Windows 10 has been a reliable companion, but its days are numbered. Come October 14, 2025, Microsoft will end support...
Windows 10 Countdown: Why It’s Time to Upgrade Your PC Today
Keep your business’s internet and internal network stable, secure, and high-speed.
years in business
clients
professionals
I need faster/more reliable internet.
We have Wi-Fi dead zones that need fixing.
Connect your business with reliable, high-speed fibre – plus optional 4G failover for unexpected outages.
Route network traffic through the fastest possible routes (including MPLS) with software-defined rules.
Get full internet coverage for your office or site with options like Wi-Fi mesh – the speed you need, without the price tag of cable.
Continuously monitor your network’s health and performance, no matter what devices your team uses.
Keep unwanted traffic from entering your company network with AI-driven firewalls.
Matt Harrison
Service Desk Manager
Talk through your business’s current IT with one of our IT solutions architects.
They’ll explain the benefits you can expect when you switch to IT Leaders.
One of our technicians audits your current IT environment.
We’ll propose a solution that includes every product and service you need with monthly, per-user pricing.
Changing IT providers isn’t like it used to be.
Most of our clients switch to us with fewer than 5 minutes of downtime.
Change can be that easy.
Helping Queensland brands take control
since 2003.
since 2003.
When you send data from one company location to another – for example, between sites or to your data centre – you need to protect it. Unencrypted data that travels through the internet is vulnerable to different kinds of cyber attacks. (Think of it like walking along a dangerous street with a bunch of valuables in your arms. There’s a good chance that someone will try to steal them.)
The simplest way to encrypt your data is through a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN acts a bit like putting your valuables into a locked backpack – you’re still on the street, but no-one else can see what you’ve got.
Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is similar to having a VPN. Unlike a VPN, though, data passed through MPLS doesn’t go out onto the internet. It runs through a dedicated ‘highway’ that you pay your internet provider to establish between sites. It’s like a private tunnel rather than a public street. (Technically, the traffic will go from Site A to a data centre to Site B.)
Most networks with MPLS generally have rules that direct certain traffic through MPLS and other, less important traffic through the internet via a VPN.
A software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) lets you direct your data based on rules and performance. If, for example, you had a lot of data going through your NBN connection, it might make more sense for some, less important data to go through 5G instead (which would reduce the latency for the NBN-carried data).
Because SD-WAN works dynamically, it can be more effective than setting up manual routing rules, especially if you’re running applications that need low-latency, stable connections. Most SD-WANs also have built-in encryption to keep your data safe. Think of it like a GPS that automatically directs you and your locked backpack around high-traffic areas.
A local-area network (LAN) is a network that connects multiple devices in the same geographic area. For example, if your business had a LAN but no internet, the computers in your building could still talk to each other – but not to the outside world.
A wide-area network (WAN) connects devices in different geographic areas. The internet is the most well-known WAN.
If your network isn’t secure, threat actors can enter and do one of 2 things:
Both of those scenarios can lead to customer data being stolen or deleted (often restored only if you pay a ransom), invoices being modified or sent fraudulently, or even attacks being launched on your partners/customers. It’s not a scenario you ever want your business to be in. Even 150-year old companies can be killed overnight by network compromise.
A mesh network is ideal for large spaces like warehouses that can’t be served by a single Wi-Fi router. Rather than relying on extenders (which have limited ranges and can be blocked by obstruction), meshing involves setting up multiple, interconnected Wi-Fi nodes. Those nodes can pass data between them until it reaches the central router – think of them like a relay chain.
It’s generally the best way to provide connectivity to big spaces where cabling is non-viable.
A virtual local-area network (VLAN) is a way to logically separate different functions within a physical LAN. Let’s say you had your office printers, VoIP phones, and endpoints all running on the same LAN. Because each of those have separate security considerations (and quality requirements), it would normally be better to separate them into 3 VLANs partitioned by firewalls.
Find out how to keep your network simple, safe, and running at its best.
Windows 10 Countdown: Why It’s Time to Upgrade Your PC Today