Coolest Clouds

I just got a magazine from CRN in today and I’m reading over the “The 100 Cloud Computing Vendors”.. I know cloud again right.. but it is broken up by category and I think it is a little interesting.. so here is what the magazine says and I just highlighted my personal favorite for now.

“Coolest Cloud Platform”

Amazon.com web services – Elastic Computer Cloud EC2

Appistry Cloud IQ

AppScale

AT&T

EMC/Vmware/Cisco – Vblock (oh my silly name)

Engine Yard

Enomaly Elastic Computing

Flixscale

gCloud3

GOGRID

Google App Engine

LongJump

Windows Azure

OrangeScape

RackSpace

Sales Force

Terremark

Ubuntu

Verizon

Visual WebGUI

“Coolest Cloud Infrastructure Vendors”

AllenPort

AppZero

Boomi

CA NetQoS

Cast Iron

CITRIX

Elastra

EMC2

IBM

Informatica

NetApp

New Relic

Novell

OpenNebula

OpSource

Paglo

RightScale

Stoneware inc

VMWARE

Zeus

“Coolest Cloud Productivity Application”

Birst

Callidus

Financialforce.com

Google

IBM

InContact

LiveOps

myDials

Netsuite

Oracle/Siebel

pivollink

Pivotlink

QlikView

Salesforce.com

SAS

SugarCRM

Taleo

Xactly

Zlago

ZOHO

“Coolest Cloud Security Vendors”

Appriver

Barracuda

HP

M86 - Through the aquistion of Mashal and Finjin M86 revved things up.  MailMarshal SMTP 6.7 protects against both malware and blended threat attacks.  The Finjan buy enhanced M86’s exisiting Web and e-mail security technologies with realtime content inspection, code analysis technology and malware detection.

McAfee

PANDA

PingIdentity

Proofpoint

Qualys

ScanSafe

StillSecure

Syferlock

Message Labs

Symplified

Trend Micro

WatchGuard

WebRoot

Websense

WhiteHat

Zscaler

“Coolest Cloud Storage Vendors”

3X

Asigra

Axcient

Carbonite

Caringo

Ctera

Donyenz

eFolder

mozy

IBM - IBM’s Smart Storage Cloud is a private cloud service that supports multiple petabytes of data and billions of files.  It is based on IBM’s blade server and XIV storage technologies.  The service lets businesses build an on site storage cloud managed by IBM or back up data to one of IBM’s own data centers.

intronis

Mexeo

Reldata

ROBOback

Seagate

Symantec

Symform

Vembu

Zenith

Zetta

I truly do not agree with a lot of these.    There is such a big range from home user to enterprise on here.   Like Mozy? No way Jose.   But some of the companies I have not heard of and do have some cool offerings such as http://www.liveops.com/ .  I also think that AlertLogic should be added to the top security companies even though they are more log & threat management.   I still think that they qualify and beat out half of those cloud security companies on the list above…   But kind of interesting stuff.

Open Source Email and Collaboration

VMware aquires Zimbra… (well EMC rather right…??!??)

Why Ridges Beneath F and J Keys

For people who touch type of course!

10 IT Job Titles that could gain traction in 2010

According to Network World..  in no particular order of importance order..

1.  Security Specialist/ethical hacker  – Disturbing new facts and figures appear almost daily about companies failing victim to hackers and experiencing security and data breaches.   

2.  Virtual Systems Manager – While many system managers have not yet added “virtual” officially to their titles they will soon..

3.  Capacity Manager – Will be in demand with companies looking to optimize resources and accurately assign financial values to technology resources

4.  Network Engineer – network know hows will never go out of style

5.  Open Source Specialist – Companies keeping IT budgets lean but hoping to add services and help business return to growth will be considering open source software for more enterprise projects.

6.  Service Assurance Manager – IT specialists skilled at identifying potential problems and optimizing performance in IT domains such as network, systems, storage or applications should look to broaden their knowledge to encompass the entire IT service life cycle in 2010.

