[itoniq-blog]

IT trends in 2016: The evolution of enterprise mobility management

Mobility is always a hot topic; while it promises significant productivity benefits, it also brings security and management challenges to businesses. IT departments face a balancing act between empowering users and maintaining security. Users are bringing smart devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops into the office, which are neither owned nor managed by the company. While often improving personal productivity, these devices pose both security and data protection risks.

A well-defined ‘bring-your-own-device’ (BYOD) policy and mobile device management strategy can protect your organisation while increasing mobility for users.  So, how are businesses addressing the consumerisation of IT with mobile workforce solutions?

One of the most common customer complaints we heard in 2015 was the increasing lack of control they felt they had over their workers’ devices. End user computing today is unrecognisable to that of five years ago – many users have more than one device, and wish to connect to multiple networks via multiple Internet connections, which has created a mire of potential security threats for businesses’ IT teams to deal with.

It’s absolutely essential for organisations to have full management over the security of their devices, plus control over application integration and access.

Windows 10 has recently launched, which has really brought the issue of device management to a head for many businesses, as it includes an enterprise mobility suite that is helping businesses to re-evaluate how they’re managing their devices.

Businesses have traditionally been stuck with restrictive methods of managing their devices, which are flawed and rely on a lot of careful manual reviewing. I believe that the answer to this, in the form of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM), will gain in prominence this year.

What is EMM – and how is it transforming device management?

Device management has become a bane for businesses, but EMM directly addresses these challenges.

Loosely defined, EMM is the business management of mobile devices, networks and computing. It’s a comprehensive ‘next generation’ version of mobile device management (MDM) – with it you can control entire IT estates, basically anything that has the potential to connect to internal resources.

Enterprise Mobility Management can be divided up into three conceptual blocks. Each of these addresses a specific level of mobility management and enables a tailored solution to match the requirements of users and IT policies. Although these blocks can be applied in isolation, implementing all of these together provides a holistic Enterprise Mobility Management solution.

• Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Setting device-level policies to enforce restrictions on the device itself. This includes device-level passwords and basic remote-wipe capabilities. MDM is most suited to organisations that issue corporate devices to users.

• Mobile Applications Management (MAM)

Setting application-level policies to enforce restrictions on specific corporate applications. This includes application-level passwords, restricting interoperability between apps and selective-wipe of corporate data from devices. MAM is most suited to organisations with a BYOD policy in place

• Mobile Content Management (MCM)

‘DropBox’ type functionality, enabling users to securely access and manage corporate data either in the cloud, or on-premises connecting to existing corporate file shares and SharePoint.

The reason EMM has come about is because of the explosion in use of mobile devices – organisations are struggling to manage the proliferation of new devices connecting to their networks effectively.An EMM takes a ‘belt and braces’ approach where only a very limited number of devices are automatically deemed secure, and the rest are subjected to the same security checks each time they connect.

EMM focuses on the control and flow of information and data, ensuring that all devices are secure, providing users with complete control and freedom, whilst IT administrators can maintain control over business data and information on these devices. It’s a tailored solution, which matches the requirements of your users to your IT policies. Setting device-level or application-level policies enforces restrictions on what users can access. This approach ensures information is password protected and devices can be wiped-clean remotely, should they fall into the wrong hands. Now users can securely access and manage corporate data either in the cloud, or on-premise – connecting to existing corporate file shares and SharePoint. In 2016, more organisations than ever are likely to start using EMM to take control of their mobility management. Comprehensive and easy to integrate, EMM suites give users an incredible amount of control over both unapproved and regularly-connecting devices – it’s a more proactive solution for security-conscious organisations. Source: [click]

[itoniq-blog]

Achieve 24/7 SQL Monitoring with SQL Diagnostic Manager

Performance monitoring for physical and virtual environments

Query plan monitoring to see the causes of blocks and deadlocks

Integrated SQL Doctor expert recommendations

Easy integration with Microsoft SCOM

Predictive alerting with settings to avoid false alerts

Web-based dashboard with at-a-glance views of top issues and alerts

Physical and Virtual Performance Monitoring

Easily monitor and view the performance of both physical server and VMware or Hyper-V virtual server environments to get a complete view of SQL Server databases. View performance metrics and alerts for virtual machines and their related hosts including CPU, memory, disk usage, network etc. to get a complete performance picture of the SQL server environment.

Query Performance Monitoring

Identify and monitor inefficient and poor performing SQL queries, batches, statements and stored procedures causing blocks and deadlocks, such as long or most frequent queries or queries consuming unusually high CPU or I/O. Thresholds can be configured on each individual server allowing for greater flexibility, and the interface makes it very easy to see the most costly queries by looking at individual query executions or query signatures.

