Sovereign and Virtustream partnered to deliver Sovereign’s SAP® BusinessObjects driven Analytics and Business Intelligence solutions on Virtustream’s xStream™ cloud management platform (CMP). This alliance will drive operational efficiencies and competitive advantage for Sovereign’s enterprise clients who will now receive the benefits of a cloud based solution including increased efficiency and enhanced security and performance.
Through this partnership, Sovereign can deploy the infrastructure required to support Analytics and Big Data projects to their customers, reducing the time IT must spend analyzing and implementing a myriad of complex hardware and infrastructure solutions typical in a traditional deployment model.
“Business leaders need access to analyze data as simply and efficiently as they access email and that requires a shift in traditional IT driven Business Intelligence projects,” said Mike Wasserman, General Manager of Sovereign System’s Government and Analytics Division. “Virtustream removes many of the complexities that typically consume IT staff and frees that time to focus on Business Requirements and enabling end users access to critical data.”
Monthly Archives: August 2014
Data encryption and law firms – a match required by law
This blog post is for informational and educational purposes only. Any legal information provided in this post should not be relied upon as legal advice. It is not intended to create, and does not create, an attorney-client relationship and readers should not act upon the information presented without first seeking legal counsel.
By Kenneth N Rashbaum Esq. and Jason M. Tenenbaum of Barton, LLP.
Much of the discussion on law firm security has focused on data encryption. The idea of “encryption” can generally be broken down into two types, encryption in motion and encryption at rest. Encryption in motion refers to the process of securing data while the data is sent and received so that the data cannot be intercepted. Encryption at rest refers to the practice of securing the data itself so that, even if intercepted, the data is unreadable.
Law firms are undoubtedly attractive targets for hackers because of the information law firms typically store. Corporate law firms often store information about a company’s financials, investments, business strategies and intellectual property. Law firms that handle non-corporate matters like real estate, personal injury, or trusts and estate matters may often times store medical information, billing information, social security numbers, insurance information, driver’s license information, and other valuable information about individuals.
Indeed, depending on the size and scope of a law firm’s practice, certain aspects of the same law firm may be subject to a greater risk than others. As such, both aspects of encryption are important for law firms seeking to ensure that their information remain secure and confidential.
As the costs of off-site storage for law firm data decrease and the availability of cloud-based practice management tools increases, law firms moving aspects of their practice to the cloud should pay particular attention to how a vendor encrypts a law firm’s data both in motion and at rest for both legal and monetary reasons.
In addition to state or federal laws that may mandate security requirements for personal data and responses in the event of a breach, ethics rules generally require that an attorney strive to ensure that client information is kept confidential. Even more specifically, ABA Model Rule 1.1 and its state equivalents require attorneys to provide “competent representation” which includes staying up to date with the benefits and risks of technology.
Law firms in certain sectors may also be subject to additional information security requirements. For instance, law firms that handle cases for hospitals and other covered entities in the healthcare space are required by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to maintain certain information security safeguards as Business Associates of the covered entity. Similarly, under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, law firms that work with clients in the financial sector also must maintain certain security practices.
Importantly, encryption technologies and security threats change over time. As such, law firm security protocols that have not been kept current do little to ensure security of law firm data as time progresses. Keeping abreast of new security threats and technologies and implementing changes in security systems is a costly endeavour in terms of both time and money. A law firm can rely on its vendor to ensure up-to-date security systems are protecting its data, if the data is stored with the vendor.
Many law firms address security of their client and firm information by hosting it with cloud providers. Cloud business models often comprise data security protocols audited by third-parties. Yet, many hosting providers require the law firm to encrypt data at rest, since the provider often has access to the firm’s data infrastructure and the provider’s risk management protocols require that be encrypted so that there is little risk of damages if the infrastructure is breached.
Ensuring that law firm information is secure and remains confidential requires more than an understanding of encryption in motion and at rest. Internal procedures for creating, storing and transmitting data are essential to a law firm information governance environment that meets ethics and other rules. These protocols should be prepared and thoroughly vetted by the firm to assure that they comport with the firm’s practice areas and organizational culture.
More than that, though, it is good business for a law firm to assure that information received from or created for clients is maintained and exchanged securely. In an age in which over eighty percent of business documents are in electronic format and less than ten percent of them are ever printed, electronic security for law firms is a paramount consideration.
The post Data Encryption and Law Firms, a Match Required by Law appeared first on Cloud Computing News.
@EMCCorp “Internet of Things” Presentation at @ThingsExpo [#IoT]
An entirely new security model is needed for the Internet of Things, or is it? Can we save some old and tested controls for this new and different environment? In his session at @ThingsExpo, New York’s at the Javits Center, Davi Ottenheimer, EMC Senior Director of Trust, reviewed hands-on lessons with IoT devices and reveal a new risk balance you might not expect. Davi Ottenheimer, EMC Senior Director of Trust, has more than nineteen years’ experience managing global security operations and assessments, including a decade of leading incident response and digital forensics. He is co-author of the book “Securing the Virtual Environment: How to Defend the Enterprise Against Attack,” published in May 2012 by Wiley. He formerly was responsible for security at Barclays Global Investors (BGI), the world’s largest investment fund manager. Prior to BGI he was a “dedicated paranoid” at Yahoo! and responsible for managing security for hundreds of millions of mobile, broadband and digital home products. Davi received his postgraduate academic Master of Science degree in International History from the London School of Economics.
