The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) has evolved from a small convention featuring oddities and gadgets with only the end-consumer in mind, to a flourishing multi-day extravaganza that covers the latest in tech for enterprise companies all the way down to the every individual niche market you can think of.  This year's 2019 CES show had some special noteworthy techs that the Small and Medium-sized business owner might especially want to have on their radar. Technology ranging from storage to improved networking and everything in between for your business were a major commodity this year, and we wanted to share our findings with you.

Workstation and Server Improvements Coming Soon

One of the most anticipated announcements this year came from one of the biggest players in the CPU world, Intel.  Intel unveiled the long awaited 10-nanometer CPU line they've code-named Ice Lake.  These new CPUs are slated to start coming with new servers and workstations in the 2019 year.  The 10-nanometer design is expected to bring long awaited improvements to workstation, server performance and efficiency not yet reached by current 12-nanometer CPUs.  They've also released a new micro-architecture for small form factor devices.

This will be Intel's first CPU architecture to natively support WiFi-6 and Thunderbolt 3.  And with the smaller form factor, manufacturers will be able to produce higher performing, thinner transformer devices as well as 2-and-1 laptops according to Gregory Bryant, Intel's Senior Vice President.  In a demonstration, the new CPU was able to perform an interface-based search 50% faster than Ice Lake's 12-nanometer predecessor. "We can accelerate this kind of inference-based workload 50 percent, 70 percent, maybe even 2x," Bryant said.

Networking Tech for the Home or Office

Tech company, EnGenius, revealed a new series of WiFi-6 (802.11ax)-based indoor access points for what they are calling the 'enterprise minded SMB'.  Named the Neutron Series AX, these access points offer higher performance and improved WiFi coverage with small and medium sized businesses in mind.  WiFi-6 offers higher user capacity, thanks to higher efficiency in its use of channels, while also offering lower latency and improved signal reliability.  EnGenius showed off two ceiling-mounted-style access points they named the EWS377AP, offering up to 2400 Mbps over 5Ghz, and the EWS357AP which has up to 1200 Mbps over the 5Ghz bandwidth.  Both of these models cover enough area to be suitable for just about any home office or medium-sized business.

Netgear also showcased their newest access point - the Orbi Pro Ceiling Satellite.  The Orbi Pro Mesh Wi-Fi Ceiling Satellite is aimed at improving wireless coverage specifically with the SMB community in mind.  This device would connect to an Orbi Pro router or other FastLane 3 enabled router. Orbi Pro Satellite helps you build out a complete wireless network where wiring may be a challenge.  These mesh devices also have PoE (Power over Ethernet) abilities  for even more convenience and dedicated wireless backhaul.  Netgear states that their Orbi Satellites feature simplistic management for both power and strong wireless signal providing excellent coverage for spacious offices.

Seagate Unveils HAMR for Disk Drives

For several years, Seagate has been working on a system they called Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), and they unveiled their latest HAMR-enabled hard drive at this year's CES show.  According to Seagate, HAMR is the next leap forward in increasing hard drive capacity using a new kind of media magnetic technology on each disk, which allows bits of data to become smaller and more densely packed.  A laser diode is attached to each recording head and used to heat a small part of the disk, which enables the recording head to flip the magnetic polarity of each stable bit, allowing data to be written.

Seagate hopes to make HAMR the new industry standard for recording data to disk, and claims that it is ready this year.

The items above were just a small part of the overall CES 2019 show. Based on what we saw, there are great technologies to look forward to for entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized businesses of all kinds.  As a managed IT service provider, Natural Networks is committed to staying on top of new and upcoming technology.  If you want to learn more, please contact us today!