THE "SMALL" IN BIG DATA

Ever heard the phrase " Small is Beautiful"? well that holds true when referring to my 3 years old Cousin "Toyosi", but you know what else it could be true about? Small and Medium sized businesses using Big Data Analytics techniques in better understanding and targeting their customers.

In the Past 2-3 years, the term "Big data" has been making the rounds among C-level execs and "a few of us"... lol but beyond all the Hype and grandeur, its really just large volume of data collected in real time for the purpose of analysis, Big data analytics is the process of examining large amounts of data of a variety of types (big data) to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations and other useful information. Such information can provide competitive advantages over rival organizations and result in business benefits, such as more effective marketing and increased revenue.

That said, then you'd agree with me that:

The collection of e-stores' visitors' shopping cart trends....is big data

A fruit juice company could collect ages of people who buy the product from a particular region....the result...big data.

or more realisticallty/practically:

A heartbeat monitor could be placed on Lionel Messi's heart to collect heart rate data in real time...which over time could be mined and correlated to be able to predict when he's in top form....the result...big data

Mouse clicks and momentary movements of visitors on a site could be monitored and collected in real-time for an e-commerce site to be able to predict the average transaction duration which might be in someway related to how the company plans for infrastructure growth...

i could go on and on..........

However, with this level of data collection and real-time monitoring required for Big data Analytics also comes the need for an elastic compute infrastructure model which is ASSUMED to be a luxury for just Larger companies that have larger data sets seem like ripe candidates for Big Data, but in many of these organizations their data are scattered across a wide variety of systems and platforms-and along with larger budgets and superior infrastructure come dramatically increased data quality issues. Smaller companies often have data that are more consolidated and, in some cases, have designed their systems and processes to generate and capture cleaner data.

At least half the battle of generating intelligence from data is having readily available data to begin with, so while your smaller organization might not be able to afford a massive Big Data initiative, you can start deriving actionable information from your data while the big competitor is still cleaning and consolidating.

A statement written by Techrepublic recently and rightly says:

"...like ERP, CRM, and other enterprise platforms, Big Data is rapidly commoditizing. Just as anyone with a credit card can subscribe to one of the cloud-based business software platforms and have Fortune 500 IT services in a matter of minutes, Big Data analytics are slowly moving out of the confines of the enterprise server room"

This spells Good news for the SMBs(Small and Medium sized Businesses).

Also, SMBs would initially feel disenfranchised by the High storage array and compute infrastructure with certain unavoidable costs to be incurred in joining the big data party, however on closer introspection, the viability of big data is seen when the timeline between the time the data is collected and the time it is analysed to make a useful decision is closer to being minute.

As we know, decision cycles and decision points are actually fewer in small organisations; another reason why big data could go "small".

Lastly, setting up the process, HW, SW, for the real-time data gathering takes  alot of discipline. Hence, the smaller the organisation,  the fewer "Big data envangelists" needed to make the company an ADOPTER.

So SMBs, Big data could be for you, lets start looking into how we could sow the seeds of real-time data collection and analysis and harvest intelligent decision making.

And if your wondering if your organisation qualifies as being called an SMB and not an ENTERPRISE or somewhere in between that continuum then that's really a story for another day.... :)

Thanks for reading



For the love of computers

  

Stretching The Cloud LiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiTS!

Recently, evangelizing virtualization and cloud infrastructure saw me speaking to an organization IT head who seemed to have the most insidious idea that by moving to the cloud, companies won’t ever have to worry about IT issues ever again. Various other chats reveal that people have somehow gotten into their minds that since their data or their servers or their applications are somewhere else, all their conventional technology issues are magically solved: cloud providers will back up the data, update software, deal with security issues, and so on. I hate to break it to you bud; nothing could be further from the truth.

For every layer of the cloud (Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service or Software-as-a-Service), the limits of the responsibility of the provider are clearly defined. In the case of infrastructure (IaaS), this limit is the hardware environment: the provider will guarantee network and hardware availability, and nothing else. Any other functionality is the sole responsibility of the user. You must set up backup for your servers, define and enforce any security policies, keep the systems updated, and do any other conventional server management task.

On the platform layer (PaaS), their responsibility is expanded: vendors offer a computing platform, roughly equivalent to an operating system, on the cloud. Their responsibility, therefore, goes as far as the functionality they make available. If you’re using a platform’s storage services, they will take responsibility for the availability of the data, replicating it as necessary, as well as for the performance of storage operations, and so on.

