RWS_Spring_21

Free Cloud-Readiness Assessment I f your organization is moving to the cloud, Erwin is offering a free cloud-readiness assess- ment to help ensure the project’s success. Erwin provides a suite of automated cloud migration, transformation management, and data governance software and services designed to help organizations quickly and accurately document and transform their existing data management infrastructures and processes to precisely migrate their data from legacy, on-prem databases to the cloud. Then, powered by metadata-driven data modeling and data intelligence solutions, Erwin Cloud Catalyst automatically finds, models, in- gests, catalogs, and governs cloud data assets during the transformation and throughout the cloud lifecycle. For more on the cloud-readiness assessment, check out erwin.com Rural Broadband Providers Shine in ‘Best’ WHF Cities Rankings M ore than a dozen smaller, more rural broadband providers received endorsements of sorts from PC Magazine , which created a list of the 50 best U.S. work-from-home cities for 2021. The top city on the list was Chattanooga, Tenn., where the local utility company EPB was the first broadband provider to undertake a citywide gigabit deployment. The next four cities, in descending order, were Bear Valley Springs, Calif.; Pawlet, Vt; Kaysville, Utah; and Jonesbor- ough, Tenn. The providers in those four cities, respec- tively, were Race Communications, Vermont Telephone Company, Veracity Networks and AT&T. Whether large or small, only cities with gigabit service were included on PC Magazine ’s list, with minimum of at least 800 Mbps downstream and 200 Mbps upstream. They also looked for cities with a relatively low cost for gigabit service and on overall quality of life in the city. HMS Releases Industrial 5G Router and Starterkit H MS Networks recently released what it calls the first commercially available 5G router that is optimized for industrial private net- works and passed the CE conformance test. The Wireless Router allows users to get started with 5G in their own locations, while HMS also offers a ready-made starterkit for test and evaluation of typical industrial use cases. The solution enables users to create a robust cellular connection in an industrial production environment. Supporting 4G and 5G cellular technology, it is an ideal communication solu- tion for automated guided vehicles, AGVs, and other industrial machines, said the company. The Starterkit includes the router and two indus- trial IO-Link sensors sending data across the 5G network. This allows users to try out 5G in their own facilities without having to set up applications of their own from scratch. Initially, the router is available only to users of the Industry Connect system from Ericsson. Qualification of several other infrastructure providers and telecom operators is ongoing. WFH Provides Surge to Cable Broadband Subs W hen millions of bedrooms, kitchen tables, and dens suddenly turned into remote office locations as well as classrooms last years, many consumers were forced to upgrade their internet service from their local providers. As it turns out, cable companies were the big winners in this race for higher download speeds. According to Leichtman Research Group (LRG), the eight biggest U.S. cable companies collectively added 4.819 million wireline broadband customers in 2020 and now control approximately 69 percent of the U.S. fixed internet market. Charter Communications alone added 2.215 million customers in 2020, followed by Comcast, which added 1.971 million broadband subscribers. Telco operators, which recently are more concerned with ramp- ing up fixed 5G services, collectively added only 39,535 customers to the total. Verizon led all telco providers with 173,000 customer additions. All told, the 4.86 million total fixed broadband customers added last year by the 16 largest providers was the most additions since the boom days of 2008 and represented a 190 percent uptick over the industry’s 2019 expansion. By 2023, 60% of enterprises will phase out most of their remote access virtual private networks (VPNs) in favor of ZTNA. – Gartner Overheard 48 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com NETWORKS