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Brianna Monsanto

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 whip out your backup redundancy strategy.

 or storage methods for data that allow for systems to remain operational in the event of a failure, are essential in an industry where data breaches, 

, and ransomware incidents remain a threat to business continuity. Jon Kuhn, SVP of products at Delinea, told IT Brew that recent disruptions such as the 

 have highlighted the importance of having redundancies in such events.

“That really caused a tremendous amount of damage due to the fact that it didn’t allow computers to reboot and I think there were very few people that saw that one coming, as wide-scale [as] it was,” Kuhn said.

Kuhn added that having adequate backup systems will remain “critical” for organizations as they continue to increase the amount of data in their systems.

“With video and audio content on the rise…you have a lot more to store and therefore, that’s going to continually be a problem as we get further on into the next 10 years,” he said.

IT Brew asked Kuhn and Kirkham IronTech CEO and founder Tom Kirkham how to craft a well-rounded redundancy strategy. Kirkham told IT Brew that businesses should have three components in their redundancy strategy: data restoration, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

Kirkham said there are different redundancies to consider for different purposes. Hard drives, for example, are an example of a fault-tolerant redundancy strategy for servers, he said.

“They can be configured in such a manner that if one disk fails…the data is still recoverable,” Kirkham said. “And in fact, if it’s done properly, the user won’t even know.”

At the data center level, Kirkham said redundancy should be considered for the power, heat, cooling, and internet service providers of a facility. He said cloned data centers, which he described as facilities with duplicated data centers, are an example of this type of redundancy strategy.

“The entire data center on one side is cloned over to the other one and they’re designed to be…hot swappable,” he said.

Kuhn said redundancy for account access is an overlooked area among businesses, a factor that some companies struggled with during the CrowdStrike incident.

“An approach for that might be to allow personal computers, then, access on a temporary basis. That might be what we call a break-glass account to get access to a specialized system in a time of need,” Kuhn said. “That’s really only used for emergencies.”

Kirkham said it is essential that businesses periodically test their different backup systems to ensure that they will work as needed in any given event.

“If you’re not testing it and improving it and looking at all your different backup time frames, and thinking about business continuity, you really don’t have a backup or redundancy,” Kirkham said. “You kind of have a wing and a prayer.”

Making the business case for pricier backup options. 

For IT leaders who need to plead their case for more premium backup equipment or services to stakeholders, Kuhn suggests that professionals showcase the impact downtime can have on their organization. Kirkham said downtime can be quantified as monetary productivity loss.

“How much downtime would be [for] one hour of your call center being offline, or your employees not being able to work?” Kuhn said. “And with that ROI in mind, you start to see where the cost of downtime actually far exceeds what protections you could put in place.”

Kuhn compared the need for enterprises to have 

“Would you drive without a spare tire to save a few dollars?” Kuhn said. “What would be the impact if you were on a lonely road in the middle of the desert when you don’t have a tire there?”

Five blue servers with arrows pointing to one another.

Why redundancy is required now more than ever

“With video and audio content on the rise…you have a lot more to store and therefore, that’s going to continually be a problem as we get further on into the next 10 years,” one expert says.

Somewhere there’s a shooting star with a cybersecurity professional underneath it wishing for something that would improve the industry.

Changes like the rise of remote work and cloud computing has pushed the cybersecurity industry into new territory. While CDW VP of Security Solutions Stephanie Hagopian told IT Brew that the job of a cybersecurity professional is not “conceptually difficult,” she said variables like 

“We all know what we want to do, but to do it well and to do it without…impacting latency and all the things that you need so that the business runs successfully is really difficult,” Hagopian

IT Brew asked cybersecurity professionals about the one thing they would change about the industry to make it better. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t hold back.

These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Troy Batterberry, CEO and co-founder of EchoMark, said he would increase regulation in the industry instead of solely resolving problems with technological answers.

“I’ve been having this discussion with a lot of other leaders in the industry and I think the reaction is always natural: ‘Are you crazy? Why would you want more regulation?’ It’s because we as an industry are not solving these problems fast enough and we as an industry are allowing bad foreign actors in nation states to earn dramatic amounts of money to fund their terrorist activities or their other campaigns. It’s time for us to think about this problem, not only through technology, but also through regulation that would move the needle.”

Randolph Barr, CISO at Cequence Security, said he would tell security professionals to ease off the block button.

“When I started out as a security guy, the first thing that I would do is just block everything. It’s similar to what a lot of security professionals are doing somewhat recently, as of a couple of years ago, when AI started becoming a lot more popular. The initial reaction for a lot of security professionals like myself is to block access to that. What we realized soon after is that we were disabling the ability for users within the company to be able to leverage some of these tools that are coming out to be a lot more productive…so we ended up having to allow some of that in or catch up on some of the security reviews.”

Noam Vander, CISO at IT management platform Atera, said he wants the industry to be more proactive and less reactive when it comes to breach response.

“The industry is a lot of the time waiting to be breached and then respond[ing], and I think the focus really should shift to making more robust products that incorporate security by design.”

Thi Tran, assistant professor of management information systems at Binghamton University School of Management, said he would change the misconceptions people have about the cybersecurity industry and where its threats come from.

“When people talk about cybersecurity, they only think about the guy sitting at home and writing all of the code that would go into the attack. Yes, that’s true, but it’s just only a very small fraction of that and all of the statistics and numbers actually prove that.”

