NETWORKING

Occasionally that small idea to help a certain few, gains enough momentum where it can help many more than its original scope of impact. Though Cisco Talent Bridge was created as an employment program for Cisco Networking Academy back in 2017, in the past year, it has evolved so that the offerings are more easily available to audiences outside of our previous core focus.   The biggest change was shifting of our flagship resource, the Talent Bridge Matching Engine (TBME) – a job matching tool, under a different organization at Cisco. The shift allowed a new synergy to…

As I graduated from university and entered the private sector, I was a math student with very low self-confidence. I thought my career likely wouldn’t be for too long, as once I started a family there wouldn’t be roles that would enable me to be both a professional and a mother. I started at Cisco as a contractor after having my first baby, and I realized how exciting it was to have a role that…

Cybersecurity affects all of us, but the industry uses complicated terms that make it hard to understand. For example, what is ransomware and how does it work? What does phishing mean? Or zero trust? Let’s discuss these cyber concepts in simple, everyday language. And let’s cover what the good guys are doing to make our online lives safer. What’s ransomware? Imagine if you started your laptop one day and nothing worked. It turned on, sure,…

Business needs are driving significant changes in today’s datacenters. Enterprises are not only migrating applications to the cloud from on-premises data centers, but they are developing multicloud strategies that take advantage of availability, global footprint, and cost saving structures. In fact, IDC has predicted that more than 90% of IT organizations will commit to multicloud architectures by 2022. In addition, datacenters are running applications in a mix of heterogenous private, public and hybrid cloud computing…

The past several years have seen a large-scale shift from traditional MPLS-based customer edge routers to SD-WAN technology, according to Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure.   Overall spending on WAN edge will grow by 2.6% per year through 2025, according to the report. The increased sales of WAN edge technology in general is driven by SD-WAN equipment designed to support work-from-home and in-office environments are slightly dampened by the fact that sales…

The recent T-Mobile data breach, reportedly facilitated by attackers gaining access to an unprotected router and from there into the network, could have been prevented through the use of network automation. IDS, IPS, SASE, and other newer technologies get a lot more attention, but automation is critical to modern network security. Here’s a look at how automation should be used to enhance network security. Sound network-device security practices Effective network operations depend on the triad…

It used to be that we could do okay with less than 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) internet.  That was before we filled our evenings with streaming movies and TV shows and our days with working from home on Zoom meetings and Software-as-a-Service applications. Now, we need at least 25 Mbps, the more the better. Fiber internet offers the best speeds for those lucky enough to have it, and cable is the second-best option. After that,…

I distinctly remember my desktop and mobile updates that slowed my systems to a crawl. The fine print often says something like, “May not run optimally on lower-end hardware.” Which is a pity, when a treasured custom-built system can no longer supported the latest updates, compromising its security, or a smart phone dialer needs 5 seconds to open for a phone call. But sometimes, updates are also upgrades for your existing hardware. Secure Firewall Threat…

Healthcare has been digitally transforming during the past several years, but it is now happening at such speed and scale, it is driving convergence of technology and business strategies like never before. From demands on clinicians to integrate technology into their workflows and leverage data insights in real-time, to patient expectations to use a myriad of digital tools throughout their care journey, the need to modernize healthcare is here. Today, healthcare organizations invest heavily in infrastructure, along with multi-year network support plans….

Healthcare has been digitally transforming during the past several years, but it is now happening at such speed and scale, it is driving convergence of technology and business strategies like never before. From demands on clinicians to integrate technology into their workflows and leverage data insights in real-time, to patient expectations to use a myriad of digital tools throughout their care journey, the need to modernize healthcare is here. Today, healthcare organizations invest heavily in infrastructure, along with multi-year network support plans….