Year In Review

It seems like every media outlet spends time talking about the highs and lows of the year at this time, as if a quick summary can encapsulate twelve months of activity in just a few minutes.  I’m not going to even attempt that.  What I would like to do, however, is to thank everyone working here at Cywest for all their hard work, their devotion to our mission of providing the best possible service offerings, and for everything they do to ensure we deliver unmatched customer service.  It may be corny and it may be slightly old fashioned but I’m genuinely awestruck at the commitment levels of our personnel.  I look forward to another exciting year of innovation with them and wish all of you a Happy and Peaceful New Year!

Telco Origins – Part 5

The year is almost over and, at this point, I’ll still be telling the history of telco well into 2014.  Bear with me though. It’s an interesting story and I think it helps to explain one of the reasons why the industry now moves so slowly.  It’s as if it has forgotten about its own roots and consistently rapid historical evolution and settled into a monopolistic rut that it can’t seem to shake.

One of the things I hear from customers all the time is about the cost of connections.  As the profit margins for businesses shrink, folks look for their suppliers to respond in kind to help meet the bottom line.  In the early 1900’s, as many of these small telephone companies would veer toward bankruptcy, AT&T would buy them out in order to increase their overall customer base but intentionally refuse to link them as part of its national network.

This increased the costs of an individual call and the company’s profits as well.  By 1914 the United States was the world leader in the number of installed telephones with approximately seven million units.  Only Sweden was anywhere close, finishing a close second.  By 1930 that figure had swelled to almost 20 million units.  Did you know that, in order to make a three minute call between the United States and England in the late 1920's, it required the services of at least eight operators and close to fifteen minutes in order to make the connection?  The true surprise occurred a month later when the caller received a $75 bill for making the call.

It’s hard for those of us with unlimited calling packages and texting to imagine such an expensive proposition and it clearly thwarted many a cross continent romance back in the day.  There's an immediacy in connecting in today's global market and that capability is possible thanks to the advances of telco that followed both the telephone and radio.  More to come….

Thanks Giving To Our Customers

We spend so much time monitoring the systems of our customers to ensure uninterrupted uptime, developing new technology advances, or working in marketing initiatives to develop new customers that it’s easy to forget the point of this week in our nation.  Black Friday sales and the onslaught of Christmas celebrations don’t help.

When the nation was still in its infancy, its citizens recognized the true gift that was freedom and the fact that, in order for independence to prosper and grow; it took the combined efforts of everyone.  That’s truly something to be thankful for.  2013 has seen our client base continue to grow in size while our customer retention rate has stayed steady.  That’s truly something to be thankful for as well.

We know that’s only possible because those of you out there trust Cywest with your telco and security needs.  We’re grateful for that trust and we work hard to continue to earn it.  THANK YOU and Happy Thanksgiving to you and those you hold dear.

Elect to Make a Change

On Election Day people make a choice as to who they want to manage the government’s infrastructure for the next few years.  They know that, if those leaders fail to do a good job, they can elect a new set of leaders during the next election cycle.  It’s always felt odd to me that companies don’t take the same idea of transition to their own infrastructures.

I think there are a number of factors why business leaders don’t elect change.  There’s a certain amount of job security in the idea that people seem happy so why rock the boat.  Change requires an organizational commitment that some leadership groups can never quite muster.  Leaders don’t take the time to research their options and realize they can often do much better than their current structures – especially in the telco industry where many large providers intentionally fight against change to keep their profit margins high by overcharging unaware customers.

If it’s been more than two years since you’ve actively looked at options for your telco infrastructure, I’d urge you to do so.  While I certainly hope you’d look at a Cywest offering as part of that process, that’s not why I’m suggesting you make the effort.  It’s because I know that, if you haven’t made that serious effort, you’re paying too much for what you’re getting and not getting nearly enough.

Elect to make a change!

What is a Hacker?

Just a reminder that we’ll be conducting our webinar about network security this week so make sure you join us Halloween morning at 11 am Eastern.  If you can’t make it we’ll be recording the content for anyone interested.  Just email us at sales@cywest.com for a link.  When you’re talking network security, one of the things people often fear is a hacker accessing their info.

A hacker, in my opinion, is not something to fear.  Hackers are, by actual definition, amateurs.  They’re people who live and breathe computers and actively try to get into things simply to see if they can, and to figure out how those systems work.  Sure, a hacker can get paid for their services and break into a company’s network to steal their secrets but that’s the difference.  That person isn’t a hacker.  That person is a thief – no different than any other criminal just because it’s a digital crime - and THOSE are the people you need to guard your network from.

