Thursday 29 July 2010
President Obama has called for slashing federal IT infrastructure costs by relying on cloud computing, a process where agencies pay for Internet access to shared hardware and software that is housed in an off-site data center. One of those sites could be NASA. Officials at the space agency and the Office of Management and Budget have “broached the idea of NASA becoming an IT service provider,” said Mike Hecker, NASA’s associate chief information officer for architecture and infrastructure. But, “NASA as an IT service provider takes us into a new realm. We’re still debating if that’s a good idea or not. NASA is developing a cloud computing model, called Nebula, to support some of its projects. For example, the agency uses Nebula to share NASA images and statistics with international partners and academic institutions. The system provides high-capacity computing, storage and network connectivity.
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, Obama’s top technology executive, is examining many alternatives for innovation in the cloud, including using Nebula as a centralized platform to service multiple agencies, OMB officials said. Chris Kemp, CIO at NASA’s Ames Research Center, who is spearheading the program, is working with the federal government’s cloud working group. The primary goal of concentrating IT operations is to improve IT security, Hecker said. Collaboration among employees and cost-cutting also are important objectives.
Virtualization is not an end point, but an enabler of a more flexible and efficient compute environment - ok get that too. Ultimately virtualization must enable IT to contribute to better business results. What about other parts of the IT infrastructure beyond servers, clients and applications? Are we evolving to having islands of virtual clients and servers connected via a static network infrastructure? See this post in Archimedius for more on this theme. Not to be left behind in the dust of server virtualization, network interconnects are also marching toward being enabled in dynamic virtual environments. Case in point is HP’s recent introduction of its Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology, a new component in HP’s Virtual Connect architecture. Flex-10 enables you to add 4x more NICs to each server blade without more hardware. In addition to supporting oodles of connections and NICS, Flex-10 provides the ability to dynamically adjust bandwidth for each network connection on the fly. With HP Flex-10 technology, you choose how many NICs are on each server and can adjust the bandwidth of each NIC in increments of 100 Mb.
A lot of folks in the media are now saying this is may actually be cyber war. I would argue that this isn’t anything new, just more publicized. The question remains, how do you attack a botnet that may include zombies that exist within your own infrastructure. How do you tell who is good and who is bad? In reality you can’t attack the problem using traditional military tactics. Instead of focusing on an offensive response, we should focus on limiting the effects that these cyber attacks cause. For the most part these cyber denial of service attacks are more of a nuisance then actual physical threat.
Now that governments around the globe are starting to embrace cloud computing, I feel the next logical step is to actually start defining how to actually recover from serious Cyber attacks with a minimum level time cost and disruption. Yes, it’s time for a Federal CloudBursting Contingency Plan. hat it does not do is outline any sort of on demand or cloud computing capabilities to help negate the effects of a prolonged cyber attack. This is mainly because the guide was written in 2002 and was never subsiquently updated. The guide completely lacks any real insight into the advantages that cloud computing offers the modern IT infrastructure.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and the increasing use of the ‘free’ Web IT infrastructure is being treated as the way to cut investment in hardware, software and IT staff. And of course we have all become very familiar with the argument that SaaS is a much more cost-effective alternative to licensed software. Many of the reasons for opting for computing in the cloud are sound. But security and privacy concerns are just as pertinent here as in all other areas of IT. In fact, whether you subscribe to SaaS or implement Web services on your in-house servers, cloud computing does not make these issues go away. Even at one remove, you are still responsible for personal information under the Data Protection Act, credit card data under Payment Card Industry compliance and corporate information.
Indeed, they may even end up becoming even more critical. Data stored on your SaaS partner’s servers is exposed to the same hostile electronic environment and data compliance requirements as your own. That is not to down play the positives. When you subscribe to a SaaS service, the investment associated with implementing and supporting conventional systems is unquestionably avoided. The capital and operating expenditure savings can be significant.Like any other branch of business IT, cloud-based services are shadowed by the drive to compliance, good data hygiene and best practice in information management. The same range of essential topics has to be addressed, from ISO27001 compliance, rigorous development lifecycles, threat profiling and security testing, all the way to secure coding guidelines. A simple checklist of your cloud supplier’s credentials is the basic starting point. When considering a SaaS subscription, look for organizations that are ISO27001 certified. Ask to see the supplier’s Statement of Applicability to check the right controls are in place to meet your particular industry or organizational compliance needs.
SpamTitan, a leading producer of email security solutions, today announces its exciting new cloud computing initiative with VMware to deliver on-demand email security virtual appliances in the cloud. This makes good business sense as Anti-Spam filtering has fast become a commodity application, and commodity applications are logical expenses to outsource versus managing within ones own IT infrastructure. Businesses small and large are embracing cloud computing for inbound email filtering such as handling Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus cleansing of high volumes of incoming mail.
