Netgear is making strides in helping businesses make the move into AI-powered network operations and management with the launch of Netgear Insight 10.0.

This next-generation cloud network management platform will be game-changing for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), plugging the gap between need and resource, according to the firm.

Insight 10.0 is designed to support organizations through delivery of enterprise-grade AIOps, intelligence, and operational simplicity, helping them to make decisions faster and move their business forward.

One key benefit of the new platform is empowering network administrators to move from being purely reactive to being proactive, according to Luca Marinelli, Netgear’s head of Europe.

In terms of launches, Marinelli said this is a pretty significant one for the company and a key focus during his time with the business so far, following his appointment in October last year.

“The opportunity to have a single pane of glass, which will be managing simultaneously – like with multi-tenancy – several networks will free up time for [MSPs] to maybe start providing other additional services to attract new customers, which is always something very healthy to do in business.”

“[Also] if you perform certain types of activities in a reduced amount of time, your margin can be better. This results in a much more profitable business. So, there are multiple impacts [from] using more sophisticated state-of-the-art tools," Marinelli added.

"Sometimes the feeling is that AI is just a nice slogan that you need to just add in everything you say. [But] I think the important thing is to know what to do with this superpower. If you know what you want to do, it is extremely valuable.”

Outside of product innovation, Netgear has been heavily focused on how it partners to do business. Indeed, in November 2025 it unveiled changes to its partner program in a bid to make it easier to work together and drive joint success.

At launch, Netgear’s president and general manager, Pramod Badjate, said partners were at the center of everything the company does.

“Our big play at Netgear is delivering enterprise-grade products with the simplicity that the SME market needs. That all boils down to a product that is ready for those environments, but also, from a TCO point of view, fits that customer experience really well,” said Jordan Hobday, Netgear’s UK country manager.

“The Netgear Drive Partner Program is three tiers. It's there to really incentivize and reward our partners. There's a commercial benefit to that, but equally it's about how we [can] provide a good experience to our partners, like certifications, self-serve material, all the good things that you would expect.

“A big part for us is simplicity, and how easy it is to work with or do business with Netgear.”

Netgear’s EMEA business is in good health, according to Luca, but he said the company’s turnaround journey was not finished yet. Indeed, one priority for him is not just growing partner numbers for numbers' sake, but really focusing on deeper engagement.

“I think we have, in my opinion, enough partners that we are working with. The game is to keep them interested; I don't necessarily think we need to increase the number of partners broadly. It's going to be a very selective move in both the AV and IT markets to capture the real players that we need to work with, in a given territory, in a given market,” he said.

“We work with a lot of partners, but the number of partners we have this business intimacy with is not at all at the level where it should be. It’s about ways of working with partners; it's about tools that we keep evolving; it's about the value we bring to those partners and the way we spend time. We do spend time [with partners] already, of course, but [it’s about] the way we spend [that] time. It has to evolve.

“It's [about] more quality, more depth, more intimacy, more shifting the way we work with partners, which takes a little while. It doesn't happen overnight.“

HPE has announced a sweeping expansion of its Aruba Networking Central platform, offering users a raft of new features focused on driving security and data sovereignty.

As part of the move, users of the network management solution will be granted access to a virtual private cloud (VPC) environment aimed at shoring up data security and meeting regulatory requirements, the company said.

This will be complemented by an on-premises option capable of operating while disconnected from the cloud.

Phil Mottram, EVP and general manager for HPE Aruba Networking, said the expansion comes in direct response to evolving enterprise needs with regard to data sovereignty.

Enterprises operating on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in the European Union (EU), face strict rules governing the use, storage, and sharing of customer data.

“Organizations are increasingly prioritizing data sovereignty, requiring regional and local presence for mission-critical IT solutions,” he said.

“With these innovations, HPE now uniquely addresses the most pressing enterprise challenges for corporate, nonprofit, and government entities with unprecedented network management deployment flexibility.”

HPE Aruba Networking Central changes

As part of the expansion, HPE Aruba Networking Central will gain four new deployment options. This means the solution can now be deployed in a cloud-delivered SaaS, VPC, on-prem, or NaaS format.

Similarly, integration of FIPS 140-2 certified hardware aims to help enterprises meet government security requirements and adhere to regulations including GDPR.

Described as a “comprehensive networking management solution”, HPE said this will boost efficiency for use-cases such as AI data capture, training, and inferencing - all of which typically require greater levels of control through air-gapped on-prem and cloud-based VPC options.

Underpinning this is the company’s GreenLake platform, which will provide enterprise users with local cloud options across a range of locations.

The firm is also keen to highlight gains made with regard to global points of presence (PoP), with dedicated instances now hosted in the US, Canada, EU, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and China.

AIOps tools look to drive network productivity

Elsewhere, other new features unveiled by HPE include the launch of automated network AIOps capabilities.

This will enable enterprises to continuously monitor critical wires and wireless network operations, optimize processes, and detect performance issues.

“A fabric of AI assistants acts as network architects, monitoring and gathering data, providing diagnostics and recommendations to extend existing capacity and performance, close security gaps, and identify configuration errors before they impact network operations,” the company said in an announcement.

“Combined with our continued innovation across AI, security and connectivity, HPE Aruba Networking Central continues to offer the most powerful and versatile network management application on the market, helping organizations meet their security, privacy and control requirements,” Mottram said.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• HPE unveils Mod Pod AI ‘data center-in-a-box’ at Nvidia GTC
• What HPE's results say about the direction of enterprise AI
• HPE’s ‘one-click AI solution’ for private cloud cuts project times from months to a ‘single moment’

Networking automation provider Extreme Networks has announced a new program for MSPs, which includes access to its Extreme Platform ONE to address modern cost and billing challenges.

Available from March 31, the firm said the initiative features the industry’s first and only consumption-based billing model and has been designed to equip MSPs with increased flexibility, simplicity, and cost savings.

The new framework has been built on AI-driven, multi-tenant architecture and now features consumption-based billing alongside poolable licensing.

Extreme’s MSP program also enables partners to offer networking, security, and AI solutions that help scale operations and create differentiation in a crowded market.

In an announcement, Extreme Networks’ chief product and technology officer, Nabil Bukhari, said that, by removing the barrier of hefty upfront costs, more MSPs will be able to adopt the firm’s model - ultimately speeding up time to market and revenue.

“Our consumption license grants full control over distribution, activation, and management, while Platform ONE boosts productivity by unifying everything into a single collaborative workspace,” he explained.

“This streamlined approach empowers MSPs to drive efficiency and growth with greater speed and simplicity.”

Extreme Networks eyes automation gains, consumption-based billing

MSPs will be able to leverage Platform ONE to manage licenses, performance, and service interruptions from within a single, centralized workspace that offers a comprehensive view of each client’s network health, performance, and security status.

The platform also serves up automation through conversational, interactive, and autonomous AI agents to drive productivity and condense the time it takes to complete complex tasks “from hours to minutes,” Extreme said.

Extreme’s Platform ONE’s consumption-based billing model aims to ensure cost predictability, with poolable licensing allowing MSPs to dynamically allocate and reassign licenses across devices, locations, and customers for increased flexibility.

Cara Parfitt, vice president of technology alliances at Logically, described Extreme’s MSP program and consumption-based model as a “game changer” for the company.

“The consumption-based billing model has provided us with more predictable costs, allowing us to better manage our finances and reduce the risk of our IT investments,” she commented.

“With Extreme Platform ONE, we can efficiently manage all our clients under one platform, which will significantly reduce the time and IT staff required to maintain operations.

“This will enable us to scale our operations, diversify our service offerings, and ultimately deliver better value to our customers."

MORE FROM ITPRO

• CyberArk eyes identity security gains with $175 million acquisition
• Thales and Imperva unveil aligned global partner programs for 2025
• Red Hat launches Build module as part of partner program refresh

Zyxel Networks has announced the launch of a new partner program designed to assist partners in positioning themselves as cloud networking businesses.

The revamped initiative will leverage the company’s range of network technology solutions, with a particular focus on its Nebula cloud management platform, while offering new incentives and discounts to help partners develop their managed services.

Zyxel said these discounts will span a wider variety of products and incentivize resellers that have a higher number of installed Nebula devices.

“This is an important milestone in the development of our channel strategy that will ensure our partners are rewarded for putting their focus on Zyxel Networks and building their business around our products,” explained Kevin Drinkall, Zyxel’s director of marketing and go-to-market strategy for EMEA.

“The new channel program provides the flexibility and support that partners need to meet the changing needs of their customers.”

Partners will have access to AI tools and a range of other resources to help them assist customers in the management and operation of their networks, Drinkall said.

“It mirrors the way partners and customers want to work today, recognizes their commitment and loyalty to Zyxel Networks, and demonstrates the 100% confidence we have in our cloud networking strategy,” he added.

All of Zyxel’s existing European partners will be migrated to the new program later this month and will have twelve months to align with the new criteria.

The company confirmed its specialist partner accreditations for MSPs and those in the education and hospitality sectors will continue to apply and be available, as will its EliteTech program for individual technical personnel.

Zyxel's multi-tenant licenses for the Nebula platform will also be available through the new program, which will enable partners to manage customers from their own operations center or from remote locations.

The firm's previous program tiers of Ally, Silver, and Gold will correspond to the new categories of Registered, Ally, and Prime, respectively, with partners that already manage over 650 Nebula devices automatically enrolled in an Elite tier.

Additionally, members of both Prime and Elite will have access to a new pay-as-you-go option for Nebula licensing, enabling them to flexibly adjust the number of devices and only pay for those used each month.

Introduced in response to partner feedback and a successful trial in 2024, this option targets partners with a fast-growing customer base or those with clients that need to meet requirements for events, construction, or other major projects, the firm said.

“Wherever they are on their own journey as a business and whatever market they focus on, Zyxel Networks will provide the support and incentives partners need,” Drinkall added.

“The program makes being a Zyxel Networks cloud partner even more rewarding too, as partners will unlock more benefits as they increase the number of Zyxel Networks devices they manage.”

Hello and welcome to ITPro's live blog World Wide Web Day!

We'll be using this as an opportunity to take a holistic look at the web and how it came to be the underpinning the modern world. We'll look back at all the early internet companies and where they are today, as well as hear from the wider ITPro team and their fondest memories of using the web.

So, what is the internet? And what is the World Wide Web?

Something guaranteed to cause teeth to grind is mixing up the two.

The internet is, effectively, a network of networks and its development came partly out of research from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

As the 1960s drew to a close, the research led to ARPANET, which initially consisted of a pair of network nodes. More sites were connected during the 1970s and ARPANET developed into a decentralized communications network connecting remote centers and US military bases. 

Ideal for the challenges of the Cold War.

Although ARPANET was eventually decommissioned, work continued to make the network more user friendly, thanks to the establishment of technologies such as TCP/IP.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee and his team built the tools necessary for the web - the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HyperText Markup Language (HTML), a web browser and a web server. The services operated over the internet and led to the World Wide Web we know today.

Commercial restrictions meant that the internet’s use was limited until these disappeared in 1995, allowing companies to further develop, market, and mature the technology

"But what is the internet really?"

Think of it as interconnected network of physical cables, flowing data between Internet Service Providers (ISPs), data centers, business and residences.

The mid to late 1990s is when some of the earliest successful internet companies were founded. Some remain leaders today. Others... not so much.

Amazon, now the most successful of the early internet companies, was founded in 1994 as an online bookstore. 

eBay (formerly AuctionWeb) turned up in 1995 and remains a major player in the online retail space today. It also owned PayPal.

Some, however, have not stood the test of time quite so well. Early pioneers such as AOL and Prodigy gave users a way of accessing the World Wide Web, but fell by the wayside as competing services gained traction.

CompuServe, which had its roots in the 1960s, was another of the 'Big Three' information services which had great success providing user access to the internet before eventually also succumbing to competition from the more open World Wide Web.

Accessing the World Wide Web requires a browser to render web pages.

One of the first widely available was the Mosaic browser, developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. While Mosaic did not survive the 1990s, it inspired Netscape Navigator and was licensed by Microsoft to create Internet Explorer.

Netscape Navigator eventually lost the first "browser way" to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The latter has since been eclipsed by the likes of Google's Chrome (and browser that use the Chromium engine) and Apple's Safari.

And then there is social media. The World Wide Web and the internet gave rise to platforms such as Facebook, which defined a generation of web use (and is currently trying to define the next one.)

The communication possibilities afforded by the internet and the World Wide Web have also given users micro-blogging platforms, such as Twitter as well as alternatives such as Mastodon and Bluesky.

Users have also been able to make use of forums, such as those hosted by Reddit, in order to exchange ideas via online posts and comments. 

As time has gone by, and new services (such as cloud computing) have emerged, concerns around privacy and anonymity have resulted in the creation of networks such as the 'dark web' where private networks can communicate without divulging identifying information.

While some of the content accessible through such services is questionable, their presence also highlights the challenges around privacy and confidentiality faced by today's World Wide Web.

Challenges that lawmakers and regulators are currently debating. 

We asked some of our writers for their earliest memories of the internet and the World Wide Web. 

Connor Jones, news editor at ITPro

One of my earliest and fondest memories of the internet is squeezing into the spare room of my house as a kid to access the painfully - and I mean painfully - slow computer and playing dial-up roulette with my mum’s supervision. No, not underage internet-based gambling. Being raised in rural England, the internet service was diabolical and it was always a case of seeing if AOL would let us connect on any given evening. The screeching dial-up tone could persist for hours only for us to eventually give up. But even with such a dreadful first internet experience, nothing like the kids of today would ever know, the power of the internet was still as evident then as it is today, and even though it took minutes - plural - to load a single web page, I still knew I was looking into the future.

Years later, when we got broadband - if you can call 1.5 down and 0.1 up broadband (rural internet in the UK!) - I was first able to go online and play video games with my friends. Living so far out in the sticks, I never had the opportunity to go and play football or anything like that after school with my school friends, who lived several villages away, so hopping on Call of Duty in the evenings was my closest equivalent. It was revolutionary and even though my gameplay lagged far more than most, at least I had a trusty excuse to fall back on when I couldn’t quite clutch that last round of S&D.

Richard Speed, staff writer at ITPro

I predate the World Wide Web, and my first experience of being online was trying to make an acoustic coupler work with the family telephone so I could access the University's VAX system.

Then there was the excitement of downloading the first iteration of Doom from a bulletin board, and waiting hours while the modem did its thing only for someone to accidentally pick up another phone in the house and break the connection.

However, my first memorable World Wide Web interaction was following the loss and recovery of ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft in the 1990s through what we'd regard today as a 'blog' and being able to email the actual engineers and scientists involved. The interaction opened my eyes to what an incredible tool for communication this technology was going to be.

While things have moved on in the decades since and the World Wide Web has become increasingly complicated in a variety of ways, the fact that SOHO is still doing science reminds me of that first interaction when researchers were suddenly able to publish their progress and respond to over-enthusiastic geeks in near realtime.

