The Top 10, Top Predictions for 2012

Around this time of year, almost everyone and their brother put out their annual predictions for the coming year.  So instead of coming up with my own, I figured I’d simply regurgitate what many others are expecting to happen.  Security Predictions 2012 & 2013 - The Emerging Security Threat – SANS talks Custom Malware, IPv6, ARM hacking and Social Media. Top 7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2012 - From Stuxnet to Sony, a number of cyberattacks emerged in 2011 that experts have predicted for quite some time.  Webroot’s top seven...

Audio White Paper - Streamlining Oracle Web Application Access Control

Web application security is critical—the data that web servers and their back-end databases house is invaluable to an enterprise. An organization must be able to control who can access their resources and when, as well as audit that information. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM), in conjunction with Oracle Access Management (OAM), helps centralize web application authentication and authorization services, streamline access management, and reduce infrastructure costs.  Running Time: 17:58  Read full white paper here.  And click here for more F5 Audio.   Listen on Posterous ps ...

Audio White Paper: Optimizing Application Delivery in Support of Data Center Consolidation

Data center consolidation means more than simply reducing the number of servers, routers, and switches your company has in outlying offices and data centers. Data center virtualization is more than multiple images mapped to physical devices. Efforts to reduce both capital and operating expenditures by consolidating data centers can fail if the applications and the network are not optimized.  By architecting data center infrastructure to be as nimble and agile as possible, IBM and F5 enable enterprises to better react in real time to customer requirements and to position the...

CloudFucius Confused: Cloud Costing Companies?

You heard that right.  Yeah, I know – wasn’t cloud computing supposed to save money?  All that economies of scale, pay-as-you-go, shared infrastructure, reduced CapEx and OpEx and so on has gotten real cloudy according to a recent survey.  Research company Vanson Bourne, commissioned by Compuware, found that large European companies are losing £600,000 a year due to poor performance of cloud based applications – that’s close to $1 Million USD!  These are e-commerce sites and Internet based business applications. They surveyed 300 European IT Directors and found that 57% are slowing down, stopping or even shutting down...

CloudFucius Repeats: Money (Really) Moving to the Cloud

Ever wish you saved a blog title for that ‘perfect’ eye-catcher?  Well, I do.  Last week I wrote about some cloud surveys talking about how financial institutions are using cloud services titled: CloudFucius’ Money: Trickles to the Cloud.  I get to this week’s weekly entry and Ka-Chow (with apologies to Lightning McQueen) that would have been the perfect title to this entry.  Oh well, as to not be included in the Department of Redundancy Department Hall of Fame, I had to be a little creative with something slightly different.  And for all of you looking at the title and...

Audio WP - Deploying F5 Application Ready Solutions with VMware View 4.0

VMware View is the leading desktop virtualization solution built for delivering desktops as a managed service.  F5 offers a variety of Application Ready Solutions to help organizations maximize the success of VMware View desktop projects. As a VMware partner, F5 has thoroughly tested and documented the benefits of using our Application Delivery Networks with VMware View 4.0. F5 solutions include secure access, single- sign-on, load balancing, and server health monitoring. F5 BIG‑IP® devices optimize the user experience and help ensure maximum performance, availability, and security for VMware View implementations.  Running time: 16:53 ...

Connecting to a Cloud while Flying thru the Clouds

CloudFucius checked out some In-flight WiFi this week while traveling to Seattle.  Alaska Air offers GoGo Inflight Internet on their 737 fleet flying the 48 contiguous for $4.95, but the service is free through July 2010.  An instruction card is located in the magazine pouch located in front of your seat and after the climb to 10,000 ft, you can connect with your WiFi enabled device.  The setup is simple: 1. Turn on WiFi; 2. Find ‘gogoinflight’ signal (which happens to be the only one found at 10,000 ft); 3. Launch browser and log in.  You do need to...

CloudFucius Listens: F5’s Cloud Computing Solutions

About a month ago, CloudFucius Hollered about F5’s On-Demand IT solutions which offers a holistic approach to enable a common cloud architectural model—regardless of where IT resources actually reside.  That post contained links to the various whitepapers specifically covering F5’s Cloud Computing Solutions which were designed to unleash the true potential of virtualization and cloud computing.  It’s a comprehensive approach that integrates disparate technologies for application delivery, security, optimization, data management, and infrastructure control—all critical technologies needed to realize the true flexibility and agility of virtualization and cloud computing solutions.  CloudFucius is now excited to announce the availability of...

American Suzuki Case Study with F5 Networks

American Suzuki is passionate about affordable performance both in their products and how they run the company. When business growth led to IT storage issues, they needed a solution. Backups took 18hrs; users had performance issues with file shares; and data replication took weeks. Using industry best practices with NetApp and F5's ARX Data Manager, 18 hour backups now are done in 90 minutes and users are no longer complaining about performance. David Gonsalves, Associate IT Director, explains how operations improved, money was saved by reducing the amount of backup tape needed and how their storage management is much more...

CloudFucius Ponders: High-Availability in the Cloud

According to Gartner, “By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets.”  While the need for hardware will not disappear completely, hardware ownership is going through a transition: Virtualization, total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits, an openness to allow users run their personal machines on corporate networks, and the advent of cloud computing are all driving the movement to reduce hardware assets.  Cloud computing offers the ability to deliver critical business applications, systems, and services around the world with a high degree of availability, which enables a more productive workforce.  No matter which cloud service — IaaS,...