The ISDN switch-off is much sooner than you think, yet as many as 2 million customers still rely on ISDN as their primary connectivity solution. As we power through the five-year switch-off plan, we’ve put together a guide to what you need to consider when choosing and implementing your ISDN alternative.

Ransomware is difficult to protect against as the criminals themselves are security experts who carefully review and target their victims. Attackers are becoming increasingly skilled at exploiting vulnerable services and unpatched software, with almost three-quarters of Ransomware attacks managing to successfully encrypt private company data. According to a 2020 survey by Sophos, 51% of organisations were hit by Ransomware in the last year. The criminals succeeded in encrypting the data in 73% of these attacks.  

Most Ransomware breaches require some type of end-user interaction, whether that’s opening a malicious email attachment or clicking on a link. At FluidOne, we understand that it is easy to fall victim to an attack when users don't know to be vigilant. To avoid becoming another statistic, we have teamed up with our security expert partner, Cyber Security Associates, to bring you some top tips to help you protect your IT infrastructure and reduce your risk of a ransomware attack.  

The mass migration to remote working as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has seen many organisations adopt new platforms and applications to remain connected and productive. One popular application is Microsoft M365 thanks to its variety of features that make remote collaborative work simple and accessible.

The Facts 

Now that the UK has left the EU, you might be wondering what that means for EU roaming and whether you need to brace yourself for extra charges. Without the EU rules in place, the surcharge-free roaming when you travel to EU and EEA countries is no longer guaranteed, and the charges would depend on agreements between UK operators and their counterparts in EU countries. 

At the start of 2020, I was at odds with having to define what ‘normal’ meant, or indeed what the ‘new normal’ would mean to the UK. In contrast, my colleagues at FluidOne were quick to adopt the new terminology, and have regularly reminded me of my issue to adapt to the new times. 

There is no doubt that the global pandemic has made it important to consider what we define as normal, especially as we look ahead to 2021. The global pandemic changed our perception of ‘normal’ and forced us to look at how we move on; whether we evolve or remain in survival mode. As lockdown restrictions continue to fluctuate across the UK, it’s hard to quantify if anything has, or ever will, return to our old view of normality. 

Over the last 9 months, I have been in various discussions with senior management from my supply chain and our customers where the underlying theme has naturally been uncertainty and facing the challenge of delivering consistent results. The hardest part of dealing with the pandemic is not knowing how far in the future a return to normality lies and whether the normality we return to will be the same as it once was. Is the ‘new normal’ here to stay?

The recurring theme in my discussions with customers has been the need to remain connected,  secure and have reliable availability. We have supported many industries during Covid-19, and the main challenge with most businesses has been mobilising their workforce without business continuity plans to support prolonged working away from the office. 

’ 

This year, businesses across the nation have navigated many challenges after mass emigrating to remote working. From timed-out virtual calls, sketchy connections and limited access to important databases, there have been many hurdles to overcome. Thankfully, our partnership with 8x8 launched the FluidOne 8x8 cloud UC solution aims to solve these problems and make remote working less challenging. 

On net via our award-winning fibre network, Platform One, the solution offers contact centre workforces diverse connectivity, no matter where they are, with the highest call quality experience in the market to promote collaboration, efficiency and ‘business as usual.’ 

To continually diversify our Platform One offering for our partners, we recently launched an exciting new partnership with 8x8, a cloud UC solution. To ensure you get the most out of this new service we have broken down in detail how this new cloud communications platform can help your customers be number one in their fields. 

Working from home used to be considered a privilege or even a benefit for workers, but as the recent Covid pandemic has shown us, sometimes organisations need everyone to work remotely as a matter of business continuity. It is in times of crises, created by a pandemic, technology outage or even a natural disaster that sometimes the only way to conduct business means everyone has to be working remotely.

Technological progression has been so rapid over the past few years that mobile devices and products that were first launched 10 (and in some cases, 5) years ago, seem incredibly outdated. It’s amazing to think that it was just 20 years ago that the first mobile phone with a digital camera was launched by Sharp, with a pretty unimpressive 0.11 megapixels. 10 years later, the first revolutionary Galaxy S was launched with 16GB of storage and a 5-megapixel camera, whilst the latest iPhone 11 has up to 512GB of storage, three 12-megapixel cameras, 4K video recording and a list of features that would take me hours to run through.