*New* Integrated SQL Doctor Expert Recommendations

Expert recommendations from IDERA SQL Doctor are now integrated into SQL Diagnostic Manager. Enhance performance and speed up problem resolutions with built-in tuning advice and best practices developed by SQL Server MVPs. These updated recommendations are integrated into analysis workflows and provide specific guidance to address problem issues including automatic corrective scripts and links to related online content to supercharge your SQL Server performance.

Query Plan Diagnostics

Dig deep into problematic queries with new query plan diagnostic capabilities. View high level query performance information across applications, databases and users with enhanced drill down capabilities into individual queries to view detailed SQL text, execution plan XML, and graphical views of execution plans.

Predictive Alerting

Avoid false alarms with adaptive alerting functionality and set alert thresholds based on built-in historical statistical analysis of your server performance data. Read more…

Capacity Planning

Understand trends and view forecasts of your SQL Server environment to better plan for future needs and get a handle on SQL Server sprawl with database growth reporting.

Mobile Access

Access SQL Diagnostic Manager from anywhere. Use any mobile device, such as iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Tablet to view real-time and historical SQL Server performance data. Plus, view or kill sessions, start/stop jobs and run queries to resolve or diagnose issues remotely while on-the-go.

Web Dashboard

Log in from anywhere and quickly check the status of monitored server instances to identify and diagnose issues. View the current status of monitored instances, drill down into single instance details, view the top occurrences of performance issues, and see a rollup of all active alerts. Customize your display with eighteen new widgets, enhanced heat map view, and query wait state visualizations. Create any number of individually configured dashboards to address the needs of the entire organization.

Integration with SCOM

The SQL Diagnostic Manager Management Pack provides easy integration with Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). The Management Pack propagates the current status, health and events of all monitored instances up to Operations Manager, allowing the DBA and IT Operations staff to share data at a higher level across their enterprise. The management pack is easy to install and does not incur any additional monitoring overhead. Read the FAQ and watch a quick 5 minute videoto learn more.

Source: [click]

[context]

Generate a script (SQL Server Management Studio)

You can create Transact-SQL scripts for various objects using the Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard. You can also generate a script for individual objects or objects using the Include menu as Object Explorer.

Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard

Use the Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard to create a Transact-SQL script for many purposes. The wizard generates a script of all the objects in a database or a subset of the objects you select. The wizard has many options for scripts, such as the ability to include permits, interleaving, restrictions, etc. For more information, see Wizard F1 Help Generate and Publish Scripts.

To open the Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard

In Object Explorer, expand Databases, right-click, right-click a database, point to Tasks, then click Generate Scripts. Follow the wizard to include objects in the database in the script.

On the Choose objects, select the objects to be included in the script. For more information, see Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard (Choose Object). - On the Set Scripting Options page, select Save scripts in a specific location. - To specify advanced scripting options, select the Advanced button in the Save section scripts in a specific location.

Select the location for the generated script: a file, a Query Editor window motor database or the clipboard.

On the Summary page, review your selections. Click Previous to change your selections. Click Next to generate a script of the selected objects. 

In the Save or Publish Scripts page, monitor the progress of the build script. 

Include menu as Object Explorer

You can use the Include menu as Object Explorer to generate a script of a single object, multiple objects or multiple statements for a single object. You can choose one of several types of scripts; eg create, modify or remove the object. You can save a script in a Query Editor window, to a file or to the clipboard. The script is created in Unicode format.

To generate a script of a single object

In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of SQL Server Database Engine (Database Engine SQL Server) and expand it.

Expand Databases, and then expand the category of object. For example, expand the node tables or views.

Click the right mouse button on the object, select Include <object type> as; for example, table and choose Include.

Select the type of script, how to Create or Alter to.

Select the location to save the script as New Query Editor window or clipboard. Sometimes you may need a script that offers several options, for example, remove a procedure and then create another, or create a table and modify it later. The following process also works if you need to create a script that refers to different types of objects, such as tables, views and stored procedures.

To generate a script of two objects using the Object Explorer

In Object Explorer, navigate to the first object you want to include in the script. Click the right mouse button on the object, select Include <object type> as Save As and choose New Query Editor window as the output destination.

Navigate to the second object to be included in the script. Click the right mouse button on the object, select Include <object type> as and selections choose Save As Clipboard as the output destination.

In the Editor window open consultations for the first object, paste the script for the second object from the clipboard. You can use the Details pane of the Object Explorer to generate a script for multiple objects of the same category.

To generate a script of two objects using Object Explorer Details. In Object Explorer, navigate to the node class object types to include in the script, as the Tables node. Open the Details pane of the Explorer by selecting F7 or by opening the View menu and select Details Explorer objects.

Click the left mouse button on one of the objects to be included in the script. Press Ctrl and click the left mouse button on the second object you want to include in the script. Click the right mouse button on one of the selected objects and select Include <object type> as.