Jane McCallion, deputy editor at ITPro

In the early-to-mid-2000s, I used to spend more time than I probably should have watching flash animations and short videos that are still now embedded in my brain: Powerthirst, All Your Base Are Belong to Us, anything and everything from Rathergood.com and Homestar Runner. Many, many in-jokes between me and my friends were based almost exclusively on what I suppose were early memes – to this day, overdone toast is burninated and I mentally ask myself if I'm ready to feel uncomfortably energetic before drinking an energy drink.

Rory Bathgate, staff writer at ITPro

I'd say a good deal of my interest in media and filmmaking came from early-to-mid 2010s YouTube, back when it felt like more of a meritocracy. I feel like with most social media there's a grace period when it first starts where it all feels a bit lawless - people are trying to figure out how it works and what does best there. YouTube certainly felt like that for quite a few years, and I think a lot of people in my generation were inspired by the idea that anyone could become internet famous with a camcorder, a dumb idea, and some friends (much to the chagrin of parents the world over who suddenly started hearing "I want to be a YouTuber when I grow up"). Same goes for Newgrounds animations, which were so homemade but the result of really hard work by talented animators.

Sites for the World Wide Web were originally carefully created using text editors or basic design tools, outputting HTML crafted to make use of the very limited bandwidth available.  Interactivity was severely limited when compared to modern expectations.

As browsers have become ever more capable, developers have been able to take advantage of services such as JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create web pages that feel more like native applications. 

Frameworks such as Node.js and React provide a richness of experience not possible with the tables and frames of HTML. However, with increasing complexity has come increasing opportunities for exploits and vulnerabilities as the surface area for attack has grown.

While most modern web pages you're used to accessing look modern, sleek, and responsive thanks to them taking advantage of the latest technologies and frameworks, there are many others that still look like they belong in the previous decades.

I'm talking about the dark web, the underbelly of the clear web where people go to participate in a different kind of internet experience.

Adopted by the likes of whistleblowers, journalists, activists, cyber criminals, criminals of the traditional kind, and many more, the dark web offers a home for people looking to hide their identities.

Accessed using a specific browser, TOR (The Onion Router), the dark web uses onion routing which relays a user's network traffic through a series of 'nodes' via virtual tunnels which form a patch that's chosen at random by the network. This applies to each and every individual transmission of data.

Onion routing involves data sent with layers of encryption between different servers and ultimately the receiver. The keys to decode these layers are all individual and can only be accessed by the server responsible for decrypting the specific layer sent to it. Each server only knows the network nodes that immediately come before and after it, no others, which helps keeps users anonymous - though, the technique can be broken with enough time and motivation.

Because web pages on the dark web have to jump through so many more hoops than those on the clear web, and the sites on the dark web often don't invest in the infrastructure needed to host highly responsive web pages, then they often look dated, or at least very basic.

Having web pages requiring fewer data packets to load is a way to mitigate the slow speeds while using the TOR browser, offering dark web users the quickest experience possible.

This is a screenshot of a ransomware organization's dark web-based website. It's very basic, though you can find more responsive services elsewhere.

Dread, the dark web's answer to Reddit, for example, is one of the sleeker web pages you visit using TOR, while many others look like they're composed of little more than a lone HTML file.

There is so much more we could explore with the web if we had longer, but we're calling time on this retrospective for today very shortly. 

But before we go, we wanted to leave you with some of the team's final thoughts on the web and what it means to them...

Andreas Theodorou - editor in chief at Tech Software

The first thoughts that come to mind (besides the joys of the dial-up internet) would be the first viral jump-scare video I ever saw. The one where you're watching the car drive through the countryside - I think I was about 7 or 8 and my mum had been sent it by one of her cousins. We sat in front of the computer and my mum told me to follow the car. I did, and then promptly fell backwards out of my chair and into the hallway!

On a brighter note, I think people forget just how much the internet has become a very social place. If you'd told me 20 years ago I would have friends around the world and be able to talk to them almost daily with instantaneous messaging, it would've blown my tiny mind. While I personally detest a lot of the things that social media has become, the sheer connectedness of online gaming and communication makes it easier than ever to speak with and see the people you love. I can talk to my sister and her family on the other side of the country, play games with friends in different countries, and so much more. If nothing else, the internet has propelled us towards a true global community.

Ross Kelly, staff writer at ITPro

I've met some great, long-term friends online over the years playing video games, which has been amazing. 

After meeting a group of people playing Rust in 2018, I've managed to keep in touch with them consistently and have had some wonderful experiences playing with them during that time. This includes somewhat of a ragtag international band of folks, including Americans, Germans, a Welshman, and two players from Curacao who now live in the Netherlands. Without the internet, I'd have never met such a varied range of people.

Bobby Hellard, reviews editor, ITPro

I didn't really do anything on the web until I got a MySpace page and it completely changed everything. I wasted hours picking songs for my page and learning how to customize the layouts and themes. I hope Tom is still out there somewhere...

And why not a few fun web facts just to see everything off...

Email technology actually precedes the World Wide Web. It was invented in the early 1970s in the ARPANET days, long before the web was officially invented in 1989.

The latest available data (2019) from the estimated 265,331 US households still have dial-up internet subscriptions, although it's difficult to know for sure now as dial-up internet is no longer tracked in official broadband surveys.

The Firefox logo is a point of contention as some people think it's not actually a fox depicted in the logo.

Firefox is another name for the red panda, a fact Firefox recognized in its official rebranding FAQ page.

However, time has seen Mozilla change its tune and refer to it officially as a fox, as one forum moderator confirmed.

What do you think?

The company that is arguably more synonymous with the web than any other, Google, used to rent goats to trim the lawn at its Mountain View HQ.

Thought of as a low-carbon alternative to petrol-powered mowers, the company used to hire 200 goats at a time to get the job done. 

No, we're not kidding you either!

That's it from us - we hope you enjoy the rest of World Wide Web Day. Happy browsing!

Hello and happy System Administrator Appreciation Day 2023!

We'll be posting updates throughout the day looking at how the role has changed over the years, as well as stories from sysadmins themselves of how they've been appreciated over the years.

We'll also be covering the story of how the appreciation day came to be, and some fun initiatives being launched by members of the industry.

Stay tuned for all this and more...

To kick things off, let's look at where it all began...

The first-ever sysadmin appreciation day is credited to IT professional Ted Kekatos who is said to have come up with the idea after seeing a Hewlett Packard advert in a magazine.

The advert depicted an IT worker receiving gifts and endless appreciation by fellow colleagues, apparently to depict how much easier their lives had become after the admin bought the latest HP printer at the time.

According to an interview Kekatos did with Spiceworks, which you can read more of here, he thought the idea was so great - that a sysadmin could be showered with gifts for doing their job - he tore the advert out of the magazine and showed it to all his coworkers.

And that is how the first System Administrator Appreciation Day first came to be...

For those looking for ways to show appreciation to your organization's sysadmin, ManageEngine has a dedicated page for the day, filled with ideas, games, and tools to get into the spirit of the day.

They've even created a poem to mark the occasion:

Speed and accuracy galore, for they make our defences roar, to the ones who always score, may the wishes pour!

Maybe stick to software, guys.

First up, take a look at all the punny e-cards they've created.

Designed to be sent easily to your sysadmin with a simple online form, you can choose between a selection of general IT puns and characters. There's even one for the Star Wars lover too.

Also available through the page is a typing test that assesses speed and accuracy against that of a typical sysadmin.

If you can at least match their standard, you could be in with a chance to win some prizes.

You can also test your knowledge in an IT-themed, multiple-choice quiz.

Completion of all three activities can put you in with a chance of winning gift vouchers worth up to $500, the company says.

The sysadmin role is one that's perhaps best known for being the jack-of-all trades position in any IT team - having to know a little about a lot to keep the cogs turning in all areas of the IT stack.

Splunk says there are 12 core responsibilities of a sysadmin:

1. Monitoring and alerting

2. Managing user permissions and the administration of all applications and services

3. Managing SSO and passwords

4. Managing files

5. Defining system usage policies and procedures

6. Installing and maintaining software

7. Planning for redundancies, rollovers, and recoveries

8. Security

9. Maintaining documentation and runbooks

10. Detecting and remediating incidents

11. Performing post-incident reviews

12. Preparing and problem solving

What do you think about this list? Does that cover it all?

We also spoke to a number of industry pros to hear their thoughts on the people that keep every critical system running, and how under-appreciated they so often are.

Steve Santamaria, CEO at Folio Photonics, says:

“Sysadmins are the unsung heroes of the business world, whose importance cannot be overstated. They are the masterminds behind the scenes, tirelessly working to keep technology systems running smoothly and seamlessly. Without their expertise, businesses would face constant disruptions, downtimes, and vulnerabilities.

These dedicated professionals ensure the reliability and availability of critical systems, enabling employees to work efficiently and without hindrance. They are the guardians of data security, implementing robust measures to protect sensitive information from ever-evolving cyber threats.

Sysadmins also play a crucial role in disaster recovery planning, ensuring that organizations can swiftly recover from unforeseen incidents and maintain uninterrupted operations. Their tireless efforts in integrating new technologies, troubleshooting technical issues, and providing prompt support to end-users ensure that businesses stay at the forefront of innovation and maximize productivity. Sysadmins possess a wealth of knowledge and expertise, continuously adapting to new technologies and industry best practices to keep businesses ahead of the curve.

In a world where technology drives the success of organizations, sysadmins are the pillars of stability, reliability, and progress. They deserve our utmost appreciation and recognition for their unwavering dedication and indispensable contributions to the success of businesses everywhere.”

Manu Heirbaut, vice president of engineering at Datadobi, says: 

“Sysadmin day reminds us of the significance of those working tirelessly to provide IT services to their respective organizations around the globe. 

System Administrators deserve recognition for their efforts to maintain organizational infrastructure for everyone, and we must be mindful of their importance not only on sysadmin day but every day.

We can do this by investing in their craft and providing them with tools to automate tasks and address financial, sustainability, and organizational challenges associated with systems, improving the value of unstructured data. These unstructured data solutions can improve sysadmins' jobs and streamline business processes to make their work even more efficient."

Our more experienced readers will know that the sysadmin role now is substantially more different to what it was 30-40 years ago.

It's difficult to imagine any of us doing our jobs without our most trusted search engine but back in the day, Google didn’t exist - not until 1998 - which meant that documentation had to be more comprehensive to have a fighting chance at fixing issues.

There were, of course, also no USB ports let alone thumb drives, so called for a fat wallet full of floppies if you needed any software or tools. 

There was also no imaging, which meant that installations were all done individually, manually, and even if you had the exact same hardware, each one would throw different errors throughout the process. The good old days.

Things also weren’t so Microsoft and Linux-based. Remember NetWare? Skills in the network operating system are scarce nowadays but back in the early 1990s it was the go-to file and print server for most sysadmins, known for greater reliability and uptime.

Memory was also a major bugbear for many working in the industry at the time. Whether it was messing with config.sys to get drivers to load without sucking up huge amounts of memory, or having to pay prices like $1 per MB of RAM, certain things weren't as streamlined as they are today.

Hardware, generally, was far more finicky than it for modern sysadmins. 

Sure, you can overclock your latest CPU, but up until the Pentium line of chips, in most cases the voltage, clock speed, and crystal frequency settings all had to be set manually.

Hardware was often failing at a higher rate than it generally does now, meaning the role involved more physical equipment repairs in times gone by.

And who could forget about DIP switches? They were highly common and used for configuring hardware settings for interrupt request (IRQ) work - tasks that the modern sysadmin would rarely have to carry out.

Looking at the more recent history, prior to today, we asked current sysadmins about their fondest memories of how their work has been recognised on sysadmin appreciation day...

We received a range of responses, and we're glad to report most were nicer than the minority who have never experienced any love on their special day.

"Only thing I've ever gotten for Sysadmin Day was attitude," one told us.

"I fondly recall not one year when anyone other than other IT colleagues gave one f*** about it," said another.

"IT are the 19th century Irish of the corporate world."

And with that, some more positive experiences will follow...

This sysadmin is choosing to share the love, even though he might not be getting it from his own organization.

"I've decided I'm going to reach out to a vendor I worked with closely and say thanks for the assist in recent months. 

"My end-users are throwing me a dumpster fire of IT issues tomorrow to celebrate. Naw they do care."

And while it might not be an e-card from ManageEngine, who can turn their nose up at free sweet treats?

"A boss I had 10+ years ago would buy a whole bunch of Dilly Bars from DQ for us. I’ve not been that fortunate since," said another.

"Dave, you’re the best."

For those of you following along in the UK, sitting there as confused as I was reading that, allow me to translate:

Dilly bar: Round, chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick. Looks a bit like a Magnum judging by a quick Google search.

DQ: Dairy Queen - a chain of ice cream eateries in 20 countries around the world, but none in the UK.

"[Got a] free T-Shirt from a vendor. The one and only acknowledgement I've ever received."

One of the best parts about working in tech journalism is getting to travel fairly often  to cover big events, conferences etc. One of the second best parts about working in tech journalism is all the free t-shirts you get from attending said conferences.

Despite not being a sysadmin myself, I too would personally like to offer my special appreciation to all the vendors that have given me free t-shirts over the years. Best gym shirts going.

Now, this one sounds a little too cute to have been timed perfectly on sysadmin day, but it might be my favourite nonetheless...

"[I] set up a dozen or iPads for a special ed classroom and the teacher sent me a card with pictures of the kids using the devices. Card was signed by all the kids. Still have it many years later."

Now, this one is clearly not a sysadmin day-related story, but a good read regardless...

"I was a contracted admin at a customer along with another contracted admin we will call him Dan. Dan was known to be a gun slinger and did things without thinking then through especially just before long weekends. 

We will call the customer LSB. LSB was huge on large emails. LSB had a very fragile Exchange 2003 SP2 server that had to be pointed to a specific DC, pushing DB limits and DB fragmentation, DBs were approaching 65 GB which was huge for Exchange 2003. 

I was off Thursday and Friday that Labor Day weekend. Dan was instructed not to do anything intrusive over that Labor Day weekend, but that moron decided to take DB offline and reconfigure AD and got rid of the GC that exchange was pointed to. 

After AD reconfiguration he couldn’t bring exchange 2003 back online. LSB had a dead line and emails that they needed to get to, I had to cancel my weekend plans and save the day. Day after main guy at LSB wrote me a glowing recommendation on LinkedIn, thanked me very genuinely for and fired our firm."

Can't go wrong with a gift voucher, happy eating!

"I got a $35 gift voucher today for renewing our ISP service that costs $800/month. I’m taking the SO out to dinner tomorrow."

And finally, I guess this serves me right for asking Reddit of all places, there's always one...

"This one sysadmin day I was sitting in my office and this beautiful Colombian women from customer service walked in and immediately fell to her knees to worship the IT gods… and then I woke up. Good times. Very appreciated."

Had me in the first half to be fair.

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed on my Reddit post for all these stories - I hope you're having a great day filled with compliments, chocolate, praise, and adoration. 

And for those without a positive sysadmin day experience so far, fingers crossed today's the day that changes!

Right, I'm shutting my lid for the weekend soon, but before I go I thought I'd leave with you some fun IT facts I found on the web...

