Articles

The Hackers are on the Inside – you just haven’t seen them yet

14 Dec 2011

Gregory Webb, Director of Marketing, Venafi takes a look at the increasing reality that some of the most dangerous hackers don’t have to get through your firewall because they’re already inside your organisation, biding their time before they unleash their pent-up fury. But what can you do about it?  

Front-safe Creates an Efficient and High-Performance Cloud Solution for Tivoli Storage Manager - Case Study

14 Dec 2011

Backup and archive solutions provider improves performance and slashes database server footprint to offer best-in-class service at an attractive price.

The Challenge

Front-safe is a dedicated and focused supplier of backup and archiving solutions, proactively protecting businesses of all types and sizes from data loss. IBM Denmark’s Cloud Partner of the Year in 2010, Front-safe offers a unique online, user-friendly web interface that tightly integrates with IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) to create a cloud solution that makes TSM easily available to large and small businesses. Front-safe automates backup and recovery, while also providing reporting and dynamic invoicing.

2011 storage review and 2012 predictions

13 Dec 2011

Jeff Ready, CEO and Matt McPhail, global systems engineer, at Scale Computing offer their insight.

Storage Review 2011

The industry buzz around virtualisation has intensified in 2011 as more businesses have become aware of the benefits it provides. Virtualisation is becoming the cornerstone of organisations’ drive towards reducing operating costs, improving productivity and increasing efficiency. This is further demonstrated with industry expertsreporting that 60% of SMBs have already moved towards incorporating a virtualisation strategy[i].

Finding Clarity in the Storage Cost Minefield

12 Dec 2011

When analysing the cost of your storage infrastructure, there are several factors you will need to consider such as the media, network, and operating costs. However, you may not be aware that your choice of storage infrastructure is actually guided by the demands on the application tier above it.

Bank of Communications China

09 Dec 2011

Driving business impact with unified solutions from Aspect

The Company

The Bank of Communications China (BOCC) is the country’s first national shareholding commercial bank, and the first China-based commercial bank listed publicly outside of the nation’s mainland. Today, the Bank of Communications is one of the top five leading banks in China and has more than 2,800 branches, covering more than 80 major cities in China. The Bank of Communications also has overseas branches in Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Singapore and representative offices in London and Frankfurt.
 
BOCC actively seeks new technology solutions to further its management vision and improve customer service and operational efficiency.

Making the call on enterprise IP telephony

08 Dec 2011

Complete visibility of performance is essential for IT operations teams tasked with deploying and managing real-time applications such as IP telephony, VoIP and video.

SevOne’s Pete Cruz examines the challenges faced by enterprises when converging voice, data and video onto a single network infrastructure.

IP telephony encompasses a set of technologies enabling voice, data and video over existing IP-based LANS, WANs and the internet. Using voice over IP (VoIP) as the enabling technology to transport phone calls allows firms to eliminate legacy circuit-switched (TDM) systems and lower equipment costs by converging applications onto a single infrastructure, while browser-based interfaces can simplify system management. Software upgrades are also much easier to implement, as are moves, adds and changes (MACs). 

SolarWinds: 2012 Predictions

07 Dec 2011

IT professionals: Why it's critical to move toward a business skill set to stay on top of virtualization and cloud technologies in 2012

In 2012, IT professionals will come upon a fork in their career path. Thanks to the game-changing nature of virtualization as the foundation of cloud computing, the technology has ushered in new challenges, new day-to-day responsibilities and, soon, new roles for IT professionals as business leaders within their organizations. Choosing to accept the challenges will require a business skill set and thinking beyond the walls of the IT department. 

Private clouds demand a new approach to IT

06 Dec 2011

Cloud computing is still an abstract and intimidating concept for many businesses, and probably will be for some time. But companies can begin taking small steps toward cloud implementations by adopting private clouds and creating a hybrid environment. The key to cloud success is the ability to manage workloads – a combination of business processes (not just applications) to protect crucial information and create a more service-driven data centre.

Cybercrime: protecting against the growing threat - Global Economic Crime Survey

05 Dec 2011

Economic crime does not discriminate. It is truly global. No industry or organisation is immune. We have seen a 13% rise since our last survey and organisations see more fraud ahead.

How to Detect and Stop Corporate Cyber Espionage

29 Nov 2011

You’ve spent months fixing the red items on an internal audit report and just passed a regulatory exam. You’ve performed a network vulnerability assessment and network pen test within the last year and have fixes in place. You’ve tightened up your information security policy and recently invested in a security information and event management (SIEM) solution. You’re secure, right?

Extending Test Automation to Mobile Apps

28 Nov 2011

In this day and age of instant-on gratification, mobile devices are gaining momentum. As with any emerging technology, a number of unique challenges can arise when developing and implementing mobile applications because compared to the desk top environment, mobile applications have their own user interface (UI) requirements, business process flows, and infrastructure dependencies. This coupled with the growing variety of mobile devices and operating systems can put increased strain on IT to build, port and maintain mobile applications and also heighten the risk of quality and performance problems.  

Modern IT Infrastructures Demand New Approach to Monitoring and Management

21 Nov 2011

In an era of tight spending, reduced profit expectations, rising utility costs and environmental concerns, enterprise computing infrastructures are now increasingly reliant upon outsourced managed service and hosting providers thanks to the growing sophistication of virtualisation, SaaS, and cloud computing. Together, these trends are marking the beginning of what some believe will be a move to the “all cloud enterprise”, an organisation that relies solely on externally hosted services for its computing infrastructure. Whether or not this vision turns out to hold true for most enterprises, there is no doubt that external SaaS and cloud offerings are here to stay, and will play increasingly important roles in how enterprises deliver and consume business applications in the years ahead. 

Outlook for 2012 - Data centre predictions

21 Nov 2011

Chris Smith, sales and marketing director, on365, a specialist in the planning, installing, management and optimisation of infrastructure and utility services, has identified the following key trends in the data centre industry for 2012, including new data centre monitoring tools, next stage equipment guidelines and some potential game-changing innovations by manufacturers and IT vendors.

Ten Vital steps for Successful Cloud Computing Implementation

18 Nov 2011

Costas Galonis, CTO of Cloud provider Cirrus Stratus, takes you through the ten steps to check off on your to-do list before committing to the Cloud. 

If you are wading through the sea of words which has been written about Cloud computing in the last few months you can be forgiven for being a little confused. Not only is Cloud computing a new concept, the literature about it is also weighed down with new ideas and words such as virtualization, multi-tenancy etc. Since Cloud computing is a new way of doing business you have to be clear about what you are letting yourself in for. For some, the business benefits of Cloud are many – for others it will be the simple fact that Cloud allows a small business to stop worrying about its IT - something that distracts from its core function of running the business

Telehouse: Providing the financial exchange hub for QuantHouse

18 Nov 2011

Established initially in 2000, as a quant/ algo hedge fund, developing proprietary technology and infrastructure, QuauntHouse is now the global leader in end-to-end systematic trading solutions. Created by a group of managers, IT experts and quant traders coming from the hedge fund community, QuantHouse’s technology has been designed for electronic trading aimed at the buy-side customer. The company has over 90 employees spread out across three offices in London, Paris and New York.

The vision of the company is to help financial firms to take the lead by providing ready-to-use systematic trading solutions.

Benefits of assembly-line techniques for data centres revealed in new Green Grid report

15 Nov 2011

Modular data centers offer cost savings and increased energy efficiency

Manufacturing techniques that are extensively applied in other industries are now rapidly maturing for the building and deployment of data centres, according to a new report from The Green Grid, the IT industry’s leading voice for advancing resource efficiency in data centres and business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid’s white paper, “Deploying and Using Containerized/Modular Data Centre Facilities,” reveals that pre-engineered and prefabricated data centres demonstrate technical and business value when properly applied.

Five steps to outsourcing your business IT functions to the cloud

14 Nov 2011

Outsourcing business IT operations to the cloud is a hot topic for companies at present. Many voices are extolling its virtues, with key benefits from cost reduction and increased business flexibility highlighted alongside the improved technological reliability associated with virtualised environments. 

Michel Robert, managing director, Claranet, states: “There is also, however, a current of concern coursing through IT departments, as questions are raised about the service levels, security and increased reliance on networks that an outsourced IT infrastructure will necessitate. So what practical steps should you take if you are considering outsourcing parts of your IT infrastructure from in-house physical servers to a remote, cloud environment? There are five key steps that a business should consider when putting together a business plan for moving to an outsourced cloud.”

