The Changing Face of Disaster Recovery in the Age of Cloud Computing

Disaster Recovery (DR) has typically only been used by organizations for applications deemed to be mission critical. This was because organizations didn’t want to incur the expense associated with DR for less important applications. Today, because of cloud computing, many organizations are considering the use of DR for as many applications as is essential for the business.
DR in the cloud is relatively a new concept still and, like many technology trends we’ve seen so far, there’s a lot of hype and misinterpretation out there. Multiple schools of thought exist on whether or not to implement DR in the cloud.

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CloudTimes Named “Media Sponsor” of Cloud Expo 2014 NY and Silicon Valley

SYS-CON Events announced today that CloudTimes has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 14th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 10–12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and the 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
CloudTimes is the premier source for thought leadership and the latest news on Cloud Computing. We are an international group of Cloud Computing experts and write on topics covering SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Cloud Security, Virtualization, Enterprise 2.0 Applications, Cloud Services, Cloud Marketing, Social Cloud, Mobile Cloud and everything related.

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Log Management 101: Where Do Logs Come From?

We’ve had a lot of people asking for the Log Management Primer for a while now. And, surprisingly, many of these folks have a strong technical background, including developers. Some want it for themselves, and some want it to pass on to a colleague, manager, etc. I’m going to explain what logs are, where they come from and how you can get your logs.
If you’re a developer, this post probably isn’t for you as we don’t dig into the code level nitty gritty, but it will give you a high level overview of logs, where they come from and how they get sent to a third party service.

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Business Implications for Cloud Information Protection

For some organizations, cloud computing can be a hard sell, even before you come to the question of how to handle cloud-computing security. Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, encryption, tokenization, data residency, privacy regulations – all are factors involved and the perceived effort can sometimes seem to overshadow the benefits. But just as cloud computing comes with a slew of demonstrated business benefits, so does effective cloud computing security. Included below are three specific benefits to implementing a cloud computing security system.
1. Regulatory compliance prevents costly fines.
One of the most common reasons enterprises have for investing in cloud computing security is, of course, regulatory compliance. Heavily regulated industries like finance and health care – industries that handle the most sensitive personal information – must remain in compliance with relevant regional, national, and international laws, as well as with industry-specific standards. Failure to do so can come with a high price. In fact, banks that fail to comply with the PCI DSS requirements, for example, may face fines of anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 per month, costs that tend to get passed downstream, resulting in higher costs for all, according to the PCI Compliance Guide’s FAQ.

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SYS-CON.tv Interview: Services in the Cloud

«At InMage we are enabling the hybrid cloud. Cloud presents a lot of opportunities but there is no vehicle to take services into the hybrid cloud,» noted Murali Nambiar, Sr. Product Manager for Backup and DR Products at InMage, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo® 2014 New York, June 10-12, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

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Recovering from Cryptolocker with Cloud Backup

In September, a new type of trojan ransomware, CryptoLocker, started making the rounds by way of email attachments and links on infected webpages. It won’t destroy anything on your computers, just encrypt the data so you the user can’t access it.
Once the files are encrypted, a screen pops up directing the user to pay a ransom of $100 to $300 (or two Bitcoins) within three days to regain access to the files. Beyond the 72-hour deadline, the ransom rises to 10 Bitcoins (About $3000).
CryptoLocker itself is not difficult to remove, the damage comes from the encryption.

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Recovering from Cryptolocker with Cloud Backup

In September, a new type of trojan ransomware, CryptoLocker, started making the rounds by way of email attachments and links on infected webpages. It won’t destroy anything on your computers, just encrypt the data so you the user can’t access it.
Once the files are encrypted, a screen pops up directing the user to pay a ransom of $100 to $300 (or two Bitcoins) within three days to regain access to the files. Beyond the 72-hour deadline, the ransom rises to 10 Bitcoins (About $3000).
CryptoLocker itself is not difficult to remove, the damage comes from the encryption.

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2014: The Year the Entire Cloud Becomes Your Data Warehouse

Now that Big Data has become a household name, 2014 will be the year companies demand solid proof that data can help their decision-making and their bottom line. As the entire web becomes a seamlessly connected data warehouse, I predict that organizations will have the power at their fingertips to connect and query dozens of data sources in the moment.
I have identified four key trends in business intelligence and cloud computing for 2014:
1. The entire web becomes the data warehouse.
Companies large and small are finally able to say good riddance to big capital expenditures in order to gain actionable insights from their data. Until now, an organization had to develop a data warehouse architecture, spend millions to build, maintain and upgrade it, and often fell victim to vendor and technology lock-in.

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2014: The Year the Entire Cloud Becomes Your Data Warehouse

Now that Big Data has become a household name, 2014 will be the year companies demand solid proof that data can help their decision-making and their bottom line. As the entire web becomes a seamlessly connected data warehouse, I predict that organizations will have the power at their fingertips to connect and query dozens of data sources in the moment.
I have identified four key trends in business intelligence and cloud computing for 2014:
1. The entire web becomes the data warehouse.
Companies large and small are finally able to say good riddance to big capital expenditures in order to gain actionable insights from their data. Until now, an organization had to develop a data warehouse architecture, spend millions to build, maintain and upgrade it, and often fell victim to vendor and technology lock-in.

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SYS-CON.tv Interview: Ongoing Evolution of IT

«It’s been a great show for NetIQ – we’ve had the opportunity to speak about how NetIQ is enabling the cloud – how we are allowing customers to get access to cloud services that enable service providers to deliver cloud services in a secure, compliant manner,» explained Gary Ardito, Chief Architect for Cloud Service Provider Solutions at NetIQ, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4-7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo® 2014 New York, June 10-12, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

read more