Finally, on the software-as-a-service layer (SaaS), vendors will take full responsibility for the entire application environment. This means not only the availability of the application and the underlying data, but also all the necessary infrastructure to make sure that they don’t lose your data, are hacked, or suffer any other issues that compromise your ability to access and operate the software.

Be that as it may, recent data breach incidents have proven that no datacenter is out of reach. Hence,organisations should get serious about their backup and restore process.Assuming someone else is backing up for you is a sure recipe for disaster.Some of the most notable incidents of 2012 were:

• Global Payments (credit card processing), had hackers gain access to 1.5 million credit card numbers

• LinkedIn had 6.5 million hashed passwords stolen and published online

• eHarmony had 1.5 million passwords swiped

• Yahoo had nearly half a million usernames and passwords compromised

• New York State Electric and Gas had 1.8 million customer records hacked

• Zappos had upwards of 24 million shoe-buyers impacted by a data breach

• U.S. Army records for 36,000 military personnel were hacked

While the security implications of data breaches are clear, and tremendous damage was done, we also know that most compromised records were not lost. Hackers don’t generally destroy data. For the most part, they copy and keep the data they’re interested in exploiting for future gain.

But that’s not always the case, as we learned when Wired writer Mat Honan had his accounts, which had been backed up to the cloud, hacked and deleted. As a result, Honan lost all of the data on his smartphone, tablet, and laptop – all of his e-mails,contacts, documents, and most unfortunately, the photos that recorded the first year in the life of his daughter.

What made the Honan case particularly compelling is that Mat, just like many of  us, assumed that he was covered by having multiple copies of his data. Between his smartphone, tablet, and laptop, he had layers of data storage duplication. On top of this he assumed that by backing up to the cloud he was safe. Who would think to ask if the cloud itself is backed up?

MY ADVICE

A wise college professor once told me; "To get new ideas, read old books",  thinking of a solution to this tech quagmire takes me back to my college Sophomore year; organizations shouldn't break from the classic Father-Grandfather- Son backup strategy even whilst enlisted in a cloud service. the surefire way to protect your organization's data(whether you adopt a public cloud, private cloud or hybrid infrastructure) is to take responsibility for your own backup.

Whether you do it yourself or use a backup as a service (BaaS) strategy, the time to implement your backup strategy is now!

For the love of Technology

As a friend of mine cared to remind me;The content above is simply "my opinion" to be weight alongside varying opinions and the facts therein.

The place of WAN optimization in "d cloud"

In The IT industry, the word “Cloud” is a buzz word, and like all other computer industry buzzwords since the Inception of the X86 architecture, it has taken a myriad of meanings and coinages.

However, VMware, whose vSphere™ 4 is positioned as the industry’s first operating

system for building the internal cloud, uses this definition:

“Cloud computing is the use of networked infrastructure software and capacity to provide

resources to users in an on-demand environment. Sometimes known as utility computing,

clouds provide a set of typically virtualized computers which can provide users with the

ability to start and stop servers or use compute cycles only when needed, often paying only upon usage.”

This article is not meant for a freshman course in cloud computing(for that,you can read my other article here) but is meant to critically analyze the issues that trail the use of Cloud computing. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to say that IT decision makers in organizations have taken to (or are considering being taken to) migrating their data and applications to “the cloud” due to the mouthwatering reduction in CAPEX (capital expenditure) and OPEX(Operating Expenditure) that it yields.

Enterprises don't shift overnight, and many C-level executives remain hesitant to adopt cloud too quickly or wholly. Commonly used to gauge the adoption of technology is Rogers' bell curve, which describes the acceptance of a new product or innovation over time. The model indicates that the first group of people to use a new product is called "innovators," followed by "early adopters." Next come the early and late majority, and the last group to eventually adopt a product are called "laggards."

According to Hitachi data systems, if the industry were to use Rogers' bell curve to examine the adoption of cloud computing, it might reveal that the early majority of the industry is waiting for early adopters to demonstrate the real value of cloud computing in business.  

 A viable reason why this is taking so much time to happen is possibly the fact that the cloud is largely dependent on the internet, needless to say… WAN AVAILABILITY.

The instinctive approach to this problem is for IT managers to get more bandwidth, but really how much bandwidth is enough? the truth is BANDWIDTH IS NEVER ENOUGH not to mention the cost implications of WAN upgrades.

