Cloud Computing

The cloud is changing everything for IT personnel. Not only are apps that were once supported and implemented on premises being outsourced to servers hosted by other companies, but IT managers are being forced to learn new ways of supporting customers and employees.

What is the Cloud?

Unfortunately, the cloud is a hard term to define. It can range from simple storage to complex online virtual machines running Linux and hardcore corporate applications. Since there are all these different types of cloud solutions, the IT management of said solutions is both varied and difficult. In one way cloud hosted applications like Microsoft’s SharePoint and Office 365 are hurting the IT department because they are eliminating jobs that used to be done by IT personel. On the other hand, the cloud is helping IT admins with the creation of things like IT helpdesk software and software to manage updates across the entire network.

The cloud, in its simplest definition is data that is stored and transmitted over the internet. In many ways, by that definition, we have been using the cloud for years. The most obvious application that we all use that could be argued to be cloud computing is email. Email has been around for over 20 years and hasn’t change all that much. Of course, not many people think of email as the cloud, but when you are in IT you know that it is the backend that is really the cloud. It is the infrastructure.

In the End, The Cloud is all about Infrastructure

Almost all applications require a great foundation, or backend if you will, to be useful. If you are using IT helpdesk software, it would be useless without a great dashboard or awesome backend functionality. Email is terrible if the design of the interface is bad and the servers are slow. No matter the app, the infrastructure is very important. That is where the cloud is going to come in handy. No longer will IT departments be forced to manage the infrastructure themselves, they will rely on servers managed by their partners to do it for them.

This means several things, some of them good, some of them bad. On the bright side having other people manage the infrastructure means that support will (hopefully) be more knowledgable about the product since that is all they do. It also means that IT departments can focus on other things instead of servicing those servers.

On the other hand, Cloud managed services also mean bad things. First, there is the obvious one: If someone else is managing the software, what do they need you for? With more and more cloud managed services going in all the time, IT admins will be facing less job security. Another bad thing about managed cloud services is that since you are not relying on your department for the service you are at the mercy of the support of another company should something go wrong. Think of it like a water pipe break at your house if you are a plumber. Instead of fixing the pipe break yourself, you have to call and wait for another plumber to come and fix it. On the IT side of things, if something goes wrong you will not have any choice but to wait for the service team on the other end to do their jobs.

The Cloud is the Future

There are definitely downsides and upsides to the Cloud. It makes life easier, but also comes with certain costs. Whether you like it or hate it, or more likely feel somewhat in-between on the subject, the Cloud is the future. More and more corporate software applications will be running on things like SharePoint, Azure, AWS and other cloud services.

It is even popular these days to build businesses that only run their apps off of these servers. So if you are in a start up, it is even more likely that you are surrounded by a lot of clouds. If this is the case your IT career will be much different than that of someone who has been at it for 20 years. You will learn to manage the interaction between different cloud services, you will learn how to implement these infrastructures locally, and will learn how to deal with the different levels of support.

Just because the cloud is here to stay, doesn’t mean that all IT jobs will be cloud based. Because of different privacy laws, companies will always have to keep some data on site. This means there will always be some need for the traditional non-cloud IT guy.

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JumpPuppy is a cloud-based IT help desk for IT professionals and MSPs.

http://www.jumppuppy.com

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The last thing we IT pros need is to be abused with huge amounts of security concerns from BYOD employees at our IT help desk or hit with a ton of emails from the executive team wondering how they can secure their Android devices.  Neither the iPhone nor Android is as controllable or as secure as BBS, but the iPhone has a ton of apps that help bridge that gap. The issue is Android doesn’t.

The Benefits of Android

Before we get to the many difficulties in implementing Android in any BYOD strategy, let’s look at some of the reasons why Android is great for enterprise. The first reason is that there are many devices out there. This means that it will quell the thirst of almost anybody who wants to be different in their device selection.

