FrontierUS / Industry Trends

Time for Vigilance

“You need preparing, but most of all, you need constant, never ceasing vigilance.”

—Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody

In April, when Rebekah Brown wrote about the release of the NSA hacking tools, she said it was not time, yet, to build a bunker. While the jury is still out about the bunker, in the same Rapid7.com blog she correctly predicted, “It will not be long before we will start to see more widespread attacks using these tools.” Less than a month, it turns out.

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May 17, 2017
Read more about the article Servers with a Chance of Cloud
FrontierUS

Servers with a Chance of Cloud

If you spend any time around IT people you might think that in-house data centers and servers are as rare as pay phones. Like many things in popular culture, however, the reality is different from the perception. In the most recent study, released May 1, 2017, the Uptime Institute found, “the percentage of workloads residing in enterprise-owned/operated data centers has remained stable at 65 percent since 2014.” It would be easy to latch on to the 65% number and miss perhaps the most important element in their summary finding, the 65% has remained stable.

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May 4, 2017
Read more about the article Is It Really Waterproof?
FrontierUS / Peplink Technology

Is It Really Waterproof?

Since the Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S5, about 2013, common smartphones have been IP67, “water resistant.” Now Apple has built the iPhone 7 to the same specification, and once Apple jumps on the train more people start asking questions. The phones are rated IP67, but what exactly does that mean? It is a tight seal, but not something you want to take snorkeling.

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April 17, 2017
Read more about the article The Right Antenna
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The Right Antenna

Despite the high quality signal of a Peplink router, the best way to maximize connection speeds and throughput are with the right antenna. Recently our colleagues in The Netherlands did a simple test of the same Peplink hardware with three different antennas and found that the right antenna can double connection speed on the same network, with all other connections the same.

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March 29, 2017
Read more about the article The Internet of Connected Things
FrontierUS / Industry Trends

The Internet of Connected Things

If you find yourself at a party with a person who will not stop talking, try asking, “What do you know about this ‘Internet of Things?’” Most people will just stare back, confused. For all the buzz, there is not much clarity. The Internet of Things, or IoT for us insiders, is really more of a concept than a technology. It isn’t something you can buy, invest in, or hold in your hand. The term itself was coined in 1985, six years before there was a World Wide Web and back when the word Internet just meant a network between computers, the same way Interstate means a highway connecting two states. It seems impossible that when Peter T. Lewis used the phrase at an FCC conference he had any idea that it would take on its current meaning.

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March 20, 2017
Read more about the article The CloudScare
FrontierUS / Industry Trends

The CloudScare

Last week the world learned that Cloudflare servers have been leaking data for as long as five months. Before this, Cloudflare already had its share of controversy. In 2013, they were accused in a roundabout way of giving aid and comfort to the enemy because nefarious websites were found to use their service. Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince responded in a blog post, “Cloudflare and Free Speech.” He argues that it is not Cloudflare’s role, or place to evaluate and police content on the websites that pass through their servers. Cloudflare has a good case. Again, in 2015, the hacking group Anonymous made the claim that Cloudflare was “helping” ISIS because they found ISIS related sites also using Cloudflare. The Cloudflare CEO called the claims “Absurd,” and in a way, he’s right. When we find out that ISIS terrorists use iPhones, we don’t think Apple is helping them. While the claim that Cloudflare “supports” ISIS is absurd, in light of the data breech, it may matter that Cloudflare is so widely used by an unvetted range customers.

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February 28, 2017
Read more about the article Communication for Public Safety
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Communication for Public Safety

Our Dutch counterparts at FrontierBV published this article last week. We are sharing it here with slight modification for a US audience.

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February 20, 2017
Read more about the article The New Peplink 24-850 SD Switch
FrontierUS / Peplink Technology

The New Peplink 24-850 SD Switch

Peplink and Pepwave have brought innovation and reliability to the communications market. The Peplink line has revolutionized SD-WAN with their Fusion Hub technology and InControl network management software. The Pepwave line has created a continuous never-fail connection for thousands of mobile installations around the globe. Until now, however, Peplink did not offer a networking switch.

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February 1, 2017