Here comes WAN optimization to the rescue.  WAN optimization technologies working together to quickly and easily restore application performance, improve response time and recover WAN bandwidth, all without continuing the cycle of expensive WAN upgrades. These technologies include :

PROTOCOL OPTIMIZATION

 The underlying protocol used to transfer files between clients and servers in an enterprise is known as CIFS(Common Internet File System). The protocol can be optimized by efficiently and transparently converting its serial nature of transfer into a parallel one. Also handshaking/chattiness is eliminated because parallelizing communications sends both request and acknowledgments all at the same time. This greatly reduces response times.

BYTE CACHING

This works by observing repetitive content in client/server communications and application traffic, it then uses tokens that are lighter in weight to represent those data that are repetitive, significantly reducing file transfers.

OBJECT CACHING

Object caching stores re-usable application objects in a local cache so they can be immediately accessed by any user downstream from the appliance. This greatly reduces

bandwidth consumption and the latency(wait times between transfers) associated with file services. The only transactions that cross the WAN are a permissions and a freshness

check to ensure that the copy in the cache is still current.   

BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT

Due to the cost of bandwidth, it has to be efficiently constrained and managed. A good way of doing this is by application of business processes and policies .

ILLUSTRATION:

Web developers in the head office in Victoria Island Lagos office must be given a guaranteed amount of bandwidth and top traffic priority to upload html files and css sheets of websites designed in the last week of each month to the “Cloud provider” in Port Harcourt.

COMPRESSION

Common industry compression algorithms used at wirespeed can further remove extraneous and predictable information from the traffic before it is transmitted. This

is especially helpful before byte and object caches have been fully populated.

Work is still being done in the industry to hardwire these techniques and better techniques into intelligent optimization appliances (Notably the Blue Coat proxySG appliance from Blue Coat Systems Inc.) to be plugged into the cloud infrastructure for optimized cloud performances.

Microsoft's travails in 2010

One company i'm very passionate about when it comes to releasing products that the computer users and tech savvy consumers need is Microsoft.
Quoting Sharon Chan  of newsfactor;  "As Microsoft looks back on 2010, one thing is clear: The company has more product in it than Justin Bieber's hair."


Through the year 2010, the software company reeled out a stream of new offerings, from the early success of Kinect to the flaming failure of Kin.
It however aches my heart to say that despite all the effort, Microsoft's stock hasn't done as well as i would have envisaged. Microsoft started the year at $30.48 a share but closed at $28.01 Tuesday -- down 8.1 percent.

The company also lost leaders and brains of the software business: Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, Entertainment and Devices division President Robbie Bach and Business division President Stephen Elop.

Below is an enumeration of the products that kept Microsoft on the lips of every tech savvy consumer,on the display screens of every information technology and communications forum, and on the products-to-purchase list of every enterprise seeking to maximise their profit by using cost-effective,service delivering, software and hardware.

WINDOWS AZURE: Microsoft began the year with the launch of Azure, its platform for cloud computing.

As Chief Executive Steve Ballmer first said at a University of Washington speech in March, "We're all in" the cloud, a platform where software and data are stored in remote Microsoft data centers instead of corporate servers and are accessed with Internet-connected devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets and televisions. Cloud computing is a bet-the-company move for Microsoft. In the next 10 years, the company believes delivering software via the cloud could make up half of the company's revenue.

The progress has been slow, however. Success of Azure depends on how many developers build software for it. It now has 20,000 customers. The company, meanwhile, continues to release new features and products for the cloud. In July, Microsoft announced plans to sell an Azure appliance that would reside on a corporate campus rather than in a data center run by Microsoft. The product is aimed at companies that don't trust their business data to an outside company.


Windows 7
: To me, he best Client operating system to be released by Microsoft in terms of and bringing  together ease of use and ease of deployment ,the latest version of Microsoft's operating system Windows 7 launched last year, it continued to see strong sales in 2010, selling 240 million copies since it hit the market in October 2009.

Kin: Microsoft launched the Kin mobile phone in April, calling it the phone for the socially networked generation. The phone's software was designed for life-casters who want to update their status and upload photos to Facebook. It began selling in May with Verizon Wireless, and by the end of June, Microsoft had pulled it from the market. Sales were reportedly disappointing. CEO Ballmer said the Kin distracted attention from Windows Phone 7, which started selling in the fall.


Office 2010: This ultimate product for the workplace makes $18.6 billion a year in revenue for Microsoft, came out with its latest version in May. For the first time, Microsoft also made a free lightweight Web-based version, called Office Web Apps, to compete with Google Docs. Microsoft reports Office 2010 has sold 6 million copies.In October, in the quest for further pushing its software-as-a-service campaign, the company also launched Office 365, Office software offered as an online service hosted by Microsoft in the cloud.

