ReadWriteEnterprise

It's an IPv4 world today, but the days of IPv4 are numbered.

As of February 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) had allocated all remaining public IP address ranges to the five global regional Internet registries. A quick look at this IPv4 Exhaustion Counter below shows a total of 13.24 /8 (8-bit) IPv4 address ranges remaining, for a total of less than 3,400 remaining unallocated IPv4 addresses. Essentially, this means
IPv4 is played out.

Enterprises are increasingly turning to the cloud for their computing needs, and are now accessing everything from individual applications to entire infrastructures remotely rather than via on-premises
hardware and software. Meanwhile, the sheer volume of data that enterprises have to deal with is exploding, as is the number of sources of that data.

Data needs to travel without encumbrances in the enterprise for people to take full advantage of its capabilities. Organizations need to have an infrastructure in place that can handle multiple forms of data effectively. That infrastructure also has to be elastic and flexible enough in order for development teams to deploy the applications the enterprise needs to stay competitive.

Given that many businesses plan to roll out some collection of IPv6 equipment in the next few years, it makes sense to set up your own test lab to ensure that you can understand some of the transition issues and deployment problems early on.

In the sponsored brief Building an Enterprise IPv6 Test Lab Jeff Carrell and Ed Tittel dive into what you need to know to build your own test lab.

There is a lot more to IPv6 than just a lot more addresses, including redesigned protocols, better routing, security improvements and finally getting rid of Network Address Translation. In this sponsored brief, How to Prepare for IPv6 Networking by Ed Tittel and Jeff Carrell, they dive into the nuts and bolts of IPv6 and show you what you need to know to start planning your network's transition.

Based on hands-on evaluation of many networking products, the authors will show you what changes you need to make to your networking infrastructure, how you deal with the lack of native IPv6 Internet access, and what particular things you need to upgrade to enable key networking services. There is even a sample case study showing you the time and effort it takes to get IPv6 setup on a typical small business network.

Ed and Jeff are computer industry veterans (Ed has written for us previously) who were former Novell employees, authors and hands-on corporate trainers.

Customer satisfaction has always been key to doing and keeping business. Current studies show that customers who seek out good service are also the most loyal to the businesses they engage with. In today's world of structured data, it's possible to listen more closely and respond better to customer feedback by collecting and analyzing customer data from multiple sources.

Learn how smart businesses are growing their loyal customer base by improving customer satisfaction and cutting expenses by harnessing the power of customer data.

Disclosure: Qwest Business is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor

Taking risks is just part of doing business these days. You have to look at all the options. That may mean increasing the number of suppliers, hiring more employees or trying a variety of different business models.

That also means a host of new security issues that requires organizations to implement a risk management strategy. This brief from IDC examines the security challenges organizations face and how organizations can deploy managed services to alleviate the issues that come with the evolving business landscape.

Disclosure: Qwest Business is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor

Today's successful businesses run at the speed of light, requiring employees and corporate assets to be available and accessible 24/7. Enterprises need to find a way to allow rapid, flexible access while protecting themselves from serious risk. When employees travel with corporate data on laptops and other portable devices it becomes increasingly harder to manage, and control such data, or even know if it's being protected, thereby creating a "mobile blind spot" that has the potential to wreak havoc on your corporate communications network.

Identifying key mobile blind spots and taking steps to protect data in transit is critical to protecting your business. This paper outlines five real-world tactics that you can use to enhance mobile security in your organization. These tactics will help provide your workforce with the flexibility it needs to be productive anywhere, anytime, while protecting valuable corporate assets and the enterprise network against imminent security breaches and risk in an expanding mobile world.

It's really about speed these days. And data. And the right infrastructure so the data can all flow and keep the business running smoothly.

The Critical Importance of the New Data Infrastructure by John Titllow of ReadWriteweb is a brief that explores the impacts that can have when it comes to your organization.

Questions covered in the report include:

In a well-publicized case, a data analyst employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) took his laptop home to suburban Maryland. Burglars entered his home and stole the laptop. Suddenly, the personal information of some 26.5 million veterans was at risk. The incident became an international news story raising caution flags about managed security at the VA.

Incidents like this one are not unusual today, and the risk is increasing as the mobile workforce grows. Gartner reports that 83.9 percent of businesses have a remote workforce, and by 2011 an estimated 46 million employees globally will telecommute at least one day per week and 112 million will work from home at least one day per month.

The green movement is without a doubt affecting companies both large and small. Telecommuting, the virtual office and Web conferencing are all ways that companies can keep energy costs down while at the same time finding better ways to communicate and optimize business functions. This brief from Qwest Business explores the ways that businesses can leverage environmentally sound practices and technologies to build environmentally sustainable business architectures that save money through enhanced productivity and business efficiencies.