5 Criteria for Evaluating Managed SD-WAN Solutions

SD-WAN has made networking sexy again—and for good reason. Many CIOs view SD-WAN technologies as key to their cloud-first strategies. After all, it's known for optimizing WAN performance and connecting branch offices quickly and securely all while reducing costs. But, the market is flooded with SD-WAN products, all promising networking nirvana for the enterprise. It’s true that SD-WAN can make your network more agile with centralized control and management. But many SD-WAN products are sold as do-it-yourself devices requiring IT resources to configure and manage the solution before any real benefit is gained.

Spotlight

Network Center

NetWork Center, Inc. is a complete technology solution provider with offices in Fargo ND and Grand Forks ND. We specialize in providing industry specific technology products, service, support and expertise for small to medium businesses. With our commitment to providing proactive services, responsible innovation, and dedicated customer support, we have grown to become one of the largest computer networking companies in the Upper Midwest.

OTHER ARTICLES
5G

Communications related vendor contracts start to pick up

Article | May 18, 2023

Publicly available announcements on all telecom contracts started to see a slowdown in 2nd quarter of 2019 and dipped in the 2nd quarter of 2020. We believe there might be several factors that could lead to the slowdown in 2019. In transport networking, operators are assessing new deployment models that include virtualization and disaggregated platform and in wireless segment, 4G rollout has reached maturity and started to see decline while 5G rollouts have just started and at an early phase of evaluation. And obviously at the end of 2019, we are seeing a more distinct slowdown likely from the impact of COVID-19 on global business deals. CSP has been more cautious with spending due to the challenges and uncertainties from the pandemic. However, dynamics related to COVID-19 have on the other hand accelerated bandwidth consumptions and subsequently driven investments across all segments of the network as we start to see recovery in the number of contracts announcement in the recent few quarters.

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Enterprise Mobility, Mobile Infrastructure

The Best Router Security Configurations for Your Business WiFi Network

Article | June 16, 2023

Wi-Fi and the Internet have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Because of the importance and convenience of a business Wi-Fi network, it is now a must-have service for most businesses. Unfortunately, numerous small-to-medium-sized businesses lack the resources and cyber skills required to appropriately secure their networks. This can be a major issue because an unsecured network exposes the company to attacks from hackers looking to steal valuable company information or customer data. How Can Businesses and IT Leaders Strengthen Their Wi-Fi Security? A data breach can cripple your business. It not only undermines consumer trust, but data breaches cost an average of $4.24 million. Fortunately, improving your Wi-Fi security is not difficult. To safeguard your company's wireless Internet connection, follow the steps outlined below. Use Up-To-Date Wi-Fi Encryption You should upgrade your hardware if it can only support WEP or WPA encryption. The Wi-Fi Alliance strongly encourages the widespread use of WPA2. Cutting-edge encryption has been demonstrated to be protected against even the most persistent attackers when correctly implemented. If you run an enterprise environment, you should take advantage of the extra security provided by specific digital certificates. Encrypt Wi-Fi Router Administration Pages Taking your Wi-Fi security a step further needs the use of a Wi-Fi digital certificate to secure your admin login pages. Self-signed certificates that come pre-installed on a few routers are untrusted, easy to copy, and prone to Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks. TLS certificates from reputable certificate authorities can ensure that all of your Wi-Fi connectivity is safe and confidential. If your router's quick start guide does not contain digital certificates, you can obtain information on the manufacturer's support page. Consider Restricting MAC addresses Smaller network managers can lock down MAC addresses for more control. Wireless routers and access points use MAC (Media Access Control) address filtering to block attacks. Every WiFi-enabled device has a unique MAC or physical address and a list of connected devices. You can manually enter addresses to define network access, but hackers can fake MAC addresses. Use Always-On SSL You must utilize HTTPS across your website and apply it to Wi-Fi. Accessing an account on an encrypted page and subsequently interacting with the site through unencrypted pages exposes the user to session-side jacking. Create a Guest AP with Tighter Security Not all businesses must enable guests or customers to connect to their networks, but some companies do offer guests access by providing them with guest login credentials. If your company falls into this category, set up a dedicated guest AP that is isolated from the rest of the company network. You can set up a second AP on your router and utilize a firewall to limit access from that AP to certain services that you want your visitors to be able to access. Closing Lines Nowadays, having an internet connection is critical for organizations, as is keeping it secure from hackers. Moreover, when conducting business, it is crucial to keep critical information and customer data secure. Otherwise, you risk compromising your company's image. So, if you want to maintain your Wi-Fi network security and keep your business working effectively, you must adhere to a few fundamental principles. Finally, you are on the path to make your Wi-Fi network safer and more robust by following all of these techniques at once or step by step.

