A service mesh is made up of network proxies that are paired with each of the application services, as well as with certain task management processes. These proxies are collectively known as the data plane, whose job is to intercept calls between different services and to process these calls. Meanwhile, management processes are also called the control plane, which is referred to as the brain of the service mesh and which coordinates proxy behavior. The control plane also provides application programming interfaces or APIs, which operations and maintenance personnel manipulate and observe the entire network.

Unlike other systems that manage the communication and the sharing of data between different application services, a service mesh is built right into the app. It can document how app services interact, including how well or how poorly they do it, so it is easier to optimize this communication. And when communication is optimized, it becomes easier for an app to avoid downtime as it grows.

The common features that a service mesh provides include load balancing, service discovery, failure recovery, and encryption. It can make service-to-service communication secure, fast, and reliable.

How Does Service Mesh Work?

A service mesh does not introduce new functionality to the runtime environment of an application. After all, apps have always required rules to specify how a request gets from point A to B. Instead, a service mesh takes the logic that governs service-to-service communication out of every service and abstracts it to an infrastructure layer. As such, a service mesh is built into an application as a collection of network proxies.

In a service mesh, the requests are routed between services through proxies in their infrastructure layer. As such, individual proxies comprising a service mesh run alongside each service and not within them. That’s why they are called sidecars.

Also read: Putting Microservices to Work on the Network

Benefits of Service Mesh 

A service mesh addresses issues associated with managing communication between services. More specifically:

• It simplifies service-to-service communication in both microservice and container development paradigms.
• It makes it easier to diagnose communication errors since these errors occur on their infrastructure layer.
• It allows for the faster development of applications, as well as faster resting and deployment.
• It supports security features like authentication, authorization, and encryption.
• Proxy instances, also known as sidecars, that are placed next to container clusters are effective in network services management.

Key features of a service mesh include:

• Security. A service mesh can encrypt communications automatically and distribute security policies, such as authorization and authentication, from the network to the app and to all microservices. Being able to handle these security policies centrally via control plane and sidecar proxies will help keep up with growing complex connections between and within distributed applications.
• Observability. A service mesh framework offers insights into each service’s health and behavior. The control plane collects and aggregates telemetry data from component interactions in order to gauge the health of a service, including latency and traffic, access logs, and distributed tracing.
• Reliability. Managing communications via sidecar proxies improves the efficiency and the reliability of certain policies, configurations, and requests. Fault injection and load balancing are also among its specific capabilities.

Service Mesh: Challenges and Drawbacks

 A service mesh also has its own share of challenges and downsides. These include:

• Instances of runtime increase.
• It does not address integration with other systems, routing type, transformation mapping, and services.
• Every service call needs to first run through the proxy, which means another step.
• Network management complexity is centralized and abstracted, and somebody needs to integrate it into workflows.

Without a service mesh, developers will have to code every microservice of an app with logic to control and manage service-to-service communication. That means developers will be less focused on their business goals and on the bigger picture. It also means that communication failures and errors will be a lot harder to diagnose and fix because the logic that governs this service-to-service communication is hidden within each part of the app.

The post Networking 101: What is Service Mesh? appeared first on Enterprise Networking Planet.

 Wi-Fi 6 is a new generation of wireless network technology that allows routers to simultaneously interact with a number of devices with a network throughput rate that is up to four times faster than what businesses are currently using, with four times the capacity.

This new wireless standard is expected to open up new possibilities in network connectivity because of its much-improved speed, control, and capacity. It will not only support existing applications, but it will also give organizations the ultimate user experience. What’s more, it will further drive new innovations that could be yet another game changer for enterprises and revolutionize how people work.

To put things simply, Wi-Fi 6 delivers a much more dependable and consistent network connection. And it is designed to support other technology changes in the near future. It is used in an internal, closed environmental setting to provide in-house connectivity for an enterprise plant, branch, or factory.

Also read: Poll: Digital Transformation Drives Growth of NetOps

How Wi-Fi 6 Will Help in Digital Transformation

Wi-Fi 6 will help in an organization’s digital transformation in a variety of ways. These include:

1. Improve Company Communications

As corporate communications shift from more conventional forms — face-to-face interactions, email, and voicemail — it will utilize and engage more multimedia formats. Wi-Fi 6’s significantly improved network capacity and data speeds will ensure that communication will go as smoothly as never before, regardless of how many people are using the channels. Wi-Fi 6 will support superior video and audio conferencing tools and will ensure that any communication and multimedia equipment updates are supported.

2. Transition Away from Cloud 

Wi-Fi 6 is an in-house technology and can support buildings, factories, branches, and campuses. That means organizations no longer have to rely on the cloud and spend on third-party cloud services because they can host data on their own local network infrastructure. Organizations will be on top of their data and can do real-time data processing. So instead of paying for cloud service providers and third-party computer experts, they can invest in having their own IT support team.

