IDC: Data Centers Becoming Smaller, Faster

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“Virtualization, simplification, optimization and automation are all key drivers influencing the successful transformation of the U.S. data center,” said IDC analyst Michelle Bailey.

Where mainframes once ruled the data center roost almost exclusively, smaller blades that slide in and out of chassis are becoming more prevalent these days.

Blades, which IDC said grew 49.3 percent as a market year over year and climbed 56.9 percent from 2004 to 2005, boast designs and redundant capabilities to allow one server to keep up and running after another winks out. Blades are arriving en masse at the same time as heavy Web applications, such as customer relationship management or human resource management products from SAP or Oracle.

http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3594871

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Check Point calls off Sourcefire buy

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Check Point, an Israeli company best known for its firewall technology that defends networks against Internet attacks, announced in October that it had signed a deal to buy Sourcefire, which makes security appliances for protecting a corporation’s internal networks.

The deal had been under scrutiny since February by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, a panel made up of representatives from a dozen government agencies tasked with investigating foreign investments in U.S. companies that could affect national security.

Check Point had committed to an all out effort to lobby the committee for approval, but the process fell afoul of international politics following the public outcry over the failure of CFIUS to further investigate a proposed deal that would have given a Middle Eastern company control over six major U.S. ports. The proposed Check Point acquisition was under initial review by the U.S. Treasury-led CFIUS, when the Associated Press broke the news that United Arab Emirates-based Dubai World Ports planned to close a deal which would have given the company responsibility for security at six major U.S. ports.

Congress established CFIUS under the U.S. Treasury Department in 1988, when fears of growing Japanese ownership of U.S. companies caused legislators to pass the Exon-Florio Act.

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11382?ref=rss

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Managed Security Services Ready For Growth

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“If you’re just selling boxes, you’re only as good as your last month,” said Stuart Chandler, president and CEO of Optivor Technologies, a Nortel Networks Elite Advantage Partner in Elkin City, Md. “But if you’re locking a customer into a two-year managed services contract, now you have monthly recurring revenue coming in and you can forecast your profitability reliably.

Security solution provider Jenlor, Bridgeville, Pa., made the transition to managed services after realizing it was literally walking away from new business at customer sites it already owned. “We started out in 2001 selling firewalls,” said Jenlor Managing Partner Bill Peters. Peters said Jenlor doesn’t always lead with managed services because customers often fear that monthly cost and contract.

http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/183701716;jsessionid=SZULMWMTXN0HSQSNDBECKICCJUMEKJVN

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Many Data Centers Still Have No Risk Management Plan

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“The question becomes whether companies are focusing their dollars on potential disruptions that have the highest probability of affecting the organization,” Caprio said.

The survey found that more than 60% of respondents say 10% or less of their data center budgets are allocated to risk management, while only 18% dedicate 25% or more of the budget in that area. While 42% don’t foresee implementing some form of grid computing or virtual processing in their data center, 37% say they will within two years, 17% within five years, and 4% within 10 years. Nearly a third expect to have to relocate their data centers, while 45% believe they will need to make major improvements to existing data centers.

In the past five years, 34% of respondents have had to upgrade or add feeders to their data centers to accommodate higher loads, 14% had to build new centers with additional capacity to meet IT requirements, and 8% had to ask landlords for more electrical capacity.

http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/183701727

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VoIP security at odds with QoS

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“We have to follow standards and listen to news groups. Adding encryption to prevent outsiders listening into conversations can also degrade performance.

“Providing QoS to use limited bandwidth but still encrypt data limits the ability to analyse what application is running, or decide what QoS should apply, ” said Gilad Brand, director of product management at VoIP gateway specialist Jungo.

SIP is an open standard that should help to address the security versus performance issue, but vendors’ implementations of the technology differ, so interoperability and uniform feature sets are not assured in the short term, said Slaby.

http://www.vnunet.com/2152383

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