January 2023

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January 24, 2023January 27, 2023

Health Check for Businesses: Just how digitally ready are you?

Businesses, no matter what their size, are facing many challenges, not least how to keep up with the latest advances in technology. Everyone talks about the effects of digitisation on the economy and the need for transformation, but what does that really entail and just how do you assess how technically fit your own business is?

JT are hosting a FREE Business Health Check Workshop on Tuesday 31^st January, where they’ll be able to help any local small to medium sized business with an assessment of their technology usage and performance. Digitisation can represent an enormous change to some but it also offers infinite opportunities. This informal workshop offers a chance to meet others that may have similar needs and allow JT’s team of product specialists to check the suitability of your current services and suggest ways that may save you money and optimise your business processes.

Examples of the areas that JT can advise on include cybersecurity, data storage and protection, how to use Wi-Fi more effectively and mobile applications and equipment.

Susan Sproston, JT’s Head of Small to Medium Enterprise said: “Regular business health checks are essential for understanding a company’s vulnerabilities and finding areas for growth. Carrying out an annual review helps to rethink the way we do things, making sure we stay relevant and convenient for our customers and clients. We want businesses to tell us about their challenges so that our team can share solutions that work for them, their teams and their customers. We also want to hear about their ideas so that we can help make those successful by matching the challenge to a solution.”

The event, open to any business, is on Tuesday 31^st January at the Royal Yacht between 9:00 am and 11:30 am. Businesses can find out more about the event and sign up here >

January 16, 2023February 7, 2023

Playing with the right players: the importance of data centres in eGambling

eGambling is a highly lucrative sector. With 32 million active user accounts in the UK, online casinos, betting, and bingo produced a combined gross revenue of £6.9 billion between April 2020 to March 2021 — an 18.4% increase compared to the year before.

For eGambling propositions to be successful and profitable though, the digital experience has to be smooth. Players will not put up with lagging or buffering disrupting their game, especially when the stakes are high. So as the eGambling space becomes more competitive, and new gambling platforms enter the scene, delivering a quality digital experience becomes all the more essential.

Online gambling experiences have made it possible for players all over the world to play thousands of interactive and content-rich games, in real-time, and win real money — sometimes very large sums.

For all of this to work well, we need a massive amount of data to travel back and forth between players, operators, and suppliers. Underpinning this vast sector is a complex digital ecosystem comprising of data centres, networks, and occasionally peer-to-peer connections. Developers and eGambling companies need to enhance their software and hardware to keep up with demand.

Data centres help deliver low latency and tight security

Latency can make or break the eGambling experience

Latency is one of the biggest issues developers have to battle against once a game is live.

Online gambling experiences require latency to be as low as possible to optimise gameplay, so players can interact and make decisions in as close to real time as possible, so as not to feel disadvantaged when betting. Latency can damage the user experience, particularly during eGambling sessions that use the passing of time as part of the suspense — roulette, slot machines and virtual horse racing, for example — or for live dealer events.

Low latency is also essential for creating an authentic and seamless experience when reacting within the game environment. A minor network delay or lag could result in a player missing out on placing a bet. Having to wait for winnings to appear immediately in their online wallet could lower the player's drive to keep playing.

Developers can help reduce latency by co-locating with localised data centres. This is because ISP managed data centres have their core network infrastructure located on site, which minimises latency, and ensures you can offer gamers the best possible experience, no matter where they themselves are located.

With VR and AI gambling — which will require much more data with minimal latency — becoming more popular, it’s crucial that eGambling platforms find winning solutions for low-latency gameplay.

Security is a top priority for gamers and eGambling providers

As for any digital platform facilitating payments, the smooth running of the service requires tight security measures to protect customers’ information.

DDoS attacks can harm an eGambling company’s reputation and cost a great deal of money in damages and fines. A data centre’s DDoS protection must be robust enough to secure sensitive customer data, and safeguard the company’s reputation.

New technologies offer exciting opportunities for eGambling

With the rollout of 5G, mobile data speeds can finally support the demand cloud-based eGambling puts on ISP bandwidth. Players can now pull up their games on mobile anytime, anywhere, and place bets ‘on the go’. This will put a heavy strain on developers and gambling platforms, who will need to look to edge data centres to support this new style of play.

Our data centres are designed to help you meet regulations worldwide. Located in the Channel Islands, they operate 24/7, include dedicated and experienced support, and offer excellent security benefits. By moving away from the usual, centralised data centres based in major cities, gambling companies can eliminate data congestion and connectivity problems to offer a far better experience.

How JT can help with eGambling

The obvious solution to all your server woes is to build your own dedicated data centre. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done unless you’re Google or Amazon. This is where partnering with JT can help businesses get a foot in the door.

