Automation
White House e-discovery squeeze puts e-mail backup in focus - February 15, 2008
Experts say many organizations lack urgency to archive e-mail, handle discovery requests
As the White House contends with a federal judge's order to prepare a discovery plan amid a legal skirmish about missing e-mail, Brian McCarthy Storage veteran and President of Sencilo Solution headquartered in Orlando Florida says "businesses should move to improve backup and e-mail archiving policies to avoid similar legal problems".
District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly this week issued an order enabling the Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics watchdog group to perform limited questioning of White House officials. The group last May had filed suit against the White House Office of Administration seeking access to White House e-mail under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
The nonprofit group had been seeking White House e-mail documents related to various controversial issues, including the release of the identity of a former CIA operative, the reasons for launching the war in Iraq and actions by the U.S. Department of Justice. The White House has contended that the e-mail requested by the group has been lost.
Kollar-Kotelly ordered the discovery to determine whether the Office of Administration is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The office contends it is not subject to FOI requests.
The watchdog group and the White House were ordered by the judge to submit a discovery plan to the court by Feb. 21.
Brian McCarthy said "many businesses operate under the false assumption that e-mail is not a business record". He said "that most business and IT managers fall short of creating adequate e-mail archiving and policy-based data-retention processes".
"A lot of people are not implementing e-mail archiving [processes]; they're saving e-mail, but not in a cohesive or consistent way," said McCarthy. "Companies can say 'Yes, we need to archive,' but [the process] must be policy-driven and taken out of users' hands."
McCarthy said the White House's legal problems over its inability to recover e-mail from its own servers and backup systems may jolt end users into realizing the legal consequences of subpar retention policies.
"This should wake people up to what could happen if you don't save e-mail appropriately. It's a good shot across the bow and a very good lesson for senior managers," he added.
McCarthy said organizations should outline each business unit's retention responsibilities by defining what type of data is considered business information and how long it should be stored.
Lauren White, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Inc. in Milford, Mass., said many organizations lack the ability to optimize backups and make important data easy to access. She said the White House e-mail flap should show IT managers that mismanaged backup processes can choke an organization's data-retention efforts.
Everyone is afraid to throw anything away. All that [stored data] on the production system isn't pruned. It's all just continually backed up," said White. "[Paranoia] is a characteristic of a lot of companies out there, and they're not repeatedly optimizing their backups."
In addition to e-mail archiving, White said businesses can streamline their backup systems by "skimming" unchanged information from data sets being saved, instituting policies for incremental rather than full backups, and incorporating de-duplication and decompression into backup practices, from vendor like Quantum, Hitachi or Exagrid.
"I think in a lot of organizations backup has not been considered a [forward-thinking] strategy. As unsexy as it is, we need to make sure we're doing it right and we have the right level of resources applied to it," McCarthy.
About Sencilo Solutions
We are a Florida based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP.
Our technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Our clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer. Call us at (407) 265-6293 or visit us on the web at www.sencilo.com
Leaking sensitive information can pop the balloon on your company's reputation. DLP tools can mitigate incidents and offer insight into where data lives. - February 12, 2008
It's the call you've feared. The phone rings at 9 a.m. on a Sunday. You're the CISO of a medium-sized retailer, and weekend calls aren't all that unusual. But within 30 seconds of picking up the phone, you know your weekend, if not your job, is over. One of the customer service managers accidentally emailed an Excel file of all the clients acquired last quarter to an external distribution list while trying to send it to his personal Gmail account to work on over the weekend. Worse yet, the file contains full credit card and verification numbers.
The really bad news? You recently signed off on your self-assessment for your Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard audit and affirmed that you don't keep card numbers in an unencrypted format. No one told you about the nightly database extract the customer relations team runs with the credit card number as the primary key. Your external audit is scheduled for next month, making this about the worst time possible for an accidental disclosure. It's not like you can blame this one on evil hackers.
This situation is hypothetical, but it illustrates the pressures companies are under. Data protection grows more critical every day as our sensitive information faces increasing scrutiny from regulators and business partners. It's no longer just a matter of keeping the bad guys away from data. Businesses now are expected to handle it responsibly, often in accordance with contractual or legal requirements. Yet the average organization typically has little idea of where its sensitive data is, never mind how it's really being used.