Another benefit of Android in enterprise is that since it is open source, companies can write whatever software they need and not have to be approved by Apple. Apple does allow side loading of apps for business users, but it is not nearly as convenient as just providing a download package through a link on your website. A ton of companies have custom software that they utilize everyday. The ability to take that software mobile could be invaluable.

Dennis Baliton, writing for NetworkWorld sums up Android in the enterprise in a unique and geeky way:

“Java’s portability also means the Android framework can be run on a range of hardware, including devices from Samsung, LG, Motorola and HTC, and can be picked up by any hot newcomers. That means Android is not limited to a single mobile phone, tablet and music player and, what’s more, can be integrated with embedded hardware such as monitoring equipment, automated processes, robotics, etc.

The Java language is mature and well documented and much of the functionality of this extremely robust language has been ported to the Android framework. This allows developers to easily find APIs for their specific needs. From creating a custom bitmap, to leveraging helper functions, Java allows for a smoother experience for developers and engineers.” ~ Dennis Baliton

In other words, Apple’s Objective C sucks!

The Downside of Android

The customizability of Android aside, there are still some major concerns when implementing a BYOD policy that includes Android devices. The first is that Android doesn’t have the security apps that iOS does. There aren’t as many apps out there designed to help the company control corporate data. Whereas iOS has apps that can control email, instant messaging and document sharing, Android doesn’t have as many. That being said, the app selection is getting better. More and more enterprise app development firms are beginning to put their apps on Android, so the future here is much brighter.

Another disadvantage of Android is that there are so many devices. Each device comes from a different manufacturer which means different software to support. Unlike the iPhone where they all basically run the same version of iOS, Android has a severe fragmentation problem. Every device will have a different level of Android on it, will come preinstalled with crapware and a skin that only takes away from the secureness of Android, and each will be harder to develop those custom apps for because of the lack of one version of the OS.

While the selection of Android phones is great for employees, it is a nightmare for IT departments. If you utilize software that helps manage Android and iOS, you will probably come across some devices that don’t work with it.

The Solution

Android is coming to the enterprise, insecureness and fragmentation aside. The solution for IT departments and IT Help Desks is to make sure that when they come up with their BYOD guidelines, that it is clearly stated what devices employees can bring into and use at work. By severely limiting the number of different devices, the IT headache gets proportionately easier to live with. Instead of having hundreds of possible device combinations, you can limit your company to five or six. This will mean that you know going in that any software you ch0ose to help manage Android and iOS will work, since you won’t have unexpected devices on that network.

As we continue down this road of mobile innovation, Android and the enterprise will get along much better. More corporate security software will work with it, more apps will be introduced to help control corporate information, and hopefully Google will help solve the fragmentation issue. Since Android runs on an offshoot of Linux it will also be easier for IT departments and coders to work with it, and will help integrate those mobile devices with the already prevalent Linux server systems many corporations employ.

JumpPuppy is a cloud-based IT help desk for IT professionals and MSPs.

http://www.jumppuppy.com

Storage is the next big deal

Files are getting bigger. Companies are dealing with video files, project files and employee files that contain more and more digital information. Since the size of the things we store is increasing, the vastness of our storage servers must also increase.

The size of hard drives is increasing rapidly. It is now possible to buy 4TB HDDs on the open market. Whereas before, when hard drives were fairly small, companies would have to store their large data files on tape or across huge RAID systems. Now more informatin can be stored on fewer drives.

The problem lies in that mechanical hard drives fail. Which causes a constant IT struggle to replace and swap out faulty drives. It also means that a proper backup solution is a must (of course that’d be the case no matter the frailty of mechanical hard drives). As every IT Helpdesk system team member knows, it’s not if a hard drive will fail, it is when it will fail.

The solution, besides iterating on the current hard drive design, is Solid State Drives or SSDs. Basically an SSD is a hard drive with no moving parts. A traditional hard drive relies on spinning disks that can fail overtime or become damaged. SSDs have no moving parts to fail, they rely on Flash storage. Think of it like permanent RAM.