3. Enable More Flexible IT Workflows

Having your own IT personnel handle all data processing and digital transformation processes will make things much easier and workflows more flexible. And that’s because there’s no other IT team that knows all aspects of your operations better than your own. Imagine your IT’s growth potential when your team doesn’t have to coordinate third-party providers and are given the trust and opportunity to take care of all your IT-related challenges.

Additionally, investing in a more capable IT team will be more empowering for the organization as they will share the same corporate end-goal. How? For third-party providers, the objective is mainly to make you, as their client, happy and satisfied with their service. But with your own bigger team of IT experts, their goal aligns with whatever your organization sets its eyes on, whether it be expansion, better quality products, or even world domination.

4. Better Data Security

Wi-Fi 6 ensures improved security by extending security features to the infrastructure. New security features enhance threat detection with Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) and make way for better interference and rogue detection. With Wi-Fi 6, WPA3 or Wi-Fi Protected Access is certified and this provides a higher value proposition compared to WPA2 for enterprise networks. It also offers enhanced security for open networks with robust password protection, unauthenticated traffic encryption, and superior data reliability with 192-bit encryption of sensitive information. In addition, with data processing done in-house you can ensure that all data stays within the organization.  

Also read: Using Wi-Fi 6 and 5G to Build Advanced Wireless Networks

Catering to Evolving Network Requirements

As an enterprise, you may have begun your digital transformation, gradually easing your organization into adapting more technologies and applications one department at a time. And while this is a good strategy, technology does pick up at a fast pace. Before you know it, the IT infrastructure you have set up needs an upgrade.

The more technologies or applications an enterprise integrates into its system, and the more data it needs to process in real time for its business operation, the greater the network capacity and speed they require. For this specific challenge, the solution lies in Wi-Fi 6.

Wi-Fi 6 will cater to an enterprise’s network requirements and will help it ease its way towards digital transformation. Wi-Fi 6’s much greater capacity, as well as its on-premise setup will also allow enterprises to run their own high-speed wireless networks and put up internal micro data centers in remote plants and facilities. It also means that communication, security, and IT workflows within the organization are better, smoother, and more seamless.

Read next: Democratizing IT for Rapid Digital Transformation

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Defining Emotion AI 

We know that one of the main things that differentiate artificial intelligence and humans is the fact that the AI doesn’t have emotions. The inability to adapt to particular situations and to adjust its processes along with certain environmental changes used to be another one of AI’s limitations, too. But through new technologies like machine learning, AI can be cognitive and learn through experience,  as well as predict and proactively achieve certain outcomes.

So, if machines can replicate cognition, can they also replicate the way we feel? The answer is yes, and it is emotion AI that makes this possible.

Emotion AI uses artificial intelligence to detect human emotion and learns how to interpret and appropriately respond to both verbal and non-verbal signals. It also understands the emotive channels of human communication, which enables machines with some level of emotional intelligence to measure, understand, and simulate human emotions, and even react to them. Emotion AI is also known as affective computing.

How Does Emotion AI Work?

With the help of machine learning and deep learning, software systems use speech recognition technology and images as input. This software is able to recognize a smile, for instance, and analyze it along with the tone of voice and other parameters, to interpret it as a happy or sad smile. This software can also use this information to predict whether a person’s emotion is going to affect a situation positively or negatively.

Emotion AI, however, is not just limited to recognizing and analyzing facial expression and voice. Other parameters can also be used. There is sentiment analysis, which is a natural language process (NLP) method that detects and quantifies the emotional undertones of text samples. There are also other video signals, gait analysis, and physiological signals, such as sweating. Researchers are actually working on other measures, such as heart rate and skin temperature, to determine how a subject is feeling.

Also read: The Impact of AI on Unified Communications

Emotion AI: Applications

Here are some examples of how emotion AI is applied and who can benefit from it.

Advertising

Emotion AI is very useful in advertising research. Product and service advertising uses human emotions to get through a target market. Companies base their product campaigns on what customers need and on how they feel about certain things. They  then assess and evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising campaign based on how it affects customers emotionally.

It goes without saying that people’s needs and emotions are at the core of what drives them to buy things and use certain services. As emotion AI learns how to recognize these emotional drives, companies and advertising firms would be able to change marketing strategies and improve their campaigns.

But how does emotion AI gather the data it needs to identify, gauge, and analyze the emotions of customers?

One way is with smart chatbots that can identify different types of customer behavior, as well as their motives. Chatbots can also help strengthen a company’s relationship with its customers in the long term by providing them personalized product recommendations or by individually addressing their questions and concerns.

There are also smart CCTV cameras. Retail stores, outlets, and service centers can install these cameras and record their customers’ reactions to things like product packaging, prices, menus and service offerings, and even the physical presentation of their store in real time. Emotion AI will then analyze the videos using facial and speech recognition. A store will be able improve their range of products or services, their pricing, and other aspects of their business based on these analyses.

Cameras can also be integrated in selected customers’ smartphones, computers, and smart TVs. These cameras can make it possible for companies to leverage emotion AI to test customers’ reactions to a particular online content. Brands can then strategize on their online presence.

