As a minority-owned IT services and solutions provider, a long running mission of WEI is to build a company workforce that is representative of our diverse community. There is tremendous value in unifying our unique perspectives to solve complex problems, and we prove this every day.
It is no surprise most enterprises are prioritizing network modernization in the day and age of digital transformation. Outdated infrastructure harms productivity and hinders security, making it a challenge to build a future-ready network that meets evolving expectations. All too often, our team will assess networks based on traditional VLAN architectures that will 100% struggle to accommodate hundreds of thousands of users and devices. A modern network should seamlessly connect remote workers to physical locations, data centers, and the cloud, following an edge-centric and data-driven approach.
The trend of dining out continues to captivate Americans. In 2022, restaurant expenditures surpassed grocery shopping by 20%. However, this does not imply a surge in dine-in experiences, with 44% of consumers reportedly ordering takeout up to three times a week. This figure stretches to 57% on a global scale. But what's steering people away from traditional home-cooked meals? You could take on the task of gathering ingredients, employing the right tools, following a recipe, and overseeing the cooking/baking process. Alternatively, you could order a pizza from a local eatery and have it delivered to your doorstep, usually without making a phone call.
Picture this: You've just been involved in a minor car accident. Thankfully, you have car insurance, and while you hoped to never use it, it sits available at a moment’s notice. In the business world, that's the essence of Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS). It's like insurance for your critical data and applications: it might seem unnecessary at first, but when disaster strikes, you'll be grateful for the investment.
The era of digital transformation has completely changed the way we work, with remote work and cloud-based applications becoming the new normal. No longer are users and applications confined to physical data centers in office spaces. This traditional setup has given way to a new landscape of hybrid workforces, home offices, and geographically-dispersed headquarters. While these changes have improved digital flexibility, they have also brought new and obvious challenges to network security.
As various businesses embrace the digital transformation era, sustainability has become a pressing concern, especially when it comes to aligning with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives. For this reason, data centers have come under scrutiny for their significant power usage, which accounts for an astounding 4% of global electricity consumption. To stay within ordinances, enterprises are adopting greener initiatives as part of their digital transformation journey and their data centers.
This brings us to Dell Technologies, which has made remarkable strides in sustainability with its latest generation of PowerEdge servers, offering businesses a simple way to scale workloads while prioritizing eco-friendly practices
The fields of science and IT are constantly evolving. Just when we get comfortable, things change, forcing us to create new theories that drive new ways of doing things. For example, before the germ theory of disease was developed in the late 19th century, doctors thought disease was spread by miasma or “bad air.” Sounds ludicrous, but this was a reality at one time.
There are IT practices and methodologies that appear just as outlandish today. For instance, remember the practice of backhauling all internet traffic to the corporate data center via expensive MPLS lines and VPNs? With the advent of cloud services, routing traffic to the corporate network seemed as absurd as the idea of a flat earth.
As the leader in the virtualization landscape, VMware introduced vSphere 8 Update 1 in April 2023. With its impressive improvements in security, automation, and storage, the new update prioritizes stability and expands on the groundwork of vSphere 8. This means customers can expect a seamless approach to VM management and improved cluster design that will not require new license keys. After a recent conversation with VMware expert Mark Gabryjelski, we identify and summarize our findings of Update 1.
The retail industry has rapidly changed in recent years, embracing offline, online, and hybrid shopping as the new norm. Technology has thus become an essential factor in the success of retailers, which puts significant pressure on them to keep up with the latest tools and reconsider their approaches. To align their current infrastructure with the evolving landscape, retailers must focus on networking as a central aspect of their efforts. This entails an aggressive adoption of digital transformation through cloud computing and omnichannel retailing, modernization of inventory management, and implementation of advanced data loss prevention systems.
Some secrets are worth keeping, but we’re here to spill the beans on reliable, secure network connectivity for fixed retail locations. Overall, the retail industry has some of the most advanced data centers and hybrid cloud networks within today’s IT landscape. But the corporate center is not where the majority of business operations take place as many retail transactions occur at the outer edge. Some of these edge locations are more remote than others, yet they still rely on the same level of network connectivity. Overall, retail edge locations face unique connectivity challenges that urban, metro, and suburban locations simply do not. These challenges include:
