Articles

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.