Stephanie Hagopian said she would transform the perception of security from being just a cost center to being an enabler for a business.

“If I could see anything change across the board, it would be that and it’s happening in silos. It’s happening in bits and pieces in an ad hoc fashion, and that’s why I have a lot of hope it is gonna change.”

Cybersecurity experts share the things they wish the industry would leave in the past

“I think the focus really should shift to making more robust products that incorporate security by design,” one cybersecurity professional says.

Kelcee Griffis

For CommScope’s Thierry Chau, capacity and caution are king.

The network infrastructure company operates cellular data and wireless connectivity systems in more than two-thirds of the NFL stadiums across the country, supporting everything that makes a live event tick, from mobile entry and cashless sales to fan-generated internet traffic. (How else will you post that #touchdown tweet?)

Chau, CommScope’s VP of market development who specializes in large venues, recently spoke with IT Brew about the challenges of keeping high-density networks functioning and safe—whether they’re enabling fans to buy a beer during a Sunday night football game or Swifties trying to livestream a performance of “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).”

According to Chau, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of wireless, touchless, and cashless technologies, putting a premium on network stability and capacity.

“The adoption rate was forced upon us, and it was kind of expected. So, [in] places like the Dallas Cowboys and a lot of [other] NFL stadiums, there was no option to have paper tickets. To reopen, they went ticketless,” he said. “That puts a demand on the wireless network.”

Keeping pace with that demand means making sure the venue has enough bandwidth to accommodate everyone at once. On a high level, this means ensuring access to licensed and unlicensed spectrum that can carry high-density 5G mobile and Wi-Fi traffic, he said.

“Both sides have technical challenges around putting that much spectrum and that much gear into an area that’s fairly confined,” Chau said.

From a security perspective, Chau said admins typically build privacy into a venue’s infrastructure so that users can’t see other network users, or so that the default internet gateway is the only host that shows up in a network scan.

Large-scale networks are also engineered to spot and prevent popular scams, like the “evil twin” scheme that mimics a venue’s real Wi-Fi network and tries to steal a user’s data once someone unwittingly connects to it.

Most enterprise Wi-Fi networks can detect these “malicious rogues”and prevent other users from connecting while admins pinpoint the source and shut them down, according to Chau. Administrators can apply artificial intelligence tools to “fingerprint” such behaviors and proactively alert security staff the next time the pattern surfaces, he said.

In man-in-the-middle attacks, another common scam, a bad actor will try to capture signals emanating from users’ phones searching for networks to which they’ve previously connected. (That’s why Chau said you should always tell your phone to “forget” the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi network when you’re done using it.) Use of an encrypted browser usually provides some protection against bad actors tracking your online activity this way, he noted.

Administrators also have to make sure the network isn’t consumed by capacity-hogging background apps.

Photo syncing services that automatically start dumping freshly taken gameday selfies and winning-touchdown shots into the cloud used to be a problem. Now, admins “have gotten a little smarter,” Chau said. “They’ll filter some of those sites out so that traffic can be consumed for other things, as opposed to just being consumed directly with uploading photos.”

Chau’s takeaway for network administrators? Make sure you think about upgrades holistically, not in a piecemeal fashion. After all, fans won’t be able to enjoy the touchless venue entry or super-fast Wi-Fi if their virtual tickets refuse to load or the DHCP server is bottlenecked.

“When you’re building a large-scale network, everything has to scale within that ecosystem, not just the access, or the switching. The core also has to come, and the backhaul as well,” Chau said. “It’s only as strong as that least common denominator.”

Keeping fans connected, safe is top priority for network admins.

Security Super Bowl: How NFL stadiums think about IT

CommScope VP says scaling up the whole network—not just pieces of it—is key.

Security Super Bowl: Here’s how stadiums think about IT

Eoin Higgins

The IT industry is still feeling bullish about the future despite recession fears, a new CompTIA report reveals—another indication of the tech sector’s economic resilience.

, CompTIA’s State of the Channel 2023 report details how the industry views the health of the sector and what’s next. Tech companies and professionals are optimistic about the industry, they told CompTIA, and looking for new ways to innovate and bring cybersecurity solutions to consumers.

A whopping 90% of North American companies said they feel good about the channel’s continued relevance, made up of 43% feeling that “the channel is relevant and changing rapidly” and 47% feeling it is “relevant and holding steady.”

“The channel is healthy and evolving with new technology solutions, new players, new rules of engagement, and new customer habits,” CompTIA senior director of industry analysis Carolyn April said in a statement. “The majority of firms feel good about business prospects, whether they’re competing in the traditional arenas of reselling and infrastructure, focus on consulting and services or represent new and adjacent channel types.”

A bare majority (52%) of managed services providers reported that cybersecurity services still drive most business. That led to 42% of those polled hiring more cybersecurity professionals and 41% retraining their workforce on cybersecurity protocols in the past year.

“Customers are more knowledgeable and exacting about the technology solutions they use, and have more options about where to buy them,” April stated. “If you are not providing them with a high level of service and support, they are going to move on.”

IT

Why redundancy is required now more than ever

Cybersecurity experts share the things they wish the industry would leave in the past

Security Super Bowl: Here’s how stadiums think about IT

CompTIA report shows IT channel optimism holding steady

Top insights for IT pros