Author: admini

A new series of blog posts on Crisis Response

Posted on by admini

I have been through a quite few crisis with large and small organizations and I hope that these posts will help IT teams protect their people, the world and the businesses.

Why would I write a set of blog entries about crisis response? Well to be honest, I am hoping that I can generate business opportunities, and also create a online resource of information about this very important capability. I have searched across the web and found very few sites dedicated to this subject. Yes, you can find information on disaster response but I think organizations are facing few disasters (hopefully), but probably everyone has a couple of crises a year.

So let’s start. For me, crisis response is an operational capability that needs to exercised frequently, as opposed to once a year. It goes beyond the traditional world of viruses and hack attacks. It’s something that can be leveraged to help an IT organization with it’s daily activities, not just when things are going wrong.

Hopefully, you will find this information useful.

And if you want to provide feedback, I have a forums section just for crisis response. No person is an island and it is only through sharing of knowledge and experience, that we evolve.

Now, I have become a bit of a pain when it comes to posting. I need you register and I promise not to share your email with anyone else. I will also sometimes check to see whether the person registering is really a professional. And I won’t use the email for any marketing or profiteering. If you want to talk business with me, contact me.

Thanks Paul

Read more

Web Host 1&1 Launches Server Management App for iPhone, iPad

Posted on by admini

Launched at the beginning of 2010, the 1&1 Dynamic Cloud Server provides dynamic adaptation of RAM, CPU cores and disk space to deal with changes in server load.

To use the new iPhone app for mobile administration, customers need only insert their 1&1 contract number and password once, and then view all relevant server details in real-time.

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/101910_Web_Host_11_Launches_Server_Management_App_for_iPhone_iPad

Read more

Four Big Trends Changing Computing, Gartner Says

Posted on by admini

Sondergaard started by talking about how it usually takes about 10 years from when a technology appears until it really changes business, citing the PC, mobile phone, and Internet as example. He noted that while the IBM PC appeared in 1981, it didn’t reach an installed base of 100 million units until 1990. Twenty years ago, Tim Berners-Lee sent the first Web request; by late 1996, there were less than half a million Web sites; but today there are 250 million sites and 1.8 billion Web users. Global IT traffic is doubling every 2 years, and the information we create is moving from 275 exabytes per year to 275 exabytes per day by 2020.

Social computing will blur the lines between enterprise and personal computing, and social networking within and between organizations will massively improve productivity.

Context-aware computing means many more connected devices with sensors that understand the location, language, feelings and dreams of consumers by using patterns to determine your desires.

Pattern-based strategy uses predictive analytics on both structured and unstructured data, but it’s more about a business framework that lets us seek and model patterns, and then adapt accordingly.

Each of these trends is disruptive, he said, but the combination is an “unimaginable force” that will transform not just IT, but business and government.

But while IT budgets grew from $1.2 trillion in 2000 to $2.4 trillion now, overall, they aren’t growing very fast, he said. He said that while IT departments have been internally focused on optimizing processes and costs for the past 20 years, now it was more about business processes.

And he said that while the IT vendor industry is changing — through mergers and acquisitions creating “supervendors” — the four big trends in IT directions will bring this strategy into question.

Eric Knipp said the old rules of IT as a “black box” were ending, as users now have unprecedented IT resources. As a result, CIOs and IT managers must transform themselves from controllers to implementers; implementing “smart control” — managing technology in tighter concert with business goals.

Knipp said the concept of creating IT systems that are “built to last” is obsolete and is being replaced by a new dynamism of “built to change.”

He talked about layering the applications portfolio to systems of record that need to be stable and secure, like a GL; systems of differentiation that you don’t know how long they will last, such as pricing; and systems of innovation, built for ad hoc projects or collaboration.

Nick Jones and Research VP Hung LeHong talked about how all the information available via sensors, social networks, and advanced analytics, were changing all industries from retail, to warehouses, to construction.

Jones said that cloud computing enables quantum change in the economics of IT, letting CIOs save as much as 50 percent of operational costs; and this can allow the funds for IT departments to innovate.

http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2010/10/four_big_trends_changing_compu.php

Read more

Entry level SIEM and log management solution introduced by LogLogic, as LogRhythm introduces virtual

Posted on by admini

Chris Petersen, founder and CTO of LogRhythm, said: “Virtualisation and cloud computing are transforming the way IT is deployed, managed and consumed, which includes log management and SIEM technology.

http://www.scmagazineuk.com/entry-level-siem-and-log-management-solution-introduced-by-loglogic-as-logrhythm-introduces-virtualised-siem/article/181160/

Read more

CA Technologies Revamps Cloud Automation Suite

Posted on by admini

For example, an IT administrator would be able to guess CA Client Automation’s functionality based on the name, as opposed to the previous generally-named CA IT Client Manager, he said. When additional modules are “plugged in” at a later date, the applications automatically detect and share data, making it very scalable, said Shopp.

CA Process Automation documents, automates and orchestrates a range of processes across platforms, applications and IT groups, CA said.
CA Configuration Automation identifies and standardizes device configurations and tracks cross-device dependencies, CA said.

The enhancements to existing products include new hypervisor support and management tools for public, private and hybrid clouds.

CA Client Automation integrates and automates a wide range of client device management tasks such as bare metal buildups and rebuilds, patch management, Windows 7 migration, and remote desktop support, CA said. The enhancements include dynamic management of mixed workloads for virtualized resources, the ability to schedule workloads in public couds such as Amazon EC2, and the ability to manage, monitor and troubleshoot business workloads. These stand-alone modules are also available in three preintegrated packages aligned with specific business services: hybrid clouds, Cisco UCS and data centers.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Virtualization/CA-Technologies-Revamps-Cloud-Automation-Suite-492569/

Read more

Cloud computing: how to navigate the legal and contractual pitfalls

Posted on by admini

This is not to say the challenges outweigh the benefits, but that these must be thought through carefully, so that proper commercial decisions are made to deal with the risks.

Data protection: data must be processed within the European Economic Area, unless there is adequacy of protection established outside the EEA, or consent requirements have been met in respect of data subjects;
Regulatory compliance: if an organisation is operating in a regulated industry, it must ensure that the associated compliance obligations can be maintained (audit rights and appropriate controls, for example);
Security and confidentiality obligations — although an obvious and important point, consideration needs to be given as to how to verify such measures; Service levels and compensation mechanisms — with the infrastructure in the cloud, this becomes more vital, together with considerations associated with measurement (delineating between the cloud provider’s infrastructure responsibilities, and those which lie within the domain of the customer);
Escrow considerations – worth thinking about, in case the service provider disappears, or the contract terminates early;
Business continuity and disaster recovery — cloud computing can give rise to robust business continuity and disaster recovery measures if properly implemented.

http://itlaw.computing.co.uk/2010/10/cloud-computing-blue-sky-thinking-or-head-in-the-clouds.html

Read more