Blog Archives - NavNet

SD-WAN vs MPLS: Where the Savings Come From

Written by Michael Her on September 1, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Cost is usually the question underneath all the other questions. Performance, flexibility, and reliability matter, but at some point someone has to look at a number and decide if it is worth switching over from MPLS to SD-WAN. Here’s where SD-WAN’s savings actually come from, without the vague “significant savings” language that shows up in most vendor pitches. Why MPLS pricing costs what it does Carriers build MPLS pricing around dedicated, managed circuits, and that structure carries real cost implications from the start. MPLS has remained a networking...

Service Advisory – Microsoft Is Retiring SMS and Voice Call Authentication

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on August 19, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Microsoft is shutting down SMS text codes and automated voice calls as a way to verify sign-ins across Microsoft 365 and Azure (Entra ID). The transition starts September 1, 2026 — about two weeks from now — and Microsoft-provided SMS/voice authentication stops working entirely on February 1, 2027. If your organization uses text or phone codes for multi-factor authentication (MFA) or password resets, your users will be moved to passkeys, and you have a narrow window to control how that happens on your own terms rather than Microsoft’s. Key Dates September 1, 2026 — Passkeys...

SD-WAN 101: What is it and Why are Businesses Switching

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on August 14, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

If your business runs across more than one location, there’s a good chance you’re paying for network connectivity in a way that made sense ten years ago and doesn’t anymore. SD-WAN is the reason a lot of businesses are rethinking that setup. Here’s what it is, in plain terms. What is SD-WAN SD-WAN, short for software-defined wide area network, separates network management from the underlying hardware and connection type. Instead of relying on one expensive, dedicated circuit per site, SD-WAN lets a business combine multiple connection types, broadband, LTE,...

When Your Network Provider Outgrows the Relationship

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on August 5, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Last month, TPx, a 575-person managed service provider and telecom carrier that had climbed to #2 on Channel Partners’ MSP 501 list, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to wipe out $1.1 billion in debt. TPx wasn’t struggling to find customers. It had scaled through acquisitions, built a national footprint, and won recognition as one of the top-performing MSPs in the country. What it couldn’t do was grow fast enough to keep up with the debt it took on to get there. According to court filings, the company refinanced its senior debt in 2022, pushing roughly $300 million in...

The End of Microsoft Basic Auth: Transitioning Your Email Connections to OAuth

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on June 26, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Microsoft has officially revised the clock for the final retirement of Basic Authentication for Client Submission (SMTP AUTH) in Exchange Online. Organizations now have an extended runway to modernize their legacy email workflows, with the first major enforcement milestone pushed to the end of 2026. The New Timeline for Deprecation Now through December 2026: Basic Authentication behavior remains unchanged. End of December 2026: Basic Authentication for SMTP AUTH will be disabled by default for all existing tenants. While administrators can still manually re-enable it if necessary,...

Security Advisory – Update your Microsoft Secure Boot Certificates

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on May 21, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Secure Boot is a foundational security feature of the Windows experience, providing protection from the moment a device powers on. It operates at the firmware level, running before the operating system loads to ensure that only trusted, digitally signed software can be executed during the startup sequence. This protection is enforced through cryptographic certificates (also known as Certificate Authorities or CAs) stored directly in your motherboard’s UEFI firmware. These certificates form a “chain of trust”: Platform Key (PK): The root of trust, typically managed by the...

Why Multi-Admin Approval is Critical Following the Stryker Attack

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on March 19, 2026. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Securing Microsoft Intune: Why Multi-Admin Approval is Critical Following the Stryker Attack The Stryker cyberattack was a stark reminder of how a single compromised account with Intune admin privileges can be weaponized to remotely wipe 200,000 devices. Because the platform viewed these factory resets as legitimate administrative actions, security tools did not flag the destruction. To prevent your management infrastructure from being turned against you, implement these three Microsoft best practices today: > Enable Multi-Admin Approval (MAA): This is your most critical safeguard....

VoIP Systems and the Benefits of E911 Routing

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on December 15, 2025. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

In today’s business environment, companies are often spread across multiple locations, and one of the most critical elements at these locations is phone service. Quite often, there are a lot of considerations that get treated as an afterthought but really should be front and center when planning phone routing. 911 services are one of those things — they should be at the top of your list for any new phone system, because, frankly, we just expect 911 calls to work. Why Standard 911 Routing Isn’t Enough When a company buys blocks of phone numbers from a telco or SIP provider, those numbers...

Why Should a Project Manager get their PMP?

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on August 14, 2025. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

The short answer? Getting a PMP (Project Management Professional Certification) is both a strategic move, as well as a practical approach to your Project Management career. In my opinion, not every person who has achieved a PMP certification is a good Project Manager. However, a person who already has innate skills, such as organization and communication, can be made a stronger, more knowledgeable, and more capable Project Manager in an IT world. The IT vertical is inherently fast-paced and ever changing. Just as hardware, software and overall IT solutions become...

Deploying Auvik: What you need to know

Written by Sabrina Esquerra on April 18, 2025. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Having proactive monitoring and alerting is necessary to maintain the stability of your environment. There are many choices available to do this, and NavNet’s monitoring tool of choice for our and our Managed Services clients’ networks is Auvik. Their platform allows our technical team the ability to view all managed networks from a centralized dashboard and provides us invaluable insight and information. The deployment of Auvik involves a straight-forward setup, which our team has managed successfully numerous times. There are no applications or SQL databases that need to be installed,...

Future-Proofing Healthcare IT with Cisco Meraki

Written by Anita Kaestner on September 24, 2024. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Healthcare IT faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities in the digital age. As technology evolves, so too must the infrastructure that supports it. Cisco Meraki offers a robust solution for healthcare organizations aiming to enhance their IT capabilities while ensuring scalability, adaptability, and cost-efficiency. Scalability: Building for Growth In the healthcare sector, the ability to scale IT infrastructure efficiently is crucial. As patient volumes increase and new health technologies emerge, healthcare facilities must ensure their networks can handle enhanced loads without...

Cloud-Managed Networks for Healthcare & Biotech Research

Written by Anita Kaestner on September 9, 2024. Posted in Blog. Leave a Comment

Imagine stepping into the dynamic world of biotech and healthcare research, where each data point and experiment could revolutionize medicine and biology. In this ever-evolving arena, the brilliance of researchers is amplified by the robust technology that underpins their work. Enter Cisco Meraki’s cloud-managed networks—seemingly custom-built for the complexities of the healthcare industry and biotechnology. These networks ensure that researchers have seamless, secure access to data and collaborative tools, facilitating breakthroughs by enhancing connectivity and simplifying IT management. Scalability:...