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Communications &
Data Solutions- 100% uptime SLA
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Leased lines; The way to go?
It’s time to have that discussion. You know the one. The one about the fact that the internet at your workplace is so slow you want to scream out naughty words. Well, here’s where a leased line comes in, as it offers numerous benefits in comparison to standard broadband connections however dependent upon the company utilised the prices of a lease line can vary greatly. One of the benefits of the Internet, is the way that it provides information quickly and succinctly such as when requiring to make comparisons of available options. When it comes to leased line costs, the fact is that the various services available can have significant cost differences, which is why it pays to utilise an online resource such as www.leasedline.co.uk that enables the visitor to ascertain quickly the various prices by virtue of a useful comparison service.
There’s a wide variety of options with leased lines, whether looking for a single leased line or a lease line network, the choice has grown considerably in recent years. With this in mind, the difficulty is how to compare available options, which is where a useful comparison website is able to provide a solution, comparing as it does leased line costs, enabling the visitor to make an informed choice on leased line connections.
The website I’m specifically talking about is www.leasedline.co.uk, and its popularity has grown exponentially due to the fact that it saves its visitors significant amounts of money when looking at leased line prices. The website sports a simple interface which provides an efficient means of obtaining quotations from all the leading UK leased line suppliers. The process is broken down into three simple steps, the first of which is to answer a few simple questions, and supply a relevant e-mail address for the quotation report to be sent to. Upon receiving this, the resource then obtains an array of quotations from all of its providers that are able to provide a quotation for the specific requirements, like you want a leased line in Chichester for example, and subsequently sends the free quotations as per the visitors specific criteria. In addition for those who wish to speak to a relevant expert, a useful free phone landline number is provided.
As testified by the testimonials and quotes that are freely available through the website itself, this resource has had a significant impact in regard of reducing the cost of leased line options utilised by many businesses and as such is justifiably popular.
UK companies urged to tackle escalating £1.5 billion computer downtime problem
Private and public companies in the UK will spend more than £5 billion (1) on buying in the latest computer technologies and systems by the end of 2010 – but many will fail to implement procedures in the workplace that reduce the risk of human error causing damage to their single most important business tool.
Research conducted by e-Solutions, one of the UK’s leading fraud prevention, internal audit and compliance consultancies, reveals human error accounts for 56% (2) of all total system downtime and data loss, and the financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and healthcare sectors (3) are more at risk than any other.
Central and local government also regularly experiences significant problems in this field, many of which can be eliminated if senior managers applied a degree of foresight to develop contingency plans that deal with all likely crisis situations.
“In an age when we can perform technological feats that would have been regarded as miracles only a few years ago, today many organisations cannot answer the very basic question: who last accessed our company server – and what did they do?” said Angus Stewart, chief executive of e-Solutions.
“The problem of ensuring a company’s computer system works properly at all times is exacerbated by the increased dependency on outsourcing, offshore consultants, temporary employees and IT staff that administer technologies purchased from a number of competing suppliers.
“In my experience, this brings about a significant decrease in direct accountability.”
To tackle the problem, and avoid reputation damage and costs estimated to be in the region of more than £1 billion annually, Angus Stewart is advising IT Directors to develop a holistic view of their entire IT infrastructure. This includes developing a facility that enables them to monitor the human factor through a process known as People Auditing.
“People are a system’s greatest strength – and they are also its greatest weakness,” added Angus Stewart.
“Members of staff, particularly members of IT teams, can unwittingly create the most damaging problems that bring companies to their knees. In such circumstances, it’s important a company’s IT team can quickly get to the cause of the problem – and rectify it.
“Unfortunately, many public and private sector organisations have not made any provision to track and monitor the activities of their people, particularly in their IT teams. This omission in their planning is a serious oversight and will lead to continued problems and frustrations – unless it is rectified.”
“Thorough People Auditing demonstrates that employees and partners are meeting established guidelines for information access, transaction integrity and intellectual property protection. It will also protect a business far more effectively – and that’s got to be a good thing.”
1. Figures quoted are supplied by the National Office for Statistics and relate to projected spend during the period January – December 2010.
2. Research conducted by Observe IT, one of the world’s developers of People Auditing solutions for industry.
3. Sectors identified by Observe IT.
4. Leading corporations and institutions around the world are using ObserveIT to secure and monitor their IT server environments including: Toshiba, Xerox, Coca-Cola, GE Money, Siemens, Samsung, Nissan, BP, BNP Paribas, Vodafone & Sky.
5. e-Solutions is recognised as one of the leading providers of compliance, internal audit and enterprise fraud detection solutions in the UK. The company’s clients include many of the high street’s biggest names in the financial services sector.
6. The company is based in Staffordshire, but operates throughout the UK and Europe.
Easynet ADSL suffers router problem
Business customers subscribed to Easynet’s “business grade” ADSL were in for a rude shock, when the company’s network went down entirely on Wdenesday.
According to Easynet, the problem was caused by a software upgrade to a core Cisco router.
However, a problem with the upgrade process caused the router to crash – taking Easynet’s network with it.
While Easynet announced “full service will be restored to them well within our normal [SLA]“, no doubt many business customers especially were left smarting by the downtime.