Public sector embraces bigger, longer outsourcing deals

Over the past five years, as outsourcing in the commercial sector has grown steadily but modestly, the annual contract value of outsourcing deals in the public sector has more than doubled, according to analysis by outsourcing consultancy ISG. Today, public sector outsourcing deals account for two-thirds of the annual contract value in the market overall.Much of the activity is happening in the U.S., which consists almost entirely of information technology work and driven in large part by Department of Defense spending, according to ISG. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, contending with the changes mandated by the Affordable Care Act, are also significant users of third-party IT services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 key requirements of successful big data projects

VANCOUVER, BC - Successful big data projects have five key requirements, says Amy Gaskins, a data scientist with more than a decade of experience designing and implementing data and intelligence projects for the private sector, government agencies and the U.S. military.In her keynote presentation at the Apache: Big Data North America conference in Vancouver on Monday, Gaskins stressed that five factors can make or break big data projects: Buy-in. It's commonly acknowledged at this point that big data projects need buy-in from senior leadership to succeed. But Gaskins says that's not enough. You need buy-in at every level, including middle management and workers themselves. "You need to get it from senior leadership, but also the middle and bottom. Why are we doing this? Everyone needs to understand." Urgency. "Is there an existential threat to your business or the mission if you don't do this?" Gaskins asks. Transparency. Do people both inside and outside the organization know what we're doing and why? Can it be repeated? Involvement of non-data science subject matter experts (SMEs). Non-data science SMEs are the ones who understand their fields inside and out. They provide the context that allows you to understand what Continue reading

Containers vs. virtual machines: How to tell which is the right choice for your enterprise

Name a tech company, any tech company, and they're investing in containers. Google, of course. IBM, yes. Microsoft, check. But, just because containers are extremely popular, doesn't mean virtual machines are out of date. They're not. Containers Containers vs. virtual machines: How to tell which is the right choice for your enterprise Do you need a container-specific Linux distribution? Container wars: Interesting times ahead for Docker and its competitors The beginner's guide to Docker Yes, containers can enable your company to pack a lot more applications into a single physical server than a virtual machine (VM) can. Container technologies, such as Docker, beat VMs at this part of the cloud or data-center game.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows Store for Business finally opens for business

Microsoft introduced Windows Store for Business (WSB) last year as an enterprise app store solution for businesses to install Windows apps across their corporate PCs. Things have been a little slow, but that's about to pick up.Effective last week, Microsoft made it easier for developers to sell their apps to IT professionals by allowing them to sell organizational licenses to companies via WSB, giving administrators the ability to acquire, manage and distribute apps faster and easier.WSB is similar to the consumer Windows Store, with some differences. For starters, it is managed according to countries and regions to handle licensing and other local issues. Also, companies can make volume purchases, an option consumers don't always have.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon takes on YouTube, launches Amazon Video Direct

First Amazon took on Netflix, but now the company is taking aim at YouTube by launching Amazon Video Direct (AVD); it’s a self-service program for video creators to make their content available to Amazon customers, including those with Prime memberships – which is nothing to scoff at since Prime was estimated to be in about half of all U.S. households ... and that was before Prime started offering $9 monthly subscriptions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Geeky ways to celebrate Friday the 13th

You're in luckWe've cobbled together a slew of things for the geeky among you to do on Jan. 13 -- Friday the 13th that isth. And we suggest you do it up because you won’t get another chance until Oct. 13, 2017.Don’t miss the day!Mobile apps exist solely for the purpose of reminding you when Friday the 13th is coming up. Pocketkai’s free iOS app will remind you of the one to three Friday the 13ths coming up each year for the next 50 years. The Bogeyman’s Android app will do likewise, for the next 10 Friday the 13ths.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

High-demand cybersecurity skill sets

Back to one of my pet issues, the global cybersecurity skills shortage.According to ESG research, 46 percent of organizations say they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2016 (note: I am an ESG employee). By comparison, 28 percent of organizations claimed to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2015. That means we’ve seen an 18 percent year-over-year increase.So, there is a universal shortage of infused talent, but where are these deficiencies most acute? According to a survey of 299 IT and cybersecurity professionals: 33% of organizations say they have a shortage of cloud security specialists.  This makes sense, as it combines the shortage of cybersecurity skills with evolution of cloud computing. Other ESG research also indicates that large organizations are creating jobs for cloud security architects, so demand is especially high. Cybersecurity professionals should think about pursuing a cloud security certification from CSA or SANS as part of their career development plan.  There are more jobs than people, and enterprise organizations are tripping over each other to hire talent as quickly as they can.  28% of organizations say they have a shortage of network security specialists. To me, this really reinforces Continue reading

