May 17, 2012

4 Best Practices for Developing a Strategy for Mobile Security

Phone with key

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Today’s workers are more mobile than ever before, depending on a wide variety of network-enabled electronic devices to get their jobs done. As a result, wireless networks are no longer just a convenience, a nice-to-have feature that impresses visitors to your building. They are crucial to the everyday performance of most any organization. In this kind of environment, companies must have an effective strategy for providing not only mobile communications, but also ensuring the security of those communications. Coming up with such a plan requires a willingness to review how your organization works, and how the needs of your users… Continue Reading ›

3 Approaches to Identifying Mobile Devices

fingerprinting

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When it comes to managing wireless devices on your network, you’ve got two basic options: treat the device as a known entity that is allowed to access the corporate network, or as an unknown entity that is not. But there are several ways to make that determination, says Chris Williams, a systems engineer with Carousel Industries, and they are progressively more granular and useful. Fingerprinting and Web Browser Snooping The simplest way to identify a device is through fingerprinting or web browser snooping. With fingerprinting, when the device logs on, it performs a DHCP request. In that request is a… Continue Reading ›

The Magic Question

The Magic Question in Technology Sales

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I am often asked by the Account Executives I support, “Since you were a customer for so long, how would you respond to this offer?” Not to sound existential, but I typically respond with another question. There is no silver bullet question, but this one is pretty close and is deceptively simple. This “magic question” simultaneously focuses and broadens the conversation for ourselves and the customer. At a minimum, it elevates the conversation from a granular discussion of bits and bytes to one of high level business strategy. This article examines the “magic question,” its ramifications, and how the answers –… Continue Reading ›

BurstPoint Helps Bring Sports and Family to Faraway Troops

Burstpoint-Jumbotron

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Score two for Carousel Industries’ partner BurstPoint Networks. BurstPoint, an industry-leader providing a unique Video Communications Platform, played a crucial role in two recent sporting events that brought U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan closer to not only their families back home but to the sports teams they love. In partnership with the USO and TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, BurstPoint participated in an innovative program that enabled troops in Afghanistan to not only watch live games but meet team officials and family members via videoconference. On Nov. 15 of last year, family members of Massachusetts… Continue Reading ›

Data Backup Best Practices: How Carousel Does It

Storage-concerns

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Data backups are crucial to any IT organization but given the vast and ever-growing quantities of data that exist in most organization’s data networks, it can be a challenge to come up with a backup plan that adequately addresses business requirements but doesn’t break the bank. To learn more about backup best practices, we turned to Scott Moody, who as Manager of Corporate Technology for Carousel Industries is responsible for the company’s internal IT needs. “It’s a battle,” Moody says of the backup challenge. Many users figure that, since disk drives continually drop in price it should be no problem… Continue Reading ›

Effective Security Breach Response Takes Planning and Testing

IT Security Breach Response

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IT Security breaches are in the news seemingly every day, at companies both large and small. (For evidence, look no further than our own monthly security breach roundups, such as this one and this one.) No company is immune from a potential security breach, so no company should be without a sound breach response plan. “It’s a little like a fire evacuation plan,” says Thorsten Behrens, lead IT security architect for Carousel Industries. “Don’t figure it out when the building’s on fire; do it beforehand.” We talked to Behrens to learn what a good security breach response plan should look… Continue Reading ›

4 Steps to Effectively Planning a Call Center Upgrade

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Too often, customers make upgrades to their Contact Centers in haste, often because a product will no longer be supported under a maintenance contract, or because a system is on the verge of failure. Consequently, they fail to get the full benefit of a potential upgrade. In order to avoid costly missteps, what’s required is a thorough assessment of contact center assets and requirements prior to upgrading, says Zach Shankle, Director of Call Center Services for Carousel Industries. He recommends customers take four steps when considering a call center upgrade. Conduct a call center inventory The first step is to… Continue Reading ›

The Red Sox and Carousel Industries: Great Teammates

Fenway-in-winter

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I recently had the opportunity to do something I’ve always dreamed of doing. Walk up to home plate at Fenway Park and imagine myself blasting a shot over the Green Monster. (Note: It’s further than you think!) I had this rare experience when I was able to join Bob Harkins, Vice President at Carousel Industries, as we visited with Steve Conley, the Director of IT for the Red Sox in his Fenway Park offices. Carousel has been working closely with the Red Sox since 2003, when as Steve explained it, “We had a Centrex/Hybrid phone system running our call center… Continue Reading ›

Facing the Top Challenges Confronting IT: Avaya Podcast

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As a leading vendor that supplies infrastructure and tools to help customers address business requirements around voice, data and unified communications, Avaya sees first-hand the biggest challenges companies are facing. But it also knows how to address them. In this information packed podcast, we caught up with Steven Bandrowczak, Vice President of Global Accounts at Avaya, to get his thoughts on what he sees as the most vexing IT challenges of the day. 3 Biggest Challenges Facing IT Without hesitation, Bandrowczak cites the bring your own device phenomenon as the # 1 trend, “in every industry, every size segment, every… Continue Reading ›

IT Security Breach Roundup: Big Names and Big Numbers

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It’s tough to decide where to start with the January IT Security Breach Roundup. We’ve got a major-league Internet retailer getting hacked (and sued), yet another security company suffering a breach and a large community college finding out malware has been collecting personal data – for more than a decade. Zappos Suffers Security Breach – and Promptly Gets Sued We’ll give top (dubious) honors to Zappos, given its high profile, many customers and the fact that it’s owned by Internet giant Amazon. As redOrbit reported on Jan. 16: Online clothing retailer Zappos.com announced to its 24 million customers in a… Continue Reading ›