SSDs have many advantages

SSDs are the future of hard drives. Not only do they fail less often than traditional mechanical hard disks, but they are also faster by several multitudes (SSD performance is much higher than HDD performance). This means that the data transfer speed will also be increased several fold. We are already seeing things like USB 3.0 and Apple’s Thunderbolt technology (originally developed by Intel), take off to accommodate the higher speeds of these SSD drives. We’re even seeing new types of internal specifications like SATA-IO (known as SATA express) to take over for the SATA III standard. So we have the speed factor. SSDs will allow vast amounts of data to be transferred over the intranet much faster than it used to be transferred.

Another advantage is that because SSDs have no moving parts they are built much smaller. This means your storage servers will be able to hold much more storage while taking up less space. And because SSDs do not actually need their own enclosure and can be attached directly to the motherboard, server design will also be able to be iterated, though we will still rely on SSDs that can be replaced. This advantage also come with additional benefits like less heat, which means server rooms will be much cooler. SSDs also use significantly less energy.

And some disadvantages

Like any great thing in life, there are always disadvantages too. Starting off with the big one, SSDs are very expensive. Any new technology is always expensive when it first becomes popular. As these drives get easier to make, they will come down in price. To go along with the price of the drives, the size of the drives is proportional to its cost, and the sizes are not nearly as large as that of mechanical hard drives. While 2 and 3TB SSD drives are available, they are ridiculously expensive.

Another disadvantage is that along with the cost of the drives themselves, the infrastructure and computer hardware will also have to be improved and be replaced in order to see the full benefits of the SSD upgrade. Using an SSD while transferring over the outdated USB 2.0 standard will not result in anything but slow data transfer rates. For companies that have outdated or infrequently updated infrastructure, servers and fiber will need to be replaced and upgraded in order to use SSDs.

Conclusion

SSDs are the future. The question is when will they start being the norm? They already are in consumer electronics. Apple has switched almost exclusively to SSDs in their computers and Windows PCs will also be following that trend. In enterprise, it will take much longer. It isn’t a terrible thing to spend $500 on a drive when you only have to buy one. But when you have to by 1,000 at $500 a pop, that can become a financial challenge for most organizations.   In order for SSDs to actually take off, the price of the drives and incorporating them into existing infrastructure will need to come down.

JumpPuppy is a cloud-based IT help desk for IT professionals and MSPs.

http://www.jumppuppy.com

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The Internet was around, but it was not in the home for most people. If a household had the Internet they would be using those AOL disks that you would get at the grocery store. Remember those? When those were around, you never had to pay for Internet. The next revolution on the Internet is social, and it is affecting IT just as any other revolution would.

How is Social Media Helping IT Admins?

Everyone these days is using social media in their personal lives. Whether it’s just Facebook to communicate with close friends and family or a full-on addiction with membership in every social network under the sun, almost everyone has used or uses social media. Now social networking is coming to the IT world to help IT admins help users and control data.

If your IT department has a subscription to an IT helpdesk system, then you know exactly what an IT based social network is all about. Instead of sharing what you had for lunch, these social networks are based solely upon the idea of making IT management much easier.

Think about how you used to support the rest of your company. It usually had to do with an email or a call to someone somewhere, begging for immediate help. No matter what the problem was, it was always an emergency. Even if it was just a missing file that the user deleted on purpose, I mean accidentally. With an IT helpdesk system in place, your social network, you can not only help from a distance, but provide users with an opportunity to help themselves with a knowledge base.

Instead of the frantic requests over the phone, the moaning and complaining about the lack of speedy service, users can go to the helpdesk and request help from there.

Other Types of IT Social Networks

There are other types of social networks based around IT administration. The most prominent of these is Yammer, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2012. Yammer is a communication network that employees use to, well, communicate. It has several functions from instant messaging, to group communication options.

Social networking will only grow in the enterprise space, because it saves time and promotes collaboration between different people and departments. Social networks will take the place of emails in many situations because more than one person will be able to participate in a conversation. Not only that, but these social networks for enterprise entities offer the corporation much more control over who has access to a conversation.