Did you know Google used to hire goats as a low-carbon approach to trimming the lawn at its Mountain View HQ?

You've got to be kidding, right? Get it? Goats...

I totally stole that joke from Google's blog on the matter. I'm sorry.

But yeah they hired around 200 at a time for roughly a week to avoid polluting the air with the mower's fuel and noise form its engine.

Not a baaaaad idea if you ask me!

Up until 1995, registering a domain name was completely free.

It was also the very early days of the internet, meaning the chances were that if you had an idea for one, it was probably available.

In the US, the latest available data (2019) estimated that 265,331 households still had dial-up internet subscriptions.

It's difficult to know for sure now as dial-up internet is no longer tracked in official broadband surveys.

I still remember the days of dial-up. On any given evening it was always a gamble whether or not we'd be able to connect to AOL, being based in deep rural England it's never been the best for internet access but dial-up was a different beast.

That'll be me signing off for the weekend, everyone.

Thanks to those that followed along doe the entire day, and apologies to those who were subjected to the goat puns towards the end. 

Wishing all the best to each and every sysadmin out there today, and I hope you all have a great weekend. Bye!

BT has announced a new partnership with HPE to provide customers with a new managed service that aims to deliver improved performance flexibility and control of local area networks (LANs).

The offering combines BT’s global reach and expertise in both wired and wireless connectivity with the latest LAN solutions from HPE Aruba Networking. 

The service has been designed to deliver high-performance experiences for hybrid workers and IoT transformations at a time when many legacy LAN solutions struggle to support user expectations when accessing apps. 

In an announcement, BT said its new HPE Aruba Networking LAN service will allow customers to securely modernize connectivity as working patterns continue to evolve, as well as keep pace with IoT demands.

“It’s clear that legacy in-building networks can’t handle modern hybrid working and IoT devices, never mind what comes next,” said Andrew Small, director of voice and digital work at BT’s Business unit.

“That’s why we’re expanding customer choice of managed LAN solutions by partnering with HPE Aruba Networking. This will offer the visibility, flexibility, and security customers need to deliver productive, trusted wired and wireless connectivity.”

The partnership will see BT audit the LAN to determine what is already in place, which elements can be re-used, and anything that should be replaced. 

HPE Aruba Networking will provide interoperable technology that can prevent the need to replace an entire network.

BT said it will also work collaboratively with customers to manage costs by providing a staged approach to modernization, as well as an evaluation of how to secure and protect connected devices. 

Customers can leverage the service via a single dashboard hosted in the cloud, which centralizes reporting, analytics, security, scalability, and resilience. 

Additionally, the offering can also identify redundant devices that are taking up unnecessary power, as well as automate network and energy optimization. 

“Global customers that are building their connectivity strategies are focusing on modern enterprise networks that are secure, agile, responsive to business needs, and simple to operate, while being powerful drivers of transformation,” said Phil Mottram, executive vice president and general manager at HPE Aruba Networking. 

“HPE Aruba Networking is at the forefront of reinventing how customers and partners can consume or deliver business outcome-focused networking, and by integrating our AI, security, automation, and network as a service capabilities, our global managed LAN service with BT is an example of how the network is helping customers achieve their business objectives.”

BT has announced plans to axe up to 40% of its workforce by 2030 as it looks to become a “leaner business” and rely more heavily on digitization and AI to cut costs.

The telco giant currently employs around 130,000 people worldwide, around 80,000 of whom are UK-based, but will seek to reduce this to between 75,000-90,000 between FY28-30.

The news came alongside poor results, with revenue of £20.7 billion ($25.75 billion) down 1% year-on-year and profit down 12% across the same period due to “increased depreciation from network build and specific items”.

The Telegraph reported that up to 10,000 jobs, roughly a fifth of the slashed roles, could be directly replaced with automation technologies such as AI.

BT told ITPro that 10,000 roles will cease as a result of automation and improvements to its digital channel, with customers expected to rely more on online self-service.

“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitize the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base,” said Philip Jansen, CEO at BT.

“New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.” 

Its shares fell by more than 10% in early trading.

Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at analyst firm CCS Insight, to ITPro that major cuts were expected given BT’s annual cost savings target of £3 billion ($3.73 billion) by 2025.

He added that the scale of these redundancies has nevertheless come as a shock to the telecoms sector.

“This brutal decision – just two days after Vodafone confirmed 11,000 job losses – reflects consistent underperformance of the telecoms sector despite continued strong demand for its services,” said Mann 

“BT has struggled as much as anyone: its share price is down around 40% since Philip Jansen took the helm in February 2019. The CEO – whose own position has reportedly been under threat – will expect the cull to hasten BT’s migration to a much more lean, simple, and efficient organization.”

Mann also said that greater use of automation and artificial intelligence will make up many of the roles, while the completion of BT’s fiber rollout in 2026 would also lead to job cuts.

BT stated that some 15,000 roles would end as fiber investment is dialed down.

In its results, BT stated that it has hit 41% of its target 25 million premises connected with full-fiber, FTTP broadband.

Network engineers are also expected to lose jobs as BT completes its 5G rollout, with the firm’s network now covering 68% of the UK population and connections up 62% over the financial period.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU), which represents tens of thousands of workers at BT and Openreach, stated that the announcement was unsurprising given new technologies and the fiber completion target.

“However, we have made it categorically clear to BT that we want to retain as many direct labor jobs as possible and that any reduction should come from sub-contractors in the first instance and natural attrition,” a spokesperson said.

“We have also stated that it’s imperative that we should be in the room discussing and shaping the new skills required of the workforce as they move to a more digital network to ensure our members have a stable, secure career within BT well into the future; to which the company has agreed ongoing discussions with the CWU on these matters.”

This article was updated to include additional context from BT.

Between the rise in social-engineering attacks and the Biden Administration’s executive order for mandating zero-trust initiatives across government agency networks, demand for zero trust is at an all-time high.

In this webinar, experts discuss the growing importance of zero trust models to the future of cybersecurity. The panel of speakers follow their discussion with a real time demonstration of Perimeter 81’s zero trust offering.

Watch the full webcast to learn more about zero trust initiatives and see how partnering with Perimeter 81 could accelerate your zero-trust journey.

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Many businesses today are rethinking their network security solutions since the adoption of remote and hybrid work, and considering the multiple cyber security options now available. For the majority, the best solution would be to introduce new elements - like Zero Trust - that can be implemented alongside legacy infrastructure.

This study shares how converged network security - Security Services Edge (SSE) - could be the solution to achieve this, offering integrated cloud-based abilities without compromising existing environments.

Download now for the full results of this study, discover the main challenges in managing network security, including remote access, and realise the numerous drivers for adopting SSE.

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IT leaders today are tasked with finding innovative ways to secure their remote workforce, with legacy hardware firewall VPNs no longer able to meet today’s security needs. One solution is enterprise level network security with Zero Trust, that enables network access for users to only what they need to perform their roles.

This guide further explains the benefits of a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) security model and how organisations can significantly reduce the level of exposure to cyber attacks and limit unwanted access to their data.

Download now to see how ZTNA compares to On-premise Firewall VPNs, and how it can offer a safer hybrid work environment.

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Since the global pandemic, the modern workforce has become largely remote in a bid to continue business operations. With more remote devices now accessing the company network from multiple locations, and the adoption of cloud-based collaborative tools, cyber criminals have revelled in exploiting vulnerabilities following this shift.

With employees today determining how they work - the majority opting for remote/hybrid opportunities - this resource can help organisations ensure the security of their remote employees with ten clear cyber security checks.

Download now to learn how to radically simplify your cyber security and discover the tools that can meet the needs of both your remote workforce, and deliver the robust protection your IT teams require.

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According to a recent study by Perimeter 81, two thirds of the 500 IT professionals they surveyed had experienced a ransomware attack during the course of their career, highlighting just how encompassing ransomware has become. As malicious actors continue to take advantage of zero-day vulnerabilities, the time has come for businesses to ensure they have the tools to counter attacks.

This eBook focuses on practical data to help organisations understand the full implications of a ransomware attack, from the risks associated with hardware VPNs, to how to protect your remote workforce, and shares how to select the best approach to prevent malware, both now and in the future.

Download now to learn the six principles of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and discover how this key component of Security Services Edge (SSE) can offer your business complete cloud security.

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There are multiple benefits when it comes to using a cloud-based network security solution. As there’s no need for hardware, it’s cost effective, faster to deploy, and as it’s built for purpose, it has the ability to evolve as your business grows.

This resource shares the seven security musts of cloud-based network security, including firewall defence and Zero Trust, and explains how to assess your own infrastructure first to establish your security needs.

Download now to discover the right solution for your organisation, and discover the full-featured cloud-based network security solution that ticks all boxes.

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In today’s working environments, where many businesses have adopted a hybrid working policy, CISOs have the additional challenge of not only ensuring the security of their internal infrastructure, but also their remote employees. And with cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, it can be difficult to prioritise security networks.

This resource shares five network security practices that CISOs can adopt to mitigate these challenges. From ensuring visibility, to implementing a Zero Trust network, to establishing safety in the cloud, CISOs can ensure they’re covering all security needs.

Download now to learn how there are no shortcuts when it comes to security compliance, and discover a cloud-native network security solution that can keep all networks safe.

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Whilst many applications have moved to the cloud, or are in the process of moving, most network security functions remain tied to on-premise hardware appliances. Many corporate networks rely on legacy hardware appliances to define their perimeter, enforce policies, and route traffic.

Hardware boxes can be expensive, hard to manage and slow. With new supply chain pressures, lead-times of up to a year are not uncommon, delaying business-critical IT initiatives. The steady shift of data, applications, and employees to using the Internet as the primary means of connectivity, new security and performance issues arise that hardware may not be able to handle.

Watch this recorded webinar with Cloudflare experts to learn more about:

• Challenges with provisioning and maintaining network hardware in the cloud era
• How these challenges affect remote work, IT staffing, network security, and more
• Cloud-native “as-a-Service” options you can deploy today
• A roadmap for reducing your dependence on hardware appliances through cloud transformation, whilst adopting frameworks like Zero Trust/SASE at the same time

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A new report shows there’s been a reduction in overall malware detections from the peaks seen in the first half of 2021, although there’s been an ongoing Emotet botnet resurgence.

Microsoft Office exploits continue to spread more than any other category of malware, according to WatchGuard Threat Lab’s Q2 Internet Security Report. The quarter’s top incident was the Follina Office exploit, first reported in April but not patched until late May. Delivered via a malicious document, Follina was able to circumvent Windows Protected View and Windows Defender and has been actively exploited by threat actors, including nation states, stated the report.

Researchers also found that the endpoint detections of malware were down overall, but not equally. Despite a 20% decrease in total endpoint malware detections, malware exploiting browsers collectively increased by 23%, with Chrome seeing a 50% surge. WatchGuard found that one potential reason for the increase in Chrome detections is the persistence of various zero-day exploits. Scripts continued to account for the lion’s share of endpoint detections (87%) in Q2. Additionally, network-based malware detections dropped 15.7% quarter over quarter. This includes drops in both basic malware and evasive or zero-day malware.

The network security company also warned of a resurgent Emotet. Although the volume has declined since last quarter, Emotet remains one of network security’s biggest threats. One of the quarter’s top 10 overall and top 5 encrypted malware detections, XLM.Trojan.abracadabra – a Win Code injector that spreads the Emotet botnet – was widely seen in Japan.

“While overall malware attacks in Q2 fell off from the all-time highs seen in previous quarters, over 81% of detections came via TLS encrypted connections, continuing a worrisome upward trend,” said Corey Nachreiner, chief security officer at WatchGuard. “This could reflect threat actors shifting their tactics to rely on more elusive malware.”

The report also found that the top 10 code signatures accounted for over 75% of network attack detections. The quarter saw increased targeting of industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that control industrial equipment and processes, as well as new signatures like WEB Directory Traversal -7 and WEB Directory Traversal -8. The two new signatures are similar, the first exploits a vulnerability first uncovered in 2012 in a specific SCADA interface software while the second is most widely detected in Germany.

WatchGuard also shared that in Q2 it blocked a total of more than 18.1 million malware variants and more than 4.2 million network threats. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (MENA) was also the most targeted region, receiving 52% of malware hits. The remainder was split between the Americas and the Asia Pacific, with APAC receiving slightly more.

Rogers Communications Inc. has announced a C$10 billion investment in improved infrastructure and AI research in moves to improve their telecoms network.

Earlier this month, Rogers experienced a serious network outage that affected many of its 10.6 million customers across Canada, restricting access to even emergency services. Beginning on July 8, the outage lasted approximately 19 hours.

5G and other mobile internet, cell connectivity and even landline connections were all affected by the outage. Canadian police stated that some customers were even unable to access emergency services.

In a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Rogers reportedly said the problem was traced back to a network update, which had inadvertently deleted a routing filter and “allowed for all possible routes to the Internet to pass through the routers”.

Without the filter in place, internet traffic passed through routers at an unsustainable rate and quickly overwhelmed them.

In response to the outage, Rogers has made a series of commitments. Chief among them is a three-year, C$10 billion investment into more network testing and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve network reliability.

The company has also announced an agreement with rival companies to support each other’s 911 calls in the event of network difficulties, as well as the separation of their wireless and internet services to limit the extent of future outages.

In a blog post on the Rogers website, President and CEO Tony Staffieri apologised for the disruption and set out the aforementioned commitments in full. He stated that “emergency calls to 911 simply have to work,” and outlined where the C$10 billion will be invested.

“This includes more oversight, more testing and greater use of Artificial Intelligence to ensure we’re able to deliver the reliable service you deserve.

“Finally, we are partnering with leading technology firms to do a full review of our network to help us learn from the outage. We will share lessons with our industry for the benefit of every Canadian.”

AI could be used to help design more effective network infrastructure, or adaptively tune antennae to improve connectivity. Earlier this year, Qualcomm announced an AI-integrated 5G modem-RF, which it claims provides better average speeds.

Rogers separately warned in an update on Twitter that some customers had received scam text messages offering credits by way of apology for the outage. The company stated that while it will be applying credit to accounts, customers need take no action and should report any suspicious SMS.

Network outages such as this or the recent KDDI disruption in Japan can have major impacts on business operations and day-to-day life, especially if access to emergency services is affected. Nearly 60% of internet traffic is caused by mobile internet use, with an estimated 4.67 billion mobile internet users in 2021 highlighting how essential stable networks are to overall access to the internet.

If you’re feeling bamboozled by complicated licensing models, PRTG Network Monitor is the answer. Pricing is based purely on the number of sensors you want to use – and you don’t have to worry about add-ons and extras, as the entire range of 285 different sensor types is included as standard. These cover virtually every type of network device, hardware component, business app and service, so you’d be hard pushed to find something on your network that PRTG couldn’t monitor. It’s reasonably priced, too, with the Small Business package starting at €1,500 a year for 500 sensors – enough to monitor around 50 devices.

Installation is simple. After we’d loaded PRTG’s on-site server software onto a Windows Server 2019 system, a wizard guided us through our first network discovery. This took a slightly leisurely 45 minutes, but PRTG relieved us of a lot of legwork by automatically assigning a suitable set of sensors to each detected device on the network, along with preset thresholds for triggering alerts.

