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NFL stadiums undergo Wi-Fi transformation

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As technology has become a more prevalent part of everyday life, our devices have changed the way we interact with the world around us. Nowhere has this shift in behavior been felt more than the entertainment industry. Audiences no longer simply watch what is before them, but instead share reactions on social media, search for similar information online and talk to their friends about what is happening.

In order to accommodate this change, the NFL has undertaken an initiative to equip all stadiums in the league with improved Wi-Fi by the start of the 2015 season. Many arenas in the league already offer Wi-Fi access to spectators, but it often provides insufficient service, keeping fans from Googling player stats or posting a video of their touchdown dance. In an interview with USA Today,  NFL CIO Michelle Mckenna-Doyle said that part of the problem was that the league, as well as many of the teams, debuted mobile applications without first improving their network capacity.

In an interview with USA Today, Extreme Networks CEO Chuck Berger estimated that between 25 percent and 30 percent of visitors currently use the Wi-Fi networks offered by stadiums and expects that number to double within the next few years.

Large-scale stadiums present a unique challenge in terms of infrastructure. They are primarily built using steel and concrete, which makes it difficult for signals to penetrate. The surge of traffic at particular times can also be difficult for a network to handle, as fans all tend to get online at kickoff, half-time and as they are leaving the stadium complex. With these challenges in mind, specialized Wi-Fi networks have already been installed at the stadiums of the New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans.

Wi-Fi networks benefit more than the fans
While an improved fan experience is certainly an important access of the effort to enhance Wi-Fi capacity, Berger noted that can also be used as a subtle way for teams to drive business.

"The franchises in the NFL are doing this not only to allow you to upload selfies but to take advantage of the commercial opportunity to send you promotional information," said Berger. "Tom Brady just threw a touchdown pass. Twenty-five percent off his jersey at the logo wear store. Things like that."

And the potential goes even further than just marketing. In an interview with CIO Online, McKenna-Doyle expressed an interest in leveraging the amount of fan data captured on the Wi-Fi networks to perform predictive analytics.

"What are leading indicators of things people are starting to do and early adopters are starting to do," said McKenna-Doyle. "What are things that pop on the screen that we haven't thought about yet? When data can be predictive is when it's most valuable. We'll spend a bit of time to see if we are meeting needs and the next goal is to predict what fans are going to want to do."

Fears about cloud security can be calmed with improved enterprise awareness

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As the use of cloud computing becomes more prevalent, a major topic of discussion within enterprises has been the safety of the technology. While many organizations have implemented the cloud, some are still skeptical of its ability to sufficiently protect sensitive information and reduce the chance of a data breach. In fact, a survey of CIOs earlier this year revealed that 70 percent consider security concerns to be the biggest barrier to cloud deployment, NetworkComputing reported.

Another survey recently released by InformationWeek Reports found that IT decision-makers are most worried about security and data resiliency when considering the cloud. Four of the top 10 concerns about cloud computing were related to those two topics. However, there seemed to be a discrepancy in the level of concern about security and the level of trust in the cloud's ability to protect an enterprise network. While 17 percent of those surveyed said the cloud significantly increases the chances of a data breach, 14 percent said the technology decreases the likelihood and 35 percent reported that the cloud has no impact on the occurrence of a security intrusion at all.

According to a separate study conducted by the Harvard Business Review, the cloud is safer depending on what segment of the enterprise you ask. Almost two-thirds of business leaders surveyed said that IT security is not compromised by use of cloud computing, and 35 percent reported an increase in security due to the cloud.

Increased enterprise oversight greatly improves cloud security
One reason there is a perceived lack of security in the cloud is due to an overall insufficient use of encryption. According to information from SafeNet, only 38 percent of U.S. companies encrypt important data. Such statistics reveal that cloud computing isn't unsafe so much as enterprises don't take the steps to secure their information residing in the cloud. Another easily avoidable security issue is the lack of involvement of IT security staff in cloud decision-making. In a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, nearly 40 percent of IT security professionals reported that they were rarely involved in decisions related to procuring cloud services, and 9 percent reported never being included at all.

