AKIBIA'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Informationweek Survey of Sun Customers - Demonstrably Worse Service
Thursday, August 19, 2010
An interesting survey from InformationWeek’s Analytics team points to dissatisfaction among the legacy Sun customer base.
The Death of Information Security
Monday, August 16, 2010
It may be hard for you to imagine a day without an Information Security group, but the truth is that the role of the security team is changing rapidly as priorities shift and other functions become more security savvy. Certainly the responsibilities of the current security team won't ever disappear, but I see more and more organizations adopting a decentralized model of managing information security. We now have robust privacy and compliance functions within many organizations with responsibilities that greatly overlap with the traditional security team. The most significant trend that I see is the move towards a deeper focus on risk management principles.
Moving to Larger Mailbox Sizes with Exchange 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
In the age of Google, Hot Mail, Yahoo and other ISP’s offering large mailboxes to consumers and even to businesses through a cloud based service, corporate customers have started asking why their organization’s messaging service is not able to provide larger mailboxes. IT departments have their own challenges in managing mailbox services at such a large scale with reduced budgets and demand for more efficiency and productivity. This blog sheds some light on the challenges for provisioning large mailboxes on a “On Premise” messaging system such as Microsoft Exchange and briefly discusses the capabilities of Exchange 2010 and the role it could play in this space.
Top 10 Features in Exchange 2010 for Users
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
After many interactions with Microsoft clients and end users I have found that many of them are still trying to understand what’s in it for them with an upgrade to the latest and greatest Exchange 2010. This blog hopefully will answer some of those questions. The top features listed here are geared towards making it simpler to manage large mailboxes and improving productivity for end users. In a future blog I will cover the top features of Exchange 2010 that are relevant to administrators and business in general.
Low Risk Support Alternatives for Cisco End of Life Equipment
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Corporations universally have been reducing corporate IT budgets as a way to preserve profitability in these difficult economic times. CIO’s and especially IT Managers are experiencing increasing demands for improving the reliability of their network infrastructure services while maintaining their current services levels and without increasing expenses. Network outages are simply not an option. Finding solutions that are low risk is their key guideline when it comes to maintaining their network.
Health Providers Beware of the New HITECH Act
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or more commonly known as the HITECH Act, is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This act appears to put some teeth into the HIPAA regulation of 1996. The HITECH Act wants to provide some general and specific incentives for companies to adopt the electronic health record (EHR) systems for health organizations. With these incentives also comes greater increased privacy and security protections for consumers and potential increased liability for those that are not in compliance.
Compliance and Security Go Hand in Hand – How to Achieve Both
Friday, May 28, 2010
The buzzword “Compliance” has now overshadowed many of the previous popular terms in security discussions. Many equate “compliance” with “security,” but recent literature abounds with titles such as “Compliant Does Not Mean Secure” and “Information Assurance: The Difference between Secure and Compliant.” These articles make the case that it is possible to be compliant yet not secure. Most discussions focus on payment card industry (PCI) security, because of the high value of the data involved, the stringency of the compliance standards, and recent security breaches of major players. It is also useful for illustration purposes, since the typical PCI technical environment is usually confined, and the standards are very specific. However, it is important to expand the discussion beyond one security standard, especially since others are more comprehensive, although less specific.
A Boston Globe Article Ignites a Password Controversy - Why We Need Them, How to Make Them Effective
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The article by Mark Pothier in the Sunday Boston Globe entitled “Please Do Not Change Your Password” has caused some controversy among IT staff members, security managers, and technology users. The article provides a compelling argument that the costs associated with frequent password changes outweighs the costs of security breaches caused by weak or static passwords. Although a position on either side of this debate may be supportable, the reality is that there are a number of standards that organizations (your employer for example) must follow including periodic password changes, password complexity requirements and password history requirements.
Reviewing Oracle’s Changes - Has the Sun Set on Sun Systems?
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Now that Oracle’s acquisition is complete and their changes for Sun hardware and support have been announced it is time for customers to determine whether Sun’s products and support will work for their environments over the short and long term.
New Requirement - New Fire Drill?
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Gartner research suggests that companies that select individual solutions for each regulatory challenge spend 10 times more on the IT portion of compliance projects than companies that take a proactive and more integrated approach. One grocery chain in New England is doing just that.
