capacity, networking 

capabilities, and connectivity and 

bandwidth. This is particularly important as 

we continue to see employees use online 

collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams to 

edit documents in real-time, as well as 

access internal servers. 

Part of this review should involve a 

consultation with the wider organisation to 

better understand the company's full IT 

usage. Reviewing the tools, processes and 

practices that occur at all levels will better 

inform the technical team of any 

enhancements that are needed within an 

organisation's data centre - and beyond. 

Only once this has been done can changes 

be made to strengthen the data centre and 

make it fit for purpose in the future. 

BUILDING IN FLEXIBILITY 

If the pandemic has taught us nothing else, 

it's that we need systems and processes in 

place that can be turned on and off when 

our technology and operations requirements 

change - potentially overnight. While this 

was most obvious in March 2020, no one 

could have envisaged then that it would be 

two years until we considered returning to 

the office again. As a result, we all know 

now that embedding flexibility within data 

centre architectures to scale up (or down) 

according to the current organisational 

needs is an absolute must. 

Achieving this requires planning: not just 

consideration of what's needed right now, 



OPINION: DATA CENTRES 

but also allowing flexibility for extra 

capacity down the line. That's not to say 

that IT managers should automatically 

spend their budget on the biggest capacity 

system - but they should be looking for an 

upgrade-friendly configuration. For 

example, half populating a server's 

memory slots with 32GB Dimms may be 

more prudent than completely filling them 

with 16GB Dimms. 

Another example would be purchasing a 

48-port switch over a 24-port switch. The 

former option provides the additional 

ports to use if required; the latter would 

require an additional switch. Taking all 

this into account will ensure the IT estate 

has the flexibility embedded from the 

outset to futureproof, which may also 

mean budgets are better managed. 

Consideration for data migration must 

also be top of mind for IT managers. Due 

process must be given while a migration is 

happening, with temporary solutions in 

place to limit downtime. This is where 

utilising refurbished enterprise IT 

equipment can help. Rather than 

following an "invest-to-upgrade" strategy, 

companies may choose to rent the 

equipment that's needed on a short-term 

basis until the migration is complete. 

There are several companies, including 

ETB, that can help organisations of all 

shapes and sizes source this stopgap, 

enabling them to continue operations 

until the migration is complete 

BYPASS SUPPLY ISSUES BY BUYING 

REFURB 

The refurb market can also help in 

addressing the current supply chain crisis. 

Delivery staff shortages combined with a 

global semiconductor shortage means 

some businesses are waiting up to 100 

days for brand new servers and 

networking equipment. For many business, 

IT requirements change far too quickly to 

accept waiting more than three months for 

a piece of kit. 

More and more organisations are 

considering alternative routes to get the 

equipment they need, with many seriously 

considering refurbished enterprise IT 

equipment for the first time. Gone are the 

days when refurbished equated to old and 

slow; indeed, even equipment that is just 

one generation older than its "brand new 

equivalent" can often be used for as long 

as its newer peer, with the added benefit 

of providing significant cost savings. 

Equally, the refurb market also presents a 

stronger opportunity for spare or 

replacement parts to be sourced in a short 

amount of time - sometimes seeing 

processing and shipping times cut by 10x 

than buying new. 

The opportunity to upgrade equipment is 

also greater when it comes to refurbished 

tech, as specs can be adapted to better 

suit the user. All this means that businesses 

can reinvest any savings in other areas of 

the IT estate or business to drive recovery 

or mitigate any impact from rising costs 

resulting from changes to inflation. 

Put simply, when it comes to the data 

centre this year and beyond, speed, flex 

and source of technology must be high on 

the agenda to make sure organisations 

have a data centre to meet their needs - 

both now and in the future. NC 



OPINION: HYBRID WORKING 

A RESILIENT APPROACH TO HYBRID 

WORKING 

HYBRID WORKING PRESENTS A NUMBER OF SECURITY 

CHALLENGES FOR IT TEAMS. RODOLPHE HARAND, VP OF 

SALES AT YESWEHACK, LOOKS AT HOW TO ADDRESS THEM 

During the first lockdown, 60% of UK 

employees worked remotely. Now 

as offices reopen, many businesses 

find themselves continuing to support 

remote working while encouraging staff to 

come in a couple of days a week. 

