App Store, Citrix, iPad, Mobile, ShareFile, Storage

Citrix Enhances ShareFile Cloud Data Sharing for iPad

Image representing iPad as depicted in CrunchBase

Citrix today released major updates to its ShareFile app for iPad, designed to provide a collaborative work experience on the go. Today’s advancements enhance the company’s popular file sharing service with new IT control capabilities to ensure the security of company data when accessed from a mobile device and productivity features for users. ShareFile for iPad is available immediately for download from the App Store.

“The needs of our customers are at the forefront of every design choice that we make,” said Jesse Lipson, VP and GM, Data Sharing, Citrix. “Our customers – from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies – live mobile workstyles and expect it to be easy to store and share their files and content from anywhere. ShareFile for iPad provides a powerful user experience while meeting IT’s mandate for security.”

What Is New

  • Intelligent device security policies: New “poison pill” option
    enables IT to set data expiration policies, plus multiple preferences
    settings allow IT to decide whether files can be opened in third-party
    applications or saved offline.
  • Enterprise Active Directory integration: ShareFile for iPad
    connects to Active Directory and SAML enterprise identities for a more
    seamless and secure user experience.
  • Improved auditing and reporting: Enhanced capabilities help IT
    to track and log user activity.
  • Offline access: Advanced options allow users to save files
    locally for offline access and editing.
  • Quickoffice integration: Integration with Quickoffice enables
    users to edit Microsoft Office documents and save them back to
    ShareFile.
  • Easy access to multiple accounts: Redesigned interface makes it
    simple to view multiple ShareFile accounts and folders, providing
    users with easy access to all of their data.


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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley | Cloud Computing Adoption: Where Are We Really?

Hear about findings from hundreds of one-on-one interviews with IT decision makers from Global 2000 companies and how the IT Infrastructure is evolving toward the use of internal and external cloud architectures. The findings will span TheInfoPro’s research of the storage, servers, networking, information security and cloud computing markets and will highlight internal and external cloud intentions, server and storage virtualization, software as a service (SaaS) and security, among others.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Sean Hackett, Managing Director, Cloud Computing at TheInfoPro, will expose the core developments responsible for modern architectures that have allowed enterprises to better serve the business units they support through speed, and flexibility, as well as lower the costs associated with IT infrastructure.

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Collaboration, Customer Relationship Management, Event management, Event planning, StarCite

Active Network Launches StarCite Meeting Locator Strategic Meetings Management Technology

Image representing The Active Network as depic...

Active Network, Inc., a provider of cloud-based activity and participant management solutions, today launched Meeting Locator – an intelligent, easy-to-use tool that helps meeting planners and travel managers make well-researched and informed decisions when choosing destinations for any business event. Now available as part of the company’s StarCite strategic meetings management (SMM) platform, Meeting Locator quickly delivers advice based on global data from the industry’s leading travel and meeting spend platforms.

Active Network has partnered with business travel management leader Carson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) to eliminate the tedious and expensive guesswork from the meeting planning process. Instead of spending hours researching airfare, destinations, hotel room rates and more, meeting planners simply enter the dates of their meeting and the attendees’ departure cities into the Meeting Locator tool. Meeting Locator is integrated within the StarCite Spend Management software and employs information from CWT’s vast travel database to find cost-effective and environmentally friendly destinations, along with their associated costs.

“Traditional approaches to determining meeting locations are inefficient and laborious,” said JR Sherman, SVP of Business Solutions at Active Network. “With increasing scrutiny on spend management and compliance with travel policy requirements, it’s paramount that corporate meeting planners have the best technology at their fingertips. Meeting Locator gives them the robust, integrated, intelligence they need to help make sound business decisions backed by global data from the industry’s leading travel and meeting spend platforms.”

Meeting Locator optimizes its recommendations based on hundreds of thousands of variables, including historical airfare and room rates, carbon emissions and the cost and availability of telepresence for those unable to attend in-person. The powerful tool can easily identify meeting destinations that meet corporate goals for budget or environmental compliance. By leveraging global travel and lodging data, and support for more than 100 currencies, it can help meeting planners organize events anywhere in the world. Furthermore, Meeting Locator is conveniently integrated within the StarCite Spend Management workflow and approval process to help accelerate decision-making.

According to Christopher Dwyer, senior research analyst of Aberdeen Research, “Nine percent of the average organization’s total budget is spent on corporate meetings and events. With this figure expected to increase by nearly 20 percent over the next two years (and with more and more organizations perceiving this function as having strategic value), companies across the globe must enhance their existing meetings management programs with next-generation strategies, approaches and solutions.”