Call centers and customer service

Other than advertising, emotion AI is also used by call centers. Using voice analytics software, call centers are able to identify the mood of their customers or callers so agents can adjust how they handle the conversation.

Mental health

Emotion AI is also helpful for mental health organizations and workers. Mental health monitoring applications can listen to people who are speaking into their phone and use voice analysis to gain insight in their mood or uncover signs of anxiety. They can also come up with an algorithm that gathers phone data to predict the varying degrees of a person’s depression.

Automotive

Emotion AI can be put into vehicles, especially connected cars, to detect distractions, including a driver’s state of mind. Emotion AI can, for one, detect if a driver is having an argument with the passenger next to him or her,  or over the phone (via Bluetooth), or if the driver is tired and sleepy. The software can either read the driver’s blood pressure or tone of voice, and if it detects anger, exhaustion, or distress, it will adjust the car’s speed or maneuver the car to slowly stop at the side of the road.

Challenges Facing Emotion AI

 A lot of people recognize the risks of using emotion AI and question its accuracy. Human emotions, after all, can be so complex and inherently hard to read. Sometimes, people actually feel differently from what they claim to be feeling. So how can an algorithm detect, identify, and analyze emotions when humans are not exactly experts at it?

Neuroscience researcher and Immersion Neuroscience CEO Paul Zak says that while people may lie about how they feel, their brains don’t. Science can measure the changes in a person’s oxytocin levels, which is the neural signature of emotional resonance in the brain.

Additionally, emotions are subjective, so emotion AI can be prone to bias. For example, negative emotions can be more associated with people of certain ethnicities, which can have harmful ramifications.

As such, amidst the growing concern about the effectiveness, the risks, the reliability, and the use and misuse of emotion AI in the scientific community, calls for ethical regulations continue to grow. There needs to be rigorous auditing of AI technologies that are used to read human emotions.

Read next: The Future of Network Management with AIOps

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What is a Quantum Network?

A quantum network is an internet network that makes use of the properties of photons to transmit data. It allows quantum devices to exchange information within a particular environment that harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics. As such, it would be difficult to understand what a quantum network is or how quantum internet works without a basic understanding of quantum physics.

Quantum mechanics describes the physical properties of nature at the atomic (and subatomic particle) scale. In very simple terms, this branch of quantum physics governs the laws of the very small. And photons are the smallest quantum of electromagnetic fields, including light and radio waves. It is the smallest energy packet of electromagnetic radiation.

Also read: The Evolution of Data Centers Lies in Digital Transformation

How Do Quantum Networks Work?

A quantum network would allow the ultra secure transmission and exchange of quantum communications between distinct quantum endpoints or devices over fiber optic cables. Quantum devices will use their own “qubits” or quantum bits — the equivalent of bits used by ordinary computers but can be in a superposition of both ‘0’ and ‘1.’ Information is stored in these qubits, which are encoded keys that are typically polarized photons. These photons can travel very easily along fiber optic cables.

If there is an attempt to intercept the encoded keys, the delicate quantum state of the qubits will be destroyed, along with the data they hold. When such intrusion happens, the endpoints will be alerted. The ability to detect any intrusion lends the quantum network unprecedented capabilities that are rather impossible for today’s web applications to carry out.

Moreover, quantum networks apply uniquely quantum phenomena, such as no-cloning, entanglement, and superposition. These phenomena are not available to ordinary internet networks. Photons exist in a superposition of all their possible quantum states and when they are measured, they are forced to select one of these states. Unfortunately, a quantum state can’t be measured without any disturbance, thus betraying any attempt at measurement. An unknown quantum state also cannot be copied or cloned. Therefore, a well-designed quantum network is inherently safe from this behavior.

Entanglement

You may be wondering, though, how quantum communication can be amplified in order to reach its recipients from afar if a photon cannot be copied or duplicated. Thanks to entanglement, which is another quantum phenomenon, the range of quantum networks can be extended.

A quantum network’s main purpose is to enable qubits on one device to be entangled with the qubits on another device. This entanglement serves many potential purposes, including encryption. Measurements on entangled photons are always correlated with each other, so repeatedly reading the qubits’ quantum states allows users to create a secret code.

This correlation of entangled photons applies regardless of how far apart they are. As such, quantum network repeaters that apply entanglement to extend a quantum network’s range can be developed.

The Benefits of Quantum Networks

We have already established that quantum networks are ultra secure and are impervious to any kind of cyberhacking. Encrypted messages will be impossible to intercept.

However, aside from the assurance of security, quantum internet can transmit large volumes of information across wide distances at a much faster speed than classical networks are capable of. This could be revolutionary for apps and software, as well as for any updates they need to deploy over the air.

Also read: Networking 101: NVMe over TCP

What Sectors Will Benefit Most from Quantum Internet?

The financial sector will greatly benefit from using quantum internet, especially in securing online banking transactions. Consumers will feel safer and confident sharing personal data and doing their banking and financial activities online because of this promise of security.

