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magazine
11
Spitfire extends core
network
Spitfire, the internet telephony service
provider and ISP, has extended its core
network with two additional locations at
Telehouse North in London’s Docklands
and Equinix LD3 at Park Royal in northwest
London. Telehouse offers access to a wide
range of carrier services and Equinix LD3
provides geographic diversity for customers
who want to have equipment in more than
one area for business continuity security.
Spitfire’s core network now has four network
nodes connected through its multi-10 Gigabit
Ethernet London ring.
Space for hire
Spacily.com is an online directory and booking
platform for mid- to high-end meeting spaces
in London. Event organisers can use the site to
view, research and book meeting spaces in the
capital. Venues can use the site to publicise
their services and achieve higher occupancy
levels.
Security a worry as cloud,
big data and IoT usage increases
Businesses remain concerned about the security of the cloud, even as
they use it to store more and more critical information.
The
2016 Vormetric Data Threat Report
(DTR) issued in conjunction with
analyst firm 451 Research shows that storage of critical information within
cloud environments continues to rise, with 85% of enterprises now keeping
sensitive data in the cloud, up from 54% last year.
Even so, when asked about the top data security concerns relating to
cloud services, 70% of respondents cited security breaches/attacks at the service provider.
Also growing is the use of big data environments, with half of respondents using sensitive data
within big data implementations, up from 31% previously. As these environments hold a growing share
of an enterprise’s sensitive information, organisations are concerned that reports produced might
include sensitive data (42%).
Other worries concern privacy violations from data originating in multiple countries (40%) and a
lack of security frameworks and controls (33%).
Security main obstacle
to mobile working
Security is the main factor limiting take
up of mobile working, according to a
survey of 200 business owners and 200
mobile workers by mobile data capture
specialist WorkMobile.
Nearly three quarters (74%) of businesses
said that security issues were holding them
back.Worries about the cost of technology
and IT were an issue for 70%, while more
than half (53%) said internet problems were a
concern; 44% said they were afraid of change.
Despite these fears, 72% of workers are
already mobile and say they work harder
than ever as a result.
Dr Moneeb Awan, managing director at
WorkMobile, claims businesses that adopt
mobile working can look forward to big
savings.
He said: “On average it costs businesses
£2,103 per year to process paper forms,
whereas it costs just £144 to process mobile
forms per year. The results show that £2,089
per employee could be saved per year. This
figure doesn’t even take into account the
increase in productivity reported by almost
three quarters of mobile workers.”
Three-quarters of companies worldwide
have introduced flexible working policies
and are seeing big improvements in
performance as a result, claims Vodafone
in a global study of 8,000 employers and
employees.
Flexible: friend or foe?
reveals that
83% of organisations that have adopted
flexible working have seen improvements in
productivity; 61% say company profits have
increased; and 58% have seen a positive
impact on their reputation.
Vodafone points to high-speed mobile
data services, fixed-line broadband and
cloud services as key enablers of flexible
working policies. Almost two thirds (61%) of
respondents now use their home broadband
service to access work applications and 24%
use a mobile data connection via a smartphone,
tablet or laptop with broadband dongle.
The research identifies national and
generational differences in attitudes towards
flexible working. Only 8% of UK employers
are concerned about employees not working
as hard as a consequence of flexible working,
compared to 33% in Hong Kong; and 72% of
18-24 years old believe flexible working would
improve the quality of their work compared to
38% of respondents over 55.
Flexible working – friend or foe?
agenda