Over the past five years, a new category of tools emerged to address this problem, Q1 Labs. Data loss prevention (DLP) products help companies understand where their sensitive data is located, where it's going, how it's being used, and can sometimes enforce protective policies. "The technology may not always stop evil hackers, but it offers considerable help in protecting a business from internal mistakes and in cost-effectively managing compliance", states Brian McCarthy CEO and Security Expert for Sencilo Solutions of Orlando Florida.
Knowing where sensitive content is located protects the organization and may reduce the time and cost of audits; a company can prove that its data is appropriately secured and show real-time controls to detect violations. By gaining considerable insight into how data is communicated internally and externally, odds are that an organization will identify a number of risky business processes--like the above nightly database dump and use of personal email accounts. It also gains the ability to prevent accidents and eliminate bad habits, like improper use of USB drives. DLP won't make you compliant, but its combination of risk reduction, insight and potential audit cost reduction is compelling.
Yet while DLP tools have significant potential to reduce an organization's risk of unapproved disclosures of sensitive information, they are among the least understood and most over-hyped security technologies on the market. Organizations that take the time to understand the technology, define their processes and set appropriate expectations will see significant value from their DLP investment, while those that make snap purchases or set their expectations inappropriately high will struggle with this powerful collection of tools.
DEFINING DLP
DLP is one of a dozen or so names for this market; others are information leak prevention and content monitoring and filtering. To further complicate matters, data loss prevention is so generic a term it could easily apply to any data protection technology; everything from encryption to port-blocking tools is hopping on the DLP bandwagon. While early tools were tightly focused on preventing data leaks on the network, the market is rapidly evolving toward robust solutions that protect data in motion on the network, at rest in storage and in use on the desktop, all based on deep content inspection and analysis.
So DLP is a class of products that, based on central policies, identify, monitor and protect data at rest, in motion and in use, through deep content analysis. Other defining characteristics are:
- Broad content coverage across multiple platforms and locations
- Central policy management
- Robust workflow for incident handling
- It's important to recognize that DLP solutions are very effective at reducing the risk of accidental disclosures or data leakage through a bad business process, but offer minimal protection against malicious attacks. A smart internal or external attacker can easily circumvent most DLP tools, but the risk of inadvertent exposure is usually greater than that of a targeted attack.
GETTING STARTED
Long before contacting DLP vendors, set expectations and decide what content needs protection and how to protect it. Pull together a project team with representatives from major stakeholders including security, messaging, desktop management, networking, human resources and legal, and define protection goals, including content and enforcement actions. This is when you set expectations; educating project members on what's realistic with DLP can help avoid pitfalls that derail deployment.
These protection goals help determine required features. They'll establish needs for content analysis techniques, breadth of coverage (network/storage/endpoint), infrastructure integration, workflow, and enforcement requirements. You can decide if you need a full suite, dedicated DLP solution or just the DLP features of an existing product. Then, translate these requirements into an RFI or draft RFP and start contacting vendors.
Most organizations find that content analysis techniques, architecture, infrastructure integration and workflow are the top priorities in selecting a product.
CONTENT ANALYSIS
The most important characteristic of DLP solutions is content analysis. This allows the tools to dig into network traffic and files, unwrap layers (like a spreadsheet embedded in a PDF in a .zip file) and identify content based on policies. While every product uses different content analysis techniques, they tend to fall into a few categories that also use contextual information, such as sender/recipient, location and destination.
Content description techniques use regular expressions, keywords, lexicons and other patterns to identify content. They include rules/regular expressions for pattern matching, conceptual analysis involving pre-set combinations of words and rules to match a specific concept like insider trading, and pre-set categories such as personally identifiable information (PII), HIPAA and PCI.
Content registration techniques rely on content you provide the system that then becomes a policy. They include full or partial document matching using hashes of files to identify content; database fingerprinting by hashing live database content in combinations to identify matches; and statistical techniques that use a large repository of related content to identify consistencies and create policies.
All the leading products can combine different analysis techniques into a single policy to improve accuracy.
The content analysis technique will directly determine what products make the short list, but make sure to account for future needs. Although most of the market--90 percent by some estimates--is focused on protecting PII, about 30 to 40 percent of those organizations are also interested in protecting unstructured data. They start by using DLP to protect PII to reduce their compliance risk, and then slowly add other content, generally trade secrets and intellectual property, once they get comfortable with their tool.