[techniqs]

Management consoles for professionals

Two monitors on one workstation is a standard that no one is surprised. But what to do when the number of remote sessions to different servers is so large that two screens are not enough?Connect another and feel almost like a spectator at a tennis match or try to subdue the growing avalanche of windows and data?

The greater the number of servers we manage, the more around us remote session and window management consoles services and applications. At some point, it is increasingly difficult to find necessary at the time the session SSH, RDP, VNC or web-based console. The easiest way to organize the tools of the latter category, because the individual consoles can simply uruchomiać in separate tabs web browser. However, it remains a matter of organizing connections to all sorts of servers, Linux and Windows. Administrators who use on their desktops with Microsoft System have no choice - they must look for programs that allow you to open multiple sessions to remote hosts using bookmarks graphical interface. By using these applications can be run on multiple servers and move within a single window. The simplest tools of this type offer basic capabilities - create a list of addresses, server names and credentials saved and open them in separate tabs. Only so much and so many. The use of even such a simple administration console gives good results. More advanced programs offer a lot more. It is e.g.: support a wide range of protocols to integrate with external tools (eg. Notepad ++, WinSCP, a Web browser) and the management consoles (VMware vSphere Client, MMC). The real fireworks are available while for server administrators with Linux operating systems. The ability to simultaneously perform the same command on multiple servers and create a sequence of commands played automatically on the next host is a very useful and dangerous at the same time functions in the hands of careless person. In this article we describe the capabilities of several proven tools. The basic conditions that have to meet various consoles included in the review, the organization of remote sessions in tabs and free license, also for commercial use.

> MTPuTTY - SMALL, LIGHT PRACTICE

MTPuTTY (Multi Tabbet Putty) is a small program that allows you to simultaneously run multiple sessions of the program Putty.Each session is placed in a separate tab, which is the main advantage of the application. Using this you can easily work on multiple servers, without the need to open separate windows or instance of Putty. License MTPuTTY can use this free program both for private and commercial use. The application takes less than one megabyte disk, works with Windows and is available as an installer and so-called. portable version. When you first start the program requires that the location of the program Putty or Kitty.

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Terminology and cloud characters

To understand the operation of cloud computing is essential to understand the three levels that can be provided the service.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) This is the highest level of service. It is responsible for delivering infrastructure complete user demand processing. The user has one or more virtual machines in the cloud with which, for example, can increase the size of hard drive in a few minutes, get more processing or routers and pay only for the resources they use. This level can be seen as an evolution of Virtual Private Servers currently offered by hosting companies.

Platform as a Service (PaaS). It is the intermediate level, is responsible for delivering a complete processing platform to the user, fully functional without having to purchase and maintain hardware and software. For example, a web developer needs a web server to serve its pages, a database server and operating system. This level is responsible for providing all these services.

Software as a Service (SaaS). This level is responsible for delivering the software as a service over the Internet whenever the user demands it. This is the lowest level that allows access to the application using a web browser, without installing additional software on your computer or mobile phone. Office automation suites which can be accessed online are a good example of this level.

Based on the service delivery models can be grouped cloud computing systems in the following main categories: public, private and hybrid.

Public clouds are those in which all control of resources, processes and data is in the hands of third parties. Multiple users can use web services that are processed on the same server can share disk space or other infrastructure network with other users.

Private clouds are those created and managed by a single entity that decides where and how processes run within the cloud. An improvement in terms of security and privacy of data and processes, and that sensitive data remains in the IT infrastructure of the organization, while controlling what each service user accesses the cloud. However, the entity remains responsible for purchase, maintain and manage all hardware and software infrastructure cloud.

In hybrid clouds the previous two models coexist. For example, a company uses a public cloud to keep your web server while keeping your database server in your private cloud. Thus, a communication channel between public and private cloud through which sensitive data remain under strict control while the web server is managed by a third party is established. This solution reduces the complexity and cost of the private cloud. A fourth model of service delivery, community clouds, which are shared between several organizations that form a community with similar principles (mission, security requirements, policies and compliances) are also targets. It can be managed by the community or by a third party. This model can be seen as a variation on the model of private cloud.

Other acronyms that should be familiar to us:

API: Application Programming Interface

CDN: Content delivery network

IP: Internet Protocol

ISP: Internet Access Provider

IT: Information Technology

SSL: Secure Layer Protection

SOA: Service-oriented architecture

URI: Universal Resource Identifier

WSDL: Web services description language

DSA: Digital Signature Algorithm

XML: Extensible Markup Language

In addition, several agents involved in the business: the enabler, the supplier, the broker, the subscriber … and those who are responsible for implementing solutions and cloud computing services oriented provides a number of advantages in a wide range collective, economic and social sectors and agents.

[techniqs]

NetApp arrays - an overview of solutions

NetApp is a company that manufactures devices for data storage. Its offer includes both simple file-matrices intended for the SME sector, as well as complex systems of storage for large infrastructure designed to support the data block. Here is a brief overview of the company together with a description and use of its technology.