It’s about security

It seems kind of ironic that social networking could offer more security than an email. Sure emails can be encrypted, but basically emails can be sent to anyone. If a company has a disgruntled employee, that employee can send any information they want via email. Also emails can be sniffed and scraped, which means malicious players (read: criminals) can get access to non-secure emails sent over users BYOD smartphones.

With a social networking solution like Yammer or an IT helpdesk software solution, companies can control who has what information, who can talk to who regarding that information, and the security of the entire system. In the end, as with everything, the benefit of any corporate software is about security and control of corporate data.

Conclusions

Social networking in the enterprise space is a new and exciting frontier of technology. It will mean more and more collaboration between departments, employees and employers. More collaboration will mean easier work, more business, and happier employees. If your company is thinking of starting a company-wide social network, you should sit down with your strategy board and figure out exactly what your goal is, how you can attain it, and what the effects will be on the workforce.

In IT the benefits of social media are undeniable. You can now help people from afar, offer solutions to a group of people, and troubleshoot with your colleagues over something other than a group email and over something more secure than SMS. Social media offers more interactivity, easier access, and more security for your work.

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JumpPuppy is a cloud-based IT help desk for IT professionals and MSPs.

http://www.jumppuppy.com

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The Issue is Control

There was no need for worry when phones looked like the phone in the picture to the left. You would never have to go to your IT Help Desk and ask how to control the information coming out of a phone like that.

Nowadays, the exhaustive list of devices that workers can bring with them could spell a coup for people looking to do naughty things with their company data. Even non-malicious users, the average everyday Joe, could lose data that would not normally be lost if they had been using the company controlled BlackBerry.

Managing these things is a nightmare because each platform is different. If your company allows iPhones you have to go through Apple’s recommended security strategy. If you allow Android devices, goodness forbid, you have to put together another security strategy. If you allow both? I hope you are prepared for insanity.

The problem is that there is not as much control on these iPhones, iPads, and Android devices as there was when companies relied on BBS and Microsoft’s mobile tools. The IT department has much less say on personal devices than they did when everyone had a BlackBerry Curve.

The solution is to educate your workforce. You need to teach data security. How to protect the companies contacts, documents and other data.

The other side of the coin

Of course, there is another side of security concern here that has little to do with the device’s owner. Data can be lost or stolen technologically on devices that are less secure. These connections, which are called “clear text connections”, allow anyone aiming to steal the data transmitted to/from or stored on BYOD devices has easy access to any corporate data.

This means that the security of these BYOD devices relies on the internal security of each device more than it does on external servers as in once did.

Creating a Somewhat Reliable Mobile Security Strategy

Your first step in creating any plan is having the dreaded IT department meeting. Get your department together and brainstorm ideas on how to make BYOD devices more secure. The next step is getting every department head and your executive team in a room and having a discussion. As a gentleman at Forbes writes:

Every effective strategy is also a collective strategy, and developing that strategy starts by getting HR, legal, financial, operations, IT and executive leadership together to start talking about where your data is and where it is going. [Forbes]

During this meeting you need to decide which devices you should support. iPhones and iPads are more secure than Android devices because of Apple’s closed garden approach(also because there are only a few iPhones whereas there are tons of different Android devices). Android will be more familiar to the Linux heads in your IT department since it is basically a Linux distro. There are advantages and disadvantages to both platforms. You also need to decide if you are keeping the BlackBerry Server around. The answer to that question will probably be a resounding yes, since most executives are probably attached to their BlackBerries.

The Next Step….

The next step, once you have a plan written down and decided upon, is to write clear and concise rules that every employee can understand. They need to know which devices they can and can’t use. They need to understand the consequences of the loss of corporate data both for them and for the company. They need to know that rooting and jailbreaking increases the insecureness of any smartphone or tablet, and that they shouldn’t do it. More than anything else however, the need to know what steps they need to take to make their BYOD device more secure. This should start with a Personal ID Number that locks the phone from anyone who doesn’t have the number. Anyone found without a PIN should be reprimanded severely.