The last major component of DLP solutions is endpoint agents to monitor use of data on the user's desktop. A "complete" agent theoretically monitors network, file and user activity such as cut and paste, but few real-world tools provide full coverage. Most products start with file monitoring for endpoint content discovery and to detect (and block) sensitive data transfers to portable storage. Rather than completely blocking USB thumb drives to protect data, an organization can use these tools to restrict file transfers based on content.
Endpoint DLP tools are starting to add more advanced protection, such as limiting cut and paste, detecting sensitive content in unapproved applications such as certain encryption tools, and automatic encryption based on content. Over time, they will increase the type and number of policies they can enforce and integrate more deeply into common endpoint applications.
ARCHITECTURE & INTEGRATION
DLP architectures are defined by where they protect the content: data-in-motion network monitoring, data-at-rest file storage scanning, and data-in-use monitoring of the endpoint. Full-suite solutions include components for each of these areas, while partial suite tools cover only a portion, such as an endpoint DLP tool with an email-only gateway. There also are single-channel products and non-DLP tools that bundle some DLP features, like an email gateway that can block messages with credit card numbers. In the long run, most organizations--especially large enterprises--will prefer full-suite solutions, but partial-suite and DLP-as-a-feature tools often meet tactical needs where complete coverage isn't necessary.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Uncomplexifing data dedupe - February 6, 2008
Source de-duplication is set to be "more disruptive" than previous technologies
Data de-duplication technology has emerged as a key technology in the effort to reduce the amount of data backed up on a daily basis, which in many enterprises is growing at more than 100% every year.
For example, Jame Thomson, IT manager at Tampa-based medical firm, was able to use data de-duplication technology to reduce the amount of data streamed from more than a dozen remote offices and thereby cut his backup window from 11 hours to 50 minutes. Thomas says his compression ratio for his backups run as high as 55:1, using technologies provided by Sencilo Soutions.
Vendors have taken different approaches to the technology resulting in multiple distinct products that users should become familiar with in order to choose the flavor that best suits their environments.
Data de-duplication uses commonality factoring to reduce the amount of data either at the backup server or at the target storage device. As a result of enormous compression ratios achieved by data de-dup technology, SATA disk are becoming more attractive as a viable, online alternative to traditional tape-based backup. For example, people working at remote and branch offices need instant access to all the data and applications available at their company's headquarters. So IT shops typically set up remote mini data centers, with application servers, block and file data storage, backup tape and report printers, sacrificing administrative control. By utilizing data de-dupe technology, backups can be performed over the WAN using spare nighttime bandwidth, eliminating the need for tape at remote sites.
Brian McCarthy, President and Industry Storage Veteran for Sencilo Solutions says de-duplication technology mainly resides in the backup space, complementing traditional tape libraries with the purpose of lowering costs and reducing data.
The main benefit to de-dup technology is that you're not seeing your virtual tape library fill up, and you're "not seeing your backup targets fill up as fast as it normally would," McCarthy says. Watch for Gartner, Inc.'s Magic Quadrant to show up with several of the leader including Quantum, Overland Storage, EMC, and NetApp.
De-dupe can be done at the target of a backup stream (the storage array or tape drive) or at the source of the data being backed up (the application server). Traditionally, de-dupe products had been used as a target for backup data, but McCarthy says there is "a growing emphasis de-duping back on the server."
Target de-dupe products are generally used as part of a final repository for backup data. Most backup software today supports tape volumes, files or raw disk as targets. Target de-dupe products mimic a tape library and support virtual tape libraries (VTL), or they can act as a network-attached storage file server supporting network file system (NFS) or Common Internet File System files. Target de-dupe technology can also work on raw disk supporting Internet SCSI or Fibre Channel logical unit numbers (LUN). Prominent target based de-dupe products are sold by Data Domain Inc., Diligent Technologies Corp., ExaGrid Systems Inc., Overland Storage., Quantum Corp., and Sepaton Inc.
Today, de-duping data at the target is the leading method, but de-duping data at the source where the data is coming from is even more disruptive, and the benefits are far greater, McCarthy says. But having a integrator who specializes in this type of technology is most important to your success. Sencilo has deployed some 2+ peta-bytes of de-dup based VTLs.
