From 300 baud to multiple gigabits per second, it’s time to celebrate the history of the modem. It occurs to me that we will soon be entering a period where no one will remember the ear-shredding screech of a dial-up modem connecting their computers to the internet—all the while hoping no one picks up the phone and wrecks it. The humble modem is, at least as a device sitting on your desk alongside your computer, largely consigned to history—and more than a few recycling centers.

It’s no secret that edge networks, edge computing, and IoT are some of the biggest current trends in IT circles. In fact, Gartner projects that 75% of data will be created and processed outside of traditional centralized locations by 2025, up from about 10% in 2018.

The last few years have thrown about everything they could at the status quo. Shifting climates, political instability, and a global pandemic have all contributed to a broad host of network device supply chain issues. Consumers all over the globe are still affected by computer chip shortages and many other items delayed by supply chain issues. And it’s not expected to end anytime soon.

In the years that I’ve worked with large technology vendors and an MSP provider, there were a few common denominators between the ones that were successful. Partners that were consistently at the top of the food chain were the ones consistently providing value to their customers in some area other than just one specific product or service that was being offered.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, network failures happen. And when downtime means lost productivity, fast troubleshooting becomes an integral part of IT operations. So with the addition of OID (object identifier) monitoring history, Auvik providing users an archive for troubleshooting, analysis, and planning. When it comes to managing network issues, diagnosing the root cause is the first step. And often, there’s a gap between when an incident occurs, and when it’s reported.

It’s no secret that the world of manufacturing is changing fast. The “fourth industrial revolution”, a.k.a. Industry 4.0, is leading to the digitization of just about every stage in the manufacturing process. Of course, a shift from a primarily analog and mechanical world to one where digital is at the forefront means increased bandwidth requirements, larger potential attack surfaces for cybersecurity exploits, and a drastic increase in the sheer amount of network-connected devices.

State and local governments have always had to get a little creative when it comes to efficiently managing the government IT budget—they have to ensure they can stretch those dollars as far as they’ll go. However, inefficient network management practices are only adding to the challenges of local government IT modernization, and sucking the life out of their information technology budget.

We have some exciting news. Today I’m thrilled to welcome a new member to the Auvik family. The MetaGeek team are experts in wireless and through their 15+ year history, MetaGeek has led the way in creating tools to help network administrators and wireless engineers build, monitor, and troubleshoot Wi-Fi networks. At Auvik, we have an ambitious and aggressive roadmap to deliver a remarkable technology management experience.

Most network engineers have a love/hate relationship with the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Ok, maybe it’s more like tolerate/hate. It’s been the de facto standard for most network-connected devices since the late 80s, so we’ve all used it at some point. But despite the name, SNMP isn’t always simple to use.

“What’s data sovereignty? Is it the same thing as data privacy? What about data sovereignty vs data residency?” These are questions that plague many business owners, especially when you consider the cost of non-compliance. But achieving compliance can be challenging when you aren’t sure what rules you should be complying with.