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5G

A decade of open computing

Article | September 28, 2023

The third Annual OCP China Day, organized by the Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation and hosted by Inspur, will be held on July 27, 2021 in Beijing. It marks another step in the right direction to popularizing open computing across the globe. This year is the tenth anniversary of the open compute project and the theme of OCP China Day is “Open compute for a new decade: Decarbonization, Efficiency, Adoption”. Omdia has tracked the open computing market in detail for 5 years and over that period we have seen the end-user base expand and adoption take off. We expect 40% of the servers shipped in 2025 to be developed based on open standard, up from 7% in 2016. This is a very significant number, partularly given that our forecast takes into account large scale adoption at only two or three of the hyperscale cloud service providers. Most of the net new deployments are expected to be at tier-2 cloud, communication service providers and enterprises, including the public or government sector.

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The network and security must converge for 5G-enabled edges

Article | May 3, 2021

In tandem with the deployment of 5G networks is the emergence of edge computing and edge clouds – placing data processing and storage in close proximity to where it’s needed on the enterprise edge. Moving computing closer to the enterprise edge improves network performance and reduces cost as traffic no longer needs to be routed to central clouds. 5G networks and edge computing are creating new business opportunities and richer consumer experiences. Many mobile service providers are planning to shift their network delivery from a few mega-capacity central clouds to thousands of edge clouds that support more agile, customizable services. Without integration, the new 5G network edges are where the new security challenges will likely occur. The performance of 5G networks has to be matched by the associated security and computing components. Without strategic security planning, the necessary security solutions could inadvertently create bottlenecks that negate the value of edge computing. Enabling applications to perform at 5G speeds to ensure expected user experience is one thing, but ensuring that this happens securely, across more network access points than ever before, presents an entirely new set of very serious challenges. Organizations need to be prepared today with stronger, broader, integrated and automated security foundations.

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Spotlight

Network Center

NetWork Center, Inc. is a complete technology solution provider with offices in Fargo ND and Grand Forks ND. We specialize in providing industry specific technology products, service, support and expertise for small to medium businesses. With our commitment to providing proactive services, responsible innovation, and dedicated customer support, we have grown to become one of the largest computer networking companies in the Upper Midwest.

Related News

Enterprise Mobility,Mobile OS

MATRIXX Software’s Digital Commerce Platform Available in Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace

MATRIXX | January 27, 2023

5G monetization solutions leader, MATRIXX software, yesterday announced that the MATRIXX Digital Commerce Platform (DCP) is now available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing software and services to be used with the Azure cloud computing platform. MATRIXX DCP, a cloud native monetization platform gives Communications Services Providers (CSPs) a wide range of monetization options, making it simpler to take advantage of 5G revenue prospects. By installing MATRIXX DCP on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), CSPs may take full advantage of the reliable Azure cloud platform's benefits for the vital goal of monetizing new and cutting-edge services. With a no-code, cloud-native, real-time platform, MATRIXX DCP, a 3GPP-compliant converged charging solution, enables telcos to monetize at web scale. With MATRIXX DCP, operators can scale swiftly in the 5G era and beyond, create differentiated digital consumer experiences, and drive innovation. Marc Price, CTO at MATRIXX Software, said, “Multi-cloud deployments are increasingly important for operators around the world, and are defining the next era of telecommunications.” He further added, “MATRIXX empowers our customers to have access to advanced monetization capabilities, wherever they choose to deploy. Microsoft is a trusted cloud ecosystem partner for CSPs, and with MATRIXX DCP in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, telcos can easily procure and deploy monetization capabilities for emerging services.” About MATRIXX Software Matrix Software provides converged charging and commerce solutions. It’s cloud-native Digital Commerce Platform offers mission-critical, network-grade software that opens new prospects for network monetization. MATRIXX gives service providers the agility they need to quickly build, deploy, and monetize new products and services because to its no-code configuration features. Many of the world’s top IoT players, network infrastructure providers, and communications firms run on the MATRIXX platform. Utilizing business innovation and on-demand customer experience through MATRIXX enables businesses to compete better, produce new revenue, and pursue growth possibilities across markets and verticals.