You should also implement software that installs apps on these BYOD devices that allow companies more control. These range from web browsers and document editors to server storage apps. These apps will provide another layer of security that will allow the company to control the device (and its data) more thoroughly than if the employee just used the stock apps.

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JumpPuppy is a cloud-based IT help desk for IT professionals and MSPs.

http://www.jumppuppy.com

Well what does that mean for the oogles of XP installs that you have scattered across your organization?  That means:

• No more security fixes!
• No more patches!

Hmm…. that ain’t good because security features on XP are already pretty poor.

Data Risks

If you decide not to upgrade but continue to use XP, that may put your organization at risk of data breaches.  Is your organization subject to any of the data privacy laws such as HIPPA, SOX, GLBA and such?  If so, you could be setting yourself up for lawsuits if you have a data breach as a result of “XPing while driving”.  There are technology lawyers waiting to bite into the XP end-of-life apple of lawsuits.

Engaging your End Users about Change

Ok so now you already know that you need to dump your Windows XP before its end-of-life ceremony starts.  But what does that mean for the every day IT technician.  That means you have to engage your users and staff that use XP and convince them that they need to upgrade, like to Windows 7 or Windows 8.   I can already hear the screaming…. “what if the upgraded operating system doesn’t work with my applications?  I won’t be able to do my job!”

As such, you need to take a deep breath, and let them know that there are offsetting risks to the organization to staying with Windows XP that could outweigh their inconveniences, and that you will need to find work-arounds with the upgraded operating system so that the end users can do their work.   It may mean that you have to find another software vendor of that vendor is not compatible with Windows 7 or Windows 8.  Or at minimum start putting the pressure on your software vendors to get their act together as the XP cliff is coming soon.

IT Help Desk 

The earlier you move the steering wheel, the is easier to veer away from driving over a cliff.  IT help desk staff need to take this to heart and begin the sales campaign of implementing change.  Be smart and lay the groundwork now.   April 8, 2014 (Windows XP EOL is soon approaching).

Other upcoming cliff dates to consider

Windows Vista End of Life  -  April 11, 2017

Windows 7 End of Life –  January 14, 2020
Wash, Rinse and Repeat…..

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JumpPuppy is a cloud-based IT help desk for IT professionals and MSPs.

http://www.jumppuppy.com

Well there is always the trusty Windows Task Manager, but does it really get to the root cause of what’s causing the application hanging?

Now there is a new tool that may help you diagnose the hanging application issue with more precision. It’s called WhatIsHang.  This utility tries detect the process or application that is hung up.

It displays Call Stack, Stack Data, Processor Registers, and Memory Data along with a list of strings and dll files related to the hang issue which may assist you in diagnosing the root cause of the problem.  An ideal tool for IT Help Desk and IT Helpdesk admins to use for end user problem resolution.

So on 3…. let’s have a hip hip horray for WhatIsHang!  Now go get them pesky Windows Hanging issues!

Bring Your Own Device’ is a phrase that is being mentioned more and more often. People who work in a corporate environment are bringing to work and using for work their personal gadgets such as tablets, laptops, iPods and even smart phones.

According to a recent  global survey released by the (ISC)2 Foundation, out of 12,396 respondents:

• 53% said their companies allow employees, business partners or both to connect their own devices to networks
• 78% said it poses a somewhat or very significant risk, and;
• 74% thought new security skills would be required to manage the risks.

Many people are using these personal devices over their own company provided equipment as the devices are either smaller, newer, faster, cheaper and/or more convenient. IT Departments and systems administrators are stressing out a bit more these days because of these devices are bringing with them some very high risks.

1.  Confidentiality Risks

One of the risks is the confidentiality of the corporate data.  When employees use their personal laptops, smartphones, tablets etc. for business, the organization’s ‘confidential’ data may end up being saved to the personal device. Once it is saved to a personal device, this confidential information becomes ‘exposed’ and placed ‘at risk’ to being leaked to others enhancing the organization’s risk TO theft, fraud and espionage.  Organizations should consider implementing high-level encryption to ensure that the data is secure if read from that device.  Organizations should also consider implementing remote-wipe that allows personal device owners to remotely wipe clean the data on the personal device should the device be stolen or misplaced.

