Before you add another decimal place to security budgets, maybe it’s time you consider the how cloud-deployed security options can not only address the complexities of enterprise security ably, but do so at considerable savings.
With all the talk of fiscal cliffs sequestrations, financial binds and “next year’s budget,” I started thinking about cloud security in more tangible ways. Specifically returns on investment, economic impact and total costs of ownership. Just like death and taxes, businesses can add intrusion and attack to the list of sureties. I can hear CFOs all over the world sigh in exasperation as they feel pressured to add another expense line item to minimize the building security threats to their enterprises.
Cloud Expo New York: Launching Hadoop into the Cloud in Three Clicks
Big Data applications such as Hadoop and Hive are becoming more widely adopted and mainstream. There is an increasing number of users who will select the cloud – whether private or public – as an efficient and scalable deployment vehicle for these large-scale distributed apps. Hadoop implementations can involve deployment of dozens to thousands of application nodes – a scale that can become very time-consuming to manage. Embracing Big Data applications is one thing, but users will struggle to manage them due to a lack of tools designed for such complex applications in the cloud. New solutions are required to enable a far simpler setup, configuration and provisioning of complex Hadoop and Hive deployments on a large scale – and also to manage them over their continuing life cycle.
Baidu Commercializes First ARM Servers for Cloud
Baidu, which is often called the Google of China, has apparently won the race to become the first company to deploy servers based on ARM smartphone chips in a “large-scale” production environment in its data center.
It’s using a custom version of Marvell’s low-power 32-bit quad-core Armada XP CPU Server-on-a-Chip (SOC) in a personal cloud storage system called Baidu Cloud or Baidu Pan.
It’s unclear whether any other kind of server is being used to deliver the service.
The boxes themselves, called “easy-to-integrate,” were run up by an unidentified Asian ODM.
Marvell, like the other dozen or so ARM fabricators, is hoping to eventually challenge industry-standard x86 servers, a situation Intel would rather avoid. ARM has forced Intel to try to cut its inefficient power consumption.
Connected Architecture for a Connected Planet
Or how to connect the architecture dots to support a smart connected planet.
The notion of a connected planet is far from new. However, the number of connections as illustrated in figure 1 is growing at an exponential rate, and it is fast becoming a reality in which many organizations must operate.
However, I doubt many organizations are preparing for this in a systematic way. More likely, experience suggests that dozens of connected ‘solutions’ will permeate the organization via myriad routes and just add to the complexity of the business and IT landscape, becoming yet more spaghetti that someone is left to untangle.
Architecture is key to dealing with this. However, architectural practices must evolve to themselves become more connected, and not a set of isolated disciplines as they are often practiced today.
Hence, in this note as well as considering the challenges and opportunities provided by the connected planet, I outline the role of connected architecture.
Connected Architecture for a Connected Planet
Or how to connect the architecture dots to support a smart connected planet.
The notion of a connected planet is far from new. However, the number of connections as illustrated in figure 1 is growing at an exponential rate, and it is fast becoming a reality in which many organizations must operate.
However, I doubt many organizations are preparing for this in a systematic way. More likely, experience suggests that dozens of connected ‘solutions’ will permeate the organization via myriad routes and just add to the complexity of the business and IT landscape, becoming yet more spaghetti that someone is left to untangle.
Architecture is key to dealing with this. However, architectural practices must evolve to themselves become more connected, and not a set of isolated disciplines as they are often practiced today.
Hence, in this note as well as considering the challenges and opportunities provided by the connected planet, I outline the role of connected architecture.
SPIRIT DSP Releases VideoMost 2.5
SPIRIT DSP announced today a new version of its multipoint web videoconferencing software, VideoMost 2.5. The new version allows 50 simultaneous interactive videoconferencing participants in one conference room, and additional broadcasting of the conference to up to 500 people who can view and listen to the discussion in real-time or recorded. VideoMost 2.5 enables telcos and service providers to launch SaaS multipoint videoconferencing under their own brand and billing in a matter of days, allowing them to quickly build new revenue streams and customer loyalty against OTT videoconferencing providers such as Microsoft and Webex.
“VideoMost 2.5 allows for massively multipoint, interactive speakers’ participation and real-time conversation with up to 50 people participating in a roundtable discussion, and each person can speak at any time ? while our global competitors only offer a maximum of nine interactive video participants,” said Andrew Sviridenko, SPIRIT DSP Chairman. “VideoMost 2.5 includes the added ability to broadcast, allowing 500 other people to view and listen to the discussion in real time or recorded. It’s a great tool for collaboration engagements, such as interactive virtual sales meetings or product training for up to 50 professionals that can also be viewed by 500 additional remote employees or partners. The number of conference rooms is limited only by the service providers’ hardware server farm capacity.”
VideoMost 2.5 multipoint videoconferences are designed for enterprise collaboration, social enterprise networks, round table discussions, interactive educational workshops, and other activities that involve active participation of speakers. VideoMost 2.5 reveals opportunities for remote broadcasting to a wide audience and conference recording ? features highly demanded by today’s businesses and government organizations.
VideoMost software server supports an unprecedented 1000 concurrent video channels per each $4000 PC hardware server, dramatically cutting down service providers’ costs for a hardware video server infrastructure. VideoMost is targeted at enterprise customers in partnership with telcos and service providers as a SAAS under the telcos’ own brand and billing.
