Monthly Archives: November 2012

SmartBear Software, TestComplete, Tools

LoadComplete Aims to Simplify Analysis of Web Performance Data

With LoadComplete 2.6 by SmartBear Software, available today, organizations can load and stress test their Web applications on premise or from Amazon cloud, offering the best of both worlds—agility of on-premise deployment and scale of load generation from the cloud.

“In working with dozens of performance testing tools in my career, I’ve learned that the key to success is having the right tools available at exactly the right time,” said Rick Cavallaro, owner, RJCadvisors, Inc. “While executing load tests and setting up automated testing solutions for customers, I am often brought in late in the process so the window to execute the tests is very short. LoadComplete 2.6 allows me to apply the load very quickly, and in turn, get to the measurements quickly.”

LoadComplete is a proven and affordable performance, stress and load testing tool from the makers of the award winning functional testing tools – TestComplete and soapUI. Designed from the ground up to help users focus on key business tasks of performance testing, it requires no programming knowledge to start and accelerates workflow with automation and wizards. With LoadComplete, users can record and play user scenarios and optimize the load model using the freehand workload modeling tool. LoadComplete collects server performance data and integrates it in performance reports.


Computer security, Information security, NorseCorp

NorseCorp Launches Context-Aware Cyber Risk Intelligence Solution

NorseCorp, the provider of live cyber risk intelligence and solutions for businesses to reduce eCommerce fraud and secure their high-value data, today announced the launch of its flagship cloud security service, IPViking™. IPViking is the first solution to harness Big Data analytics of live Internet traffic to deliver contextually-aware and actionable cyber risk intelligence, a missing layer in today’s security technology stack that levels the playing field for developers and enterprises in their fight against cyber crime, hacking, and ecommerce fraud.

In recent years the security landscape has changed dramatically. Companies are now spending more money on security solutions than ever, while breaches and data losses continue to rise. Meanwhile the total cost of these breaches has also increased. A recent study of U.S. companies sponsored by Hewlett Packard and conducted by the Ponemon Institute indicates that the cost and frequency of cybercrime have both continued to rise for the third straight year, with the occurrence of cyber attacks more than doubling over a three-year period and the financial impact increasing by nearly 40 percent. The study also revealed a 42 percent increase in the number of cyber attacks, with organizations experiencing an average of 102 successful attacks per week, compared to 72 attacks per week in 2011 and 50 attacks per week in 2010.

“Today’s security solutions lack the dedicated computing power to process the massive volume of cyber threats, something that hackers have exploited for years,” said Tommy Stiansen, CTO at Norse. “Norse developed a unique system combined of global infrastructure hardware and powerful proprietary software to acquire live threat data, delivering to customers in milliseconds as actionable intelligence. Because of Big Data tools, GPU computational clusters and IPViking, companies can secure their infrastructure, network transactions and applications more effectively than ever.”

To address this challenging security landscape, Norse created IPViking, a SaaS technology and service that reduces strain on existing reactive security solutions, while increasing their effectiveness by providing live intelligence that is context-aware and adaptive to the continually changing nature of the Internet threat landscape.

IPViking does this in three ways:

  • True Big Data Analytics – The ability to continuously collect and
    analyze vast amounts of live Internet traffic and turn it into
    actionable insight and cyber risk intelligence supported by over 1,500
    criterion
  • Internet-Scaled Global Infrastructure – A purpose-built ultra fast
    private cloud infrastructure that delivers intelligence to businesses
    in milliseconds before a potential network connection can become an
    attack, massively scalable to meet the demands of enterprises,
    datacenters, managed security providers, public and private cloud
    providers, and ISPs.
  • Flexible RESTful and JSON APIs – IPViking enables enterprises and
    developers to easily add live context-aware and adaptive security
    intelligence to any website, app, or device via flexible APIs that
    support virtually all programming languages.

“To enable faster and more-accurate assessments of whether a given action should be allowed or denied, we must incorporate more real-time context information at the time a security decision is made,” said Neil MacDonald, “Using ‘Big Data’ to Address the Next Generation of Information Security Problems,” Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 21, 2012. “This is the heart of adaptive and context-aware security.”

As networking and security evolve toward new software defined architectures, IPViking gives enterprises and networking vendors the ability and flexibility to make intelligent risk weighted decisions and policy enforcement at the hardware, software, virtual machine, and cloud level via integration through new emerging standards such as OpenFlow.

