Commsworld Pops to Unite Scotland by Rahiel Nasir

Net+ 1409 p1 (cover) AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 17:13 Page 1

www.networkingplus.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2014

FIXED & WIRELESS NETWORKS FOR ENTERPRISE USERS

Paperwork to go Bandwidth for boffins Are you being served? Fault finders TotalMobile means The networks that Unravelling the The latest devices public sector are boosting science pros and cons of to help test, analyse workers spend less and tech in the UK outsourcing the and measure LANS time in the office Real World Networks, network and WANS News, p4 p8 Feature, pp10-13 Off-the-shelf, p14 Commsworld PoPs to unite Scotland by Rahiel Nasir

Edinburgh-based Commsworld says it Commsworld commercial director Andy plans to “attack the big players” in the Arkle. “Our network has been set up to communications industry by unbundling offer increased resilience by using multiple more data network exchanges in order to exchanges to deliver information to and give local businesses in Scotland a greater from our clients. This means if one choice of services. exchange should fail there will be a backup Earlier this year, the network provider in place.” and unified communications specialist Commsworld says its network, dubbed unbundled the local loop at Edinburgh’s Fluency, is the only indigenous Scottish Rose Street exchange (see News, April). network of its type, serving Edinburgh, It now plans to unbundle five more Glasgow and Aberdeen. The firm reckons exchanges over the next six months in businesses located next to one of its PoPs Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee can benefit from quicker access to data and Inverness. The company says it without it being bounced through servers in ultimately aims to create a total of 31 PoPs. London or Manchester, as would be the “A lot of our clients tell us they have been case with the traditional bigger providers. crying out for a better and more flexible Commsworld claims it has already seen Commsworld’s Fluency service for years but it simply wasn’t a huge uptake in business through being network features four core available due to lack of competition,” says able to offer companies a superfast, PoPs in carrier-neutral data centres, as well as a local loop unbundling footprint in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

bespoke service via 14 exchanges and data (also see metro networks feature, June centres in major cities north of the border. issue), and says UK businesses have so far It recently became an authorised ordered more than 500 circuits since it provider as part of the government’s launched Fluency in March 2013. SuperConnected Cities voucher scheme Timico’s 10Gb pipe for Manchester – p2 Salesforce.com builds Euro DCs Salesforce.com has named Dutch-based Salesforce.com regards France as an cloud services and carrier-neutral colo important market in its global strategy, and specialist Interxion as its partner to build its earlier this year it announced plans to next European data centre in France. increase its investments in the country. The CRM platform provider plans to In addition to the new data centre, the open three European data centres to firm recently unveiled its new French support what it says is a growing customer headquarters in Paris. It says this will house base on the continent. the industry’s first ‘Digital Transformation NTT Europe – the global arm of Japan’s Hub’, a dedicated space to foster Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Group – innovation and collaboration between announced last year that it had been con- salesforce.com’s ecosystem of customers, tracted to build the first centre in the UK. A partners, developers and employees. salesforce.com spokesperson confirmed “The innovative new salesforce.com this is due to open in October, but declined Digital Transformation Hub in Paris will to reveal its location or size. deliver an interactive, hands-on experience Centres in France and Germany will that will bring the Salesforce1 platform to follow in 2015, and it’s claimed all three life – from smartphones and wearable will be powered by 100 per cent renewable devices to connected toothbrushes and energy sources. cars,” claims the company. Net+ 1409 p2 (news) AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 13:34 Page 2

news register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE! Timico upgrades MPLS network DUCL picks up county network and includes 10Gb pipe for contracts In two separate deals, Daisy Updata enterprise users in Manchester Communications (DUCL) has been awarded multi-year PSN contracts by Kent Timico says it has significantly enhanced and Bedfordshire county councils. its core network with a new diversely- The Kent County Council deal will run routed 10Gb pipe into Manchester. for six years. It will connect more than According to the enterprise ISP, hosting 1,350 premises with broadband, enabling and communications service provider, internet access to some 370,000 users in Manchester is now regarded as the UK’s local government offices, fire stations, ‘second city’ thanks to significant schools, colleges, universities, libraries, investment, economic stability, and the health and other public sector locations. arrival of big name corporations such as Kent County Council cabinet member the BBC. for corporate and democratic services Andrew Fox, the company’s director of Gary Cooke says: “The KPSN has been managed networks and connectivity, says hugely successful in improving Kent’s Timico previously relied on providing communications. The partnership has circuits in and out of London. “But with enabled multiple networks within the MaNAP as well as LONAP access now on region to combine into a single network, our network, customers based in the north not only reducing costs but facilitating west can take advantage of their circuits shared services.” being backhauled into Manchester rather The Central Bedfordshire Council than London, reducing their costs and (CBC) contract will run for nine years, providing a more diverse choice of Timico says it’s invested more than £5m into its purpose-built data centre in Newark. The facility connecting more than 183 council-owned network carrier options.” offers customers a range of flexible hosting solutions integrated into a national MPLS network. sites and schools. Fox says that businesses in the region Its network will also link up with Essex now have the ability to terminate circuits The new local connection is expected of further local PoPs to complement the County Council’s next-generation PSN, onto the new host link, connecting directly to go live in September. Timico says it on-net locations already available across giving CBC the option to access services into the Timico core and taking advantage network will offer customers anything southern England. Its growth strategy available to Essex NGN members. The of cost-effective Ethernet circuits. from broadband services through to a also includes the development of a core Essex network, which DUCL has run since “The new 10Gb host link provides 10Gb circuit, all provided via Tier 1 Metro NODE network, targeting smaller 2012, provides IT network infrastructure customers with the option of carriers that include BT, Colt, TalkTalk cities across the UK such as Nottingham, and associated telephony services to geographically diverse Direct Internet Business and Virgin. Lincoln and York. around 200,000 users across the county. Access circuits (DIA) as well as The company says this latest upgrade The firm adds that it is investing a “six- DUCL is a joint venture between the incorporating a greater level of resiliency is part of a wider plan to expand its figure sum”into upgrading the network Daisy Group and Updata Infrastructure, a into their private WAN.” national network, including the addition but declined to reveal an exact figure. subsidiary of Capita IT Services. IT staff shortages drive up pay Shortages of qualified IT staff are driving of panellists signalled a fall in permanent up pay rates for permanent and staff availability, compared with just seven temporary/contract workers, according to per cent that indicated a rise,” says KPMG. KMPG’s monthly Report on Jobs bulletin The average starting salaries for perma- published in early September. nent workers continued to rise in August As a category, IT and Computing shifted faster than rates for temporary workers. up a place into third behind engineering KPMG says the rate of growth is still strong, and healthcare workers in terms of demand despite easing slightly for the second for permanent staff. Among contractors, IT month running following June’s series- staff ranked eighth, down from fourth, but record high. Around a third of panellists demand was still higher than a year ago. reported an increase in salaries during the The report shows demand for permanent latest survey period, compared with less IT staff started rising in mid-2012. Firms than four per cent that noted a decline. are particularly looking for skills in busi- Salaries rose everywhere, led by the South. ness intelligence, Java, .Net, SQL, PHP, Hourly rates for temps rose faster in programming and project management. August than in July, due to robust demand Staff availability for permanent and for short-term staff. The North registered temporary jobs continued to shrink but at a the sharpest rise in temp pay rates during slightly slower rate. “The rate of decline August, followed by the Midlands. remained considerable, despite easing to More women needed in IT and the slowest in three months. More than half engineering – Network Knowledge, p15 Delancey outsources entire IT Property management firm Delancey Andrew Summerfield, Delancey operations Real Estate Asset Management has manager, says: “[Advanced’s] ability to map outsourced its entire IT infrastructure for technical solutions to our business needs as the next five years to Advanced 365. we evolve will be critical to us. That we will The systems integrator will initially be supported by a single organisation capa- provide a round-the-clock managed IT ble of meeting all of our needs is important services desk and host Delancey’s business to us, as it means we will not suffer the critical systems in a dedicated data centre. inefficiencies arising from working with This will be followed by the migration multiple IT companies on each project.” of key systems to the cloud which will be Summerfield says the entire Delancey underpinned by Microsoft Lync for team will be able to access the systems unified communications, the upgrade of they need at any time. “Uninterrupted Delancey’s Dynamics CRM system, and delivery of services is essential and the fact the development of a comprehensive that an Advanced engineer will be working business intelligence capability. on-site five days per week, fully supported Advanced won the contract in competi- by the remote service desk, will provide tion with six IT managed services suppliers. Delancey with peace of mind.”

