cloud computing

Content security study points to the cloud; Cisco takes top vendor slot

The complexity of security solutions needed to keep content free of viruses, malware and worse is driving many enterprises to hosted and cloud-based solutions, according to a new Infonetics Research study on the content security buying plans of 240 North American organizations of all sizes. Not surprisingly, then, cost turned out to be the number-one barrier affecting customer deployment of new content security solutions.

But as enterprises consider making those moves, equipment to address security issues on the a la carte security menu include host products, gateway appliances and gateway software, such as purchased standalone software and licensed Software as a Service (SaaS) clients, according to Infonetics network security analyst Jeff Wilson. A full 60% of study respondents planning to roll out SaaS solutions cited strength of security as a chief driver. Cisco rated highest overall in user ratings of content security manufacturers, but edged out Symantec by only a slight margin for most criteria. Infonetics based the study’s ratings on eight criteria: technology, product roadmap, security, management, price-to-performance ratio, pricing, financial stability, and service and support.

Moving away from system-specific security and toward a centralized, network-wide strategy is one course of action for businesses looking to reduce their WAN costs and position themselves to strike quickly when the economy begins to bounce back, according to CIMI Corp. President Tom Nolle.

Birth of a networked nation and WAN world

If former U.S. vice president Al Gore noticed his mailbox was a bit fuller than usual, he shouldn’t be too surprised since this week marked the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Internet.

About a decade ago, if you recall, Mr. Gore reportedly took some credit for inventing the Internet, or so the press reported and later George Bush sarcastically promoted during his campaign for U.S. president. In reality, Gore never did say he invented the Internet, but did maintain he had some influence in its growth when as senator he promoted the use of the Internet and supported its development. In any case, we at least think Mr. Gore is deserving of a few birthday cards and perhaps a small piece of IP cake.

Looking back over the years, the Internet has evolved from a klugey and clunky messaging and file sharing pipeline into being the networking backbone for most of what is happening and will continue to happen in enterprise computing today. The evolution of the Internet has sparked a major revolution in computing, creating new business models in collaborative messaging, software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing, unified communications, and managed network services.

As a result of the increased activity on the Internet, networking architectures are changing dramatically resulting in more robust wired and wireless structures and more capable and higher-performance WANs.

But, like everything in life, the longest and most remarkable journeys begin with the first step, and the development and launch of the Internet is no exception.  Most people agree (including, we are sure, Al Gore) the Internet was born on Sept. 2, 1969 when two computers at the University of California, Los Angeles  exchanged small snippets of meaningless data in a first test of the Arpanet, an experimental military network.  The first connection between two sites happened almost two months later when the  computers at UCLA “talked” with those at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA (although the network crashed after the entering the first two letters of the word “logon”).

Subsequent key events over the years included:

- The development of TCP by Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn in 1974, allowing multiple networks to communicate;

- Creation of the domain naming system in 1983, bringing to life such now common appendages as .com, .gov, and .net.

- The creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, first developed to remotely control computers at CERN;

- The development of the Mosaic Web browser by Marc Andreessen and colleagues at University of Illinois in 1993, the first Internet platform to combine graphics and text on a single page.

More important dates in the evolution of the Internet, from its birth to current state, are available in an  Associated Press dispatch on Google News.:

Happy birthday, big guy, and best wishes for many more to come!

Forecast calls for storage, network convergence in SaaS cloud computing

This has been a cloudy summer for most vendors in the WAN optimization and storage business, although it has absolutely nothing to do with the weather.

An increasing number of companies are relying on Web-based applications and software as a service (SaaS) alternatives — which are the essence of cloud computing — to channel resources to their users over both wired and wireless networks. As a result, the performance and reliability of those networks and point-to-point connections are critical to the success of IT operations – especially when dealing with a widely scattered and remote user base.

As SAP product manager and WAN optimization honcho Jana Richter says, “The more we go into these areas, where the applications are further from the users, the more the issue of accessing and using the applications in an optimally performing manner comes up.“ This is a primary reason why SAP, which is heavily vested in CRM and ERP, has dipped its toes into WAN optimization.

Although the network is important as the data highway, other technology segments have become equally important as indispensable elements in WAN optimization. One of these areas is storage, which explains why such leading players as EMC Corp. are suddenly very focused on cloud computing and such things as WAN acceleration, applications and data prioritization, and business continuity. In fact, the company has partnered for some time with Brocade Communications Systems and Silver Peak Systems toward that end, which from EMC’s viewpoint is the “seamless federation” between internal and external resources, according to an EMC spokesman.

EMC squaring off for net management

EMC is presently working with its network-oriented partners to develop improved management tools that extend across distributed storage systems and the much-hyped network cloud and to deliver more detailed metering of usage patterns. This system, now in public beta, can perhaps be used to charge back users of data resources that flow through various local and wide-area networks or to deliver more management and control to avoid any storms within these applications and data clouds.

The goal, of course, is to parlay storage and WAN capabilities into new business and service models that provide fast and effective content distribution, reliable access to cloud-based applications, and unquestionable backup and redundancy (both for business continuity and compliance). A more street-level objective, however, is to kick the stuffing out of companies like Google and Amazon, which have both carved out a significant business in storage and Web-based access to data.

(Full disclosure: Google is already a very active Silver Peak customer, with more than 100 sites worldwide optimized with the company’s WAN acceleration and prioritization technologies – which leads one to believe there is no such thing as exclusive alliances in networking. It is every WAN for itself.)

Some of the technology drivers that are fueling the nexus of storage and networking include virtualization, data and IT center consolidations, and convergence, according to the experts at Brocade. There are also some technology crossovers: real-time de-duplication of data, which comes from the storage world, plays very well into networking to eliminate delays created by transferring the same information again and again.

The entire field of WAN optimization is also changing as efforts move beyond just speeding things up to providing tools that offer real-time forecasting and preventive measures. This can result in improved capacity and business continuity planning for both networks and the distributed storage farms that dot Web-based clouds – all of which can mean sunnier days in terms of user productivity and network performance.