{"id":5558,"date":"2020-09-20T20:52:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T18:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/?p=5558"},"modified":"2020-09-20T20:52:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T18:52:25","slug":"homeworking-the-new-norm-is-there-any-other-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/homeworking-the-new-norm-is-there-any-other-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeworking – the new norm – is there any other option…"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n
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Steve Broadhead<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadband Testing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Internet-connected world has never experienced ramp-up in quite such a fashion before and it showed. Even where an IT solution \u2013 maybe an application, or a security authentication mechanism \u2013 has been designed for mass, global usage, a sudden ramp-up in users can cause outages, either local or total. One high-profile casualty early during the lock-down period was Microsoft\u2019s Teams unified communication and collaboration platform, so it doesn\u2019t matter how big the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other problems were frequently reported such as cloud-based Internet security authentication failures and virtual desktop sessions being unavailable Even networking giants within the IT-world itself (begins with a \u201cC\u201d) reported massive increases in the number of help desk tickets being generated as a result of the work force shifting to homeworking almost overnight. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Maybe they should look at acquiring such technology themselves; the artist formerly known as Helpdesk \u2013 now Service Desk or Service Management \u2013 is surely the next \u201covernight success\u201d, as in only 30+ years in the making. I\u2019ve just been doing some with a client in that sphere, who spans that length of time \u2013 Richmond Systems \u2013 and whose (admittedly bang up to date software tech) solution is more relevant than it\u2019s ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, such outage examples \u2013 regardless of the extremity of the situation \u2013 are not inevitable as many assume; they are absolutely avoidable, but rarely resolved by the application provider themselves. I\u2019ve been working with vendors and technologies for decades that well and truly resolve these problems \u2013 simply that they are not being deployed sufficiently or correctly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great example is Kemp Technologies, for whom I carried out a global application delivery control test last year on its AX (Application Experience) technology, and for whom I recently delivered a paper on the very subject being discussed in this blog:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a technology routed in Load-Balancing\/Application Delivery Control that has moved through the virtual gears, so it can effectively scale infinitely (allowing for intergalactic Internet extensions \u2013 a combination of 5G and WiFi-6, or maybe 555G and WiFi-666?) to optimise \u2013 and secure (see previous blog)!!! \u2013 application and data delivery, regardless of demand, not only from anywhere to anywhere \u2013 but.. it can also be managed from anywhere. Such ss South Devon, IT hotbed of the universe, and powered by cream team manufacturing by-product\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is that some folks who are new to homeworking, who swore they could never cope with the distractions of working from home (until they realise the mortgage still has to be paid), despite sitting in traffic for several hours a day, night actually PREFER it! Reports from the national media are also suggesting that the situation in terms of office versus homeworkers won\u2019t go back to how it was, with many employees \u2013 for companies who have sent all staff home \u2013 already starting to question why they had to go in to the office in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking beyond business and industry, education is another obvious candidate for more home-based connectivity being a long-term option. However, such changes in usage patterns create more and different problems for service providers and Data Centre management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Italy for example, during the nationwide quarantine, peak Internet traffic went up by over 30% and usage overall increased by around 70%. Moreover, from a traffic management perspective, usage patterns shifted, so peak traffic was occurring earlier in the day in impacted regions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The change in bandwidth peaks and troughs was further impacted by national school suspensions, meaning housebound schoolchildren were competing with workers for data and application access and Internet bandwidth in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key to application and data availability however is primarily at the Data Centre or wherever those applications and data reside. Server overload \u2013 whether CPU, memory, disk access or network access \u2013 is not a new issue, but it is still the primary cause of unavailability and user frustration and, more importantly, loss of productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as noted previously, it is \u2013 in 99.999% of circumstances \u2013 completely avoidable. At the same time \u2013 see previous blog, it\u2019s that \u201cbudget\u201d word again \u2013 these solutions have to be available at a realistic cost \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As the IT world increasingly transitions from a fixed CapEx model to an OpEx based budget, having a range of licensing options, such as perpetual, subscription-based or metered (based on usage\/data throughput or VM\/container instances, for example) is fundamental in allowing the tech to go to as many good homes as possible; tech, that is, that started life as (very) expensive, hardware-based product, with absolute performance and scaling limitations. But times have changed, and so has that technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in mass deployment of remote and homeworking and significant pressure on supporting 24\u00d77 access to critical applications and data. But what has come out of necessity might now become the new norm across many industries, as most key indicators are suggesting. The ability, therefore, of IT infrastructure to support that remote workplace shift, both at the endpoint and \u2013 critically \u2013 at the Data Centre, is not simply beneficial, but a \u201cmust have\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And, as noted here, that technology does exist, and at an affordable price-point. So, all of you application, cloud and managed serviced providers out there \u2013 no excuses for downtime, ok?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Steve Broadhead Broadband Testing The Internet-connected world has never experienced ramp-up in quite such a fashion before and it showed. Even where an IT solution \u2013 maybe an application, or a security authentication mechanism \u2013 has been designed for mass, global usage, a sudden ramp-up in users can cause outages, either local or total. One high-profile casualty early during the<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,4,30,78,95,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-normal-courtesy-of-covid-19","category-datacenter-news","category-expert-advise-and-opinion","category-remote-working","category-timeless-tips","category-trends-datacenter-hardware-and-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5559,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5558\/revisions\/5559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}