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Wan Technologies,Wireless,5G

AMD and Viettel Collaborate on 5G Mobile Network Expansion

AMD | December 05, 2022

AMD and Viettel High Tech (Member of Viettel Group) today announced the successful completion of a 5G mobile network field trial deployment conducted by Viettel and powered by AMD Xilinx Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC devices. As the largest telecom operator in Vietnam serving more than 130 million mobile customers, Viettel High Tech has a rich history of using AMD radio technology with prior 4G deployments and is now accelerating new networks via new 5G remote radio heads. Designed to meet the growing capacity and performance requirements of mobile users globally, the Viettel 5G mobile network is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. AMD is the exclusive radio unit silicon supplier for Viettel’s indigenous 5G radio development. After the successful completion of the first field trial, Zynq MPSoCs are now set to be extended to an additional 300 Macro 8T8R base stations and 900 5G 8T8R Macro radios. The Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC was also chosen by Viettel for its first-generation 64T64R Massive MIMO radio which is currently being optimized for field trials. Viettel is developing the next generation of radios to also include Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC devices, to provide industry-leading integration and higher performance. “Viettel is committed to advancing mobile technology leadership by working closely with AMD to incorporate its adaptable SoC technology into our new generation of 5G networks. Going from VHT's history of making 4G BTS, this decision to scale for the growing demands of 5G was based on evaluating various factors including flexibility, simplification, design stability and the experience of engineers.” Nguyen Vu Ha, general director of Viettel High Tech “5G provides new opportunities to offer higher levels of performance, power efficiency and new services along with increased reliability required to meet the growing data demands of cellular networks,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, corporate vice president of APAC sales, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “We are proud of our close collaboration with Viettel and remain focused on enabling its mobile network to deliver the optimal end-user experience as well as the flexibility to evolve and grow as Viettel’s user base and required bandwidth continue to increase globally.” About Viettel High Tech As the R&D arm of Viettel Group, Viettel High Tech develops full 5G network architecture including 5 layers: Service/App layers, Core layers, Transportation layers, Access layers, Devices; makes Vietnam one of the few countries that can produce 5G equipment. Collaboration with the leading partners is VHT’s strategy. With the desire to experiment, exchange knowledge, further develop diverse fields, VHT is moving to accompany the international high-tech community. About AMD For more than 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible.

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Network Infrastructure,Network Management,Wan Technologies

Verizon continues to deploy 5G Ultra Wideband faster than expected

Verizon | December 06, 2022

Verizon now covers more than 175 million people with their ultra fast, ultra reliable 5G Ultra Wideband service, and will offer nationwide 5G Ultra Wideband in Q1 2023. The ongoing C-Band rollout is a full 13 months ahead of the original schedule, and continues to accelerate. Less than 21 months after announcing the results of the FCC’s C-band auction and after securing early access to an additional 30 markets this year, Verizon accelerated its build plan and surpassed its goal of reaching 175 million people covered by the end of 2022, a month ahead of schedule. “Our customers don’t stand still and neither does our network. Today, more than one out of every two Americans now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband. We know our customers rely on our service every day and we work for them – continuously enhancing, expanding and improving our wireless network. And as proud as I am to have crossed this milestone, I am equally proud of the way we are building our network – with the most advanced technologies, industry leading security, a robust fiber underpinning and a robust and varied spectrum portfolio. We are building this right. We are building this as a platform for innovation for years to come.” Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon. Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband brings power and performance comparable to a wired broadband internet connection to customers’ pockets. With download speeds up to one gigabit per second and the capacity to support data-heavy actions, 5G Ultra Wideband frees people up to do things on the go that many could only do before when connected to their home internet service. This includes everything from downloading huge documents and seamlessly streaming movies in HD audio and video, to playing console quality games and conducting video chats, video conferencing and FaceTime calls with clear sound and video. Verizon customers have much more to look forward to Verizon will continue to build out its 5G Ultra Wideband network using C-band spectrum providing service for millions more customers in the coming months, but Verizon’s engineers are not losing sight of the other critical components that will give customers the most reliable, secure, and robust experience possible on the Verizon network. In addition to providing greater coverage, especially in rural and suburban areas, Verizon will also enhance capacity by activating 100 MHz of C-Band spectrum in many markets, a significant step up from the 60 MHz of spectrum available when deployment first began. Once all of its licensed spectrum is made available, Verizon will have up to 200 MHz of C-Band spectrum deployed in many markets, which will provide exceptional speed and capacity. Complementing the wide coverage of Verizon’s premier C-Band spectrum, Verizon will continue deploying 5G on mmWave spectrum which provides for exponential capacity in areas with significantly dense populations such as venues, stadiums, arenas, airports, major metro areas, office complexes and more. mmWave will also continue to be used for private network deployments when enterprise customers need the fastest, most robust 5G service available for their enterprise applications from wireless manufacturing solutions to connected vehicles to remote healthcare and more. In addition to making 5G more accessible to more people, Verizon will continue focusing on building out the advanced technologies that provide increased security, reliability and customized experiences for customers. Those advancements include fully deploying the 5G core with Verizon’s proprietary cloud platform built specifically for telco workloads, advancing the fiber network to handle exponential increases in data traffic, continuing massive virtualization of the network to add programmability and flexibility into the network, using artificial intelligence to drive reliability and performance, continuing to develop edge computing capabilities to drive down latency, and continuing to advance antenna configurations to drive speed and efficiency.