Source de-dupe products replace backup software used in a client/server configuration, where remote clients de-dupe data being backed up and only transmit unique data to the central server. This reduces bandwidth requirements considerably, according to McCarthy. Some prominent source-based de-dupe products include Asigra Inc.'s Televaulting for Enterprises, EMC Corp.'s Avamar, Network Appliance Inc.'s SnapVault, and Symantic Corp.'s NetBackup Pure Disk.
In band or out of band
Another characteristic used to discriminate target de-dupe products is when data de-duplication processing occurs. Data de-duplication takes time to compute and find commonality in the data being backed up. To minimize the effect on backup performance, some vendors de-dupe data in the background. These de-dupe products buffer the backup stream to disk and then after the fact reduce its size via de-duplication. ExaGrid, FalconStor and Quantum provide target de-dupe products that do background data de-duplication. This type of technology will shortly replace first generation products from suppliers like Data Domain, who plays mostly in the small non-critical shops. Earlier products can handle the backup stream and de-dupe in band, in real time. Target vendors that de-dupe in band include Data Domain and Overland Storage. All source vendors de-dupe in band as well. Paradoxically, the in-band vendors are not able to sustain full backup stream performance, and therefore less desirable for anything larger then a few tera-bytes, and found more in the SMB space.
The unit of de-dupe granularity, called chunk size, further differentiates de-dupe products. Only NetApp touts a fixed chunk size equal to data block size, according to McCarthy. Most de-dupe products claim variable chunk size from the file level down to sub-block level. By using variable chunk size for data inserted into a file, you need only show the changed data as being different, and the rest of the file would be the same. Even more impressively, most de-dupe products can not only reduce data from generations of the same file but also eliminate data copies across files.
Yet another de-dupe difference is file-type sensitivity. Some target products open the backup stream to determine data type and invoke file-type-specific policies to provide better de-duplication. Sepaton claims to have the most file-specific policies. Other target vendors claim that their products perform file-specific de-dupe to a lesser extent, including Data Domain, Diligent and Quantum, which all claim they are completely agnostic regarding backup streaming, they may claim it but not all of them are telling the truth. So check with a partner with experience that has installed and supports them.
The numbers for de-dupe compression rates range anywhere from 3:1 to 500:1. De-dupe products can sustain these high compression rates because backups generate duplicate data every time a full backup is run. Moreover, beneath the file level, most data is not unique even though a file is modified. But, some data does not de-dupe well, including audio, photo, movie and other media files that simply don't have excess white space or duplicate data.
Bob Sanders manages 12 De-Dup boxes throughout the U.S that Sencilo sold them last year. They are being used as VTL targets for Symantec NetBackup. The boxes have a capacity of .5TB to 18TB. But, each of Sanders VTL boxes backs up the equivilant of 600TB to 1,500TB of data.
The arrays have been in production for more than nine months. Each office does a local backup to its on-site de-dup boxes. That data is replicated off-site to headquarters in Orlando and then again replicated to the law firm's secondary site. Before the Sencilo solution, Sanders says his company had DLT-3 tape changers and LTO-2 tape. Backups at some offices used to take more than 14 hours, but now with new de-dup VTLs, the backups are under 45 minutes. Sanders backs up one site with 163 TB of data onto 4.6TB of Data Domain for a compression ratio of 34.6:1. Smaller sites have experienced a compression ratio as high as 55:1.
"The hardware was comparable to buying all-new tape hardware, but the speed and the ability to not have to manage the tape is what really got us … the replication is an added bonus," Sanders says.
Grahame McKenzie, manager of IT at Crawford Adjusters Canada Inc. in Hamilton, Ontario, had performed local backups at each of the company's 80 remote sites. He now manages 80 remote and 20 local Asigra clients backing up to a single 2TB Asigra TeleVault. They mirror the central TeleVault to an off-site hardened data center and copy their monthly full backups off onto tape moving these off-site to another location.
McKenzie says that before, "we weren't even doing it [backups] on the smaller XP share points -- there was no backup. It just wasn't economical; if it was an NT server, it would [be] backed up to tape." This process was time-consuming and not subject to easy validation. He says that "with Asigra, backups all take place, and they all come here, … and I get a report on everything the next day." McKenzie says that in some cases, it was difficult to quantify a return on his investment because no backups were being performed, but he did say "we don't invest in tape on our new branch servers, and we have one tape library here."