Other sectors that will benefit greatly from using quantum internet include the public and healthcare sectors. A faster and safer internet will help these sectors expedite their processes and provide services promptly. Quantum computing will also allow organizations under this sector to solve complex problems and to conduct large-scale experiments and studies.

Quantum Networks Now

Quantum networks are still in the experimental stage and tech companies are still starting to build them. IT professionals, researchers, academics, and other experts in the field are still developing devices that are essential for a quantum network infrastructure, including quantum routers, gateways, hubs, repeaters, and other tools.

Also, recently, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) published the first blueprint laying out its step-by-step strategy on how to realize the quantum internet dream. It is expected that this particular project will be granted federal funding of nearly $625 million.

Quantum Networks in the Future

Once quantum internet takes off, we can expect the birth of a whole new industry. Of course, classical or ordinary internet will remain and they will exist side by side. While we can expect large organizations to utilize quantum networks to safeguard the large volume of valuable data they have in their possession, individual consumers are most likely to continue using classical internet. This isn’t surprising considering that quantum internet is a new technology and will likely be expensive in the beginning.

In addition to slow adoption because of the expense of overhauling current classic systems, there’s also the fact that it takes time for people to adapt to new technologies. This lack of urgency is also rooted in the “if-it-ain’t-broke-why-fix-it” attitude that consumers often initially have when new technologies are introduced. However, in time, quantum internet will become more accessible and more affordable to a growing number of people. The longer it is used, the more commonplace and mainstream it will become.

Read next: Networking 101: Understanding SASE

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Understanding DevOps 

DevOps is a set of tools, practices, and strategies that combines software development and IT operations in order to increase the ability of an organization to deliver software products and IT services faster and with high efficiency. In other words, DevOps is when you remove the barriers between two different teams — the development team and the operations team — with separate responsibilities and have them work together to mitigate real-world problems.

The development team creates a product in a controlled development environment, specifically developing the code, testing the final output, and quality assurance. Meanwhile, the operations team  manages the IT architecture, environment development, and deployment. Each team has a hands-off policy when it comes to the other team’s tasks, and this often results in software quality issues, delays, and frustration among team members.  

DevOps removes silos and bridges the gap between teams to facilitate communication, coordination, and cooperation with each other from development to testing, deployment, and operations. 

NetDevOps is where DevOps and networking intersect.

What is NetDevOps?

For systems to communicate and operate properly, they rely on networking. But an organization’s network infrastructure can be susceptible to various risks and issues, including human error. NetDevOps brings the technical methods, tools, strategies, and practices used in DevOps to networking. It provides network automation and monitoring that helps minimize these human errors through the intelligent management of your network operations and infrastructure configuration. 

To minimize the risks of network configuration changes, NetDevOps leverages two key DevOps practices: Infrastructure as Code or IaC and CI/CD.

 IaC

IaC, also called software-defined or programmable infrastructure, is the provisioning and managing of data center resources via machine-readable definition files. It is an alternative to physical configuration files or physical hardware and interactive config devices. 

When you apply the IaC approach with network device configurations, it is called Network as Code. The idea is to store the whole network’s configurations in a “Version Control System”, which manages and tracks network changes. The VCS is considered the single source of truth for everything related to network configuration.

CI/CD

CI/CD consists of Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), and Continuous Deployment.

In CI, developers frequently merge revisions to the code into the code base or the central repository. Every check-in is verified by unit tests. Through this, teams are able to detect problems early on.

CD, meanwhile, extends CI. When CI is complete, the code gets deployed into a test environment for further testing, which includes load and integration testing. Necessary software artifacts are then prepared for deployment to production, which is triggered manually.

Continuous Deployment is the same as CD. However, deployment to production is instead triggered automatically.

Other strategies

NetDevOps also utilizes automation, where automation and scalability principles are applied to network infrastructure in place of traditional manual procedures.

Giving small, yet frequent updates is also important to making the deployment process less risky.

Read more: How IT Leaders Need to Rethink Project Management in the DevOps Era 

Developing a NetDevOps Culture 

To develop a NetDevOps culture in your organization requires:  

• Accepting failure and learning from it.
• Understanding that change is the only constant thing and it is necessary for development.
• Promoting the sense of ownership, accountability, and responsibility among teams.
• Establishing active coordination and collaboration between the development and operations teams.
• Setting up continuous feedback systems that will help improve processes and escalate iteration.
• Implementing end-to-end automation to completely change the life cycle.

A shift in culture will change the way networks are managed, operated, automated, and scaled up in your organization. This ensures synergy among the teams and their effective collaboration.

Read next: Best DevOps Tools & Software of 2021

The post What is NetDevOps? appeared first on Enterprise Networking Planet.

For this reason, companies heavily invest in building and supporting effective communication systems. However, as work becomes increasingly remote, complications around communication and collaboration have raised challenges. Moreover, the available communications infrastructure may not be sufficient to meet the needs of a growing number of enterprises. Those who still rely on legacy phone lines may find themselves competing for a slot.

