Knowledge
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25.11.2021State of the Net
Author: Mikko Hypponen
Technology shapes the world. The more successful a new technology becomes, the more reliant we will become of it. This has always happened and will happen in the future too. In many ways, internet is the best and worst innovation done during our lifetime. Just look at how machine learning and artificial intelligence are changing the world. They can be enormous catalysts for good, but also for bad. How did we get here? And where will we go next?
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20.10.2021What 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?
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19.10.2021Understanding 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.
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13.10.2021Basic 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!
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11.10.2021Industrial Cybersecurity and how to protect OT environments?
Author: Jakob Premrn
The basics of OT environments, their design, their potential threats and adequate IT protection.
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06.10.2021How 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.
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04.10.2021How 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?
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13.8.2021How 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?
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11.6.2021Reliable 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.
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09.6.2021Secure 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.
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07.6.2021Troubleshoot less, innovate more!
Author: Kent Heide
How to get correlated, real-time visibility into application and network performance by using Cisco AppDynamics and ThousandEyes.
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31.5.2021What 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.
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21.4.2021Who 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?
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26.3.2021Data 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?
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19.3.2021Wi-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.
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08.3.2021Cisco 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!
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16.2.2021Deploying 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.
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11.2.2021What 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 6E. No, 6E - with the "E" of Extended. What is Wi-Fi 6E and what are its key benefits?
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29.1.2021Cybersecurity 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.
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19.12.2020Firefighting Cyberattacks
Author: Matevž Mesojednik
Why is fighting cyber crime not about new technologies, but about new approaches.
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07.12.2020With 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.
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23.11.2020(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.
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19.11.2020Pure 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.
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19.10.2020What 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.
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15.10.2020The 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.
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13.10.2020Secure 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!
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02.10.2020Conscia 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.
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16.9.2020Cisco 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.
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29.7.2020How 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.
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02.7.2020Microsoft 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.
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01.7.2020How 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.
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22.6.2020Banks 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.
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15.5.2020Cisco 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.
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05.5.2020Simplifying 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.
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22.4.2020Is 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?
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16.4.2020Securing 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.
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07.4.2020Stopping 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!
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18.3.2020Wifi6 – 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.
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11.3.2020WannaTry 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.
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26.2.2020Zero 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.
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13.2.2020Microsoft Managed Security Services
Author: Eugen Rusen
Envisioning workshop for Managed Security as a Service that empowers organizations on their Cloud and Zero Trust journeys.
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31.1.2020SOC 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.
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09.1.2020Application 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.
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16.12.2019Disrupting 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.
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20.11.2019Rise 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.
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19.11.2019Introducing a Mobile-centric Approach to Zero Trust
Author: Claus Nussbaum
Zero Trust in Mobile Environments and MobileIron Roadmap.
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17.10.2019Cisco 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.
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02.8.2019New 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.
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08.7.2019SDN on steroids
Author: Mitja Robas
On SDN myths, real-life challenges, and practical use cases.
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13.5.2019You 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"?
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12.4.2019Improving 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.
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21.3.2019
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.
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22.2.2019Lowering 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.
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01.2.2019How 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.
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03.5.2018From 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.
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03.4.20186connect 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.
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26.3.2018Smart 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.
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23.3.2018The 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.
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08.3.2018Faster cloud orchestration development
Swisscom turned to NIL to help them quickly finish the integration of VMware vRealize Automation tools into their new business cloud.
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09.1.2018What 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?
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08.1.2018New 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.
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05.1.2018IT 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.
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20.12.2017How 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.
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24.11.2017Digitalization 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.
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08.11.2017How 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?
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27.10.2017Critical 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.
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04.10.20177 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.
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01.8.2017Cisco 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.
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07.6.2017The 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.
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24.5.2017Management 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.
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18.5.2017Let 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.
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20.4.2017Implementing 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.
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14.4.2017Is 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.
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07.4.2017
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.
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30.3.2017Dude, 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.
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24.3.2017"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?
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14.3.2017What 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.
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31.1.2017‘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.
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12.12.2016The 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.
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01.12.2016Cloud 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.
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11.11.2016Beyond 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?
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09.11.2016Operations 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.
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02.11.2016Collaboration 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.
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20.10.2016When 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.
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13.10.2016Operations 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.
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05.10.2016So 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.
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29.9.2016CCIE 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...
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22.9.2016Azure 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.
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08.9.2016Azure 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.
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18.8.2016Azure 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.
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05.8.2016We 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.
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21.7.2016Azure 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.
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13.7.2016Software-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).
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07.7.2016Azure 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.
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27.6.2016To 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.
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14.6.2016Software-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.
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09.6.2016Azure Active Directory (Part 2)
Author: Jan Češčut
Learn how you can simplify your Azure administration and user management!
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12.5.2016Azure 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.
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10.5.2016Why 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?
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09.5.2016Are 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.
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25.4.2016Costs 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.
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22.4.2016Start 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.
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18.4.2016The 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?
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14.4.2016StorSimple – 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.
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06.4.2016Costs 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?
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01.4.2016StorSimple 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).
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02.3.2016Costs 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.
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28.2.2016OPTICAL 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.
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02.2.2016Should 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.
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17.12.2015Security 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.
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14.12.2015How 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.
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12.11.2015Are 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.
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16.10.2015DPI 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.
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08.10.2015Lessons 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«?
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28.9.2015Separating 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.
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03.8.2015The 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?
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30.7.2015Breaking 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.
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14.7.2015Clouds 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.
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22.6.2015Do 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?
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15.6.2015Mobility 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.
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13.6.2015UMTS & 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).
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09.6.2015On 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.
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18.5.2015Data 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.
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15.5.2015Even 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.
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10.5.2015Service 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.
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18.2.2015The 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.
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03.2.2015IP 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.
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13.1.2015IPV6 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.
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02.12.2014The 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.
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29.10.2014Engineering 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.
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28.2.2014Lower 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.
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30.10.2013Overlay 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.
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13.10.2013
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.
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27.9.2013Fantastic 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.
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22.9.2013Smooth 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.
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19.4.2013Clear 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
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10.4.2013Better 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.
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15.3.2013Virtual 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).
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12.2.2013Thanks 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.
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18.1.2013Commitment 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.
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15.11.2012Integrated 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.
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22.10.2012
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.
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15.8.2012NIL’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.
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30.7.2012The 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.
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09.5.2012NIL - 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.
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11.4.2012More 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.
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12.10.2011A 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.
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30.9.2011Data 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.
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30.9.2011Cloud 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.
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22.9.2011First 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.
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16.8.2011Ultimate 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.
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09.3.2011Increased 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.
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26.1.2011Smooth 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.
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20.12.2010Less 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.
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25.9.2010Internet 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?
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07.9.2010NIL 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.
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07.7.2010Use 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.
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09.12.2009Increased 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.
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26.1.2009
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.
