SYS-CON Events announced today that Mellanox Technologies, a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, 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.
Mellanox Technologies is a leading supplier of end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet interconnect solutions and services for servers and storage. Mellanox interconnect solutions increase data center efficiency by providing the highest throughput and lowest latency, delivering data faster to applications and unlocking system performance capability. Mellanox offers a choice of fast interconnect products: adapters, switches, software and silicon that accelerate application runtime and maximize business results for a wide range of markets including high performance computing, enterprise data centers, Web 2.0, cloud, storage and financial services.
When Is a Stack Not a Stack? When It’s Unified in the Cloud
You’ve got SIEM, you employ log management. You even have access and or identity management. Each performs a specific security function for your enterprise, but unless they are working across all your information silos and collaborating their collective capabilities, you still might have vulnerability gaps…like a thoroughbred running with blinders.
While trawling the blogs, feeds and news I came across an analyst’s article about best security practices in which he kept referring to “the stack.” And by this, he meant a multitude of various solutions that address certain security needs and capabilities; everything from email filtering, firewalling, authenticating, credentialing, logging and intrusion detection, etc…
And, if you read my blogs often enough, you know I am a big proponent of unified security. However, unified security is not a stack. It is easy to be confused as both look to utilize best of breed tools to prevent negative impact on IP assets. A stack references a number of technologies where each operates independently from one another. Single sign on by itself is a sufficient tool, but when operating alone in its own silo, important contextual information is lost.
Cloud Compliance in IaaS Is Mainly Your Responsibility
Cloud compliance is always a hot topic, but recent updates to the HIPAA and PCI regulations, have further enhanced the need to clarify some important points around cloud compliance and regulatory compliance. In this blog post, I would like to address some issues as highlighted in the valuable PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines (available here), around compliance and Infrastructure as a Service cloud computing. (While the trigger is the PCI guideline, the discussion applies to HIPAA as well).
First and foremost, the level of control and your ability as a cloud customer to implement security in your cloud environment is dictated by your cloud type. For example a customer using Software as a Service (SaaS) will have the least amount of control and the SaaS provider will have the greatest level of responsibility for data security, while in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the customer has much more control on data security implemented in his cloud account while the IaaS provider will emphasize “shared responsibility”. And to translate it to compliance: A customer in a SaaS environment must rely heavily on the provider’s compliance (which is either there or not), while in a IaaS environment the customer must take active responsibility for compliance together with tools provided by the IaaS cloud provider.
Semantic Interoperability: The Pot of Gold Under the Rainbow
The way humans understand the world, the way we think, and the way we put our thoughts into language require both vagueness and ambiguity. Without them, we lose important aspects of meaning. Furthermore, how we structure our language is culturally and linguistically relative. As a result, current semantic interoperability efforts will be able to address a certain class of problems, but in the grand scheme of things, that class of problems is a relatively small subset of the types of communication we would prefer to automate between systems.
AWS Makes Amazon Redshift Available to All Customers
“With order of magnitude improvements in price/performance, Amazon Redshift makes big data analytics accessible to more people, allowing large organizations to analyze more of their data and smaller ones to afford fast, scalable data warehousing technology,» said Raju Gulabani, Vice President of Database Services at Amazon Web Services as AWS today announced that Amazon Redshift is now broadly available for use.
Amazon Redshift is described by the company as «a fast and powerful, fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service in the cloud,
5 reasons VPNs suck in the cloud
If you’ve been around the block a few times, you’re probably wondering why the title of this post isn’t, 50 Reasons VPNs Suck in the Cloud.
VPNs have long been the bane of both administrators and users (and lets not forget, support). They’re clunky, complex, and costly, and the same is true when they’re deployed to secure cloud access.
Today, VPNs are increasingly used to connect to cloud computing resources. Either by routing traffic back through the corporate network or direct to the cloud provider, VPNs offer authentication and transport-layer encryption to keep the bad guys out and sensitive information secure. But at what cost?
Both VPN configurations (corporate and provider) are complex to set up, require client agents with loads of support, and can be expensive to maintain. Arguably, there’s room for – and exists – a better approach to securing access to cloud servers …
Companies afraid to move to the cloud because of government snooping
Cloud security is once again on the agenda after a report from Lieberman Research showed that nearly half of IT professionals were wary of keeping sensitive data in the cloud due to government intervention.