NetApp FAS, or Fabric-Attached Storage controllers to enterprise-class matrix that can share data via both protocols file and block. The file-based layer, we have two main protocols: NFS and CIFS and additionally - FTP, TFTP and HTTP, and the data block can be delivered using protocols FC, iSCSI and FCoE. This type of device is called a unified matrices. Depending on the needs of the company’s offer can choose matrices classic, hybrid magnetic disk (HDD) and / or solid state (SSD) or a matrix type of All-Flash, containing only semiconductor memory.

> Hybrid Arrays

Since the company’s main product were FAS arrays, but the models and functionality change from year to year. The current offer consists of two main series: FAS8000 and FAS2500. 2500 Series is designed for small deployments where there is required a large capacity (although even in the smallest model we can put the discs with a total “raw” capacity of 504 TB). As part of this series, you can choose a model with a single controller or opt for a dual controller allows you to achieve high availability (High Availability). The 8000 Series is designed for enterprise-class applications, which counts both capacity and performance, as well as the safety of the environment matrix. In these models installed they are always dual-controller, which is designed to provide high availability and avoid single point of failure (SPOF - Single Point of Failure). These matrices is scaled from 1 to 24 nodes, or nodes (12 pairs HA) for file-based version and up to 8 nodes (4 pairs HA) for the version of the block. The maximum possible capacity is 103 PB (plikowo), and PB 34 (block) where the matrix FAS8080 EX. As you can see, these are devices that can scale both in terms of capacity and performance.

[techniqs2]

5 key considerations for successful data centre migration

The potential pitfalls a data centre migration could create and the best ways to avoid them

Companies need to relocate their data centres for any number of reasons – space restrictions, economic considerations, mergers and acquisitions, or regulatory compliance.

Despite their frequency, data centre migrations remain complicated endeavours that, if not managed properly, could cause more problems than they fix.

The relocation of a data centre can include the upgrade of hardware, operating systems and software, and often requires the migration of large numbers of mission-critical applications and services, often making it a difficult and somewhat risky process.

The benefits, however, can be very great, often outweighing the risks, and companies that effectively carry out necessary migrations often enjoy newfound efficiencies, which more than justify the time and capital spent on these projects.

Companies that manage to successfully relocate their data centres tend to focus on five key areas to ensure a smooth transition.

1. Risk reduction

When relocating a data centre, extended or unplanned downtime and the potential loss of data are the main risks that have to be recognised and mitigated.

To what extent a business can tolerate these risks will depend on the importance of the applications it is migrating. If the particular applications are mission- or business-critical, the company will not be able to function without them for any length of time and it therefore need to minimise the planned downtime and the risk of unplanned downtime as much as possible, even if it is expensive.

A similar calculation applies to the risk of data loss. The more important, sensitive or valuable the data, the more safeguards must be in place to prevent its loss during migration.

Mitigations include extensive backups, encryption, a disaster recovery process that continues to work during migration, and purchase of robust, fault-tolerant equipment.

If the applications that are being moved are system-critical or of sufficient importance to the business, it is advisable to conduct a trial migration in a test environment to ensure the compatibility of software with the new data centre.

This way, many problems that might arise after the migration can be assessed early and appropriate action taken.

2. Regaining knowledge

When planning for the data migration, it is vital to understand everything that is taking place in the existing computing environment. However, some applications may be decades old and have been in continuous use throughout their lifetimes.

Over such a period, there is no guarantee that internal reports, process documents or training manuals will have been kept up to date. It is all too easy for this knowledge to be lost when employees leave a company. The result is that an organisation’s knowledge of what is running in its own data centres can be incomplete.

Not knowing exactly how systems function means some components could be left out of the relocation process, leading to defects in, or failure of, the system once the migration is performed.

Network tracing tools can assist in rediscovering the components and relationships of legacy applications. Ideally these tools should be put in place to observe the network over an extended period of time – often months, rather than days – because, while some systems are constantly in contact, others may communicate more infrequently, e.g. at month-end or year-end.

3. Ensuring compatibility

Legacy applications may not be compatible with the hardware in the new data centre. If this is the case, a business has two options.

The first is a physical ‘lift and shift’, which involves physically moving the existing hardware to the new location.

The second option is to use an emulator to ease the process of transferring applications to the hardware of the new data centre. However, this is not always possible and the need for software code changes cannot be excluded.

Although potentially costly and time consuming, code changes may benefit the company in the long run, as working on very old systems can be inefficient and constitute a security risk.

Organisations should ensure that an allowance is made for the possibility of code changes in their plan before migration starts, so that everyone is aware that this extra work may have to take place

4. Network particularities

For a data centre migration to be as successful possible, each application should have a predetermined space in the new network. When setting this up, it is important to consider all aspects related to the running of your system, such as firewall settings, domains and trust, to ensure full compatibility.