Everything changes but stays the same

10 Nov 2011

Consumerisation, cloud computing and virtualisation are transforming corporate networks, but for IT professionals tasked with managing this change, the underlying challenges remain the same as when the personal computing revolution first got underway.

Ewen Anderson discusses why a well-known saying in France still rings true for IT professionals managing the new wave of IT transformation underway.

Many businesses are looking to refresh or transform their desktop environment by adopting utility computing and virtualisation. Advances in both the underlying technology and service quality means that organisations can now virtualise across the majority of the IT estate – i.e. the desktop (DaaS); the applications (SaaS); computing platform and/or solution stack (PaaS); and back-up, disaster recovery and storage (IaaS).  

Stoke Park - Case Study

03 Nov 2011

Stoke Park School & Community Technology College in Coventry is a mixed comprehensive inner city and multicultural school providing education primarily for students between the ages of 11 and 18. It is one of the most oversubscribed schools in the city and accomodates in excess of 1,000 pupils each year. Its infrastructure includes over 500 computers and 16 virtual servers that manage the school’s computing workload.

Driving Down the Cost of Great Service

03 Nov 2011

Today’s field service organisations find themselves confronted by two seemingly conflicting goals: they are expected to systematically reduce the cost of their service operations whilst simultaneously responding to an increasingly demanding customer base. In short, they are expected to drive down the cost of great service.

Online Social Networks – Launch pads for Malware

01 Nov 2011

With the advent of social networks, the online world has become a virtual society. Social networks serve as seamless communication channels, but at the same time they are ideal launch pads for malware infections. As a result there has been a tremendous increase in the dissemination of malware infections through social networks. The security and privacy mechanisms of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have proven insufficient to prevent exploitation. As we know “To Err is Human,” and human errors lead to exploitation and manipulation whether the social network is online or offline. 

SURVEY RESULTS: Data Center Economizer Use

31 Oct 2011

In early 2011, The Green Grid (TGG)—an international, non-profit consortium working to enhance data center resource efficiency—conducted a survey to learn more about current economizer awareness, perceptions, and use in the data center industry. The survey’s results indicate that economizers are well-known throughout the data center industry and that adoption is becoming fairly widespread.

Perimeter Security with Security Event Information Management Whitepaper

31 Oct 2011

Security Event Information Management (SEIM) can provide the security leap-frog in a world of point solutions – to ensure there are no blind spots in your network security architecture

The Growing Need for a Consolidated or “Context Aware” View into Enterprise Security

Even with dedicated security personnel, it’s tough to monitor the millions of messages and log records generated by various security edge devices such as intrusion detection systems, firewalls, anti-DoS and application firewalls. Even more difficult is identifying patterns occurring over time and across separate devices, but an SEIM system can build a centralized architecture that makes such tasks more feasible and allows for speedy compliance reports, audits and is absolutely required when prosecution of a perpetrator is needed.

2011 is Proving that PCI DSS is working; however there are challenges to be overcome

26 Oct 2011

Recent figures from the UK Cards Association showed that banking industry initiatives, including PCI have been successful in decreasing the volume of card and bank account fraud. Payment card fraud losses in 2010 reached their lowest levels since 2000, and have made significant improvement from their all-time high just three years ago in 2008. Overall, they suggested that total fraud losses on UK cards fell by 17 percent alone over the preceding year.  Data protection laws in Europe are getting tougher, with Spain, Italy and Germany now requiring companies to notify customers of a privacy breach. Additionally, as companies take a broader look at business processes in the data-security context, PCI DSS is proving successful as a strong foundation for overall data security, with research pointing to the PCI Standards as effective in efforts to satisfy the European Data Protection Directive. 

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) Investing in Greater Data Center Performance and Control

26 Oct 2011

Ranked as one of the top 50 safest banks in the world and the best bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has more than 100 branches and more than 450 ATMs in the UAE. The NBAD overseas network stretches across Hong Kong, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Server Technology Powers World's Deepest Cabled Ocean Observatory

24 Oct 2011

When the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) needed a way to power the world's deepest cabled ocean observatory, it knew it needed a little help.

2011 Information Technology Capabilities and Needs Survey

20 Oct 2011

More than 200 respondents, including CIOs, chief technology officers, chief security officers, and IT vice presidents and directors, participated in the study. Respondents answered more than 100 questions in three general categories: Technical Knowledge, Process Capabilities and Organizational Capabilities.

Geolocation Last High Street lifeline?

20 Oct 2011

UKFast round table discusses latest salvation of the High Street.

High Street retailers who embrace location technology now will stand the best chance of survival as e-commerce continues to dominate growth in the industry.

Is the Data Centre facing extinction?

20 Oct 2011

An industry viewpoint from Roger Keenan, managing director at City Lifeline

Enterprise data centres, government data centres, commercial data centres and colocation houses have seen a massive expansion over the last ten years or so. Every organisation in the world uses more computing power today than it did five years ago and five years ago used more than it did ten years ago.  Even small children who can barely walk use more computing power.  Is there any end?  And how can the world cope with the space and electrical power that all this computing needs?

The Pensions Trust - Case Study

18 Oct 2011

The Pensions trust is one of the leading multi-employer occupational pension funds in the UK for the Third Sector. Established for over 60 years, The Pensions Trust has assets of more than £4.4 billion and serves over 150,000 employers and members.

Perimeter Security with Security Event Information Management Whitepaper

17 Oct 2011

Security Event Information Management (SEIM) can provide the security leap-frog in a world of point solutions – to ensure there are no blind spots in your network security architecture

The Growing Need for a Consolidated or “Context Aware” View into Enterprise Security

Even with dedicated security personnel, it’s tough to monitor the millions of messages and log records generated by various security edge devices such as intrusion detection systems, firewalls, anti-DoS and application firewalls. Even more difficult is identifying patterns occurring over time and across separate devices, but an SEIM system can build a centralized architecture that makes such tasks more feasible and allows for speedy compliance reports, audits and is absolutely required when prosecution of a perpetrator is needed.

Six Steps to Policy Excellence

17 Oct 2011

Dominic Saunders Senior Vice President at Cryptzone gives an IT security experts view on best practice policy management

Striking the right balance between risk mitigation and the commercial demands of the business is an essential skill, which must be adapted according to the nature of your industry and the size, culture and risk appetite of your organisation. This role needs to have clear ownership at senior management level.

Data Centre Business Continuity

17 Oct 2011

How is the choice of data centre, and data centre connections, key to supporting mission-critical applications – and what should you look for when choosing? Bob Griffiths, MD of Next Connex explains.

According to research from the Business Continuity Institute, approximately 20% of companies suffer a major disaster or disruption every five years, including damage caused by natural disasters, fires, IT system failures and power cuts. Of these companies, over three-quarters don’t survive the disaster. Such disruptions cost UK firms almost £4bn each year, and studies show that the average business suffers up to 11 virus attacks on a daily basis.

Comic Relief Trusts Cisco – From Donation to Deposit

17 Oct 2011

Comic Relief trusts Cisco’s application acceleration infrastructure to manage over 1,000,000 telephone, online and Interactive TV donations during Red Nose Day

Since its founding in 1985, Comic Relief has become one of the world’s most successful and respected charities. Last Red Nose Day alone raised over £80 million, and Sport Relief which takes place in alternate years, raised over £40 million in 2010.

Cloud cover for the Small Business

17 Oct 2011

The changing landscape for SMEs

Based in Northampton, Mooncomputers are a leading provider of small & medium sized business IT support and services. The company has been providing IT operations to the SME community, across a variety of verticals, for over ten years. 

WhipTail Tech - XLR8r

17 Oct 2011

Solid State Optimization for Virtual Desktops

The WhipTail XLR8r is an SSD appliance designed to cost effectively meet the demanding performance needs of virtual desktop infrastructure deployments. An XLR8r uses flash drives instead of hard drives to narrow the gap between processor and IO access performance. MLC flash drives are used to deliver cost effective price/performance that’s ideally suited for virtual desktop workloads.

inVentive Health selects WhipTail XLR8r to improve Citrix environment performance

17 Oct 2011

New Jersey based inVentive Health inc. is a global provider of value-added services to the pharmaceutical, life sciences and health care industries with over $800million in revenue and 5,200 employees.