networking september 2014 2 Net+ 1409 p3 (news) AM RN.qxd 10/9/14 15:58 Page 3

SITE promises PUE of THE WORLD ACCORDING TO... Peter Dennis, product manager for comms, Megger Instruments 1.19 at NHS data centre Vectored DSL: is it just a pipe The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s a 12-week installation period. When dream? Lynn NHS Foundation Trust has awarded completed, SITE says the new data centre Secure IT Environments (SITE) the will have a footprint of 80m2 and provide Many thought that copper wire technology dropped, and therefore increases the line’s contract to build its new data centre. The total protection from fire, flood, within the telecoms industry had finally data rate capability, theoretically enabling value of the deal has not been disclosed. unauthorised access, theft, acrid gases, etc. run its course, with the latest VDSL2 DSL services approaching fibre speed to The trust’s existing data centres were In accordance with the NHS trust’s technology extending its use as far as be run over standard copper paired cables. developed from original office space. But commitment to energy efficiency, the data could possibly be imagined. Downstream and upstream transmission SITE says the rooms had met maximum centre has been designed to deliver the best Proposals for Vectored DSL were first techniques do differ, but signal processing capacity, used cooling that was designed possible PUE ratio. SITE projects director seen in the American National Standard functions in both that were performed on a for an office environment, and had no Chris Wellfair says it will have a rating of Institute (ANSI) DSM project in 2001. These line-by-line basis can now be done jointly physical protection from external threats 1.19 thanks in part to the deployment of identified three tiers of crosstalk noise with other lines in the DSL multiplexer such as fire, smoke or ingress of water. new and innovative energy efficient control methodology (Vectored DSL being (DSLAM). This means much more efficient The Bedfordshire-based company will inverter air conditioning systems. tier three) for copper loop management. data handling which allows better use of build a modular facility external to the “[This] is very comparable with a free This recommendation (ITU-T G.993.5) the system to be made by management main building which will release valuable cooling system but without the cost penalty encouraged manufacturers to invest in and testing equipment attached to it. floor space within the hospital. It says of having water present within the data R&D to provide solutions, and now we Data rate performance for non-vectored planning has been applied for and that it centre. Using EC technology with effi- have a number of manufacturers vying for DSL systems can vary dramatically, but the expects to start works in October 2014 with ciency of over 90 per cent creates energy position in this emerging market. Herein improved maintenance efficiency of the savings of up to 45 per cent. This is lies the problem: with each manufacturer VDSL approach reduces variation, improves SITE project director achieved by the systems increasing/ taking a different approach, we have performance and widens bandwidth capa- Chris Wellfair says the decreasing as the heat load dictates.” ended up with test equipment that is not bilities, making it possible to offer a greater new data centre will Wellfair adds that the air conditioning necessarily compatible with all chipsets. number of users higher connectivity rates. use innovative energy has been designed in 2N format, and that Fortunately for the industry, chipset These are only potential speeds and efficient inverter air the server cabinets incorporate a cold makers now seem to be adopting an other factors can have a detrimental effect conditioning systems. aisle containment system. unofficial industry standard for this on the line, including splices, joints, frays, functionality, thereby ensuring excellent bad earths and inefficient shields. compatibility with other chipsets. Warning should also be given here as Vectored DSL employs line signal there are some drawbacks with this new CentriLogic launches DRaaS coordination and noise cancellation to technology. Using a non-vectored test CentriLogic has teamed up with Quorum failed server using the local Quorum reduce crosstalk levels and improve line instrument on a vectored system could to offer a Data Recovery as a Service appliance typically takes less than five performance. The technology concentrates have a detrimental effect and can cause (DRaaS) that aims to help SMEs simplify minutes. In extreme instances, it claims a predominantly on FEXT removal, mitigating the system to crash. The use of a VDSL business continuity planning while customer can begin a full disaster recovery the noise and improving the SNR. This test instrument is essential if the installed reducing ongoing cost. escalation that can restore an entire IT allows carriage of more bits with less data network has VDSL switch and routing gear. The hosting specialist plans to offer a environment in under one hour. complete end-to-end DRaaS using a range According to CentriLogic, Quorum of scalable appliances to maintain up-to- DRaaS is offered under a simple pricing EDITORIAL: Publishing director: reproduced in part or whole, or stored in electronic form, without the prior written Editorial director: Rahiel Nasir Kathy Moynihan date, ready-to-run VM clones of on- model based on application server demand, consent of the publishers. The views [email protected] [email protected] premise systems. It will deploy the and uses a range of different appliances that expressed in this magazine are not Quorum onQ appliance to each client site. can run multiple virtual backup servers. Deputy editor: Ian Grant is published monthly by: necessarily those shared by the editor [email protected] Kadium Limited, Brassey House, New or the publishers. This will replicate server images and data Nigel Offley, CentriLogic’s EMEA VP, Designer: Alan McClenaghan Zealand Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, to dedicated and individually maintained says: “We have discussed the new service [email protected] Surrey, KTI2 IQD, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0) 1932 886 537 secondary appliances located within with several existing customers. In one Fax: +44 (0) 1932 886 539 CentriLogic’s Bracknell data centre. recent quote, providing a complete ADVERTISING & PRODUCTION: www.networkingplus.co.uk The firm says recovering accidentally DRaaS solution for a 20 server Sales executive: Andy London Annual subscription: £80 (UK); £95 deleted or corrupted files uses a simple installation costs less than employing an [email protected] (Europe), £100 (USA and the RoW) airmail. Cost per single copy is £8.25. self-service interface, while recovering a IT professional for two days a week.” Production: Suzanne Thomas ABC audited circulation: [email protected] Printed in England by Williams Press. 19,679 Sales apprentice: Elisha Gill © 2014. All rights reserved. 1 Jul 2011 – Cheshire Police force joins PSN [email protected] The contents of the magazine may not be 30 Jun 2012 Cheshire Constabulary aims to save managed by Updata and provides high- agencies. “In these times of austerity it’s include a major client in the police sector. £117,000 per year by joining the Cheshire speed connections to more than 500 public vital that we can save money where we Updata’s sales and marketing director, Isy and Merseyside PSN. sector buildings across the area. can, which we can then put to good use on Bizaoui, says: “Closer collaboration in In a five-year deal worth £2.8m, the Cheshire police and crime the frontline,” he says. the public sector is essential for police force will link up with a WAN that already commissioner John Dwyer says joining According to Updata, the constabulary’s forces as they look to create efficiencies provides services to Cheshire East Council, the PSN will help provide a more decision to join the Cheshire and by working with third parties across all Cheshire West and Chester Council, as well streamlined and flexible way of working Merseyside PSN represents a “milestone” sectors, from fire and rescue services to as local schools. The network is fully for the constabulary and its partner for the network, extending its reach to councils and the health service.”

