Risk is not unique to the cloud. The “how” (aka the technology) changes, but not the mission. True professionals know the argument is not about technology or how security is delivered, but rather one of governance and policy enforcement.
Do a Google search on “cloud security” and the first entry is “How secure is the cloud?” True professionals know the argument is not about technology or how security is delivered, but rather one of governance. You need to know exactly who HAS access to what resources and if these levels of access are appropriate. You need to know who IS accessing resources, and if they don’t have the proper credentials, you need to be notified immediately to take further preventive action. You need know that protocols for compliance are in place and routinely and successfully generate the reporting for periodic audits. You need to know your rights, liabilities (SLA) for any application or service acquired and that they conform to your risk management practices.
Supermicro to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York
SYS-CON Events announced today that Supermicro, a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology and innovation, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Super Micro Computer, Inc. or Supermicro®, a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology and innovation, is a premier provider of end-to-end green computing solutions for Enterprise IT, Datacenter, Cloud Computing, HPC and Embedded Systems worldwide. Supermicro’s advanced server Building Block Solutions® offers a vast array of modular, interoperable components for building energy-efficient, application-optimized, computing solutions. This broad line of products includes servers, blades, GPU systems, workstations, motherboards, chassis, power supplies, storage technologies, networking solutions and SuperRack® cabinets/accessories. Architecture innovations include Twin Architecture, SuperServer®, SuperBlade®, MicroCloud, Super Storage Bridge Bay (SBB), Double-Sided Storage™, Universal I/O (UIO) and WIO expansion technology all of which deliver unrivaled performance and value.
Open Source Release of the OpenNebula Apps Suite
Continuing its strong commitment to open-source and to the OpenNebula community, C12G Labs has just announced the open-source release of OpenNebulaApps, a suite of tools for users and administrators of OpenNebula clouds to simplify and optimize multi-tiered application management. The new software has been released under Apache license and will be incorporated into the main distribution of OpenNebula. After the announcement made two weeks ago about the public distribution of OpenNebula Maintenance Updates and Service Packs, the incorporation of this innovative functionality consolidates OpenNebula’s position as the most advanced, enterprise-ready open-source cloud management platform.
AppZero to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York
SYS-CON Events announced today that AppZero will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
AppZero is the fastest and most flexible way to move server applications to the cloud, without re-engineering, re-installation, or lock-in. With one-click simplicity, AppZero migrates Windows server applications from datacenters to private, public, and hybrid clouds. Patent-pending Zapp migration technology automates the extraction and movement of server-side applications to any cloud or machine in a fraction of the time required by other approaches.
Clouds Without Borders: How to Achieve True Application Interoperability
Anyone who has moved houses knows there is nothing worse than hauling boxes and boxes of stuff, only to unpack it all on the other end and discover that the beloved furniture and knick-knacks do not work in the new place. Portability is a tricky concept, and moving applications to the cloud is not much different than moving house. Just as every home is uniquely suited to certain décor pieces and not to others, every cloud requires certain specifications. The code and configurations that worked like a charm in one cloud environment suddenly look like a bull in a china shop when moved to a new cloud.
One of the most advertised benefits of moving applications to the cloud is the so-called portability that the cloud environment offers. The claim is that enterprises can easily switch cloud jurisdictions whenever they need to scale up or add features. Portability is indeed an important factor for businesses concerned about vendor lock-in, as moving applications into a new environment can involve a lot of heavy lifting.
AWS Elastic Transcoder Converts Videos Easily for Pennies a Minute
Amazon has announced a new service designed to make transcoding video for use on multiple devices a snap, without having to deal with an EC2 instance or transcoding software. Controlled via the Management Console and using S3 buckets, or via APIs for developer use, Elaastic Transcoder uses presets to eliminate trial-and-error and guesswork.
“Amazon Elastic Transcoder manages all aspects of the transcoding process for you transparently and automatically. There’s no need to administer software, scale hardware, tune performance, or otherwise manage transcoding infrastructure. You simply create a transcoding “job” specifying the location of your source video and how you want it transcoded. Amazon Elastic Transcoder also provides transcoding presets for popular output formats, which means that you don’t need to guess about which settings work best on particular devices. All these features are available via service APIs and the AWS Management Console.”
Amazon Elastic Transcoder supports transcoding into H.264 video and AAC audio in an MP4 container, and supports most common media formats for input including H.264, AAC, MP4, MPEG-2, FLV, 3GP and AVI.
Full details available at the AWS Blog.
Using OpenFlow to Extend Software Defined Networking
Using OpenFlow to extend software-defined networking (SDN) to the optical layer is a compelling prospect for enterprises seeking to achieve joint orchestration of information technology (IT) and network resources for cloud services, to virtualize the network and to more simply manage interconnections of distributed data centers that require synchronization.
Today’s fragmented, specialized management and control approaches are fraught with proprietary protocols and management systems, limited scalability and configuration complexities. With an OpenFlow-enabled transport network, an enterprise could instead engage in a kind of “one-stop shopping” for control of cloud computing, storage and networking resources – all via one, unified application programming interface (API). The benefits could include significantly simplified configuration, management and scaling of large-scale enterprise infrastructures through integration and automation.
Site24x7 to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York
SYS-CON Events announced today that Site24x7, a leading website and web application monitoring service from Zoho Corp, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Site24x7 is a cloud infrastructure monitoring service that helps monitor up-time and performance of websites, online applications, servers and other internet facing network services. The monitoring is done from 40+ locations across the world, thus giving you a global perspective of the end-user experience. Site24x7 supports monitoring HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, TCP, IMAP, SSL, Ping, FTP, SFTP, DNS and other internet facing network services.
Cloud increases chance of denial-of-service attacks, report warns
The eighth annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report from security provider Arbor Networks has revealed how cloud services and data centres are “increasingly victimised” by cyber attackers.
The report, which looked at a 12 month period ending September 2012, asked nearly 200 security-based questions to 130 respondents in the enterprise and network operator fields.
The key points of the research were:
- 94% of data centre operators reported security attacks
- 76% had suffered distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks towards their customers, whilst just under half (43%) had partial or total infrastructure outages due to DDoS
- Yet only 14% of respondents had seen attacks targeting any form of cloud service
The result of this was that “complex multi-vector attacks” – combinations of attack vectors intending to hack away at a company’s defences – were on the rise, with big security breaches becoming less common. To exemplify this, advanced persistent threats (APTs) were cited …
Privacy on the cloud: What are your options?
You often hear people saying that privacy is important. Especially online, where your data can be used in ways unknown to you, it’s even more important. Why exactly is it important though? Does an average Joe, someone who has a couple of files here and there on the Internet need to care about privacy?
The answer is an astounding yes. In an ideal world, privacy wouldn’t be something you would have to ask for, or choose. Every software and app you use, and every website you visit will respect your privacy. Unfortunately, it is far from an ideal world, and it’s shocking to see what people who matter think of privacy.
Take the case of cloud file storage, for example. There are some great solutions out there but almost all of them don’t care for your privacy. Some, in fact, are rather frightening.
The excerpt below …