To provide businesses with a more stable arsenal of communication tools while also making it cost-effective and scalable, many enterprises are now shifting to SIP trunking.

What Is SIP Trunking?

​​SIP trunking is the process of delivering voice and other types of unified communication services through the internet instead of traditional telephone lines.

To be more specific, a business that employs this technology can now make outbound and receive inbound calls via the private branch exchange system while using their internet service providers and servers. The type of connection between two or more devices can be:

• Cloud to cloud, which means people can call each other over the Internet
• Cloud to mobile devices (and vice versa)
• Cloud to landlines (and vice versa)

SIP trunking follows the principle of SIP, which stands for “session initiation protocol.” This approach acts as a guide for the connection, modification, and communication between two or more participants. These participants may refer to people, devices, or both.

The rules of SIP give rise to packet-based switch networks. In this setup, the messages get broken down into various small packets. They then travel through the most efficient routes, and they don’t need to share the same one. Once they reach their destination, the trunking protocol then reassembles these packets to complete the message.

In contrast, both traditional and modern circuit-based switch networks still rely on a committed circuit line to deliver the message. Because of this, the lines may not be able to accommodate large data.

Often, SIP trunking is confused with voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), and it is not unusual for the terms to be used interchangeably. However, while they are related, they don’t share the same meaning.

VoIP refers to a group of technology that allows the transmission of voice calls over the internet to different devices, which may include another computer, a cloud-based phone system, or a mobile device.

SIP trunking can support virtually all forms of unified communication systems that include instant messaging (IM), video, and multiple video or audio conferencing as long as the devices used are SIP enabled. In the end, VoIP can actually be an example of SIP protocol applications.

Also read: Unified Communications Security Considerations and Solutions

How SIP works in trunking

A SIP call refers to the routing of calls over the internet as data. To do this, it needs a SIP trunking system. Before these types of technologies emerge, a growing enterprise would likely use a private exchange branch (PBX) system that can connect outside calls to the different departments or employees, for instance. When they needed to make outside calls, they would have to be connected to a public switched telephone network (PSTN), which then delivers these voice calls to their destination.

The link between PBX and PSTN is called the primary rate interface (PRI) line, which converts an analog signal to an electrical signal so it can then pass through the copper line, such as America’s T-1. As the number of businesses increases and the companies themselves grow, they would need more allocations of these lines. Since the number of channels the line can accommodate is small (fewer than 23), it would mean that they would have to buy more PRI, which could be costly.

The Benefits of SIP Trunking

SIP trunking eliminates the need for the PRI. The usual components, like PBX and PSTN, remain to establish a virtual connection between the two. Because the link is virtual, there’s no limit on the number of users and connections a business can make. They can also remove and add communicating requests to their providers. In turn, SIP becomes a  low-cost and flexible alternative to a PRI trunk line.

If there’s one issue using SIP trunking, it is the quality of the call or data, but this depends on the bandwidth allocation. If many are competing in the same bandwidth, both the sender and the recipient can expect data loss. Thus, growing companies may also need to increase their IT spending when using VoIP, SIP, or both.

Read next: Maximizing the Benefits of UCaaS

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This level of flexibility could not have been achieved if it weren’t for significant advances in tech communication, including developments in session initiation protocol.  

What is Session Initiation Protocol?

Also known as SIP, a session initiation protocol is a signaling protocol that regulates a session between two or more devices or people on an IP network. It can initiate, then modify, and eventually terminate the session, which also involves the exchange of data.

Some may confuse SIP with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and integrated services digital network (ISDN). Although they may function similarly, there are pronounced differences.

One of the biggest differences between SIP and VoIP is the kind of media the former can transmit. VoIP is often limited to phone calls and instant messages while SIP can support video conferencing, internet telephony, and other unified communication options.

Participants can conduct two-way calls or cast multiple sessions simultaneously even without the session’s initiator. SIP has broader uses and is one of the protocols that govern VoIP.

On the other hand, ISDN circuits require the physical installation of equipment in the premises and are highly dependent on the channel blockers used by the client. SIP, therefore, is a more flexible option since it doesn’t demand any physical infrastructure, and data doesn’t need to pass through copper lines. It is also more flexible and scalable since users can add or remove virtual phone lines, making it more cost-effective for businesses that want greater mobility.

Also read: Maximizing the Benefits of UCaaS

SIP Protocol Applications

There are at least two popular applications of SIP: trunking and calling.

SIP Trunking

SIP trunking refers to the virtual connection between a telephone service provider that can support a unified and SIP-based communication setup and an IP PBX, the virtual or cloud version of the traditional private exchange branch system.

Both are connected over the data network connections used by the business, which may include a wide area network (WAN) and even Wi-Fi. The most important thing to note is that the bandwidth allocation and speed of the internet are enough to meet the needs of the enterprise.

SIP Calling

With this setup, two or more parties can then initiate or participate in SIP calling, which is the process of delivering voice calls over a SIP channel or SIP trunk. A channel is a connection that can support both outgoing and incoming calls, and a trunk can have multiple channels.