Once you’re set up you can access PRTG through a friendly web console. This opens with a network overview showing the status of all sensors, and clicking on any of the icons next to the donut charts takes you directly to a filtered view. Alternatively, you can open the device view, which presents a tree structure with all systems organised into hierarchical groups.

This may initially look a little overwhelming for large networks, but you can organise things by creating your own groups and moving devices into them, whereupon they inherit settings such as discovery schedules and login credentials. It’s easy to spot devices with issues as all sensor icons are colour-coded, and hovering the mouse pointer over any device pops up a window with live graphs and alert messages.

This page is also where you’ll discover how quickly the sensor count gets consumed. For example, we found that our 24-port Gigabit switch, Hyper-V and VMware hosts and five-bay Synology NAS appliance had together been allocated a total of 192 sensors. Don’t panic, though – with just a few clicks we were able to remove sensors we didn’t need and reassign them where we wanted them.

You can also add sensors for services that aren’t on the local network. PRTG supports a whole heap of cloud providers, including Dropbox, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 services and Amazon CloudWatch. Those using Azure can also set up sensors to monitor SQL databases, cloud VMs, storage and subscription costs, with more advanced sensors currently in development. All of this makes it far more flexible than the typical per-device monitoring suite.

Aside from the web console, you can keep an eye on network activity using Paessler’s desktop apps for Windows and macOS, which log in to the PRTG host and present an equally detailed summary of all sensors. Mobile access isn’t a problem either, as the free PRTG apps for Android and iOS are easily the best of their kind.

Even when you’re not actively checking up on your network, PRTG ensures you’re kept in the loop with an extensive range of notification methods, including email, SMS, Syslog, Slack, Microsoft Teams and an MQTT service for IoT devices. Custom triggers can be applied to any level of the device tree or to individual sensors – for example, alerts can be sent when a device goes offline, when a traffic threshold has been breached or when a hard disk is getting full.

In all, when it comes to on-premises monitoring solutions, PRTG Network Monitor is very hard to beat. It provides a terrific range of sensor options for both local devices and cloud services, along with plenty of monitoring facilities, yet it’s easy to manage, and comes with a simple, affordable pricing scheme that’s perfect for SMBs.

Learn how SASE connects users directly to the cloud and safeguards IoT devices that require Zero Trust, identity-based security. It’s all part of the convergence of networking and security.

Watch this 35 minute webinar to better understand the new security challenges as a result of the shift to the cloud, and the latest solutions available.

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Today's networks fall short on delivering the agility and security needed to support businesses' digital transformation. It's essential that organisations secure their cloud applications, but also those using them.

By transforming your WAN and security architectures and adopting an automated software-defined wide are network (SD-WAN) that can integrate across multi-cloud environments, you'll be able to achieve direct secure access to all apps.

Download this resource to understand the principles of SASE, minimise risk from mobile and IoT, and give customers and employees the best experience.

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As remote workforces accelerate cloud migration, network security requirements need to shift.

This study by Forrester shares the latest security requirements and highlights how the networking and security worlds need to merge, with IT teams tasked with identifying a Zero Trust solution that will unify them.

Download now for a better understanding of the emerging Zero Trust solutions to better support business-wide networking.

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HPE partnered with the Ponemon Institute to globally survey 4,150 IT and IT security practitioners on their biggest security challenges and how to keep up with an evolving threat landscape.

Findings showed that most organisations were planning to implement, or had implemented, zero trust security infrastructure, with under half implementing an SD-WAN solution and SASE security architecture.

Download this report to better understand the practices of those businesses with highly effective security infrastructures and implementation.

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WhatsUp Gold (WUG) has been a popular network-monitoring solution since the 1990s, thanks to its excellent ease of use and extensive troubleshooting features. Publisher Progress Software isn’t resting on its laurels, either: this latest edition gains the ability to collect Windows Event Log and Syslog events, with extensive log search, filtering and export facilities courtesy of the Elasticsearch analytics engine.

Licensing is fairly straightforward. The Premium edition can be had as either a yearly subscription or a perpetual licence, and is priced according to the number of monitored devices, regardless of how many ports or CPU cores they have.

All the key features we’d want to see are here, including network discovery, device, cloud, wireless network and storage monitoring, plus alerting and reporting. However, the new log-management features are an optional add-on package, and further add-ons are required for monitoring virtualisation hosts and applications, and performing network traffic analysis.

Larger businesses may find the Total Plus edition more practical as it includes all these add-on components as standard. It also uses a more flexible points-based licensing scheme, with devices, servers and VMs counting as one point and log data sources and monitored applications each counting for ten.

Installing WUG 2021 on a Windows Server 2019 host took us around 25 minutes, after which the software got to work and immediately offered to run a network discovery. Once we’d provided our network details, device credentials and a schedule, it churned away for around 15 minutes before reporting back with a complete list of discovered devices.

Keeping track of all these devices is easy. Each item is assigned a colour-coded icon in the web console, so you can see immediately what’s up and what’s down, and custom policies can be created, linked with state changes and assigned actions such as running a script, restarting a service or sending emails. Dashboards present live graphical overviews of your network and can be customised to your taste, giving you the ability to set up big-screen NOC views for support staff.

Tabs and menus provide access to the rest of the major features, enabling you to quickly run network discoveries, view your network topology, switch to an interactive network map view, access a wealth of analysis views and configure settings for WUG and any add-on modules.

Log management is accessed from the Analyze tab. A search facility helps you quickly find logs of interest, and acquiring data is a cinch, as WUG presents all eligible sources for swift selection. On selecting our Windows servers we were prompted to select from application, system and security logs, and to decide whether or not we wanted to see critical, error, warning and informational-level events. You can fine-tune the information view with advanced filters, set thresholds so that unusual activity will trigger an alert and define a datastore and retention time in days, months or years for archived logs.

Just note that the standard installation uses the open-source Elasticsearch engine, which only accepts connections from the WUG 2021 host. If you want to increase security with authentication and encryption, you’ll have to source the standard version of Elasticsearch and direct the WUG host to it.

WhatsUp Gold 2021 offers an impressive range of network-monitoring tools, with flexible licensing plans to suit companies of all sizes. The smartly designed and informative web console will keep downtime to a minimum, and the new log-management features make it more powerful than ever.

VirtualMetric may not be so well known in the network-monitoring world as old-timers such as Paessler PRTG and WhatsUp Gold, but it makes its mark with an impressive range of features. It offers real-time agentless monitoring of both physical and virtual servers, works with numerous popular business apps and additionally provides log monitoring, change tracking and inventory functions.

Subscription terms are flexible, with monthly and annual options. Each monitored SNMP endpoint costs €2.90 or €29 respectively, while one physical server or virtual machine will cost €9.90 or €99.

Installing the software takes just two minutes, but be aware that VirtualMetric requires a minimum of Windows Server 2016, plus SQL Server 2014 or higher. We used a Windows Server 2019 host, and for our lab environment we found Microsoft’s free SQL Server 2014 Express worked fine.

Once you’re set up with the software, there’s more work to do. VirtualMetric doesn’t offer any auto-discovery services, so you have to open up the web console and manually declare each Windows server in turn, by entering its fully qualified domain name or IP address and supplying administrative credentials (unless you’re using Active Directory authentication). VirtualMetric then scans each system for around ten minutes before presenting it in the devices page for further inspection.

The amount of information the program provides is impressive. For each server you get graphs of overall and per-core CPU utilisation, details of total and used RAM and indications of traffic on each network adapter. Storage reports are excellent, too; selecting a volume brings up not just its total and used capacity, but also performance measurements in IOPS and latency graphs. And at the server system level you get a detailed hardware inventory, lists of running processes and services, installed software, firewall rules and more.

The audit and security sections are equally powerful. These track all changes to each system’s hardware and software since it was first scanned, along with Windows event logs and detected file changes. Since VirtualMetric uses Windows Defender reports to highlight security threats, it can also tell you about installed hotfixes and pending Windows updates.

To monitor Hyper-V servers you need to install an extra module from the devices view, but this only takes a minute, with other modules provided for monitoring IIS, Exchange, SQL Server, Storage Spaces and Active Directory.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get VirtualMetric to connect to our VMware ESXi 7 and vCenter server, and the outdated online documentation was no help. Contacting support proved equally useless: we submitted multiple questions over a two-week period, but received only a few unhelpful emails back.

Console dashboards can be customised with a range of graphs, including a by-the-second real-time view of all server utilisation, and you can create your own favourites and add extra widgets for any metered data. The playlist option is a nice touch, combining sets of screens with different widgets and presenting support staff with a scrolling heads-up network status display.

VirtualMetric offers a lot of potential for network engineers wanting a detailed, customisable monitoring solution. It’s not as easy to set up as other options, though; we’d be very hesitant to recommend this product to SMBs with limited IT expertise, especially in light of our poor support experience.

This paper examines how VMware and Intel have worked together to deliver network virtualisation capabilities that leverage software and hardware innovation to provide a wide range of business and operational benefits to enterprises that need their networks to be every bit as agile, flexible, secure, and elastically scalable as their other infrastructure supporting the business resiliency, availability and performance of increasingly valuable applications and workloads.

Download it now to find out more.

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The NSA and CISA have published new advice for organizations on securing their VPNs against hacking.

The new Cybersecurity Information Sheet warned multiple nation-state hackers have exploited common vulnerabilities to gain access to VPN devices to steal credentials, remotely execute code, weaken encrypted traffic’s cryptography, hijack encrypted traffic sessions, and read sensitive data from the device.

“These effects usually lead to further malicious access through the VPN, resulting in large-scale compromise of the corporate network or identity infrastructure and sometimes of separate services as well,” the guidance read.

The agencies advised against using non-standard VPN solutions, including security products, such as Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) VPNs.

“Using custom or non-standard features creates additional risk exposure, even when the TLS parameters used by the products are secure,” the guidance said.

Instead, organizations should use standardized Internet Key Exchange/Internet Protocol Security (IKE/IPsec) VPNs validated against standardized security requirements for VPNs.

Organizations should also use products from a vendor with a proven track record of supporting products. VPN products should also be hardened using “only strong, approved cryptographic protocols, algorithms, and authentication credentials.”

Other ways to reduce the attack surface of a VPN is to immediately apply patches and updates to mitigate known vulnerabilities and restricting external access to the VPN device by port and protocol.

Organizations should also disable non-VPN-related functionality and advanced features that are more likely to have vulnerabilities. “Features such as web administration, Remote Desktop Protocol, Secure Shell, and file sharing are convenient, but not necessary for the operation of remote access VPNs,” the guidance said.

Firms were also urged to restrict management interface access via the VPN. “Malicious cyber actors that manage to compromise administrator credentials could try to authenticate into management interfaces and maliciously perform privileged operations,” said the agencies’ guidance.

“Remote access VPNs are entryways into corporate networks and all the sensitive data and services they have. This direct access makes them prized targets for malicious actors. Keep malicious actors out by selecting a secure, standards-based VPN and hardening its attack surface. This is essential for ensuring a network’s cybersecurity,” the advice concluded.

IPsec, an extension of the widely adopted internet protocol (IP), encrypts network communications, protecting data against ‌theft‌ ‌and‌ ‌infiltration. Yet, history gives us a better understanding of IPsec.

In the 1970s and 80s, the US Department of Defense (DoD) developed the IP, laying the foundation for ARPANET, a precursor to the internet.

IP‌ ‌enabled data movement in discrete segments called‌ ‌packets‌ ‌from‌ ‌a‌ ‌source‌ ‌computer‌ ‌to‌ ‌a‌ ‌destination‌ ‌computer. Each packet, or datagram, contained control and user ‌information. The former included instructions to deliver the latter, which was known as the payload. Simply put, the IP encapsulates and routes data packets across IP networks.

IP had its limitations, though. The protocol lacked a mechanism to prevent data packets from being snooped on. TV shows in the past have repeatedly alluded‌ ‌to‌ ‌this‌ ‌flaw, indicating it wasn’t hidden for very long.

To end growing security concerns and prevent data sniffing across IP networks, the internet engineering task force (IETF) proposed IP security (IPsec) in 1995. The protocol has remained in use ever since.

The following guide provides insights into the inner workings of IPSec, its features, specific use cases, and more.

How does IPSec work?

IPsec is a layered security protocol that supports IP versions 6 and 4. There are three main protocols within IPsec: ‌‌authentication‌ ‌header‌ ‌(AH),‌ ‌encapsulating‌ ‌security‌ ‌payload‌s ‌(ESP),‌ and internet security association and key management protocol (ISAKMP)

Authentication Header

The authentication header (AH) does two things; it validates IP packets to source data origin and provides connectionless data integrity through hash keys. Hash functions allow arbitrary-sized data to be mapped to ‌fixed values, ensuring confidentiality.

Additionally, the AH layer offers protection against replay attacks. In a replay attack, data is retransmitted or delayed by malicious actors. AH‌ eliminates this problem by sequencing IP packets and discarding obsolete ones.

Encapsulating Security Payloads

Like AH, the encapsulating security payloads (ESP) protocol authenticates sender and recipient identities and detects tampered IP packets, ensuring data integrity. But it is encryption that sets it apart. The ESP layer extends IP packets’ security by encrypting the entire payload.

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol

ISAKMP adds to AH and ESP by defining security associations between two network entities or hosts exchanging information. Before data transmission, ISAKMP enables the sender and recipient hosts to decide what type of cryptographic algorithm to encrypt the IP packets with, session duration, network parameters, symmetric keys for decryption, and more.

Notably, the IPsec protocol suite encrypts data exchanges between two hosts (host-to-host), networks (network-to-network), or between a security gateway and ‌host‌ ‌(network-to-host).

Methods of operation

IPSec supports two modes of operation: transport and tunnel.

Transport mode

An IP packet consists of two components: the header, which addresses and routes the packet, and the payload, which contains the data.

However, IP packets in transport mode only have their payload encrypted or authenticated. No changes are made to the header, which includes the source and target IP addresses. This is due to the lack of encryption by default in AH.

Transport mode is best suited for host-to-router network connection management.

Tunnel mode

As a stark contrast to transport mode, tunnel mode encrypts the entire IP packet. Essentially, a new IP header is added on top of the original IP header. This is also how private IP addresses or VPNs work. The IP header, which contains the source and the target IP address, is masked to prevent third-party interception.

IPsec’s tunnel mode is best applied to network-to-network communications, host-to-network communications (remote user access), and host-to-host communications (private chat).

Authentication

Depending on the operating system, IPSec may use one of three cryptic algorithms to perform authentication. They are:

1. Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA)
2. Elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA)
3. Pre-shared key (PSK)

Let’s go over each in detail.

Rivest–Shamir–Adleman

Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) is a public-key cryptosystem named after its inventors Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman.

A public-key cryptosystem has one public encryption key and one‌ ‌private decryption‌ ‌key. Two large prime numbers and an auxiliary value are used to create the RSA public keys.