7.  Electronic health records system manager – Healthcare is expected to bolster its IT numbers significantly because of government economic stimulus plans.  70,000 new IT positions should be opening up in the next 12 months in the healthcare industry.  If you are an Electronic Health Records System Manager or desire to be one.  Check out http://www.redlegg.com/files/healthcare-emr-solutions.php .

8.  Sourcing Specialist -   Software as a service, cloud computing, managed services, software license management, contract negotiations, managing consultants helps companies determine which service is a best fit for their company.  Not sure if I really agree with this one.  I think you can use value added resellers like RedLegg as your “sourcing specialist” because they do not charge for helping find the right provider.  And they/we help negotiate the best pricing with multiple sources and distributors.  AND we know of the ”good” cloud companies and can make recommendations based off of companies of similar priorities, size, goals etc. 

9.  Service catalog manager – ITIL detail how establishing an IT Service Catalog can help companies model themselves after service providers.  And with an IT service catalog comes an IT service catalog manager.

10.  Business Process Engineer – Demand for business savvy technologies will drive hiring decisions in 2010 as companies look to evolve processes to align with leaner budgets and more streamlined operations.

ibooks download

Of course this is the application that you download and run on your ipad once you get it..

http://download.cnet.com/iBooks/3000-20412_4-11212325.html?tag=mncol;txt

Looks very cool.   Once you have bought a book it is displayed on your bookshelf.   To read it, all you have to do is tap on it and it opens up.  The high resolution, LED backlit screen displays everything in sharp rich color so it is easy to read even in low light.

I want an ipad STAT!!

Disaster Recovery – Stupid Cloud again..

Ok the problem with the public cloud is not the lack of redundancy it is the date of data privacy and protection..

I know I called this “stupid cloud” but all cloud is not really stupid but it depends on what you are using it for and how you define the cloud .  You could of course already be using it/cloud in your disaster recovery plan.  Again just depends on what you mean.

While currently oversold the public cloud has much to offer I think in terms of enterprise CRM, desktop applications and application deployment.  The cloud MAY be the technology of the future but today it is important to separate the private cloud from the public cloud.

The central idea behind the cloud is the delivery of computational function as a service.  One of the promises of the cloud is that it provides pay as you go scalable IT solutions with no upfront captial investment.  Another is that it shields the user from having to design and maintain the infrastructure delivering the solution.  The technical challenges of powering, cooling, securing and connecting today’s powerful servers and vast amounts of data storage are daunting and require massive capital investments.  It makes sense why businesses are potentially driven to achieve economics of sale by outsourcing expensive IT infrastructure.  Starting with co-location and continuity through with managed services, the cloud is just an extension in the trend.

Infoworld lists 11 different cloud computing categories ranging from application as a service such as email to infrastructure as a service that let you configure virtual servers from your desktop to run your applications.   Concerned about disaster recovery and security? The common retort is… forget about it.. all you have to do is get some of that cloud and all your issues will be resolved.   There is of course a problem with that.  Attaching your business to the cloud does not relieve you of the responsibility of understanding what measures are appropriate for protecting your data and ensuring data continuity. 

Disaster recovery has multiple, multiple solutions.  Could mean email archiving, it could mean co-location.  Depends on what kind of disaster.  But overall it starts with an examination of risk tolerance.  I don’t have to give examples of companies that have more risks than other companies.   You know who you are.   Really what normally happens is that some applications require true geographic redundancy with a hot site and a cold site dispersed in different data centers in three different regions coupled with load balancing and failover switching.  As a general rule the more critical applications require greater control over infrastructure components such as the physical location of the data center, which network providers and carriers are available, how redundant the power supply is, HVAC capacity and redundancy, environmental risks and fire suppression capabilities, load balancing and failover switching and a whole host of other factors that traditional collocation providers allow.

