Modern VoIP phones are specialised computers that just happen to look like phones. So they can be attacked at many different points, ranging from the communication protocols to planting trojan horses in the devices’ operating software. It’s laptops and desktop PCs all over again. In their AusCERT lecture, Chris Gatford and Peter Wesley focus a lot on problems specifically associated with Cisco phones and the Cisco Call Manager software. But the underlying problems affect most […]
Voice over Internet protocol essentially describes audio communication carried through Internet-based networks – basically, phone calls made over the Web, rather than through traditional phone lines. The term is also sometimes used to describe video-based communication carried over the Web from mobile devices, but is usually reserved for Web-based phone calls. For years, VoIP never really caught on in the consumer market, and even less in the business world. Because the service is dependent on […]
“You don’t know what you don’t know” might be the expression most appropriate for small to medium-size businesses (SMB) when it comes to the benefits of technology and their business, according to an independent survey of more than 500 SMB decision makers released at National Small Business Week. The study, commissioned by Verio Inc., a provider of online business solutions to SMBs worldwide, showed that more than two-thirds of respondents are uncertain if they will […]
The research arm of the Department of Defense (DOD) is seeking to develop cloud-computing-based infrastructure that builds resiliency directly into the network to more effectively support military missions. Through a project called the Mission-oriented Resilient Clouds (MRC) program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to build a cloud-based network that will preserve “mission effectiveness” even in the event of a cyber attack, according to an announcement of a Proposer’s Day for the project […]
Securing Voice over IP (VoIP) doesn’t have to be a challenge for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). VoIP is basically a phone call over the Internet. It offers the same promises – and pitfalls – as the Internet. The promises are cheap and easy communication over a readily available and easy-to-use public network – the Internet. The pitfalls are the same security weaknesses of that network, which wasn’t originally designed for security – or phone […]
A new IBM study of more than 3,000 global CIOs shows that 60 per cent of organisations are ready to embrace cloud computing over the next five years as a means of growing their businesses and achieving competitive advantage. That’s nearly double the number of CIOs who said they would utilise cloud in IBM’s 2009 CIO study. As demand for ever-growing amounts of information continues to increase, companies are seeking simple and direct access to […]
Ask anyone in IT what the biggest barrier to adopting cloud computing services is and the most likely answer is security. As Shirief Nosseir, EMEA security product marketing director at CA Technologies, explains securing the cloud isn’t rocket science; cloud is just another environment in which security should be seen as an enabler rather than a barrier. Many organisations perceive the adoption of any form of cloud computing to change a company’s risk profile, but […]
Notable trends in virtualization: 1. Hybrid clouds mature. The nature of hybrid clouds – meaning parts of your infrastructure are running in both public and private data centers – is getting more mature and sophisticated. New providers are springing up frequently, which make evaluating them all that much harder. Some are traditional hosting providers, other offer more virtualization expertise and some have built their own management tools around their services. One example: Terremark’s VMware-based computing […]
A cloud computing service is like an airliner – even though it can experience devastating crashes that affect many people, like Amazon’s crash last month, it’s still safer than driving your own car … or IT infrastructure. That’s the rationale provided by Simon Crosby, CTO of Citrix, during a panel discussion on cloud computing during a keynote address at Interop 2011. Also on the panel were Randy Rowland, senior vice-president of product development at Terremark; […]
Cloud computing will play a critical role in helping organisations meet the threefold challenge of an explosion in data, IT budget costs and security threats, according to EMC CEO Joe Tucci. Speaking at EMC World in Las Vegas, Tucci said the hybrid cloud – where companies rely on IT services provided from both the public and private cloud – will provide organisations with “the answer” to these challenges. Tucci illustrated the scale of the difficulties […]
Businesses that implement VoIP (voice over IP) telephony systems on their local or wide area networks must ensure that they have effective protection against the growing incidence of VoIP hacking. That’s according to Graeme Victor, CEO of telecommunications solutions company Du Pont Telecom who says a small Johannesburg company was left with a telephone bill of more than R100 000 recently after criminals hacked into its VoIP telephony system over a weekend. VoIP is steadily […]
It may seem counterintuitive, but a downturn like this is the best time to make strategic IT investments for the future of your business, writes Graham Fagan. It is well recognised that periods of economic prosperity create substantial waste and bad practices, as organisations tend to be too busy chasing growth and are less focused on their own business efficiency. IT, in particular, can suffer during such a period in an organisation, as the market […]
What is cloud computing? The goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and ICT services without having to own and manage assets like servers yourself. Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted ICT services over the internet, and as such a consumer of these services needs nothing but a personal computer and internet access. They are usually described as being Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) […]
Cloud computing is an on-demand, integrated, configured, ready-to-use combination of compute, storage, network, platform and application software available as a standardized set of service offerings on a pay-as-you-use pricing model. Cloud computing is altering the IT service delivery by providing rapid service delivery – provisioning resources takes few minutes instead several weeks, on demand scaling – businesses can scale up or scale down resources based on needs instead of provisioning for peak demand, consolidation of […]
Technology leaders in the White House have promoted greater use of cloud technology at the federal level almost from the start of the Obama presidency. Now the administration has issued its strongest backing yet for cloud technology with the release of the Federal Strategy for Cloud Computing. Officials are using the strategy not only to pull together various cloud initiatives into a coherent package, but also as a directive to federal agencies to actively pursue […]
