Category Archives: News

Could OpenRoaming be the future innovation of Wi-Fi? Deployed by Cisco, their first commercial trial combines mobile-like roaming through Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

Cisco has teamed up with the owner of one of the largest business centres in Europe, the Canary Wharf Group, with the vision to transform Wi-Fi. OpenRoaming is conceived as a single, unified roaming fabric. Cisco is creating a federation of trusted members – the OpenRoaming Federation – which includes mobile service providers and device manufacturers, through which Wi-Fi networks can automatically authenticate users’ devices. When users come into range of the Wi-Fi zones, their devices will connect automatically to the trusted Wi-Fi providers, without having to go through a login process.

OpenRoaming, combined with the latest technology of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G phone coverage, has incredible potential to make superfast, reliable Wi-Fi readily available. However, making this coverage available worldwide is a tremendous challenge. To make all of this happen, network providers, operators and manufacturers all need to work together.

Cisco is attempting to bring together two distinct groups to form the OpenRoaming Federation: Wi-Fi access network operators and identity providers (also called IDPs). Wi-Fi access network operators are those who provide Wi-Fi networks, for example, operators like Vodafone, hotels, retail shops and more. Identity providers can be any organisation with an identifiable subscriber base such as Amazon, Facebook, or even airlines or supermarkets with loyalty programmes. Bringing these different parties together is a seemingly positive goal from a service point of view. However, with it comes the threat of monopolisation.

Cisco’s CTO, Matt MacPherson stated “The framework supports both free and paid Wi-Fi services…the combinations and permutations of how OpenRoaming-based Wi-Fi could be used are nearly endless – opening up for a long list of all new business opportunities”.

OpenRoaming is currently being tested, with trial partners such as Samsung, Boingo Wireless, and GlobalReach Technologies, amongst others. OpenRoaming was recently demonstrated at the MWC Barcelona (the world’s largest annual mobile expo event), allowing Galaxy S9 and S10 devices to connect automatically and securely to the venue’s Wi-Fi during the event.

MacPherson states that it is hoped that OpenRoaming will go live early next year. Another long-term perspective is to use OpenRoaming as part of a wider framework allowing seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and cellular networks including 5G. The future potential of OpenRoaming is huge, however, bringing together all providers and networks is not an easy task. In addition, one centrally managed Wi-Fi platform could bring its own problems by dominating the deployment of Wi-Fi on a global scale.

We have just launched Housing Justice’s new Impact Tool, which will connect data for their Winter Night Shelters network – running over 90 much needed night shelter locations across the country. The tool is used in combination with others and enables trends to be identified so that policies and common issues can be targeted.

The Impact Tool is fully responsive, so it can be completed on mobile by the busy administrators and volunteers who coordinate the shelters. It also includes live calculations – those entering data must ensure that numbers within their categories of reporting match up with the total of guests on which they are reporting.

The data is collected anonymously and securely, and – as well as being able to be exported for deeper analysis – is delivered to an overview spreadsheet that performs automatic analysis in real-time.

SharePoint is a platform by Microsoft that enables you to collaborate on content, and integrates deeply with Office. Primarily used via web browser, it was originally marketed as a document management system, but it’s functionalities have been expanded since its launch in 2001. Now, as well as document management, it is used as an intranet or company portal, to develop content, to collaborate on projects, to store files, and to run custom web applications (often specific to companies or particular business uses).

One major challenge with SharePoint is the differences between the previous ‘classic’ and the current ‘modern’ versions. The modern experience uses a more up-to-date interface and responsive design, and includes the capability for ‘Communications’ sites as well as the standard ‘Team’ sites. Even more significantly, the web parts (which are the little apps you can drop in to all sites and pages) are different in the classic and modern versions – as Microsoft says (source) “It’s important to note that modern pages can only use modern web parts and classic pages can only use classic web parts”. And because of this, you cannot simply or easily switch between the two versions.

We have developed a package that, once installed, gives the classic web parts on the modern SharePoint experience – the best of both worlds! Contact us if you would like more details on all the web parts (almost 40) available, and/or a demo. Our package is available for a one-off fee, which includes installation. This is a perfect solution for migrating to the modern SharePoint experience, without losing any existing functionality.

After a decade of success, Microsoft will end all support for Windows 7 in January 2020. Security updates and support for PCs with Windows 7 will no longer be provided. Computers running Windows 7 can still be used after this date, however, they will theoretically be vulnerable to security risks and breaches.

Primary support for Windows 7 ended on January 13, 2015, which stopped new features being added and invalidated warranty claims. Microsoft has since provided extended support, which has protected against new security risks – and this extended support will end officially on January 14, 2020.

Despite primary support ending nearly five years ago, Windows 7 is still very popular. Netmarketshare reports that Windows 7 is used on 39% of all PCs. There are a range of actions you can take to prepare for the end of life of Windows 7. You could consider upgrading to Windows 10, which may still be possible to do for free, or to another operating system such as Ubuntu, which is Linux based and free. The macOS operating system is only available on Apple hardware, so you would need to purchase a new device. You may also consider keeping Windows 7.

It is possible to continue running Windows 7 without this extended support. Microsoft will be offering “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates”, which will continue to deliver updates and patches for Windows 7 business users after January 2020. However, these updates will cost on a per device basis. On average Windows 7 per device will cost £20 for the first year, £40 for the second year and £80 for the third year. For users of Windows 7 Pro these prices double per year, starting at £40 per device for the first year.

Direction Forward will continue to support machines with Windows 7. Please contact us if you wish to discuss upgrade options.