The survey was conducted at November’s Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Congress and found that the majority of respondents prefer to keep their most sensitive data on private networks rather than on the cloud.
Other top-line findings were:
- Nearly nine in 10 (88%) of IT professionals believe some cloudy data could be lost, stolen or corrupted
- Less than half of respondents (46%) believe that moving to the cloud has increased their IT security
- Yet 56% think migrating to the cloud has saved money, and 86% think their move to the cloud has been successful overall
“There are a number of reasons why so many IT professionals are apprehensive about storing corporate data in the cloud,” writes …
Opera optimises with Skyfire purchase
Norwegian software firm Opera has acquired Silicon Valley based Skyfire Labs, a specialist in mobile video optimisation and cloud. The firm is known for its Rocket Optimizer software which allows mobile operators to use cloud computing to optimise video and multimedia on crowded cell towers, in 3G and 4G LTE networks.
The acquisition price includes $50m cash upfront and performance based earn-out payments over three years, including $26m in cash held that can bring the total deal size to $155m.
A Beginner’s Guide to Netsuite
As a mid-tier ERP and CRM solution, NetSuite is an affordable software-as-a-service platform for small to mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based interface makes the platform available from anywhere with Internet access. Some of the many business tasks covered by NetSuite include sales and service tracking, order fulfillment management, project collaboration and lead tracking.
NetSuite Benefits
The benefits offered by NetSuite will differ between businesses. However, there are a number of service tiers and pre-configured options from which to choose that can help to provide maximum benefit with minimal start-up and implementation times. Benefits offered across most business types and sizes include:
- Improved efficiency
- Reduced maintenance
- Improved collaboration
- Greater accountability
- Faster communication
- Global access to data, reports and processes
How NetSuite Works
NetSuite is most often provided as a hosted service. This means that the platform is accessed and used through a web interface. Every person within the business uses the same interfaces and databases. This allows for real-time updates, instant access to information and improved interaction between departments and business segments. Setting access rights and roles by account or tier provides simple data management, user accountability and security.
Things to Consider before Choosing NetSuite
Though NetSuite offers many ways to customize and personalize the ERP experience, it is, at its core, a pre-configured product. This means that in-depth customization is often a highly involved process. Many NetSuite service providers will offer demonstrations or free trials to see if the product’s interface and features are a good fit for your business.
To help determine if NetSuite is a proper fit for your business, consider NetSuite consulting services. Professionals can help explain what to expect and provide an in-depth look in how your business can utilize the platform without the worry of service contracts, costly set up fees or time intensive research and training.
More Food for Thought…
As a cloud-based service, NetSuite offers a unified platform that is accessed using a high-speed Internet connection. However, with lack of local back up or local server solutions, any interruption in Internet service will result in an inability to access your NetSuite services.
NetSuite is a modular solution. This means that features can be added or removed on-demand to suit the needs of your business. Unfortunately, this also means that updating the platform can be tricky. Since modules are updated independently, you may find that you are forced to wait to implement an update due to conflicting module configurations and other issues.
The most common way of signing up for NetSuite service is through a value-added reseller. Comparing resellers and service providers is an essential part of finding the best NetSuite configuration. Phone and email support directly through NetSuite require recurring subscription costs as well. By finding a reseller that offers support, you can avoid unforeseen fees and service issues.
NetSuite is a proven platform for businesses of nearly any size. However, like any software suite, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the platform is essential to maximizing benefits.
nCircle Gets Additional Patent for Their Security Services
nCircle today announced the award of its second PureCloud patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. nCircle’s intellectual property portfolio now includes 11 patents. nCircle’s patents cover a wide range of security innovations and represent the company’s significant, ongoing investment in security technology research and innovation.
nCircle PureCloud is a cloud-based security services platform that requires no hardware or software to be installed or managed. nCircle PureCloud dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of a wide range of security services — including vulnerability scanning, PCI scanning and web application scanning — making these practices easily accessible to small and medium businesses.
“Attackers are targeting smaller businesses that typically have fewer security resources than larger companies,” said Tim ‘TK’ Keanini, chief research officer for nCircle. “The breakthrough technology in nCircle PureCloud helps level the playing field by making enterprise class security tools accessible to all businesses, regardless of size.”
