One of the benefits of cloud computing is that, assuming virtualization is implemented in the cloud farm, that layer of abstraction affords some measure of protection against loss or downtime in the event of a single hardware failure. And of course, utilizing a cloud platform adds innumerable ot ...  

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What is Net Neutrality? In simple terms it is the principle that all Internet users are equal and there are no restrictions imposed by Internet service providers on user's content, on the publisher or the content, on the usage of the content or performance of the flow of content. I have ofte ...  

The move to virtualisation is all but inevitable, and there is very little question as to why. The benefits are incontrovertible, and the maturity of the virtualisation software available has moved virtualisation out of the realm of the test bed and into the realm of "have to have it.” It may be ...  

Virtualisation has become a de facto standard in larger data centres, particularly as they seek benefits such as greater processing agility and resource management. The cost factor, of course, weighs heavily in the decision—but whilst the long-term costs are favourable, in the short-term, it can be ...  

The language of IT backup, security, disaster preparedness and business continuity can be confusing. Having a network backup procedure in place doesn't necessarily mean you also have a disaster plan, and having a disaster plan doesn't mean you also have a business continuity plan. In short, the disa ...  

Members of management often have concerns when faced with the adoption of a cloud computing model for their business.  Many times this is the result of a lack of understanding of the cloud, and this can morph into active resistance if it is not addressed promptly and with facts that address tho ...  

For those who have had the privilege of driving in London you will be only too aware that traffic moves at a snail’s pace throughout the day and then slows down during rush hours.  Traffic demand that exceeds the capacity of extremely narrow roads delivers the expected result of frustratingly l ...  

There exists a certain contingent of cybercriminals which perpetrates computer break-ins to make political statements, to demonstrate their prowess in front of their peers, or just for the thrill of it. But bored hackers living in their parents’ basements make up only a small percentage; according t ...  

WAN application delivery—and by necessity, related issues such as data quality, monitoring and optimisation, is one of the biggest behind-the-scenes technologies in the marketplace. It may not get the media attention as do the angry birds that populate the latest mobile games, but how this market sh ...  

Considering the very large investments made by businesses and service providers in network monitoring solutions, why is poor service quality still the number one complaint from online customers? Have the customer demands for the online experience changed or is the problem  

The mortgage and lending industry has faced major challenges over the past decade, not the least of which is the mortgage crisis, increasing reliance on unstable derivative instruments, and loss of confidence in major Wall Street players. Politics and financial gaming aside though, the mortgage indu ...  

Disruptive technologies like converged infrastructure (CI) tend to deliver two things: The reality of dramatic and positive changes to the business model, and an extraordinary amount of hype and misunderstanding. First the reality—converged infrastructure is indeed a game-changer, and succeeds in ac ...  

Purveyors of information technology, particularly nimble start-ups created by still-idealistic innovators and entrepreneurs, tell us that their new inventions hold great promise for changing the way we do things.   Although that message typically comes from their PR consultants, it nonethele ...  

Compliance of any sort tends to send CIOs shaking in their boots, and CFOs reaching for the corporate cheque book. PCI-DSS, the international payment card industry standard for security, was meant to create an environment in which customer data is kept private. And to the credit of the creators of P ...  

One of the first things the network manager of an enterprise will do, if it hasn't been done already, is implement a network monitoring system. Considered an essential part of the network, much time, money and effort is put into deploying and maintaining a monitoring system, and even more time, mone ...  

Despite network monitoring tools consuming hundreds and millions of corporate dollars, customer complaints for poor service are at an all-time high consuming even more of the corporate budget. To understand why network monitoring fails in its objective, it is first necessary to examine how the use ...  

Public sector organisations, particularly at the local council level, are being increasingly squeezed for funds, and citizen watchdogs are taking a closer look at expenditures on a regular basis. At the same time, these organisations are being called upon to provide more services without increasing ...  

With an explosion of data breaches in recent years, the protection of sensitive information has become a top priority for security organisations worldwide. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, more than 535 million records have been breached in 2,651 incidents made public since 2005.1 Atta ...  

A strategic move to the cloud is often driven by two or three key considerations, most often, these include the ability to reduce capital expense and establish more predictable operating expense, and establishing a more scalable and more easily manageable infrastructure.   [ Unified Manage ...