6 Devices Poised to Disrupt Your Network in 2016

Tech’s biggest event, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), garners more than 200,000 attendees and never has a lack of innovation or head-scratching technology. From an entire section devoted to virtual reality to a futuristic Batmobile model, attendees collectively navigate through 3,800 exhibitors and 2.5 million square feet of space to experience the most advanced technologies. Of course, 2016’s show had no shortage of wearable tech, tablets and hybrid devices on display.

With all these new products being introduced to company networks, the opportunity for vulnerabilities and security and compliance complications continues to escalate for IT teams. In 2016, IT teams can expect to deal with the onslaught of wearable devices, ensuring continuous infrastructure and deploying new technologies. The products introduced at CES will only add to the complexity for IT teams’ never-ending efforts to manage and keep up with the hot tech trends.

In this slideshow, Ipswitch highlights six of the technologies from CES that are most likely to disrupt your company network.

Disruptive New Tech

Click through to check out the six devices poised to disrupt your company network in 2016, as identified by Ipswitch.

File Transfer

File Transfer: Samsung Notebook 9 Series

While users will undeniably look at the new Notebook 9 series and say “neat,” IT teams may shudder at the security limitations. Samsung states that the “new security feature Security CAM allows users to take and send photos through an equipped camera to a pre-registered email in case of theft.” Additionally, the Pattern Log-in, Secret Screen and Record Block features help users protect private files and information. However, this technology development might make employees sending personal files at work a bigger IT security issue for 2016.

Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities: UA HealthBox

Wearable technology such as the new UA HealthBox is the most comprehensive ecosystem of fitness products made to date. What could this mean for the well-being of your company network? The individual impact may be relatively small, but the combined effect of these increasingly common devices can create a much larger impact on the network. More employee-controlled devices connected to the network means more access points and bandwidth usage. While this issue may start small, its impact will only grow over time.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth: Klaxoon

With the influx of new gadgets in the workplace, as well as increased demands from employees wanting to use devices at their leisure, ensuring bandwidth uptime will be a priority for IT teams in 2016. The Klaxoon is changing the way teams will present, teach and collaborate in the workplace, with full control over data and its privacy. This lets participants bring their own devices without any installation, and once again IT will be caught in a perpetual game of catch-up, trying to deal with the new demands on the network by undetectable technology.

Data Control

Data Control: Zhor

A new type of wearable device was introduced at CES — smart sneakers. Zhor Tech is considered “a smart pair of sneakers” that connects to the user’s smartphone and transmits a variety of data to the device. Devices that can be used during the workday and happen to exchange data throughout the day cause stress for IT teams in terms of data control in an already large amount of sensitive data.

Compliance

Compliance: Samsung Portable SSD T3

Samsung introduced its new Portable SSD T3 that offers up to 2TB of storage and has the capability to transfer files up to speeds of 450MB per second. The big concern for IT teams with this technology is the ability to ensure security and protection to any files, especially when the data is sensitive customer data. Technologies such as these pose the risk of customer data ending up in the wrong places on the wrong device, creating the potential for non-compliance.

Wi-Fi Availability

Wi-Fi Availability: Fitbit Blaze

With the highly anticipated launch of the Apple Watch, the smartwatch phenomenon will continue to be a major trend in 2016, as a number of new watches are introduced to the market. The Fitbit Blaze was unveiled at CES and is considered to be Apple Watch’s main competitor. In addition to being a fitness tracker, the Fitbit Blaze allows users to take calls, check text messages and even receive calendar invites. With wearable and fitness technology becoming even more prevalent in the workplace and adding traffic to the already jam-packed list of devices connecting to Wi-Fi, IT teams need to be aware of the impact these devices will have on Wi-Fi availability.