Recognise that older applications may not be compatible with newer network security constraints. Advance planning will be needed to decide how to handle this issue in each case.

The typical options are to relax network security for the application (not desirable) or to rewrite aspects of the application so that it fits with modern security (potentially expensive and time consuming).

5. Limiting latency

Changing the location of an application’s hardware can adversely affect its performance through increased network latency. It is therefore important to take latency into account when planning a data centre migration.

Latency can be a particular pain point whilst migration is being carried out – to reduce downtime, servers are often transferred in batches. This means there will be periods where applications that used to talk to each other via a local area connection are now several or even thousands of miles apart.

Knowing exactly which applications work together and the frequency of their ‘conversations’ will enable organisations to put together a migration timetable, ensuring the separation of (and latency between) the most vulnerable combinations of applications is kept to an absolute minimum.

Often, additional processing power will be needed for a system to function optimally once the migration is complete. This can happen where processing is moved from the client to a server – for example, by hosting the application on a virtual application provider such as Citrix XenApp.

Planning for this ahead of time will protect the user against unnecessary delays once the migration process is complete and help manage the risk of prolonged unplanned downtime.

Whilst data centre migration is often seen as a hazardous prospect, it need not be if these five factors are taken into account well in advance.

In data centre relocation, planning is key. Drawing up a data centre migration plan may be time consuming, but it will be considerably less so than attempting to repair a dysfunctional system after the move.

Not only will planning in advance save IT managers from unnecessary headaches and stress further down the line, it will show to all parties concerned that they know what they’re doing.  

- See more at: information-age

[techniqs2]

Attunity Launches Data Migration Solution for Google Cloud SQL

Attunity Ltd. (NASDAQ: ATTU), a leading provider of Big Data management software solutions, announced today a new cloud solution, Attunity CloudBeam for Google Cloud SQL.  Released in conjunction with today’s announcement on the general availability of Google Cloud SQL, Attunity CloudBeam accelerates transfer between on-premises enterprise data sources and Google Cloud SQL. Customers can leverage this solution to enable cloud-based Business Intelligence and Big Data analytics applications.

Wikibon forecasts that one-third of all IT spending will move to the public cloud within 10 years, with database and storage services currently being the fastest-growing segments of IaaS and PaaS markets,” said Brian Gracely, Senior Analyst at Wikibon. “As more customers move applications and data to the Google Cloud Platform, it’s critical to have advanced SQL database services, world-class network connections and granular control over data protection.  Customers want to work with public clouds that will help them move quickly to the digital platforms of the future.”

Moving data to the cloud quickly and easily continues to be an industry-wide challenge. Attunity and Google have collaborated on this strategic initiative to help customers overcome data transfer hurdles by making the end-to-end data integration process seamless and significantly improving the speed of moving data to the cloud.

The new Google Cloud SQL service is a fully-managed MySQL database that lives in Google’s cloud. The latest generation of Cloud SQL service is easy to use, doesn’t require any software installation or maintenance, and scales effortlessly for applications with high data volumes that need high performance. Attunity CloudBeam empowers enterprises with its high-performance database replication and high-speed data transfer technologies that migrate data from a wide range of on-premises databases – including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, and Sybase – to Google Cloud SQL.

We are pleased to collaborate with Google Cloud Platform on enabling database solutions,” said Itamar Ankorion, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Strategy at Attunity. “Attunity CloudBeam addresses a critical need in reducing the complexity involved in moving data to the Cloud. We look forward to continuing to work with the Google Cloud Platform team to drive cloud adoption.”

[context]

DATA CENTERS

What is a data center?

A data center is an exclusive space where businesses operate and maintain ICT infrastructure they use to manage their business. It is the space to house the servers and storage systems where applications are run and process and store data and content. For some companies it is a simple cage or rack, while for others it can be a private room to house a number of racks, depending on the size of the company. This white space is prepared with false floor below which electrical outlets are installed to connect the racks. The environment has temperature and humidity control to ensure proper functioning and operational integrity of hosted systems. These facilities include power systems, backup power, cooling, cabling, fire detection and suppression, water leak detectors and security checks. Data centers can be located on land owned by the company or an external supplier. In any case, outsourcing means giving up control of the equipment: you just have to find the right place to accommodate them.

[itoniq-blog]

Hybrid cloud: A real business puzzle

The Bunker, which is a trusted authority for outsourced infrastructure and data storage, has published a new report providing insight into hybrid cloud adoption – the situation where companies have on-premise as well as cloud sources for software, storage and compute facilities.

The key factors that the report addresses are whether cloud migrations, for enterprises and large SMEs are actually successful or not. The report challenges, CIOs and IT decision-makers to face several of the obstacles when setting and executing their vision for hybrid cloud.