Read More

Enterprise Mobility,Mobile OS

MATRIXX Software’s Digital Commerce Platform Available in Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace

MATRIXX | January 27, 2023

5G monetization solutions leader, MATRIXX software, yesterday announced that the MATRIXX Digital Commerce Platform (DCP) is now available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing software and services to be used with the Azure cloud computing platform. MATRIXX DCP, a cloud native monetization platform gives Communications Services Providers (CSPs) a wide range of monetization options, making it simpler to take advantage of 5G revenue prospects. By installing MATRIXX DCP on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), CSPs may take full advantage of the reliable Azure cloud platform's benefits for the vital goal of monetizing new and cutting-edge services. With a no-code, cloud-native, real-time platform, MATRIXX DCP, a 3GPP-compliant converged charging solution, enables telcos to monetize at web scale. With MATRIXX DCP, operators can scale swiftly in the 5G era and beyond, create differentiated digital consumer experiences, and drive innovation. Marc Price, CTO at MATRIXX Software, said, “Multi-cloud deployments are increasingly important for operators around the world, and are defining the next era of telecommunications.” He further added, “MATRIXX empowers our customers to have access to advanced monetization capabilities, wherever they choose to deploy. Microsoft is a trusted cloud ecosystem partner for CSPs, and with MATRIXX DCP in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, telcos can easily procure and deploy monetization capabilities for emerging services.” About MATRIXX Software Matrix Software provides converged charging and commerce solutions. It’s cloud-native Digital Commerce Platform offers mission-critical, network-grade software that opens new prospects for network monetization. MATRIXX gives service providers the agility they need to quickly build, deploy, and monetize new products and services because to its no-code configuration features. Many of the world’s top IoT players, network infrastructure providers, and communications firms run on the MATRIXX platform. Utilizing business innovation and on-demand customer experience through MATRIXX enables businesses to compete better, produce new revenue, and pursue growth possibilities across markets and verticals.