With British workers favouring remote 

working according to a recent YouGov poll, 

rather than an all or nothing approach, 

companies are adopting a hybrid working 

approach. Although beneficial for 

employees, hybrid working is placing 

pressure onto business leaders to achieve a 

balance between providing staff with 

increased flexibility while also contending 

with a host of security issues arising from 

having a distributed workforce. 

PUBLIC NETWORK CHALLENGE 

Even before the pandemic, the 

safeguarding of corporate networks was 

a high priority for IT teams. Now, with the 

rise of hybrid working, IT team concerns 

have only amplified as more employees 

are using unsecured public Wi-Fi 

networks in places such as coffee shops, 

hotels and libraries. 

While this increased flexibility is great for 

employees, it raises a challenge for 

organisations as they have little visibility on 

the security standards of these networks. 

Knowing this, cybercriminals are setting up 

routers in public places. Once an 

unsuspecting employee connects to one of 

these routers, the cybercriminal has access 

to their communications and can infiltrate a 

business' corporate assets. 

Breaching a public network is a far easier 

task for hackers than intercepting a wellprotected 

company network. Think of it as a 

criminal having multiple doors to breach a 

premises, rather than one well-reinforced 

front door. The easiest solution to tackle this 

problem is mandating that employees use a 

Virtual Private Network (VPN). Using VPNs 

before signing onto a public network will 

encrypt the employee's internet traffic and 

flag any infractions on the corporate network. 

SOCIAL ENGINEERING ATTACKS 

INTENSIFY 

In 2021, online fraud increased by 85% 

according to a report by software company 

Arkose Lab. The pandemic has also resulted 

in a significant rise in social engineering 

attacks, the act of exploiting human 

interactions to trick individuals into sharing 

sensitive data. An example of this is phishing, 

where someone may receive an email 

supposedly from the IT team asking them to 

share their log-in details. Working remotely 

increases the likelihood of being susceptible 

to social engineering attacks as they rely 

heavily on human error and manipulation. 

Contributing to this is our increasing 

reliance on digital communications. For 

example, a new employee who is 

onboarded remotely is less likely to be able 

to identify legitimate correspondence 

coming from within the business and more 

prone to a cybercriminal's phishing email. 

For IT teams, while anti-spam filters are a 

good start, the key to success is enacting 

cybersecurity policies and standards of 

behaviour for all staff to follow, including 

those working from remote locations. Part 

of this means encouraging employees to 

question the source of emails, investigate 

irregularities and take the time to check 

with others on communications they are 

unsure about. 

ELIMINATING POOR CYBER 

SECURITY HYGIENE 

Another key factor businesses should 

consider is the behavioural difference 

between employees working from home 

and the office. Employees are more 

inclined to partake in risky online activity 

when working remotely as they don't have 

the eyes of the IT department directly on 

them. As a result, cybersecurity measures 

are more likely to be contravened. 

When it comes to cybersecurity, it is 

ultimately your employees who are first and 

foremost the strongest line of defence. It's 

for this reason that organisations must 

continuously invest in cyber awareness 

training while also providing tools that 

support secure remote working. 

No matter how advanced the 

deployment of your latest cybersecurity 

tools are, if the right training is not 

provided in the first place your defences 

are already compromised. As hybrid 

working becomes the new normal, IT 

security teams must rise to the challenge 

of preventing and combating the 

associated security implications as in the 

end, strong cyber resilience equates to 

strong business resilience. NC 



SUPERMICRO 

Edge Building Blocks 

Accelerating Innovation at the Intelligent Edge with the Broadest Range of Systems 

for Any Environment, Featuring 3 rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors 

Learn more at www.supermicro.com 

© Supermicro and Supermicro logo are trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

NC May-Jun 2022

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