IT Security Services by Screamer Telecoms
Business, Cyber Security, IT November 22, 2023 Unfortunately, Cybercrime has become common, with unprotected businesses being identified and targeted. As new technologies emerge and are implemented, criminals find gaps and ways to exploit those whose approach to IT Security has been minimal. IT Security products have been developed to provide protection and peace of mind. However, when used solely on their own, they may need to ensure complete system safety. For proper network security, a multi-faceted design that is maintained and monitored by IT Professionals is required. Five Predicted Trends in Cybercrime & IT Security in 2023 AI-powered attacks: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning are now being harnessed for malicious intent. AI can latch onto various features such as voice automation, geo-location, and more to help criminals identify and exploit ‘weakest link’ systems. AI can also collect information on organizations from multiple sources and employ it to assist hackers in gaining system entry. AI ups the ante, capable of launching large-scale, highly sophisticated attacks with speed. Add to this the ability to learn from mistakes, and a new super breed of security threat is posed by AI & ML. Ransomware: The threat of Ransomware continues to grow. Protection measures and elements can be implemented, but it requires vigilance from all angles. Untrained System Users are often the weak link that Ransomware exploits. IoT & Remote devices being targeted: IoT and remote devices have not traditionally been included in system protection. This disconnect has contributed to them being identified as weak points in IT System Networks’ security. Devices left out of the security strategy provide opportunities for exploitation through malware, hacking, denial of service, sabotage, and more. Complete protection will require failsafe so that employees’ remote devices can join and leave business networks safely. Emerging standards for multi-factor authentication: As Data Protection becomes paramount, a tipping point is being reached regarding the advantages of multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor Identification is moving away from a ‘cumbersome but good idea’ to a requirement, especially as most security breaches have been linked to weak single-feature identification. Multi-factor authentication allows for much tighter control of access, enhancing system security. The Adoption of more sophisticated security technologies: New technologies that completely eliminate common risks are no longer going to be fringe options but essential tools. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Solutions, Deception Technologies, Network Traffic Analysis, and more are just some of the complex technologies that can detect and respond to abnormal or irregular activities system-wide. Screamer Telecoms: Your Partner in IT Security Screamer Telecoms provides IT Security Services that protect every element of your company network. Our holistic, individualized, and scalable plans give you access to our skilled IT experts to monitor, assess, and ensure that your business stays safe. Screamer Telecoms Screamer Telecoms provides business-critical IT service solutions. We specialize in ensuring access to enterprise-level security, software, infrastructure, and service plans for small and medium-sized businesses. Don’t risk your company’s future. Employ professionals to ensure that technology works with you rather than against you. Contact Screamer Telecoms today for a free assessment or to find out what would benefit your system’s security.
IT Products & Services For Businesses In The Future
Business, IT, Managed IT November 20, 2023 Predictions for what will be possible in the IT world of the future range from logical extrapolations to wild speculation. A glance backward can leave one amazed by the speed of progression and the global adoption of technologies. Less than 20 years ago, the Internet had an estimated 16 million users worldwide. Email accounts were uncommon, and social media platforms were not yet invented. Today there are an estimated 3.57 billion Internet users! When you consider what might be possible for your small or medium-sized business in the coming years, IT Infrastructure will no doubt play a role in how business is conducted. Technology Imperative Companies now understand that incorporating and integrating available technology is advantageous and virtually imperative to be relevant in today’s market. Screamer Telecoms presents a range of completely scalable solutions for every-sized business, from precise targeted solutions to robust, comprehensive full-scale packages that leverage multiple products & fail-safe systems. Screamer Telecoms offers the best modern technology applicable to your business today so that your company is ready to have the competitive edge of tomorrow! Predicted Tech on the Horizon Increased Automation: Automating technology has a growing foothold in many thriving small and medium-sized businesses. It can positively impact interfaces with customers, employees & pragmatic IT equipment. Analysts predict that in the future, many more tasks will be automated – a development that hopefully will take some of the mundane out of the workplace. At best, it frees up employees to focus on tasks that humans will always do best. More Remote Office Workers: The trend of expanding the modern office beyond a set physical workspace is expected to continue. Advances in communication tech now allow team members to collaborate from various locations around the globe. IT Services will be required to design Digital Offices & Virtual Platforms that cater to each business’s individual structure, operations & their employees. Expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT): As mentioned above, office automation and smart offices will be globally adopted as more case studies proving their value are published. Products & services will become more refined. It is predicted that the Smartphone will remain the central hub of the IoT, i.e., one will use their Smartphone as the “remote” for the system of multiple interconnected devices. IT Services will be required to design user-friendly app interfaces that allow for devices to be added to the system & device integration, i.e., the ease of communication between the devices while at all times maintaining network security. IT Services will also be tasked to design systems that allow devices to interact with one another in new ways, necessitating intelligent data management design. Big Data: The power of big data continues to be revealed. New ways of storing and mining it are consistently coming onto the scene. Businesses today simply won’t be able