Knowledge

Slovenia Fully Digitally Connected During the EU Council Presidency

Despite the demanding pandemic situation, Slovenia has managed the EU Council presidency according to plans. Work and remote cooperation were uninterrupted, secure, and simple to use. More than 8,000 meetings equaled saved time and money and a lowered environmental impact. The Cisco Webex solution was at the forefront, which was set up for the Ministry of Public Administration by NIL. Read the case study!

Sustainable Business Strategies: Responsibility and Opportunity of the HR

Author: Katarina Primožič Ramoveš

One of the bigger COVID-19 consequences is definitely the change in business and management standards. The awareness that the social component is key for reaching long-term results and well-being has strengthened.

What you need to know about the increased Digital Risks following the cyber-attacks on Ukraine

Author: David Kasabji

This whitepaper covers detailed analysis of known malware used in cyberwarfare, with guidelines on how to mitigate, detect and respond to them.

Visit of a Security Operations Center (SOC)

Author: Jakob Premrn

In this podcast, we discussed what SOC actually stands for, described major roles in the SOC team, and provided some insights into the day of a cyber specialist in NIL`s SOC.

How to evaluate the credibility and quality of a SOC

Author: Matevž Mesojednik

Choosing a MDR service provider is very important, yet tricky task. In the podcast, we discussed some of the essential criteria for evaluating the quality and credibility of MDR providers.

Cisco Catalyst: One Gear to Rule the Next-Gen Enterprise Networks

Author: Damijan Markovič

Why Cisco Catalyst is much more than just a switch and what it brings to the table? Get to know the most notable devices of the Catalyst solution family and learn about their key advantages and technical features.

Log4j - one week in

Author: Jan Bervar

What you need to know now about Log4j and how to be better prepared for the similar threats in the future.

What to do and what not to do when you are under a cyber attack?

Tackling cyber-attacks “ad-hoc” with no adequate knowledge of how to respond to an incident is never a good reaction. So what should you do when you are under a cyber attack?

Understanding the Importance of First Steps After a Ransomware Attack

Author: Suzana Kužnik

Dos and don'ts of a ransomware incident response. Or what to do and what not to do when you are under a ransomware attack.

Basic Principles of OT Security

Author: Jakob Premrn

OT networks are rigid and difficult to update. That makes them particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This, however, does not mean that they cannot be made secure. Learn which security mechanisms you have at hand to minimize cyber risks in your ICS environment!

Industrial Cybersecurity and how to protect OT environments?

Author: Jakob Premrn

The basics of OT environments, their design, their potential threats and adequate IT protection.

How to be secure from Ransomware?

Author: Jakob Premrn

Jakob Premrn, cybersecurity expert at NIL, part of Conscia Group, explains what is Ransomware, why is it so profitable and how to defend against it.

How to Stop Ransomware?

Author: Jakob Premrn

Ransomware attacks are probably the best proof that cyber crime works and is very profitable. Extortion payments have hit new records with an average of $570,000 in the first half of 2021. Why are ransomware attacks so common, “successful”, and how to protect yourself against them?

How to fight against cyber attacks?

If you have been feeling depressed about the Covid-19 crisis lately, we’ve got the news for you – cybercrime represents a similar threat to the modern civilization in a digital world as Covid-19 does to our health. It seems, we don't have any long-term answers to either of these challenges. How to fight against cyber attacks?

Reliable energy in time of evolving cyber threats

Heavily relying on IT and OT digital platforms, Centrica’s business critically depends 24/7 on their integrity and availability. Conscia managed SOC services are a core pillar in providing this assurance.

Secure End-to-end visibility across your infrastructure

Author: Kent Heide, David Danielsen

Learn how to deliver end-to-end visibility and observability across your portfolio of services with Cisco AppDynamics and Thousand Eyes platforms.

Troubleshoot less, innovate more!

Author: Kent Heide

How to get correlated, real-time visibility into application and network performance by using Cisco AppDynamics and ThousandEyes.

What is AIOps?

Author: Joacim Wicander

AIOps is an intelligent tool for monitoring and preventing problems in the IT environment. AIOps makes the performance of the IT department more efficient – so you get more time for value-creating work.

Who are hackers and what do they want?

Author: Jakob Premrn

On the motives and operations of cybercriminals. What are they after? Which are the typical attacks and who do they target? How dangerous are cyber attacks for businesses?

Data Abundance

Author: Suzana Kužnik

According to the famous saying “Less is More,” at our SOC, we strive to monitor and filter enormous amounts of data in a smart way, so that we can spot any suspicious data which could indicate danger. But how do our cybersecurity analysts manage that?

Wi-Fi 6E: a big step forward in Wi-Fi communication

Author: Arjan Kievits

What is Wi-Fi 6E? And how does this relate to the other frequencies? What more, if at all, will it offer? The answers to these questions can only be given if we also briefly look back at Wi-Fi in general. In this way it will become clear what is going to change and improve.