Many of the security risks enterprise decision-makers believe are caused by the cloud are actually the result of insufficient data security policies and a lack of involvement from in-house IT staff. While it is nearly impossible to completely prevent a data breach from ever occurring on an accessible network, there are ways to greatly reduce the likelihood of a breach and dramatically improve the security of enterprise information storage.

Organizations commonly have concerns about the privacy of information stored with a third-party provider in a multi-tenant environment. These fears can easily be quelled through the use of a private cloud platform or a hybrid solution. Only one company's information is stored within a private environment, which eliminates the chance of outside eyes prying on sensitive data. With a hybrid option, the most privileged information is stored in a private environment and less critical data and applications are kept in a more accessible public area.

Top 4 reasons more companies than ever are deploying cloud platforms

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A recent study conducted by Dimensional Research found that the majority of enterprise IT decision-makers plan to deploy multi-cloud architectures within the next 12 months.

The report, which surveyed over 650 IT leaders in eight countries, discovered that 77 percent of respondents were planning on implementing multi-cloud architectures and are interested in utilizing interconnected colocation data center environments because of their increased reliability, security and performance. Researchers also found that 74 percent of participants expect to have larger budgets for cloud services in the coming year.

The study revealed the importance of interconnection to enterprises considering the cloud. Almost 90 percent of respondents indicated a need for interconnection to sufficiently meet their cloud performance objectives, either through direct connection to cloud services or high bandwidth interconnection to other clients. This strong desire for interconnection may be driven by the popularity of multi-cloud storage. According to the report, 74 percent of participants are preparing to implement a multi-cloud migration strategy, moving critical applications to a cloud platform maintained by a third-party service provider.

Enterprise cloud adoption is becoming increasingly popular for a number of reasons. Below are some of the biggest advantages to using cloud-computing in business:

1) Cost Efficiency: Installing and eventually upgrading software for all of the computers and mobile devices in an enterprise can be extremely expensive; it can also leave organizations vulnerable to security breaches and loss of competitive advantage. With the cloud, upgrades and security patches are included in the subscription price, so the newest and most secure version is always available without additional cost. Service is also extremely scalable, allowing businesses to pay only for the amount of computing power necessary and add extra capacity for a reasonable price later on. This enables a company and its cloud service to grow in tandem and always be in lock step.

2) Improve Accessibility/Mobility: With the cloud, documents and files are available to employees from any cloud-enabled device, improving remote working opportunities and staff collaboration. That accessibility enhances organizations to enter new markets and increase global presence, as the same platform used in the office is available to staff anywhere in the world and foreign communication can be done for a low cost over the Internet.

3) Ease-of-Use: Cloud infrastructures, especially those maintained by third-party providers, are dramatically simpler to create and manage than traditional IT environments. Any necessary configuration changes are taken care of by the service provider, and hardware and software installations are practically eliminated. Additional services or features can also be quickly and easily made available, reducing time to market and improving ROI.

4) Security: With the ability to access documents from any Internet-connected device, the likelihood of employees using external hard drives or USB devices that can be lost or stolen is greatly reduced. Data security is also improved in the cloud, as third-party providers are almost certainly more comfortable with cybersecurity than an individual enterprise would be, as keeping files safe is one of the provider’s main areas of focus.

New York City turns pay phones into Wi-Fi hot spots

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New York City officials announced a $200 million plan this week to turn public payphones into Wi-Fi hot spots. The project, called LinkNYC, will transition the city's public payphone network into the world's largest and fastest free municipal Wi-Fi network. The thousands of payphones around New York City will be replaced with hubs that provide access to wireless Internet with speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.

Maya Wiley, counsel for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in an interview with CNET that LinkNYC will go a long way to provide Internet access to those without it. Wiley added that the program will be especially beneficial to lower income residents that rely on mobile connections to use the Internet in order to access city services.

New Wi-Fi program provides public service
The LinkNYC hubs will offer users free national phone calls, an embedded Android-capable tablet with access to directions and city services and charging stations. The tablet display will also be able to be used by the city to provide residents with emergency information or public service announcements. During Hurricane Sandy payphones became a critical resource for communication as many other avenues were disabled or jammed from high traffic. Residents will still be able to make emergency calls from the new Wi-Fi hubs and backup batteries will provide service for up to 24 hours in the event of an outage, The New York Times reported.