3 september 2014 networking Net+ 1409 p4 (news) AM RN.qxd 10/9/14 15:56 Page 4

news register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE!

Broadband nightmare for small firms Cambridge medical school finds

Despite the fact that 45 per cent of SMEs in the Greater London area are based in central cure for network illnesses London boroughs, they are often subject to the slowest broadband speeds. That’s just one of Cambridge University’s School of Clinical installed and working as one,” says core will mean he is able to fix many network the findings from a recently published report Medicine (SCM) will use Ipswitch’s infrastructure manager Stephen Hoensch. problems before any users are affected. This by the Centre for Economics and Business WhatsUp Gold to monitor its core SCM also wanted a scalable solution. It is includes protecting the servers from Research (CEBR). It says the problem is worst infrastructure, environmental conditions one of six schools based at the Cambridge physical damage – Ipswitch’s platform will in the City where average speeds are just in three server rooms, and the connected campus and is linked to Addenbrooke’s work with environmental sensors to monitor 11.9Mbps. This is compared to the capital’s devices of 2,500 staff. teaching hospital. It is incorporating many the server rooms and will send alerts via average of 20.5Mbps. But the CEBR adds that The school currently has several bespoke remote sites, and future plans to join with SMS/email if smoke, heat or flooding is out of these businesses, just six per cent have systems that monitor its internal systems/ other schools could result in a network detected, or if security is breached. access to superfast broadband. The report also network but lacks a centrally monitored that’s more than double the current size. Hoensch will also be able to quickly highlights that the SMEs are wasting £37m a solution. “Having a number of separate Hoensch aims to implement WhatsUp identify rogue devices or any users year on increasingly redundant landlines – 62 systems means delay in receiving alerts or Gold on 300 devices by the end of the abusing the network, and monitor in detail per cent said they were confident that they complications in getting new monitors/alerts summer. Once fully installed, system alerts both security and bandwidth. could operate effectively without them. Talk about Big Data Social workers in Notts no

Analytics and Big Data Congress 2014 promises to offer a unique networking longer tied-up by paperwork opportunity to discuss how enterprises and organisations can efficiently build and Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) all the case information at their fingertips integrate Big Data analytics into their decision claims it’s helping staff achieve more after and can connect to our back end systems making processes. Among some of the key implementing a mobile working solution easily, quickly and, most importantly, very topics for this year’s forum are: best in class across its frontline social work team. securely. It’s been a massive time saver and methodologies to institutionalise Big Data Using TotalMobile’s productivity we are using less paper.” analytics in an organisation; how to add software, workers can now complete More than 75 social workers are already advanced technologies such as the Internet assessments and case notes directly on equipped for mobile working using of Things to the IT strategy and how to their tablets without the need to report back TotalMobile, both online and offline, and monetise them; and developing and retaining to the office after each visit. As a result, the there are plans to roll out the platform to up hard-to-find and talented employees. The line- team can spend more time with the people to 2,000 other users over the next 18 months. TotalMobile provides mobile working solutions to up of speakers includes: Dan Senter, reporting that actually need their help. The council had previously tried to a range of healthcare, government and private centre of excellence manager, National Grid; Ivor Nicholson, NCC’s ICT service implement mobile working solutions but sector customers throughout the UK and Ireland. Simon Griffiths, business intelligence director, says the council is always looking had problems with the poor connectivity in manager, BBC; Michael Weichert, central for technologies to make the job of its social some parts of Nottinghamshire. TotalMobile office system and runs as a native app on analytics, Vodafone; and others.The event workers easier. “With TotalMobile they have has been designed to integrate into any back any laptop, tablet or smartphone. takes place on 2-3 December at the Kensington Close Hotel, London. Taking control of BYOD via controller-less WLAN Node4 keeps it cool London-based property advisor Knight 12,500 employees. It then opted for means new offices can be rapidly brought with Rittal’s help Frank will use Aerohive’s controller-less Aerohive’s controller-less Wi-Fi onto the global network with little or WLAN infrastructure across its 330 architecture because of its scalability and minimal local IT resource. Node4 is said to have “dramatically” lowered offices in Europe and Asia Pacific. resilience in a large-scale deployment. Aerohive claims the system became fully PUE at its Northampton data centre. Working Knight Frank found that its staff were The platform’s cloud-based systemallows operational for Knight Frank in Europe in with Rittal, it maximised floor space using increasingly using personal tablets for the team to centrally manage the network just four months. The firm’s agents can now CoolWall technology, and also deployed cold work and that ad hoc Wi-Fi was and also helps to keep it secure. walk into any office and use their company- aisle containment, the vendor’s TS IT racks, being deployed by branch teams. They can quickly create profiles per issued device iPads on the corporate and managed PDUs. Designed to dramatically As a result, the company decided user and per device, and the ‘zero network via a single login, and without reduce PUE and improve the overall efficiency to standardise its approach to touch’ deployment model also needing to reconfigure any settings. of the data centre, Rittal claims its system mobile IT for boosting customer offers a further benefit of separate fans for engagement and agent Aerohive’s WLAN architecture ease of maintenance. It adds that CoolWall productivity internationally. includes its HiveManager Online was selected over traditional CRAC-based Its IT team designed a cloud-based management system. systems as the larger coils increased cooling global mobility strategy that This enables Knight Frank’s IT capacity whilst driving down running costs at was spearheaded by a team to create profiles per user and elevated temperatures. corporate iPad rollout to per device, all from a central location.

networking september 2014 4 Net+ 1408 p5 (IBM).indd 1 10/09/2014 16:08 Net+ 1409 p6 (news) AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 13:46 Page 6

news register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE! Cloudy in Kent with a silver lining worth millions