”While security solution providers have developed increasingly complex solutions to help companies defend against today’s attacks and breaches, they’ve never been more vulnerable, said Sam Glines, Norse CEO. “The massive increase in the possible attack vectors resulting from the broadening of the online corporate footprint and the increasing costs of managing today’s complex security solution stack have placed unprecedented demands on CISOs and IT security staff. IPViking’s adaptive defense capabilities mitigate risks caused by today’s highly sophisticated attacks, as well as vacant or unenforced policies unpatched servers and software, and human error by providing millisecond awareness of harmful inbound traffic that today’s reactive security solutions miss.”


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Why Cloud Servers Is the Choice for Windows VPS

Businesses basically have two choices for operating systems when shopping around for cloud servers: Windows or Linux. While Linux is cheaper and runs on many enterprise servers, businesses that run internal applications for a Windows desktop can benefit from Windows cloud servers.
The IT department and users will understand the platform more easily than were they to learn Linux. But launching an intuitive platform is only one of the advantages of cloud servers in a Windows environment.
Business that have been online for several years probably have some legacy code in use in various departments. Fortunately, cloud servers can support multiple platforms for businesses moving towards a Windows platform.

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European Internet, Gaming and Digital Media Companies Select SoftLayer

Since opening its doors in Europe a year ago, thousands of companies across the continent are relying on SoftLayer Technologies to achieve the scalability, performance and time-to-market they require to succeed and stay ahead of the competition. Companies such as Binweevils, Boxed Ice, Crazymist, Exit Games, Ganymede, Hotwire Financial, Mangrove, Multiplay (UK) Ltd, Peak Games, Struq and Zamzar are just a few examples of organizations that SoftLayer is now supporting. These companies need best in class cloud infrastructure to build and scale the next killer application or game.
“We’ve chosen Softlayer because of their global network platform and the ability to support hybrid cloud environments (both virtual and physical servers),” says Robert Leefmans, Mangrove’s Owner and Operations Director. “As an interactive agency, specializing in creating world class websites, innovative mobile apps and enticing social media campaigns, we rely on our architecture’s performance to compete. Moving our servers to the cloud makes our platform sustainable and capable of handling future growth.”

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How is the cloud vital to a progressive SMB? [infographic]

What defines a progressive small to medium business (SMB)?

According to Cisco, it’s an SMB which is “increasingly encroaching on the territory of their larger competitors”.

Yet the biggest takeaway from the Cisco research is that these SMBs, if they are to become more progressive, will need to move to the cloud.

Other checkpoints for progressive SMBs are utilising the mobile workforce, collaborating in person and embracing social media.

Cloud computing is increasingly seen as a viable option for small and medium enterprises, even if they don’t realise it.

Back in September, a survey from Australian cloud software provider MYOB revealed that nearly four in five companies surveyed (79%) didn’t use the cloud for business, despite evidence that it would be good for their business – 44% of SMEs surveyed in the cloud expected their revenue to rise in the next 12 months, as opposed to 22% of …

Archiving & Regulatory Retention, Backup, Storage

Some Benefits in Using Cloud Computing

Selecting a cloud storage provider depends mainly on your environment and your intentions. Whether you’re a small business, or an individual looking for the best (and often most inexpensive) way to store your wealth of files, cloud storage can be a great solution.

Why the Cloud?

So, why go with the cloud? Aren’t all the external hard drives out there enough to manage all your photographs, video files, music files and other important data? Maybe, but those items eventually break down and become obsolete—which isn’t too helpful when they’re your main method of backing up data. Not to mention they’re very costly to purchase when you have a good amount of data to store.

The benefit of the cloud is, not only is it inexpensive, and in some cases even free, but it allows you to store your data in a secure format that will help alleviate backup issues, while providing access to your files whenever you need them. Cloud services are generally easy to use with just the basics—an Internet connection, a computer, and a browser. This makes it super user-friendly for even the most basic computer users.

If you travel often, cloud storage is a great choice, because you can access your data from anywhere in the world. Much like your own computer, or back up hard drive, the cloud allows you to store information in an organized manner, so you don’t have to sift through endless amounts of data, in the end, saving you a good deal of time and energy.

Cloud Privacy

The cloud uses what is referred to as a software service model, which allows users to access their files by using a username and password. You can access the cloud from any computer with Internet capacity, allowing you access to your files in pretty much the same way as if you were working at home or in the office.

Yet, privacy is one of the major concerns for those considering cloud storage. And it goes without saying that whatever cloud storage company you choose, you want to make sure that your data is safe and that nobody can have access to your files.

In order to do this, you need to understand how certain servers store your data, in a way that is accessible and that you can communicate with the service should anything happen. Let’s say the server crashes for some reason, does this mean that your data is at risk? In most cases, with cloud storage companies, the answer is no, as good cloud storage companies will have backup systems in place that ensure your information will never be lost.

