Security Vendors Commit to Support Vista
Microsoft has announced that leading security providers are committing to delivering fully tested and compatible versions of their consumer and small-business security solutions by January 30, when the Windows Vista operating system becomes generally available. According to Microsoft, Windows Vista is built to provide in-depth defense against existing and emerging digital threats. New built-in security features such as Windows Defender, User Account Control, an improved Windows Firewall, Parental Controls, and Windows Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode and Phishing Filter provide additional layers of protection. Microsoft’s industry “partners” add yet another layer by building security solutions on top of the Windows platform. Antivirus vendors Computer Associates, Grisoft, Kapersky Laboratories, McAfee, Panda Software, Symantec, and Trend Micro were all named in Microsoft’s release. Trend issued a release on January 17 and announced the January 30 availability of their Certified for Windows Vista Internet security suite specifically for the Windows Vista operating system.
What does this all mean to the consumer and what is likely
to mean to the enterprise security market? Sageza believes that
A new operating system is very much like a new model of a car. It takes a while for all the manufacturing bugs to surface, as no test track can replicate the everyday driving experience. The same goes for labs and operating systems. Sageza believes that over time the consumer security market will be even more commodity-driven and price-sensitive than it is today so that more and more consumers will settle for “just good enough” protection. Enterprises, on the other hand, will continue to implement a variety of complementary and reinforcing information security technologies due in part to the complexity and heterogeneity of most large organization’s infrastructure. We also feel that as enterprises simplify their IT architecture and rely more on virtualization and service-oriented architecture, security needs will become focused on IT centers of gravity such as protecting data at rest, authentication, and IP protection.
This week
The release of the DS3000 series is an interesting move for
The storage demands of the SMB market along with those of
distributed locations of larger enterprises will continue to grow over the
course of the foreseeable future. Easy-to-use platforms will be in demand. The
challenge for
This applies not just to the DS3000 series but equally to many of
Content Protection and Encryption: A Natural Combination
Code Green Networks, a developer of solutions for protecting customer data and intellectual property by detecting and preventing leaks of sensitive data, has announced that it has signed an alliance agreement with PGP, a security and encryption solutions developer, to deliver a comprehensive content protection and secure email solution. The combined solutions will allow users to take preventative actions in two ways. They can prevent sensitive data from being transmitted outside the organization, and perhaps more importantly, they can encrypt authorized email containing sensitive information to protect that sensitive data outside the organization. The Code Green Networks Content Inspection Appliance 1500 (CI-1500) monitors content flows on the network and automatically enforces content protection policies. The appliance-based solution includes integrated support for the PGP Encryption Platform. If the Content Inspection Appliance detects the unauthorized transmission of sensitive information, it invokes a management-defined policy to log, alert, block, or quarantine the message. If it detects an authorized transmission that contains sensitive content, it can automatically re-route the message to the PGP Encryption Platform for encryption and secure transmission.
Organizations that handle sensitive data have been wrestling with the challenges of protecting their information, while optimizing their strategy for compliance and trying to impose the least burdens on their end users. The notion of add-on protection simply doesn’t work. Furthermore, there will always be people trying to get around the system for one reason or another. Consequently, protection for sensitive data must be built into the workflow and IT infrastructure itself. This includes not only the transmission function addressed by this announcement, but the protection of sensitive data at rest as well. Privacy and disclosure laws are clear as to what constitutes personal or private data; however, thus far organizations have yet to significantly embrace protecting data at rest.
We believe that filtering and encryption are actually complementary technologies and that it is incumbent on IT management to effectively deal with sensitive information without user intervention. Further, we believe that the employment of intelligent technology to prevent sensitive information from leaving an organization is only half the puzzle; the other half is ensuring that data or information that does leave the organization can only be accessed by authorized users and in the manner authorized. The alliance between PGP and Code Green appears to accomplish both. However, the technology alone is not a silver bullet. At the core is the fact that management will have to devise a classification scheme to delineate what data is sensitive and how it should be treated. Implementation of the classification scheme and policies enforced via seamless technology is a solid move for good corporate governance.
Sun has announced a series of updates to its flagship
Solaris operating system. Solaris 10 11/06 OS enhances efficiency, safety, and
reliability. New security features include Solaris Trusted Extensions, which
protects sensitive data and applications using labeled security technology.