Let’s say John wants to send a message to Clara. To encrypt the messages with RSA, John must know Clara's public key, and likewise, to decrypt them, Clara must use her private key. Clara sends her public key to John over a secure pathway so he can reliably send his encrypted messages. Remember, Clara's private key is never disclosed.

Elliptic curve digital signature algorithm

The ECDSA algorithm is a variant of the digital signature algorithm (DSA), a federal information processing standard for digital signatures.

Technically, the ECDSA algorithm relies on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. Elliptic curves may be used for key agreement, digital signatures, or pseudo-random generators, among other things.

For elliptic curve cryptography to work, all participating devices must possess a private and public key pair. A message is signed with a private key by its sender, and the recipient uses the sender's public key to verify its authenticity.

Messages that have been altered on route to the recipient will not pass the signature verification test, as the signature only applies to the original message.

Pre-shared key

In cryptography, a pre-shared key (PSK) is a shared secret that two parties have previously shared through a secure channel.

Wi-Fi encryption standards, including wired equivalent privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) and the extensible authentication protocol (EAP) use PSK in their encryption methods. The wireless access points (AP) and the clients share the same authentication key.

A PSK may be a password, a passphrase, or a hexadecimal string.

IPsec versus SSL: What’s the difference?

The‌ ‌IPsec‌ ‌protocol‌ ‌suite‌ ‌operates‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌network‌ ‌layer‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ open systems interconnection

(‌OSI‌) ‌model. The secure sockets layer (SSL), on the other hand, operates at the application layer of the OSI model. Each serves a very different purpose: IPsec encrypts IP packers, while SSL encrypts HTTP traffic and web-based transactions.

Major gaps in skills and tools are leaving enterprise-run 5G networks open to security risks, according to a new report.

The latest Securing 5G Era Private networks report, published by the GSMA, found that 48% of surveyed operators see not having enough knowledge or tools to discover and solve security vulnerabilities as a top challenge. This is exacerbated by a limited pool of security experts for 39% of surveyed operators.

The report said enterprise operators wanted to focus on security but would need to partner with other companies to build up their offering.

The survey of decision-makers from operators worldwide found 51% of them are prioritizing IT and cloud vendor partnerships to improve private network security, while only 22% are looking to security vendors to meet this need.

According to the report, a quarter of enterprises that haven’t amended their cyber security practices don’t feel security concerns are their responsibility. Over half (55%) saw private wireless networks as very important to successful internet of things (IoT) deployment.

But 37% of respondents haven’t amended their cyber security practices and expect IoT solutions to be secure by default. The report said that many businesses, especially smaller ones, fall victim to basic attacks because they lack baseline protection and a “minimum level of digital hygiene.”

The report also found that 44% of operators have increased demand for security services from their enterprise clients due to COVID-19. Furthermore, 45% of operators consider it extremely important to invest in security to help achieve a long-term enterprise revenue goal - a 23-percentage-point increase compared to 2020).

The report added that COVID-19 has proven to be a catalyst for Industry 4.0.

“It has exacerbated existing challenges and pain points for manufacturers and accelerated the need for smart connectivity and digital transformation. The digital move brings numerous benefits and introduces cybersecurity risks as it removes the physical separation (different networks). These include internally generated threats (e.g., malware infection caused by laptops brought into a factory) and external threats (e.g., lateral movement from the IT network, illegal access and vulnerability attacks from the internet),” the report said.

Ed Cabrera, chief cyber security officer for Trend Micro, said the study revealed a potential disconnect in how operators view security.

"It is obvious that operators understand the risks and have a very real desire to address cybersecurity concerns. However, some teams are trying to solve the problem without the expertise of security experts or specialist vendors,” Cabrera said.

“This is akin to hiring a plumber to fix your electricity; they might be able to identify problems or make recommendations but aren't necessarily equipped to solve the problems. To their credit, operators also understand the need to bridge this gap as they look to address the security opportunity."

AttackIQ‌ ‌has announced its collaboration with VMware to help VMware NSX clients better assess‌‌ ‌‌their‌‌ ‌‌network‌‌ ‌‌security‌‌ ‌‌controls.

VMware's NSX security product line includes two solutions for network security: a VMware NSX service-defined Firewall to protect east-west network traffic and VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention for ‌distributed‌ ‌IDS/IPS ‌and‌ ‌advanced‌ ‌malware‌ ‌analysis.

In line with the globally accessible MITRE AT&CK‌ ‌framework, AttackIQ's Security Optimization platform can simulate the post-breach behavior of adversaries and constantly validate an organization's defenses through a library of adversary emulation scenarios.

Using AttackIQ and VMware NSX together gives security teams comprehensive, data-driven control over their security program. The combined solution allows for automated testing so organizations can identify issues and adjust security controls before an incident occurs.

"The outcome is that the organization's security controls work as intended, resources are aligned to address the most important threats, and the organization maximizes its return on investment," explained AttackIQ.

"While traditional penetration testing and red teaming can provide useful insights into security control effectiveness, their infrequent scheduling and limited scope fail to provide holistic, up-to-the minute data during security proof of values," said Chad Skipper, global security technologist at VMware.

"AttackIQ will enable VMware NSX customers to proactively validate NSX Advanced Threat Prevention controls against emulated adversary behaviors, with the end result being increased confidence in their cybersecurity performance."

Commenting on its offering, AttackIQ said it approaches its solutions with an "assume breach" mindset, taking into account there is no question of if but when an intruder can breach a‌ ‌perimeter‌ ‌defense.

"As we have seen from supply-chain and ransomware intrusions, organizations need to assume breach and adopt advanced security capabilities to prevent successful attacks," said Carl Wright, AttackIQ CCO.

"VMware is one of the world's leading security providers, and we are excited to work with the VMware team to elevate our mutual customer's security program performance."

Fujitsu and Trend Micro have announced a new partnership to enhance the security of private 5G networks in smart factories.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of their solution, the companies incorporated Mobile Network Security, Trend Micro's 5G security solution, into a private 5G system that simulates an actual smart factory environment at the Fujitsu Collaboration Lab in Kawasaki, Japan.

Equipped with high-definition monitoring cameras and automatic guided vehicles (AGV), the simulated lab helped visualize and centrally manage factory systems’ status and security. Additionally, the 5G security solution correlated threat detection and prevention data from the devices and network.

Trend Micro’s Mobile Network Security leverages endpoint security within an internet of things (IoT) device’s SIM card and network security running on a private 5G system to protect against potential threats and cyber attacks. The platform also authenticates devices trying to connect to the 5G network and blocks unauthorized communication in real time.

“Fujitsu aims to realize a society in which people, goods, and services are connected in real time through 5G technology and to solve problems facing the world," said Tomonori Goto, corporate executive officer, senior vice president and head of 5G vertical service office at Fujitsu.

“To this end, we believe that this security solution, created together with Trend Micro, represents a key technology for applying private 5G to mission-critical areas. Fujitsu will continue to cooperate with Trend Micro to create new value through the power of co-creation.”

Fujitsu and Trend Micro have agreed to conduct a field trial until September 2021 at Fujitsu's Oyama Plant. They will consider commercializing a security solution for private 5G based on the results of this trial.

“We’re delighted to be joining forces with Fujitsu to tackle the immense challenge of cybersecurity for private 5G,” said Akihiko Omikawa, executive vice president for Trend Micro.

“Together, we are making smart manufacturing more secure to ensure production isn’t stopped due to a cyberattack.”

Security researchers have discovered a bug in the networking npm library netmask that enables hackers to bypass servers’ access controls and launch server-side request forgery attacks.

According to researchers at Sick Codes, hundreds of thousands of applications use the package to parse or compare IPv4 addresses and Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks.

The problem is extensive because over 278,000 GitHub repositories use the code, which users downloaded over three million times last week alone. Researchers said the flaw has existed for over nine years.

The problem stems from the way netmask handles mixed-format IP addresses. When parsing an IP address with a leading zero, node-netmask sees a different IP address due to incorrect in-place validation.

An IP address can be represented in various formats, including hexadecimal and integer, although the most common IPv4 addresses are expressed in decimal format.

For example, an IPv4 address represented in decimal format as 86.136.177.134 can be expressed in an octal format as 0126.0210.0261.0206. By prefixing the IPv4 address with a 0, pressing enter or returning will change the IP address to its decimal equivalent, 87.0.0.1, which is how most applications should handle such ambiguous IP addresses.

In the case of the netmask npm library, it’ll strip and discard any leading zeros. According to the original IETF specification, portions of an IPv4 address can be interpreted as octal if preceded by a "0" prefix.

The researchers warned that anyone could submit an address in netmask that looks like a private IP, but it connects to a public IP to download malicious files.

“If your browser recognizes octal literals, but a NodeJS application does not, users can submit all kinds of malevolent URLs that seem internal, but really go to remote files.

On the other hand, users can ALSO submit URLs that seem public, but they’re actually very private!” said researchers.

While the vulnerability seems insignificant, if an attacker can interfere with the IP address input analyzed by the application, the problem could lead to various other attacks, from Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) to remote access.

Researchers have reported the vulnerability to node-netmask developer Olivier Poitrey, who posted a series of fixes for the GitHub repository issue. Experts recommend netmask npm library users upgrade to version 2.0.0.

Ax Sharma, a security researcher at Sonatype, told ITPro that the vulnerability means hundreds of thousands of applications that rely on popular open source components, like this one, may not realize they could be potentially vulnerable to anti-Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) bypasses or remote file inclusion (RFI) should they be purely relying on netmask for parsing IP addresses, without adding their own proper input sanitization and normalization checks.

“This highlights the need for proper input hygiene and never trusting input no matter the source. In this case, for example, the fixes [1, 2] applied to netmask now take into account that IP addresses can also be provided in octal or hexadecimal formats, something users of netmask could also have implemented on their end as an extra precaution,” Sharma said.

Ericsson has announced 5G Core Policy Studio, its new network programmability tool for communications service providers (CSPs).

Designed to reduce complexity in network policy management, the 5G Core Policy Studio can handle core network policies and deliver up to 70% savings in policy configuration operational expenditures (OPEX).

Seamlessly integrated with Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core, the studio also supports centralized 5G and 4G core network policy control and configuration, significantly reducing the time and effort required to install new services in the network.

“The 5G Core Policy Studio tool is a central provisioning engine that works at the core of the network. It enables access and control of all policies that manage different 5G and 4G services through one easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI),” said Ericsson.

Casting light on use-cases, the company said its 5G Core Policy Studio will enable CSPs to dynamically configure services within network slices and tailor those offerings to specific user needs and network circumstances.

For example, a low-latency network slice can be dedicated to an enterprise handling machinery through remote controllers. Access to the network slice can be configured and set to a specific location within the enterprise premises and working hours. Additionally, a customized notification message could be sent to the enterprise via SMS when set conditions differ.

“Ericsson 5G Core Policy Studio builds on the company’s strengths in converged policy control and feature support by introducing unified control of all policy enforcement mechanisms as well a new network programmability tool,” comments Andy Hicks, principal analyst at GlobalData.

“GlobalData has assigned Ericsson’s policy control products a Leader ranking. Integrated with these products, Ericsson 5G Core Policy Studio should help operators to monetize 4G and 5G services and network slices, by speeding innovation and adjusting network service characteristics both granularly and dynamically.”

The increase in dispersed businesses has encouraged transitions to the cloud, but the siloed hardware that many organisations use can’t efficiently manage the new level of complexity of cloud networking.

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Downtime isn’t just a pain – it can be a catastrophe for a small business. Aside from the direct loss of productivity, going offline can harm your reputation and frustrate your customers, prompting them to take their business elsewhere.

It’s essential, therefore, to keep your network healthy, and not just through reactive firefighting. Network monitoring software

can help by quickly alerting you to problems, and even flagging up potential failures before they happen, by spotting issues such as sluggish response times, overloaded application servers or low storage capacity.

This month, we look at three of the top monitoring solutions on the market from ManageEngine, Paessler, and Progress Software. All of them offer a wealth of features to help keep your network ticking along smoothly, and we put each of them through its paces in the lab to help you choose the perfect one for your business.

Safety first

Network monitoring software talks to the devices on your network using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Infrastructure devices such as routers and switches normally ship with this service disabled, so you’ll need to enable it on each one to allow your network monitoring solution to connect and collect information. Where possible, it’s best to use SNMPv3 because this requires authentication before devices start spilling their innermost secrets. Legacy devices generally only support older versions of the protocol, but you can improve security by changing the read-only community name from the standard “public” to something less guessable – and don’t set a read-write community name, as this isn’t needed.

You can also use SNMP to monitor Windows workstations, but you’ll need to install it from the Server Manager app – and for security’s sake, we suggest you set it to accept queries only from the IP address of your monitoring host. Alternatively, you can use the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service: this is Microsoft’s standard interface for monitoring Windows Server systems and Hyper-V hosts, and is enabled by default.

Whichever approach you use, remember that you’re giving your network monitoring software high-level access to a lot of critical devices and computers – so access to its administrative console should be firmly locked down. Ideally, look for an option to configure multiple users or roles with different access levels, so you can safely delegate functions such as viewing and reporting.

The surprise of elements

One of the most confusing aspects of network monitoring isn’t technical – it’s the proliferation of licensing models. Certain packages charge per element, node or sensor (all of which effectively mean the same thing): a single sensor might track hard disk usage, service performance or network traffic. Other providers offer device licences, which cost more but allow you to monitor every aspect of a nominated device.

Thus, depending on which system you’re using, the number of licences you need can vary enormously. One sensor-based product identified no fewer than 767 separate elements in our lab, while a device-based product covered the same network with just 39 licences.

To find the best solution for your particular business, stay focused on what you want to monitor. If you want to keep tabs on absolutely everything, a device-based product is likely to be better value, but if you’re willing to be selective, a sensor-based licence is almost certain to be more cost-effective.

The greatest discovery

Once you’ve installed the software and enabled SNMP, there’s not much else to do. You don’t need to explicitly point the software at the devices that need monitoring, as it will discover them for you. Simply provide the IP address ranges to scan, along with the relevant credentials, and it will start finding and querying clients.

Once that’s done, however, you may want to customise the console dashboard. Network monitoring tools can scrape up an overwhelming amount of data: setting up colour-coded icons and bespoke layouts helps ensure that the most important systems are front and centre.

Of course, you don’t want to be blindsided by issues arising from unexpected quarters, either. Look for “Top 10” dashboards, which track metrics such as which systems have the highest CPU, memory, disk and network utilisation – indicators that problems may be on the horizon.

Look into each package’s alerting features too: these can provide peace of mind that, if a serious problem arises, you’ll know about it right away, rather than the next time you happen to open the console. Options range from sending an email or SMS to posting an alert in other products such as Microsoft Teams, Slack or ServiceNow when a device goes down or a monitored value breaches a preset threshold.

Hidden costs

Few modern businesses rely solely on their internal networks: you may also want to keep an eye on cloud services such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft 365 and Azure. Some products include monitoring for these facilities as standard, while others offer application and cloud monitoring services as add-ons. Although these cost extra, the degree of insight into what’s going on in the cloud could justify the expense.

A final consideration is whether you want the ability to check up on network health from your mobile device. Most vendors offer free dashboard apps for iOS and Android, but not all, so it’s worth double checking.