East Kent Services (EKS) first step in access all the systems required from a it would be ‘just there’, ready to use and The councils have also been able to ratio- cloud-based computing is already on track single desktop login. For example, the with no surprises.” nalise the space they require and to lease to save millions over the next few years. contact centre previously used three By dissolving the concept of dedicated spare capacity to other public sector bodies EKS supplies IT services to 1,500IT users different CRM systems, each on a separate desks, EKS has created natural areas for such as local NHS commissioning groups. at Canterbury, Dover and Thanet district domain. These are now centralised and people to work in and allowed users to Across all EKS’services, the VDI project councils. It has deployed a Citrix-based accessed via one point of contact. work from anywhere. is on track to deliver £2.7m of savings over virtual desktop solution in an effort to “It’s important for us that IT is seen as As a result, Bayford says that EKS is four years – that’s 42 per cent more than foster workplace transformation, greater an enabler, not a barrier, to transforming seeing more cross-group collaboration: originally expected, says Bayford. collaboration, reduce operational costs, and ways of working and improving customer “Project groups can come together and all EKS plans to create more flexible work- improve organisational resilience. service,” says Timo Bayford, EKS’ ICT camp down in the same spot. We’ve even ing opportunities with the addition of IP Citrix advisor Thintech has implemented technical systems manager. “The system provided Wi-Fi in the canteen so that telephony and the extension of wireless net- the laptop-based system which is built on looks and feels exactly like a familiar people can use it throughout the day to working across its offices. It is also evalu- XenApp and NetScaler. It enables users to desktop. We knew once it was rolled out, work in the ways they wish.” ating Citrix Sharefile for file-sharing. Counting toys now child’s play? IaaS paves way for car dealer Toy retailer The Entertainer has chosen Molyneux, head of risk at the retailer. Zetes’mobile in-store stock auditing system “In addition, because ZetesAthena is also a acceleration to help it avoid inventory ‘blind zones’. full in-store management solution, we can The Entertainer operates 89 high street potentially scale our use of the software to Car dealer Citygate has outsourced its entire toy stores in the UK. Each year, the retailer manage other retail processes in the future, IT network. Voice and data connectivity to takes a physical stock count to ensure its ensuring we have an accurate picture of all of the company’s sites is now delivered assets are accurately recorded. It outsources stock availability and visibility at all times.” via Node4’s high-speed, secure and this to a third-party specialist which uses Zetes says Athena is a cloud-based in- resilient MPLS network. ZetesAthena running on a mobile device to store mobile management solution to help Previously, Citygate used dedicated complete stock counts in up to three multi-channel retailers optimise stock and onsite infrastructure and phone systems at different stores per day over three months. pricing processes centrally and consistently each of its nine sites. This was hard to By integrating the ZetesAthena in-store in individual stores. It aims to streamline manage, expensive to run, and network Citygate previously used onsite infrastructure management cloud-based architecture with time-consuming inventory-related tasks connections between the various branches at each of its nine sites, which was expensive the main ERP system, execs at The and provide real-time transparency of stock were limited and unreliable. and hard to manage. Entertainer now have immediate real-time availability within the store. Each site now has higher capacity con- access to stock count results from any site. Powered by the MCLcloud-based mobile nections, dramatically improving network commercial director, adds that shifting the “Using ZetesAthena we have an efficient enterprise application platform for supply speeds for the whole group. Telephony sys- company’s telephony to a centrally-hosted solution for stock auditing based on the chain operations, the system is said to tems have been replaced by a hosted switch VoIP system also saved money instantly. latest cloud technology which means we enable quick deployment and management at Node4’s Northampton data centre, and “Having the system centrally managed have full visibility of the counting process of software applications and hardware with Citygate’s email server and all other critical by Node4 frees us up to focus on what we from a decentralised location,” says Stuart minimal ongoing management. equipment has also been relocated. do best,” says Dickey. “Not only that but All the sites benefit from a centralised we have a fantastic foundation to explore cloud-based infrastructure, and Node4 says other technologies that could improve our the system’s central management has operation, and we know the infrastructure meant fewer glitches and less downtime. is capable of scaling up to accommodate It’s claimed that by outsourcing its future growth.” infrastructure and migrating to the cloud, Citygate is now looking at a fully Citygate was able to provide IT and cloud-based solution for its email and communications services at two new sites business applications to further enhance within 24 hours. Peter Dickey, the firm’s its IT service delivery and flexibility. Alternative finance firm hits £70m with cloud call centre Finance firm Platform Black claims to Platform Black have boosted trading volumes to more CMO Louise than £70m in less than two years after Beaumont says transforming its sales operation with personalised cloud-based contact centre technology service is crucial. from NewVoiceMedia. ContactWorld integrates with Salesforce to deliver real-time dashboards and historical data. According to the vendor, this provides visibility and tracking of individual activities as call recording gives “With 10,000 inbound calls a year and a meaningful insight into performance. 25,000 outbound, ensuring service is as The system allows each Platform Black personalised and tailored as possible is customer to call their designated account crucial,” says Platform Black’s chief sales manager directly. With ‘click-to-call’, and marketing officer Louise Beaumont. staff can also dial directly from a calling “ContactWorld offers us complete list in Salesforce, simplifying the process visibility of all customer interactions, and reducing the chance of misdialling. provides fantastic reporting, and we’re able They can connect with customers and to communicate in a way that’s appropriate prospects from any location, including via to each customer or prospect.” Salesforce’s mobile app. Founded in 2012, Platform Black NewVoiceMedia says automatic call specialises in invoice trading and supply logging ensures better call reporting, chain finance for businesses with turnovers training and quality management. ranging from £500k to over £1bn. As banks Customer records are updated reduce funding for working capital to meet automatically, giving a complete history regulatory requirements such as Basel 2, of interactions as well as a clear audit the company says it is already helping its trail. It adds that follow-up activities can customers fill the £180bn shortfall that is be easily created so that no lead is lost. predicted to be in place by 2017.

networking september 2014 6 Net+ 1408 p7 (APC).indd 7 10/09/2014 16:09 Net+ 1409 p8 (RWN) AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 13:53 Page 8

real world networks register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE! The communication of science The science and technology sector requires a broad range of solutions to meets its varied networking needs, whether on land, at sea, or in the air.