SIP trunking also helps bypass one of the typical components in a traditional phone system called the primary rate interface line that links the PBX and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). By doing this, an enterprise can still take advantage of the usual call management options like call forwarding without using any analog phone.

There are also different SIP protocol applications depending on the available hardware or software, the type of communication users prefer, budget, and communication policies in an organization. One of the simplest and most popular is the cloud-to-cloud phone system.

How Session Initiation Protocol Works

The basic setup of SIP includes an on-premise or virtual PBX, which is then linked to a SIP trunk, which can then deliver calls and other forms of media via the internet. All of these will also need endpoints to transmit data. One of the most common is the cloud-to-cloud phone system, which one can get on platforms like Skype (users can create their own Skype number).

However, because SIP can support multiple channels, it is also possible to connect a cloud phone system to a non-cloud version, as well as a virtual PBX to a PTSN, which means that someone can actually make an internet call, for example, outside the enterprise network.

To deliver data, such as voice, it needs encoding. Audio signals would have to be converted into codecs, which depends on the allocation or availability of the bandwidth.

For the clearest, best-quality voice data, the ideal codec is G7.11 since it won’t compress it. However, in places where the internet connection is poor or bandwidth is limited, compression may be necessary. Thus, the choice codec is G.729.

SIP isn’t a perfect system. One of the possible SIP protocol vulnerabilities is a malformed attack, whereby one or more participants send a nonstandard data or message usually with the intention of making the system unstable. This will eventually lead to a  denial of service (DoS).

However, given the improved cloud security, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of SIP, it still makes a good addition to any business, particularly one that needs to be more mobile.

The post What is SIP? Session Initiation Protocol appeared first on Enterprise Networking Planet.

Why You Need a Unified Communications Security Plan

As the shift to remote work environments becomes more widespread, the number of companies that rely on unified communication systems also continue to grow. It is UC that keeps everything going smoothly despite the lack of physical proximity among employees.  

It is imperative for a company’s CIO and IT professionals to design a security plan to ensure that all communication channels between the office and the employees are safe and protected at all times. Once a communication channel is compromised, business operations might be, too.

But how do you make sure these UC platforms are secure or are aligned with security best practices? What are the security considerations and solutions?

Also read: Top Network Access Control (NAC) Solutions for 2021

How to Develop a Unified Communications Security Plan

To develop a UC security plan, you first need to have a thorough understanding of the various threats and risks your UC systems are susceptible to. The next step is to mitigate and address these threats and risks, and proactively keep these systems safe and protected in the long term.

Identifying Common UC Security Threats and Issues

The most common security issues are:

• Denial of service. Also called DoS attacks, these denial of service attacks target VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) systems, websites, or mobile apps. These attacks can come in various forms, such as message flooding, call flooding, disruptive signaling, or interrupting call protocols.
• Theft of service. This theft happens when hackers exploit a UC system to make illegal or scam phone calls. The most common form of theft of service is toll fraud, which is when the attacker makes costly unauthorized calls using a company’s phone system.
• Hacking tools. Hacking tools can be used from either inside or outside a corporate network to compromise a UC or VoIP system.
• Mobile threats. This is when end-user devices are not secure and can, therefore, open and expose the entire corporate network to threats and make it vulnerable. Mobile apps on public networks can leave user information and data at risk.
• Unauthorized access. This happens when UC apps are not secured with two-factor authentication.

Applying Encryption and Session Border Controller

One way to address these security issues is to apply encryption options in order to secure the voice traffic between the UC server and the remote employee’s device or phone. You can also deploy a dedicated voice communications firewall in the form of Session Border Controller. SBC is a specifically designed network device that secures remote voice traffic by applying influence and security over the VoIP traffic. SBC protects against VoIP threats as the firewall cannot process these, and also translates every part of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message to ensure proper audio and call control.

Require User Identification and Authentication

The best approach to establishing a UC security plan for your UC system is to select security options that protect it without introducing too much friction into the user experience.

One way to start is by requiring user identification and passwords. It is good policy to require users to apply strong passwords for their accounts. And a strong password is one that includes both lowercase and uppercase alphabetical characters, at least one numerical component, and at least one special character.

Another tool you can use is a multifactor authentication tool. This is when you require users to not only provide a password to successfully log in, but to also retrieve an email or a text message that contains a one-time authentication code that they need to type in.

Also read: Top Privileged Access Management (PAM) Solutions 2021

Extend Your Collaborative Environment with Caution

Extending your collaborative environment beyond employees of the company means allowing outside participants to log in to your UC environment. Outside participants are bring-your-own-device users. Doing this is the whole point of creating a remote workplace.

However, because outsiders bring their own device, it is difficult to control which devices they use. It would also be difficult to determine the kind and the level of protection these BYOD users have in place for their own devices. As such, your UC system should include the ability to deny access to these outside devices when certain internal security requirements are not met.