Meeting Locator is available immediately to existing worldwide customers using the StarCite SMM platform. StarCite customers can contact their global account manager to get started with the Meeting Locator tool. Prospective customers can contact Joshua.Templeton@activenetwork.com to discuss their overall corporate event management needs and learn how the StarCite SMM platform and tools can help them save time and money while gaining greater insight and efficiencies. Sherman added, “We believe Meeting Locator offers significant benefits to the corporate events industry and are already planning additional capabilities for release later this year. Early adopters will have an opportunity to help influence and shape our next-generation tool based on their evolving needs.” More information on Meeting Locator can be found here.

Active Network is helping the events industry move beyond a focus on meetings logistics and spend management to one that includes community engagement, which helps enable organizations to build value with their customers and employees. The company’s Business Solutions power customers of all sizes—including small and medium-sized businesses, enterprise corporations, associations, tradeshows and expos—with a single technology suite for their entire event management needs. The Business Solutions technology suite includes Conference™ for large flagship conferences, RegOnline™ for attendee management solutions, StarCite® SMM for strategic meetings management and event expense management, and the StarCite Supplier Marketplace to connect events with suppliers. For more information on Active Network Business Solutions please visit www.activeevents.com.


Collaboration, Customer Relationship Management, Event management, Event planning, RegOnline, StarCite

Active Network Launches StarCite Meeting Locator Strategic Meetings Management Technology

Image representing The Active Network as depic...

Active Network, Inc., a provider of cloud-based activity and participant management solutions, today launched Meeting Locator – an intelligent, easy-to-use tool that helps meeting planners and travel managers make well-researched and informed decisions when choosing destinations for any business event. Now available as part of the company’s StarCite strategic meetings management (SMM) platform, Meeting Locator quickly delivers advice based on global data from the industry’s leading travel and meeting spend platforms.

Active Network has partnered with business travel management leader Carson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) to eliminate the tedious and expensive guesswork from the meeting planning process. Instead of spending hours researching airfare, destinations, hotel room rates and more, meeting planners simply enter the dates of their meeting and the attendees’ departure cities into the Meeting Locator tool. Meeting Locator is integrated within the StarCite Spend Management software and employs information from CWT’s vast travel database to find cost-effective and environmentally friendly destinations, along with their associated costs.

“Traditional approaches to determining meeting locations are inefficient and laborious,” said JR Sherman, SVP of Business Solutions at Active Network. “With increasing scrutiny on spend management and compliance with travel policy requirements, it’s paramount that corporate meeting planners have the best technology at their fingertips. Meeting Locator gives them the robust, integrated, intelligence they need to help make sound business decisions backed by global data from the industry’s leading travel and meeting spend platforms.”

Meeting Locator optimizes its recommendations based on hundreds of thousands of variables, including historical airfare and room rates, carbon emissions and the cost and availability of telepresence for those unable to attend in-person. The powerful tool can easily identify meeting destinations that meet corporate goals for budget or environmental compliance. By leveraging global travel and lodging data, and support for more than 100 currencies, it can help meeting planners organize events anywhere in the world. Furthermore, Meeting Locator is conveniently integrated within the StarCite Spend Management workflow and approval process to help accelerate decision-making.

According to Christopher Dwyer, senior research analyst of Aberdeen Research, “Nine percent of the average organization’s total budget is spent on corporate meetings and events. With this figure expected to increase by nearly 20 percent over the next two years (and with more and more organizations perceiving this function as having strategic value), companies across the globe must enhance their existing meetings management programs with next-generation strategies, approaches and solutions.”

Meeting Locator is available immediately to existing worldwide customers using the StarCite SMM platform. StarCite customers can contact their global account manager to get started with the Meeting Locator tool. Prospective customers can contact Joshua.Templeton@activenetwork.com to discuss their overall corporate event management needs and learn how the StarCite SMM platform and tools can help them save time and money while gaining greater insight and efficiencies. Sherman added, “We believe Meeting Locator offers significant benefits to the corporate events industry and are already planning additional capabilities for release later this year. Early adopters will have an opportunity to help influence and shape our next-generation tool based on their evolving needs.” More information on Meeting Locator can be found here.

Active Network is helping the events industry move beyond a focus on meetings logistics and spend management to one that includes community engagement, which helps enable organizations to build value with their customers and employees. The company’s Business Solutions power customers of all sizes—including small and medium-sized businesses, enterprise corporations, associations, tradeshows and expos—with a single technology suite for their entire event management needs. The Business Solutions technology suite includes Conference™ for large flagship conferences, RegOnline™ for attendee management solutions, StarCite® SMM for strategic meetings management and event expense management, and the StarCite Supplier Marketplace to connect events with suppliers. For more information on Active Network Business Solutions please visit www.activeevents.com.


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Ten Things I’ve Learned About Cloud Security

This is not a Top 10 list – it is a list of 10 things I’ve learned along the way. Top 10 lists imply some sort of universal knowledge of the “top” things possible in a given field. Top 10 attractive women, top 10 guitar players, top 10 whatever, they all have one thing in common: They are all ten things the author thinks are the best. I don’t really like to think I know everything so this list is in no particular order. This particular list is on cloud security and, well, it is a big topic that interests me greatly and there is no way I can cover it all in a blog post. As a result I will be doing a presentation around this topic in a few places, including BSides Cleveland.
Anyway, cloud security is tough for a lot of reasons, not least of which is because you, like me, probably only understand the basics of what you interface with in the cloud – the controls the cloud provider allows you to see. This lack of depth of management introduces many security related challenges.