Strategies for Migrating to IPv6

12 Oct 2011

For years, the Internet protocol known as IPv4 was sufficient for existing demand, but over the past two decades, it became clear the number of possible IPv4 addresses would eventually fail to meet demand. Realising this, engineers and network designers established a new version of the IP protocol called IPv6 with a vastly larger number of potential addresses. But how should organisations move from IPv4 to IPv6 without disrupting their operations?

Security and access issues in cloud need to be addressed

10 Oct 2011

Robert Rutherford, managing director of QuoStar Solutions, makes some very valid points about the rise of cloud computing, but there are two crucial considerations that also need to be considered by any company looking to make the switch, namely around security and access.

Supercomputing – The Silver Lining to the cloud

06 Oct 2011

A topic that has been, and will be on the mind of any CIO or IT manager is budget cuts. With the economic downturn still looming, this is something that every company has had to deal with. So as IT spending has been forced to be re-evaluated, we have seen more companies looking to hosting providers for their IT needs. Moving to a hosting provider can save money in many ways; firstly there isn’t the need to purchase servers as they can be leased through a hosted service. This eliminates the need to provide storage for them, power them, cool them or even provide maintenance for them. This will free up valuable resources internally. So as we continue to see more businesses move towards outsourced environments, we are also seeing more complex services venture into the hosted industry.

Service Provider VESK selects Nexenta for rapidly growing virtual desktop business

05 Oct 2011

In 2009, after nine months of development, the founders of IT support specialist Appiam set up VESK, one of the first companies to implement virtual desktops in the UK. Today VESK is fully owned by Appiam Limited, a London based IT Support provider specialist renowned in the industry for excellent levels of IT and customer support.

Riding the wave of IT consumerisation

05 Oct 2011

A new generation of computing devices and employees is driving a change in the way IT departments and organisations interface with their employees (and those devices). The need for a more flexible delivery model challenges traditional approaches to delivering corporate applications and securing data.

Ewen Anderson at Centralis explains how organisations can manage consumerisation in an efficient and secure manner, boosting productivity and employee satisfaction while delivering on longer-term strategic objectives.

Back to the Future: Why IT Managers should care about Firewall Management

04 Oct 2011

A number of classic scenes in film and literature involved a group approaching a walled city or castle only to be stopped by a gatekeeper and asked, “Halt, who goes there?” Depending on the answer, be it Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon or Dorothy and the Tin Man, the gatekeeper makes the call on whether or not the group can pass or is turned away.

Taking a Bird’s Eye View of Energy in the Computer room and Data Centre

04 Oct 2011

Simon Terry, Chief Executive of Unite Technologies, provides food for thought on best practice in reducing and optimising data centre energy consumption

Energy and FM professionals are well aware that both legacy and new build computer room and data centre operations bring with them significant energy management challenges. Rising energy costs and limited supply means data centres are coming under increased pressure to become more energy efficient, especially in light of the introduction of the Government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme. 

NGD Europe – As green as the Welsh Valleys

04 Oct 2011

A multi-million pound project in South Wales has transformed a former 750,000 sq ft semiconductor plant into Europe’s largest data centre. Opened last year NGD Europe offers multiple tenants scalable, custom built data halls with the power resources to match, all from one supersize environmentally-friendly tier 3+ facility. Drawing power from 100 per cent renewable energy sources, there has been from the outset a strong emphasis on energy efficiency and environmental credentials.

Next generation data centres not only have to tick all the boxes on space, security, power and connectivity but also guarantee far superior environmental performance than their predecessors. With data centres forecast to consume globally almost 2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020 (Greenpeace) and in the face of an increasingly onerous regulatory landscape, operators are under pressure to deliver optimised energy environments to satisfy compliance as well as more demanding environmental expectations from customers.

Targeted cyber-attacks: how can organisations step out of the firing line?

30 Sep 2011

Cybercriminals are employing new, sophisticated and highly targeted methodologies that are completely circumventing traditional security. In this article, Bradley Anstis takes a look at traditional network security solutions and explains how businesses can shore up their defences in the face of targeted attacks.

In recent years, cybercriminals have shifted the way they operate by abandoning large-scale, gen eralised scams, such as malicious spam, in favour of more targeted and customised techniques, such as spear-phishing targeted senior executives in the hope of stealing passwords, customer details, critical company information and intellectual property (IP).  What is at stake is everything from military secrets to the operation of critical infrastructure like power and water utilities – no organisation or sector is immune.

Genetic Research Group protects cutting-edge research material with Overland Storage solution

30 Sep 2011

The University of Sheffield’s Centre for Development and Biomedical Genetics (CDBG) is an internationally recognized and multi grant award-winning center for biological research. 

Nomura banks on success with Cisco’s Data Centre 3.0

28 Sep 2011

International finance firm invests in the data centre of the future

Nomura is a leading financial services group and the preeminent Asian-based investment bank with worldwide reach. Nomura provides a broad range of innovative solutions tailored to the specific requirements of individual, institutional, corporate and government clients through an international network in over 30 countries.

High & Low: Performance & Latency Matters

28 Sep 2011

How the speed & throughput of next generation networks matters for mission-critical applications, and the influence it has on choice of data centre location

In networking, speed matters. Bandwidth-hungry apps and mission-critical systems demand ever more throughput and capacity. While the trail has been blazed in data-intensive sectors such as stockbroking, commodities trading, and the film and media industries, it’s hard to think of any business area that would not benefit from improved wide-area network performance. 

Making the case for a greener data centre

28 Sep 2011

Data centres are widely known for consuming a lot of energy. According to some estimates, almost two per cent of the nation’s electricity is used to power computers and telecoms equipment, most of it in specialised data centres. One data centre facility can use up to 50 times as much power as the equivalent in office spaceⁱ.However, operators have started driving up their efficiencies and driving down their costs and showing that they’re making their buildings more efficient and green.

iGovernment Energy Plans Could Prompt Data Centre Exodus – eWeek Europe, 3 August 2010

Popularity of cloud computing is continuing to soar

27 Sep 2011

Although not a new concept, the popularity of cloud computing is continuing to soar, says Robert Rutherford, Managing Director of, QuoStar Solutions. Many companies, however, are still unsure about what impact "moving to the cloud" will have on their business continuity plans

Product Review: Mimecast Unified Email Management

26 Sep 2011

The reviewer, Exchange MVP and creator of ExclusivelyExchange.com J. Peter Bruzzese, recognized the platform’s ease of use, and its deep levels of functionality, flexibility and integration.

It’s not often I find a product overwhelming (in a good way). Typically, I find products do what they advertise themselves to do within the Exchange realm with a feature or two that might impress me along the way. Where Mimecast’s Unified Email Management (UEM) blew me away is that it does everything it advertises so smoothly, through a single console. Through cloud-based, geographically dispersed servers, they provide a 100% service availability SLA (with stiff financial penalties) for their solutions as well.

The need for consolidated enterprise security

22 Sep 2011

Security Event Information Management (SEIM) can provide the security leap-frog in a world of point solutions – to ensure there are no blind spots in your network security architecture

The Growing Need for a Consolidated or “Context Aware” View into Enterprise Security

Even with dedicated security personnel, it’s tough to monitor the millions of messages and log records generated by various security edge devices such as intrusion detection systems, firewalls, anti-DoS and application firewalls. Even more difficult is identifying patterns occurring over time and across separate devices, but an SEIM system can build a centralized architecture that makes such tasks more feasible and allows for speedy compliance reports, audits and is absolutely required when prosecution of a perpetrator is needed.

Imperva Hacker Intelligence Initiative - Monthly Trend Report

22 Sep 2011

Hacker Intelligence Summary Report – An Anatomy of a SQL Injection Attack

This month’s report from Imperva’s Hacker Intelligence Initiative (HII) focuses on the rise in SQL Injection (SQLi) attacks on the Web. Dominating headlines for the past year, SQLi has become a widely-known, even outside the circle of security professionals. And for good reason: SQL injection is probably the most expensive and costly attack since it is mainly used to steal data.

GEO Foundation Case Study

19 Sep 2011

Based in Indiana, USA, the Greater Educational Opportunities (GEO) Foundation has worked to improve education since 1998. Specifically, GEO Foundation helped foster support for academy law and now sponsors four academies in the United States that serve more than 1,200 students.