Cisco Black Belt Academy and its benefits for professionals and channel partners

Author: Vlado Č. Stajić, Martin Janse van Rensburg

Learn how the new Cisco Black Belt program emboldens the Cisco channel partners and helps professionals become experts in Cisco solutions and boost their career. Watch the video!

Deploying VMware solutions using Zero Trust Architecture

Author: Stojan Rančić

What are main pillars of ZTA and how to achieve the perimeter-less security using VMware technologies.

What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Author: Arjan Kievits

Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5 and now Wi-Fi 6. And yes, Wi-Fi 7 has already been mentioned. And then there is also Wi-Fi 6^E. No, 6E - with the "E" of Extended. What is Wi-Fi 6E and what are its key benefits?

Cybersecurity Diagnostics: Machine versus Human

Author: Jakob Premrn

Without ML and AI, data cannot be analyzed and understood, but on the other hand we cannot decide if the detected actions are malicious, what is going to be the next step of the threat actor, and how to block access of an adversary to your network without human interaction.

Firefighting Cyberattacks

Author: Matevž Mesojednik

Why is fighting cyber crime not about new technologies, but about new approaches.

With Cautious Optimism on the Road to Digital Immunity

Author: Stojan Rančić

From the cyber-risk management perspective, the combination of the lack of staff, technical debt, and current COVID-19-related difficulties poses quite a challenge. Learn how to strengthen digital immune system of your IT environment and improve its cyber resilience.

(Un)Secure Microsoft Windows for Free

Author: Jakob Premrn

Microsoft security solutions are part of all modern Microsoft Windows operating systems and offer a great deal of protection if they are configured correctly. Learn how you can create a secure environment using only the correctly-configured free and built-in Microsoft solutions.

Pure Storage FlashArray: Business Continuity for Most Demanding Environments

Author: Mitja Robas

High availability, simplicity, and low operational costs don’t go together well when it comes to IT infrastructure and business continuity. Pure Storage FlashArray is a state of the art yet easy-to-use solution for implementing Active-Active SDDC. Learn how to implement the Active-Active data center based on the Pure Storage FlashArray solution.

What is a Threat Detection Framework?

Author: Tom Kern

In today’s world of increasing complexity and lucrative cybercrime industry, you can only be certain of one thing: you will be hacked – and your exposure is growing. Discover the framework and approaches to protect your business against cyber threats – even in today’s world.

The advantages of cloud-based SIEM and Azure Sentinel

Author: Jan Češčut, Jakob Premrn

Standard SIEM solutions are relatively expensive, demanding to maintain, and rigid. The cloud-based SIEM systems can successfully solve these problems, while also bringing along many more functions. This webinar talks about Azure Sentinel, cloud-based SIEM by Microsoft, and its key advantages and properties. You will also see how Azure Sentinel works in a demo attack.

Secure Email Means Secure Business

Author: Niels Mogensen

Every business uses email. It is not a surprise that cyber criminals continuously try to hack it. To help you address email related cyber-risks, Niels Mogensen from Conscia explained how to secure your emails and your business! Download the white paper!

Conscia Device Portal a given when Suzuki Garphyttan invests in Industry 4.0

Suzuki Garphyttan is adopting their strategy for “Smart Industry 4.0” towards truly modern manufacturing with IoT – and the focus fell squarely on Conscia DevicePortal in order to keep track of all new devices that need to be connected.

Cisco SD-Access Under the Hood

Author: Robert Lesar

In dynamic IT environments, network and security operations can be challenging. Watch the webinar where we dived into the Cisco SD-Access solution and explained how it improves visibility, consistency, and security over the entire enterprise from users to applications.

How to secure ICS/OT/IoT environments with Cisco Cyber Vision?

Author: Danijel Grah

Learn more about the key vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks in ICS environments and how to protect your operations with Cisco Cyber Vision.

Microsoft Security Briefing

Author: Robert Turnšek, Jan Češčut and Danijel Grah

Learn about the key cybersecurity trends and see in practice how Microsoft technologies can help secure your business. The leading cybersecurity experts from Microsoft and NIL explained advanced cyber-attacks and demonstrated how to prevent them.

How does Cisco SecureX improve your security visibility at no additional cost?

Author: Stojan Rančić

Learn more about the key features of Cisco SecureX and how it strengthens your security across network, endpoint, cloud, and applications.

Banks that take cybersecurity seriously use a SOC

Delavska hranilnica savings bank is pursuing a strategic approach to cybersecurity in its continuing push to go digital and offer advanced digital products. This makes it crucial to effectively detect and respond to potential cyber threats, a feat made possible by the NIL Security Operations Centre (SOC), which is considered by the bank as the most comprehensive SOC service on the market.

Cisco DNA Center: Automation, Analytics, and Platform Overview

Author: Robert Lesar

Traditional networks are no match for the modern business demands. They are often too complex, rigid, and expensive to manage. Cisco DNA Center promises to change all that and give you complete control of your network. Learn how to leverage the Cisco DNA Center to simplify enterprise network management.

