White Papers: network

Few readers need to be told that the Internet is a dangerous place. Anyone in the IT field is aware that viruses, spam, and malicious Web sites exist. Knowledge of these attacks and vulnerabilities was the domain of specialized security gurus just a few years ago. But the need to understand computer security has spread beyond the domain of specialists. Today, even IT end users need to be aware of threats and countermeasures to some degree.

The recent release of the Firesheep Wi-Fi attack tool has increased awareness among both users and attackers of the inherent insecurity of unprotected HTTP connections. Users on unprotected networks who connect to web sites through plain HTTP connections expose their connections to those sites to open surveillance and full compromise. Read on.

Cloud-based computing represents a powerful new option for managing enterprise content, offering increased flexibility, efficiency, and reduced cost for IT infrastructure, data storage, and applications. However, for a variety of business and technical reasons, most organisations will take a phased approach to adopting cloud-based services, which will require them to continue to maintain their on-premises SharePoint environments during the transition. This white paper, written by Chris Beckett from SharePoint Bits, discusses some of the benefits and risks of hybrid SharePoint deployments, and presents governance considerations that are essential for ensuring a successful migration.

This white paper will highlight the changes in the mobile workplace; outline the benefits of unified communications (UC) and Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) for mobile workers; identify the key market trends and business challenges IT managers must pay attention to now and into the future; and offer best practices for choosing a solution that will deliver clear ROI.

Computing has gone through several major transitions through the ages, each of which raised the value of the network and dramatically lowered the cost of computing. In the years after its birth in the mainframe era, the computing industry shifted to client/server and then Internet computing. Today, we are beginning yet another major computing revolution: the shift to mobile computing. This revolution already allows us to carry mini computers, called “smartphones,” in our pockets. This shift will drive down the cost of computing even further and drive up the value of the network, forever changing its role in organisations. Read on.