According to the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the LinkNYC Wi-Fi network will have speeds 100 times faster than the average municipal network and 20 times faster than what the average New Yorker would use at home. Someone using LinkNYC access would be able to download a 2-hour movie in 30 seconds, the Times reported.

The plan to transition New York's more than 6,000 payphones to Wi-Fi hot spots was initially conceived two years ago, and city has been beta-testing the project since then. The first 500 locations are expected to be ready for use by the end of next year, and the remaining sites will be completed within the next six years. The program won't cost anything for residents and the city expects to make much more from the new contract than it currently does from payphone franchisees, according to CNET contributor Ben Fox Rubin.

The project still needs to be approved by multiple city boards, but its outlook is optimistic and a developer has already been chosen to create the infrastructure.

New study finds Internet of Things continuing to expand

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A new study recently released by Gartner has found that use of the Internet of Things is growing, and an increasing number of devices now have IoT capabilities.

According to the report, 4.9 billion connected things are expected to be in use next year, an increase of 30 percent from 2014. The number of IoT devices is believed to be on track to reach 25 billion by 2020. Gartner researchers estimated that total spending on services supported by the IoT will reach $70 billion in 2015 before rising dramatically to $263 billion in 2020.

Part of the reason connected devices have seen such a dramatic growth recently is due to the powerful force the IoT has shown itself to be in terms of business transformation. The report discovered that while the increased number of connected things is being driven by consumer applications, enterprises will account for most of the revenue in the market.

"The number of connected intelligent devices will continue to grow exponentially, giving 'smart things' the ability to sense, interpret, communicate and negotiate, and effectively have a digital 'voice,'" said Steve Prentice, Gartner fellow and vice president. "CIOs must look for opportunities to create new services, usage scenarios and business models based on this growth."

Researchers also noted that traditional, mainstream products will start to be reinvented to include computing capabilities and provide them with a digital voice. The enhancement of objects once viewed as passive products will completely change their value propositions and create new services and business models. The study found that by 2020, the three industries with the highest level of IoT use will be utilities, manufacturing and government.

Security a major part of IoT expansion 
​A major point touched on by the report is the security repercussions of the IoT, as dozens of new platform options are brought into enterprise digital security architecture. Increased use of the IoT will also bring new security standards to each industry individually and provide a new view of applications. These changes will cause IT leaders to create a more comprehensive technological approach to IoT risk and security going forward. According to the study, 20 percent of companies will have digital security services devoted to protecting business initiatives using IoT devices and services in the next two years.

"The IoT highlights the tight linkages between information security, information technology security, operational technology security and physical security like never before," a statement from Gartner noted. "Executives now face a decision regarding the future of security in their enterprise and who governs, manages and operates it."

Modern firewalls: More than just perimeter protection

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When firewalls were first introduced in the early '90s, their technology focused mainly on the concept of stateful inspection, which is concerned with keeping track of the state of a network's connections. Over the past two decades, however, the Internet has grown dramatically and new security threats have emerged, causing many to predict the downfall of the firewall as a security mainstay. Now, with new technology and next generation firewalls, it appears those predictions may have been somewhat premature.

"As threats and infrastructures have evolved, the ability to control the flow of traffic on the network is more useful than ever,"said Gil Shwed, inventor of stateful inspection and CEO of Check Point, in an interview with Computer Weekly. "Firewalls have evolved to become more comprehensive and, for most organizations, still form a key part of the information security technology stack."

Next generation firewalls dig deeper to enhance enterprise security
Modern firewalls have moved past simply monitoring certain ports or activity between addresses and are now able to allow or deny decisions. Firewalls are now capable of providing IT leaders with insights into the threats facing an enterprise that can then be used to create a more comprehensive defense strategy.

While some critics have suggested that firewalls are no longer sufficient network perimeters as company data is stored in a variety external locations, Shwed argues that what is part of an internal, trusted infrastructure and what is not is still clearly defined and therefore possible to create a perimeter around.

"Organizations use many different ways to access corporate data, such as clientless and client-based VPNs, from a range of devices or cloud applications – but the borders are still present," explained Shwed.