The hybrid cloud conundrum, and it is a major puzzle for enterprise – whether to go to the cloud or host on-premises data centres – is a real dilemma. The problem actually is based on extensive research by Vanson Bourne, which interviewed 100 IT decision-makers, in order to construct the report. In addition, the data from private enterprise organisations (1,000+ employees) in the UK made up the source of their report.

The key findings are:

90 per cent of organisations are currently implementing some kind of hybrid cloud infrastructure; while 96 per cent expect to migrate applications or data to cloud Infrastructure within the next 5 years. Almost 60 per cent of organisations implementing hybrid cloud are doing so to realise greater cost efficiency, flexibility and scalability; with 40 per cent looking to lower total cost of ownership (TCO); and 38 per cent transitioning from a Capex to Opex model. 55 per cent identify a mixture of in-house and outsourced IT infrastructure using private and/or public cloud, either on-premise and/or off-premise where appropriate as their ideal model for future IT service delivery. Phil Bindley, CTO at The Bunker, said: “The business benefits of Cloud technologies may be compelling, but organisations continue to struggle when it comes to delivering on them.

“Whilst it is clear CIOs and IT decision-makers recognise the importance of aligning IT and business strategy, our research shows that many are unable to translate into technology what the business is trying to achieve.”

Source: [click]

[techniqs]

Intel Capital invests in China

Eight emerging technology companies from China received over $67 billion dollars from Intel Capital. In total Intel has already spent in the Middle nearly $2 billion.

Among the sectors that were among the interests of the investment Intel Capital were smart devices, robotics, Internet of Things, Big Data and analytics. Support from Intel got this time 99cloud, Bluebank, Hampoo, Ninebot, Nuovo Film, PraFly and AWcloud. In total, since 1998, the American corporation has invested more than $1.9 billion in more than 140 companies.

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What is an SSL certificate and why you should care

“Committed a certificate authority, all revoked certificates”. It sounds bad, right? It is likely to have read something like this in recent days following a discovery of Google, or even with the disaster of Superfish and Lenovo. The question is, what does that mean? What is a certificate? What is a certification authority (CA)?

Of course, these things do not need to know to live another day. But as most you know that is what makes a trojan or a virus, know what a certificate is good: the end of the day, it’s one of the things that keeps someone can see what pages visitors and your personal data. So today we will devote to explain what are the SSL certificates.

“Hello who are you?”

Suppose you are looking for John Smith to tell something private. It does not seem difficult, but do not know who is Pepe. You do not know even how, if an old man, blond … if only you know where it is. So you go where usually, and see a man. You can ask him if he is Pepe Pérez, but would be a bit naive trust what it tells you a stranger on the street. Pepe is not equal. One way to make sure he really would ask for a document, which certifies that that person is called Pepe Perez. In real life (ignoring of this situation is unrealistic) would you ask for your ID, for example.

Well, the Internet is the same. You need an “identity card” for servers, an “official” document that will ensure that this is the Google server and not an impostor. The question is how we make it official: we need an authority us to trust (as in the example of Pepe Perez we trust the state to issue ID cards).

The solution to this problem is the SSL certificates, which more than a document as the DNI are seals. They have a private party, which the server runs, with which “seals” and leaves a signature in communications. The seal contains the domain name and certifies that you’re securely communicating with Google. Besides, no one else can replicate it: you can not take a document, cut the seal and paste it into another document. Likewise, an attacker can not intercept a request to a server, modify it and reenviártela because then the “seal” (signature) would be invalid.

THE CA ENSURE THAT NOBODY has a certificate for a domain that is not his (or at least try)

The point is that the process for SSL certificates is public. As you can get a stamp that reads “Prime Minister”, you can get you an SSL certificate for google.com. To fix this error, SSL certificates are signed by certification authorities (CA) or trusted third parties. These authorities are responsible for issuing licenses, and only do so if the organization or person who asks can prove that is indeed the domain owner. In other words, if you go to the certificate authority to apply for a domain to google.com they will laugh at you and you’re staying with his hands in his pockets.

Browsers and operating systems public keys of certification authorities are stored in its warehouses. With these public keys, you are able to verify signatures and verify that the SSL certificate for the server to which you connect are valid and therefore you are not connecting to an imposter.

Once you’ve made sure that the server is who he says he can already communicate encrypted HTTPS (that we saw how it worked) and begin exchanging private data without anyone else to see.

When the system fails

CA certification authorities or are merely companies managed by people. And people fail (fail). Sometimes these failures become huge security failures. For example, in 2011, a hacker entered DigiNotar, a Dutch CA, and got the private keys to sign SSL certificates.

What can you do with these keys? Well sign SSL certificates obviously. The fact of the matter is that if the key has a hacker, it is most likely that decide to sign SSL certificates for domains that do not have. That is, you can make your computer think that his “evil” Google server is to deceive and to send you email and password (for instance). Funny, right?