Aurora lights the way (O-SEFDM) system operating at a lower one of the directly-connected sites, or by distinguish precipitation and non- modulation could add 25 per cent more special access via other Janet network precipitation echoes, identify precipitation for optical research bandwidth than present optical-orthogonal services such as VPNs or lightpaths. type, better correct for attenuation of the frequency division multiplexing. The Sharp says he is “hugely” excited by radar signal due to very heavy rain or hail, While Britain invented optical fibre other showed that congestion-aware Aurora’s potential: “As well as supporting and estimate drop shape. These in turn networking in the mid-1980s, it lost the routing in a non-linear elastic optical research on the future core optical network, will improve precipitation estimation. lead in optical research during the Thatcher network could double network capacity Aurora2 will enable testing with experi- era. It’s now back on track thanks to compared to using shortest-path routing, mental metro networks such as the Gigabit Aurora, the dark fibre experimental and quintuple it if it was combined with a Bristol R&D network, which aims to create network that connects researchers at 6.25GHz resolution flexgrid. a city-scale digital infrastructure in Bristol, Bristol, Cambridge, Southampton and Aurora’s second phase, Aurora2, and wireless backhaul networks like 5G.” University College London (UCL) via a goes live in September and extends the He adds there is serious commercial central node in the capital. fibre network to Essex and Bristol interest driving all the research, with the Aurora is physically separate from Janet universities. It is funded by the UK UK photonics and electronics markets – the dedicated fibre network that links Engineering and Physical Sciences worth £10bn and £29bn a year respectively. UK schools, universities and research labs Research Council (EPSRC) and Janet, nationally and internationally. Researchers with help from the UK e-Infrastructure Floods precipitate weather can install their own equipment on programme. This guarantees funding for I spy with my satellite eye: Aurora to ‘light’ its fibres. The separate the fibre infrastructure and edge network upgrade infrastructure means they have more equipment for the next five years. illegal fishing freedom to test, break and reconfigure Research groups at other sites will also Following last winter’s floods, the Met connections without disrupting normal be able to make use of Aurora2, either by Office is halfway through an upgrade to Maritime and naval authorities will find internet access, and at much higher co-locating equipment in laboratories at the network that links its 15 weather radar it much easier to protect international capacities than commercial networks. stations to its Exeter HQ. The upgrade, fisheries with help from a new satellite- “The result is an ideal ‘test bed’ for which includes advanced weather radar based system to track illegal fishing photonics research to support development and software, aims to improve forecasting activities. It will be used to capture and of the future internet,” says Jeremy Sharp, for the next 15 to 20 years. analyse shipping data, and combine these Janet’s head of strategic technologies. The Met Office Remote Site Network is with vessel information to detect and For example, access to Aurora helped a private WAN and has now been prosecute unlawful fishing. UCL researchers produce two of the most outsourced to BT which is upgrading the The system has been developed by the downloaded IEEE papers this year. One links to each site to 2Mbps symmetric Satellite Applications Catapult, the Pew showed how a new optical spectrally- connections. The circuits are provided by Charitable Trusts non-governmental efficient frequency division multiplexing Openreach’s MPLS infrastructure and organisation, and satellite data services managed as part of BT’s Convergent company exactEarth Europe. Solutions. They use the firm’s Connect IP According to Tony Long, director of Clear system which provides symmetric Pew’s Ending Illegal Fishing Project, bandwidth up and downstream. illegal and unreported fishing accounts The remoteness of the sites and the for up to 26 million metric tons of fish need for 2Mbps circuits meant the telco worth up to $23.5bn a year. “Every time had to replace copper cable with fibre or you buy seafood there is a one-in-five microwave. The Met Office says its chance that the fish was caught outside radar sites are less suited to ADSL the law,” he claims. (asymmetric) data transfer as these Many governments use satellite-based circuits provide a lower and more technology as part of their fishing vessel restricted upstream data path. monitoring policies. Vessel monitoring It adds that the new 2Mbps systems (VMS) provide location infrastructure provides sufficient information for fishing boats, and many bandwidth for the radar data transfer and also carry an automatic identification a “reasonable” data rate with its new system (AIS) which is designed for enhanced product data set. safety at sea. The Catapult product will The Met Office’s current network merge VMS and AIS data with other consists of 15 operational weather radars information. By analysing vessel tracks across the UK such as the station at and overlaying them on protected marine Great Dun Fell in Cumbria (pictured areas, vessel history and licence details, below). These provide real-time fisheries experts can spot irregular and information to help monitor and forecast potentially illegal activity. This will heavy rainfall to issue flood warnings. pinpoint the location of suspect ships, and Many of the transmitters were more show their name, identification number, than 20 years old and suffered recurring fishing license details, history, and more. age-related failures. The new dual “As the product evolves it will become polarisation radar and new Cyclops better on its own at recognising certain software has given greater reliability and types of fishing activity – for example, allows more flexibility for radar R&D long-line fishing versus seining or activities in the future. trawling,” says Long. “But the human Cyclops is said to provide better element, i.e. informed analytic expertise filtering of raw radar data to remove which at some point must be coupled with “ground clutter” (echoes) on precipitation a physical inspection of the vessel, will rates and accumulation (flooding). The remain necessary to prove illegal activity.” Met Office says this makes it easier to Neither Pew nor the Satellite Applications Catapult will feed information directly to the naval, police or fishing authorities. But the organisations will be able to use it to narrow their search for pirate fishing and focus their resources on suspect vessels. The Satellite Applications Catapult says the partnership will also support the Global Ocean Commission Mission Ocean initiative to save and restore ocean health.

networking september 2014 8 BEST AVAILABILITY, HIGHEST EFFICIENCY AND UNBEATABLE SPACE UTILISATION …BULLSEYE

THAT’S THE CRITICAL DIFFERENCE.

Emerson Network Power’s next generation rack PDU delivers the best availability and lowest power consumption, saving you thousands annually.

Our new intelligent rack PDU is designed to optimise data centre energy and capacity management, delivering the industry’s best availability by uniquely tolerating temperatures as high as 60°C and consuming 75% less energy than other leading vendor PDUs. It is also the most compact PDU on the market and seamlessly integrates with DCIM software. What more could you aim for?

Emerson Network Power United Kingdom T +44 (023) 8061 0311 [email protected]

See the facts for yourself at: EmersonNetworkPower.eu/RackPDUs

Net+ 1406 p5 (Emerson).indd 9 04/07/2014 16:06 Net+ 1409 p10-13 (Outsourcing) v4 AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 15:54 Page 10

outsourcing register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE! © BRAND-REX KIM SCARBOROUGH LICENSED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSED UNDER CREATIVE KIM SCARBOROUGH

Networks like the DIY one on the left may work perfectly well, but which one would you prefer to troubleshoot when a network fault occurs? The choice is yours Enterprise network managers have never had so much choice when it comes to fulfilling their role. IAN GRANT looks at the pros and cons of outsourcing IT networks and the Darwinian evolution of the marketplace.

