Three Technologies that IT leaders should allocate budget to in FY22

Three Technologies that IT leaders should allocate budget to in FY22

According to an estimate by research firm Gartner, spending on information technology (IT) in India is expected to reach $105.2 billion in 2022, a rise of 5.5% from 2021. The fact that India has made great strides toward developing a strong digital economy is a big contributing factor. 

For IT Leaders, this is a good opportunity to pause and reflect on their business technology priorities for FY22, including what strategic technology goals have been established and how the budget will be distributed.

Three Technologies to spend on in FY22

Businesses are undergoing a digital revolution that is transforming how they conduct business, engage with consumers, manage their teams, and handle routine data and tasks. Investing in technology can help your company become successful, secure, and competitive. 

The following three technologies are ones that business and IT leaders ought to think about funding in FY22.

1. Leased Internet Line

Today, the majority of our everyday company's activities are conducted online, and this trend has only increased since the coronavirus pandemic made remote working a real, long-term business option. High-speed and reliable internet has become the need of the hour for any business today.

Now, the question that arises in many minds is how is leased internet different from a standard broadband connection. Why is it worth investing in?

What is a Leased Line? 

A leased line is a symmetric, fixed-bandwidth, dedicated data connection. It is the quickest, safest, and most reliable data connection currently offered to businesses. For a set monthly fee, a dedicated telecommunications circuit is provided from your company to the carriers' or providers' network.

Businesses may find it difficult to justify the increased expense of investing in a Leased Line when compared to a regular broadband connection. However, a leased line will rapidly pay for itself if your business is entirely dependent on a swift and reliable internet connection to stay productive and competitive.

The complete bandwidth of a leased line is always accessible to just your business, as opposed to a shared or contested broadband connection, which ensures a continuously high-quality connection.

How Does Your Business Benefit With Leased Lines

There are a few reasons to use a leased line, but they are most useful for establishing high-speed internet connections to boost productivity? 

Here are some reasons why investing in leased lines is a good idea:

• Symmetrical Bandwidth

• Secured Connection

• High Speed 

• Good Customer Support 

• Advanced Technology

Symmetrical Bandwidth

The symmetrical bandwidth provided by leased lines ensures that data is transferred at the same rate in both directions. This is crucial whether you use VoIP technology, transfer data to the cloud, or often download big amounts of data.

As opposed to standard connections, which often give priority to download speeds, which are typically insufficient for the majority of business demands, they can provide identical download AND upload speeds.

Secured Connection

A leased line, which is not a shared service like DSL lines, decreases security threats when used with the proper router and firewall settings.

High-Speed 

Connection speeds are substantially faster and range from 10Mbps to 10Gbps when using a leased line. You will always get the entire amount of bandwidth that you paid for.

Good Customer Support 

You can go days without an internet connection if your broadband connection fails. For your company, this could have severe effects. On the other hand, eased line includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which ensures that significant connectivity problems will be rapidly and effectively fixed.

Advanced Technology

Copper cables, an antiquated technology, are frequently used for broadband connections. However, fibre optic technology is used in practically all leased line connections, which speeds up and strengthens the reliability of the internet connection.

Internet Leased lines vs Broadband

2. Firewall

Given the nature of how much work is presently done online and in the cloud, network security services are crucial to corporate operations of all kinds.

Especially if you are a business that deals with confidential data, you need a system in place to ensure that the data is secure from malicious attacks. This is where a firewall comes into place. 

What is Firewall?

A firewall is security hardware or software that guards your computer against external cyberattacks and malicious software that might infect your computer system. It is essentially the barrier that stands between a private internal network and the open Internet. 

Some would argue that they already have an anti-virus installed on their computers. However, firewall and anti-virus applications are not the same. While antivirus software helps to protect the file system from unwanted programmes, a firewall helps keep attackers or external threats from ever entering your system.

It's a prevalent misperception that firewalls are only necessary for big businesses or financial institutions. In actuality, a firewall should be present in any firm with a network, regardless of its size.

How Does Your Business Benefit With Firewall

The first step in assisting businesses to grow safely in the constantly-evolving digital age is understanding the advantages of firewall security:

• Protection Against Cybercrime

• Security Against Hackers

• Safety Compliance

• Blocks Access from unapproved sites

Protection Against Cybercrime

Cybercrimes are on the rise in recent years. Business owners can reduce or eliminate the danger of a cyberattack or breach by using a managed firewall.

Security Against Hackers

Many hackers will be stopped in their tracks if there is a firewall in place. Once they discover that a firewall is in place, the majority of hackers and scammers will leave the area or cease attempting to access networks. One major benefit of firewalls is that they offer round-the-clock security to keep your network safe from outside threats.

Blocks Access from unapproved sites

A firewall can prevent your users from visiting particular external websites in addition to preventing unauthorised external users from accessing your network. For instance, with the help of a firewall, you can prevent network users from accessing social media sites like Facebook.

Safety Compliance

Making sure a business complies with rules like the HIPAA Security Rule or PCI security requirements requires, among other things, the installation of appropriate network security protocols. These crucial security criteria can be adhered to by your firm by having a strong firewall that safeguards your network.

Types of Firewall

Firewalls can be grouped either by the system they protect or by the method they filter data. The primary types when categorising by filtering technique are

• Packet-filtering firewalls

• Stateful inspection firewalls

• Application layer and proxy firewalls

• Next-generation firewalls (NGFW)

3. Managed Wi-Fi

These days, WiFi is a service that has become a must-have- be it for small businesses or big enterprises. However, monitoring their wireless Internet connections is a full-time job for many businesses. 

IT departments are responsible for ensuring that a reliable connection reaches every area of the workplace or building, deploying privacy protections and security solutions, and troubleshooting connectivity problems.

Having an IT Department just for managing your Wi-Fi system can become an expensive expense. This is why businesses are now opting for Managed Wi-FI providers. 

What is Managed Wi-FI?

With managed WiFi, a company can delegate to a third-party vendor the duties associated with planning, acquiring, installing, maintaining, monitoring, and/or updating a WiFi network.

Smart WiFi is a common name for managed WiFi, but managed WiFi goes much beyond smart access points. The majority of the time, it is an expertly built enterprise-grade system composed of distributed WiFi access points, controllers, switches, smart WLAN, switches, and high-grade cabling.

How Does Your Business Benefit from Managed Wi-Fi

The main advantages of switching to a managed Wi-Fi provider are:

• Cost-effective as you don't have to maintain an in-house IT Department for managing WI-FI 

• Relieving internal IT personnel of the responsibility of managing a WiFi network on top of many other crucial duties.

• You will have access to experts that will enhance the image of your business to staff members, guests, and customers.

• Regular updates and maintenance which will improve security.

• Monitoring and Reporting in great detail by skilled experts