Sometime in the last few years, the inconveniences created by some virtual communications became so common they turned into meme-worthy transgressions.

We’re talking about those network interruptions that freeze faces and cause voices to truncate and disappear mid sentence — not to mention the distracting background noises bleeding over from a co-worker logging in from a corner café.

What will the cities of the future look like? You don’t have to wait to find out — digital transformation, along with rapidly developing technologies like AI, are already creating the connected cities we’ve long envisioned.

The bottom line is always at the top of every business’s list of priorities. For IT departments, that means maximizing operational uptime and facilitating company growth.

That’s especially important when you consider a single minute of downtime can cost a financial institution $9,000 — an hourly rate of more than half a million dollars.

Before truly sustainable growth can occur, you first need a solid foundation. Helena, Alabama, a small city of 23,000 residents located 20 miles southwest of Birmingham, knows this better than most.

For two decades, the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program has provided school districts with billions in annual discounts on essential broadband services for schools and libraries nationwide.

Financial institutions hold the keys to an enormous amount of consumer data, from their clients’ personal details to transactional data. For banks, this information provides valuable insights into their customers’ needs and gives them the ability to make data-driven decisions. But to criminals, it can mean a whole lot more.