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Top Ten Storage Technologies for Systems and Network Professionals
Vic Dery and Ashish Nadkarni
This article provides an overview of some of the hot topics in the storage industry that all Systems and Networking Industry Professionals need to be familiar with. While some of them are relatively new and their future is unknown, most others have been around in some shape or form and are morphing into commonplace technologies. The order in which these topics are discussed is not indicative of their value. The information provided is also not vendor specific and may or may not be a fetcher of all vendors. As this industry continues to grow, technology that is changing and growing to fill the voids and gaps in the storage industry are always going to be there. As with any of these technologies the proper investigation and research prior to implementation or testing would be best.
ARTICLES
Marrying Security to Operations: Honeymoon in the making or in-laws in the shadows?
Chris Farrow
Disk-to-Disk Backup Solutions
Ben Ginster
NaSPA Retrospective
From the President . . . Through the Years
Web Application Security: What You Need to Know
Dennis Hurst
Advancing Productivity Where Complexity and Urgency Collide: A Framework For Disaster Recovery Testing
Eric Jackson
Legislation Spotlight: Planning for the Future with NIAC
Rachael Zimmermann
Across Continents, Close to the Chest - Media production firm implements successful intercontinental data protection plan
Randy Shiozaki
Patching Placebo
Mitchell Ashley
Beyond The Simple Light Switch:
A Case Study in Traffic Management
FEATURES
Making ITIL Work For You
By Marvin Waschke
A TECHNICAL SUPPORT MANAGER CONFRONTED WITH IMPLEMENTATION OF ITIL Incident and Problem Management practices is often in a tough spot. Change is never easy. A good manager with a healthy process and a strong staff may be in an even tougher spot, because there is no apparent need for change, and improvement may be hard to show. Fortunately, in most cases implementing ITIL practices does result in improvement. Most support groups that have gone through an implementation are happy with the results, and senior management, from the CIO on up, are also usually happy with the results.
ARTICLES
Convergence Potential of Voice Over IP Driving Enterprise Adoption
By Drew Robb
VOICE OVER IP (VOIP) IS NO LONGER JUST A CHEAP WAY TO MAKE OVERSEAS calls. Aging PBX’s (phone switches), for example, can be replaced by a cluster of servers. Call control, voice mail, and conferencing services are all done in software on servers or appliances.
Dismantling the Security Disconnect
By Neill Hopkins
AS PHISHING, PHARMING, SPAM, SPIT, VIRUSES, AND OTHER ASSORTED nefarious threats to information technology (IT) networks and operations continue to proliferate, organizations across all sectors of the economy say they have heightened their security preparedness. Yet a disconnect remains between talking the security talk and walking the security walk.
Java in the Palm of Your Hand!
By John Papproth
The Java programming language celebrated its 10th birthday last year! The core Java language was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1995. Java contains just 53 words in its grammar. (Compare that to 135 in Visual Basic!) See FIGURE 1. Of course those 53 words are just the basis for hundreds of packages that support the Java Developer (see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api ). Java is one of the Object Oriented Programming (OOP) languages allowing for encapsulation (the class is the unit of development), single inheritance (one class can extend another), and polymorphism (methods are qualified by name and signature, objects can be addressed by type). It is also one of the “curly brace” languages like C++. For programmers new to OOP, Java’s use of single inheritance (one class - one parent) over multiple inheritance, reference types over pointers and automatic garbage collection of dynamic areas makes it an easier language to learn than C++.
Change is the Enemy of Security: Ten Network Changes That You Should Be Looking For
By David Meltzer
New assets are joining your network. Users are installing new applications. Network services are opening and closing. File permissions are changing. An application vendor is about to issue a patch. Somewhere, a bored teenager is designing a new virus. A valued IT employee is thinking about leaving the company.
Overcoming Internet Fraud
By Yoram Nissenboim
WHEN USING THE INTERNET, UNLESS YOU ARE VERY INQUISITIVE, SKILLED and have a lot of time, you know nothing about the site you visit other than the information displayed by the site. Scammers work very hard to mask themselves with Web sites that appear legitimate. Their intention is to tempt you to disclose your personal information. In fact, sites set up to steal personal information have become significant and widespread enough to warrant labels like “phishing” and “pharming.”
Microsoft Support Credential on the Rise
By Ed Tittel
ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER THE MICROSOFT CERTIFIED DESKTOP SUPPORT Technician (MCDST) credential was introduced, its numbers are finally beginning to show some appreciable movement. This credential focuses on Windows XP in a business environment, and takes a deep hard look not just at the operating system itself, but also at typical applications and hardware that often make a home in this modern desktop operating environment.
FEATURES
VoIP Security: Who’s Keeping An Eye On the Network?
By Bogdan Materna
Security has consistently been cited as the number one concern for organizations deploying Voice-over-IP (VoIP). A recent study indicated that almost half of IT directors believe that VoIP networks are inherently insecure.