SharePoint 2010: Microsoft's collaboration software, which unifies into a single box, file sharing, Web site design and internal corporate searching(both document and people search). The latest version that came out in May added social-media features for businesses.

Bing: While Microsoft launched Bing in 2009, the search-engine development team has since continually rolled out new features. Microsoft also sewed up its massive partnership with Yahoo in October. Bing now runs all of Yahoo's searches and Microsoft's AdCenter now serves as the advertising platform for both sites. With the addition of Yahoo's search traffic, Bing now conducts 28 percent of all searches online in the U.S., according to November numbers from comScore. Google's dominant position remains strong at 66 percent.

Internet Explorer 9: In September, Microsoft released the beta version of its new Web browser, which has since been downloaded 15 million times. The software promises a new generation of richer, more animated and more application-like Web sites. The new browser supports the HTML5 Web standard, the foundation of new Web design. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer 9 works only on Windows 7 and Vista, which will limit how quickly it will be downloaded and how many developers will build HTML5 sites.

Windows Phone 7: Two years after Apple launched the iPhone, Microsoft introduced its redesigned mobile-phone operating system, dubbed Windows Phone 7, in October. The company says it will spend $100 million to market the phones, which are designed to make it faster to get contact updates and other information from your phone.In the absence of Microsoft's figure of how many phones customers have bought,phone-makers have sold 1.5 million to wireless carriers.

Kinect for Xbox 360: The motion sensor for Microsoft's video-game system allows people to play games without using a handheld controller. While the sensor has only a limited array of Xbox games that take advantage of the technology, it has sold 2.5 million units since launching in November. Microsoft sees potential in motion sensors beyond riding imaginary river rafts. The company believes that voice and gesture, not the mouse and keyboard, will define the desktop and office of the future.

Microsoft store in Bellevue: While it was not a global product that will sell in 40 countries, the Microsoft store that opened at Bellevue Square in November, the first retail store Microsoft opened in its home base. Ballmer himself showed up for the ribbon cutting.

Lync: This unified communications system simply named Lync, released in November, totally outshined Microsoft's other unified communications softwares such as Office communicator,... Lync can replace a traditional office phone system, and it brings together phone calling, instant messaging, video conferencing and presence, software that senses whether you're at your desk, on the phone or in a meeting.


As we begin 2011, i'm excited just thinking about what Microsoft has in store for us.Certainly the cloud computing technology named windows Azure is expected to be made less Microsoft hosted, i'm also thinking virtualization technology will not end with Virtual pc, what with VMware conquering the virtualization market in 2010.Also, i dont think Microsoft is done unleaashing the Office software tricks on us. Lets wait and see ...

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

on the first day of christmas,computing gave to me, a root node in a B-Tree

On the second day of christmas, computing gave to me,
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree.

On the third day of christmas, computing gave to me,
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the forth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the fifth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the sixth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree


On the seventh day of christmas, computing gave to me,
7 hackers attacking
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the eighth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
8 drives formatting
7 hackers attacking
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the ninth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
9 backups restoring
8 drives formatting
7 hackers attacking
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the tenth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
10 files uploading
9 backups restoring
8 drives formatting
7 hackers attacking
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree



On the eleventh day of christmas, computing gave to me,
11 crackers cracking
10 files uploading
9 backups restoring
8 drives formatting
7 hackers attacking
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

On the twelfth day of christmas, computing gave to me,
12 calling functions
11 crackers cracking
10 files uploading
9 backups restoring
8 drives formatting
7 hackers attacking
6 codes compiling
5 constructors
4 primary keys
3 French programmers
2 SATA drives
and a root node in a B-tree

CHINA'S 18 MIN INTERNET "HIJACK";HOW?,WHY? WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Recent proofs have been uncovered that shows that Sometime in April, a government owned telecoms company(China Telecoms)  for 18 minutes successfully routed 15% of the world's internet traffic via their routers and servers. These included communications to and from Government agencies(especially U.S), internet shopping traffic,  ...
The alleged "theft" of internet traffic was discovered by a communications company outside Washington, D.C. where computer network engineers monitor Internet traffic.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN
The internet operates on a trust-based system both in infrastuctural architechture and in terms of usage.Electronic routers direct the traffic flow, insuring the shortest path between any two computers anywhere in the world that hope to exchange information.
A little illustration here;lets say i have 3 uncles in the federal  ministry and i want to send a letter directly to the President of Nigeria.i would mentally calculate which of my 3 uncles is closest to the President by the number of people between them and the President,then i "forward" my letter to that uncle.That uncle in turn also calculates his distance to the president by the ranks of those he knows and forwards my letter to the next person he thinks is closer to the president....this continues until my letter is safely in the hands of the president.
Thats how routers "forward" information on the internet, only this happens in microseconds.

so essentially, the 18MIN hijack happened when computer routers in China belonging to China Telecom began signaling to other computer routers on the Internet that they could provide the quickest path between different computers. 
For 18 minutes, the traffic on 35,000 to 50,000 computer networks elsewhere in the world began flowing toward China, before getting routed to their final destinations. China Telecom had created a massive detour.