Asking your company’s management to invest in resources to stop hackers does not make a compelling argument.  Asking for the means to stop thieves and other digital attempts to steal your company’s intellectual property or trade secrets is what you’re actually requesting.  Don’t mute that argument by using tech jargon that lessens the importance of the conversation.

Ghost Protocol - Ten Ways To Avoid Network Hell Webinar... This Halloween!

This Halloween CYWEST has something special for you...

We're doing a Webinar @ 11AM EST (10/31/13).

See the announcement below:

Clicking the above image will send us an email, make sure to be specific about your network horror story and we'll select the scariest one to win the $100 American Express gift card.

  REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR!

(The password for the Webinar is: Halloween)

Telco Origins – Part 4

While we often think of the telephone having the greatest impact on modern telecommunications, the invention of the radio by Guglielmo Marconi far surpassed it.   A German physicist named Heinrich Hertz actually discovered radio waves, proving that electromagnetic waves could be sent from Earth all the way into space long before anyone took one giant leap for all mankind.  Hertz never made any money off his discovery and died before it actually became a profitable venture.

Marconi had read about Hertz in the paper and realized he could use what had come to be known as Hertzian waves to create the first wireless telegraph.  By 1895 his experiments allowed him to send wireless signals for over one mile.  His native Italy would not fund Marconi’s experiments but England was more than willing, investing in its commercial development.

By 1898 the first wireless factory had opened, capable of successfully sending fully coded wireless transmissions over a distance of almost sixty miles.  As more and more ships started to use his technology, Marconi created specific dedicated circuits that could be tuned for wireless transmission and, in so doing, isolate all other transmissions to provide an uninterrupted concentrated signal.  By 1901 a signal could be transmitted successfully across the Atlantic Ocean.

Marconi’s wireless transmitter was even used on the ill-fated Titanic voyage.  While rescuers could not reach the survivors in time to save Leonardo DiCaprio from an icy death, signals transmitted using the technology helped save hundreds of others, including the eventual rescue of Kate Winslet.  My heart will carry on until next time…. 

2013 Annual Report on Network Security Released

Thank you to everyone who participated in our security roundtable event in Las Vegas.  The fact that we had a packed house and was able to hear and share so many stories about security challenges and issues speaks to the fact that the sharing of digital information drives commerce like never before.  Industries that manufacture and supply technological tools, from end-user devices to communications, have rushed to meet the demand of the market – unmotivated to consider the security risks and ramifications that these digital tools introduce.

The rapid pace of sharing information has also enabled the tools and programs for such nefarious activities to become mainstream. An unsophisticated individual can now easily download all of the necessary components, read a few Command Line instructions, and become just as lethal as the software’s author. As the issue of security has become more complex, Cywest has engaged in new research and development to address these concerns and bring our services, including our patented ISVNTM (Intelligently Scaled Virtual Networks) to its next evolution.

As part of our ongoing efforts to educate both our current and future customers, we’re pleased to announce the publication of our 2013 Annual Report on Network Security which was distributed to all attendees at the event.  If you’d like a printed or digital copy of the whitepaper, please contact us at sales@cywest.com.  

Telco Origins – Part 3

I know it’s been a lot longer than I’d originally planned but I wanted to get back the history of telecommunications.  I would have done so sooner but I was on the phone.  :-)  Speaking of Mr. Bell’s grand invention, once the phone had been firmly established by 1876, the first telephone switchboard was installed in Connecticut two years later in 1878.  Call volume had obviously increased, most likely due to the pioneers of telemarketing.  This was about the time that the first appearance of formal telephone numbers, and directories listing those addresses, were also made available to the public.

By the early 1880’s there were a number of small telephone exchanges throughout the USA and Europe but caller range was clearly limited.  Because of the crude technology that limited connection distance to about 100 miles, the Bell company focused on building and selling equipment to service rich people and businesses.  The first long distance connection, between New York and Boston, was approximately 300 miles long and came online in 1884.  All calls were required to be connected by a third party operator.  Had tech acronyms been popular back then they would have termed it H.O.T. (Human Operated Transfer) calling.

Bell’s patents ran out at the turn of the century leading to greater competition and the rise of several thousand independent phone companies.  Little did anyone realize at the time that, despite so many new players entering the market, the stage was being set for the start of the largest monopoly of them all – AT&T.  But first, we need to talk about a fellow named Marconi and this little invention of his called the radio.  More next time….