VideoMost 2.5 will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Feb. 25–28 SPIRIT’s booth #6F87 in Hall 6.
StratoGen Launches Hosted VMware View Solution
StratoGen, a provider of VMware hosting services, today announced the launch of ViewDesk, a hosted VMware View solution which promises to simplify the deployment of virtual desktops in the cloud. Available in StratoGen datacenter locations across the US, UK and Asia, ViewDesk offers a cost effective and verified VDI environment for 25 to 500 virtual desktops.
The move comes in response to exceptional demand for desktop-as-a-service solutions built on the latest VMware View platform.
StratoGen ViewDesk helps organizations to quickly benefit from the operational savings of desktop virtualization by streamlining the deployment of a dedicated VMware View platform and enabling migration from on-site PCs to hosted virtual desktops.
Highlights of the solution include:
- Cost effective, verified VMware View infrastructure built to best practice standards
- Delivered on enterprise class components from NetApp, HP and Cisco
- Scale-as-you-grow platform enables VDI resources to grow with your business
- ISO27001 certified security at platform and datacenter levels
- Full administrative access provided
- Available now at StratoGen cloud locations across the US, UK and Asia.
Karl Robinson, VP of Sales said “Most businesses are aware that a hosted desktop solution delivers significant increases in IT manageability, security and performance. With the launch of our ViewDesk platform we have taken the complexity out of implementing desktop virtualization by delivering a verified solution built to the highest standards. Organizations deploying ViewDesk will immediately enjoy much higher levels of availability and agility in desktop services when compared to on-site desktop estates. ”
For further information please visit http://www.stratogen.com/products/hosted-desktop.html
Mandian, Palo Alto Networks Partner for Malware Security
Mandiant has announced that it will team with Palo Alto Networks, a network security company, to integrate Palo Alto Networks’ firewalls and its WildFire malware prevention subscription with Mandiant’s recently announced product, Mandiant for Security Operation. Both companies will be presenting their solutions as participants at the RSA Conference 2013 in San Francisco from February 25th to 28th.
The joint solution from Palo Alto Networks and Mandiant provides a holistic approach to thwart advanced attackers by integrating malware detection and prevention capabilities on the network with the ability to resolve security incidents on endpoints. With this integration, Mandiant for Security Operations will automatically generate Indicators of Compromise (IOC) based on malware alerts generated by the Palo Alto Networks platform and identify which endpoints have been compromised. WildFire modern malware prevention service uses the inherent advantages of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls to find new types of malware that have never been seen before across all applications – not just Web and email. To date, WildFire has discovered more than 70,000 new malware files that had not been identified by existing anti-malware solutions.
“Our mutual customers view this joint solution as a significant advantage to creating actionable insights to assess risk, prevent threats, and improve security,” said Chad Kinzelberg, senior vice president of business and corporate development, Palo Alto Networks. “We are also confident that this strategic partnership will continue to lead our industry in security intelligence for enterprise organizations.”
Mandiant for Security Operations is an appliance-based solution that utilizes a lightweight agent deployed on endpoints to enable security teams to confidently detect, analyze and resolve security incidents in a fraction of the time it takes using conventional approaches.
Palo Alto Networks offers a subscription service for WildFire, the company’s cloud-based modern malware prevention service. The WildFire service gives subscribers one-hour response times for the delivery of modern malware signatures, and integrated, on-box logging and reporting. The enhanced response time ensures that the damage caused by attackers using “zero-day” malware is mitigated for Palo Alto Networks customers.
“The tactics of targeted attackers and well-funded adversaries are constantly evolving,” said Mandiant’s Chief Technology Officer, Dave Merkel. “With the integration of the WildFire subscription malware detection service and Mandiant for Security Operations, security professionals will now be able to respond to threats faster and automatically investigate alerts from WildFire so they can confirm and resolve targeted attacks as they are unfolding.”
When IT Universes Collide
You may be the CIO or IT manager for a fairly complex IT environment. You also may already have begun moving your data center to a private cloud paradigm that offers greater efficiency and agility to meet your company’s needs.
While there are still a few challenges to work through, most days seem to run fairly smoothly. In the course of a week, however, the landscape changes. You are suddenly drawn into discussions with company management about a potential acquisition or merger in the works.
How do you advise your company on the impact of bringing both IT worlds together, let alone how best to navigate, post-M&A, the smooth integration of the other company’s IT assets with yours?
As it turns out, a hybrid cloud paradigm – used in what I call ‘swing-shift’ mode – may be one way to mitigate risk when integrating IT worlds after a corporate merger or acquisition.
When IT Universes Collide
You may be the CIO or IT manager for a fairly complex IT environment. You also may already have begun moving your data center to a private cloud paradigm that offers greater efficiency and agility to meet your company’s needs.
While there are still a few challenges to work through, most days seem to run fairly smoothly. In the course of a week, however, the landscape changes. You are suddenly drawn into discussions with company management about a potential acquisition or merger in the works.
How do you advise your company on the impact of bringing both IT worlds together, let alone how best to navigate, post-M&A, the smooth integration of the other company’s IT assets with yours?
As it turns out, a hybrid cloud paradigm – used in what I call ‘swing-shift’ mode – may be one way to mitigate risk when integrating IT worlds after a corporate merger or acquisition.