Clearly, when it comes to network monitoring there’s a lot to think about – but all of the products on review this month are available as free, time-limited evaluations, so you can try out your chosen package and make sure it suits your needs. Read on to see which one will keep your business network in tip-top shape.

Companies were already unhappy with their virtual private network (VPN) servers before the pandemic put extra pressure on them, according to a survey released today by security software company DH2i.

DH2i worked with a third-party market-research company to interview people whose companies used a VPN for network security. They spanned a range of IT job functions in companies that ranged from 500 to over 10,000 users.

The biggest concern was inadequate security, cited by 62% of respondents, the survey said. Two-thirds of the people with security concerns were worried about the security of the devices accessing the VPNs, and 59% also fretted over the privileges given to VPN users. A lack of visibility was also a concern, with 39% of people not clear on what VPN users were doing on the network.

While security was by far the biggest complaint for customers, VPNs also caused some other headaches. Reliability for data recovery came in second, with 45% of respondents identifying it as an issue. The cost of the VPN equipment, its performance, and its manageability were all problems for users.

DH2i concluded the survey in summer 2020. Complaints about performance would likely have increased as people continued working from home, placing more stress on office VPN equipment.

Security is also likely to have become an even greater concern during the pandemic. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the world dealt with a bug in the Pulse Connect Secure VPN that left its servers vulnerable. Intelligence agencies warned about attacks exploiting this and other VPN flaws in October 2019.

Since the pandemic lockdowns began and people started working from home more frequently, governments have warned again about attacks on VPNs. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned about VPN exploits in April last year, while several VPN bugs featured on the NSA's top 25 list of flaws targeted by Chinese state-sponsored hackers.

In October 2020, CISA issued an advisory warning about attackers chaining a bug in Fortinet's VPN with the Windows NetLogon flaw.

The top three use cases for VPNs in the survey were remote user access, identified by 83%, followed by site-to-site connections, which 57% of organizations were using. Cloud communications was also popular, with 48% of respondents using VPNs for communicating from their on-premises infrastructure to the cloud, or between cloud infrastructures.

DH2i is planning an updated survey to reflect changing attitudes during the pandemic.

WhatsUp Gold is a worthy network monitoring solution with a fine track record going back to the early 1990s. Developer Ipswitch was recently acquired by Progress Software, but fear not: there’s been no dip in quality. This 2020 version brings new innovations including pulsing device icons for eye-catching alerts, facilities for uploading your own icons and improved reporting. There’s also an optional application performance add-on that can keep an eye on AWS and Azure environments, while the network traffic analysis module now provides a global map showing traffic between distributed devices.

The Premium edition we tested includes all the core features such as discovery, interactive mapping, alerting and reporting, plus cloud, network and storage monitoring. The optional modules can be added on individually, or you can move up the Total Plus version, which includes them all.

Either way, licensing is unusually flexible. The software comes as either a device-based yearly subscription or a perpetual licence, but there’s also a points-based option where each device costs one point and monitored data sources and applications count for ten points each.

Installation on a Windows Server 2019 host took 30 minutes, with little interaction required from us. After we’d entered our credentials, a wizard set about probing our network, and reported back around ten minutes later with a list of discovered devices.

The WhatsUp Gold web console is terrifically easy to navigate, with only four main options in its upper menu ribbon. The My Network view lists all devices, with a red and green colour scheme that shows clearly whether a device is up or down. Devices can be sorted into groups such as Windows systems, storage servers, cloud or virtualisation hosts, and a rule builder helps you define your own groups.

The Analyse tab provides deeper insights into device status, with a real-time graphical network overview and tabs showing the top ten busiest devices, actions, critical errors and storage status. Extra tabs can be added with custom details, making it easy to create big-screen NOC views.

WhatsUp Gold provides a good range of alerting features too, and policies let you link device state changes to actions such as running an app, restarting a service, sending an email, posting an alert to Slack, ServiceNow or IFTTT or even creating a snapshot of a VMware VM.

For many businesses the optional Virtualisation Monitoring pack will be worth considering too. It supports VMware and Hyper-V hosts, and gives plenty of information about running VMs, including host CPU, memory and disk usage.

The application performance monitoring module comes with 70 profiles for integrating with a range of popular business apps. These can be automatically discovered and added to the dashboard, and you can assign alert policies to specific events. The network traffic analyser aims to keep track of dark web usage, as well as regular communications, using two Tor exit IP address lists that are refreshed every day.

These add-ons push up the price, and the mobile apps aren’t all that impressive, presenting only a basic device status dashboard. Even so, WhatsUp Gold is a strong choice: it’s easy to use and presents a wealth of valuable information about your network, with a slick web console that makes it very accessible.

If you’re keen to keep costs under control then Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor is well worth a look, as it’s priced solely by sensor count. It’s versatile too: a single sensor can track any of 276 different metrics across your network, enabling the software to keep an eye on servers, desktops, storage devices, cloud services, applications, databases and more. New sensors are continually under development, with this latest edition bringing monitors for SQL Server 2019 databases, cloud web server loads and Dell EMC Unity storage arrays.

Despite the sophistication of the software, setup is very simple. We launched the installer on a Windows Server 2019 host and were greeted by a smart setup wizard, which gets the discovery process up and running. Once this is done, basic monitoring is set up for you, with appropriate sensors automatically assigned to each discovered device. The only catch is that this can quickly eat up your allowance: our 52-port Gigabit switch accounted for 73 sensors on its own, while a VMware vCenter Server took 34 and even a Qnap eight-bay rack NAS appliance managed to stack up a further 27. You can decommission any sensors you don’t need and redeploy them to more useful places, but this could be a tiresome process on larger networks.

Once everything’s up and running, you can check in on your network health via the PRTG web console, use the Windows or Mac desktop apps, or open up the free iOS and Android mobile apps. The homepage presents a complete overview of your entire network and its active status links let you jump straight to alerts, warnings or issues with one click.

Switch to the device view and you’ll see all your monitored devices sorted into hierarchical groupings, from which they inherit settings such as discovery schedules and login credentials. PRTG colour-codes each one, meaning you can instantly spot devices that are down, paused or in a warning state, and hovering the mouse pointer over a device pops up a window showing live graphs and any active alert messages.

Alongside the usual workstations and bits of infrastructure, PRTG can monitor virtual hosts, with a selection of sensors on offer for VMware, Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer. It’s good to see iDRAC and iLO sensors too, which kept us posted on the health of our Dell and HPE servers, while dedicated Qnap and Synology sensors can reveal the general health of a NAS appliance, pool and volume capacities, and even the temperature of each hard disk.

The package also comes with a fair set of cloud-monitoring features, including eight different Amazon CloudWatch sensors, plus others for Microsoft 365, Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive. You’ll have to pay extra for Microsoft Azure, though: AutoMonX offers an add-on pack for PRTG that can discover and monitor 20 resource types, but prices for a perpetual licence start at around £1,175.

Notification methods are plentiful, with options to send alerts via SMS, Syslog, Slack, Microsoft Teams and Amazon SNS, as well as old-school email. Mobiles running the PRTG apps can show push notifications too, and events can be linked to actions such as running a program or stopping and restarting services.

With plenty of ways to check up on your network status, and so many sensor types included in the price, PRTG Network Monitor 20.3 is a great choice for businesses that want to keep an eye on all of their network devices and services – while also keeping an eye on their expenditure.

The network has been the heart of the IT revolution for nearly 40 years, and as more of us adopt remote working, the network is adapting to meet our demands, keeping us in touch no matter where we’re located. However, as our IT networks evolve, they also grow more complex.

Central network management empowers IT teams to maintain control remotely, keep networks secure, and more easily troubleshoot problems. This special Channel Pro Insight report covers all aspects of central network management so you can better understand how it could help your partners in the months and years ahead.

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NTT Corporation and SAP have extended their long-standing strategic alliance of over 30 years to create a holistic partnership.

Under the new agreement, both companies can assume the role of each other's customers, suppliers, and co-innovators.

“The deeper relationship enables SAP and NTT to leverage their best capabilities and expertise to deliver solutions that help companies transform into intelligent enterprises,” said SAP.

NTT plans to automate a series of operations and advance the group's management ability by standardizing business processes and enabling data-driven business execution. NTT aims to achieve this by adopting SAP’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system S/4HANA and e-procurement cloud software Ariba solutions.

SAP, on the other hand, will leverage NTT’s offerings to provide enterprise solutions, such as infrastructure managed services, application development and consulting. Additionally, SAP will work with NTT to lower its operational costs by simplifying and enhancing SAP-acquired companies’ corporate network efficiency.

NTT and SAP’s strategic alliance also focuses on introducing a new era of digitally connected global value chains, resulting in a more unified and automated collaboration across customers, suppliers, retailers, manufacturers, and logistics providers.

By offering access to real-time data and analytics, NTT and SAP aim to help enterprises enhance agility and resiliency across the value chain. The companies plan to achieve this by developing applications that enable connected sites to track venue and equipment assets, enhance workforce safety and equipment reliability, and streamline business operations.

They also plan to develop a connected mobility offering to help track moving assets on the road for reliable logistics and secure transportation delivery.

Finally, SAP and NTT aim to improve traceability with a connected solution that enables end-to-end value chain visibility from the container-level to individual product items.

"By redefining our global partnership with SAP, we are taking a significant step toward realizing a wholly digitalized society," said Jun Sawada, president and CEO of NTT.

"It will allow us to collaborate further to create a better future. Having SAP as our strategic partner allows us to drive more innovations by combining NTT's global industry solutions, system integration, ICT infrastructures, multi-hybrid cloud capabilities, security and managed services with SAP's top-notch applications and technologies.

"Our joint go-to-market initiatives will also benefit both companies with optimized service offerings."

Extreme Networks and Deutsche Telekom have announced a partnership to launch NBLS 2.0, a next-generation managed net-based LAN service.

NBLS 2.0 will provide customers with industry-leading monitoring, management and data insights to fuel digital transformation.

Telekom will leverage ExtremeCloud IQ, which is the only cloud management platform offering unlimited data access. Telekom also promises existing net-based LAN service (NBLS) subscribers free migration to ExtremeCloud IQ.

NBLS 2.0 is now available for customers, and its major benefits include:

• Actionable insights: ExtremeCloud IQ supplies unrivaled insights and analytics powered by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to help collect data to build, secure and maintain agile and distributed networks.
• Streamlined and cost-effective network management: ExtremeCloud IQ reduces the complexity of managing enterprise edge-to-data-center infrastructure, so less time is spent managing and maintaining the network.
• Data security: Data transmission between WLAN access points and ExtremeCloud IQ is encrypted and strictly limited to configurations and data monitoring.
• Greater flexibility: Continuous updates, high availability, and advanced machine learning analytics and insights ensure network performance matches business expectations

With ExtremeCloud IQ, Deutsche Telekom will also assist customers in proactive monitoring and SLA compliance reporting at a reduced delivery cost. Additionally, subscribers can enjoy unparalleled insights on network activities and performance via one centralized management tool.

"Network flexibility, resilience, and performance are top criteria for enterprises selecting a managed network service provider. In the new normal, advanced cloud-powered network management solutions like ExtremeCloud IQ are essential in providing organizations with key insights on network activities and performance," said Camille Mendler, chief analyst of enterprise services at Omdia.

"Globally, a quarter of enterprises are increasing their managed network services budgets due to COVID-19."

Newmar Power, a player in the power electronics solutions for telecom and public safety, announced a new line of products aimed at more extreme uses.

The new line of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) is called the Rugged AC UPS Series and will prevent system interruptions due to power failures for telecom, public safety and intelligent transportation systems. For the transportation industry, this system is specifically designed to power-critical hardware that sometimes endure unpredictable climate extremes, including traffic lights, e-tolling systems and digital signage.

The new design provides battery-backup for power grids working in extreme environments and can handle temperatures ranging from -40 to 176 degrees Fahrenheit. Because temperature extremes can impact battery life, the Rugged AC UPS features a built-in temperature-compensated battery charger to help extend battery life.

The Rugged AC UPS also features a wide AC input voltage range of 88 to 152 volts AC and a wide range automatic voltage regulation (AVR), which allows the UPS to operate normally without transferring to backup mode during temporary voltage irregularities.

"Newmar Power is already a trusted name in the telecom and public safety space, so we are very excited to enter new segments of the transportation sector including ITS/traffic," says Richard Gaudet, president of network and industrial power business at Mission Critical Electronics, the parent company of Newmar Power.

There are several fundamentals in our complex IT systems, and one of the biggest is computer networking, as it links together all our computers together, allowing quick and efficient information sharing and receiving. This information sharing is what allows email, file sharing, IoT devices, and a host of other tasks to work as expected and allow modern businesses to hum along.

Because it's essential in nearly every aspect of business communication, computer network architects are critical cogs in any organization's wheel. The growth of the computer network engineer is highlighted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) prediction that demand for these architects will rise by 5% by 2029. One of the largest employers of computer network architects is the computer systems design industry, as it accounts for 32.3% of the total architects employed.

The architect's importance in an organization is further confirmed by the average annual pay of $112,690. You don't need a degree in quantum computing to see why this has become such a highly desirable field for IT specialists.

Are you interested in a computer networking role? We've put together this guide to help get you started.

What is computer networking?

You must first know how networks function before you can fully understand computer networking. Well-structured networks allow devices and endpoints to connect, and these networks comprise various switches, routers, and wireless.

Additionally, networks use software protocols to communicate different types of data securely. A familiar example of a wireless computer network is Wi-Fi, whereas a wired network features copper-based Ethernet cables and fiber-optic cables for data transmission.

What does a computer network architect do?

Computer network architects, or network engineers, plan and lay out data communication networks from the ground up. After chalking out a network topology, a network engineer presents the plan to the higher management, explaining its operational implications and benefits.

Depending on the requirements, the proposed networks can vary greatly in size and specification. A local area network (LAN), for instance, spans across a small area, which is perfect for a single-office organization or a cyber cafe. However, for a multinational corporation with numerous offices worldwide, a wide area network (WAN) fits the bill.

Apart from planning and designing, network architects oversee the plan’s execution and ensure it aligns with the network infrastructure. Network architects also research new networking technologies to determine what may cater to an organization’s changing needs.

Popular job titles in computer network architecture

Computer networking encompasses a variety of system-specific job roles. Some of the most important designations are mentioned below:

• Computer systems analyst: Identifies areas for improvement in an organization’s computer systems by determining the existing systems’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Information security specialist: Implements security measures to secure an organization’s computer systems and networks.
• Network administrator: Installs and configures computer networks and systems in addition to fixing network connection problems.
• Systems architect: Designs and deploys an enterprise's integral systems.

How to become a computer network architect

Getting a network architect job can be quite tricky if you don't know what path to take. This three-step guide will help you along the way.

Step 1: Get formal training

A bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems or a related field is the first step toward becoming a network engineer, as the program will help you understand the basics of network architecture. Also note that certain employers prefer applicants with a master’s of business administration (MBA) in information systems.