In another case, it is directly certification authorities to do what they should not. In the case of Monday, a CA was using its root certificate for secure communications intercept their employees with Google. The controversy with Lenovo and Superfish was similar. The difference is that Superfish was not a CA, but the root certificate installed in warehouses of computers to the characterization as such and rely upon their false certificates.

When this happens, when the CA is compromised, there are several ways to mitigate the impact. One of them is fixed certificates (certificate pinning). With her recent browsers not only ask a valid to connect to certain sites like Google but a certificate with a specific footprint SSL certificate. Thus, although a reliable way CA sign a new certificate, they will not take as valid. The only problem is fixed certificates can be used for the most famous sites: it would be absurd to keep the tracks of all certificates of all secure Internet websites.

Moreover, there are also methods to revoke certificates. Periodically, browsers and systems connect to the update servers and retrieve lists of certificates that are no longer valid, and will maintain the updated store without compromised certificates. Also, you can access your store browser / system and remove CA certificates you do not like (although some sites may stop working well).

In short, the certificates are allowing you trust your secure connections are secure and are not really talking to impostors. So, you already know why phrases such as spearheading the article sound really bad.

[context]

Introduction to application servers

Enterprise Applications

The term application server is related to the concept of distributed system. A distributed system as opposed to a monolithic system, improves three key areas in an application: high availability, scalability and maintenance. In a monolithic system needs a change in the system (increase in the number of visits increased number of applications, etc.) causes a collapse and adaptation to climate change can be catastrophic. Let’s see these features with examples.

High availability refers to a system should be running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. To achieve this feature is necessary to use techniques of load balancing and failover (failover). Scalability is the ability to grow a system when the workload (number of requests) increases. Each machine has a finite capacity of resources and therefore can only serve a limited number of requests. If, for example, we have a store that service demand increases, we must be able to incorporate new machines to service. The maintenance has to do with the versatility to upgrade, debug and maintain a system failure. The maintenance solution is to build business logic in reusable and modular units.

What is an application server?

The J2EE standard permits the development of business applications in a simple and efficient manner. An application developed with J2EE technology allows it to be deployed in any application server or web server that meets the standard. An application server is an implementation of the J2EE specification. J2EE architecture is:

Then we define some of the items shown:

Web client (container applets): It is usually a browser and interacts with the web container using HTTP. Receive HTML or XML pages and can run applets and JavaScript code.

Client application: They are clients that do not run within a browser and can use any technology to communicate with the web container or directly to the database.

Web Container: This is what is commonly called Web server. It is the visible part of the application server. Use the HTTP and SSL (secure) protocol to communicate.

Application Server provides services that support performance and availability of deployed applications. It is the heart of a large distributed system.

Compared to traditional two-layer structure of a web server application server it provides a three-layer structure for structuring our system more efficiently. A concept that should be clear from the outset is that not all enterprise applications require an application server to run. A small application that accesses a database not very complex data and it is not distributed probably do not need an application server, only with a web server (using servlets and JSP) is sufficient.

[context]

Fundamentals of cloud technology and its associated services.

 - Basic cloud concepts.

 According to the definition given by the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) cloud computing or cloud computing is a technology model that allows ubiquitous, adapted and on-demand network access to a shared set of computing resources configurable (eg. networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with reduced management effort or minimal interaction with the service provider. We will refer it to the cloud as a service that can demand network and usually gives us access to infrastructure facilities of Information Technology (IT) such as: access to software, to “backups”, a desktop, etc., providing well have an agile IT solution “tailored” with an easy and rapid deployment. All this without having to purchase the hardware and software resources associated with their licenses so that we can access their facilities without the need for “we” will exploit the resources, whether hardware or software nature. Now, with this broad definition, we can take any of the services and realize that there are many key aspects that should be evaluated for a successful implementation. The technology that facilitates the development of this new scenario is the virtualization decouples hardware software making it possible to replicate the user’s environment without having to install and configure all the software required for each application. With virtual machines is achieved distribute workloads in a simple manner resulting in a new paradigm, cloud computing. To understand quickly and easily which are key to the concept of cloud computing, a number of key features that differentiate it from traditional systems are used

Pay per use. Allows billing based on consumption.

Abstraction. It allows isolating the contracted provider of computer equipment of the entity computing resources.

Agility scalability. Increases or decreases dynamically functions available depending on the needs of the customer.

Multi. It allows all users consumption of a particular service or resource from a single technology platform, adapted to their needs.

Self on demand. It allows the user access to computing capabilities in the cloud automatically without having to contact the vendor.

Unrestricted access. It makes it possible to access the services ubiquitously employed anywhere / anytime, with any device with Web access.