Understanding the correlation between data leakage and the security mission

13 Sep 2011

In a number of cases, Internet-attached private systems are not always maintained in an up-to-date state and, as such, are vulnerable to exploitation by mischief-makers and, of course, their cybercriminal peers.

nlyte Express Edition Solution Brief

08 Sep 2011

The nlyte data center infrastructure management (DCIM) suite provides data center professionals with the predictive intelligence and management controls they need to reduce operational risks and achieve smarter, more efficient and highly available data centers. The nlyte Express Edition is our entry level solution designed to get companies quickly started with DCIM. The nlyte Express Edition takes the risk out of converting from manual processes and spreadsheets by providing a cost-effective approach to implementing DCIM.

Managing Risk in the Cloud

07 Sep 2011

Adopting Cloud computing may save money, but how does it change risk?

The Cloud allows the procurement of IT services from both internal and external suppliers to be optimized because the services are delivered through the Internet in a standard way. The Cloud is not a single model, but covers a wide spectrum from applications shared between multiple tenants to virtual servers used by one customer and hosted internally.

The seven deadly hosting sins

06 Sep 2011

Your internet is mission-critical, and your provider pledges to keep to SLAs, so you can relax. Or can you?

The team here has picked up just seven of the worst examples of ‘hosting sins’ for your entertainment - but also to act as a cautionary tale. Many of these ‘sins’ were the reason customers left their previous provider and came to Iconnyx. The stories are based on fact but the names have been changed to protect identity... 

4 Steps to Defeat a DDOS Attack on your Organisation

01 Sep 2011

Millions of computers around the world are controlled by cybercriminals. These computers have been infected with software robots, or “bots”, that automatically connect to command and control servers. The command and control servers then instruct the bots to carry out illicit activity, such as performing denial of service attacks, or harvesting application content. Building these networks of bots, or botnets, has become a lucrative business for botnet operators, who rent out their bots to the highest bidder.  

Coping with security demons – encryption in optical networks

22 Aug 2011

While IT managers and CIOs have done much to protect servers, databases, routers, and switches, truly secure communications will only be possible if the network protection is extended beyond the walls of the data centre. Many still think that fibre optic networks are intrinsically secure because they use light rather than electrical current to transmit data between network points.

Mobile Malware: it’s all just myth and fantasy - isn’t it?

16 Aug 2011

We’re all wise to the risks our online antics pose to our security. We’ve learned not to trust emails from Nigerian Bankers offering to share millions in exchange for a small upfront handling fee. Our banks haven’t monitored fraudulent activity so they don’t need us to verify our account details by confirming our information. Messages from DHL with attachments informing us about deliveries we’re not expecting don’t fool us into opening the document. We’re even wise to the links in emails that want us to visit websites and win prizes. Why don’t they work? Because we’ve learned the hard way. 

Central & Cecil - Case study

12 Aug 2011

Central & Cecil was founded in 1926 and is committed to providing housing and care for a wide range of people in London, Berkshire, Luton and the Midlands. Its responsibilities include contributing to housing the elderly, the homeless and others with special support needs as well as providing access to personal development, arts and education programmes.

Are you practicing secure collaboration or is it chaotic?

09 Aug 2011

Varonis looks at the implications for organisations that get it wrong and gives advice on how to protect your information in a digital world.

Digital files are critical business assets. Organisations create more and more of them every day, in a widening variety of more sophisticated formats. As spreadsheets, presentations, images, audio and video files increase in capability and complexity they convey more information and tell more complete stories. As an example, a presentation can now contain graphics, charts, video, and audio—organisations use presentations to communicate their business plans, quarterly reviews, and internal processes. Files that can’t be used for collaboration are like financial assets that can’t be spent. 

What can Organisations do to combat the Insider Threat?

08 Aug 2011

SailPoint has recently released their survey results regarding employee behavior with respect to corporate data. An interesting figure indicates that 24% of the surveyed Brits mentioned they would copy electronic data and files to take with them when they leave a company.

Growth in data centre electricity use - comment from Interxion

01 Aug 2011

“I wasn’t surprised by the estimate in today’s report that in 2010, data centres accounted for between 1.1% and 1.5% of the world's total energy consumption, as ICT becomes pervasive in delivering products and services to increasing number of people across the globe.  We know that in order to reduce the environmental impact of IT, the green data centre needs to be at the heart of the whole movement towards sustainable computing. Date centre operators need to work with local and international government bodies, industry associations like the European Commission, the UKs Carbon Reduction Commitment and The Green Grid to better  understand the role they can play in reducing the carbon footprint associated with their ICT infrastructure.

Growth in Data Center electricity use 2005 to 2010

01 Aug 2011

This study assesses growth in data center electricity use from 2005 to 2010 for the US and the world. It uses data and methods similar to earlier analyses to create a consistent time series of data center electricity use.

Scale vs EMC

29 Jul 2011

There’s a lot of hype surrounding EMC's release of VNX storage for small and medium-sized businesses. The hype, however, doesn't live up to the reality. Research shows that while the system may start at £8,000, by the time you add drives and features necessary for the market, the true price is closer to £30,000.

City of London - Case Study

29 Jul 2011

The City of London provides local government services for the financial and commercial heart of Britain, the 'Square Mile'. It is committed to supporting and promoting 'The City' as the world leader in international finance and business services through the policies it pursues and the high standard of services it provides. Its responsibilities extend far beyond the City boundaries as it provides a host of additional facilities for the benefit of the UK. These range from open spaces such as Epping Forest and Hampstead Heath to the famous Barbican Arts Centre and the London Metropolitan Archives.

News of the World, privacy and IT governance

28 Jul 2011

What Happened?

On Sunday July 10^th, 2011 the News of the World published it last edition. This paper had been publishing for 168 years and was the top selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. The closure came following revelations of how the newspaper had allegedly obtained personal information using illegal methods such as phone hacking. What does this teach us about privacy and information governance?

Time is the Enemy in Film Restoration - Case Study

19 Jul 2011

The Pixel Farm, Ltd. Provides Fast, Efficient Automated Tools to Accelerate Film Restoration, Visual Effects, and Digital Image Editing, featuring LSI® RAID technology and JBOD Enclosures

Computacenter - Case Study

14 Jul 2011

Computacenter, with more than 10,000 employees and revenues of over £2.5 billion, is Europe’s leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. The company advises customers on their IT strategy, implements solutions and manages their technology infrastructures, helping them to remove IT cost, complexity and barriers to change.

Avoid becoming the next big IT security disaster

07 Jul 2011

What do Chet Sherer and George Best have in common? Most of us have heard of George, one of the greatest football (soccer) players to ever step on a field. George died after a long illness in 2005, probably due to years of what could be termed a self destructive lifestyle. He is famously quoted as saying: “In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol - it was the worst 20 minutes of my life,” and later “I've stopped drinking, but only while I'm asleep.” Chet was a colleague who lived a quiet life, did his job, and recently died suddenly from a burst aorta. Both are gone – the one after years of apparently not looking after his health, and the other through a sudden aortic aneurysm.

CNI and the Lessons learned from Lulzsec

05 Jul 2011

Hacktivism and It’s Criminal Inspiration

The recent hacking spree by Lulzsec has helped make hacktivism a household term. Although hacktivism is nothing new, it has undergone a rapid evolution that is driven and inspired by criminal, for-profit hacking.

Scottish and Southern Energy - Case study

01 Jul 2011

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), headquartered in Perth Scotland is one of the largest energy companies in the UK. With over 19,000 employees, it is involved in: the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity; the storage, distribution and supply of gas; electrical and utility contracting and other energy services; and telecoms. SSE supplies electricity and gas to over nine million customers within the UK’s competitive energy market making it the second largest supplier of energy in the UK.

NetApp helps Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust consolidate its servers and rationalise its infrastructure

30 Jun 2011

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust was formed on 1 April, 2006 after East Kent NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust and West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust merged. The trust provides mental health, learning disability, substance misuse, and other specialist services for 1.6 million people across Kent and Medway. It is committed to providing high-quality clinical services, innovation, and partnership working. It is one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK, covering an area of 1,450 square miles, employing over 3,600 staff, and operating from over 140 buildings across the locality.

Five Ways to Get Yourself Fired

30 Jun 2011

Standfirst

A colleague of mine last Christmas declared 2011 as The Year of Living Dangerously for Information Technology (IT) Security Officers. He said that he could see many pitfalls looming this year for the unwary in IT security and that many would end up on the dole. 2011 has indeed unleashed a wave of unprecedented security breaches that have left many people reeling – Epsilon, Sony, WikiLeaks, PBS.org, RSA Security and HBGary Federal to mention only some of the victims. So to put this all in context, and provide a cautionary tale of the challenges facing IT security professionals, I have drafted a fictitious scenario to illustrate the 5 best ways to get yourself fired so that hopefully you never do! Happy reading.

