Throughout the evolution of IT infrastructure there have been many ways in which one could manage resources of numerous devices. In terms of servers, the evolution has taken us from physical servers to virtual servers, and in recent years to cloud computing. With these changes have also come changes in management of resources. In the physical server days most of the changes were manual and done by hand. As virtual machines gained prominence so did scripting, monitoring, and over provisioning. In present day, we are continually bombarded with information on private and public clouds, which need to be managed with tools that are unique and allow for faster response time of applications, less infrastructure, and IT teams that can manage more workloads with fewer staff. (more…)
The security of today’s information systems go far beyond the general protection measures that were once considered to provide ample security against intrusion. For many companies that are implementing new technologies one of the top priorities in today’s world is security. There are many different aspects that define the overall security of a company’s infrastructure, one of which is patch management.
Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and Protection
You might have heard of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack in the news. It is a very common attack method used by hackers today. In a sense, nobody is really “hacking” your network. No data is stolen, and you don’t need to report it to the authorities, but it is an attack on your network. What a DDOS attack does is flood your Internet bandwidth so legitimate traffic cannot get to your site.
Microsoft has recently announced a new vision centered around Microsoft Teams.
In Microsoft’s FAQ for this, it defines Intelligent Communication Vision as:
What is Microsoft’s new vision for Intelligent Communications?
We’ve enjoyed great success across Office 365 with over 100M monthly commercial active users counting on Office 365 every day to get their work done. We are now aiming to bring the capabilities of Skype for Business in the cloud into Teams to deliver a single hub for teamwork, with built-in, fully integrated voice and video. By tightly weaving communications into the apps teams use to collaborate every day, alongside AI, Microsoft Graph, LinkedIn, and other data and cognitive services, we will enable Intelligent Communications, revolutionizing calling and meeting experiences.
What is your Security Plan? Part 4 of 4Have you taken a step back to look at what you and your organization are doing to address IT security today? In the first of this four-part series, we highlighted a few things you should be concentrating on regarding email security and training your end users to know what is and what is not a phishing attempt, while also keeping your machines fully patched. In the second part of the series, we focused on Next Generation FireWalls(NGFW), Web Application Firewalls(WAF), and Denial of Service(DoS). In the third part, we focused on Advanced Endpoint Protection. In this final part of the series, we will dig into how you can work Security Information and Events Management (SIEM) and Security Operation Center (SOC) into your security plan.
Online Privacy
With Mark Zuckerberg testifying in front of Congress, it makes sense to go into some basic dos and don’ts when surfing the Internet. Once connected to the Internet, a majority of the sites are primarily free. Although, most of these websites are not there just to help you out, they are there to make money. A blogger, if they get enough viewers to their site, can sell ads that help pay them to write. Home Depot’s site is there to educate you on what they sell and get you to go to the store. Facebook and Google are there operate to make money off advertisements.
In today’s cloud driven world, organizations are continually faced with the decision to keep their email solution in-house, or utilize a public cloud solution like Office 365. The standard for years has been an on-premise Microsoft Exchange server. This solution still works for many deployment scenarios, but moving your email and calendar solutions to Office 365 is a growing trend. In a recent study by Barracuda, over 63% of respondents indicated they are currently using Office 365.
Final Preparation for the new GDPR Requirements
On May 25, 2018, the Global Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will be law throughout the European Union. This means that if you do business in the EU, and subsequently store or otherwise process data about EU citizens, you are subject to the new regulations, and the significant fines associated with noncompliance. If you’re in that category, I hope this is not the first time you’re hearing of this news. If so, let this be just the tip of the iceberg of research and consultation you will undertake, rather quickly, to ensure compliance.
What is your Security Plan? (Part 3 of 4)
When’s the last time you took a step back and took an honest look at what you and your organization were doing to address IT security? In the first of this four-part series we highlighted a few things you should be concentrating on regarding email security and training your end users to know what is and what is not a phishing attempt while also keeping your machines fully patched. In the second part of the series we focused on Next Generation Firewall’s (NGFW), Web Application Firewalls(WAF), and Denial of Service(DoS). In this third part we will focus on Advanced Endpoint Protection.
Thrive Named to CRN’s Tech Elite 250 List!
CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Thrive to their 2018 Tech Elite 250 list. This annual list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size.
The Tech Elite 250 list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size. To compile the annual list, The CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have obtained these elite designations— which enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer support—are then selected from a pool of online applicants.