High-Demand Cybersecurity Skill Sets

Back to one of my pet issues, the global cybersecurity skills shortage.  According to ESG research, 46% of organizations say they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2016 (note: I am an ESG employee).  By comparison, 28% of organizations claimed to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills in 2015, so we’ve seen an 18% year-over-year increase.So there is a universal shortage of infosec talent but where are these deficiencies most acute?  According to a survey of 299 IT and cybersecurity professionals: 33% of organizations say they have a shortage of cloud security specialists.  This makes sense as it combines the shortage of cybersecurity skills with evolution of cloud computing.  Other ESG research also indicates that large organizations are creating jobs for cloud security architects so demand is especially high.  Cybersecurity professionals should think about pursuing a cloud security certification from CSA or SANS as part of their career development plan.  There are more jobs than people and enterprise organizations are tripping over each other to hire talent as quickly as they can.  28% of organizations say they have a shortage of network security specialists.  To me, this Continue reading

H3C/Tsinghua Completes

A new IT behemoth has bellied its way up onto the beach. IDC has issued a press release: One year after the announcement of the subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings, Unisplendour Corporation Limited’s plans to acquire 51% share of H3C Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s China-based server, storage and technology services business, the company finally completed […]

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18 most powerful wireless networking companies

Wireless big shotsIt’s a wireless world, of course, and one only likely to get less dependent on physical connectivity in the future – but what that future looks like will depend a lot on the companies exerting the strongest influence on the industry. We checked in with analysts and tapped our own institutional expertise to create this list of the companies that, in our opinion, are the biggest influencers in enterprise wireless networking and beyond.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Long Live Infrastructure

Martin Casado explains in an Interop Las Vegas keynote that while infrastructure is going through a transitional phase, this changing of the guard offers exciting growth and a low barrier of entry for new companies and technologies.

Getting Traffic to a Virtual Firepower Sensor

I wanted to jot down some quick notes relating to running a virtual Firepower sensor on ESXi and how to validate that all the settings are correct for getting traffic from the physical network down into the sensor.

Firepower is the name of Cisco’s (formerly Sourcefire’s) so-called Next-Gen IPS. The IPS comes in many form-factors, including beefy physical appliances, integrated into the ASA firewall, and as a discrete virtual machine.

Since the virtual machine (likely) does not sit in-line of the traffic that needs to be monitored, traffic needs to be fed into the VM via some method such as a SPAN port or a tap of some sort.

1 – Validate vSwitch Settings

This is probably not a very real-world example since most environments will be running some form of distributed vSwitch (dvSwitch) and not the regular vSwitch, but all I’ve got in my lab is the vSwitch, so work with me. The same considerations apply when running a dvSwitch.

Ensure that the port-group where you’re attaching the NGIPSv allows promiscuous mode. The NGIPSv acts as sniffer and will attempt to put its NICs into promisc mode.

NGIPSv_ESXi_Port_Group_Promisc
Set ESXi Port Group to Allow Promiscuous Mode

Set this either at Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: 3 ways to protect data and control access to it

Earlier we delved into disaster recovery and network security. Now it’s time to take a look at Critical Security Controls 13, 14 and 15, which cover data protection and access control. The Critical Security Controls are best practices devised by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit dedicated to improving cybersecurity in the public and private sectors.A company’s data is its crown jewels, and because it’s valuable, there will always be people looking to get their hands on it. Threats include corporate espionage, cybercriminals, disgruntled employees and plain old human error. Fortunately it’s relatively easy to reduce your potential exposure. It calls for protecting your data, using encryption and authentication, and carefully restricting access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 3 ways to protect data and control access to it

Earlier we delved into disaster recovery and network security. Now it’s time to take a look at Critical Security Controls 13, 14 and 15, which cover data protection and access control. The Critical Security Controls are best practices devised by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit dedicated to improving cybersecurity in the public and private sectors.A company’s data is its crown jewels, and because it’s valuable, there will always be people looking to get their hands on it. Threats include corporate espionage, cybercriminals, disgruntled employees and plain old human error. Fortunately it’s relatively easy to reduce your potential exposure. It calls for protecting your data, using encryption and authentication, and carefully restricting access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Skull-produced sounds could replace existing biometric authentication

Are you happy with your on-device biometric fingerprint scanner? I’m not. The scanner on my most recent tablet has failed to unlock the device. The cause then was probably dirty hands coming in from the garage. I disabled that biometric experiment—likely never to be used again.I'm not the only one who sometimes disregards security in favor of ease of use. Half of passwords are more than 5 years old, a report found last year. And three-fourths of those surveyed then said they use duplicate passwords. Clearly not secure. The more complicated and consequently secure one makes the password, though, the harder it is to remember.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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