LawWare - Case Study

27 Jun 2011

LawWare has grown by 20% since working with hosted infrastructure expert Rise to launch LawCloud, a hosted version of its practice-management software.

Is Your Exchange Secure, Responsive and Constantly Available?

23 Jun 2011

This article examines the challenges Exchange presents and provides a tick list so you can confidently answer yes to the questions posed

As the most widely adopted messaging platform and semi-structured data repository in the world, Microsoft Exchange is the go-to cross-functional collaboration system for many organisations. Administrators are under enormous pressure to ensure that Exchange is secure, responsive, and constantly available. So, how do they do that? This article examines how an automated data governance program can provide the answer, expedite Exchange-related management tasks and improve the controls that protect the critical data contained in mailboxes and public folders.

eBay - Case Study

23 Jun 2011

Real-Time Energy Optimization and Best Practices In a Mission-Critical Data Center

As one of the world’s largest Internet commerce platforms, eBay demands extreme data center reliability; any downtime would impact transactions worth more than $2,000 a second. Thus its global data center team must excel simultaneously in delivering uptime and flexibility, while keeping costs down – a truly complex challenge, requiring constant innovation to be successful.

Radley + Co. - Case Study

22 Jun 2011

Radley + Co is a market leader in handbag and accessory design. Its products are designed in the UK, manufactured largely in China and on the Indian sub-continent, and distributed to retail outlets from its UK and US warehouses.

Global produce labelling leader Sinclair International achieves cost-savings, rationalisation and performance improvement via virtualised storage

21 Jun 2011

Having pioneered the development of automatic fruit labelling systems nearly 30 years ago, UK firm Sinclair International now operates in 35 countries worldwide. With a 100% focus on the global fresh produce sector, Sinclair provides customers with an unmatched combination of fruit labelling equipment, labels and service - all from a single, reliable source, with its network of subsidiaries and partners all linking to one global data centre/ERP system in Norwich.

Opening for business: your new cloud?

20 Jun 2011

Transform your infrastructure into public or private cloud with ten tips for choosing a cloud management system

Cloud computing is high on the agenda for all UK businesses, particularly for companies with substantial IT infrastructure – hosting providers, and large enterprises.  

Raising the security bar By Ray Bryant CEO Idappcom Ltd, authors of Traffic IQ

20 Jun 2011

In today's fast-changing world of security threats, the need to raise the security bar - by enhancing an IT platform's ability to detect and prevent malicious code from `breaking through' the network perimeter - has never been greater.

But how do you tackle the process in a modern IT department? Idappcom's CEO Ray Bryant provides some thoughts ….

Consulting Firm Avoids Significant Infrastructure Costs, Improves Application Availability

20 Jun 2011

With roughly 70 percent of its consultants working from client sites or from home, A.T. Kearney depends heavily on email, instant messaging, VoIP, and other unified communications services. The company needed to ensure that these tools are secure and available to users from any location and on any device.

Thermal Optimisation in the Data Centre

16 Jun 2011

Best Practices for achieving optimal cooling performance and significant energy savings in your data centre

Data centres contribute significantly to world-wide energy consumption. Analysts from IDC and Gartner state that two percent of total energy consumed worldwide is caused by data centres. This share is expected to double within the next five years. The increase in CO₂ emissions will have a profound impact on the costs for companies, their data centres, and the ecological and environmental communities at large. 

The mobile security conundrum

16 Jun 2011

Andy Cordial, managing director of secure storage systems specialist Origin Storage, explains why mobile computing users need to raise their security game if we are to avoid a series of smartphone and tablet computer driven data breaches hitting the headlines...

Whilst the range and variety of IT security defences for portable computers - that's netbooks and laptops to most people - is excellent, and able to cater for all budgets and types of user, it should be apparent to any security observer that the same cannot be said for smartphones and tablet computers.

Zeus Traffic Manager

15 Jun 2011

VMware vSphere 4 Performance On Cisco Unified Computing System

This document details the performance figures obtained by Zeus Traffic Manager running on VMware vSphere 4.0 on the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and outlines the methods used to achieve these performance figures.

The 5 Golden Rules for success in Outsourcing

14 Jun 2011

The rush to embrace the outsourcing model started in the USA with the Insurance Industry’s decision to promote commodity pricing and as everyone knows, when your core product becomes a commodity you have to slash costs. The industry then moved to reduce expenses by outsourcing their IT operations and the trickle soon became a flood that embraced all industries. If you intend to join the risk-takers on the river of no return there are a few things you need to do to ensure your journey doesn’t end in disaster.

Outsourcing has worked well for some companies, but it can also lead to business-damaging disasters. The problem is, if outsourcers fail, you're left holding the baby without the resources to care for it. There is little margin for error in choosing an outsourcer as Lieberman Software found in our recent survey at InfoSecurity 2011. We discovered that 77% of IT professionals surveyed said that their outsourcers had made up work to earn extra money.

German TV Broadcaster RTL II Accelerates Content Delivery with Storage Solutions from SGI

08 Jun 2011

RTL II is a German-language private TV company operated by RTL2 Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG which offers a full schedule of programming for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The programmes are delivered via cable networks, DVB-T and satellite. The company, which was founded in 1993 and has about 150 employees, is headquartered in Grünwald near Munich, whilst news programmes are produced in Cologne. The main shareholders in RTL II are the RTL Group, the Bauer Media Group and the Tele München Group; Burda GmbH holds a stake of 1.1 percent.

Is Your Exchange Secure, Responsive and Constantly Available?

01 Jun 2011

This article examines the challenges Exchange presents and provides a tick list so you can confidently answer yes to the questions posed

As the most widely adopted messaging platform and semi-structured data repository in the world, Microsoft Exchange is the go-to cross-functional collaboration system for many organisations. Administrators are under enormous pressure to ensure that Exchange is secure, responsive, and constantly available. So, how do they do that? This article examines how an automated data governance program can provide the answer, expedite Exchange-related management tasks and improve the controls that protect the critical data contained in mailboxes and public folders.

SGI® Origin® 400ChosentoResearch Security of Virtual Machines and Virtualization Interoperability

26 May 2011

One SGI® customer is expanding its efforts to understand the security implications and inter- operability in the area of virtualization. Virtualization allows computer systems, with powerful multi-core processors, such as the Intel® Xeon® processor, and large memory capacity, to be used more efficiently.

Efficiency Gains with 480V/277V Power at the Cabinet Level

25 May 2011

In February 2009, the Data Center Pulse Group, along with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, began calling for new data center implementations in North America to incorporate support for a 480V/277V power distribution topology.1 They implored the makers of power supplies and servers to begin extending the operating range of their gear from a high end of 240V to a 277V nominal input. The driving impetus for recommending 277V power to the rack was two-fold – improved efficiencies and lower costs.

Business Continuity – You Need More Than Just a Plan

25 May 2011

You need to make sure your business is already prepared for anything

Stop for a moment and take a look around you – IT isn’t just the computer on your desk, the lap top in your bag or the mobile in your pocket. The truth is it’s controlling who is and isn’t entering your building- virtually and physically, how and where your customers are being dealt with, it’s driving your production line and it even has a part to play in how your coffee is produced. IT is no longer confined to a small back office, possibly in the basement, staffed with geeks all speaking their own language. IT keeps you open for business, but if you’re not careful it can close you down for good.

Market Overview: Private Cloud Solutions, Q2 2011

25 May 2011

Over the past year, client inquiry questions have evolved from “What is cloud?” to “What vendors should I consider?” This market overview examines the landscape of vendors providing solutions designed to accelerate the implementation of an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud in a customer’s data center. Several standard criteria and a selection of differentiating factors are examined. All the solutions evaluated provide the core IaaS functions: self-service, standardization, automation, and pay-per-use. In this market we found five solution types emerging: 1) enterprise systems management vendors; 2) OS/hypervisor vendors; 3) converged infrastructure solutions; 4) pure-play cloud solutions; and 5) grid-derived solutions. Each brings the core IaaS features as well as unique differentiating value.