Simplifying application and infrastructure management with VMware Tanzu

Author: Anže Marinčič

The new VMware Tanzu set of solutions aims to bring developers and IT-operators together and change the way we build, run, and manage enterprise applications on-premises and/or across different clouds. Learn more about the key features of VMware Tanzu and how it improves software and infrastructure management.

Is your cyber defense strategy a waste of money?

Author: Jan Bervar

On average, businesses need around 200 days to notice that they have been breached. An average security incident costs companies around 3 million euros or more, even with smaller organizations. Why is it like this and how to improve these worrying numbers?

Securing diverse IT environments with Cisco Tetration

Author: Luka Dolenec, Jakob Jozelj

Modern applications and workloads are dynamic and distributed, but the majority of data centers are secured with traditional perimeter-only mechanisms. Learn how Cisco Tetration can help you protect multicloud and dynamic data center environments.

Stopping cybercrime from stopping business

Author: Jan Bervar

Today, a sufficient cybercrime defence must include incident detection and response capabilities, along with investments in increasing security maturity. But, how to enable that? How to provide immediate response to digital attacks? Find answers in our new white paper!

Wifi6 – Your guide to the new wireless standard

For each generation of WiFi we have gotten used to faster and faster wireless connections. The same thing applies to WiFi 6, but the biggest feature with this new generation of WiFi is not the speed itself but that the capacity and bandwidth are divided in a more efficient way. Download the white paper to learn more about WiFi 6, the technologies that enable it and WiFi 6 benefits.

WannaTry again? SMBv3 Vulnerability Awakes!

Author: David Kasabji, Boštjan Žvanut

The SMBv3 vulnerability (CVE-2020-0796) - LEAKED TODAY - affects almost all the new Windows systems. It does not have a patch yet, so our SOC team wrote some guidelines for minimizing the risk and protecting your business against a potential zero-day exploit.

Zero Trust eXtended framework (and how to establish it with Cisco’s solutions)

Author: Stojan Rančić

Learn how to limit unauthorized network and data access by leveraging the Zero Trust Architecture principles - a continuous endpoint authentication and authorization for your IT environment using Cisco technologies.

Microsoft Managed Security Services

Author: Eugen Rusen

Envisioning workshop for Managed Security as a Service that empowers organizations on their Cloud and Zero Trust journeys.

SOC Orchestra: The symphony of security tools

Author: David Kasabji

Learn wow we leverage automation and orchestration in our SOC to work significantly more efficiently, without reducing the quality of our services.

Application performance and business optimization with Cisco AppDynamics

Author: Viacheslav Isaev

Learn how you can leverage the Cisco AppDynamics platform to gain real-time insights into your application stack and use that data to improve your business outcomes, work processes, and customer satisfaction.

Disrupting wildlife crime with leading tech

In the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa, an international team of technology and wildlife experts have come together to disrupt the status quo.

Rise of Mobile Threats and MTD

Author: Leszek Twardowski

Learn how to protect your mobile device if it is offline and how to defend against mobile attacks including phishing, hacking, credential theft and more.

Introducing a Mobile-centric Approach to Zero Trust

Author: Claus Nussbaum

Zero Trust in Mobile Environments and MobileIron Roadmap.

Cisco Zero Trust Architecture

Author: Stojan Rančić

In this lecture, Stojan Rančić covered the main pillars of ZTA and showed the ways of achieving the perimeterless security using Cisco technologies.

New Cisco Career Certifications (2020)

Cisco announced a major update to their CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE certification programs, and introduced the new DevNet certifications focused on software skills, such as programming, application development, DevOps, and automation. New certification exams will be available on February 24, 2020.

SDN on steroids

Author: Mitja Robas

On SDN myths, real-life challenges, and practical use cases.

You better make good on your (security) debt

Author: Jan Bervar

“Technical debt” describes the consequences of all the bad choices and shortcuts we have taken in IT over the years. Cybersecurity is a similar story. How to pay off this "security debt"?

Improving workforce safety on industrial sites with IoT

NIL helped the OCP Group, a leading global chemical and mining company, establish a cost-effective and reliable solution based on IoT sensors to improve personnel safety at their industrial sites.

Simplified data center firewall policies for maximum security

Firewalls are notorious for having a suboptimal policy configuration – from stale, years old rules that are no longer needed, to rules that allow wide access and represent a critical threat to the business. OCP Group wanted to eliminate these risks and asked NIL to help them improve the network access security of their data center.

Lowering the aggregation link costs while improving service quality

A major international service provider was facing service quality issues due to regular, but non-deterministic congestion on their international, expensive aggregation links. NIL helped them develop a solution that automatically detects congestion and rebalances traffic across multiple links.

How to select the right SDDC?

When you are cornered by mounting business requirements, it is high time to start from scratch. Read how NIL helped a large energy distributor in the EU to create and migrate to an application-oriented, future-proof and highly resilient SDDC.