 Rodney Joffe, Senior Vice-president and Senior technologist at Neustar Inc said "They, all of a sudden, began announcing the fact that they were an optimal path to about 15 percent of the destinations on the Internet, that, in fact, they were a way to get to a large number of destinations on the Internet, when, in fact, they were not. We have never seen that before on this scale ever."

WHY DID IT HAPPEN
 The mere fact that the incident didn't severe all communications during the time it lasted suggests a calculated attempt to intercept, capure and later examine/inspect information.

Security expert Dmitri Alperovitch—VP of threat research at McAfee—says that this happens "accidentally" a few times a year, but this time it was different: The China Telecom network absorbed all the data and returned it without any significant delay. Before, this kind of accident would have resulted in communication problems, which lead experts to believe this wasn't an accident but a deliberated attempt to capture as much data as possible.

WHAT DOES THIS SAY 

A lot can be captured in 18 minutes. When all the communications from tens of thousand of computer networks was routed to China, that included all the Web traffic, e-mail, and instant messages to and from dot.mil -- that's the Department of Defense -- and dot.gov -- those are U.S. governments departments. The U.S. Senate and NASA also had all their traffic diverted.

Companies like Dell, Yahoo!, Microsoft and IBM had their data diverted by China Telecom, too. On that day in April, officers logging into a Pentagon Web site ended up looking at an image that came to their screen via China.


Information could have been gathered, which after much examination could be used to craft a virus to be released in such huge networks.The fact that traffic could be intentionally diverted to where it is "MALICIOUSLY WANTED" opens the eyes to possibilities such as the data actually being altered(man-in-the-middle attack) before being forwarded to its destination,fabricated rogue mails could be concocted to seem as being  sent from someone/somewhere....usernames could be masqueraded... the possibilities are just limitless!!

WHAT CAN BE DONE

Private networks and networks that provide essential services ;from life- essential services such as power grids,water, traffic, product mixing networks.. to those trusted services  such as internal government mail,military, Organizational services should be hosted on servers distant from the internet.worst case scenario;if these servers have to have a connection to the internet whatsoever, DMZ's (De-militarized zones) should be used as a sort of buffer.

Network administrators and security experts have to harden their organizations' networks.
 Wider proliferation of use of network security software, such as Microsoft's Forefront Threat management gateway 

The most efficient solution i see is for stakeholders and computer professionals around the world to;
 Greater Policize the internet trust system or all-together just fashion another network of networks that is just not as trust-based as the present standards.It might be  a longtime coming, but maybe we just go back to the base,how it all began, a revolution might just be underway.   


 

Choosing a Datacenter compute model

Compute models refer to infrastructures with which the IT department or datacenter chooses to render ,deliver, or deploy a particular service.
 Certain services/applications may be right candidates for central management or central distribution while others are just better managed locally,also existent in modern computing  is a hybrid of the two. Needless to say the various subtypes of these models.

MODERN COMPUTE MODELS

1.TERMINAL SERVERS
In this model,the client is merely a display and input device. All computation is
done centrally on the server, and all data is stored in a data center.
Nothing is executed or persistent on the client. Usually, Remote
Display Protocol (RDP) or Independent Computing Architecture*
(ICA*) is used to push an image of the server-based application
to a terminal viewer on the client.

2.VIRTUAL DESKTOP INFRASTRUCTURE
As with Terminal Services, all computation and storage are centralized,
with application images pushed over the network to the client
via Remote Display Protocol (RDP) or other display protocols. The
major difference is that VDI can offer each user their own complete
virtual machine and customized desktop, including the OS, applications,
and settings.

3.BLADE PCs
Much like server  blades,Blade PCs repartition the PC, leaving basic display, keyboard, and
mouse functions on the client, and putting the processor, chipset,
and graphics silicon on a small card (blade) mounted in a rack on a
central unit. OS, application, and data storage are centralized in a
storage array.
Unlike server blades, PC blades are built from standard desktop or
mobile processors and chipsets. The central unit, which supports many
individual blades, is secured in a data center or other IT-controlled
space. In some cases, remote display and I/O is handled by dedicated,
proprietary connections rather than using RDP over the data network.



