The promise of cloud computing is very compelling. Just listen to the pitch for hybrid clouds: “If your organization needs more computing resources, why purchase extra hardware? Just set up a connection to a public cloud, use the extra machines to your heart’s content, and stop using them when your needs are satisfied.”

Sounds [...]]]> By Brian Proffitt

The promise of cloud computing is very compelling. Just listen to the pitch for hybrid clouds: “If your organization needs more computing resources, why purchase extra hardware? Just set up a connection to a public cloud, use the extra machines to your heart’s content, and stop using them when your needs are satisfied.”

Sounds nice, doesn’t it? To be sure, the advantages of any type of cloud computing, be it completely private and internal, public and external, or something in-between, are very real. But there’s potentially a big difference between the promise of instantly expanding your company’s infrastructure and the reality of getting your systems and the cloud’s completely and securely talking to each other.

Thinking about this on the network level alone brings up some daunting questions: if your organization is a public company, you can’t just trustingly connect to a public cloud infrastructure. Your company may have procedural and even regulatory security requirements to meet that would prevent such connections.

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I’m setting up a new computer. I get through the registration screens, install my software, change my wallpaper, and everything’s working fine. I’m left, though, with a lingering, uneasy feeling: I don’t know if this machine is secure. I’m a computer guy, so I know how to set up strong passwords and firewalls, [...]]]> by Gunnar Hellekson

I’m setting up a new computer. I get through the registration screens, install my software, change my wallpaper, and everything’s working fine. I’m left, though, with a lingering, uneasy feeling: I don’t know if this machine is secure. I’m a computer guy, so I know how to set up strong passwords and firewalls, but I’m still not sure if I’ve done everything right. I turn to my vendor, who has hopefully published a hardening guide. If I’m very enthusiastic, I might even follow the NSA’s Security and Network Analysis Center Guides. If I do any of these things, I’m already being more diligent that 95% of users out there. And that’s a problem.

Personal responsibility and its sworn enemy, “I have something better to do.”

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No [...]]]> Here’s an excellent article on automating backups on Linux systems. I use many of these same scripts to archive data to my backup server, nightly. If you haven’t already started using automated backups, I strongly urge you to do so. Remember if it’s not backed up, it must not be important. — Neil

No excuses: do-it-yourself, secure, distributed network backups made easy

Carlos Justiniano, Software Architect, Ecuity Inc.

Summary: The loss of critical data can prove devastating. Still, millions of professionals ignore backing up their data. While individual reasons vary, one of the most common explanations is that performing routine backups can be a real chore. Because machines excel at mundane and repetitive tasks, the key to reducing the inherent drudgery and the natural human tendency for procrastination, is to automate the backup process.

If you use Linux, you already have access to extremely powerful tools for creating custom backup solutions. The solutions in this article can help you perform simple to more advanced and secure network backups using open source tools that are part of nearly every Linux distribution.

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Few can argue with the success of modern computing [...]]]> Summary: Organizations today face two major challenges: deployment of an increasingly rich service mix and managing the associated massive base of computing platforms. In this article, discover a new(ish) means of viewing a key component of the organizational architecture—treating operating systems themselves as individual managed objects.

Few can argue with the success of modern computing technology. For better or worse, the global proliferation of computing access is historically without precedent. So too are the consequences; witness the advent of spam and online fraud as more and more people go online. However, there are a great many positive aspects to global computerization, such as access to information and a well-informed, flexible global workforce.

Underpinning the success of modern computing is the not-so-well-known data center in which vast numbers of servers and other hardware reside. The demand for computing services has grown to such an extent that many data centers are rapidly approaching (or have already exceeded) physical limits in relation to size and power consumption.

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The PostgreSQL project has released version 8.4 of the open source database management software, with more than 290 additions and changes to features.

The most numerous updates are for administrators, with new or tweaked administration and monitoring tools and commands, the PostgreSQL Global Development Group said in [...]]]> By: Matthew Broersma, ZDNet UK
Friday, July 03, 2009 09:44 AM

The PostgreSQL project has released version 8.4 of the open source database management software, with more than 290 additions and changes to features.

The most numerous updates are for administrators, with new or tweaked administration and monitoring tools and commands, the PostgreSQL Global Development Group said in its launch statement on Tuesday. The project spent 16 months working on the new version of the database software.

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