The real threat, however, is when outsiders are intentionally included in team discussions and group chats. These discussions may contain confidential information or file postings carrying sensitive material. And when outsiders are able to view, access, or download such data, there is no telling where they will leak the info to or how they will use it.

It is imperative that you set up a system where confidential information may only be shared among top-level employees. The level of information employees can access or are privy to should coincide with their clearance level. Moreover, when a particular project is done, message boards and threads pertaining to that project should be closed. Additionally, there should be a regular audit of UC groups and discussions to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Compliance and Privacy

Hand in hand with unified communication security is privacy and compliance. Just like any other business, you will need to have the compliance standards regulating personal and sensitive data protection covered. More specifically, you will need to be in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

As CIOs, security experts, and third-party consultants, you should guide your company and help ensure that your UC systems are carefully addressing data privacy and security issues. You need to evaluate your UC system and help ensure that your services fit into the law’s definition of a safe environment for all stakeholders and employees. Also, figure out which rules and regulations to implement alongside your UC services in order to protect everyone from human error.

Another option is to look for a UC vendor that can provide next-level security and compliance services, which include session border controllers, end-to-end encryptions, firewalls, and reporting, among other protections.

Read next: Networking 101: What is Data Governance?

The post Unified Communications Security Considerations and Solutions appeared first on Enterprise Networking Planet.

Employees are inundated by a number of choices and processes. In addition to Skype or Zoom installed on their computers or smartphones to enable videoconferencing, they also use e-mail and file sharing services, such as Dropbox, to collaborate and share data,  and spend time calling clients and direct reports. The good news is that unified communications can make things a whole lot simpler.

If your company doesn’t have the technology or the talent to implement unified communications strategies, they can opt for the service being delivered over the cloud. According to a recent report by Data Bridge Market Research, the unified communication as a service (UcaaS) market is expected to grow at a rate of 16.55% in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028.  

What Is UCaaS?

 Unified communications help businesses ensure that their employees have the communication tools they need to do their jobs. Unified communications is a solution that connects the various communication systems that your digital workforce is using, and that includes video conferencing, video calling, voice communications, messaging, file sharing, and collaboration tools. All of these services are available in a streamlined interface.  

It’s understandable that the many communication tools we have now will make it difficult for a lot of IT teams to implement a unified communications solution.  

According to Gartner, unified communications as a service is when you deliver conferencing, messaging, instant messaging, mobility, enterprise telephony, and business processes via the cloud.

With UCaaS, a provider will do the unified communications work for you. In turn, you are sharing the infrastructure with other customers, but you will be able to provision, manage, and access reports via a self-service portal on the web.

UCaaS and Enterprise Networks

UCaaS can free up your IT team to do more pressing tasks and allows you to focus on more important business matters. All that while ensuring your employees have an easier time accessing and using these communication tools.

This as-a-service model eliminates the need for more hardware, such as servers, voice-over-IP devices, and even storage units. Your employees will be able to use these solutions without burdening your infrastructure, even if they all do so at the same time. And, you also have the advantage of keeping your costs down as you can add or remove users whenever necessary.

For the most part, some companies can gain unified communications capabilities without having to do it themselves. 

Also read: Democratizing IT for Rapid Digital Transformation

UCaaS and Other as-a-service Platforms

Deloitte found that nine out of 10 companies today use some sort of software as a service. Around eight out of 10 use a kind of platform as a service, infrastructure as a service, hardware as a service, and cybersecurity as a service, respectively. A little more than seven out of 10 use other emerging technologies delivered as a service.

Forty-seven percent of companies say they run productivity and collaboration systems as a service. What these numbers point to is that UCaaS does have a place in any organization, and it’s a vital one. It helps integrate your UCaaS tools with other as a service platforms you are currently using.

As such, you will need to plan on how to better manage your as a service platforms, so you don’t have to overspend. For instance, hiring IT staff that will manage your current tools should include competencies needed to manage UCaaS systems.It doesn’t make sense to have one IT personnel focused on Salesforce, for example, and not on your UCaaS solution. 

Another consideration is having your UCaaS work with other platforms that you’re using.

For example, if you currently have business continuity and disaster recovery delivered to you via cloud services, you should ensure that your UCaaS is part of your disaster recovery strategies.

The good news is that UCaaS, by its very nature, is resilient. It lessens your dependence on your own resources and infrastructure. If you’re using software as a service, you can possibly integrate UCaaS features with them. For instance, a cloud-delivered customer relationship management tool can have more features with UCaaS.

 Your CRM users can use “click to dial” features or perhaps log and record calls automatically. Going further, you can keep records and manage communications all in one place to use other as a service platforms such as IoT and AI automation for your customer relationship and contact activities.

Challenges of UCaaS

UCaaS, for its benefits and advantages, does have a few roadblocks:

• It’s dependent on an internet connection. Without speedy internet access, your unified communications system will be as useful as a brick.
• It requires employee buy-in. If your employees don’t use your UCaaS tools and services, then there’s really no point in implementing these solutions.
• It is only as good as your provider. You will need to make sure that you’re working with a service provider that’s reliable and available. Do they provide training or have a responsive tech support team?
• It should be adaptable and extensible. 