McCarthy says data de-duplication allows users to retire most of their tape infrastructure at remote and local sites. In some environments, it may not be possible to eliminate all tape processing, but it can be reduced considerably. At essentially the purchase price of replacing tape, you can get all the benefits of tape with the convenience of disk -- mainly quicker, less error-prone and less operator-intensive backups and restores.
Sencilo Solution is a Florida based integrator specializing in storage, networking and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers.
Each product has been carefully selected for its unique value to a solution or deployment. Sencilo sales and technical team is thoroughly trained in all of our major products and are able to provide value in up front architecture planning and product selection. Our technical expertise is known throughout the storage, networking and security industry. Call us today at (407) 265-6293 or visit us at www.sencilo.com
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
Server and Storage Virtualization: A Complete Solution for High-Availability and Recovery - January 26, 2008
Server virtualization is an important step toward improving overall IT efficiency. Virtual machine technology reduces the complexity and management of disparate server hardware and OS platforms. Nonetheless, server virtualization is only one component in a truly virtual enterprise infrastructure. Another critical component is storage virtualization.
Similar to server virtualization, storage virtualization creates a logical layer of storage from physical storage devices. The full benefits of server virtualization can only be realized in combination with a virtual storage layer that works in conjunction with and complements the virtual server layer. For example, dynamic virtual machine failover, a key benefit of leading server virtualization solutions, can facilitate disaster recovery. It is incomplete, however, without dynamic storage failover, a storage virtualization feature. Implementing storage virtualization, in other words, extends the benefits of an investment in server virtualization and builds upon them, providing simplified storage management, improved storage utilization and application performance, a bullet-proof disaster recovery solution, and a diminished need for proprietary vendor solutions.
Business Drivers for Storage Virtualization
The business drivers for storage virtualization are much the same as those for server virtualization. CIOs and IT managers must cope with shrinking IT budgets and growing client demands. They must simultaneously improve asset utilization, use IT resources more efficiently, ensure business continuity and become more agile. In addition, they are faced with ever-mounting constraints on power, cooling and space.
Key Benefits of Storage Virtualization
Storage virtualization provides companies with tools to address the underutilization of resources and the poor economics of silo-based storage, as well as the flexibility to respond to changing business requirements. In a storage virtualized environment, organizations achieve the full benefits of consolidation, improved resource usage and comprehensive disaster recovery. Storage virtualization also dramatically reduces power and cooling costs.
The Intelligent Network Switch: A New Approach to Storage Virtualization
Intelligent network switches with built-in storage management services, have changed the virtual storage paradigm from a model of expensive proprietary vendor lock-in to one of low-cost open support for total storage flexibility. Open storage virtualization enables IT managers to improve overall storage utilization by allowing capacity from any storage array to be combined in centrally managed, virtual storage pools. IT managers can dynamically reduce capacity for applications that are not growing and reuse that capacity for those which are. This can eliminate the need to procure new storage or, at a minimum, delay acquisition.
Intelligent network switches also enable organizations to easily link storage hardware and software solutions from multiple storage vendors, removing the burden of proprietary vendor lock-in and simplifying tasks such as data replication, mirroring and data migration. For example, when a storage network is comprised of disparate systems, even from the same vendor, data migration is time-consuming and application-disruptive. In a typical scenario, the application is taken offline, data is moved to tape and then restored. Intelligent integrated network switches permit data to be migrated in real time, from any storage array to any other storage array, without taking applications offline. Storage virtualization utilizing intelligent switches provides non-disruptive online migration that eliminates downtime and greatly reduces administrators' involvement in data or server migration.
Other benefits include a common set of management, provisioning and replication tools that lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) by reducing the number of tools and people necessary to manage storage and eliminating the requirement to purchase multiple licenses for every storage device.
The Value of Incorporating Storage Virtualization with Server Virtualization
Storage virtualization complements server virtualization by providing easy, centralized management, flexible provisioning, and improved disaster recovery. With disaster recovery, storage virtualization enables one storage system to fail over to another storage system with minimum disruption. However, with most storage virtualization solutions the failover is not instantaneous and manual intervention is required. Therefore, the benefit of overall instantaneous system recovery is lost. A network-based intelligent switch architecture, as depicted in the illustration below, addresses this discrepancy between the server and storage, providing instantaneous failover.