4.OS Image Streaming or Remote OS Boot
At startup, the client is essentially “bare metal,” with no OS Image
installed locally. The OS Image is streamed to the client over the
network, where it executes locally using the client’s own CPU and
graphics. Application data is stored in a data center. The client is
usually a PC with no hard drive, which uses RAM exclusively

 5.APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION
The client OS is locally installed, but applications are streamed
on demand from the server to the client, where they are
executed locally.
Although the terms “streaming” and “application virtualization” are
often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. Streaming
refers to the delivery model of sending the software over the
network for execution on the client. Streamed software can be
installed in the client OS locally or, in most cases, it is virtualized.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN SELECTING THE RIGHT MODEL
 The factors listed below should be quantified per model, making trade-offs where necessary and contrasted to determine the optimal model for every unique service need.

Performance
Security
Manageability
Mobility
Disaster recovery
Infrastructure cost
User customization
Remote network access
Remote access

Reference: Principled technologies white paper titled "Understanding alternative compute models" 

Time for a NAP

As a kid, i used to be cajoled to take naps(or Siesta,as my mum called it) in the afternoons.Now as a System engineer/administrator i still need NAP, for my networks and the computers in my networks to meet certain compliance requirements for a healthy network.Did i hear u ask how?


 NAP, as i know it now, stands for Network Access Protection.NAP is a new set of operating system components in Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Service Pack 3 that provides a platform for system health validated access to private networks. The NAP platform provides an integrated way of validating the health state of a network client that is attempting to connect to or communicate on a network and limiting the access of the network client until the health policy requirements have been met. 

To control access to network resources,based on requesting computers health status,the following functionalities need to be put in place:

·         Health state validation  Determines whether the computers are compliant with health policy requirements.

·         Network access limitation  Limits access for noncompliant computers.

·         Automatic remediation  Provides necessary updates to allow a noncompliant computer to become compliant without user intervention.

·         Ongoing compliance  Automatically updates compliant computers so that they adhere to ongoing changes in health policy requirements.

Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Service Pack 3 provide the following NAP enforcement methods:

·         Internet Protocol security (IPsec) enforcement for IPsec-protected communications

·         802.1X enforcement for IEEE 802.1X-authenticated connections

·         Virtual Private Network (VPN) enforcement for remote access VPN connections

·         Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) enforcement for DHCP-based address configuration

·         Terminal Server (TS) Gateway connections.

NAP COMPONENTS 

Network access protection client-server architecture is depicted in the image below:

 

   

 

·         NAP clients  Computers that support the NAP platform for system health-validated network access or communication.

·         NAP enforcement points(VPN servers,DHCP servers,Network access devices)  Computers or network access devices that provide access to a resource and that use NAP or can be used with NAP to require the evaluation of a NAP client’s health state and provide restricted network access or communication. NAP enforcement points use a Network Policy Server (NPS) that is acting as a NAP health policy server to evaluate the health state of NAP clients, whether network access or communication is allowed, and the set of remediation actions that a noncompliant NAP client must perform. Examples of NAP enforcement points are the following:

·         Health Registration Authority (HRA)  A computer running Windows Server 2008 and Internet Information Services (IIS) that obtains health certificates from a certification authority (CA) for compliant computers.

·         NAP health policy servers  Computers running Windows Server 2008 and the NPS service that store health requirement policies and provide health state validation for NAP. NPS is the replacement for the Internet Authentication Service (IAS), the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server and proxy provided with Windows Server 2003. NPS can also act as an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server for network access. When acting as a AAA server or NAP health policy server, NPS is typically run on a separate server for centralized configuration of network access and health requirement policies, as Figure 1 shows. The NPS service is also run on Windows Server 2008-based NAP enforcement points that do not have a built-in RADIUS client, such as an HRA or DHCP server. However, in these configurations, the NPS service is acting as a RADIUS proxy to exchange RADIUS messages with a NAP health policy server.

·         Health requirement servers  Computers that provide current system health state for NAP health policy servers. For example, a health requirement server for an antivirus program tracks the latest version of the antivirus signature file.

·         Active Directory^® Domain Service  The Windows directory service that stores account credentials and properties and Group Policy settings. Although not required for health state validation, Active Directory is required for IPsec-protected communications, 802.1X-authenticated connections, and remote access VPN connections.

