When I talk to customers about their initiatives, I hear most often about the Internet of Things and connected cities. Customers are enthusiastic about connected initiatives because they understand the value of efficient communication. If first responders share information, help will get where it needs to go faster, more accurately and with more intent than…

The access layer is an important — and often overlooked — part of the network. With Cisco‘s recent refresh of the Catalyst 2960-X to the Catalyst 9200, it may be time for organizations to consider a refresh too.   IMAGE SOURCE: Cisco Why Upgrade Now? The 9200 is a great fit for most organizations’ access…

Not that long ago, most police cruisers had a single internet-connected device: a rugged, in-vehicle laptop that allowed officers to securely connect to back-end servers, run license plate numbers and check for outstanding warrants. Today, the number of connected devices in a cruiser is limited only by police officials’ imaginations — or by the in-vehicle…

Sometimes, instead of evolving slowly, technology takes a giant leap forward. When this happens for one part of IT, everything else effectively becomes a bottleneck, and further changes must take place to bring the rest of the IT environment up to the new standard of performance. This has happened recently with storage. After flash storage…

Although school districts around the country are finalizing their applications for the last year in the current five-year E-rate funding cycle, the government hasn’t yet announced how the program’s funding mechanism will work going forward. E-rate, the common name for the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund, provides K–12 schools with funding…

It’s natural for IT shops to replicate their current hardware and architecture when it’s time to refresh networking equipment. But refresh cycles provide a valuable opportunity to rethink — and improve — long-standing practices. Software-defined WAN applies software-defined networking principles over the WAN, redefining the management paradigm by operating the WAN as a holistic system…