Secure By Default Networking automatically configures
a system to be impervious to network attacks by disabling many unused services,
thus reducing the network exposure, while leaving the system fully functional
for typical use. Solaris 10 11/06 is currently in process for Common Criteria
Certification at EAL4+ with Controlled Access, Role-Based Access Control, and
Labeled Security Protection Profiles (CAPP, RBAC, LSPP) for SPARC and x64/x86
servers. Virtualization improvements include Logical Domains, whereby customers
can now dynamically provision and run up to thirty-two OS instances on each UltraSPARC T1-based system, and enhanced Solaris Containers
within Logical Domains that allow the isolation of applications and services to
enable the creation of multiple private execution environments within a single
instance of Solaris. The company indicated that it plans to add additional
virtualization technology to Solaris 10 during 2007 including the Xen Hypervisor. Separately, Sun
announced new support plans, remote systems management capabilities, migration
assistance, training, and professional services to enhance Solaris 10’s
position as a strategic alternative to commercial Linux distributions. The
company noted that Solaris 10 runs on 700+ x64/x86-based systems from vendors
including Sun, HP,
It is fascinating to watch Sun’s current approach to the marketplace and see how in a relatively short time the company has changed its focus from a proprietary high-end hardware supplier to an open source, x86, x64-friendly, services- and solutions-fixated zealot. Not that Sun has forgotten the high end by any stretch, but the behavior of the company is so much more accessible to mere mortals than a few years past. The improvements to Solaris for high-end computing are evident here and Sun’s application for Common Criteria Certification for its latest Solaris release is indicative that the firm has not forgotten its core strengths. However, despite this technical ability, which we almost take for granted from Sun, what strikes us most interesting is the focus on the lower end of the Linux marketplace.
Bringing Solaris for x86 back to life was one of Sun’s smartest moves in recent years as it allows the company to have a substantive conversation with the volume marketplace. Further, by shifting to an open source model, the company is mirroring the buying expectations of this market segment, while providing some creative financing options for its hardware. Sun’s latest service/support offerings only reinforce its positioning as a viable alternative to commercial Linux distributions and help the company to look much more like a penguin, as opposed to an elephant sporting tattoos of a penguin, to the target audience. Direct support for 700 different computer systems is non-trivial achievement and is a credit to Sun’s relentless purpose in reinventing its relevance in the high-volume marketplace. Its stated intentions of integrating the Xen Hypervisor is also a plus for the company as virtualization remains a hot topic de jure but increasingly a strategic deployment decision for organizations as well. We are pleased to see the company continue down this path. Nevertheless, Linux is the torchbearer in this market segment, and Sun is clearly the follower. Ultimately, the support of ISVs and channel partners will determine whether Sun’s initiatives will prove successful. This is what helped make Sun successful in the 1990s, and what the company needs to reclaim from the Linux faithful, many of which used to be Sun worshippers, in its quest to play in the volume workstation and server marketplace.
Fujitsu Siemens Bolsters FibreCAT Backup with Bundled CA Software
Fujitsu Siemens Computers has announced that starting next month it will bundle CA’s BrightStor ARCserve Backup solution and XOsoft Enterprise Rewinder continuous data protection software with FSC’s FibreCAT NX and FibreCAT SX disk storage systems as well as the FibreCAT TX tape storage systems. The bundled licenses will each cover one server without any time limitations and represent a €2,900 savings in software licensing fees. CA BrightStor ARCserve Backup is a flexible, integrated backup and recovery solution that allows central management of the backup environment in small and medium-sized enterprises. CA XOsoft Enterprise Rewinder is compatible with file and database servers such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL servers and Oracle database systems. All changes are documented and saved during operation, which closes the remaining gaps in conventional backup systems and achieves continuous data protection. XOsoft Enterprise Rewinder software can be expanded through XOsoft WANSync products to support data backup and distribution over longer distances, such as with branch offices.
Today small and medium-sized businesses increasingly find
that despite their more modest size, they are subject to all of the same IT
risks and rewards as their larger brethren. As user expectations of IT rise,
and regulations increase, the timely storage and retrieval of data only
continues to rise in importance. Although there are several solutions available
to SMBs, such organizations rarely have specialized storage staff, nor excess
staff of any kind to piece together best of breed solutions in-house. Their
needs are straightforward. Give an SMB something that works out of the box, has
sufficient integrated features, a reasonable toolkit, and financing that is
affordable. With this announcement, FSC is ratcheting up its competitive
position for entry- and mid-level storage solutions. As a bundle, some of the
cost is eliminated, but also the inconvenience of having to install third party
backup software. For smaller organizations, this will likely be well received.
With other vendors taking more notice of the SMB storage opportunity, such as
the