ARTICLES
The Technical Support Guide to Development Best Practices
By Dr. Adam Kolawa
TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS—ESPECIALLY THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR software testing—can benefit from understanding both development and testing best practices. When you understand development best practices, you can identify when developers are not following the required practices and notify the person in charge of enforcing development best practices (technical support professionals should not be responsible for this enforcement). When developers follow the appropriate best practices, you will waste less time chasing bugs during testing, or, when bugs make it into the release, supporting customers who are impacted by the bugs. Moreover, technical support professionals that are tasked with software testing should have an understanding of testing best practices in order to test the software as thoroughly and efficiently as possible.
Implementing Strong Authentication Best Practices
By Stuart Rauch
RECENTLY, CHALLENGES TO INTERNET SECURITY HAVE BECOME FAR MORE sophisticated and organized. In the past, hackers weren’t looking to make a profit, while today, cyber-crooks from around the world are looking to take advantage of any opportunity that will provide them financial gain. A corporation’s data is the “crème-de-la-crème” sought after by hackers, who seek to gain insider information to try and manipulate a stock deal or steal sensitive customer information such as social security numbers to wreck havoc on a person’s hard earned credit identity. Hackers also try social engineering techniques to bluff passwords out of unsuspecting employees.
A Look Back at the Personal Computer’s First Decade—1975 to 1985
By Elizabeth M. Ferrarini
IN JANUARY 1975, A POPULAR ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE COVER STORY about the $300 Altair 8800 kit by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry officially gave birth to the personal computer (PC) industry. It came with two boards and slots for 16 more in the open chassis. One board held the Intel 8080 processor chip and the other held 256 bytes. Other PC kit companies included IMSAI, Cromemco, Heathkit, and Southwest Technical Products.
“Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst” - Recovering from
Disaster More Quickly with Satellite Communications
By David Myers
IT IS AN UNFORTUNATE FACT THAT IN RECENT YEARS, THE WORLD HAS SEEN a significant increase in the number of disasters—both natural and man-made. Between terrorist events in New York and London, wildfires in California, Oklahoma and Texas, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast and earthquakes in Asia, many areas around the globe find themselves rushing to regroup and rebuild. A difficult task when you consider that following a disaster, the affected area usually is hurled back into the dark ages. The power is out, telephone lines are cut, and cellular towers are down or jammed.
Why Data Center Access Control Deserves More Attention
By Elizabeth M. Ferrarini
DATA CENTERS HOSTING CRITICAL SERVERS ARE WHERE THE MONEY IS, and the bad guys know it. But secure access control of the data center often gets downplayed, but it’s just as important as the rest of the network infrastructure.
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The State of Network Security Inside the Firewall
By Charles Kaplan
I HAVE SPENT THE PAST EIGHT YEARS OF MY CAREER WORKING FOR Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), peddling better, faster, cheaper management and the monitoring of today’s security devices; principally firewalls and network or host based IDP/S. During the years I have spoken with more than 1000 different companies about best practices, demilitarized zones, defense-in-depth, and all the other buzz words we each live and breathe each day.
ARTICLES
Overview of Security Threats & Maintaining & Monitoring the Security WLANs
By Sandeep Natekar
WITH THE PROLIFERATION OF WLANS IN EVERY home/office environment and their use in carrying out important business transactions, maintaining and enhancing the security of WLANs has become very important.
8 Tips for Delivering the Performance End-Users Demand: Agentless
IT Monitoring Gets Practical
By Tom Speight
Organizations of every size need to monitor and manage their computer systems and applications for performance and availability, but few have ample information technology (IT) budgets and staff to devote to the job. A practical alternative to high-end monitoring solutions has emerged in the form of agentless monitoring. However, diligence is necessary to make sure that the agentless approach you choose will be able to provide the functionality you need.
Does Your Network Security Address Every Layer
By Elizabeth M. Ferrarini
WE'VE ALL SUFFERED FROM SPAM ATTACKS EITHER AT WORK OR AT HOME At one time, you could put productivity concerns aside while you cleaned your your inbox. Today, however, spam brings viruses and other pesky payloads along for the ride. Remember, the MyDoom and SoBig threats? Together, these worms and their variants—both of which used spam technology to spread viruses—caused billions of dollars' worth of damage around the world. Spyware also threatens businesses on more than one level—capturing confidential data like passwords and customer information while degrading system performance at the same time.
What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been
By Jim Rue
What a long strange trip it has been. In the last twenty years the computer and electronics industry has transformed again and again. The fields of hardware, software, networking, security and operating systems each have evolved their own rigorous certification process. Computer professionals have emerged from their introverted socially awkward nerd shells to become well-dressed, often well-mannered, even, perhaps, occasionally well-adjusted, management types. Furthermore, advanced features on a new computer or other device are often characterized as ‘sexy.’ While one hopes this term is hyperbole, its common use nonetheless suggests that computers and technology are viewed very differently today than they were in 1986 when NASPA began.
Free is Not Always Cheap—Getting the Most Out of Cisco’s NetFlow
By Drew Robb
SOMETIMES YOU CAN FIND A GREAT DEAL IN TERMS OF INITIAL OUTLAY. You could probably get a 1970 station wagon for next to nothing. Of course you wouldn’t get much in terms of performance or reliability, and the old gas hog would be expensive to run and maintain.