The best cloud storage services also employ the most advanced security options out there, in most cases better than what most small businesses or individuals can afford on their own. But even with these security measures, there’s always a slight chance that something could happen, so just be preventative, and make sure that your important files are backed up elsewhere. This will also give you some peace of mind, even if nothing should occur.

Another benefit of cloud storage is that it eliminates the need for an IT staff and expensive backup servers. If you have a small business, you can have your staff access all files via the cloud, therefore eliminating the need for an on-site server and thousands of dollars in IT staff paychecks. With cloud storage, if a problem arises, you only need to contact your company’s customer support should any problems arise.

Suffice it to say, the cloud obviously has it detractors, who feel that it’s an unsafe way of storing private information. Yet, with recent developments in safety, the cloud has basically revolutionized the way we manage our data, as well as how we do our business online. If you’re still wary of making the switch to online cloud storage, talk to some who use it. See what their feelings are. Most have found it quite beneficial, with cloud storage offering a great alternative to backup servers and hard drives.


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Are Enterprises Embracing Cloud?

IT infrastructure today is in a state of continuous evolution. Recently we have witnessed several technology breakthroughs in the form of cloud computing, mobility, social networking, etc.

Cloud has become a reality in the enterprise world. Most organizations have tested cloud in the form of virtual private clouds or public clouds. With some of the security concerns around the cloud platform receding, federated identity becoming common and the economic benefits of the cloud adoption becoming clear, the adoption level and maturity of cloud-based services is on the rise.

Gartner predicts that by 2105, around 57 % of IT services will be delivered via cloud, which is a clear indication that organizations are moving to the IaaS-, SaaS- and PaaS-based cloud models

Infrastructure federation (Hybrid cloud IaaS) and application federation (third-party SaaS) are gaining prominence. Private cloud adoption by the enterprise is also steadily on the rise. Gartner’s “Hype cycle of Cloud computing “of 2011 predicts that in the next five years private cloud adoption would be reaching its peak .Private cloud is clearly surging ahead as the path to cloud. Big Data and cloud-enabled BPM platforms are the other areas that are expected to grow in a big way.

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Industrial-Strength Version of Cloud Ready for Primetime

One of the main reasons companies are reluctant to take advantage of cloud services isn’t because they don’t realize how cloud can transform business practices, but instead it comes down to a matter of risk, according to an article on HuffingtonPost.com.
It seems executives are concerned with the basic issue of security when deciding whether to use cloud computing to handle mission-critical data or workloads.
Caution, of course, is always prudent, especially when it comes to new innovations. But instead of continuing to question whether the cloud can handle mission-critical computing needs, it’s time to realize that an industrial-strength cloud – or one that allows organizations to focus on business innovation rather than continuing to worry about the reliability and safety of data – is ready for primetime, according to an article in the Huffington Post.
The right skills, tools and best practices now exist to make cloud computing secure, no matter the corporate demand. In fact, rather than a major inhibitor of adoption, security can be a critical enabler, making it possible for executives to stop losing sleep over data risks and focus on getting business done. The key is understanding that not all clouds are created equal.

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Amazon Moves into Australia

Amazon has set up data centers in Australia to supply its cloud services to Australia-based businesses and global companies with customers in Australia.
It’ll be Amazon Web Services’ ninth region, the Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region, and the third Region in Asia Pacific after the Singapore and Tokyo Regions.
The new Sydney Region consists initially of two separate Availability Zones.
AWS senior VP Andy Jassy said in a statement that AWS had over 10,000 customers in Australia and New Zealand before opening the new centers. “With the ability to achieve single-digit millisecond latency to end users in Sydney, store data locally in Australia, and get to market more quickly and inexpensively by using AWS’s infrastructure,” he said, the company is expecting to add more customers.

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PCI Compliance for Retailers from the Cloud Perspective

PCI (Payment Card Industry) enforces Data Security Standards that looks to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. This can be a burdensome task unless retailer can leverage the cloud. This article takes a look at some of the requirements and how they translate into best practices when managed from the cloud.
For the sake of this example, let’s assume you are a retailer who processes more than 20,000 transactions a year and the administrative burden of PCI is a real concern. In fact, it is a business necessity to maintain merchant accounts with VISA, American Express and MasterCard. And it is hugely important to keep the confidence of your customers. Fines for non-compliance aside, a breach of your network could cost millions of dollars. And that doesn’t begin to calculate the cost of customer defection through loss of trust.

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