Again the major threat of cloud computing is the lack of data privacy and protection.  In a cloud, two completely different companies can be running two completely different applications on a single server.  Once that server is corrupt, all applications its running are at risk.   However security is improving as a processing power grows and encryption gets more powerful, making cloud solutions increasingly appropriate for more applications and enterprises.  But definitely not completely there yet.

The cloud may be the technology of the future but today it is important to separate the private cloud from the public cloud.  ultimately understanding the difference between the promises of cloud and the proven efficiency of todays co-location offerings is very important.  Monica knows all.   Ask her about it if you have any questions.  http://www.redlegg.com/files/telecom.php

Cloud Storage- What is it and top partners

Agh that horrible cloud word again.. but there you go..  Ok well Storage as a Service is the first step really into cloud computing.  It has everything that is similar to cloud computing such as shared information outside of your data center to store primary or backup data and some form of virtualization.  Storage is getting bigger and bigger and really off site/managed storage keeps on coming up in multiple conversations.  Here is a list of some top 20 cloud partners from ChannelWeb..

3X systems – Remote Backup Appliance is an encrypted backup.   Solution providers bring the 3X RBA to you to do the inital backup for all of its PCs and further backups with deduplication technology are done as the data changes.. PCs can automatically find the 3x RBA to do their backups making it a mini private storage cloud.  It can be brought to a customer site or a remote site to restore after a disaster.

Asigra - WAN optimized software to help leverage public or private cloud through a single interface for remote data protection and archiving.  The agent less software also allows management of backup lifecycle. 

Axcient - Hybrid cloud storage model that includes a combination of a storage appliance and Internet based storage service that lets you back data up both locally for fast restores and online for safe archiving.  Small Businesses purchase the Axcient appliances with capacity of 500GB-10TB and then the partner connects them through the Internet to cloud based storage infracture managment by Axcient.

Carbonite – Pioneer in online backup and is the first to offer unlimited backup for a fixed price of $55 a year.  Carbonite software backs up data changes automatically when the PC is idle and incipits the data for security purposes.  You can restore individual files or complete data sets.

Caringo - Lets solution providers to build a cloud infrastructure by plugging a USB key onto multiple industry standard servers.   The servers are clustered and all files stored in the CAStor cluster are replicated.  The company also offers a content router to distribute content from the CASTor cloud, the ability to serve files from that cloud and a desktop archive utility that allows individual end users to store files and make them available without disrupting workflows.

Ctera - This company provides an appliance which includes everything needed to get storage to the cloud in minutes.  The company’s CloudPlug is a full fledged Linux based appliance about the size of an AC adapter which plugs into a power outlet, a router and a PC to automatically handle backups to a cloud based storage provider without the need for additional hardware or software.  The company also offers a small two bay NAS appliance which automatically backs up data to the cloud.

Doyenz - Automated Virtual IT platform where solution people build virtual appliances for low cost disaster recovery failover and data migration.  Using Vmware’s ESXi server virtualization software.

EFolder - Hybrid cloud storage where a local disk based backup appliance is used for fast restores while connecting to the appliance for fast restores while connecting that appliance to the cloud for remote backups.

EMC – Mozy online… most popular now by far. 

i365 - Subsidary of Seagate… data protection, email archiving, electronic disaster recovery and retention management tools including data restoration, migration and erasure.

IBM – Smart Business Storage Cloud that supports multiple petabytes of data and billions of files.  Based on IBM’s blade server and XIV storage technology.

Intronis - is the backbone of when crazy unknown technology companies brand themselves as a cloud vendor. This is the company behind it..

Mezeo Software – Lets IT hosters, SaaS providers, MSPs, teleco and ISPs develop cloud based storage for customers and resellers.