IlliniCloud - Case Study

20 May 2011

IlliniCloud is a non-profit cooperative that hosts applications for school administration, facilities management, student performance tracking, multimedia, and library management for K–12 school districts throughout Illinois. To optimize the delivery of these services through its private cloud and to help member districts manage annual data growth of up to 300 percent, IlliniCloud chose F5® BIG-IP® Application Delivery Controllers and ARX® intelligent storage virtualization products.

IBM iDataplex and BLADE Network Technologies RackSwitch Fill King's College London's Need for Speed

19 May 2011

King’s College London medical researchers, who specialize in the field of genetics, strive to better understand the causes of a range of serious health issues, including skin disease, diabetes and cancer. Such research depends heavily on its new IBM iDataplex HPC system with IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches for maximizing compute processing power to deliver data analysis in the fastest possible time.

The CEO and his Elusive Token

12 May 2011

A tale of inadequacy, woe and career destruction – or is it?

Based on a real life story as told by Steve Watts, Co-founder of SecurEnvoy

Let me tell you a story. It has everything a gripping tale needs - conflict, a power struggle and a gripping climax. Best of all, it’s loosely based on true accounts – could this be your story?

Paul Brown is CEO of a FTSE 100 retailer. It’s summer and he’s jetting off with his family for three weeks on Safari in Kenya. He’s done his research and the reserve he’s travelling to offers wi-fi access, his mobile is unlocked and set to roam wherever he does, and IT has been exceptional in making sure he knows all the passwords, processes, and exactly how to input the authentication codes that will grant him access to the network remotely. He’s even been shown how to use another computer, not owned by the company, to open the bowels of the network in case his own develops a problem. His secretary has his full itinerary, contact details and the mobile number of his dedicated guide. 

Cost Benefits of Server Virtualization

09 May 2011

Server virtualization and clustered storage have much more in common than what is easily apparent. In fact, it can be argued that the next generation IT data center will leverage the symbiotic relation ship between the two technologies to reduce costs, increase control and eliminate needless com plexities.

United Biscuits gets a flavour for flexible IT with NetApp

03 May 2011

The challenge

To find a storage solution that would support an increasingly virtualised environment, and provide simultaneous backup and instant fail-over. 

The solution

A V3140 central appliance, incorporating United Biscuits’ existing SAN, to provide increased centralised storage resources across the organisation. A fully-mirrored FAS3140 will be located at a second site to provide full backup and ensure business continuity in the event of disaster.

Benefits

• Integration of existing IBM SAN into the feature-rich NetApp environment through V-series controller
• Full disaster recovery and business continuity will be provided through the installation of a second NetApp appliance
• Additional storage capacity immediately available to meet the needs of a desktop virtualisation roll-out across the organisation
• Reduced costs, increased capacity, and greater functionality and flexibility within storage service

Cyber-Crime and the State: Defining Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)

03 May 2011

The Rise of APT

The industrialization of hacking is today the number one cyber-threat to most organizations and according to one estimate, it’s an industry which rolls $1 trillion annually. Not surprisingly, hackers are focused on optimizing their activity to increase revenue, while automating their processes in order to decrease costs.  

A Viable Future Model for the Internet

28 Apr 2011

A.T. Kearney, the global management consultancy, has released a report on “A Viable Future Model for the Internet”, which explores the technical and commercial sustainability of the current explosive growth in traffic and services, especially video.

The report analyses investment in fixed and wireless networks required to support the dramatic increase of Internet traffic. Even without fibre roll-out to all homes and businesses, the industry will need to invest 8 billion euros p.a. above its current trend rate just to maintain current service levels and prevent the Internet choking on the rapid growth in video content. Yet those who benefit from higher traffic volumes are those who generate it (typically content sites and over the top providers) and those who consume it (typically end users), while telecommunications companies today earn almost no revenue from the incremental traffic. Incentives for more efficient usage of bandwidth and for investment in future capacity are therefore depressed by this “structural disconnect”.

Reset your password or the cat gets it

27 Apr 2011

Today we gained further confirmation of details around the Sony Playstation network breach; millions of account names and personal details have been lost and potentially payment card details including the payment card number and Expiry dates too, but excluding the security code.

Why Data Encryption is Not Data Masking

21 Apr 2011

A common misconception within the data community is that encryption is considered a form of data masking – even worse is that there are some that erroneously identify both as one and the same.

Top Considerations for Ensuring 99.999% Data Availability in Mid-range Storage

15 Apr 2011

Few organisations today would deny the importance of their company data and reliability of storage technology as mission-critical.

Information Management – A Global Enterprise Challenge

11 Apr 2011

There is no consistent owner of information management amongst major enterprise across the globe. Approaches to how information is managed, stored and protected vary greatly by company. There is strong agreement that inefficiencies are present and better approaches would lead to considerable cost savings, improved ability to meet compliance and regulatory needs and overall business improvement. Third party expertise is used sparingly but there is also strong evidence that with more third party assistance great improvements could be made and costs drastically reduced. 

Death, Taxes and Encryption Keys

11 Apr 2011

Every so many weeks around dinner time, the phone rings and it’s somebody asking me if I’m interested in changing some insurance policy or other. Now I don’t know about you, but I think like most people I have more insurance policies than I know what to do with. 

Transition to the cloud

11 Apr 2011

There will be many ways in which the Cloud will change the way we do business. Awareness of the benefits of cloud computing has grown greatly and its not all about cost savings. One theme is already emerging. Businesses are becoming more like the technology itself: more adaptable, more agile, more networked and more specialised.

Chink in the Cyber Armour?

08 Apr 2011

When evaluating our effectiveness in dealing with cyber defence, we have two layers of uncertainty and risk: how effectively are we protecting critical information, and what are the adversaries actually getting and how might they use it against us? 

Visual Security Compliance; Protecting Data in the Age of Mobile Working

08 Apr 2011

Mobile working is a hit with individuals and organisations, giving valuable extra flexibility and allowing workers in the field to make use of otherwise unproductive time, when using public transport for example. It is also opening up a new front in the battle over data security. While data loss due to theft of equipment, such as portable computers, is taken very seriously and can carry penalties including heavy fines or permanent bans from obtaining and holding customer details in the future, organisations need to do more to ensure Visual Security Compliance.

Cloud Computing Standards: The Great Debate

05 Apr 2011

Justin Pirie, Director of Communities and Content for Mimecast, takes a look at the ongoing debate around cloud standards.

Recent research conducted by Mimecast has found that a large proportion of businesses are now using some form of cloud service, with a further 30 percent planning on adopting more cloud services in the future. Fashionable new architectures within the technology industry are not unusual. However, even allowing for a certain amount of bandwagon jumping, this rate of cloud adoption has been considerable.

Bright3D moves to StorageCraft based business continuity with OneStop IT to protect critical servers and files

04 Apr 2011

Award winning designers streamline backup and recovery strategy using ShadowProtect

StorageCraft Technology Corporation, a provider of innovative disk-based backup, disaster recovery, system migration, data protection and security solutions, has announced details of a successful project at Bright3D that is helping to protect systems from disruption using innovative business continuity features.

Cyber-Crime and the State: Defining Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)

04 Apr 2011

The Rise of APT

The industrialization of hacking is today the number one cyber-threat to most organizations and according to one estimate, it’s an industry which rolls $1 trillion annually. Not surprisingly, hackers are focused on optimizing their activity to increase revenue, while automating their processes in order to decrease costs.  

WordPress.com - Case Study

31 Mar 2011

From its roots in 2003 as a simple piece of code for enhancing the typography of everyday writing, WordPress, the open source blogging software, has grown to become the world's most popular blogging tool. As of November 2010 there are over 30 million WordPress publishers worldwide. WordPress powers the sites of high profile media brands like CNN, the BBC, and Time Inc. and is firmly established as the most used platform in Technorati's ranking of the Top 100 blogs. A thriving global community of developers, designers, and publishers collaborates on the ongoing development of the WordPress open source software project.

Creating a Secure, yet Manageable Firewall Policy for a Large Company

31 Mar 2011

When it comes to a network security policy, there often seems to be a direct tradeoff between security and maintainability. I’ve found this doesn’t always have to be the case. Even in large organizations, security policies can be easy to maintain if you follow some best practices that ensure they remain clear, intuitive and well-organized.

Helping SMEs find the tools to tackle the 'Budget for Growth'

29 Mar 2011

Although the Coalition’s budget announced a cut in corporation tax and reduced some of the red tape surrounding businesses, the limited nature of these changes shows little room for manoeuvre. Small businesses will need to continue looking for tools and innovations to help them survive and grow. This includes making intelligent decisions, enabling efficiency and investing wisely in IT.  One particular problem SMBs face is the data explosion and an economical way to harness, store and secure the increasing volumes of data and the expectation that ‘everything can be stored’.