You also have to think about issues that are common to all as-a-service platforms, such as data ownership and security. These are just some of the few problems that you might expect when considering using a UCaaS provider. Evaluate your needs versus what providers offer to choose the best provider for your business. 

Read next: Best Business Continuity Management Software Solutions for 2021

The post Maximizing the Benefits of UCaaS appeared first on Enterprise Networking Planet.

How can data centers compete and serve the needs of a market that seems to change at lightning speed? Digital transformation can influence their growth.

Also read: Democratizing IT for Rapid Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation’s Influence

Here are the three biggest digital transformation trends in 2021 and their impact on data centers:

Data Automation

In traditional data centers, several IT-smart individuals operate, maintain, and assess the servers. They are also involved in a variety of routine tasks, such as checking for cybersecurity breaches or intrusion, ensuring that their processes are compliant with laws and regulations, and monitoring the bandwidth traffic and latency to keep customers happy.

This strategy might have worked when the demand was low. Today, the available IT staff can hardly keep up with the amount of work needed, and that severely limits the capability of a data center. For data centers to be truly competitive, significant investment in new infrastructure architectures as well as in people and space is required. These changes will provide greater scalability and efficiency.  

 Data automation makes providers more agile and efficient without significantly increasing operations and maintenance costs.

With data automation, data centers can:

• Provide data on the infrastructure’s status, configurations, and server nodes; making it easier to identify the present and future capabilities of the center.
• Free up IT specialists  from performing routine tasks, like scheduling and monitoring, so they can focus on other critical areas of managing a data center.
• Design flexible processes and systems that make them compliant not only to the clients’ needs but also to federal, state, and industry policies.

A data center that runs automation tools can immediately allocate a part of the bandwidth of e-sports or games at times when the demand is low (such as when the players are sleeping) to the e-commerce site during sale days, particularly holidays.

The server can do this by simply paying attention to the incoming web queries for both applications — even without human interaction or intervention.

Read more: Data Center Automation Will Enable the Next Phase of Digital Transformation

Preventing Cybersecurity Risks

Along with the increasing demand and use of the Internet, IoT devices, and the cloud, data centers also now face rampant cybersecurity breaches.

Last year, Equinix, one of the world’s biggest data centers, was hit by a ransomware attack. The hackers demanded $4.5 million in payment. And, in 2019, an intrusion compelled VPN provider NordVPN to cut ties with its Finnish data center facility.

Many factors make data centers both vulnerable and attractive to cybercriminals.

• They are likely to use many tools, which means hackers have various entry points.
• Because of the growing demand for their services, available human resources may not be capable of extensively monitoring signs of breaches or intrusions. 
• In some cases, monitoring is scheduled, leaving a window for cybercriminals to enter the system with less to zero detection.

Data automation can help minimize or even prevent cybersecurity risks. Digital transformation can also strengthen collaboration among network managers, the IT department, and the management when sharing real-time security data. Take, for example, digital twins.

With digital twins, the data center provider can create a replica of what they have mainly for simulation. Relevant stakeholders can apply various scenarios and change settings and configurations as often as they like  to identify cybersecurity risks.

The information digital twins provide  can then be made available to everyone involved, from server administrators on the floor to IT executives who make more management-related decisions rooted in real-time accurate data.

Also read: What is a Digital Twin?

Edge Computing and Hybrid Data Centers

Although data centers remain essential, they also face tough competition with the public cloud. In a 2021 report by Gartner, the global end-user spending on public cloud services could reach over $332 billion or at least a 23 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Compare that to data center spending that could be worth only $200 billion within the same period. This represents a mere 6 percent growth than in 2020.

No one can fault businesses for spending more on the public cloud, which are efficient, agile, and scalable. The public cloud also offers a more reasonably priced strategy of managing, organizing, and storing data through the available “as-a-service” models.

Some data centers attempt to compete, but they cannot completely upload their servers to the cloud because their technology may already be legacy or incompatible. Furthermore, using them may only make the system less compliant and susceptible to security breaches.

Fortunately, with digital transformation trends, data centers now have more options to compete. One strategy is through maximizing edge computing. Instead of building large data center facilities in select places around the globe, providers may break them down and place them much closer to the source of the information.

This means that servers may only be hundreds of meters away from central business districts and urban areas, where businesses are more abundant. This setup can then help reduce issues with latency and bandwidth traffic and allow users to access and share their data more easily.

Supporting edge data centers is 5G, which can improve both speed and reliability of servers and provide them the ability to support applications and the explosive growth of internet-connected  devices.

These digital transformation trends can make data centers profitable, competitive, reliable, and scalable without forcing providers to break the bank.

Read next: Approaches to Cybersecurity in 5G-driven Enterprise Networks

The post The Evolution of Data Centers Lies in Digital Transformation appeared first on Enterprise Networking Planet.