Read More

Wan Technologies,Wireless,5G

AMD and Viettel Collaborate on 5G Mobile Network Expansion

AMD | December 05, 2022

AMD and Viettel High Tech (Member of Viettel Group) today announced the successful completion of a 5G mobile network field trial deployment conducted by Viettel and powered by AMD Xilinx Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC devices. As the largest telecom operator in Vietnam serving more than 130 million mobile customers, Viettel High Tech has a rich history of using AMD radio technology with prior 4G deployments and is now accelerating new networks via new 5G remote radio heads. Designed to meet the growing capacity and performance requirements of mobile users globally, the Viettel 5G mobile network is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. AMD is the exclusive radio unit silicon supplier for Viettel’s indigenous 5G radio development. After the successful completion of the first field trial, Zynq MPSoCs are now set to be extended to an additional 300 Macro 8T8R base stations and 900 5G 8T8R Macro radios. The Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC was also chosen by Viettel for its first-generation 64T64R Massive MIMO radio which is currently being optimized for field trials. Viettel is developing the next generation of radios to also include Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC devices, to provide industry-leading integration and higher performance. “Viettel is committed to advancing mobile technology leadership by working closely with AMD to incorporate its adaptable SoC technology into our new generation of 5G networks. Going from VHT's history of making 4G BTS, this decision to scale for the growing demands of 5G was based on evaluating various factors including flexibility, simplification, design stability and the experience of engineers.” Nguyen Vu Ha, general director of Viettel High Tech “5G provides new opportunities to offer higher levels of performance, power efficiency and new services along with increased reliability required to meet the growing data demands of cellular networks,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, corporate vice president of APAC sales, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “We are proud of our close collaboration with Viettel and remain focused on enabling its mobile network to deliver the optimal end-user experience as well as the flexibility to evolve and grow as Viettel’s user base and required bandwidth continue to increase globally.” About Viettel High Tech As the R&D arm of Viettel Group, Viettel High Tech develops full 5G network architecture including 5 layers: Service/App layers, Core layers, Transportation layers, Access layers, Devices; makes Vietnam one of the few countries that can produce 5G equipment. Collaboration with the leading partners is VHT’s strategy. With the desire to experiment, exchange knowledge, further develop diverse fields, VHT is moving to accompany the international high-tech community. About AMD For more than 50 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible.

Read More

Network Infrastructure,Network Management,Wan Technologies

Verizon continues to deploy 5G Ultra Wideband faster than expected

Verizon | December 06, 2022

Verizon now covers more than 175 million people with their ultra fast, ultra reliable 5G Ultra Wideband service, and will offer nationwide 5G Ultra Wideband in Q1 2023. The ongoing C-Band rollout is a full 13 months ahead of the original schedule, and continues to accelerate. Less than 21 months after announcing the results of the FCC’s C-band auction and after securing early access to an additional 30 markets this year, Verizon accelerated its build plan and surpassed its goal of reaching 175 million people covered by the end of 2022, a month ahead of schedule. “Our customers don’t stand still and neither does our network. Today, more than one out of every two Americans now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband. We know our customers rely on our service every day and we work for them – continuously enhancing, expanding and improving our wireless network. And as proud as I am to have crossed this milestone, I am equally proud of the way we are building our network – with the most advanced technologies, industry leading security, a robust fiber underpinning and a robust and varied spectrum portfolio. We are building this right. We are building this as a platform for innovation for years to come.” Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon. Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband brings power and performance comparable to a wired broadband internet connection to customers’ pockets. With download speeds up to one gigabit per second and the capacity to support data-heavy actions, 5G Ultra Wideband frees people up to do things on the go that many could only do before when connected to their home internet service. This includes everything from downloading huge documents and seamlessly streaming movies in HD audio and video, to playing console quality games and conducting video chats, video conferencing and FaceTime calls with clear sound and video. Verizon customers have much more to look forward to Verizon will continue to build out its 5G Ultra Wideband network using C-band spectrum providing service for millions more customers in the coming months, but Verizon’s engineers are not losing sight of the other critical components that will give customers the most reliable, secure, and robust experience possible on the Verizon network. In addition to providing greater coverage, especially in rural and suburban areas, Verizon will also enhance capacity by activating 100 MHz of C-Band spectrum in many markets, a significant step up from the 60 MHz of spectrum available when deployment first began. Once all of its licensed spectrum is made available, Verizon will have up to 200 MHz of C-Band spectrum deployed in many markets, which will provide exceptional speed and capacity. Complementing the wide coverage of Verizon’s premier C-Band spectrum, Verizon will continue deploying 5G on mmWave spectrum which provides for exponential capacity in areas with significantly dense populations such as venues, stadiums, arenas, airports, major metro areas, office complexes and more. mmWave will also continue to be used for private network deployments when enterprise customers need the fastest, most robust 5G service available for their enterprise applications from wireless manufacturing solutions to connected vehicles to remote healthcare and more. In addition to making 5G more accessible to more people, Verizon will continue focusing on building out the advanced technologies that provide increased security, reliability and customized experiences for customers. Those advancements include fully deploying the 5G core with Verizon’s proprietary cloud platform built specifically for telco workloads, advancing the fiber network to handle exponential increases in data traffic, continuing massive virtualization of the network to add programmability and flexibility into the network, using artificial intelligence to drive reliability and performance, continuing to develop edge computing capabilities to drive down latency, and continuing to advance antenna configurations to drive speed and efficiency.

Read More

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