With companies around the world adapting to a remote workforce in an expedient manner, there is a sense of urgency to understand how the inherent and unconsidered risks posed to those organizations due to the home environment. It is a fact that, more than 25% of all devices have one or more services exposed on the internet and almost 1 in 7 Work From Home-RO IP addresses have exposed cable modem control interfaces. At the same time the corporate devices will be facing new risks of network compromise due to a higher population of malware that is more prevalent on residential networks. These malware families will pose a greater threat to devices whose operating environment relied on an over-emphasis on physical-based network controls.
The presence of compromised devices on corporate networks is strong evidence of poor security hygiene or failed controls, particularly on endpoint workstations whose risk is often concentrated in the maturity and configuration of the endpoint protection technologies federated across the operating system protecting that device, as well the education and knowledge distilled into the individual users of those devices. With the growing security lapse, the edit economy is taking the fire again and is becoming a hot topic. The Covid-19 outbreak is driving a shift to virtual operations for many traditional enterprises and educational institutions.
Secondly, the mass migration to a remote workforce and distance learning exposes technology gaps. However, it also inspires some deeper thinking on ways in which organizations can apply innovation to their models. Can more work be done remotely on a longer-term basis? How can students with limited Internet access be connected in a cost-effective and efficient way? What can emerging technologies drive forward that could help resolve the pandemic and address other complex problems around the world?
The edge is now shaping up to be a future battleground between telecom operators and the hyperscalers. Telcos believe that they own real estate at the edge (central offices, C-RAN hubs, etc.) gives them an advantage which means that the Internet companies will be forced to partner with them. However, there is mounting evidence that AWS, Microsoft etc. are moving fast and developing their own edge infrastructure. Therefore there is a real risk that MNOs could lose edge business opportunities to the Internet companies if they prevaricate.
The edge internet economy is poised to be worth 4.1 trillion dollars by 2030 globally. This next generation of ultra-low latency and ultra-high-definition edge enhanced application services will enable innovation across multiple sectors. It is an opportunity for the organisations into Service and system integration support, there is a need for the industry’s most trusted strategic alliance partners across networking, hybrid infrastructure, enterprise, collaboration, and security applications to help implement, support, and manage these technologies. Together, as an ecosystem, the next generation of the internet where applications and networks live harmoniously will impact sectors ranging from telecom, manufacturing to media and entertainment. Edge computing technology offers the ability to craft creative solutions for advanced applications that need low latency and remote processing. Edge computing is the answer to the growing demand for cloud computation and storage to be much closer to where it is needed, and not only in central locations.