he issues for and against outsourcing The question is who can you trust? Are before the next tech wave is on you. It’s Whyte says the entire DC market has been are well known: amortisable capex you better off with an in-house operation no wonder that some firms decide to stick growing 20-30 per cent a year for the past T becomes pay-as-you-go opex; in which the insider threat is great? Or a with what they’ve got until it breaks, while six years, and expects about one-third someone takes care of the growing good contract with a reputable outsource others give the problem to others and devoted to outsourced services by 2016. complexity in return for you giving up vendor? The answer to all of that depends sharpen their contracting skills. A KPMG survey of 490 outsourcing some operational control; it is more on the application. Simon Campbell-Whyte, executive deals worth more than £10bn published efficient (for many tasks) and so cheaper; At some point this must run on physical director of the Data Centre Alliance, thinks late last year confirmed this trend. Some you can concentrate on your business devices which consume space, time, energy there’s a better way: “This is not a game 77 per cent of respondents said they rather than be distracted by a non-value- and other resources. Ownership of the where you can afford not to play. You intend to continue or increase their level adding activity (unless you see IT as a assets means direct expenses as well as might be all right for a year or two, but as of outsourcing. “Forty-five per cent competitive weapon); you can scale your hidden costs such as skills, compliance, the technology moves on, you are going claimed they will ‘certainly’ or ‘probably’ capabilities smoothly rather than in efficiency, and opportunity. These all need to lose your competitive position.” increase IT outsourcing over the next 12 expensive steps; you gain access to to be managed for cost, risk, security and Access to power and to carrier networks months, a figure that has more than specialist services and skills that are too financial return. But it all changes so fast have become limiting factors in the data doubled from 19 per cent, last year,” said costly for you alone to justify; and so on. you can barely write off your investment centre (DC) business. Even so, Campbell- the firm. It believes that clients have two

networking september 2014 10 Net+ 1409 p10-13 (Outsourcing) v4 AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 19:07 Page 11 Net+ 1409 p10-13 (Outsourcing) v4 AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 16:43 Page 12

outsourcing register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE!

main motives. Firstly, there’s a desire to which varies by its need for speed, indicators of network quality. In this case, improve customer service; and secondly, resilience, security and requirement for perception has become reality. Users there’s a dearth of skills to make it happen. specialist skills. This drives the choice of simply don’t care about network issues, This fits in with Campbell-Whyte’s platform and its location. For example, a and arguably many resent being made to view. He sees a quickening evolution of network for a high frequency trading house care. They just want it all to work. the outsourcing sector, with data centre will look, feel and behave differently to Developments such as cloud providers developing specialities. one designed for a national point of sale computing, BYOD, and mobile access It’s already happening. For example, network. As a result, vendors are honing mask the underlying networks. These Telehouse has chosen to host network their offers according their perception of retain their basic physical divisions of operators; RackSpace is happy to share market needs and their own preferences data centre level, local and wide area its machines with third parties; Virtus will and capabilities. networks, and all the issues that surround share its DC floorspace and make a virtue According to KPMG, the emerging them. Once users become aware of those of the number of carriers that connect to picture is one of hybrid in-house and issues, they become grit in the smooth its sites; and Salesforce hosts applications outsourced resources where fitness for passage of their lives. in the cloud – all you need is internet purpose rules. This is good. In research Even though “we are all IP now”, the access and a password. commissioned by content distribution differences in data centre, metro, Campbell-Whyte points out that network Akamai, Forrester found that aggregation and core networks at the everything turns on the application, organisations that leverage hybrid as well physical level are material and, thanks to as a mix of cloud services which bring virtualisation technology, getting more differentiated and complementary value complex. Smart CIOs will look at the “Agreements like this are more likely to be highly satisfied. supply chain that delivers their This suggests that Darwinian special- applications’ end-to-end performance, [with Virtus] originate from isation to fit IT ecological niches is consider the risks and dependencies that working. Instead of user organisations exist, and address them in SLAs. That shared values and we can piling all their applications into a glass could mean a different supplier at each of room and prioritising their job runs, they the ISO model’s seven layers. already see the positive can now be selective and optimise where Take for example Cegedim Rx, one of and when they run tasks. the market-leading suppliers of healthcare effects it is having through Fundamentally, networks are just the software to the UK pharmacy market. It means to the end, which is the conversion uses managed network operator the ability to roadmap not of data into meaningful content by an Redcentric to provide the network that application. There is nothing per se to say allows Cegedim Rx to add managed data only our growth but that companies need to build, own and backup and 3G failover services to its operate their own physical networks or offer to pharmacies (see News, Jul/Aug facilitation of our DCs. Indeed, when it comes to telephony, issue). The software house’s sales and email and even websites, very few do, marketing director Clive Eckett said customers’.” and then usually only because of security, Redcentric was chosen in 2009 for its health and safety or regulatory/compliance reliable connectivity to N3 – the NHS Simon Mewett, “This is not a game where issues. Even private networks use the internal network. “While the early focus CEO, public network infrastructure at some was all on taking our network to a new C4L you can afford not to play. point, hence the growing angst over the level, we were always aware that we public networks’ fitness for purpose. could leverage additional Redcentric You might be all right for a managed services to strengthen our own Cegedim Rx; Redcentric; a wholesale The user’s point of view commercial proposition.” supplier/mobile network operator; and a year or two, but as the Redcentric is one of 130 companies in physical infrastructure supplier. For user-facing CIOs, the only thing of the UK that has Ofcom “code powers” or Amazon considered such a multi- technology moves on, you real interest is the end-to-end performance the right to dig up the streets to lay layered supply chain a risk when it of the applications. The yardstick is no communications cable. But in reality, launched its 4G-based Kindle Fire HDX are going to lose your longer how much latency there is in the most of those 130 will buy backhaul from multimedia e-book. Knowing that the network, or jitter, or lost packets, but another carrier with capacity in the device would drive up demand for data, competitive position.” whether the user had a good experience. neighbourhood, and provide only the “last the company wanted a flawless one-click Those network performance measures mile” connection. In Cegedim Rx’s case connection to get its customers buying Simon Campbell-Whyte, may indicate why the user is happy or this means that the pharmacy owner sits at goods and content as soon as they had Executive director, unhappy, but they are now diagnostic the top of a minimum five-layer supply powered up. It also wanted to streamline Data Centre Alliance tools rather than themselves primary chain that includes (in descending order): the process and to save costs.

networking september 2014 12 Net+ 1409 p10-13 (Outsourcing) v4 AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 16:44 Page 13