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Storage and Information Management

Secure Remote Access for Businesses with Limited IT Staff and Budgets

With some of the recent breaches of restaurant chains, I’ve got to think that many of them were related to poor remote access practices. I say this because in all of my years of consulting, I have found that very weak controls around the remote access is a lot more common than one would think. Even today you will commonly find things like POS Servers directly accessible on the Internet via VNC, RDP, or pcAnywhere. I have even seen SQL databases that contain credit card data made directly accessible over the Internet.

Sometimes the organization itself is to blame. Usually because they just don’t know any better. For many, this has been the standard way to connect with their restaurants or stores remotely. They may lack the skills needed to setup secure remote access.  Other times, and this is also very common, a vendor or service provider is responsible. I can’t tell you how many times I have found completely unsecure remote access setup and enabled by the POS vendor or service provider that the merchant didn’t even know about—or at least wasn’t told about as far as the risks and compliance issues this creates. In one case I even found that the service provider had opened up a port on the firewall so they could connect directly to the POS SQL database across the Internet. No matter who is to blame, this needs to be fixed right away.

First, these organizations need to stop allowing systems in their restaurants/stores to be directly accessible across the Internet. It’s actually quite easy fix if you have fairly recent firewall hardware. Set yourself up an IPSEC site-to-site VPN tunnel between each of your stores and the central office using some form of two-factor authentication. Certificate-based along with a pre-shared key for authentication isn’t that hard to set up and meets PCI DSS requirements. Now you can provide vendors and service providers with remote access into your central office where you can centrally log their activities and implement restrictions on what they will have access to at each of the stores. And remember that they also need to be using some form of two-factor authentication to access your environment.

If you are the type of business that doesn’t have full time connectivity from your stores back to your central office then remote access is a bit more complex to manage. Each of your locations needs to be configured to support client-to-site VPN connections from your own IT department as well as from your service providers and vendors. IPSEC or SSL VPNs can be set up on most of today’s small firewalls and UTM devices without much fuss. But remember that two-factor authentication is a requirement and some of these devices don’t support such strong authentication methods. For this type of connectivity, some form of hardware or software token or even SMS-based token code authentication is a good choice. Sometimes this involves the implementation of a separate two-factor authentication solution, but some firewall/UTM devices have two-factor authentication features built in. This is a big plus and makes setting up secure remote access less complex and less expensive. If you go with these types of remote access connections—direct  connections to the stores—it’s very important to get the logs from remote access activity (as well as all other logs of course) from the firewalls pulled back into a central logging server for analysis and audit purposes.

To get started, your first step should be to review your external PCI ASV scans to see if any remote console services are accessible from the Internet. Look for RDP (tcp port 3389), VNC (tcp port 5900), or PCAnywhere (tcp port 5631 and udp port 5632).  Also look for databases such as MS SQL (tcp port 1433), MySQL (tcp port 3306), or PostgreSQL (tcp port 5432). If any of these show up then you should get working on a plan to implement secure and compliant remote access.

If you’re looking for more information, I’ll be hosting a security webinar on July 18th to cover common security mistakes and how your organization can avoid many of them!

 

 

 

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Is cloud computing ready for the Olympics?

With the Olympic Games just around the corner, one wonders whether, in a time where cloud computing is coming on leaps and bounds and gaining popularity by the day, it will be ready to service the Olympics.

Now the Olympics will of course be taking place in London this summer, one of the financial and technological hubs of the world, and during the Olympics a huge computing infrastructure will be required that generates a huge peak of data, so some form of cloud hosting solution, on paper, would be ideal.

Challenges

The London 2012 Olympics kicks off in just 15 days, so it’s fast approaching now and most of the tech work has already been carried out.

It has been revealed that nearly a quarter of the budget of the organising committee is spent on technology with 110,000 pieces of equipment being deployed with around 5,500 technical …

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Is traditional IT an endangered species?

Not all major changes are visible to the naked eye. Standing next to a glacier it is difficult to determine direction (does it grow or shrink across seasons) and watching continents move takes even some stamina for the casual observer. Luckily this is not the case for cloud computing.

Apart from the very noticeable cloud hype (more on the cycle of that soon) there is also very noticeable growth.   At the end of a deep and wide group effort, Gartner published its “Forecast: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2010-2016, 2Q12 Update” accompanied by Market Definitions and Methodology: Public Cloud Services. As I highlighted several years ago in Can the Real Cloud Market Size Please Stand Up? definitions are all important when trying to compare various cloud forecasts and especially cloud forecast categories.

The cloud news categorized.