to ignore the value of their data in the future, and the sheer volume of data being generated will necessitate practical storage solutions. Archiving that complies with legal industry rules and privacy regulations will be required if optional. IT Services will be required to manage clients’ business data securely & refine the data to become information for the client. More Cloud: Cloud Services have grown substantially for both consumers and corporate clients. In the future, there is likely to be a greater trend of “Pay-for-what-you-use,” i.e., only when resources within The Cloud are accessed will clients be billed, digital office platforms coupled with remote-office workers, and an increase in data management & data protection services. The Power of Potential The value bestowed by future technologies on the businesses that adopt them is exponential. Technology will shift small and medium-sized businesses from a Start Up-status to being industry disrupters – as consumer analytics & market reach will allow for greater business agility. Businesses will be able to grow quicker than ever before. Contact Screamer Telecoms today. Get Connectivity you can count on, come what may! Contact: 087 940 6900 | Email: sales@screamer.co.za
Choosing the Right Business Internet Connection
Business, Screamer, SME Business November 15, 2023 In today’s digital world, selecting the ideal business internet connection is paramount for smooth business operations. The right choice ensures fast and reliable connectivity, allowing businesses to thrive. However, making the best decision can be complex, as there are several considerations beyond speed, including usage, suitability, and resilience. Broadband vs. Ethernet: Understanding the Options Broadband Broadband, such as FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) and cable services, is widely available and popular among residential and small businesses in South Africa. While it offers fast speeds at an affordable price, it may not always meet larger businesses’ performance and resilience needs. Broadband relies on a shared public network, resulting in potential performance degradation during high traffic periods. Additionally, broadband lines are vulnerable to signal loss and outages caused by environmental factors or accidents, leading to extended service downtimes. When it comes to businesses, these limitations can be a hindrance. Hybrid Connectivity Options Ethernet over FTTC (EoFTTC): EoFTTC combines FTTC connectivity with a dedicated Ethernet network, offering improved performance and a quicker installation than standard FTTC. Fault resolution may take up to eight hours. Business-Grade Broadband Due to budget constraints, traditional broadband may be the only feasible option for some businesses. However, it’s essential to consider the limitations of standard broadband services, particularly for businesses with more demanding requirements. Choosing the Right Business Internet Connection When deciding on a business internet connection, consider the following factors: Primary Circuit Type: Choose the primary circuit type based on service level guarantees and circuit performance. Circuit Failure: Assess the impact of a loss of connection on your business, determine acceptable downtime, and calculate the associated costs. Circuit Resilience: If downtime is unacceptable, prioritize a failover with a resilient path. Consider the required bandwidth for resilience. Selecting the most suitable and reliable business internet connection is crucial for seamless operations. If you need assistance evaluating your options and choosing the right connection, don’t hesitate to contact us at 087 940 6800 or complete the form below. We’re here to help you make the best choice for your business.
Hybrid Cloud Solutions Tailored for Businesses in South Africa
Business, Cloud, Products, Screamer November 9, 2023 Innovation has transformed from speculative to foundational with Cloud technology, making Cloud Services and Software Solutions disruptive, empowering, and transformative. This shift is evident in the high adoption rates of available Cloud Technologies. Cloud Technology provides the ultimate flexibility, with its various components adaptable in a personalized way to suit your business processes. Enjoy seamless and secure access to company data, rapidly integrate new software into your business network, and establish resilience against computing disasters by integrating the best of Cloud Computing into your operations. Screamer Telecoms Offers: Private Cloud Solutions: On-premise cloud (OPC) Managed Cloud Solutions Hybrid Cloud Solutions Understanding the Potential of Hybrid Solutions Hybrid Cloud Defined A customized mix of storage, services, and computing environments comprising public cloud services, private cloud services, and on-premise technology. Hybrid Cloud Solutions allow your business to leverage the strengths of different Cloud Systems to improve business functioning. Ideal Models Hybrid Cloud Solutions are the perfect answer to overcome the challenges and constraints inherent in fully private or fully public-only Cloud solutions. Deploying a Hybrid Solution permits a bypass of potential drawbacks in traditional systems, maximizing and integrating the best of both worlds. Capitalize on cost-effectiveness without compromising security. Benefits to Your Business Investing in a comprehensive solution affords cross-cloud visibility, enabling you to operate with a big-picture perspective and avoid inefficiencies with business resources. With a personalized hybrid cloud environment: Take advantage of end-to-end versatility and agility. Decrease disruptions and ensure smooth access and performance across clouds. Get the most value with SaaS and pay-on-demand services. Screamer Telecoms: A Team You Can Trust Our team of solution architects possesses the expertise to design, build, and manage a unified Cloud Solution that matches your business needs and budget. We ensure a smooth transition without disrupting your business operations. Superior from Every Angle The Cloud can contribute to smoother functioning and superior control and management of company resources, providing: Lower infrastructure costs and added flexibility, avoiding hardware headaches. Compliance assurance, retaining, organizing, and easily analyzing archival data, including mail. Robust 24/7 security with monitored defenses for true peace of mind. Cloud and IT integration with best-of-breed products overseen by dedicated professionals defining superior service in quality IT support. Reliability is paramount in today’s business kingdom, ensuring consistent predictable availability through Cloud Solutions. Contact Screamer Telecoms today. Get the most from Cloud Technologies.