This is especially true in the case of firms that move their business through the internet. The two-year course includes business and computer-related subjects to understand network characteristics in the corporate sector better.

Step 2: Gain experience

Most network architects gain five or more years' work experience in a related field, such as network administrator or computer systems analyst, before moving into their main industry.

As beginners, they monitor the day-to-day operation of computer systems and networks, implement security measures to safeguard the system and recommend upgrades when necessary.

As they move up the ladder, many begin to organize computer network specialists to improve existing systems by taking on a managerial role.

Step 3: Earn relevant certifications

Earning a vendor-specific certification is arguably the best way to improve the chances of getting hired by the same vendor. After all, companies require their network architects to be certified in the products they use and manufacture.

Cisco is a fine example of this strategy: the Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA), which is a beginner-level certification, offers an insight into the configuration and installation of Cisco-related products besides networking fundamentals.

More senior network architect credentials include:

The road ahead for computer network architects

A computer without a network serves a minimal purpose. As organizations continue to expand their networks, the need for skilled network architects who can design, maintain and upgrade existing networks will continue to rise sharply.

A thorough understanding of modern computer networks and a love for technology will ease your way into the industry, should you wish to kickstart a career in the networking field.

"You will have to constantly learn," says Peter Steenkiste, a professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "You need to be very much aware of not just about the technologies available today but about the trends. A lot of the designing of networks is effectively upgrading and expanding the networks."

Part of ManageEngine’s burgeoning product portfolio, Log360 delivers a complete SIEM (security information and event management) solution that’s priced right for SMBs and mid-sized organizations. It teams up a choice selection of ManageEngine’s IT security management products, amalgamates them into a single web console for easy access and offers optional add-on products to further enhance its efficacy.

The Log360 web site is a tad vague about what is actually included in the suite so we asked ManageEngine support to clarify. It advised us that the base Log360 suite includes ADAudit Plus, EventLog Analyzer, O365 (Office 365) Manager Plus and Log360 UEBA (user and entity behavior analytics).

Add-ons include Exchange Reporter Plus for on-premises mail server auditing and ADManager Plus, which adds a heap of Active Directory reporting tools. DataSecurity Plus also provides file server auditing and DLP (data leak prevention) while Cloud Security Plus collects and analyzes log data from AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and SalesForce.

ManageEngine Log360 review: Pricing and getting started

Prices for Log360 start at around £452 but costs will depend entirely on what you want to monitor. We requested a quote from ManageEngine for 1 domain controller, 5 Windows servers, 5 syslog sources, 100 workstations, 5 Windows file servers, 5 application auditing licenses, AD reporting, an Exchange server, UEBA and a single Office 365 tenant and it came back the next day with annual subscription cost of only £4,078.

Initial installation of the base Log360 suite is simple, as it’s handled by a single routine. We loaded in on a Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V VM logged in as a domain member, and the suite was ready to go in 20 minutes.

Each individual component has its own web console with a dedicated port number and Log360 provides a single pane of glass for accessing them all. If you install more components later on, you can add them to the main Log360 console by entering their host name and service port number.

We suggest adhering to the recommended host hardware specification as the minimum requirement is nowhere near enough - our VM initially had 2 CPU cores plus 8GB of memory and Log360 ate the lot. In fact, we weren’t happy with performance until we had assigned 8 virtual Xeon Scalable Gold cores and 32GB of memory to the Log360 VM.

ManageEngine Log360 review: ADAudit Plus and EventLog Analyzer

The Log360 console opens with dashboard status overviews of all components, and each one can be quickly accessed from the side bar. ADAudit Plus presents graphs for at-a-glance views of user logon failures, account deletion, modification and creation activities, logon failure error reasons, logon activity, account lockouts and password changes.

It offers access to hundreds of exportable reports on all manner of AD activity (and Azure AD if configured), while the Compliance tab provides reports on regulatory standards including SOX, PCI-DSS, HIPAA and, of course, GDPR. You can peruse activity on Windows, NetApp, Dell EMC and Synology file servers, use analytics to spot anomalous activity and choose when to archive logs for 24 different AD categories

EventLog Analyzer supports over 750 log sources so you can integrate data from your core servers, firewalls, routers, switches, databases, VMware and Hyper-V hypervisors, web servers, vulnerability scanners and endpoint security products. Logs are easily managed as it provides full archiving facilities, where you specify intervals and retention periods and elect to have the files securely encrypted and time-stamped.

Log interrogation features are outstanding; you can use the console’s top search bar for fast results or create more complex queries using wild-cards, phrases, Boolean operators, groups and ranges. Log data can be correlated from multiple sources and reporting tools include a range of canned reports plus a full set for GDPR compliance.

ManageEngine Log360 review: O365 Manager Plus and Log360 UEBA

O365 Manager Plus just required us to enter our tenant details and we could then use its customisable dashboard to view mail traffic, malware and spam activity, top senders or receivers, mobile users, mailbox quotas and much more. The usage view required ManageEngine’s RESTful API access to be enabled and then we could view our user’s OneDrive, Skype and Teams activities.

Reports are available for all Office 365 functions and range from mailboxes and mail traffic to all things related to users, groups, contacts, account security and registered Azure AD devices. Extensive auditing for both Exchange Online and Azure AD is only a few clicks away and logs older than a set number of days can be archived and password protected.

Log360 UEBA opens with an informative dashboard showing how many events have been ingested, anomalies detected, trends over time plus users and devices being tracked. Each user and entity is assigned a risk score based on their activities, which you can view from the relevant dashboard to see why they have been marked up for attention and generate detailed anomaly reports on areas such as failed logins, registry activities, firewall changes and even USB device usage.

ManageEngine Log360 review: Optional add-ons

If you have an on-prem Exchange server then Exchange Reporter Plus is well worth considering. Its main dashboard shows all inbound and outbound mail activity along with a traffic summary and a sidebar which highlights alerts you need to investigate. Extensive predefined reports tell you everything you need to know about your organisation’s email while the auditing section keeps you informed of any changes to your Exchange databases along with mailbox permissions and properties.

Another add-on that’s worth a look is ADManager Plus, as this takes AD reporting to a higher level. However, note that this is a cut down version for Log360 that doesn’t include the AD object management tools provided by the full standalone version.

ManageEngine Log360 review: Verdict

Businesses worried about GDPR compliance can rest easy with Log360 at their side as it delivers an excellent range of event log and security management tools. Best installed on a dedicated host, it neatly integrates everything into one central console, more components can be added as required and it’s all offered at a competition-thrashing price.

ManageEngine Log360 system requirements (recommended)

If you have a diverse range of hardware and systems to keep an eye on, Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor could be the perfect solution. It supports no fewer than 257 sensor types – all of which are included in the standard package – so there’s a good chance it will work with everything on your network.

When we say everything, we mean it. PRTG can keep tabs on servers, switches, routers, Hyper-V, VMware and Citrix XenServer hosts, and plenty of cloud services, business apps and storage providers. And since the software updates itself automatically, you’ll get access to new capabilities as soon as they become available: the latest release brings a new health sensor for Fujitsu’s iRMC server management controller, and even expands into Internet of Things territory with a sensor that collects data from IoT-type devices.

Despite all this, you don’t need a powerful server to install the software. You can run PRTG locally on a modestly specified system, or let Paessler host it in the cloud for you. You don’t need to pay for more features than you need, either, thanks to Paessler’s sensor-based licensing. At first you might be alarmed to see how quickly your sensor count gets eaten up, but this is because when PRTG runs its first discovery, it automatically assigns a range of sensors to each device if finds: our Hyper-V server alone accounted for 51 sensors. Happily, it was easy to review these and delete the ones we didn’t require so they were available for use elsewhere.

The discovery process also sets default alert triggers for each sensor, with alerting options that include mobile push notifications, email, Slack and Microsoft Teams. You can also set alerts to trigger actions such as restarting a service.

The main web console presents not only a complete status overview of your network, but a helpful tree view with all systems tidily organised into hierarchical groups. Moving devices between groups causes them to automatically inherit settings such as discovery schedules and login credentials.

Spotting problems is easy, as sensors are colour-coded to indicate whether they’re in up, down, paused or warning states and you can instantly drill down into them for more detail. You can also pull up views of the top ten sensors for uptime, downtime, CPU usage, fastest website responses and more.

Cloud support is a real strength of PRTG. It includes seven different Amazon CloudWatch sensors, plus others for Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, while the SaaS sensor keeps an eye on cloud application platforms such as Office 365. Server hardware gets plenty of attention, too: along with a global IPMI sensor, PRTG can directly monitor Dell’s iDRAC controllers and report on physical storage devices and power.

As an alternative to using the web console, PRTG also comes with native Windows and macOS desktop apps, which replace the older PRTG Enterprise console. Alongside full device tree views, the Windows app allowed us to manage sensors, edit multiple objects, drag and drop devices into new groups and enable system tray alerts. The free Android and iOS apps are excellent, giving you convenient remote access to the PRTG server and all sensor data. With the app loaded on our iPad, we had no problem connecting to the core PRTG server, pulling up sensor data on selected systems and receiving push notifications when sensor thresholds were breached.

Businesses that want to monitor everything on their network without having to worry about extra costs or unsupported devices will find Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor a fine choice. It dishes out sensors a bit more liberally than you’ll probably want, but these can be easily moved to where they’re needed, resulting in a monitoring solution that’s not only highly capable but good value.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is a well-featured monitoring solution – and it will particularly appeal if you’re already using other SolarWinds products, as it integrates into SolarWind’s central Orion web console.

New features in the latest release include a graphical view of usage and status details for Cisco Catalyst 2960 and Juniper EX-series switches. You can also now view real-time graphs of CPU, memory and interface usage for any node, while the addition of widgets to the page settings screen makes it easier to customise views for individual devices.

The Orion web server has been updated to improve performance. Having experienced issues ourselves with the speed of previous versions, we’re happy to say that pages now load noticeably more quickly.

Setting up NPM isn’t quite as swift as with some other products – it took us around 90 minutes from start to finish – but it’s very easy, with the installer automatically downloading all required components. The first time you visit the web console you’re greeted by a discovery wizard, which prompted us to enter our IP address ranges and subnets, along with details of our AD domain controllers and system credentials – and invited us to schedule regular re-runs of the discovery procedure.

Once the various items on your network have all been identified, colour-coded icons highlight device issues. The console’s Alerts & Activity tab provides an overview, from which you can focus in on the details to see exactly what the problem is. The Message Center, meanwhile, provides extensive search facilities, and alerts can be linked to actions such as sending SMS messages and emails.

One feature of NPM that we rate particularly highly is its customisable dashboards. When you first access the console you might feel overwhelmed by an avalanche of information, but a dashboard can be quickly modified by adding or removing columns and moving resource views around. If you run out of room, you can set up a big-screen NOC view that rotates through multiple dashboard views at predefined intervals.

Application monitoring is another strength: the Quality of Experience dashboard can identify, categorise and analyse traffic from over 1,500 applications. Sensors simply need to be connected to a switch mirror port, and if you install them on hosts already being monitored by NPM, they won’t consume an extra node licence.

Then there’s the NetPath feature. This probes external web locations and presents live maps showing latency and packet loss details for each hop, making it easy to pinpoint cloud service performance issues. Windows and Linux remote agents can securely monitor cloud servers or you can use Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure APIs which don’t require any NPM licenses.

And one of NPM’s cleverest features is PerfStack, which can help pinpoint the root cause of complex network problems by comparing a range of metrics from multiple systems. You can set these up using simple drag and drop manoeuvres, and choose a common time frame that makes it easy to compare metrics such as CPU or memory usage and identify which system is misbehaving.

The standard NPM package is more limited when it comes to VMware and Hyper-V hosts, with only basic availability monitoring included. If you want more, the optional Virtualisation Manager module adds datastore usage and capacity planning reports.

Mobile support is comparatively weak, too: to access the console from our iPad, we had to install SolarWind’s separate Mobile Admin Server, which costs £533 – and, after linking the iOS app to it, we found the minimal information provided didn’t remotely justify the expense.

Although NPM has its shortcomings, its monitoring and troubleshooting tools can’t be faulted – and the web console is a pleasure to use, putting everything at your fingertips to ensure you don’t miss out on important information and issues.

If you want to keep your licensing simple, OpManager is sure to appeal: pricing is based solely on the number of monitored devices, regardless of how many interfaces or elements each one has, and it starts at just £188 for a perpetual ten-device licence. There’s also an annually licensed option, which includes the NetFlow, IP service-level agreement and deep packet inspection add-ons (which must otherwise be purchased separately). Whichever licensing model you pick, VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer and Nutanix host monitoring come as standard.

This latest version of OpManager also supports Windows Server 2019 systems and improves integration with enterprise storage systems from the likes of Dell EMC and NetApp. Deployment is simpler than ever, thanks to over 8,000 predefined device templates, while dashboards can now be personalised for specific users, and alerting options include Slack and ServiceNow.

The software itself is quite light, so you don’t need to dedicate a host to its use. We had it up and running on a Windows 10 desktop in 15 minutes, and all it added was a single service and a default PostgreSQL database.

On first launch a discovery wizard steps you through entering IP address ranges, providing credentials and setting a schedule for future discovery runs. It took around ten minutes to then scan the lab network.

With this done, it’s time to turn to the OpManager web console. This can be accessed directly on the host or remotely and opens with a smart dashboard view. You can customise this with your choice of over 100 widgets, although you can’t tweak the total number of columns shown – this is determined by the size of the widgets and where you position them.

We found it a breeze to set up multiple dashboards showing details such as CPU and memory usage for individual devices, plus Active Directory availability and alarm summaries. The heatmap widget provides a grid of coloured blocks representing each device and their status, with quick links to each one, and you can set up multiple dashboard views with large-print displays, suitable for support departments.

All features are accessible from a clear ribbon menu across the top so we were quickly able to find and inspect our switches, printers, Windows servers and Linux-based NAS appliances. The virtualisation dashboard presented plenty of detail about our VMware ESXi and Hyper-V hosts too, and you can drill down to examine host storage devices and resource usage. The VM sprawl display, meanwhile, shows idle VMs, and those with over and under-provisioned CPU and RAM resources.

While there are a lot of features included in the price, one extra that’s worth considering is the Application Performance Management add-in, which adds details of an impressive range of applications, databases and cloud services. It snaps into the main OpManager web console, and we found it handy for keeping a close eye on our Amazon S3 cloud storage.

As for alerts, you don’t necessarily have to lift a finger: preset warning thresholds are assigned to all devices, and for the next release ManageEngine is working on adaptive thresholds that use AI and ML algorithms. If you want to get more hands-on, you can set up automated responses to specified conditions: the console’s Workflow Builder tool makes it easy to drag and drop conditions and actions, and apply them to critical devices.

Easy to deploy and simple to licence, ManageEngine’s OpManager Plus is a great choice for those who want to keep their management burden to a minimum – and its built-in virtualisation monitoring makes it tempting value.

Server virtualization is a technology that has gained in popularity thanks to both the possibility to increase compute capacity in an unchanged physical space and the changing demands of business.

Where in the past additional physical servers might have been added to cope with the workload, businesses are taking advantage of the compute capacity of modern hardware to virtualize more than one server on a single physical device.