·         Restricted network (some people may choose to call this a DMZ network(Demilitarized zone) A separate logical or physical network that contains:

·         Remediation servers  Computers that contain health update resources that NAP clients can access to remediate their noncompliant state. Examples include antivirus signature distribution servers and software update servers.

·         NAP clients with limited access  Computers that are placed on the restricted network when they do not comply with health requirement policies.

HOW IT WORKS 

The NAP client uses the appropriate security or authentication protocol (SSL(Secure socket layer),PEAP(Protected extensible authentication protocol),(Extensible authentication protocol)EAP,(Point-to-point) protocol )PPP...) depending on the resource the client is trying to access to craete protected session to send its current system health state to the HRA and request a health certificate. The HRA also uses the appropriate protocol  to send remediation instructions (if the NAP client is noncompliant) or a health certificate to the NAP client(if compliant).

While the NAP client has unlimited access to the intranet, it accesses the remediation server to ensure that it remains compliant. For example, the NAP client periodically checks an antivirus server to ensure that it has the latest antivirus signature file or a software update server, such as Windows Update Services, to ensure that it has the latest operating system updates.

If the NAP client has limited access, it can communicate with the remediation server to become compliant, based on instructions from the NAP health policy server. For example, if during the health validation process the NAP health policy server determined that the NAP client does not have the most current antivirus signature file, the NAP health policy server instructs the NAP client to update its local signature file with the latest file that is stored on a specified antivirus server.

The HRA sends RADIUS(Remote authentication dial-in user service) messages to the NAP health policy server that contain the NAP client's system health state. 

The NAP health policy server sends RADIUS messages to:

·         Indicate that the NAP client has unlimited access because it is compliant. Based on this response, the HRA obtains a health certificate and sends it to the NAP client.

·         Indicate that the NAP client has limited access until it performs a set of remediation functions. Based on this response, the HRA does not issue a health certificate to the NAP client.

Because the HRA in Windows Server 2008 does not have a built-in RADIUS client, it uses the NPS service as a RADIUS proxy to exchange RADIUS messages with the NAP health policy server.

When performing network access validation for a NAP client, the NAP health policy server might have to contact a health requirement server to obtain information about the current requirements for system health. For example, the NAP health policy server might have to contact an antivirus server to check for the version of the latest signature file or to contact a software update server to obtain the date of the last set of operating system updates.

So whether you'r instructing your kids or doing your million Naira/dollar job of instructing your network,taking a NAP really does pay-off.  

  

...Now Lets talk Licensing

When was the last time you bought a harddiskdrive(HDD)? or even a memory module,usb disk , even a whole computer.you just payed cash and left the store.Its that simple when buying a piece of hardware. Whether you'r paying cash or sing a debit card, the point is that the entire value of that hardware is represented in that liquid value.Thats hardware for you.
Software on the other hand is intellectual property.you may purchase the disk/cd which contains a representation of that intellectual value but you can never really "PAY" for the intellectual value of the software, hence the purchase of LICENCES to install and use that software.A license bestows limited rights to use the software, but it also imposes restrictions and threatens serious penalties when license violations occur.you get a software,you purchase licenses according to the mode provided by the owner/proprietor.
But here's the thing, with the pace at which hardware has evolved and still keeps evolving,with the advent of virtualized application distribution,dual,quad cores processor, licensing seems to be a very dicey issue these days with the IT department, potentially leading to a myriad of legal issues in case of license violations(consequently leading to millions of Naira/Dollars to settle law suits) and Overspending in cases where licences purchased are not fully utilized.
Initiallly, software vendors sell license their software on a per CPU basis assuming that every PC has a single CPU.Then came the dual cores,and quad cores, then there was the argument as to if a computer having 4 processors could still be considered as a single PC, this extended to if the IC holding the processors would be considered as the CPU or the individual Processors( An argument whose conclusion is not far fetched, especially when A+ gurus are around)
Then came virtualization, then a CPU or group of CPU's could be shared by users spread out across a building, and in latter times spread across cities.Thus leading to situations where a company purchases 100 per CPU licenses, virtualizes the environment and ends up sharing 100 CPU's among 1000 users, technically breaching the license agreement.
But albeit, software vendors have included per user licensing which reduces the problem on their part but increases the need for better planning on the part of the purchasing IT department.
But software users are also seeing a spate of new license options or editions that accept varying levels of use—especially in virtual environments. For example, the Windows Server 2008 Enterprise license allows four virtualWindows Server instances
for free, but the four instances must run on the same host. By comparison,Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition is licensed per CPU and per host server but is
independent of the number of VMs running on the host. It may be considerably more cost-effective to deploy the Datacenter Edition rather than the Enterprise or Standard Editions.

