May 17, 2012

BYOD Drives Need for Context-aware Security and Consolidated Management: Aruba Networks Podcast

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In seemingly the blink of an eye, we’ve witnessed an evolution from employees carrying almost nothing but Blackberry’s to the bring your own device era, driven by iPhones, iPads, Androids, Windows phones and all manner of computing and communication devices. In the midst of it all is Carousel Industries’ partner Aruba Networks, which builds the wired and wireless networking components and tools that make BYOD possible. To check the pulse of the BYOD movement, we checked in with Robert Fenstermacher, director of product and solutions marketing at Aruba, who brought us up to speed in this information-packed podcast. 4 Steps… Continue Reading ›

Telework Week Demonstrates Big Savings from Home Worker Strategies

working from home

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Working from home saves the time and fuel associated with commuting, and thus real dollars, but can also improve employee productivity and make employees happier. Not surprisingly, management is taking notice and becoming more receptive to the idea. Those are some of the key takeaways from Telework Week 2012, co-sponsored by Cisco and the Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership focused on demonstrating the tangible value of telework and serving the educational and communication requirements of the Federal teleworker community.  This was the second year of the weeklong event and participation was up fairly dramatically, with an 80% increase in the… Continue Reading ›

Virtual Desktops: A Key Component of BYOD Success

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At Carousel we get a lot of questions from customers about the BYOD (bring your own device) trend.  One topic that comes up over and over is how to securely enable employees to interact with the corporate network from any device while allowing them to be as productive as possible.  In this regard, Virtual Desktop, or VDI, is a powerful solution – albeit one that is part of a  comprehensive, holistic solution and does not exist in a vacuum.  We had a chance to catch up with Phil Magnuszewski, the Director of Cloud and Virtualization Solutions at Carousel, to discuss… Continue Reading ›

Carousel is Prepped for iPad Data Onslaught – Are You?

Using-ipad-tablet-in-business

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The new iPad is set to hit the streets on March 16, an event for which Carousel Industries has been preparing for about 18 months, says Scott Moody, the company’s Manager of Corporate Technology. “We recognized these were going to be a game-changer,” says Moody, who is responsible for Carousel’s internal IT requirements. “We’ve been preparing for the influx of Wireless connectivity and mobility for a year and a half.” Faster iPad Connection = More Data With its support for 4G/LTE networks, the new iPad (which everyone but Apple calls the iPad 3) will support far greater data transfer speeds… Continue Reading ›

With Infrastructure in Place, Mobile Video is Poised for Takeoff

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We are at an inflection point with respect to the use of video in the enterprise where people have grown comfortable enough with the technology that creativity will now kick in and unleash new applications that take advantage of video-capable mobile devices. So says Surendra Arora, vice president of business development for Polycom’s mobility initiatives, in this insightful podcast for Carousel Connect. “Everybody is now comfortable with video. We’re comfortable with posting and seeing things on video. The support infrastructure has caught up,” he says. “You’ve got a perfect storm of devices, of network capability and software capability that combines… Continue Reading ›

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 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 ›

3 Keys to Setting Up a Temporary Wireless LAN

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As more and more people roam this earth armed with smart phones, tablets and all manner of communications devices, they pretty much expect to have wireless Internet access all the time. And being outside at, say, a corporate barbecue or a sporting event is no excuse not to have connectivity. Similarly, first-responders in emergency situations often need Internet access in places where such access doesn’t normally exist – and fast. The answer is a temporary wireless LANs, which are becoming quite easy to set up, according to Chris Williams, a systems engineer with Carousel Industries. “If you want to deploy… Continue Reading ›