Working with Vodafone’s enterprise this connectivity allows its customers to productivity applications in a secure, into digital services with high take-up and division, Amazon developed a solution be up and live instantly, while allowing it UK-based environment via the online payments. According to Socitm, that uses a single 4G SIM globally and to control their positioning in the data government’s G-Cloud 5 framework. more than 80 per cent of English schools ships pre-installed in the Fire HDX. Once centre and cater for their growth. C4L The Capita Productivity Hub gives public have adopted the online admissions activated, the Vodafone SIM becomes CEO Simon Mewett says: “Agreements sector users access to tools such as Outlook, module, and time spent checking ‘local’ (subject to network availability). like this [with Virtus] originate from Lync, SharePoint, Word, Excel and applications for free school meals has This means users can quickly sign up to shared values and we can already see the PowerPoint on premise, in a public or dropped from three hours to three minutes. local data packages and access top-up positive effects it is having through the private cloud or a hybrid combination. Another success is the Planning Portal, services and support. This hugely simplified ability to roadmap not only our growth Capita IT Services executive director which was established by central govern- Amazon’s logistics and supply chain, but facilitation of our customers’.” Peter Hands says: “Public sector ment to support local planning authorities resulting in cost and management savings. Capability was also key to the decision organisations want the ability to use the and their customers as they shift to While not all firms are Amazon, the by PVH Corporation, owner of lifestyle cloud delivery model that suits them, but paperless planning. According to Socitm, need to provide a good user experience is brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy without the headache of managing it. some 60 per cent of planning applications common to all online businesses. Hilfiger and Speedo, to outsource a new Capita Productivity Hub offers applications are now received and processed online. To forestall those concerns for UK 400-site European network that connects via a private cloud infrastructure with all It goes on to say that this is what can enterprises, hosted cloud provider C4L retail outlets in 22 countries. The deal data stored in Capita’s UK data centres.” be achieved when stakeholders, including recently signed a five-year agreement went to MDNX, which now trades under private sector systems suppliers, come with long-term partner Virtus. C4L has a the Easynet brand following its takeover A common platform together. By working closely together, national 100Mbps MPLS network that of Easynet late last year. The amalgamation they can identify and agree minimum connects to more than 100 UK DCs and created what Easynet claims is the largest Socitm, the professional body for those features and functions for each service, 300 internationally. It will deploy 36 independent networking and hosting involved in IT and digitally enabled agree standards for data formats and cabinet pods at each of Virtus’ London1 integrator in Europe. services for the public sector, is exploring a common features, and develop quality and London2 data centres. The Easynet European network will more ambitious target. After rejecting an tools and products for adaptation by C4L says the two new dedicated pods provide the backbone of the PVH retail earlier proposal to have a single web portal councils and schools. will deliver up to 36 cabinets at a network, harmonising the businesses’ IT for all local government applications as Clearly there is scope for more such minimum of 108kW, with the flexibility systems, streamlining communication, both impractical and possibly illegal, it is cooperation, and to allow the Public to increase the density to more than aiding collaboration, and reducing manage- examining how sharing a common Service Network (PSN) that connects local 300kW per pod per year. London1 ment complexity across the organisation. It platform could reduce waste, duplication government agencies to develop into a already has 20 Tier 1 and Tier 2 networks will also allow PVH to execute plans to and inefficiency. network of networks, possibly provisioned connected to it while London2, which invest in its supply chain and to roll out It points to previous shared projects and run by a specialist operator. Whether it opens this month, will have connections new software across the organisation. that have been successful. One is Connect would be possible or even desirable for that to four Tier 1 operators. Meanwhile, Capita IT Services, which Digitally, the central government to happen, remains to be seen. In all Both centres peer with all the major UK specialises in public sector offerings, is programme to help councils transform likelihood, any development along those and European IP exchanges. C4L says now offering a range of Microsoft schools admissions and free school meals lines will start with the applications.

Network management is Harrison says services like voice, video or VDI. centres is good people and careful owning its own Operating at Layer 3 over an uncertain capacity management. We never a shared problem network is the only underlying fabric just exposes user oversubscribe or contend to the point a way Exponential-e experience to too much risk. user may notice. Obviously, there’s an There is plenty of common ground can deliver and “Operationally it’s more challenging amount of resource pooling there, but between enterprise network owners and hand-off native to allow the customer a high degree of we monitor the concurrent peaks and those who would sell networking as a Layer 2 service to self-management, but our ability to hand ensure that they are always well below service, according to Steven Harrison, its customers. off native Ethernet means customers can actual installed capacity. lead technologist at Exponential-e. self-manage from the lowest level, and “The magic wand to do this better is then set the management demarcation already coming in the form of an “The really exciting opportunity today opportunity. By blending the two with us at any level up that suits them, integration between various software is the ‘blender effect’ of infrastructure together you create a very compelling all on a service-by-service basis. defined elements. I’m after a software as a service along with network. IaaS offering for the market. “For example, they could manage defined data centre that can providers have realised that they are not “Owning our own network is the only their WAN at Layer 2 while we manage communicate seamlessly with an compelling if they don’t include end-to- way we can deliver and hand off native their voice right up to Layer 7, all over SDN across the metro area and a path end connectivity, while pure ‘dumb Layer 2 service to our customers. the same network. computational engine across the wide pipe’ providers realise they don’t have Overlays and VPN are unfortunately not “Today, our coping mechanism for area through some kind of intelligent enough to make the most of the an answer when it comes to real-time resource allocation in our own data mediation system.”

13 september 2014 networking Net+ 1409 p14-15 (Off the Shelf & Net Knowledge) AM RN.qxd 10/9/14 15:49 Page 14

off-the-shelf register online @ www.networkingplus.co.uk NEW WEBSITE NOW LIVE!

RJ45 (data) and F-Type measurement and distance-to-open. off-the-shelf: test & measurement coaxial (video) The flagship VDV II Pro adds a connectors help the TDR to quickly determine where user achieve faster cable damage is located by identi- testing of most types fying the distance to opens and of low-voltage cables shorts. Ideal says it Glitch-free networks by eliminating the need will also display for separate testers or mission-critical Some of the latest test and measurement devices to help you adapters. It adds that network connectivity analyse LANs and WANs and ensure they’re running smoothly. intelligent technology information without the lets the unit know if it need for a PC. has been plugged into By detecting voltage and Fluke Networks has added new features see how they can re-use existing Ethernet an outlet where poten- checking polarity, the firms adds to its AirMagnet Survey PRO/Planner and power infrastructure for the new APs, tially damaging voltages are present. the Pro quickly determines which and AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer PRO tools visualise the impact of introducing them in All three models in the line-up – the type of media service is running over the to help organisations optimise their “performance hungry” locations, and then VDV II (basic), VDV II Plus (advanced) cable, such as ISDN, PBX and PoE, migration or co-existence path to the measure and validate true performance and VDV II Pro (professional grade) – resulting in faster fault diagnosis. Trouble- 802.11ac standard. delivery instead of relying on estimates. provide wiremapping capability. The VDV shooting active Ethernet networks is also Survey PRO is a wireless design and site WiFi Analyzer PRO will help installers II Plus also offers a larger 2.9-inch display made easier with in-built network detection survey solution. Among its new 802.11ac to not only predict the capacity readiness of with backlighting, hub blink, cable length that displays network rate and duplex data. planning capabilities, engineers will now the network for the new influx of .11ac be able to determine the number of APs APs and clients, but also to identify the needed in a network, as well as their root cause of any connectivity issues. Network Instruments (part of JDSU), and interfacing with 40Gb networks. It location and configuration settings Also, by using its new 802.11ac says it has doubled the capacity of its says the Expandable product line offers before rolling out any new 3x3 capture and analysis GigaStor Expandable and 10Gb Wire in-the-field scalability to meet growing infrastructure. Fluke says this wireless adapter with Speed appliances to 96TB of network and performance monitoring needs on gigabit, enables managers to estimate Analyzer PRO, application traffic for analysis in a single 10Gb, and 40Gb links. budgets before making Fluke says IT chassis. With additional units, it claims GigaStor Expandable capacities begin investments, teams won’t miss that the GigaStor Expandable scales to at 96TB and can be increased in 96TB solidifies migration any traffic and can more than a petabyte. increments to 288TB. Thereafter, they strategies, and solve any problem The devices store network data for post- grow in 288TB amounts to 576TB, eases the “potential in a .11ac network. event forensic analysis of error conditions 864TB, and more than a petabyte of transition pains”. They can also locate, and data retention. Using GigaStor’s packet capture storage. It adds that classify and record analytics, network teams can navigate to Wire Speed, which is optimised for installers can also details of any threats. the exact moment a problem occurred, out-of-box monitoring of saturated 10GbE view packet-level details around the event, links, now provides 288TB of storage via and resolve the issue. Network Instruments three 5U enclosures. The VDV II Series verifiers from Ideal Ideal says the handheld devices identify says this saves time troubleshooting and Industries can be used to check the wiring errors instantly, capturing “compre- eliminates having to recreate the original integrity of wiring and detect faults in hensive” details on faults such as opens, performance problem. low-voltage copper cables including shorts, reverses, miswires and split pairs The firm reckons Gigastor represents telephone wiring, LAN (Cat 5 to Cat 7, that can slow or take down a network. It the first retrospective network analysis UTP and STP), and coaxial. says their integrated RJ11/RJ12 (voice), appliance to provide complete packet capture in fully-saturated 10Gb networks