From 7 servers and 7 strategies to one single minded IT system and a business for the future

NIL helped JHL carry out extensive investigation and testing of SAP HANA solutions and the various deployment options, and implemented the new system with the predicted minimal disruption.

6connect ProVision™ integration with VMware vRealize

VMware vRealize integration for the 6connect ProVision automation platform helps 6connect address additional customers. Read how NIL developed this integration.

Smart security investing: change your game!

Author: Jan Bervar

Digital defense evolution is happening under the surface. However, to join it and make perhaps the most meaningful upgrade of your risk management in decades, you will have to change your game.

The challenges of new security protocols

Author: Stojan Rančić

The new protocol version TLS 1.3 allows for safer network communication, while creating new security challenges and concerns. We recommend that you review the security features of your environment before TLS 1.3 becomes widely used.

Faster cloud orchestration development

Swisscom turned to NIL to help them quickly finish the integration of VMware vRealize Automation tools into their new business cloud.

What do the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities mean for IT environments?

Author: Stojan Rančić

Who is affected by the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities and how can you protect your IT environment against the attackers?

New data center and WAN architecture. How to choose?

Cisco ACI or VMware NSX? What to automate? How to integrate private and public clouds? We helped an international bank choose the next-gen data center and WAN infrastructure.

IT infrastructure audit boosts productivity and improves user experience

NIL’s data center, LAN, WAN, compute, storage, and virtualization audit helps medical research corporation eliminate IT errors that were harming productivity.

How to improve grid reliability, compliance, and cost efficiency?

Learn how Cisco Substation Automation solution enables utilities to manage, control, and automate remote grid assets more efficiently by combining business and utility functions, and simplifying grid operations.

Digitalization of water and waste management

Author: Bojan Radulović

Learn how a small municipality in Slovenia embraced IoT and deployed the LORA network, smart sensors and an analytical platform in order to improve water usage utilization and garbage collection.

How to defend against DDoS attacks?

Author: Srečko Milanič

DDoS attacks are relatively inexpensive and easy to execute, so every organization is a potential target. How to respond against a DDoS and mitigate the threat?

Critical WPA2 vulnerability: you must update your devices and Wi-Fi infrastructure

Author: Stojan Rančić, Urban Jurca

Hackers can exploit the KRACK attack to intercept encrypted wireless traffic and thereby steal your sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, personal information, and professional secrets, if those travel through the wireless network unencrypted.

7 tips to boost your Wi-Fi network

Author: New Item

Learn how to set up a reliable, secure, and fast wireless network in your organization that won't cause any headaches for you, your employees, or your guests.

Cisco Certification Paths 2017 (PDF Map)

Internationally recognized Cisco career certifications have been around for more than 20 years and are still one of the most in-demand, relevant and top-paying IT-certifications in the industry. Download the certifications map PDF and see all available Cisco certification paths in 2017, recommended courses and required exams on one page.

The training for successful enterprise Wi-Fi management

The CWNA training is vendor-independent, practical, and covers broader wireless concepts, while it also provides the wireless administration skills that we can directly use on our equipment in our production environment.

Management and Orchestration in Complex and Dynamic Network Environment

Author: New Item

Learn how standardization can contribute to a successful service orchestration in the SDN environment and what can be achieved by proper system design.

Let it only be me who is (pen)testing my home network (Part II)

Author: Matevž Mesojednik

I the previous series, I illustrated a few specific weaknesses of badly reputed networking protocol, namely UPnP. But why not evaluate home router’s security posture from the inside and see how well it performs. See where this lead me.

Implementing NSX – real-life journey from idea to practice

Author: New Item

Data Center infrastructure should allow IT administrators and operations teams to meet their management and support nirvana by vaporizing the spells and curses related to the environment. SDDC is a platform that promises catching that unicorn by enabling true flexible and scalable infrastructure. 

Is Your Network Ready for 10 Billion Connections?

Author: New Item

Learn how to provide horizontal scalability and performance enhancements in your network that will enable the management of more than a million multivendor network devices.

Let it only be me who is (pen)testing my home network (Part I)

Author: Matevž Mesojednik

I got challenged the other day, having been given an opportunity to demonstrate some real-world hacks as part of the FRI student's Garage. The desired topic was cyber-attack surface within SOHO environments. 

Dude, where's my (cloud) firewall?

Author: Jan Bervar

Using the public cloud securely requires some rethinking of your security architecture. Cloud security is not about the trust you have in a cloud provider, but rather about building appropriate security controls.

"HoeflerText" isn't installed. Really?

Author: Matej Vidič

One of the new types of ransomware that we've been running into recently impressed me with its distribution approach and ability to avoid detection. Why was it so successful?

What is IT Security All About?

Author: Robert Turnšek

In the world of IT, security is one of its pillars. Today, saying that your company or business is totally secure is a luxury no one can afford. Security always was and will be a constant battle between you and the bad guys.