It ensures customers have the opportunity to use email security and anti-spam solutions in the cloud, not in the SaaS model but as their own dedicated on demand application — benefiting from the redundancy, scalability and failover associated with virtualization and cloud computing.” SpamTitan’s unique approach in utilizing next-generation virtualization software eliminates the need for unwieldy hardware, giving customers unparalleled flexibility, versatility and capability but at an affordable price. Integrating best of breed technologies, SpamTitan provides an easy to install, easy to manage and highly secure email gateway. SpamTitan, a division of CopperFasten, is a global company with headquarters in Galway, Ireland. For further information visit, www.spamtitan.com.
SpamTitan for VMware is a complete operating system and virtual email security software suite designed to run on VMware that enables businesses to run SpamTitan on any server irrespective of the operating system. Users can simply click a link to automatically generate a SpamTitan virtual appliance in the cloud as well as having log on access to explore their own SpamTitan application.
ThinkFree
ThinkFree Server Integrator Deployment in the Cloud Lowers Software Licensing and Support Costs While Enabling Completely Paperless and Secure Document Workflow
ThinkFree, Inc., a leader in next-generation office productivity solutions, today announced that it has reached an agreement with the City of Ventura, Calif., to deploy its ThinkFree Server Integrator solution for 250 of the city’s administration staff. ThinkFree has been chosen to form an integral part of the City of Ventura’s overall e-Government strategy, and the deployment of its Server Integrator solution is expected to contribute significantly to overall TCO savings.
“Given the current budget pressures, we are forced to closely look at all of our administrative processes and how we can become more efficient and cut spending at the same time,” said John Emerson, senior IT executive, City of Ventura. “ThinkFree’s cost-effective solution, hosting office applications and documents in the cloud, was easily tailored to meet our specific needs and integrated seamlessly with other groupware applications we have rolled out as part of our overall e-Government initiative. The best roundtrip Microsoft Office compatibility coupled with a highly optimized version for in-the-field netbook deployments made ThinkFree the clear choice for the City of Ventura.”
ThinkFree Server Integrator is a componentized version of ThinkFree Office Write, Calc and Show applet-based applications that are offered separately as a product. Server Integrator is designed to enable customers to use the Java-based ThinkFree Office (Microsoft Office 2007-compatible) within their existing IT infrastructure with easy implementation. Secure data access and document protection is provided by limiting data access to centralized storage so that confidential documents can be quickly and simultaneously viewed or edited.
In addition to the deployment of ThinkFree for desktop computers, the City of Ventura’s e-Government strategy places lightweight, ultra-mobile netbook computers into the hands of its mobile workforce. From police officers to water utility crews, ThinkFree Mobile Netbook Edition enables users to retrieve documents and compile reports while in the field. With ThinkFree, they are presented with the same user interface and functionality they are accustomed to from the desktop computer version.
“As government administrations increasingly turn to cloud computing alternatives for cost-effective office productivity software, ThinkFree Server Integrator offers a solution that enables a quick, simple and scalable deployment within existing IT environments,” said Su Jin Kim, CEO of ThinkFree. “From round-trip Microsoft Office compatibility to mobile in-the-field use on netbook computers, ThinkFree presents the user with a common, simple interface and allows for seamless transition across devices and platforms.”
Designed for organizations of all sizes, ThinkFree Server Integrator is a set of API solutions for developers to rapidly integrate document editing and viewing capabilities into existing IT infrastructure, webmail, groupware, ERP and CRM platforms. It is a highly scalable solution unlike other hosted office platforms that make use of terminal server technology. It features customizable integration for unique environments (http, ftp, https, etc.) and supports third-party security certificates and integration with centralized document storage through simple API customization.
About ThinkFree Server Integrator
Product Web site: http://product.thinkfree.com/serverint
Product demo: http://se.thinkfree.com:8080/integrator_demo.do
Download trial version: http://product.thinkfree.com/serverint/download
About ThinkFree
ThinkFree, Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., is a leading developer of ubiquitous documentation platforms to offer boundless office productivity environments. ThinkFree built its award-winning office suite in a flexible architecture for deployment either hosted on a local server or company intranet, available over the Internet, or installed on a desktop or portable device. Majority owned by Haansoft Inc., a publicly held company on the Korean KOSDAQ stock market, ThinkFree offers market-leading software solutions that leverage the power of the Internet and provide users with a consistent, unified and productive experience regardless of computing platform.
ThinkFree, ThinkFree Office, ThinkFree Mobile and ThinkFree Office Live are registered trademarks of ThinkFree Corp. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact:
The Hoffman Agency
Carlos Mangandy
(408) 975-3004
cmangandy@hoffman.com
Company Contact:
ThinkFree, Inc.
For business: sales@thinkfree.com
For media: press@thinkfree.com
Web site: www.thinkfree.com
SOURCE ThinkFree, Inc.