Cloud computing solutions available on the market several dimensions that we will see in the course are classified highlight moment that can be categorized:

On the level at which the service is provided:  IT Infrastructure, Platform, or software: 

For implementation forms (forms of integration and operation), thus distinguishing between public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.

[context]

Cloud Types

A public cloud is a cloud computing maintained and managed by third parties not connected with the organization. In these clouds both data and processes multiple clients are mixed on servers, storage systems and other infrastructure in the cloud. The final cloud users do not know what works from other customers may be running on the same server, network, storage, etc. Applications, storage and other resources are publicly available via the service provider, which owns all the infrastructure in their data centers; access to services only available remotely over the Internet normally.

Private clouds are a good choice for companies that need high data protection and service level issues. Private clouds are on-demand infrastructure, managed for a single customer who controls which applications should run and where. They own the server, network and disk and can decide which users are allowed to use the infrastructure. To internally manage these services, companies have the advantage of maintaining the privacy of your information and allow unify access to corporate applications users.

Hybrid clouds combine the models of public and private clouds. A user owns shares other portions and, although in a controlled manner. Hybrid clouds offer the promise of scaling externally provisioned, on demand, but add the complexity of determining how to distribute applications across these different environments. Companies may feel some attraction for the promise of a hybrid cloud, but this option, at least initially, will probably be reserved for simple applications without constraints, not requiring any synchronization or require complex databases. Are joined by technology, they allow sending data or applications between them. One example is the enterprise email systems.

Community cloud. According to Joyanes Aguilar in 2012, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NITS, for its acronym in English) defines this model as one that is organized in order to serve a common function or purpose (security, political …) which they are administered by the constituent organizations or third parties.

[techniqs]

Apple is preparing not only an iPhone 7 but whole family of products. They are going to use strategy that was used by Samsung and will try to sell many variations of the phone, like iPhone 7, 7 Plus and also, a mini one, 4" iPhone 7 Mini. The dates are unknown, but speculations say “September 2016”.

There will be a A9 processor, which will be provided by Samsung. The system will be produced in 14 nm technology, which shoud ensure greater efficiency and reduce the heat production, that was a problem of previous phones.

Talking of design, we shouldn’t expect anything new. Every iPhone is similar to it’s older brother. We shoun’t expect a screen like in Galaxy S6 Edge. However, screen supposedly will be extanding from the upper to the lower edge of the device and the home button will be integrated directly on the display. There will also probably appear Force Touch technology, which was previosuly used in new MacBooks and Apple Watch.

We know nothing about what type of connector will iPhone 7 have. Taking into account the fact that the new MacBooks have USB-C port, maybe the same will appear on the smartphone. These are only speculations.

The camera will be much better. Apple suggests a module equipped with two lenses that would provide pictures of even better quality, at a similar level to professional SLRs. This element of the new smartphone would give a big advantage over his rivals, because many people take pictures only with their phones and good camera is an extremly desirable feature.

All of the above informations are just speculations from Internet leaks and don’t have to be true.

[itoniq-blog]

3 reasons that Windows 10 will fail

Windows 10 was set unveiled in California yesterday and Microsoft will be hoping that its newest operating system finally rids the memory of the much-criticised Windows 8. After sifting through all the rumours and speculation, we’ve identified three crucial reasons why we think the upgrade will be another disappointment.

The legacy of Windows 8

The first hurdle Windows 10 has to get over is the fact that it will immediately start off on poor footing due to the shortcomings of Windows 8, which miserably failed to attract new customers and actually ended up alienating many existing Windows users.

The user interface of Windows 8 was radically different from that of Windows 7 and, unfortunately for Microsoft, a large proportion of users just didn’t respond to it in a positive manner. That, along with some pretty scathing reviews, slapped Microsoft down straight away, and that will be difficult to recover from, even for a company as large as Microsoft. Windows 10 is going to have to be really special to convince people to get back on board with Microsoft.

More annoying tiles

I have to say, I’m not a fan of the tiled design that Microsoft rolled out with Windows 8 a couple of years ago. I just find the so- called ‘Metro’ interface rather garish and don’t particularly enjoy having a bunch of different brightly-coloured boxes populating my desktop.

I was kind of hoping we’d see the back of them in Windows 10 (probably just wishful thinking more than anything else), but no, the tiles are expected to feature again, most notably in the returning Start Menu.

It’ll be free, but not for everyone

According to reports, if you did make the jump to Windows 8 you’ll receive Windows 10 as a freebie. Hooray! But, if you’re still using Windows 7 you’ll have to fork out for the upgrade. The initial outlook suggests that it’ll cost something around the $30 (£18) mark.

This may not sound like a huge amount, but it seems a bit strange that only certain people will have to pay for the new OS. Of course, this is all still hearsay at the moment and hopefully everything to do with pricing will be cleared up during tonight’s launch.

Source: [click]