‘I want that course!’ … Sure, but do you NEED it?

Author: Marjan Bradeško

What NIL always tries to propose is at least a short discussion between our instructor and the customer’s contact. This approach typically results in a shorter training duration, greater customer satisfaction and – last but not least – optimal pricing.

The Suspicious Seven: A Network Visibility Checklist

What to do when your network is already compromised? This checklist outlines seven of the most common types of network blind spots and suspicious activities that every security team needs to be able to see. If you can’t detect these activities, you are giving threats a place to hide on your network. 

Cloud Application Security

Author: Jan Češčut

Learn how to allow secure cloud app usage that doesn't threaten your system security or your productivity. Watch a practical demo of how to discover cloud applications used in your environment, how to control their usage, and protect your organization.

Beyond certifications … the EXTRAS you provide!

Author: Marjan Bradeško

Recently I have seen numerous discussions in various blogs and forums, particularly in those related to Cisco Systems Career Certifications. Heated discussions about why, what, how – even if?

Operations Management Suite - Automation and Security

Author: Robert Turnšek

See how to streamline IT operations and respond faster to security threats from a single portal with Microsoft OMS. Through practical demo Robert showed how to enable automation and deploy threat detection and prevention mechanism.

Collaboration with this kind of engineer is easy. Even at 3AM.

Within its NIL Assist service, NIL provides Generali zavarovalnica d.d. with technical support in its IT-infrastructure management and problem solving. Marko Kariž is a dedicated engineer and the first to contact when a technical problem arises.

When Sniffer Meets Analytics and Big Data

Author: Robert Turnšek

When IT infrastructures evolve into complex systems full of legacy equipment and services, troubleshooting often turns into arcane magic or a game of whack-a-mole. If you haven't thought about network sniffing and reporting tools, it's high time you do.

Operations Management Suite - Workloads Insight

Author: Robert Turnšek

Learn how easily manage your on-premises and cloud infrastructure from a single portal with Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS). On practical scenarios you will learn how to gain insight across workloads.

So You Want To Become A Cloud Provider?

Author: Robert Turnšek

What’s not to love about the pay-as-you-go model of cloud computing? Your service price is distributed over a longer period of time, and your customers “repurchase” every month, rather than use a solution they purchased once for years. There are also a few downsides.

CCIE candidate, grab that cable!

Author: Marjan Bradeško

A few days ago a friend of mine who had read my previous blog on CCIE asked me to explain how it all looked like 21 years ago when I passed my lab exam. Well...

Azure Data Center Extension - Network

Author: Robert Turnšek

Learn how to set up the Azure environment to act like a natural extension of your data center, where you can run and manage your services just like you do on‑premise.

Azure Backup & Recovery (Part 2)

Author: Jan Češčut

Even if your backups are flawless, recovery downtime is where revenue is lost. The time to full recovery of the IT system is crucial. To help you minimize your recovery time and its impact on your business, our expert Jan Češčut explained when it makes sense to use cloud as your recovery service, and how to set up a recovery-ready cloud environment with Azure.

Azure Backup & Recovery (Part 1)

Author: Robert Markič

Learn to take advantage of Microsoft Azure to deploy an affordable and scalable disaster recovery system and minimize the business impact of system disruptions. The first webinar focuses on backup and demonstrates the benefits and limitations of recovery-ready cloud backup.

We All Work in Marketing

Author: Robert Turnšek

No matter what position you occupy in the company, most of the time you are part of some marketing process, even if you don’t realize it. I hear you – a technical guy explaining marketing?! Right. At least I will try to put some things into a different perspective.

Azure Network and Compute

Author: Robert Turnšek

Learn how you can use Azure as a flexible on-demand source of IT-resources and when this makes sense.

Software-Defined Data Center – the VMware Way

Author: Robert Turnšek

A software-defined data center relies heavily on virtualization technology. And VMware is one of the pioneers when it comes to virtualization as it helped reshape the whole data center industry a decade ago. Now the company is at it again – aiming for the cloud(s).

Azure Rights Management

Author: Jan Češčut

How can you ensure, that your documents are only read by the persons they were intended for? Watch the video and learn how to use Azure Rights Management Services (RMS) to protect your organization from intentional or accidental data leaks.

To CCIE or not to CCIE?

Author: Marjan Bradeško

A puzzled question? Grammatically wrong. What I mean is: "To pursue a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert [CCIE] certification or not?" Or let`s rephrase and generalize the question: "To become a certified individual or not?" We face such questions quite often. I have been asking this question myself - and been asked by my students, colleagues - multiple times.

Software-Defined Data Center – the Microsoft Way

Author: Robert Turnšek

Let's dive into Microsoft’s SDDC solution, which is very promising. Microsoft Windows Server 2016 tries its best to become a one-stop shop for the data center environment. Let’s see what tricks it has up its sleeve.

Azure Active Directory (Part 2)

Author: Jan Češčut

Learn how you can simplify your Azure administration and user management!