Open Network Automation is Critical to the Virtual Data Center

25 Mar 2011

Mr. Kerravala is a distinguished research fellow at The Yankee Group, leads the Research Council and is chartered with the responsibility of providing thought leadership to the research organization. Comprising senior research leaders, the Research Council provides outreach to clients and the broader Yankee Group community, as well as ensures that the company's research agenda addresses the needs of business leaders. Kerravala drives the strategic thinking of the research organization and helps shape the research direction.

The Cloud - Soft and Fluffy or a Serious Contender

22 Mar 2011

With what appears to be limitless storage options, for many the cloud is an attractive proposition. It offers savings to organisations looking to cut down the premium space they need to store data centres, and it can increase efficiency with data and applications shared over the internet. However, with questions still remaining over its security, how can organisations best utilise this exciting resource?

When you board an aeroplane you’re asked to buckle your seat belt and listen to an important safety announcement. The same is true before you propel your data down the runway and jet it into the cloud.

Come Fly With Me – How your organisation can avoid a crash landing

22 Mar 2011

“Toilet, take up too much space on plane. If it is an hour flight, two hours to Rome… to Paris… you can hold it in!” – Omar Baba - Come Fly With Me - Episode 1

In a recent discussion with a large organisation’s security team they announced that the company had implemented a new approach to launching security technologies. In a nutshell, the message was “...there’s been a shift to buy solutions based on business requirements, i.e. the business needs to know that it needs a solution. The entire security team is there to serve the business.”

Child’s Play: Why The Data Centre Should Be As Simple As A-B-C

17 Mar 2011

Nearly every large enterprise is struggling to accommodate growing business demands within their existing budgets and infrastructure. The on-going challenge is clear: how to maintain efficiency while data volumes continue to grow at exponential rates – hitting 35 Zettabytes of digital data by 2020¹. With this in mind, enterprises are looking to migrate to virtualised environments to reduce costs, improve quality-of-service (QoS) and make more efficient use of resources. No longer do businesses want to retain racks upon racks of under-utilised servers in a leviathan data centre, consuming huge resources to power/cool, that requires tens of personnel to manage.

VW goes VoIP - Case Study

16 Mar 2011

Formed in 1999, with locations in Derby and Leicester and annual sales of around 4,500 new and used cars, VW Parkway prides itself on delivering excellent customer service and strives to maximise on all opportunities.

Sysmex America - Case Study

16 Mar 2011

Healthcare Company Achieves 99.999 Percent Availability for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with F5

Sysmex America develops clinical testing devices for the healthcare industry. To ensure business continuity and seamless communication among customers, partners, and employees, Sysmex must keep email systems highly available. 

Are you using live customer data outside of your production database?

11 Mar 2011

Say that you want to develop a new payment gateway for your online store. A team of developers are hired, the improvements you want are designed, and the new system is created. Finally, you need to test it all, to ensure that the improvements will work the way you intend them to, and also to ensure that all the old payment information still works correctly.

Think Before Rocking The Boat

10 Mar 2011

FAST counsels Government to be cautious in its dealings with the IP system and radical in dealing with high-speed broadband roll-out

The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has called on the Government to be both considered and cautious in its dealings with the UK intellectual property system.

The University of Nottingham - Case Study

10 Mar 2011

The University of Nottingham is ranked in the UK’s Top 10 and the World’s Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and QS World University Rankings.

Cloud Computing: Business Benfits with security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives

08 Mar 2011

As CxOs search for ways to meet ever-increasing IT demands, many are closely examining cloud computing as a real option for their enterprise needs. The promise of cloud computing is arguably revolutionizing the IT services world by transforming computing into a ubiquitous utility, leveraging on attributes such as increased agility, elasticity, storage capacity and redundancy to manage information assets. The continued influence and innovative use of the Internet has enabled cloud computing to utilize existing infrastructure and transform it into services that could provide enterprises both significant cost savings and increased efficiency. Enterprises are realizing there is a potential to leverage this innovation to better serve customers and gain business advantage.

Network Security Blunders

07 Mar 2011

We’ve all made one in our career, I’m talking about that blunder you thought you would be fired for.  My first blunder was rebooting all the campus router pairs at one time, not one by one, all at once.  I had written a script to install a security update on all the routers and reboot them all one by one, I thought.  Turns out my script had an error and didn’t wait between routers.  I thought for sure I was fired, turns out it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.  We all learned a little about crisis management, I was introduced to change management, and my boss took a few hours to teach me how to verify the network was working properly as everything came back up online.

Get Secure, Not Security

04 Mar 2011

In the security world, there’s a rather unfortunate asymmetry between those of us who seek to defend systems, and those who seek to attack them. The defenders need to find every potential weakness, every point of entry, in order to defend it.  

Data Center Infrastructure Management

28 Feb 2011

dcTrack is a data center infrastructure management(DCIM) solution that provides “single pane of glass” management of IT and facilities resources. Fast to install and easy to use, dcTrack is a full-featured solution with detailed asset management, sophisticated visualization, automated provisioning, capacity planning, power chain management, IP address management and change management capabilities.

Use your smartphone to log into cloud and secure systems at your peril says Lieberman Software CEO

28 Feb 2011

Research by a US university undergraduate that has revealed that Google Android apps are sending user credentials in the clear comes as no surprise to Phil Lieberman, CEO of Lieberman Software. "According to newswire reports, Dan Wallach's research has revealed that several Android apps - including an approved Facebook application - are sending all data but the password ‘in the clear.’ This is absolutely typical of open source software, since there is little incentive for the software developer to use secure protocols unless the destination system requires this,” he said.

Iron Mountain study: UK Companies not prepared for a data loss

22 Feb 2011

1/3 of businesses say data loss would seriously impact their business within one day. Yet 40% fail to test their disaster recovery system more than once a year and 1/3 have no archiving strategy

A new study for Iron Mountain, conducted by MacArthurStroud has highlighted that 1/3 of UK companies recognise that data loss would seriously impact their business, but 40% fail to test their disaster recovery (DR) systems more than once per year.

The Gold Standard in Disaster Recovery

18 Feb 2011

David Blackman, General Manager of Northern Europe, Acronis explains how the results of its Global Disaster Recovery Index show global business trends in disaster recovery

Being fit for business is imperative for all organisations participating in a highly competitive global economy. This means being able to continue to operate in the event of IT failure or major disaster, whether man-made or natural.  Regardless of their global location, IT managers share a common challenge – keeping their business-critical digital assets safe and sound.

Workers stealing your Data - the 2011 headache – can it be stopped?

17 Feb 2011

Information is one of the primary competitive weapons and business enablers for organisations of all kinds. The ability to provide the correct information to educate workers has driven a proliferation of information sharing—but with it has come significant risk.  The actions of users who intentionally or accidentally cause damage to an organisation is now one of the most complex and difficult to manage problems facing IT security teams. So, how can you thwart the people you trust? This article examines some of the important aspects of insider threats and offers guidance to reduce the risk.

Raritan Solution Bolsters Efficiency at Morgan Keegan Branch Offices

14 Feb 2011

There is no room for downtime at premier investment firm Morgan Keegan & Company. Individual investors, corporate and institutional clients rely on the nationally recognized firm to deliver a full range of investment banking, securities brokerage, wealth and asset management services across the U.S.

Synetrix Offers New OPENHIVE Service to UK Government and Education Sector Using M86 Security

11 Feb 2011

Provides Safe and Secure Email Environment for Government Employees and Young Learners

Headquartered in Keele, U.K., Synetrix (part of the Capita Group) provides IT solutions to public sector clients throughout the UK, primarily to local government and education entities. The company specializes in the design, development, integration and deployment of converged networks, hosted application solutions, managed security solutions and software platforms.

Storage predictions for 2011

10 Feb 2011

Company storage solutions are a hot topic of discussion for the majority of SME and enterprise organisations. Industry analysts, Forrester report that storage capacity requirements are growing 20% to 40% each year, influenced by escalating regulations and recordkeeping requirements. It seems that 2011 will be no different as an increasing number of companies begin to consider their options, their key concerns gravitate towards the varying importance and challenges that virtualisation, data deduplication and cloud computing will propose. With this in mind, we have explored the key topics and what affect they will have on both markets. 

