Monthly Archives: June 2010

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Posted on by gregl

The old adage may hark back to Aesop, but there’s no way the ancient sage could know it might someday apply to malware. In this case, the legendarily bulletproof Apple platform is becoming more vulnerable. Last year, Apple fixed hundreds of OS vulnerabilities while users witnessed increasing examples of Mac malware.

“Making matters worse,” writes the LiveSecurity team at WatchGuard Technologies in its annual security predictions, “Apple’s products are making gains in market share. These factors will entice both security researchers and black hats alike to focus more heavily on vulnerabilities in the Mac platform.”

“Mac users won’t want to hear it, but they can expect to see twice as many Mac threats in 2010,” says WatchGuard.

IT Managers Still See Risks in Cloud Computing

Posted on by gregl

Despite the appeal of rapid deployment and several economic benefits, new data depicts IT managers as remaining cautious of the cloud computing.

Nearly half of 1,800 IT professionals polled as part of the first ISACA IT Risk/Reward Barometer survey said that the cloud’s potential risks still outweigh its benefits. The survey also revealed that only 10 percent plan to use cloud computing for mission-critical IT services while 25 percent won’t use the cloud for any IT services.

“The cloud represents a major change in how computing resources will be utilized, so it’s not surprising that IT professionals have concerns about risk vs. reward trade-offs,” according to Robert Stroud, international vice president of ISACA and vice president of IT service management and governance at CA.

“But risk and value are two sides of the same coin,” he continued. “If cloud computing is treated as a major governance initiative involving a broad set of stakeholders, it has the potential to yield benefits that can equal or outweigh the risks.”

Working on the server farm. ee-i-ee-i-o.

Posted on by Karen Karger

 

It’s interesting how barnyard animals have been written up in conjunction with data centers lately – embracing the “farm” in “server farm.”

Ten thousand cows, for example, and the resulting bi-product of their collective digestive systems, “could fulfill the power requirements of a 1-megawatt (MW) data center — the equivalent of a medium-sized data center — with power left over to support other needs on the farm.” This observation is from HP Labs in a research paper presented at the recent ASME International Conference on Energy and Sustainability.

Apparently, the heat generated by said data center can aid the anaerobic digestion of animal waste, which results in the production of methane that can be used to generate power for the data center. “This symbiotic relationship allows the waste problems faced by dairy farms and the energy demands of the modern data center to be addressed in a sustainable manner,” says HP. (I’m just hoping you don’t end up with a server farm that smells like a dairy farm.) Click here to read more about this dairy/server farm scenario.

Goats are the topic at the Yahoo! data center in Quincy, Washington. Twice a year a herd of 252 goats takes care of the invasive weeds (probably blackberries) that threaten to take over the pasture beside the facility. (Nothing was mentioned in this article about the resulting bi-product of their collective digestive systems.)

With a moo, moo here… a baa, baa there…

Network Quality Even More Critical with SaaS

Posted on by gregl

Data compiled by IDC shows that small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) are increasingly pursuing hosted applications — Software as a Service, or SaaS — which places even more emphasis on network quality.

IDC says its most recent survey on regarding SaaS has 9.1 percent of medium-sized businesses and 3.2 percent of small businesses already using SaaS. Those planning to implement SaaS within a year include nearly 16 percent medium-sized and 3.2 percent of small businesses.

About 60 percent of the SMBs surveyed are using SaaS for email, and 15 percent use it for VoIP solution. “IDC research shows that over two thirds of U.S. SMBs have expressed some level of interest in videoconferencing services and that 15 percent have described videoconferencing as important or essential to their business,” according to IDC. Some 27 percent were using videoconferencing at the end of 2008, and the number was expected to reach 35 percent by the end of 2009.

“Less than 15 percent of SMBs currently use an online storage service, but IDC research indicates that storage — that increases capability or improves management — is a top IT priority for SMBs,” the report states. “IDC expects increased adoption over the next 12 months.”

Portland One of Top 5 for Green Jobs

Posted on by Karen Karger

A recent Fast Company article delivers a quick snapshot of Portland as one of the U.S. cities that are “making the most of this decidedly green moment in the economy.” Because the article looks at the number of green jobs created from 1998 through 2007, it’s not clear if this trend continues through today’s rough economy, but suggests the stimulus bill should continue to give this type of job growth a boost.

Click here to read the article.

EasyStreet Makes the ‘Best Green’ List Again

Posted on by Karen Karger

For the second year in a row, EasyStreet joins 100 other sustainability-minded companies who made Oregon Business Magazine’s “Best Green Companies to Work For” list. EasyStreet reserved a table at the June 1 festivities held this year at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland.

The event keynote speaker, Adam Lane, Ecotrust’s CFO and COO, pointed out that this year’s winners don’t just talk about sustainability as it becomes “little black dress of the business marketing world.” These companies not only talk the talk, they also walk the walk. “These organizations are the real deal,” he says.

Click here for a link to an Oregon Business magazine article about the event.

A link to the complete 100 Best Green Companies to Work For list can be found here.

Slower Virtual Adoption Could Impact the Cloud

Posted on by gregl

Benefits of virtualization are eluding many companies because their IT staffs lack the technical know-how to effectively deploy it. That was the startling finding of a recent report from Forrester Consulting after interviewing nearly 300 IT managers regarding adoption of virtual systems.

Some say the estimated level of virtualization today is about 30 percent, or about what it was two years ago. Not only do virtual systems require new skills, but new management and automation technologies also must be introduced into the environment. According to the Forrester report: “The proper skills for the future are difficult to attain and retain.”

“As functions are automated, reliance on skilled staff decreases,” the report reads. “A potentially dangerous skills gap is emerging. Another skills concern is how virtualization fits into an overall service management movement. Such expertise is currently in short supply.”

Industry observers say delays in greater implementation of virtual systems could also stall adoption of cloud computing. The cloud utilizes a pool of virtualized resources allocated on demand—growing and shrinking as needed—that should rely on virtualization. Yet without virtual server adoption peaking beyond 30 percent, cloud environments could be stymied for the time being.