Azure Active Directory (Part 1)

Author: Robert Turnšek

In this webinar you will learn the basics of Azure Active Directory: overview of the functionalities and innovations, synchronizing on-premise AD and single sign-on - ADFS.

Why Software-Defined Data Center is Your Best Bet

Author: Robert Turnšek

Building data centers used to be a challenging job. It still is, to an extent, but the software-defined mantra that has taken over the IT industry simplifies a lot of challenges. And simple is (still) profitable, right?

Are you grabbing digitalization by the (t)horns

Author: New Item

If you mention digital transformation to IT guys, you can see the discomfort in their faces. Every transformation—including digital—will reveal potential shortcomings related to knowledge, implementation and even technology. Let’s not forget, even ego’s might get hurt.

Costs in IT: Part 3

Author: Robert Turnšek

Let's have a look at the operating expenditure (OPEX) view of IT solutions or costs that incur during the lifetime of an IT solution/ecosystem. Be warned – there are a lot of them that you haven't thought of at all.

Start on time

Author: Marjan Bradeško

For perhaps the hundredth time, I logged in on time to some Internet-based synchronous event. I should have been synchronized with the presenter. But, unfortunately, the presenter was not synchronized with me.

The Soft, Warm Underbelly of the Cloud

Author: Jan Bervar

Cloud automation is a complex collection of software, prone to cascading failures, and exposed to an untrusted population of users. How can it be exploited, what are the consequences, and how can we control the risks involved?

StorSimple – Provisioning a new volume

Author: Jan Češčut

Learn how to provision a new volume in StorSimple physical appliance. We take you through Password Management with Azure Active Directory, Azure Multi-Factor Authentication, and more.

Costs in IT: Part 2

Author: Robert Turnšek

Let's look at the investment part of IT (or CAPEX). What do we have to invest in the long term in order to own the IT environment we are building? The investment (cost) part of the equation in IT is pretty straightforward – we need hardware and software. Or is it?

StorSimple Manager Portal

Author: Jan Češčut

In the video, we looked into some of the StorSimple functions and how to configure them using the StorSimple Manager Portal (StorSimple device configuration and maintenance).

Costs in IT: Part 1

Author: Robert Turnšek

I am often being asked why IT costs so much. The answer can be simple or complex (as just about anything). Since I know most people want quick explanations and solutions, I can do you all a favour – IT is being presumed as costly because of people who work in it.

OPTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR ENTERPRISES & SERVICE PROVIDERS

Optical network become more important in later years as bandwidth has rapidly increased and fibers cannot be added with the same pace. Optical solutions based on Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) have been in use for enterprises and service providers (SP) to conduct different technologies with different speeds and variety of distances.

Should Government IT Be Any Different? Not Really.

Author: Robert Turnšek

Since Slovenians are always first to point towards their political leaders and government itself when they want things to change, the smart way of bringing changes to the nation should be the IT way.

Security is not the Issue, Trust is

Author: Robert Turnšek

Data centers of global IT cloud providers are built to last and can and will withstand just about anything – hardware, software and security wise. The only notable issue remaining with them is therefore trust related.

How can my network benefit from SDN?

With the flood of solutions and products that are promoted under the name Software Defined Networks one will inevitably ask the question “What’s in it for me? How can my network benefit from SDN?” And the answer, as is mostly the case, is: “It depends.” SDN is different things to different people and different organizations.

Are data stored by cloud providers really safe? No doubt—they are!

Author: Robert Turnšek

While individuals seem to, virtually blindly, entrust cloud services (and their providers) with their data (and much more), companies are very reluctant to store enterprise data on “someone else’s server”. But is this reluctance justified? Absolutely not.

DPI Solutions for Service Providers

Deep packet inspection (DPI) solutions are designed for carrier-grade stateful application inspection and session based classification of per subscriber IP traffic. The DPI functionality allows service providers to develop new differentiated services and increase their subscriber base by providing a portfolio of customer-tailored services.

Lessons learned from Volkswagen scandal

Author: New Item

I'm pretty sure we've all read about the Volkswagen scandal and how »resourceful« they were at using a software to make their cars with diesel engine perform way better than they really do, on a emission test. So why should you care about AFA storage »test drive«?

Separating the “wires” from “logic”

Author: Robert Turnšek

The idea of software-defined network (SDN) stems from the desire to increase practicality in managing IT resources, since IT specialists wanted to separate the management, control and data aspects of the network. How it works in real life? We compered three solutions.

The threads of IoT

Author: Marko Tišler

In its conception, a memex is a device, “mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility” that provides “enlarged intimate supplement to one's memory”. Do you recognize this description in any of the new technologies? Do you use it?

Breaking Myths: SDN and NFV

Author: Mitja Robas

IT administrators are setting their hearts on maximizing programmability and automating routine tasks. This also applies to the network, but in reality it’s difficult to achieve. What we do know is that different organizations need different network functionalities.