APTs and the IoT, no match for modern firewalls 
​Modern, next generation firewalls are being deployed by both public and private sector organizations to defend against high-profile attacks like advanced persistent threats. APTs utilize highly skilled hacking techniques and creative strategies to slip past even the most sophisticated defense measures undetected. Next generation firewalls are able to protect enterprise networks from this threat by supplementing traditional perimeter security strategies with content filtering, intrusion detection and application control features.

Firewalls are especially beneficial to organizations embracing the Internet of Things. With the IoT, there are often devices that are connected to the Internet – and are therefore able to be hacked – that cannot run the most recent security software, leaving them vulnerable to cybercriminals. Low-tech connected devices like printers and phones can now be protected through the use of a firewall. Any machine connected to an enterprise network can be included within the perimeter set up by a next generation firewall, proving increased protection and threat defense.

As FedTech Magazine contributor Mike Chapple pointed out, IT departments are able to benefit from the single management interface offered by modern firewalls and the entire enterprise experiences advantages from multiple security features working in concert with one another.

Screen to screen salesman: Utilizing video conferencing to improve enterprise efficiency

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For years, salespeople had to travel all across the country to create new contacts and grow business – a time consuming and expensive undertaking. With the advent of the Internet, this endless travel was dramatically reduced. But meetings with clients and vendors are still necessary and some things are better discussed face-to-face. Luckily, enterprises can now take advantage of video conferencing to schedule meetings with anyone in any place.

The ability to conference enables organizations to have face-to-face meetings with clients without physically having to be together, providing the necessary personal touch while dramatically reducing the cost of travel. Video conferencing also provides operational efficiencies within an enterprise as well. Remote workers and employees located in different offices can all come together easily through the use of video conferencing and company-wide meetings can be offered through an existing unified communications platform to provide a streamlined user experience.

Video conferencing offers organizations the ability to rapidly communicate with necessary parties. In the current fast-paced business environment, sometimes even just a few minutes can give a company a competitive advantage. If one organization can communicate important information to their team quicker than another, the fast enterprise will come out on top.

Utilizing video conferencing not only increases the speed of business communication, it also improves the efficiency and effectiveness of those messages. Emails can often be misinterpreted and take additional, unnecessary steps to arrive at a conclusion. Video conferencing provides the straightforward aspects of a phone call with the visual capabilities of an email to create a clear and streamlined communication tool.

Through the use of other modern UC features that utilize desktop virtualization, like screen sharing, video conferencing can become a completely interactive resource that increases the productivity, collaboration and innovation of a company.

Winter is coming – Time to think about disaster recovery

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As the weather begins to turn colder and the snow and ice of winter starts to creep closer, it’s important for enterprises to think about their disaster recovery solutions before severe weather and downed power lines cause serious network outages. Last year’s polar vortex brought with it record snowfalls and massive disruptions, leaving people without power for days at a time. Modern businesses can’t afford to be offline for even a few hours, let alone days. This is where a cloud disaster recovery solution comes in. By hosting duplicate information in the cloud, organizations can still make the necessary networks and systems available even if their primary facility is experiencing downtime. Cloud-based disaster recovery solutions are useful to companies of all sizes, and capacity can easily be scaled up or down to meet an organization’s changing needs.

There are a variety of cloud-based technologies that can assist businesses in their disaster recovery operations. Cloud storage services have made great advances in recent years, allowing enterprises to duplicate sensitive data, control multitenancy operations and improve the speed of site-to-site replication. Virtualization is also a helpful tool for companies looking to enhance a disaster recovery solution. Through the use of virtualization, organizations are able to share, replicate and back up sensitive data, which can span global data centers if necessary.

Utilizing third-party DR services
Disaster recovery-as-a-service is another option available to companies, in which a cloud service provider will maintain and operate an enterprise DR solution. This option, along with other types of cloud-based disaster recovery services, is extremely cost-effective. Instead of organizations having to invest heavily in hardware and maintenance of a private data center, information is stored in the cloud and maintained by a third-party provider. Hosting disaster recovery operations in the cloud also enables enterprises to frequently test their backup systems without disrupting regular business processes, ensuring backup operations will work properly when they are needed.