Reldata - consolidates iSCSI, SAN, NAS, and WAN onto a single unfied storage offering.  9240i/RELvos

Robobak - Automated agentless data backup technology for remote and branch offices

Symantec – Protection Network

Symform – Breaks a copy of your backup into 64 MB Blocks, scrambles these blocks with AES-256 encryption, fragments those blocks into 1MB fragments adds 32 1 MB parity fragments for redundancy and then scatters those 96 fragments to cloud storage nodes around the word.  Oh my!

Vembu - another place where solution providers brand their own branded cloud storage.. geez.  It provides clustering and load balancing as well as the ability to replicate data directly to the Amazon Simple Storage Service storage cloud.

Zenith Info Tech – Provides solution providers the technology to offer managed services virtual help desk and disaster recovery to SMB customers

omg that was a lot.  the cloud word is going to get even more annoying with all of these offerings.   Geez Louise I have a headache now.

HIPAA Rules Will Change in February 2010

“Business associates” will have to comply with same requirements as “covered entities.”

 
Sweeping changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) are on the horizon, and they will significantly expand who must comply with HIPAA. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the new laws will also bolster enforcement of HIPAA rules and increase patients’ rights in connection with information about their health information. These rules go into effect Feb. 17, 2010.

“Business associates,” as defined by HIPAA, will be directly subject to the requirements and penalties of HIPAA privacy and security rules. Insurance agents and other businesses that meet the criteria to be “business associates” under HIPAA rules currently do not have to directly comply with most HIPAA regulations. Under existing law, business associates must comply with the terms of the business associate contracts they enter into with “covered entities” and, in turn, covered entities must comply directly with HIPAA.

However, beginning Feb. 17, 2010, business associates will have to comply with HIPAA to the same extent that covered entities must comply. This will mean that business associates must create policies and procedures as required by HIPAA, including the new ARRA requirements. Business associates will also have to draft privacy notices setting forth their HIPAA policies and procedures; create internal training material and programs; update business associate agreements; and ensure they are in compliance with all other requirements under HIPAA.
The ARRA will also increase enforcement of HIPAA rules beginning in February. For example, the changes will increase civil and criminal penalties under HIPAA, allow state attorneys general to bring civil actions under HIPAA and require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to perform audits in connection with HIPAA compliance.

In addition, the new laws will strengthen patients’ rights.  Beginning Feb. 17, 2010, patients will have additional rights pertaining to accountings of disclosures of their health information, and patients will gain the right to request that health information be restricted under certain conditions.

Holy moly what fun!!!!!  Do you have any healthcare security related questions??? Ask our Healthcare Team and we will assist ASAP!!!

Planning on adding Additional Circuits in China this year?

For manufacturing etc…? Well think again!

**Please be aware!!**   Network freeze in Shanghai from April 1^st to November 1st

This event will be held from 1st May 2010 to 31st Oct 2010.

All the Telco in Shanghai will not perform any provisioning works from 1st Apr 2010 to 31st Oct 2010.

As such, the local loop installation schedule after 1st Apr 2010 for Shanghai (including inner and long-distance circuit in Shanghai) may be postponed after 1st Nov 2010

Talk with Monica about better alternatives..

http://www.redlegg.com/files/telecom.php

Oracle Unbreakable Linux… anyone in?

And Oracle’s virtualization solutions for servers and desktops…? What do you think?

Of course their product is good.. no one has ever denied Oracle of that.. but is their licensing structure going to be a lot more simple?  Why or why oracle must you make things so complicated?  Don’t you know that people like simple things to easily plug in and adios and not have to deal with crazy licensing madness?    Yes Vmware is guilty of having licensing issues too.   Why are there 32432084 contract numbers for one customer Vmware?  And why can you not just consolidate into one?  Not sure why this is so complicated in Vmware’s world.  You think that EMC would be rich and big enough to allocate the resources to fix but no such thing..

I have blogged about this before.. but I love competition and I really think vmware needs some healthy competition.  So Oracle good luck out there with your unbreakable linux and your virtualization stuff.  Make it easy for everyone to sell and use and I’m on board.  Good luck Oracle.