Cloud computing is a massively hyped but hard to pin down concept. It has existed in one form or another for some time now: Software-as-a-Service, Infrastructure as a Service, business process outsourcing and third party administration all fall under the cloud umbrella. In fact, many people use cloud services without even realising it: streaming on-demand movies or music, storing files online, or even a webmail service like Hotmail or Gmail are forms of interaction with […]
Here are the results from a recent Virtual PBX survey that asked more than 600 SMBs about virtual office use — along with the perceived effectiveness, costs, and technology needed to support a virtual business. The most popular drivers for using a virtual office included: employees’ flexibility (61%), business cost savings (54%), geographic distance of staff (42%) and the desire to reduce commute time, cost and pollution (41%). More 60% of respondents work from a […]
The Information Security Forum (ISF) has identified the “seven deadly sins” of cloud computing implementations in a new report, and has offered guidance on how to tackle them. The ‘Securing cloud computing: addressing the seven deadly sins’ report aims to help organisations move quickly to developing business-oriented systems to securing cloud services. The seven deadly sins outlined in the ISF report are: -Ignorance – cloud services have little or no management knowledge or approval -Ambiguity […]
The last 24 months have brought an explosion of new devices, Web applications and social-media platforms. Chief information officers (CIOs) are under pressure from other employees, including senior executives, to open corporate networks to consumer devices and allow access to more of the Web. This migration of consumer devices like smart phones and tablets into enterprise computing is making CIOs very nervous. The risks to data security are obvious and real, and the loss of […]
If you’ve heard people talk about VoIP (Voice over IP) but you are not entirely clear what it is, or you’ve heard people say you can save money with VoIP but you are a little suspicious, this is the guide for you. Read on for a simple, quick explanation of what VoIP is and how a VoIP phone system can help you save money. So here’s the basic idea: You are a small business and […]
By now you’ve probably been barraged with messages about the value of cloud computing – so much so that you may be losing sight of the forest for the trees. The meaning of cloud computing seems to vary based on who’s describing it and where that person’s paycheck comes from. Hardware companies emphasize the hardware aspects of the cloud and software companies define it based around software. Here’s a definition of the cloud designed for […]
Many small businesses are still uncertain about cloud computing and wonder if it can help boost profitability without being extremely risky. To figure it out, it’s best to start by defining cloud computing in small business terms. There are two commonly agreed upon types of cloud computing: 1) software-as-a-service and 2) infrastructure-as-a-service. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) refers to cloud computing where the software you would normally install on your office computers is instead delivered over the Internet. […]
There will always be a need for conventional desktops and notebooks for specific users, but desktop virtualization has matured today. In fact, it’s time to take a hard look, not just a passing glance, at what it can provide. The magic that virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can provide is in taking a fairly inexpensive thin-client device, giving it access to your data center from anywhere, and allowing that device to take on the image of […]
UT Dallas Computer Scientists Make Advances in Key Aspects of Growing Field. The decision three years ago by UT Dallas researchers to bolster their efforts in the field of cloud computing is paying dividends: Not only do they now have $5 million in cloud-related research, but their graduate students find they have their choice of internships and job offers. Indeed, two recent PhD graduates have been hired by leading corporate players in the field, Amazon.com […]
It’s early March at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is working the audience more like a football coach giving a halftime speech than the chief executive of the world’s largest software company. Ballmer, known for his animated speaking style, is pushing the possibilities of cloud computing. He refers to “the cloud” as “the most important technology shift of our generation.” Ballmer describes the technology as the power to connect […]
It’s been about two years since I wrote my first article on SearchVirtualDesktop.com about options for using VDI over a WAN connection. That article focused on options other than VDI, choosing the right display protocol, and using hardware WAN accelerators. While those techniques are certainly still valid today, if you want to use VDI over a WAN connection but don’t want to invest in a hardware appliance, we now have some great software-only remote display […]
The global cloud computing market is expected to grow from $40.7 billion to $240 billion by 2020, a new report has predicted. According to a report released by market research firm Forrester Research, the market for cloud computing is set to grow by leaps and bounds as companies rush to move their networks onto cloud platforms. The Forrester report, titled Sizing the Cloud, takes into consideration three basic forms of cloud computing: Infrastructure as a […]
The essence of cloud computing—what makes a cloud, well, cloudy—is the fact it’s an abstraction. The cloud hides underlying complexity while presenting a simplified interface to the consumer. Of course, abstractions are nothing new in the world of IT: compiled languages, graphical user interfaces, and SOA-based Business Services are all examples of abstractions. After all, everything we’re doing in IT boils down to zeroes and ones in the end. Layers of abstraction are how we […]
Cloud computing, defined as a subscription-based or pay-per-use service that in real time, and over the Internet, extends existing capabilities of Information Technology, remains at an early stage of conceptual development. Services do range from full scale applications such as accounting and storage to niche services such as spam filtering. Proponents of cloud computing contend that it erodes the requirements for major capital expenditures on IT infrastructure to customer applications. However, will cloud computing replace […]
Lately we’re talking to CIOs and IT managers who feel more like referees. It used to be, we just had to moderate between end users and security or the helpdesk. But now, as the data center evolves to include pervasive virtualization and a mix of in-house and cloud IT assets, the internal turf battles are threatening to KO agility advances. It’s unarguable that virtualization–on premises or in the cloud–has increased flexibility exponentially. Getting a new […]