The Brett Group, Case Study

04 Feb 2011

The  Brett  Group  is  a  privately  owned  heavy  industry  construction  materials company  based  in  the  South East of England.  As part of a complete IT restructuring, the company needed a new cost-effective and resilient data centre. Keysource was appointed to design, build and install the facility following a competitive  tender.

The Life and Times of a Firewall Policy Rule

01 Feb 2011

In the infographic below we’ve summarized the (long and sometimes tortuous) life of a firewall policy rule. Firewall rules are born and modified as a result of access requests from users or IT projects. And over time, they become irrelevant – because applications, services and networks change, and users leave.

Converging Storage and Data Networks in the Data Center

31 Jan 2011

In typical large data centers, IT managers deploy different types of networks for data and storage networks. Today’s data networks are mostly based on 1GbE, with 10GbE adoption expected to exponentially increase in 2011 and 40GbE/100GbE coming soon after. Enterprise data centers primarily use fiber channel for storage interconnects due to its reliability, performance and lossless operation.

Enabling the Green Data Center

31 Jan 2011

Corporate sustainability initiatives are growing rapidly inscope and levels of financial commitment. According to Panel Intelligence’s recent Quarterly Sustainability Tracking Study, despite the poor economy, 80% of the 65 corporate sustainability executives at Fortune 500 companies surveyed said they will be maintaining or increasing funding for green initiatives.1

Moving the data center from chaos to control

27 Jan 2011

Best Practices in Data Center Performance Management with Integrated Processes and Technologies

It’s about having the visibility, insight, and integrated processes to drive optimal performance throughout your data centers. DCPM solutions enable you to collect and understand massive amounts of data so you can make informed decisions on a day-to-day basis, as well as stretch your space, power, cooling resources, server, and other resources in a safe, controlled manner.

A Report On The Force10 Network’s S-Series S4810

27 Jan 2011

Open Industry Network Performance & Power Test for Private/Public Data Center Cloud Computing Ethernet Fabrics Report: Evaluating 10 GbE Switches

To assist IT business leaders with the design and procurement of their private or public data center cloud fabric, the Lippis Report and Ixia have conducted an open industry evaluation of 10GbE data center switches. In this report, IT architects are provided the first comparative 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch (10GbE) performance information to assist them in purchase decisions and product differentiation

Gullivers Travel Associates - Case study

25 Jan 2011

GTA (Gullivers Travel Associates) is a world leader in the provision of ground travel products and services to the travel trade industry. It sources products from more than 30,000 suppliers in over 130 countries, and makes them available to a global audience in 29 languages.

British American Tobacco

24 Jan 2011

British American Tobacco (www.bat.com) is the world’s second largest tobacco group, with 300 different brands sold in more than 180 markets. The company was founded over 100 years ago, but its use of IT is right up to date.

Global Status Report on the Governance of Enterprise It (GEIt)—2011

20 Jan 2011

Ask 834 business executives and heads of information technology (It) what they think about the role of It in their enterprise and you might expect to get 834 different answers. But that was not the case in this fourth edition of the It Governance Institute’s Global Status Report on the Governance of Enterprise IT (GEIT). The survey, covering 21 countries, 10 industries, and both large and small enterprises, revealed a significant degree of accord on the contribution of It to business success, the challenges and opportunities connected with It, the impact of the economic crisis and views on It outsourcing, social networking and the cloud.

The Odds Are Stacked against Gaming Industry IT

19 Jan 2011

When it comes to handling insider security threats, gaming industry IT professionals face challenges that set them apart from peers in other markets. 

Secure iPhone Access to Corporate Web Applications

18 Jan 2011

The way corporations operate around mobile devices is currently shifting—employees are starting to use their own devices for business purposes, rather than company owned devices. With no direct control of the endpoints, IT departments have generally had to prohibit this or risk insecure access inside the firewall. But as more mobile devices appear on the corporate network, mobile device management has become a key IT initiative.

Quantum StorNext - White Paper

17 Jan 2011

Meeting Unstructured Data Storage Requirements Across the Data Lifecycle with Scale-Out Storage.

Can the Government Prevent a DDoS Attack On One Of Their Systems?

17 Jan 2011

On the 8^th December 2010 a group of hackers launched DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks against the Visa and Paypal web servers and also on a Swedish Government website. The attacks were successful and the services offered by all these sites were severely disrupted. If major corporations, who operate in a multi-national environment, couldn’t prevent these attacks can the UK Government stop such an attack on one of their web services?

Why Privileged Identity Management Implementations Fail

14 Jan 2011

You have security firewalls and antivirus tools. You have role-based access controls and identity management software. You probably even have regulatory compliant applications. But how safe are the servers, storage devices, and network appliances that actually host your data? At this moment can any administrator login to your systems, read and modify records, change device settings, install new code… and more? If there's a breach, will you know who is responsible? How will you track who did what to which system, and when? Without a method for managing the privileged identities for every system in your network, you are vulnerable to all of these threats posed by unauthorised users and malicious programs.

Technip Case Study

11 Jan 2011

Technip is a world leader in engineering, technologies, and project management for the oil and gas industry, operating in three business segments: subsea, offshore, and onshore. With more than 50 years of expertise, it is a key contributor to the development of technologies and sustainable solutions for the exploitation of the world’s energy resources.

Financial Services – The VIPs of Data Centre Networking

07 Jan 2011

Communication and data are the backbone of the global capital markets industry. In today’s Matrix world, financial services transactions happen not between people, but between servers. The extent of these communications enacted virtually - at the network edge - account for more than 99% of all financial services’ exchanges and correspondence. Ensuring that data arrives with minimal, deterministic and “fair” latency, therefore, is vital. Financial institutions, however, are increasingly faced with the challenge of deploying a network which champions “zero latency” and high throughput at the lowest possible total cost of ownership (TCO). 

Getting To Grips With Data Classification

07 Jan 2011

It has to be done so where do you start, where do you stop and what do you do the in the meantime? 

Data classification is not a new concept. It is a fundamental requirement for information security, and the consequences for failing to fully implement a data classification scheme can be disastrous. Nevertheless, while many organisations start data classification projects they all too often struggle to complete them. This article outlines what should be included in a data classification project, examines why many fail to get off the ground and the steps companies should take to protect sensitive data while it’s in progress.

Weaponised Malware - how criminals are using digital certificates to cripple your organisation

06 Jan 2011

The recent cyber attack on an Iranian nuclear facility using the Stuxnet virus should worry all of us - not just those in close proximity who were in danger of being blown into the next world by the actions of a computer virus.

Securing Sports Business Networks

06 Jan 2011

Ron Meyran, director security products, Radware, outlines the best ways sports businesses can protect their networks from security threats.

Professional sport is no longer just for fun.  It is big business. Sponsorship deals, team and individual, plus player salaries are multimillion pound transactions. Team tactics and the equipment engineering can make or break the business behind a club or team.

The Criminal In Your Browser Is Real

05 Jan 2011

He Wants Your Data And He’s Not Going To Stop Till He Gets It.  So, Are You Going To Let Him Have It?

Evidence is everywhere that cyber criminals exist, and they’re able to make a substantial living from their illegal activities. While it is true that many are focusing their efforts on individuals, others have their sights set much higher. They are targeting enterprises to steal their highly prized intellectual property, log-in credentials, financial data and other sensitive information that resides within the once safe confines of the corporate network or in web applications. Numerous articles have written on why you need to protect this data. So, instead we’re going to focus on the business at hand – the ‘Man in the Browser’. How is he getting into enterprise networks and applications and, more importantly, how you can stop him?

F5 Case Study: Rackspace Hosting

04 Jan 2011

Rackspace, based in San Antonio, Texas, provides hosting solutions to businesses of all sizes, across a portfolio of IT services, including managed and cloud hosting. The company operates nine data centers worldwide, and it offers fully managed hosting and cloud computing options on dedicated and virtualized servers in Rackspace data centers. The company’s 3,000 employees serve more than 100,000 hosting customers, many of whom rely on the cloud for some segment of their hosting needs.

Experiences of peak season holiday bookings from a UK travel company

03 Jan 2011

The travel industry has undoubtedly faced some serious financial difficulties over the past few months with global tourism arrivals falling by 42% in 2009 to 880 million. Tourism receipts of $852bn were 5.7% below the levels of 2008, indicating that people were spending less per trip if they did travel.