The Importance of Data Center Visibility

Imagine being given a tight-sealed container and being instructed to guard the package with your life. Clueless of what’s inside, how could you possibly protect it? Without knowing whether the contents can be damaged by any number of forces, be it movement, noise, heat, or changes in atmospheric conditions, you simply will have no way of knowing how to protect what’s inside. The same dilemma is experienced by many data centers.

This may be hard to believe, but many IT heads usually have little to no idea what’s going on within their data centers. Take Cisco, a leading IT company for instance. Out of their 800,000 customers, they believe that less than 1 percent of them know or have a quick view of their system processes and what these systems are doing—no one has meaningful visibility into the inner workings of the data center. This ignorance is often a result of IT heads quickly filling up their data centers with all kinds of programs and software from different users once their storage assets are on. There is often very little control over the said process, not to mention the complexities that merging on-premise assets with cloud-based hardware creates.

Not knowing exactly what’s going on across these data landscapes can make it extremely difficult to secure them and even more worrying, what could happen should a breach occur. Fortunately, there are systems in place for IT heads to get a best view into data centers, among which is CMDBs or Change Management Databases. These databases contain all known details and information about a data center’s hardware and software. However, CMDBs only give users but a partial view of a data center’s inner workings, which is why more robust systems must be out in place to help IT heads and professionals see into exactly what’s going on within their data center.

The Future of 5G

Will 2020 truly be the year of 5G? For years, experts and tech-savvy end users have predicted 2020 to be the year when 5G becomes the golden standard for connectivity and where hyper connectivity becomes more real and stronger. While the hype is proving to be real, network rollouts for 5G are still not up to par with people’s expectations. Still, many mobile carriers are working hard to expand 5G services to even more cities, while ensuring that devices can still run on much older generations of wireless technology in addition to their 5G networks—this brings the world closer to a future of ubiquitous connectivity.

With Wi-Fi-6 and 5G working together to make this hyper-connected utopia possible, people are now experiencing the benefits of greater responsiveness and performance within their digital devices. It is safe to say that we are in the threshold of the 5G era, and the future is bright for this next-generation network set-up, especially with more stakeholders investing in its development.

While 4G technology allowed speeds within the 10s to 100s Mbps bracket, 5G technology will allow you to enjoy speeds as fast as 20 Gbps. This means a significant transformation in digital experiences not limited to things like faster and clearer video conferencing and online gaming.

Another interesting development in 5G is Cisco’s unveiling of a brand-new networking portfolio, which aims to build what they are calling “The internet of the future.” This technology is being built upon their Silicon One hardware, which is proving to be an ideal foundation for a programmable silicon architecture. This particular project is also aimed at reducing the cost of establishing and operating 5G networks.

Unlike other tech developments, 5G domination is likely to be a gradual process, much like other generations of network systems. As more and more companies race to make 5G a part of people’s daily lives, this domination can be sooner than expected.  

New Scam for iPhone Users

There’s a new phishing campaign that is targeting iPhone users with the use of a range of scams aimed at defrauding victims. While email scams are not new in the world of cyberthreats, attackers are getting craftier in the way they approach phishing through mobile email. Here are the telltale signs that the email you have received via your iPhone is a scam:

1.      The sender’s name is suspicious. If there are discrepancies in email sender usernames and addresses, think twice about opening the email. Anything that comes from an unknown sender—especially one that look’s suspicious should be handled with much thought.

2.      There are invalid recipients. Another telltale sign of an iPhone email scam is the presence of invalid recipients or email addresses that are undisclosed.

3.      The email body is a picture. Emails that contain photographs as the message body prevent you from copying content and pasting it elsewhere. They also force you to click on malicious links within the image or the message body.

4.      Subscription renewals. If you are not subscribed to whatever the email message is referring to, you should certainly not feel obliged to accept their invitation to “renew” your subscription, especially since there isn’t a subscription to renew in the first place.

5.      Shortened or clipped URL. Another telltale sign of a scam email is a shortened URL, which when copied and pasted elsewhere reveals a link behind the URL, which typically load in a background preview window, enabling the scam to unfold.

Apart from phishing emails, there are even newer breeds of scams that specifically target iPhone users, like dating app scams, slot machine scams, and free VPN app scams. Arming yourself with good knowledge of these security-threatening schemes is your best defense against the damages they can do to your online accounts and your device.