Clouds are not technological challenges

Author: Robert Turnšek

Migrating to the cloud is not related to technology but to company processes. Many IT companies are trying to present the cloud only as a technology, but this leaves them without the appropriate end result. Don't make the same mistake.

Do you trust your IT infrastructure?

Author: New Item

IT specialists are facing a dilemma—should they keep on building their own infrastructure or simply opt for a renting model and work on integrating the infrastructure into their business operations. Moreover every vendor claims it can help. But is this the case?

Mobility is here. Are you on board?

Author: Dejan Miletić

Nowadays people don't want to be constrained by the place and time of their work. Modern enterprise mobility is becoming the primary way of work in numerous organizations, so it should be approached in a serious and comprehensive manner.

UMTS & LTE Packet Core in SP Mobility

LTE, as a successor to UMTS, increases the capacity and speed together with many packet core network improvements. The challenge of interworking and seamless migration between the two technologies in the packet core area is a challenge that awaits many mobile service providers (SP's).

On our way into large global public clouds

Author: Robert Turnšek

From public cloud perspective, the giant from Redmond has finally realized that it is not alone in this world and has decided to support other systems, platforms, databases, devices and programming languages. For the good of us all.

Data in business environments: a blessing and a curse

Author: Robert Turnšek

Many Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and their superiors are asking themselves—how to wisely approach the problem of storage space shortage (and associated costs) and prepare ourselves for future storage challenges. Here I have a few answers.

Even more engaging conference for visitors and partners

Using NIL’s solution Storesense Expo, Microsoft will be able to further optimize the arrangement of exhibitor stands and conference events and as a result provide sponsors, visitors, and partners with firm arguments for being part of the conference.

Service Provider Network Management

Service provider network today tries to adapt to latest business and residential services. As result networks expand with number of devices as well as in number of features to support demanding services. Managing such networks requires highly educated personnel and right tools to manage running services.

The place to go if you are preparing for CCIE R&S

Matija Sarić attended Cisco CCIE 360 Learning Program for the CCIE Routing and Switching exam. He attended the CIERS-1 course and was later studying by himself under the mentorship of NIL's instructor Rober Lesar.

IP Next-Generation Network (NGN)

The idea behind the IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) is to provide IP transport for all services and applications, regardless of user access type, thus enabling the addition of new services and applications without any changes in the transport network.

IPV6 for Service Providers

Due to IPv4 address scarcity and increasing growth in the segment of connected devices the need for new address allocation has increased the requirement for service providers (SP) to offer IPv6 connectivity to subscribers. As the content available over IPv6 is increasingly growing a SP needs to upgrade its existing infrastructure to support the protocol.

The case for broadband Wi-Fi

This year we are celebrating 15 years of Wi-Fi technologies. In terms of technology, Wi-Fi is still pretty young and will probably see a lot more innovation in the coming years although it has experienced significant growth since the inception of IEEE 802.11n in 2007.

Engineering expertise represented NIL in the best possible light

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from Los Angeles, USA, was redesigning their network infrastructure. NIL assisted them with upgrading their optical DWDM network and with migration of legacy firewalls to Cisco ASA 5585.

Lower Opex and improved online store performance

Big Bang’s online store has become one of their most important sales channels and in order to keep up with the increasing website traffic and to ensure an excellent user experience, they decided to migrate the e-store into NIL’s Flex IT public cloud.

Overlay Virtual Networking

Ivan explained the benefits and drawbacks of overlay virtual networks as compared to traditional VLAN-based solutions. The second half of the session focused on architectural and scalability aspects of individual solutions from major virtualization vendors and emerging startups.

Clouds, Overlay, SDN

Ivan Pepelnjak illustrates the typical pitfalls you might encounter during cloud infrastructure planning and design as well as potential solutions to address them.

Fantastic CCIE Data Center Training

NIL’s CCIE Data Center Preparation Workshop is a fantastic course! With our instructor’s help, we practiced designing/troubleshooting with all of the most relevant and expansive CCIE Data Center technologies.

Smooth connectivity for journalists and staff

NIL was responsible for design, deployment of wired and wireless networks, and we also monitored and managed the whole network infrastructure. Result? No network downtime through the entire tournament and at all the venues.

Clear TLT advantages: Better focus, accuracy and efficiency

NIL held a CIERS-1 training class, part of the Cisco CCIE 360 Learning Program for Routing and Switching. It was the first time we conducted this demanding training via our Technology-Led Training (TLT) solution, linking classrooms in Ljubljana, Slovenia and Johannesburg, South Africa

Better and safer patient care

There is a correlation between waiting in emergency departments and complications in later hospital care, therefore MEU management decided to implement an electronic whiteboard (EW) to speed up and improve patient care.

Virtual firewalls – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Ivan Pepelnjak explains the virtual firewalls taxonomy, describes the major architectural options, and illustrates typical use cases with products from few established virtual firewall vendors (Cisco, VMware, Juniper, Vyatta/Brocade) and startups (LineRate Systems, Midokura).