Your eGambling business can access the best enterprise cloud platform with JT’s Cloud services. Our data centres are the Channel Islands’ all SOC 2, ISO 27001 and PCI-DSS certified, ensuring you can offer fast, secure, and stable connections to all your players.

Our dedicated team of of onsite Data Centre Technicians provide IT “Remote Hands” support software and applications support, and 24/7 technical support and maintenance year-round. We can recommend, design and deploy Data Centre solutions to meet your physical security and power usage requirements. In addition, our team of specialists can help your business relocate your existing solution from its current location to one of our purpose built hosting facilities.

This means you’re never far from a solution if you run into any issues, ensuring a seamless and reliable eGambling experience with maximum availability and uptime.

January 11, 2023January 20, 2023

The challenges and opportunities SMEs will face in 2023

The last few years have seen a huge amount of change for small and medium sized businesses, especially around processes, applications and digitisation. Business owners have learnt how to be adaptive and agile and as we continue to operate in an uncertain economic climate, that ability to anticipate and respond to challenges and opportunities will continue to be key throughout 2023 .

In preparation for our upcoming JT Business Health Check workshop on 31^st January, we’ve put together a list of some of the anticipated challenges for SMEs over the next year.

Increased costs

The cost of living crisis is effecting many consumers and businesses. High inflation levels, increased operational and materials costs have meant small businesses have had to re-evaluate their budgets.

There’s little sign of the economy recovering in the near future, so this will remain a key factor in almost every decision-making process for SMEs in 2023. Assessing the technology you use on a regular basis will help identify where digitisation and automation may help streamline processes and workflows.
in 2023.

Data protection

Customers are increasing pressure on companies to keep their personal data safe. This isn’t a new trend, but it’s still one of the most critical customer needs for businesses across all industries as cyberattacks and identity theft cases grow.

Customer demand for data protection is backed up by increasingly tight regulations surrounding how we handle data. The European Union is looking to make a number of improvements to data protection laws with the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. The UK government is also looking to overhaul their version of GDPR to reflect increased threat levels. Taking a proactive approach to protecting and securing your business-critical information, online and on your network with a 3rd party provider is highly recommended.

The changing ways we work

How we work has changed significantly over the last few years, and there’s no going back to the way things used to be. We’re seeing more businesses of all sizes using Unified Communications to support their hybrid working and flexible workspaces as team collaboration is the most important way to improve business processes and culture.

With the current job market being full of candidates looking for a better employee experience, businesses need to adapt to modern ways of working to ensure they can not only hire new talent but retain their best employees. This includes checking in with employees at regular intervals to see if they have everything they need to do their job and asking how employers can make improvements.

Flexibility is now the name of the game, and businesses need to keep up. They’ll need to adopt smarter technologies that enable collaboration and boost productivity with remote and hybrid teams.

Increasing security threats

SMEs are increasingly adopting new vendors and software as they digitise more processes. This has made cybersecurity more complex than ever and cyberattacks are rising. Did you know that 46% of all cyber breaches impact businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees?

Regularly reviewing your security against an ever-changing threat landscape and identifying gaps that make your business vulnerable to attacks is imperative. The first step to securing your business is a cybersecurity assessment that considers your own security compliance, your employees, potential risks and the risks of your vendors and partners.

Saying SMEs need to monitor their data for potential security breaches is easy, but putting that advice into practice can be more complex. We offer JT Cyber Protection to help you keep track of your digital presence and protect your business from threats.

Of course, the best way to deal with threats to your business and your data is to prevent them in the first place with our Managed and Automated Security Operations Centre (SOC) Services. All JT Managed Security products offer a proactive approach to protecting and securing your business-critical information, online and on your network, using a range of dedicated Cybersecurity Services.

Find out more about our solutions at our upcoming JT Business Health Check Workshop we’re hosting on 31st January 2023. ✅ Assess your current business setup. ✅ Save money. ✅ Prepare for 2023 and beyond. Register here >

How business health checks will help in 2023

Business health checks are crucial to ensure everything is running as it should. They’re designed to help you gain a better understanding of your company’s strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as identify areas for growth.

You can gauge your organisation’s preparedness for change by attending our business health check. This is crucial during times of change and could help you identify money-saving opportunities.

Business health checks also help organisations prepare for the future. They can uncover ways to improve connectivity, data storage and protection so your organisation can be ready for whatever 2023 has to offer.

To learn more about our business health checks and how you can best prepare your business for the upcoming year, register for the JT Business Health Check Workshop we’re hosting on 31st January 2023 at The Royal Yacht Hotel.

Get in touch with our expert team to learn how JT can help your business in 2023 and beyond.