Most organisations today are reliant in one way or another upon their IT infrastructure to conduct their day-to-day business, in many cases operating critical business services across it.
The drive to integrate numerous business functions continues at pace. Functions such as integrated video, voice and data transmission, multimedia presentations, mobile access and e-commerce play an important role in increasing productivity and profitability.
Unified Communications, Mobility, Virtualisation, Convergence, Workspace Management - buzz words that continue to reverberate around the industry and push the boundaries of an organisations network, revolutionising everything from the data centre to business processes.
Solutions in the field Application Traffic Management provide web contents and applications for the user constantly, securely and quickly. They also ensure that sufficient bandwidth for critical business applications are available at any time. Users with very high bandwidth requirements can reduce the number of connections between their storage systems and computers by means of IP backbone technologies and increase throughput as well as reliability, availability and scalability. This lowers overall costs.
Server-based applications enable companies to centralise their IT systems and offer their employees and customers fast and secure access to data, services and applications. This technology has high growth potential in terms of productivity and cost effectiveness.
There is also a growing trend in the direction of convergent services such as Voice Over IP or video conferencing. This means not only convergence between voice and data, but between communication media such as voicemail, e-mail, fax and messaging. They make it necessary to realise voice and data applications in one network.
To keep pace, today's infrastructure needs to be flexible, sophisticated, intelligent and constantly evolving. Able to handle vast amounts of information of all types - data, video and voice, being accessed at anytime, from any location. This coupled with new initiatives around "green" IT places completely new demands on the networks of the future.
COMPUTERLINKS e-Business division focus is on the dynamic area of intelligent IP-based infrastructure solutions. Through our vendor partnerships, we provide a portfolio of products for today's demanding network and application environments.
Our portfolio includes technologies that address growing demands in the fields of Voice Over IP, application optimisation, bandwidth management, network monitoring, end to end application delivery, workspace management, datacenter management and virtualisation.
By partnering with a combination of innovative and market leading vendors the e-Business division has built and continues to build a compelling portfolio of products that can be sold to address a specific point of pressure or combined to deliver an integrated infrastructure solution.
The e-Business division currently incorporates the following vendor partners.
The division assists partners by providing a full-service package of technical, sales and marketing support, practical training and efficient logistics.
Ipswitch File Transfer, Ipswitch Network Monitoring, Siemens WLAN, Swyx VoIP
Interests:
My dog, walking, badminton, wine and X Factor
1. If you had a million pounds what would you spend it on?
I would pay off my mortgage, take my family on a big holiday, and buy my husband a Porsche before he starts looking too old to drive one! I would of course also give some to charity.
2. If you could meet someone living or dead, who would it be and why?
I think it would have to be Jeremy Clarkson - I think he's hilarious! The closest I have got to this was meeting James May - not quite the same but still good!
3. What is the most interesting trip you've ever taken, and why?
Probably when I visit my Dad, he lives in the Outer Hebrides and there is a lot of amazing scenery on the way.
4. McDonalds or Burger King?
I try to avoid both but if I had to choose, McDonalds every time.
5. What was the last book you read?
Richard Branson's autobiography can't remember what it was called, something to do with a virgin!
6. What did you want to be when you were 12 years old?
A journalist.
7. If you were the boss for a day what would you change?
That's a tough question, maybe introduce duvet days, they sound like a good idea.
8. How did you end up working for COMPUTERLINKS?
After I had finished University I applied for a job advert looking for a recent graduate, thought I would give it a go, and have been here ever since.
9. University education or the education of life, which do you consider to be more important?
I have to say University education - I definitely had some of the best years of my life at Uni and made some brilliant friends.
10. Where is the one place you would like to visit before you die and why?
Sicily - I was due to go for my honeymoon and never quite made it - will definitely get there one day.
11. Marmite love it or hate it?
Love it!
12. Pub session or meal with a nice bottle of wine, explain why?
I don't cope well with hangovers these days so it would have to be a meal with a nice bottle of wine.
Wireless Opinion Piece
All verticals face the constant challenge of identifying the most suitable new technologies and making the best out of them, the consideration of wireless is no exception. Wireless used to be viewed as an expensive 'nice to have', struggling with reliability, security and range and therefore limiting its deployment to specific organisations and uses.
However, over the past few year's advances in wireless technology by vendors; increasing its reliability and opening up new opportunities for its use, has meant that companies now view it as a viable alternative to a wired network. This coupled with attractive price points, ease of implementation and improved reliability means Wi-Fi has now become accessible to many sectors. One of the verticals where there's been an increased demand in wireless solutions has been education.
The main advantage of introducing wireless in schools is increased access to ICT. Wi-Fi gives schools the flexibility to use IT equipment wherever they are needed, at anytime and with little waste of time or resources. Further benefits for schools include:
a) Cost-effective alternative to a cabled solution
b) Allows flexible ICT teaching and learning making lessons more interactive
c) Pupils and teachers are able to improve their IT skills on a day to day basis
d) Secure Network
In principle all these benefits can be met, but investment needs to be made in the right Wi-Fi solution that meets the schools criteria. Schools are like any organisation in the price conscious public sector, they require a system that is reliable, easy to install and use and gives the performance required to cope with the environment, but on a tight budget.
Enterprise Wi-Fi is one option for education but many have found that the solution offered features that schools would never use. Also when it came to budget, they would struggle to get the required coverage with the equipment they could afford.
Another alternative is to opt for consumer / small business wireless devices. This would meet their budgetary requirements and would work fine when there are only one or two devices using it, but in a classroom situation these units would struggle to cope affecting their reliability and therefore interrupting lessons.
A more robust solution is therefore needed when the number of users increases. Ruckus Wireless, for example, can offer a Wi-Fi solution at the best price and meet their requirements; offering better signal quality, fewer dropped connections, improved user experience and adaptable Wi-Fi signals which allow reliable coverage. One school that has benefited from implementing Ruckus Wireless has been Helenswood:
"The Ruckus solution was not only the best on price, it was also a reliable and robust system," said the senior technician at Helenswood. "The network was installed over the summer and since the start of term, it's been working with no problems - staff and pupils can easily connect and carry out their tasks on their laptops without the worries of losing connectivity, wherever they are within the school."
This is one of many positive deployments of Wireless throughout education in the UK and with the Government continuing to invest over £2 billion in the 'Building Schools for the Future' programme the opportunities for Wi-Fi and ICT development within education will continue even during the current financial crisis.
Customer Case Study
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