In the event of a complete disaster at one location, the virtual server there fails over to the server at the remote location without any interruption. If the primary storage system is affected by the same disaster, the other dynamically responds to the virtual server. This ensures zero hours RTO (recovery time objective) and zero hours RPO (recovery point objective).
The new generation of open virtualization solutions delivered via an intelligent switch with storage management services provides enterprise-class disaster recovery without the expenses imposed by proprietary storage architectures. Other benefits of storage virtualization include the ability to store multiple copies of virtual machine images for high availability and the ability to simplify physical storage infrastructure upgrades. Storage virtualization and server virtualization work together to solve the complex equation of a truly virtual infrastructure.
Conclusion
Server virtualization is changing the face of the server world with simple and effective tools to deploy and manage virtual servers. The same is now true for storage virtualization, using intelligent network switches that allow IT managers to realize more complete value from their virtual infrastructures. By enabling more efficient use of resources, eliminating vendor hardware and software dependencies, delivering seamless disaster recovery, and offering an attractive TCO, intelligent network switches with integrated storage services provide the best approach to storage virtualization. Combined with server virtualization, this new evolution allows customers to deploy a comprehensive virtual IT infrastructure, with virtual servers and virtual storage used to overcome the limitations of their physical counterparts.
Sencilo Solutions specializes in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery with experience consultants with a combined experience of 25 years, working with companies of all sizes. We can be reached at (407) 265-6293 or visit us at http://www.sencilo.com
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland, Cape Canaveral
Other Projects: DR BC Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar CX4 Primary Storage Data Compression Storwiz
Disk Storage or Tape Data Indexing and Classification Services - January 26, 2008
Miami, Florida - Sencilo Solutions announced this week that is will add another Compliance related service for businesses throughout Florida, that of Indexing and Classificating network information. "Explosive data growth across the enterprise continues to present significant challenges for IT managers and their companies", say Brian McCarthy, President and Co-founder of Sencilo. "All manner of structured and unstructured data grows exponentially while management faces increasing demands to discover and protect that information," continues McCarthy. Flat budgets and overloaded IT departments struggle to contain escalating costs, mitigate risks and meet service level agreements in the face of these new demands.
Our Tape Data Indexing and Classification Service streamlines the identification and collection of electronic evidence. The tool-based service is application and infrastructure independent, and easily integrates into the existing online disk environment. It addresses online data and maintains an accurate view of historical and current data assets.
The service is scalable to billions of documents, and delivers the most comprehensive and accurate search results available today. It delivers a comprehensive index of all enterprise data assets, comprising only five percent of the original data with no data copies, and provides an easy-to-use search platform with Internet-type querying capabilities to support any e-discovery initiatives. Key benefits include:
- Onsite service delivery with no impact to production operations; or, offsite at our secure, state-of-the-art facilities
- Rapidly process large volumes of tapes or disks, and billions of files and emails
- Turns the storage arrary or tape library into a searchable repository that is immediately searchable, including both full content and metadata
- Allows users to select the files to restore and the system automatically generates a request to the administrator with all relevant information
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php
About Us
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
Report: SPAM Accounts for 90-95% of All Email - January 26, 2008
In 2001, spam accounted for an estimated 5% of our email. In 2007, it clogs our inboxes to the tune of 90-95% of all email sent, according to a new report released today by Barracuda Networks. Barracuda, a leading vendor of spam filtering technology, based their analysis on the over 1 billion emails that the company's software scans each day. The year-over-year increase appears to indicate the failure of the US federal CAN-SPAM Act, which was passed in 2004 when spam only accounted for about 70% of all email sent.
Last month we reported on a study from research firm IDC that predicted that 2007 would be the first time that spam out numbered legit email. Our readers didn't think that sounded right: surely spam outnumbered legit email years ago. "Spam sure as hell surpassed legit emails in my inbox -- years ago. Mine. My mom, dad, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, every single friend I've talked to about it, my cat and dog, Boobo my hamster, everyone..." wrote one commenter.
Barracuda's report corroborates those feelings and calls into question the IDC report. Certainly, from my own personal experience, it is a lot easier to believe Barracuda. I use three email accounts on a regular basis, and across them, I get about 2500-3000 pieces of spam each week. I get a lot of legit email, as well, but not enough to outnumber the unsolicited stuff. Luckily (for most users), I am in the minority. According to the report, 65% of email users get less than 10 pieces of junk mail per day (half get less than 5). Just 13% find themselves in the unhappy position of receiving more than 50 spam emails per day.