2.  Financial Risks

Another risk is the financial risk that it poses to the organization.   What if an organization’s accountant saved corporate bank account and credit card information on their smart phone in an unencrypted manner and accidentally left their smart phone on the subway.  This would immediately expose the company to financial fraud.  They could use this information to steal money or place unauthorized charges on the company credit cards.   What’s worse is that should the employee be able to get the lost phone back yet not place the company on notice that the bank account and credit card information was possibly exposed (due to their irresponsibility or embarrassment), the company would not know that they needed to change their bank account and credit card numbers.  Unfortunately they would be exposed to long term fraud as the information could have been sold to others who could use this information at a later time to steal financial assets.

3.  Support Risks

Many organizations implement the same brand and model device across the company to provide consistency in functionality, security and support.  Business devices given to employees are ‘approved devices’ as they are usually locked down by the IT department and IT Help Desk in terms of their security.  Once you begin to allow numerous personal devices of different makes and models into the corporate environment, the IT department will be placed under a much greater burden to protect the company’s assets.

Each new unapproved device comes with its own risks and the time and knowledge to understand each risk and how to address these risks can place a very large burden on the IT department.  Currently efforts by the manufacturers of these devices are more focused on the end user’s experience rather than on protecting business data and assets from its source-point.   This generally will require the IT department to hire additional personnel as well as people with specific knowledge, such as in wireless devices as well as invest in more security hardware and software that works with each type of personal device, especially in the area of physical device tracking.

While there are positive effects of an employee investing their own money in their own personal device for the benefit of the company, the offsetting investment a company must make to protect itself from the embedded risks must be taken into consideration.

4.   Legal Risks

Legal or regulatory issues are another type of risks. Many industries fall under strict governmental laws and regulations with regards to the disclosure of certain company and customer personal information such as HIPPA, SOX and GLBA.

Imagine a doctor using their personal smartphone to email a lab regarding a patient’s lab results.  If the smartphone has not be properly secured or encrypted, they would most likely be exposed to a lawsuit for not complying with HIPPA regulations.

Furthermore, most organizations subject to government regulations implement email archiving whereby each email sent and received through the email system is archived and cannot be deleted by the end user.  However this generally requires that all business-related emails be sent through the company’s email system.  If a doctor uses his smartphone to send business-related emails and the smartphone is not hooked up to the company’s email archiving system, the company will not be able to maintain control of archiving the business communications of that doctor as required by law, or for protection against a lawsuit.

5.  Employee Privacy Risks

Employees’ privacy is another risk that should be taken into consideration.   Once an employee brings their personal device to work and uses it for business purposes, there may be no clear lines of distinction between what data is personal and what data is business related. Most likely the organization will err on the side of caution to backup all data on the personal device as if it is all business related data.

What happens if the employee leaves and wants to ensure that no personal data data is maintained on the company’s network?  As you can see that situation will get ugly very quickly.  It’s our data. No it’s my data.  No it’s our data since you used the device for business purposes.  Yadda yadda yadda.

Organizations need to develop policies that clearly define rules with regards to use of personal devices for business purposes, who owns what data, what the security issues are, what data should be backed up, and the responsibilities of the end users.  The policies should be signed in writing by the employee to ensure they are properly put on notice.

In conclusion, outside of these specific risks, organizations need to take a look at that their internal helpdesk ticketing systems and helpdesk ticketing software to ensure that they are configured to accept these new types of personal devices for support ticket submissions.   IT Helpdesks need to make it as easy as possible for end users to submit tickets on their devices to encourage reporting of the use of those devices for business purposes to the IT department.

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JumpPuppy IT Helpdesk

1. * Open Terminal
2. * sudo cp /usr/include/linux/version.h /lib/modules/3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64/build/include/linux/