Elevate Customer Experience with Screamer Telecoms SD-WAN
Business, IT, Managed IT, Screamer November 6, 2023 In our hyper-connected world, the retail landscape is transforming as customers demand a seamless blend of online and in-store shopping experiences. This trend reshapes the industry, compelling retailers to deploy innovative technologies for a world-class omnichannel presence. Leveraging IoT and cloud technologies is essential for retailers to meet evolving customer expectations. 70% of companies lack confidence in delivering a seamless hybrid customer experience due to network infrastructure limitations. Assessing Your Network Infrastructure To fulfill the dynamic expectations of customers, retailers must evaluate their network infrastructure. Both online and offline stores demand fast and stable internet connectivity to support bandwidth-intensive applications. Traditional WAN infrastructure often falls short, struggling with latency, downtime, performance issues, and security concerns. Enterprises can overcome these challenges by adopting Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN). Unlike traditional WAN, SD-WAN provides a cost-effective, agile, and scalable solution, empowering retailers to enhance agility and elevate the overall customer shopping experience. Revolutionizing Retail with SD-WAN As retail expands online and offline, the number of locations and transport options diversifies. SD-WAN emerges as a transformative solution, with 45% of retailers considering its adoption. Here’s how SD-WAN can revolutionize the retail industry: Improved Connectivity: SD-WAN works with various connectivity options, prioritizing critical business applications and routing them to connections with the lowest latency. It also ensures network redundancy with built-in auto-failover mechanisms. Simplified Management: Retailers with distributed environments can benefit from the decoupling of networking hardware from management. SD-WAN streamlines network traffic management via a centralized console, optimizing online and offline store connectivity. Flexibility and Scalability: SD-WAN allows seamless integration of secondary and tertiary connections, enabling retailers to expand their WAN environment cost-effectively. This flexibility ensures easy scaling up or down based on traffic requirements. End-to-End Visibility: SD-WAN provides complete visibility into the network, enabling real-time tracking and monitoring of traffic. Proactive 24×7 monitoring reduces mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR), enhancing uptime and availability. Better Application Performance: By addressing challenges like packet loss and network congestion, SD-WAN intelligently steers customer-facing and business-critical applications to low-latency, stable connections, ensuring optimal performance. Enhanced Network Security: SD-WAN integrates advanced security protocols, including next-generation firewalls, encryption, DDoS prevention, and anti-malware features. This convergence of network and security minimizes risks and ensures compliance. Time and Cost Savings: SD-WAN reduces costs associated with traditional WAN infrastructure, including unplanned downtime and deployment expenses. It facilitates rapid provisioning, minimizing time-to-go live for new site deployment and service onboarding. Screamer Telecoms Intelligent VPN: Transforming Retail Connectivity For modern retailers seeking exceptional shopping experiences and optimized operations, Screamer Telecoms managed SD-WAN solution, stands as a game-changer. Screamer Telecoms offers SLA-driven solutions in DIY, co-managed, and fully-managed engagement models, along with services ranging from network design to project deployment. With decades of experience, Screamer Telecoms provides a unique bundled product portfolio, including data connectivity, cloud services, cybersecurity, and more. Screamer Telecoms VPN integrates with existing networking infrastructure, ensuring end-to-end visibility and dynamic multi-pathing for optimal customer satisfaction. Screamer Telecoms’ SD-WAN solution aids in improving store conversion rates, enhancing application performance, reducing network costs, bolstering security, and simplifying IT complexity. Embrace the future of retail by creating a hybrid WAN infrastructure with Screamer Telecoms today.