Viva Las Vegas

I want to take a quick break from the history of telco (rest assured, I'll get back to Ma. Bell's accomplishments next week ) and mention a Cywest road trip next week to the 36th Annual International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Conference in Las Vegas, NV.  I'm the featured speaker at an exclusive luncheon on Tuesday regarding digital security and its impact on commerce in today's global market.  Being in Sin City, one of the things you realize is the sin so many companies have of blissful ignorance when it comes to how well they are protected.  You can implement firewalls, secure data repositories, etc and still find yourself imminently vulnerable from the most unexpected source of all:  the smart phone used by any company employee.

A number of software developers have created Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to address this need but most focus solely on the idea of containerization, the securing of company data on the phone from unauthorized use.  Left unattended is the fact that those same phones can be easily hacked from the outside and become infiltration agents for those who intend harm.  During the lunch, we'll be spotlighting several new technologies we have coming to market that, not only close this loophole, but empower the leaders of the targeted companies to turn the tables effectively on their hacker.

So much of the corporate mentality when it comes to security is to adopt a defensive posture, to wait for a threat or breach to occur and then react to it with all the powers at their disposal.  Unfortunately, by then at least some damage has occurred or, at best, the company is spending too much to expedite solutions.  We take the opposite view and help our customers create an offensive minded approach that more than levels the playing field.  Our solutions are unique and they're designed for the security person who understands how critical it is to be addressing the next generation of threats BEFORE they arrive.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Las Vegas and if you'd like to meet individually to discuss your firm's security or telco issues, just let me know.  For those who can't attend but would like more info about what we're developing, let me know that as well.  Safe travels to all who are making their way to the conference. 

Telco Origins - Part 2

One of the most common complaints about telecommunications companies are their size.  These large global conglomerates have difficulty responding quickly to their clients, or delivering a personalized suite of services that more accurately reflect on what those customers need compared to a one size fits all model.  That's where the Cywest approach actually makes a difference. We bring that level of personalization and service to fill in the gap that the large carriers aren't effectively built to do.  Everyone thinks the issue of telecommunication monopolies is relatively new, that it began over the last two decades as technology advanced heavily into both the office and the home.  This is simply not true.

In reality, Western Union, the company that we think of whenever we have to wire money in a pinch to our children, or to bail out a loved one that's had one too many, was the first telecommunications monopoly.  It was formed initially as a regional alliance of several smaller firms.  They divided up the country in sections amongst themselves, acting much like a cartel would do today in the drug trade.  The Civil War helped drive up the profits and fees of the company because the telegraph was so valuable in passing information back and forth.  The confederate states could not match the level of sophistication and connectivity of the Union army.  Had they been able to do so, the world might be a very different place.  Following the war, Western Union took over many of the lines that were built by the government, making themselves virtually the only game in town.

For several years after that, efforts were made to install telegraph lines under the water in order to expand communications globally.  Most of the early efforts, primarily sponsored by America, failed but by 1866, the first successful connection between England and America was established.  It would take another fifty years to actually get connectivity across the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, a Scotsman living and working in Boston named Alexander Graham Bell was experimenting with a machine that could diagram the shapes of sound waves by tracing their vibrations.  He thought that, if he could generate moving electrical currents that corresponded to sound, he could then audibly transfer those currents to an alternate endpoint and convert them back to sound on the other end.  All he needed was a working model and some financial backing in order to test his theory.  Two wealthy backers, named Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, financially backed Bell's experiments and helped him attain patents for his creation.  In 1875, Bell achieved the first early working telephone and filed for rights ownership in early 1876.  Even then, the telco industry was full of controversy as a man named Elisha Gray, who was doing his own experiments with acoustic telegraphy, fought unsuccessfully for the rights.

Once again, history teases us with what might have been - it's hard to think of "ringing a gray" when it's time to call the kids in for supper.

More to come...

Telco Origins - Part 1

I was giving a lecture to a group of eager young students a few years ago and I asked if any of them had an idea of who created American telecommunications.  I chuckled when one student raised their hand and guessed Ma Bell, as if that was the name of an elderly maternal woman that had launched a global industry. Part of the reason for the ignorance is that, like so much of the telco industry, the story has many facets that make it difficult to definitively trace the history.  That ends today.  I am going to tell you the annotated history of telco over the next few weeks because, in order to understand the business and its path of evolution, it helps to know the back story and how decisions and innovations have shaped our industry over the years.