Despite the increasing use of cloud services among enterprise clients, some organizations still have concerns about information security in the cloud. However, the cloud is actually one of the safer places a company could store its data. Cloud service providers treat security as one of their core competencies, and are tasked solely with maintaining and securing the data they host. Any organization that keeps its information in house will not be as prepared to defend against a cyberattack as a provider that has data protection as a main focus.

Employees looking for social media within enterprise UC

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As employees become increasingly tech-savvy and begin to use a growing number of online applications and services to communicate on their own time, many workers are becoming more interested in integrating these tools into their organizations’ unified communications strategies.

According to a recently-released report by Source for Consulting, a majority of employees in the U.K. support integrating social media with back-office solutions in order to improve their work environments. The study, conducted in partnership with Advanced Business Solutions, surveyed finance, IT and HR staff from 160 mid-market firms in the U.K. Nearly 80 percent of employees from those organizations believe social media adoption will improve productivity, increase collaboration between employees and enhance supplier engagement.

The study found that 86 percent of organizations used social media for external purposes like marketing and client feedback, but only 17 percent used the technology for internal communication. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed felt their companies should be more concerned with internal collaboration.

“Although social media is widely used for sales, marketing and client services, it is not as well established as a means of optimizing productivity by improving employee collaboration,” said ABS managing director Simon Fowler in an interview with ITProPortal. “People are an organization’s most valuable asset and social technologies enable them to collaborate and share their knowledge quickly and easily from wherever they are working. This technology is ideal for bringing disparate teams closer together, enabling them to share their expertise and build on their combined knowledge.”

According to the report, implementing internal social media networks can help to increase productivity by reducing other time-consuming forms of communication. For example, 69 percent of participants reported social networks helping to cut down on unnecessary email.

Enterprise social media offers improved engagement
While just 13 percent of respondents said their organizations used social media solutions to engage suppliers, more than half felt their firms should be doing so in order to detect and leverage mutually beneficial opportunities and stay on top of potential supply chain issues.

Only 21 percent of organizations surveyed reported using social media for recruitment purposes, but this number will likely grow as companies realize the benefits of reaching out to a wider audience. Utilizing enterprise social media can be advantageous for groups interested in growing their staffs, as potential employees can be provided with specialized online recruitment solutions to manage their applications and engage more directly with the company.

Is your BYOD policy ready for the wearables boom?

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While its only the beginning of November, Christmas is in full swing for retailers, and this year's hottest gifts are wearable devices. More money is expected to be spent on wearable technology like the Fitbit and the Apple Watch this holiday season than in any previous year. New research by Samsung, which itself is about to debut a new smartwatch, projects spending on such devices will increase 182 percent this year compared to 2013.

Tech giants like Google are increasingly creating standalone wearable products as opposed to those made as accessories for smartphones, driving the popularity of the devices. The Samsung study found that fitness and activity tracking technology will be the most popular this year, as users further appreciate the health benefits of the devices. According to the report, almost $1.5 billion will be spent on activity monitors and smartwatches by the end of 2014.

"The wearables market has exploded over the past 12 to 18 months with some incredibly exciting and innovative products entering the market," said Samsung U.K. and Ireland president Andy Griffith. "As the benefits wearable technology can offer become better understood, it is natural that the sales within this sector will grow and we are delighted to see predictions of 121 percent growth and sales reaching €395 million ($495 million) in the U.K. alone by the end of this year."

As wearables take hold, data safety at risk 
London's Imperial College Business School and communications firm Zeno also conducted research into the area, which revealed that consumers are increasingly willing to put their fears about data privacy aside in order to access better features and benefits from their wearable technology. Half of respondents said they would be willing to share personal information in exchange for a reward. The study also discovered that 6 million people in the U.K. will own a wearable device by September 2015, despite the fact that 55 percent of those surveyed reported not wanting third-parties to be able to collect information gathered by their devices.

As wearable devices continue to grow in popularity, workers will be increasingly interested in using these products at work in the same way they do at home. Enterprises will need to begin incorporating wearables like smartwatches into their BYOD policies in order to protect company networks from their employees' lack of safety precautions.