SMB Networking - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Smarter Celeno Wi-Fi chip manages device throughput

  New firmware for Celeno's Wi-Fi chips lets home gateways and routers control transmission times for clients, improving throughput.

• Cybercrooks target SMBs with new types of attacks

  As money and corporate information have morphed from hard currency and blueprints to digital files, small and midsized businesses have become the new banks to rob. In fact, bank robberies across the U.S. have plummeted from 9,400 in 1991 to just 3,870 last year. As Doug Johnson of the American Bankers Association puts it: "As more and more transactions become electronic, more bank crimes become electronic."

• 25 must-have technologies for SMBs

  Running a small business isn't easy. I know. I run one. As a freelance writer, I’ve learned that you need to run your writing career as if you were running a business.

• Is Yahoo's telework ban shortsighted or savvy? Data says both

  Employee morale will plummet, key people will quit, and efforts to enhance collaboration will backfire, critics said of CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to end telecommuting at Yahoo. But not all data comes to the same conclusions.

• CHARGE: Power-related gift ideas for the holidays

  While battery technology makes slow advances, at least we have other ways of keeping our gadgets up and running when either at home or on the road.

• WORK: Gift ideas for the office (or home office)

  With today's flexible workstyles, your office can be in a corporate workspace or the dining room table of your home. No matter the place, sometimes you need more than just a notebook and a mouse to get things done - so we're here to help.

• Storage optimization considerations for SMBs

  IT budgets are always tight in small to midsize business, and when it comes to storage, many simply bolt on additional boxes to accommodate growth and data retention regulations without considering the added complexity and long-term costs.

• Hollywood studios pushing for secure, next-generation "digital home library"

  Home entertainment today is often provided through a clutter of TVs, tablets, and computers, along with TV specialty boxes for yet more streaming video or music services. But some Hollywood studios are hoping to find better ways to deliver paid content to consumers directly to hard drives and flash storage, according to Cryptography Research, which is working on a futuristic project to do that.

• As cyberattacks grow, take security seriously

  No company wants to be the subject of the next headline about a cybersecurity attack or critical data loss. Losing business data or customer information takes a toll on your business' reputation and its pocketbook. While it is impossible to entirely avoid an attack, there are steps you can take to mitigate the effects.

• Keys to successful data center consolidation

  <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/topics/data-center.html">Data center</a> consolidation continues to be a hot topic, and with good reason. It has proven to be an effective way to reduce costs and complexity, setting organizations on a course for more efficient IT management. But while the benefits are proven, the path to success takes careful navigation.

• SAN/LAN convergence can pay dividends today

  Today's workers want faster computing speeds and more storage, management wants it all under budget, and IT professionals are scrambling to save money and improve productivity. The tools of choice to achieve these goals are typically virtualization cloud computing and data center consolidation, but IT may be overlooking a simple but effective fix: storage area network (SAN) and local area network (LAN) convergence.

• Easing the juggling act with client virtualization

  In IT's never-ending search for efficiency improvements, client virtualization and its subsets -- presentation, application and desktop virtualization -- must be considered.

• Define, educate, prevent: Avoiding data loss is easier than you may think

  Most organizations believe they aren't in danger of losing data, but as recent news demonstrates, the threat is real and no organization is immune.

• To boost data center efficiency, consider UPS consolidation

  In data center upgrade planning, backup power is often among the last considerations and the first budget item redlined. Many companies purchase an uninterruptible power system (UPS) only as they add equipment -- what we call a segmented approach. Before long, data center managers can find themselves with an inefficient power system that is difficult to maintain and daunting to improve, yet doing so can offer big returns.

• Cisco urged to fold more than Flip

  Flip shouldn't be Cisco's only fold in the <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/041211-cisco-shutter-flip.html?hpg1=bn">challenging consumer market</a>, industry watchers say.