You could argue that the early use of smoke signals and drums by the natives were actually the first recorded use of telecommunications.  They were used in much the same societal role as systems today - to send messages to, and communicate with, the applicable parties they wished to reach.  Can you imagine the stress of primitive IT workers way back then?  There was no such thing as an email registering a complaint; it was more likely a disgruntled colleague showed dissatisfaction by shooting the technician with an arrow or clubbing them over the head.  Job security was fleeting.

While there were basic systems developed in the late 1700's through the early 1800's resulting in the creation of the semaphore system, that system itself was abandoned several years later because the towers were way too expensive and it was difficult to find enough operators that had the skill to actually use and manage it.  The telegraph system, invented by Samuel Morse in 1844, is considered the earliest industrial iteration of successful telecommunications. Originally used primarily by the Post Office, the telegraph system actually grew and expanded along with the building of the railroad systems. These communication links  were integral in moving goods and people from East to West and back again along the tracks.  In many instances telco connectivity was established in an area before being followed by railroad construction.  No wonder "training" is such a huge requirement for our industry!  :-)

A Day of (digital) Freedom...

As the nation celebrates its successful fight for liberty on this fourth of July, it's fascinating to note how many liberties we've willfully given up these last ten years and how that impacts security for both cloud storage and data transmission.  One of the major factors individuals and companies cite as their reason for refusing cloud based technologies is security; they stress the need to ensure privacy and corporate governance that can be better achieved if the information is on premise.

http://edgestrategies.com/component/k2/item/117-just-released-2012-microsoft-edge-technologies-smb-cloud-adoption-study.html

While this logic may seem sound and provide a sense of comfort, this is simply not the case.  As more information comes to light about the NSA activities and Google's own admissions about data mining, the idea that shared information is safe just because it's behind your firewall is an illusion.  In fact, leading edge cloud storage providers can actually offer greater protection of your data than private enterprises for a fraction of the cost, monitored around the clock and with better ease of use to both the client and their customers. For example, an exploit from the inside the corporate environment makes the firewall moot.  Having an outsourced partner that is more focused in the area of security, and that is also less susceptible to internal exploits (i.e. via employees, infected end-users, etc.) is actually safer than the notion of doing it “in-house”.  Just because one has physical “control”, doesn’t mean the infrastructure is safer.  

Creating truly secure environments, you see, is the ultimate dilemma - by making something more secure, you're simultaneously making that piece of information more difficult to access for the others that need it.  The ability to quickly service and respond to a client usually trumps the need for privacy.  We see that more and more as people start to employ popular applications like Dropbox and Evernote.  In this high security world we worry too much about guarding information from imagined threats and not enough about sharing it properly, securely and effectively.  Cywest Communications understands this and we're developing solutions that address the customer's need for security and ease of use specifically.  As Thomas Jefferson said, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it."

The Truth...

“His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even knowledge, was foolproof.”

-J.K. Rowling – “Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix"

It doesn’t take a boy wizard, or the rules of magic, to understand modern telecommunications although, sometimes, it sure feels like it might.  For an industry that’s generally resistant to change it’s amazing to see the evolution of telco and how it literally now shapes the day to day operations of businesses across the globe.  Companies want to enhance their telco infrastructures, and migrate to cloud based services, but most don’t know how.  What are the best practices and how can those steps be properly quantified?  Decision makers should look directly to the telco carriers for these answers.  Unfortunately, research surveys consistently show that business and non-business decision makers don’t trust the telco carriers to give them honest answers or the best prices.  That same group doesn’t view the carriers as thought leaders in their own industry either!  There’s a knowledge gap and it grows wider every day.

I started Cywest Communications to fill that gap and I’ve been doing it successfully for our clients for more than twenty years.  What I’m going to do here on this blog is share some of that experience with a broader audience.  Hopefully, I help you become better educated in this area, and lift up the curtain on some of the industry secrets that are often used to make customers enter deals that are against their best interest.

So, why should you listen to me – an older guy with a wife, three kids and a dog that has difficulty going to the bathroom?  Hopefully it’s because you’ll find these posts to be both informative and mildly entertaining, but also because I’m going to tell you the honest truth even when it's against my own self interest, just like I did about my dog.  There’s a lot of power in the word “truth” and it’s in rare supply given today’s fast paced world of bite-size information delivery. 

Truth has a way of coming to the surface despite efforts of repression or marketing.  The truth about telco, about cloud computing, connectivity and security are subjects I’m truly passionate about and look forward to sharing with you.  Talk to you soon.