Megger’s NET200 is said to be an all-in- features a high-resolution graphic TDR as one, easy-to-use network test unit that well as TDX (time-domain crosstalk) so measures logical network performance that engineers can locate faulty and the physical condition of network positions along cables up cables. It’s been designed to enable to 500m in length. network engineers to install and maintain Megger says the TDR LANs that use 10Base-T and/or 100Base- and TDX can also be TX Ethernet protocol. used with other types of The NET200 provides round-trip time cables, such as coaxial testing to measure network speed under for cable TV and HFC dynamic and static configuration protocols, networks, as well those and IP scanning to show the information for telephony. on all terminals connected with the local The NET200 is network. It can also evaluate the capability supplied as a kit of link connections such as supported comprising a complete network speed (10Base-T or 100Base-TX) set of testing cables and duplexity (half- or full- duplex). and adapters, and is The device provides physical claimed to offer one information for the LAN cable under tests of the largest selection such as cable length, fault positions (open of functions available or short) and Wiremap (pass/fail). It in its class.

T3 Innovation says Net Prowler is a telephone cables, and up to 20 network cabling and advanced network tester that and coax ID-only mapping remotes. can identify, monitor, and correct LAN It also includes support for IPv4 and issues. It can detect 10/100/1000 Base-T, IPv6 protocols, verification of DHCP IPV4/IPV6, VLAN, DHCP and more. connectivity and DNS, and TCP/UDP The device offers all the features and throughput testing. According to the firm, functions of T3’s Cable Prowler the device can detect CDP, but adds the capability to LLDP, NDP and VLANs, the identify, monitor, and trouble- presence of PoE and class of shoot LAN issues associated PoE per IEEE 802.3af/at with with physical layer and link load test for voltage drop, as conditions in the network. It well as current link speed and can test Cat 3/5e/6/6a Ethernet link capabilities for active cable configuration and verifies Ethernet drops up to 1Gbps. connectivity while conducting Other features include a link tests for opens, shorts, miswires, light to identify location on a split pairs, and reverses. hub/switch/router port, and the T3 says the Net Prowler ability to define network test supports up to eight testing and name, cable name, and save ID remotes for network and and print all testing results.

networking september 2014 14 Net+ 1409 p14-15 (Off the Shelf & Net Knowledge) AM RN NEW.qxd 12/9/14 14:41 Page 15

incorporating industrial modems, line workshops, and each is accredited by the data, Earth observations and the Internet of Not enough extenders and Ethernet switches. Chartered Institute of Building Engineers. Things are amongst the largest volume As well as eliminating travel and accom- Seminars include: Building a Data Centre sources of Big Data, and each has location modation costs, Westermo says the MTTC in the Perfect Storm, which covers aspects at their core. This one day conference women in IT provides a controlled learning environment of data centre relocation, refurbishment and provides a forum for knowledge exchange Only three per cent of women make up to maximise training time. Engineers will regeneration; Introduction to the Application covering the key technical concepts, the average computing and IT sector be able to discuss their individual industrial of IEC 61439, which discusses how this new business issues and real world use cases engineering workforce, according to a networking requirements with the firm’s production standard should be applied to associated with Big Data and location. recent study by the Institution of technical experts, and gain access to a the design and manufacture of low voltage It will feature Big Data experts from Engineering and Technology (IET). range of onsite training courses which switchgear and controlgear assemblies; IBM, Cloudera, MapR and Deloitte, As part of its annual Skills and Demand include a new one-day session about IP. and Date Centre Energy Efficiency, which major commercial users including Marks in Industry survey, the IET interviewed www.westermo.co.uk looks at the different strategies that can be and Spencer and Telefónica, as well as 400 engineering and IT companies on their implemented and the potential gains and speakers from the geospatial sector such recruitment plans, skills, and women on compromises that could occur. as Esri and Ordnance Survey. the payroll. It found that all of the sectors NEW COURSES Seminars can be presented at consultants’ Two parallel streams will run through surveyed had an eight per cent or lower and contractors’ offices or at Rittal’s the day, one focusing on strategy and the female proportion of their workforce. CPD seminars – Rittal venues in the UK. [email protected] other on best practice. There is also an Overall, the study showed the Rittal has launched three new free seminars accompanying exhibition. The conference proportion of female engineers in all to support customers in their continuing Big Data and location conference – takes place on 30 September at IBM, industries has not improved since 2008 professional development. The seminars Association for Geographic Information South Bank, London. and currently stands at just six per cent of take the form of short presentations and According to AGI, personal navigation www.geobig5.com/events/big-data/ the workforce. The IET also found that 43 per cent of employers are not taking any specific action to improve workplace diversity even though demand for engineers in the UK remains high. “Research from Engineering UK suggests we need to find 87,000 new engineers each year for the next decade so now is the time to act,” says IET chief executive Nigel Fine. “Promoting engineering to women is particularly important given how few currently work as engineers. So it’s disappointing to see that so many employers are taking no real action to improve diversity.” Fine calls on employers to take “urgent” steps to improve recruitment and retention of women. He says they can do this by promoting flexible and part-time working together with planned routes of progression that can accommodate career breaks.

Transport Pharma & health technologies Communications

Computing & IT

Energy

Electronics

Electrical

Defence Broadcast and media Aerospace

Other

Total

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% IT technicians IT apprentices IT professionals All IT staff in technical roles The proportion of female IT staff by sector. The Computing and IT industry itself has the highest percentage of women in professional IT roles. SOURCE: IET Westermo hits the road with mobile training centre

Westermo has unveiled a new Mobile Training and Technology Centre (MTTC) to support UK system design and application engineers wanting to keep up with industrial communications developments. Recognising that it can be difficult to find the time to attend conferences, exhibitions and training courses, the industrial data communications specialist says the MTTC will make it easier for engineers to learn about the latest technologies by bringing working examples and technical experts directly to their door. The mobile centre will visit firms across the country, offering engineers the chance to gain hands-on experience with a broad range of industrial comms devices. It is equipped with networked product displays

15 september 2014 networking Net+ 1409 p16 (Toshiba).indd 9 10/09/2014 16:19