Server virtualization is the process of creating a virtual version of a physical entity. In the case of server virtualization, the physical server is virtually split into multiple servers. Each virtual server is isolated but shares the physical hardware and can perform all the tasks associated with a traditional server.

Also known as virtual machines (VMs), the technology is becoming more widely used as businesses better understand how the technology can increase the efficiency of their servers while keeping costs down and avoiding over-capacity in hardware.

Additionally, VMs offer IT teams a greater degree of flexibility. Staff can be allotted additional compute or storage capacity without dealing with physical infrastructure. VMs can also be called upon at very short notice without requiring time-consuming hardware set-up and configuration, or even finding space in a rack.

The importance of this flexibility was made abundantly clear throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as organizations were forced to make significant changes to their IT infrastructure at very short notice.

As digital transformation continues around the globe, server virtualization will continue to become more important to the modern economy.

What is server virtualization?

Server virtualization is essentially the process of creating a computer within a computer. A host machine simulates another self-contained device within it, attaching virtual core components such as the CPU, memory and storage, and operating systems. These processes, or applications, running on the VM don’t affect the host machine nor other VMs, beyond leaning on its storage and compute resources.

The technology has many applications; for example, Linux-based operating systems can create a Windows VM to run programs only compatible with Windows. The isolated nature of VMs means that cyber security researchers can test malware in a controlled environment without risking the contamination of essential services.

For server applications, however, the primary benefit is that of efficiency. By using a single server to host multiple VMs, multiple different programmes can be run in tandem, with different operating systems and resource allocations if necessary. This gives IT departments increased flexibility, as well as greater control over cost.

Using a virtual server also means that IT staff have much more transparency, using a single dashboard for viewing all operations and workloads, identifying consumptions and tweaking workloads where necessary for totally seamless performance.

What is a hypervisor?

Even if you're not familiar with server virtualization technology, you're almost certainly familiar with the biggest provider of it: industry stalwarts VMware. The company offers various flavours of virtualization management technologies, with its best-known offering being the ESXi hypervisor.

Hypervisors are the systems that manage the guest machines running as a VM, and sit on the host machine to oversee these operations. Bare-metal (also known as native) hypervisors sit directly on a server with no underlying OS and are exemplified by the aforementioned ESXi, as well as Microsoft's Hyper-V software and Oracle VM Server.

Hosted hypervisors are a separate kind of system, which sit on top of a standard operating system and run VMs with a layer of abstraction between the host OS and the guest machine. These are generally chosen for desktop machines as pre-packaged applications, used for running incompatible software, as they are more user-friendly and present less of a learning curve than bare-metal hypervisors.

The benefits of server virtualization

The main benefit of server virtualization is efficiency, both in terms of physical hardware usage and team productivity.

Hardware and infrastructure costs can be reduced by running multiple servers on a single appliance. Different applications can also be run in tandem and isolation, with different operating systems and resource allocations if necessary.

Server virtualization allows for considerably more versatility than physical servers from a resource standpoint. Depending on resource availability, memory, compute, and storage can be scaled up and down based on the current business need without requiring lengthy and expensive hardware reconfiguration.

Although many physical servers can boast powerful processors and substantial memory, these aren’t always correctly utilized. They can be seen as almost wasteful unless constantly tasked with appropriate workloads.

However, dividing the resources between virtual servers means it can be spread between multiple environments and help the physical device run more efficiently. In this way, it's possible to use the same amount of processing power to run multiple workloads simultaneously without negatively impacting performance.

Moreover, by investing in virtual servers, organizations can also free up physical space as well as limit the number of separate pieces of hardware which need to be managed by the IT department, allowing the team to focus on more important tasks, such as protecting the business against new cyber security threats.

Virtual servers also make it easier to manage data backup and recovery since everything required to run a given application is held in the virtualized image, down to the operating system.

Lastly, server virtualization is more financially efficient: if a business wants to significantly overhaul its legacy infrastructure by moving towards digital transformation, a virtualized environment offers a quick way to quickly upscale or downscale resources. It avoids the need to invest heavily upfront, meaning expenses can be re-assigned to other parts of the business, or even eradicated in some cases.

What effect can server virtualization have on a business?

Server virtualization can have benefits for the entire organization. Rather than needing to permanently onboard new employees to deal with enhanced IT resources, contractors can be used to establish VMs on a project-by-project basis. Upon completion, these VMs can be taken back down in order to not consume any more resources or budget.

Furthermore, if a company wants to explore new applications or services, these can be installed on virtual servers rather than taking up space on physical hardware. If it's decided that an application is not suitable for the business need, it can be uninstalled, and the virtual server can quickly be deleted.

Providers and vendors are now supplying the tools businesses need to set up their own virtualized resources. VMware's virtual servers, Dell's blade servers, and Citrix's virtual software and desktop tools are all making it easier for companies to move towards a virtualized infrastructure and freeing themselves from the legacy server chains.

Finally, it is no surprise that the major cloud vendors - such as AWS or Azure - have virtual servers in their product line-up. While some applications require a dedicated bare-metal server, simply selecting compute, memory, and storage needs to create a virtualized server in a private or public cloud is a clear demonstration of the flexibility possible through a virtual server approach.

Cloud-managed networks are the way forward for many SMEs as they allow them to view and control geographically distributed network devices from a single pane of glass. No more costly and time consuming site visits; support staff can deploy, configure and troubleshoot them all from the comfort of their own desk.

Zyxel's Nebula Control Center (NCC) supports any Nebula-enabled device, which currently includes a choice selection of Zyxel's business-class wireless APs, NSG firewalls and network switches. In fact, Zyxel goes one step beyond: all its new NebulaFlex Pro wireless APs can be swapped easily between standalone, cloud and on-premises controller management.

Since our last review of Nebula two years ago, Zyxel has added a number of valuable features which include a new scheduling service to streamline firmware updates and facilities to backup and restore device settings. Templates can be used to push base switch configurations out to multiple sites, the security service analysis report provides at-a-glance views of your security posture while the improved Nebula mobile app offers more detailed information about organisations and sites.

In our review of the NCC platform, we tested it using Zyxel's new Unified Pro WAC6303D-S Wave 2 AP and Network Security Gateway (NSG) 200 firewall. The AP supports NebulaFlex Pro and its triple management modes while the NSG200 is designed to be managed purely by NCC.

Zyxel Nebula Control Center 2019 review: NCC licenses and pricing

Zyxel keeps costs low, because all Nebula-enabled devices include a one-year NCC license, after which you pay an annual subscription. NCC itself simplifies things further - its shared points-based credit system uses 'co-termination' to balance the points out across devices so all licenses expire on the same date.

The NSG appliances also include a one-year subscription to the Nebula security pack which enables IDP, application patrol, content filtering and antivirus scanning services. Subsequent security pack licenses for the NSG200 cost around 625 for a further two year subscription.

The basic Nebula service is free and has logging restricted to 7 days with features such as email alerting and configuration backup disabled. The full-strength Professional Pack version has yearly or perpetual licenses and the price for the WAC6303D-S includes a 3-year Professional Pack license.

Zyxel Nebula Control Center 2019 review: Portal and configuration

The NCC web portal is well designed and our first job was to create a top-level organisation for our business, adding sites below it for each office. The site dashboards provide plenty of information about their wireless APs, gateways, switches, clients and traffic throughput - although we'd like to see facilities for customising its layout and background, possibly with an option to add a company logo.

It's worth setting up your site wireless networks, switch configurations and NSG security profiles first, as these will be automatically pushed to devices when they are deployed. For wireless networks, you can have up to eight SSIDs per site, each with authentication schemes including WPA2, RADIUS and Nebula cloud authentication

You can apply upload and download rate limits to each SSID, enable L2 isolation to stop clients seeing each other and add a walled garden. Captive portals can be enabled and NCC supports authentication using Nebula, Facebook and RADIUS.

For the NSG200, we could create port groups and custom firewall rules, apply web content filtering, add more captive portals with custom logos and AUPs and configure site-to-site and client VPNs. Switch options are equally good. You can apply IP address filtering, add PoE schedules to specific ports to shut down powered devices outside working hours, prioritise traffic with QoS profiles and create voice VLANs.

Zyxel Nebula Control Center 2019 review: Zero-touch provisioning

You have two options for registering devices. You can manually add their MAC addresses and serial numbers in the portal, or scan in the QR code on their box using the NCC mobile app. We scanned the box code for the NSG200 but the AP didn't have one on its box so we accessed its standalone web console and scanned the code in from the monitor screen using our iPad.

Both devices popped up in the portal around 10 seconds after scanning and took a further 6-7 minutes before they appeared online and fully provisioned with our pre-configured settings. SMEs with multiple offices will love this as they can add devices to a site and send them to their final destination where they just need to be connected and powered up.

Zyxel Nebula Control Center 2019 review: WAC6303D-S and NSG200 features

The WAC6303D-S delivers dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz operations teamed up with 3x3 MU-MIMO technology. This well-built ceiling mounted AP provides standard and PoE+ Gigabit LAN ports - for the best performance, don't use an older PoE source as this limits the radios to one transmit stream each.

The AP is a fair performer with real world file copies over a 5GHz 11ac connection on a Windows 10 Pro desktop averaging 52MB/sec at close range, dropping to 48MB/sec at 10 metres. Coverage is good as the SweetSpots app on our iPad only registered a loss of signal after we got 44 metres down the main building corridor and with five other offices in the way.

The NSG200 is powerful enough for small offices with a raw 1,250Mbits/sec firewall throughput, dropping to 300Mbits/sec with all UTM services enabled. Its two Gigabit WAN and five Gigabit LAN ports can be configured remotely from the NCC portal where the LAN ports can be placed in two groups each with their IP address and DHCP settings.

Gateway AV and IDP can be enabled or disabled from the portal while the application patrol service manages workplace access to over 3,000 apps, including Facebook and Twitter. The content filtering service can block or allow access to any of the 64 categories on offer and during testing, we found it worked well with very few sites slipping through its net.

Zyxel Nebula Control Center 2019 review: Verdict

Zyxel's NCC impressed us. Its smart cloud portal and fast zero-touch provisioning take all the pain out of network management. It provides excellent remote device configuration and monitoring services, is an affordable choice for SMEs and the latest NSG200 gateway and WAC6303D-S wireless AP perform very well. For businesses looking to deploy cloud-managed networking, this is an ideal solution.

Verdict

Perfectly priced for SMEs, Zyxel’s Nebula is a slick cloud network management solution and its latest wireless APs and security gateways deliver plenty of business-class features

There are few network monitoring products that can match Ipswitch's WhatsUp Gold (WUG) for longevity and features and the latest 2019 version adds even more choice ingredients to the melting pot. First up is the new Live Activity Status Bar & Report feature which ensures support staff see critical device status alerts as they happen.

The application performance monitor (APM) component has been enhanced too, making it easier to access and configure. Add the Configuration Management component and you can now view multiple device configuration archives, compare them and spot any changes.

WUG can pick up dark web activity as its Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) add-on gets the benefit of an IP reputation library. Combining this with flow monitoring, it watches out for accesses to Tor entry and exit points, and alerts you if it spots any activity.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2019 review: Licensing and deployment

New licensing schemes were introduced in the previous version which use a simple points-based system. Each device, regardless of network ports, CPUs and so on is considered one element and costs one point, while monitored applications or NetFlow data sources each cost ten points.

The Premium edition on review offers yearly subscription or licensed versions and includes core features such as discovery, alerting and reporting, plus device, cloud and storage monitoring. Add-ons for NTA, virtualisation monitoring and application monitoring can be purchased separately or you can go for the Total Plus version which includes them all.

We found installation on a Windows Server 2019 host a simple affair, which automatically loaded the requisite SQL Server 2014 Express and IIS. Network discovery is also handled well as the console's wizard scanned our local IP subnet and offered a bunch of videos to help with initial deployment.

We created custom scans complete with a list of device and virtualization host, plus cloud service credentials, and scheduled them to run every day. WUG's discovery only took 7 minutes to scan the lab's IP subnet after which it presented a list of all our network devices.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2019 review: Dashboard design

Ipswitch has worked hard on refining the console and making it easier to use. The console's top menu bar has only four options where we could create and run scans, view our network topology, access analysis dashboards and configure WUG settings.

The My Network tab provides a device overview where each is assigned a colour-coded status icon. Dynamic groups sort device membership based on criteria such as core, cloud, storage or wireless infrastructures and WUG's rule builder tool helps create custom groups.

From the Analyze tab, we could load a home dashboard which presents a clear overview of everything network related. Predefined tabs are provided to jump straight to viewing the busiest devices, the latest actions, critical activities and storage status.

Dashboards are highly configurable, allowing us to create new views with a choice selection of reports -- if WUG is monitoring it, you can add it to a view. For the new Live Activity dashboard, you choose what activities to list along with event severities and sit back and watch the action as it happens.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2019 review: Actions

You'll want to be notified promptly when there's a problem and WUG provides a tool for creating policies, linking them with device state changes and assigning actions. For the latter, you can pick and choose from 23 actions, including sending SMS and email, restarting a service, running a script or program and linking up with the ServiceNow, OpsGenie, IFTTT (if this then that) and Slack services.

The APM component is, indeed, very easy to configure as we could search for and add new apps directly from the console's Settings menu. WUG provides 64 profiles for a range of popular business apps, which it discovers on the selected devices and adds to the APM dashboard ready for you to assign alert policies.

To test the Configuration Management component, we used its scripts to automatically backup the startup and running configs on our HPE network switches. We could view these in WUG's configuration archive page, select multiple files and compare them where a new window showed them all side by side with colours highlighting any differences.

Dark web activity monitoring isn't particularly radical; WUG's NTA add-on just uses a couple of Tor Project exit IP address lists which it can refresh as often as once a day. We fired up some dark web action on our test workstations and within minutes, the NTA's Suspicious Activity dashboard listed them and identified them as Tor activities.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2019 review: Mobile apps and virtual monitoring

Ipswitch has finally caught up with the competition and released a mobile app for WUG. Supporting iOS 11 upwards, we loaded it on our iPad and were distinctly unimpressed by its sparse interface.

After logging in to our WUG host, the app presented a dashboard showing the number of devices sorted into coloured blocks for up, down, unknown and maintenance categories. Tapping on a block lists the devices within but selecting one just shows a single page with a very simple status view. If you want to see how it's done properly, check out Paessler's PRTG - its iOS app is a class act.

The Virtualization Monitoring pack is more impressive: it supports VMware and Hyper-V hosts and will discover them from standard scans. Accessed from the Analyze tab, we could select a host and view plenty of information about running VMs, including host CPU, memory, disk space and virtual interface resource utilization.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold 2019 review: Verdict

Its informative web console and wealth of features make WhatsUpGold 2019 a great network monitoring choice for businesses of all sizes. Its device-based licensing makes it ideal for those that want to monitor absolutely everything on their network and the optional add-on modules allow it to be customised to suit most budgets.

Verdict

A great network monitoring choice for SMEs and larger businesses that offers an easily customized and highly informative central console, heaps of features and extreme ease of use