Last Known Issue Volume I Issue 4
Is NBN Très Bien? The National Broadband Network is a difficult topic for me to write about because as far as I’m concerned you can’t have a too-fast internet connection, but as someone who loves technology and also runs a business I have to wear two different hats. 1. My Techie Hat: ”This is really cool and exciting and I love new techie toys to play with” and 2. My Commercial (or taxpayers hat) “Does this make any monetary or commercial sense?”
A quick recap - This $43bn project commissioned by the labour government to deliver 12-100mb/s broadband services to most homes and businesses in Australia is the largest single infrastructure rollout in Australian history.
Development has already commenced but is currently in a holding pattern pending political outcomes. NBNco state on their website that they “will not award any new significant contracts until the election outcome”
My perspective on the technology capability of the broadband network is that it ticks my #1 requirement – it is going to be really fast and really cool -
As for #2 NBNco say their enterprise will turn profitable within 3 years - However, a recent article in The Australian ran some numbers and came up with a different calculation exerted here:
…The price we’ve been quoted is $43 billion, but that’s only for the initial build.
Factor in the year-on-year running costs and the NBN rests somewhere between a losing investment and a financial black hole, guaranteed never to break even, let alone to turn a profit.
Take the best-case example. Assume a budget overrun of only 10 per cent of the capital cost ($47.3bn), an adoption rate for households and businesses of 60 per cent (more than 100 per cent of current broadband subscribers), a yearly running cost of $800 million, a 15-year lifespan and a wholesale charge of $50 a month per connection, and the NBN loses more than $1bn a year, costing taxpayers $64bn.
That’s a best case scenario.
In that sense, my second hat doesn’t fit on this one. This just doesn’t appear to make any monetary or commercial sense despite the capability. It’s highly unlikely that the majority of Australian’s will require this level of performance – it’s also more likely that when there is a level of requirement by consumers we can use existing and next generation wireless technology without laying down cables and running up enormous tax payer bills in maintenance. I believe in investment in Australian infrastructure – that’s why we pay taxes right? But it would be nice to see some other points of view on this one.. Feel free to comment.
Spam: Nuisance or Threat? Over the past few weeks a group of I Know IT clients underwent a trial with SpamWow! Our spam and content filtering product that soaks up spam. The results were phenomenal – but before we look at the results, let’s discuss the true threat of spam to an organisation. Spam delivers three negative (and 0 positive) outcomes:
1. Productivity cost – you and your team sorting through real vs fake emails (sometimes in excess of 50 or more per day) – these insidious, pointless little creatures pop up randomly throughout the day and night often disrupting real emails and real work.
2. Bandwidth cost – Imagine your internet connection being hit thousands upon thousands of times per day with illegitimate mail. Whilst not all of those emails ever make it through to your inbox, your server, firewall or desktop filtering product is yes/no’ing constantly. This eats into the performance of your network
3. Security threat - most spam emails carry a virus or phishing message to try and break through your security. Once that virus is let through the network (by way of someone in your company opening that attachment) they’ve already made it through your firewall and perimeter. Had an unusual email from UPS lately? Those and many emails like them can absolutely wipe out a desktop or notebook PC in a matter of minutes, with an average rebuild/recovery time of 3-4 hours.
Our trial delivered results that even we weren’t expecting. We decided that the only way to truly defend a network from the above 3 threats was to have the spam filter away from our clients networks. SpamWow! filters the mail in the cloud, away from our clients servers, firewalls and desktops and one that delivers a report directly to us (the provider) and the company to ensure no legitimate mail is caught and what the performance gain is to the business. That report has convinced us and our small trial group of clients that there are immediate cost benefits and advantages to SpamWow!
Take a look at the results on our website http://iknowit.com.au/index.php?spamwow
If you’re interested in participating, we’re still offering 30 day free trials of SpamWow!, available via the link above.
