More companies are taking advantage of cloud computing and virtualization technologies to streamline their network operations, but significant management challenges remain, according to Network Instruments’ State of the Network Global Study. The company’s fourth annual study surveyed 265 network engineers, IT directors and CIOs, located in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia. Respondents were asked about the extent to which their companies take advantage of cloud computing, video conferencing and virtualization technologies, […]
Cloud Computing
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to move 600,000 of its employees to a cloud-based email and collaboration system in a comprehensive migration project it’s calling the “Big 4.” The department is looking for a contractor to help it migrate its entire backend email system — comprised of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint servers, an e-mail archive system, BlackBerry software, and storage and back-up systems — to a hosted cloud environment, according to a request […]
A lack of understanding about security risks is one of the key factors holding back cloud computing. Report after report after report harps on security as the main speed bump slowing the pace of cloud adoption. But what tends to be overlooked, even by cloud advocates, is that overall security threats are changing as organizations move from physical environments to virtual ones and on to cloud-based ones. Viruses, malware and phishing are still concerns, but […]
It’s hard to imagine, but roughly 10 years ago as VoIP was being rolled out corporate networkers were quite concerned about the security of VoIP. As we faced a move from voice going over a traditional (and, by the way, unencrypted) network, there was concern that VoIP would be much too easy to eavesdrop on – especially if it traversed the Internet. We’ll leave the question of whether “legal intercepts” as a political and civil […]
UT Dallas researchers have released software tools intended to help make cloud computing the standard way much computing is done. Cloud computing is a model for providing on-demand Internet-based access to a shared pool of computing resources, including networks, storage and applications. It’s meant to make it as simple to obtain an array of electronic data resources as it is to get electricity itself. “In order to use electricity, we do not maintain electricity generators […]
The last blocks of IPv4 addresses were distributed in a widely viewed ceremony of sorts. While the distribution of these blocks to regional registries does not mean that there are no more IPv4 addresses available, it does point to a time when all addresses will be depleted. What does the prospect of the depletion of IPv4 addresses mean for organisations? Not much for those who already have blocks of addresses reserved for their use. But […]
While smaller companies may adopt virtual machines in greater numbers in 2011, they may not necessarily adapt their backup plans to match the changes in their environments. That’s a problem, says backup and recovery vendor Acronis, which recently took a deeper dive into the data from its January study on small and midsize business (SMB) disaster preparedness. The report found that SMBs will increase their deployments of virtual servers in 2011, with adoption jumping from […]
iTunes music streaming has been rumored for a long while, but has never actually surfaced… But if you read between the lines of two pieces of news at the moment, it seems the time is finally ripe. Apple settles record industry nerves We think, from previous inside information leaks, that one of the big hold-ups to a streaming iTunes music service was the recording industry–it had been caught on the hop when Apple revolutionized the […]
If you haven’t tried virtualization yet–or don’t even know what it means–it’s about time you did. Here are 10 reasons to tempt you into the virtualization waters. Virtualization isn’t just for geeks or those who run enormously powerful servers. It offers something for everybody, and if you haven’t yet dipped your toe into the virtualization ocean, then you’re at serious risk of being left behind. In its strictest sense, virtualization refers to running two or […]
Cloud computing is a boon, but its vectors need to be kept on a short leash, says Mushegh Hakhinian, security architect at IntraLinks. The pace of business today requires that critical information be accessible anywhere, anytime, often among both internal and external parties. Hosted services are an important tool to enable this, but while the tools facilitate communication, they bring additional risk and challenges to the firms that use them. Technology is rapidly evolving to […]