IDenticard to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
IDenticard Access Control is a leading manufacturer of integrated access control solutions to protect employees, visitors, and facilities. Owned by Brady Corporation (NYSE:BRC), a $1.15 billion manufacturer of identification products, IDenticard Access Control draws on its 30 years of experience in security software development to provide innovative products based on its customers’ requirements and the needs of the marketplace. With an in-house engineering team, IDenticard Access Control has developed a patent-pending, revolutionary physical security solution that secures and monitors server rack access at the cabinet level. The system features easy-to-use dynamic mapping and customizable reporting capabilities to identify and track who accesses server racks and specifically where, when, and for how long.
Dropbox goes deeper with more powerful Pro tool set
Remember Dropbox? While its upstart little brother Box has been giving the tech press plenty to write about with its soap opera-styled ‘will they, won’t they’ IPO saga and proclamations of the end of the storage wars, Dropbox has been going about its business a little more quietly.
And the company has today launched an update to its Dropbox Pro product, chief of which revolves around introducing a single plan of 1 terabyte of space at the same price of $9.99 a month.
The majority of the other changes to Dropbox’s paid individual product revolve around collaboration and security. You can now creating passwords for shared links, adding an extra layer of security; create expiry dates for shared links; and put together view-only permissions, so you can delegate as to who can read and who can edit files (below).
Picture credit: Dropbox
The updated Dropbox Pro also dabbles in content and device management by incorporating a remote wipe facility. Current Dropbox Pro users will see their software being upgraded automatically in the coming days.
A blog post announcing the move has generated mixed reviews, with positive comments being weighed out by users complaining at only one price option. Yet it’s a balancing act; there will be users ecstatic at essentially getting more storage for no extra charge, while others who don’t need 1 TB will be disappointed there aren’t lower tiered, lower cost options.
The news comes at an interesting time for Dropbox, with cloud storage vendors’ tiered business model of individual freemium and enterprise coming under scrutiny. Last month Box announced it was clearing out all storage limits for enterprise customers – you want to pay for the world, we’ll give it to you. Once the biggest vendors – Amazon, Google, Microsoft – were slashing its prices, it sounded the death knell for Box and Dropbox’s traditional models.
Last month Gartner released its Enterprise File Synchronisation and Sharing Magic Quadrant, with Dropbox finding a place in the ‘challengers’ section whilst Box placed among the leaders, behind Citrix and EMC. Yet according to this CMSWire article, for this enterprise-heavy field of business, pure cloud vendors might not be the best solution.
With Box’s BoxWorks event coming up at the start of this month, all eyes will be on CEO Aaron Levie. Investors and analysts certainly haven’t forgotten the company bailing out of its IPO in July, opting instead for more private cash.
Find out more about the latest Dropbox Pro here.
@NuoDB Demo Theater Presentation at @CloudExpo New York
As more applications and services move “to the cloud” (public or on-premise) cloud environments are increasingly adopting and building out traditional enterprise features. This in turn is enabling and encouraging cloud adoption from enterprise users. In many ways the definition is blurring as features like continuous operation, geo-distribution or on-demand capacity become the norm. NuoDB is involved in both building enterprise software and using enterprise cloud capabilities. In his session at 15th Cloud Expo, Seth Proctor, CTO at NuoDB, Inc., will discuss the experiences from building, deploying and using enterprise services and suggest some ways to approach moving enterprise applications into a cloud model.
Announcing @iwNetworks “Exhibitor” At @CloudExpo Silicon Valley
Macrotron Systems is an ISO 9001:2008 registered Electronic Manufacturing Services company specializing in PCB assembly/test, ultrasonic welding, laser marking/engraving and pad printing. Operations are in Fremont, California. Macrotron offers a competitive advantage in the electronics manufacturing service marketplace from its Silicon Valley facility. Macrotron develops OEM partnerships by consistently fulfilling customer requirements for dependable and cost effective services and products. To this end, Macrotron has invested in current technology to establish itself as the ideal contract partner of the Electronics OEM customer.
EMC Acquired TwinStrata in July. What’s This Mean For You Moving Forward?
Video with Randy Weis, Practice Manager, Data Center http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McUyYF9NIec Back in July, storage giant EMC acquired TwinStrata. Information infrastructure and storage expert Randy Weis breaks down TwinStrata’s capabilities and explains what this means for your organization. Interested in speaking with Randy about the latest trends in storage? Email us at socialmedia@greenpages.com …Read More »
@Solgenia_Corp To Exhibit at @CloudExpo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that Solgenia, the global market leader in Cloud Collaboration and Cloud Infrastructure software solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Solgenia is the global market leader in Cloud Collaboration and Cloud Infrastructure software solutions. Designed to “Bridge the Gap” between personal and professional social, mobile and cloud user experiences, our solutions help large and medium-sized organizations dramatically improve productivity, reduce collaboration costs, and increase the overall enterprise value by bringing collaboration and infrastructure solutions to the cloud.
@HarbingerSys To Exhibit At @CloudExpo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that Harbinger Systems will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Harbinger Systems is a global company providing software technology services. Since 1990, Harbinger has developed a strong customer base worldwide. Its customers include software product companies ranging from hi-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley to leading product companies in the US and large in-house IT organizations.