Barracuda's report also found that spam is not only annoying, but it is the most annoying form of junk advertising. 57% of respondents to a survey question asking what the worst form unsolicited advertising was said spam, compared to just 31% for postal junk mail and 12% for telemarketers.
Unfortunately, spammers continue to evolve their tactics to beat the filters. In 2006 there was a rise of image spam and botnets. This past year, spammers were seen using attachments (like PDF files) as well as using more advanced identity obfuscation techniques.
The good news is that spam filtering technology is evolving right along with the spammers, and it works well. Thanks to filters, I only see about 3-4% of the spam I get (which is still a lot given the immense volume). Here's to a spam free 2008 -- hey, a guy can dream, right?
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Angry Employee Deletes All of Company's Data - January 26, 2008
Call it a tale of revenge gone wrong. This could happen to you
When Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., saw a help-wanted ad in the newspaper for a position that looked suspiciously like her current job — and with her boss's phone number listed — she assumed she was about to be fired.
So, police say, she went to the architectural office where she works late Sunday night and erased 7 years' worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5 million.
"She decided to mess up everything for everybody," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. "She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed."
It didn't take Steven Hutchins, owner of the architectural firm that bears his name, much time to figure out who'd done it — Cooley was the only other person who had full access to the files.
Police arrested Cooley Monday evening and charged her with causing greater than $1,000 damage to computer files, a felony. She was bailed out the following afternoon.
Hutchins told one TV station he'd managed to recover all the files using an expensive data-recovery service.
As for the job, Cooley originally wasn't in danger of losing it. The ad was for Hutchins' wife's company.
The firm told FOXNews.com that Cooley no longer is employed there.
Sencilo Solution specializes in Data Protect and Recovery, "this event is not at all uncommon, it's just not made public, companies are not in the habit of admiting their faults, say CEO and Data Protection VAR Brian McCarthy.
McCarthy as also says "many companies assume that their data is well protected if their core servers are backed up. Server backup is an essential component of data protection, but many companies do not have effective technology in place that will enable them to resume operations quickly after a disaster. Part of this problem lies in the fact that an estimated 60 percent of business-critical data resides unprotected on employees' desktops or laptops. Data at remote and branch offices is likewise often unprotected because of the hardware and administration costs involved. The loss of this data inevitably results in lost revenues, lost productivity, and lost customer confidence, and in some effent class-action suites."
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/security-threat-management.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland, Cape Canaveral
Other Projects: DR BC Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar CX4
Q1 Labs Announces QRadar 6.1: Converged Network and Security Management Disciplines Delivered in a Single Platform - January 20, 2008
Best of Breed Network and Security Monitoring for Log, Threat and Compliance Management
Q1 Labs, a leading network security management company, today unveiled QRadar™ 6.1, the latest version of its flagship product which reinforces Q1 Labs’ commitment to innovate across multiple monitoring disciplines: Log Management, Security Event Management and Network Behavior Analysis.
QRadar 6.1, delivers key features that enable both network and security teams to effectively monitor their network within the same management infrastructure. Coupled with the functionality included in the release of QRadar SLIM (Simple Log and Information Management; see release issued October 30, 2007), QRadar 6.1 provides several new features and capabilities in the following key areas including:
• New network flow searching capabilities for better network behavior analysis and security forensics
• Quality of Service monitoring for important network applications like VoIP
• Augmented host discovery and asset based alerting
• Tamper proofing of all stored log, event and network flow data
Combining network and security monitoring capabilities serves a growing need in the market. As noted in a recent Gartner report Select the Right Monitoring and Fraud Detection Technology1
“Network security and operations products are different markets; however, we see these markets converging in 2008 so that one product set will provide a common network monitoring infrastructure for the NOC and the SOC”
QRadar 6.1 – More Than Just Another SIEM and NBA Product
Today’s converging enterprise requires access to critical network and security data by both network and security operations teams. QRadar offers best of breed network and security monitoring to meet compliance and threat management drivers from a single platform. Features unique to QRadar 6.1 include:
• Network Behavior Analysis with a simple, flexible flow viewer that provides complete, enterprise network visibility
• Robust Log Management architecture combined with analysis that can monitor the network and intelligently alert on the state of new threats, users, and hosts/assets in the network
• SIEM with extensive monitoring inputs and analysis capabilities that allow customers to converge the monitoring of their network and security infrastructures
“QRadar was the first product to seamlessly combine NBA and SIEM functionality – something that many of our competitors are now attempting to achieve through technology partnerships or first-step technology integrations,” said Tom Turner, VP of Marketing and Product Management for Q1 Labs. “QRadar 6.1 further solidifies our technology lead and provides another step forward in helping the converging infrastructure roll-out leading threat management and compliance management practices.”
