The end of the corporate network is coming

By Patrick Gray | November 1, 2016, 10:55 AM PST


General Electric recently announced it may "disconnect" as many as 5,000 sites from its corporate network. Is the idea of a secure, corporate network for employees past its prime?


Corporate networks have been a staple of IT departments since the dawn of IT as a corporate function, and it has been assumed that if you have employees, you'll need to provide a secure internal network for them to get their work done. However, many companies like GE are rethinking this strategy, and providing their employees with connections to the public internet rather than a secured network. Here are some of the reasons behind these moves.



The Internet is now the de facto network

I remember when I was first granted access as an employee to the mysterious entity called "the Internet." Multiple forms were completed and duly signed by various supervisors, and I had to have special proxy and monitoring software installed on my company desktop to search AltaVista and be granted an internet email address. With the rise of globally dispersed workforces, telecommuters, and mobile workers, most companies have provided means to access key software and services over public networks for years. In fact, with my last employer I never connected to the physical corporate network, using the internet for everything from email access to cloud-based tools to get work done.

As companies increasingly prepare applications for access from anywhere, a distinct "company network" seems a bit anachronistic, and in many cases presents an administrative burden, as IT must maintain secure server networks, firewalled "DMZ" networks, and semi-secure employee networks that offer little benefit when the tools for external connectivity are already in place.


Physical security really isn't

One of the major drivers for maintaining a corporate network was the theory that it offered additional security. If someone had already made it into your physical facility, a network jack that offered relatively unfettered access to company resources seemed sensible. However, that theory has long been debunked by anything from physical hacking attempts to

Infographic charts history and potential risks of the Industrial Internet of Things

By 2020 the IIoT is expected to be a multi-billion dollar market. With massive scale comes massive security challenges. Security expert Lancen LaChance share his enterprise security best practices checklist.

By Dan Patterson | October 4, 2016, 9:01 AM PST

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to describe networked objects. For consumers, "smart devices" can range from watches, to refrigerators, to chairs. For example, in the analogue world, a chair is simply a chair. IoT chairs, however, might be equipped with sensors that report data like posture, weight change over time, time spent sitting, and other metrics. When combined with sophisticated software, these stats provide unique and useful insights.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is a broad term that refers to the rapid rise of industrial automation in the past decade and encompasses networked, "smart," homes, cities, and electrical grids. "The IIoT holds great potential for improved communications, productivity, quality control, supply chain efficiencies, and overall business operations," said Lancen LaChance, VP of IoT solutions at GlobalSign.

IIoT devices are switched online every day. In 2014 the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that the total IoT market could hit $7.1 trillion by 2020 and account for nearly half of all connected devices. Lux Researchestimated the Industrial IoT market alone would hit $151 billion by