Thanks to NIL team for the unique network design solution!

We deployed a rare VRRP configuration and a unique network design on two Cisco 2921 routers.

Commitment and Efficiency Deliver Great Results

The project consisted of migration from Cisco 7600 Series routers to new Cisco ASR 9000 Series routers to prepare the Orange’s network for new technologies and an increasing number of users, with a second goal of improving network reliability.

Integrated security solutions provider moves to the cloud

After a full financial ROI, comparing 200 Office in the Cloud units vs. 200 traditional PCs, NIL/Vodacom Office in the Cloud came out tops with 20 % lower operational costs per desktop.

OpenFlow and SDN: Hype, Useful Tools or Panacea?

Ivan described the basics of OpenFlow, its advantages and pitfalls, and the potential real-life use cases including a brief overview of some existing deployments.

NIL’s cloud meets bank’s strict IT standards

The impact of the Flip IT solution on Bank Nizwa’s business goes beyond cost savings and technological optimization. Cloud services have freed internal IT resources, enabling them to move their focus from administrative to more strategic roles, increasing value creation.

The best price/performance private cloud

To keep up with clients’ expectations, Datalab needed a high-performance IT infrastructure that exceeded its existing environment’s capabilities, with more powerful RAID controllers, better write-cache functionality, improved data security and increased storage capacity. They decided for NIL’s private cloud because it provided the best price/performance ratio.

NIL - A partner that always goes the extra mile

MTN South Africa had a critical TelePresence video project that needed to be delivered at very short notice across six sites within South Africa, and consequently Cisco needed a strong partner to ensure that the customer’s high expectations were met – and on time.

More IT resources and simplified administration

The solution made more than just the administrators happy. Working conditions have significantly improved, especially for developers. They have more available resources, upgrades are faster and smoother, and the same goes for installations. The team can really focus on its main tasks now, and thus is much more efficient.

A brilliant ACE LB Implementation

This project involved load- balancing the Sybase relay servers residing in the DMZ. In conjunction with Stojan Rančić, who designed the solution, Samo Jerman set up the deployment documentation and Marius Snyman performed the migration and implementation.

Data Center Fabrics: beyond the hype and marketecture

Every networking vendor is talking about Data Center fabric these days, usually offering a proprietary architecture that works well only with the devices from the same vendor.

Cloud computing networking: under the hood

This lecture describes the networking requirements of various cloud services and designs you can use to build a data center networks that support them.

First step in enterprise's IPv6

NIL provided the necessary expertise to bring Amway's technical teams up to speed on the current challenges and best practices surrounding IPv6, assisting them in laying out a roadmap for implementation and IPv4 to IPv6 transition.

Ultimate choice for an external evaluation of network design

As the company was making changes in their network, they asked NIL’s Ivan Pepelnjak to work with them as an external consultant. The collaboration is described by MWEB’s Network Architect, Ian Castleman.

Increased competitive advantage of the hosted environment

Virtual hosting enables Vodacom to provide secure and reliable data, information and application storage on Virtual Machines (VMs). To increase its product’s competitive advantage, Vodacom decided to add features and new functionality, enriching monitoring capabilities and giving customers detailed insight into their virtual environment status.

Smooth work processes in the shops means greater customer satisfaction

Product quality and diverse offerings are important contributors to customer satisfaction, but reliable and smooth work processes in the shops also have an enormous impact. Spar relies on NIL Monitor to maintain the stability of their IT infrastructure.

Less unwanted traffic and a more secure local network

To reduce the potential negative influence of users on the network and decrease unwanted traffic, Krka introduced multiple layers of security mechanisms at the edge of the network.

Internet bandwidth: Do you get what you pay for?

Author: New Item

Suppose that workers at your remote offices are experiencing slow and unresponsive network applications. When narrowing the scope of possible causes, you really have only a few options. You can run ping tests all day long to find the cause of the high latency. But how can you test bandwidth availability?

NIL HyperCenter at the largest ministry in Slovenia

Integrity, high performance, scalability and easier management were the main reasons for selecting NIL'S private cloud, and these characteristics have been confirmed many times over by IT professionals and satisfied users at the MIA.

Use Your Routers as Traffic Generators

Author: New Item

I came across a very interesting but undocumented command that turns a router into a traffic generator. But please keep in mind that such activity heavily utilizes even a modern router’s CPUs, and its use should be avoided in production networks unless you’re performing stress tests.

Increased sales and 40% lower telephone costs

By implementing the new contact center, MKZ reduced its costs of communication, shortened the response time of operators and improved its market success. Customers are now actively addressed, and the center provides useful information for preparing successful sales actions.

Improved investment planning and IT changes

Constant monitoring of more than 100 location links significantly simplifies the IT administration and helps prevent errors. Additionally, monthly reports have helped Mladinska knjiga in choosing the best service providers, as well as with investment planning.