Demystifying SIP Calling
Business, Screamer November 3, 2023 In recent years, businesses have embraced cloud-based SIP calling services as an alternative to traditional telephone lines. The global SIP trunking services market is expected to grow robustly, projected at a promising CAGR of ~13% from 2020 to 2030. As cloud-based solutions become the norm, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) emerges as the new standard for establishing versatile and multimedia communication across diverse channels. Understanding SIP SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, eliminates intermediaries, providing a direct link to the global communication network. Unlike traditional phone systems that involve Private Branch Exchange (PBX), Primary Rate Interface (PRI lines), and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), SIP trunks bypass PRI lines and establish a direct connection from PBX to PSTN via the internet. This saves on copper cabling and unlocks the benefits of an advanced cloud-based communication network. A SIP calling account goes beyond traditional telephone connections, enabling collaboration through video calls, text messages, and conference calls. This proves highly effective for businesses aiming for direct communication, regardless of the location or technical setup of the participants. SIP Calling vs. VoIP While SIP calling is often misconstrued as VoIP, it’s crucial to clarify that SIP is a protocol defining how VoIP calls are initiated, maintained, and concluded. How SIP Calling Works SIP initiates a call by signaling each terminal, and other protocols, such as the Session Description Protocol (SDP), facilitate the transfer of audio and data between phone systems. Voice information is encoded via codecs, converting audio signals into binary data for network transport. Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) encode and exchange audio and video data in real-time, transported via transmission control protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Components of a SIP Network A SIP network comprises five main components: User Agent: Hardware, devices, and networking elements that initiate, modify, or terminate calling sessions. Proxy Server: Similar to a router, it forwards requests from user agents to other destinations. Registrar Server: Accepts registration requests, authenticating new users within the network. Redirect Server: Responds to requests with 3xx, redirecting users to intended recipients. Location Server: Provides caller location details to redirect and proxy servers. Business Use Cases of SIP Calling Several businesses have leveraged SIP calling to save costs and gain benefits such as reliability, scalability, and customization. Notable examples include: GoDaddy: Established direct communication channels with small business owners. Aircall: Used SIP domains to direct inbound calls cost-effectively through PSTN networks. Weave: Efficiently managed its business using SIP trunking. Splice Software: Enhanced customer experience and brand management through SIP trunking. WW (Weight Watchers): Scaled globally with reliability using SIP trunking. Conclusion: Embracing SIP Calling for Business Connectivity In today’s digital era, where customers seek diverse communication channels, SIP calling emerges as a strategic choice for businesses. This protocol facilitates secure connections through flexible VoIP apps, seamlessly connecting employees, customers, and vendors. For businesses seeking the myriad benefits of SIP calling, reaching out to Screamer Telecoms ensures reliable and tailored connectivity solutions. Discover how Screamer Telecoms can provide broadband internet solutions that perfectly align with your business requirements.
Key Considerations for Choosing Business Broadband Services for SMEs
Business, Screamer, SME Business November 2, 2023 A reliable internet connection is crucial for seamless operations in the fast-paced business world. As everything from marketing to transactions happens online, opting for exemplary commercial broadband service becomes imperative, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Here are essential factors to ponder before making your decision. Wired, Wireless, and Fiber: Decoding Broadband Options Understanding the nuances of broadband delivery is the first step. Broadband, a high-speed data transmission method, comes in various forms such as digital subscriber lines (DSL), wireless (Wi-Fi), and fiber optic cables. DSL utilizes existing copper wires, Wi-Fi operates through radio signals, and fiber optics transmit data using light pulses. Your choice should align with usage patterns, speed requirements, and budget constraints. Upload and Download Speeds: Tailoring Speeds to Business Needs While download speeds are crucial for everyday tasks, upload speeds are vital for file sharing, video conferencing, and VOIP calling. Tailor your speed requirements based on your business needs, considering factors like the number of connected devices and employees. Usage Limits: Navigating Data Caps and Fair Usage Policies Be aware of data caps imposed by ISPs, as exceeding these limits may result in additional charges or slower speeds. Even unlimited plans often have ‘fair usage’ clauses. Evaluate your enterprise’s data needs, considering potential fluctuations, such as increased usage during remote work scenarios. Discuss usage limits with your ISP to avoid surprises and align costs with your data requirements. The Importance of Bandwidth: Beyond Speed, Focusing on Capacity While speed is essential, bandwidth is equally critical. Bandwidth determines how much data can be uploaded or downloaded at once. Inquire about your ISP’s contention ratio, representing the balance between maximum demand and actual available bandwidth. This ensures that your business has sufficient capacity for simultaneous tasks and multiple users on a single connection. Extra Features: Enhancing Connectivity with Added Tools Beyond speed and bandwidth, consider additional features that can optimize your broadband usage. Security is paramount, so inquire about antivirus software and enterprise-grade security measures. Look for tools designed for businesses, such as Google Workspace, and assess the IT support level. Evaluate deployment time and overall experience the ISP offers in meeting business requirements. Conclusion: A Holistic Approach to Business Broadband Choosing the right broadband service extends beyond speed considerations. Delve into the type of connection, bandwidth capacity, usage limits, and supplementary tools tailored for business use. Pay attention to the expertise of your ISP in meeting business requirements, providing support, and ensuring reliable availability. For a tailored broadband solution that perfectly suits your SME’s requirements, connect with Screamer Telecoms. Benefit from our rich expertise in providing seamless connectivity solutions for businesses.