Pricing and Availability
QRadar 6.1 is available now. Upgrade to QRadar 6.1 is available for free to existing QRadar customers. Pricing starts at $39,900.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Barracuda Networks Protects Salesforce.com Users Against Latest Phishing Malware Attack - January 9, 2008
Barracuda Spam Firewall Blocks Email Containing Malware that Collects Usernames and Passwords
Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading provider of network security appliances, today announced that its Barracuda Spam Firewall has implemented specific countermeasures to block the phishing malware attacks targeted at salesforce.com users. These attacks were outlined in a broadcast email yesterday to all salesforce.com users advising them of the latest malware threat.
The attack on the Salesforce.com user base is a variant of known attacks that attempt to lure users into installing malware that can collect passwords to online systems, including banks, credit cards, shopping Web sites, and even salesforce.com itself.
“What makes this form of the attack unique is its social engineering,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. “The email masquerades itself as part of the Salesforce Identity Confirmation feature, which ironically was intended to enhance legitimate salesforce.com security measures against the latest wave of phishing attacks. Because of its clever design, unsuspecting salesforce.com users may inadvertently install the malware.
“While existing defense layers targeting malware in the Barracuda Spam Firewall have been effectively blocking these attacks, Barracuda Central today added another layer of defense specifically targeting this social engineering,” added Pao.
Barracuda Central, an advanced technology center at Barracuda Networks, consisting of highly trained engineers who continuously monitor and block the latest Internet threats, responded to the salesforce.com announcement by quickly adding additional levels of protection in the event that the attack starts using new malware variants. The additional levels of protection involve rules that actually block the social engineering around the Salesforce Identity Confirmation feature in addition to the malware.
“Just as Barracuda Networks was the first major appliance vendor to target the attacks against Adobe Reader users in 2007, we are proud to be the first to specifically target the attacks against salesforce.com users in 2008,” said Pao. “The tactical response of Barracuda Central combined with the Barracuda Spam Firewall's 12 defense layers allows us to continue to supply the best spam protection at the best value in the industry.”
About the Barracuda Spam Firewall
The Barracuda Spam Firewall is available in seven models and supports up to 30,000 active users with no per user licensing fees. Its architecture leverages 12 defense layers: denial of service and security protection, rate control, IP analysis, sender authentication, recipient verification, virus protection, policy (user-specified rules), Fingerprint Analysis, Intent Analysis, Image Analysis, Bayesian Analysis, and a Spam Rules Scoring engine. In addition, the entire Barracuda Spam Firewall line features simultaneous inbound and outbound email filtering with the inclusion of sophisticated outbound email filtering techniques, such as rate controls, domain restrictions, user authentication (SASL), keyword and attachment blocking, dual layer virus blocking, and remote user support for outbound email filtering. The Barracuda Spam Firewall’s layered approach minimizes the processing of each email, which yields the performance required to process millions of messages per day. Or read more in Gartner, Inc.'s Magic Quadrant
About Barracuda Networks Inc.
Barracuda Networks Inc. is the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances. Barracuda Networks also provides world-class IM protection, application server load balancing and message archiving appliances. More than 50,000 companies, including Coca-Cola, FedEx, Harvard University, IBM, L'Oreal, NASA and Europcar, are protecting their networks with Barracuda Networks solutions. Barracuda Networks' success is due to its ability to deliver easy to use, comprehensive solutions that solve the most serious issues facing customer networks without unnecessary add-ons, maintenance, lengthy installations or per user license fees. Barracuda Networks is privately held with its headquarters in Campbell, Calif. Barracuda Networks has offices in eight international locations and distributors in more than 80 countries worldwide.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint enVision Data Loss Prevention Encryption and Key Management