These Licensing concerns and confusions can only be solved if the data center admins and the software proprietors work together to ensure a that the Software developer gets full reward for use of His intellectual property and also that the Company utilizing His solution optimizes its usage such as to maximize efficiency whilst minimizing cost.

SHOPPING FOR PHYSICAL SERVERS

As an IT specialist, Choosing the right Server hardware that would service your clients,with high availability, fault tolerance,scalability, recovery...and all that good stuff is one of the hardest decisions you have to make. Most times for Us its a matter of trading off between choosing what's good for the company, what allows you the opportunity to research and learn new technologies and also choosing something that wouldn't be too expensive whilst ensuring good ROI(Return On Investment).
Server in their broadest of categories, like houses differ in shapes and sizes, a few notable ones are:

Small, floor-standing towers or rack-mounted 1U and 2U servers.
 Medium-sized, floor-standing towers or larger rack-mounted servers.
 Blade centers and blade servers.
 Large floor-standing servers, includingmainframes.
 Specialized fault-tolerant, rugged and embedded processing or real-time
servers.
 Virtual servers or virtualmachines (VMs) running on physical servers.
Cloud servers (essentially a VMservice offering).


Functionally, servers could be further classified as follows:


TIER 0:
•Mission critical
• Business cannot function without
• Time sensitive
• Highly available
• Low RTO & RPO
•Must be secure
• Time ismoney
• Downtime is a lost opportunity



TIER 1:
• Business essential
• Some impact to business
• Good availability
• Low to medium RTO and RPO
• Some downtime can be tolerated


TIER 2:
• Business important
• Little impact to business
• Some delay OK
• Basic availability
•Medium RTO/RPO
• Downtime is tolerated


TIER 3:
• Business optional
•Minimal disruption
• Delay tolerable
• Some availability
• High RTO/RPO

These means of classification still barely scratch the surface of the store of servers available in the IT market.Physical server manufacturers such as Apple Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. (Unified Computing Systems), Dell Inc., EMC (Vblock), Fujitsu, NEC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Oracle Corp./Sun, Silicon  Graphics International Corp.and SuperMicro Computer Inc. are represented by a mix of direct sales, direct touch markets and technical support, as well as channel value-added resellers (VARs) and solution providers tha tbundle their applications with different hardware offerings.So we can see that today's IT infrastructure department have their jobs picked out for them whether they are designing a new server infrastructure from scratch or integrating/consolidating a new server into an existing infrastucture.

three steps are key in making the decision as to what physical server  to buy:

MUST KNOW YOUR NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS
what kind of services are to be hosted on the server?what are the virtualization /cloud needs? what are the storage needs? what are the availability needs to meet service level agreements(SLAs)? what are the existing Failover/clustering solutions(if any..)?amount of physical space available in the data center? what are your forecasts for growth requirements?

UNDERSTAND YOUR OPTIONS
consider the server categories and tiers talked about earlier.whether it be blade servers or just plain old rack servers or mainframes.talk about processors  if you'r buying a single socket,single core,single threaded processor then you know that that computer will at best execute one instruction in a cycle,single socket,dual core-2 instructions,dual socket,quad core-8 instructions then you start to wrap your head around 32-bit and 64-bit machines.talk about memory,Main memory or RAM, also known as dynamic RAM(DRAM) chips, is
packaged in different ways, with a common form being dual inline memory modules. DRAMmemory access
speed is referred to in terms of older DDR2 (667MHz) or newer DDR3 (1333MHz). RAMmain memory on a server is the fastest form of memory, second only to internal processor or chip-based registers—L1, L2 or local memory. In general, more memory is better; however, the speed of the memory is also very important.



Take a look at what functionality is built into the server or provided on server blades for general-purpose
networking along with attachment of disk storage. What is there in terms of 10 Gb Ethernet (10 GbE), and how many ports as well as 3G (3Gb) or 6G (6Gb) Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) for disk storage attachment
(internal or external), along with serial, video and USB ports? Also look at expansion capabilities for additional mezzanine cards for blade servers, or PCI-E cards for networking, storage and other peripherals.
PCI SIGMulti-Root IO Virtualization (MR-IOV), a relatively new and emerging feature for servers, enables
advanced connectivity, including adapter sharing.MR-IOV will enable multiple, physically separate adjacent
servers to share a PCI-E adapter card, allowing the virtualization of servers that otherwise could not be
consolidated.MR-IOV can also boost scaling capabilities beyond normal physical limits in high-density servers by placing adapter cards in shared external expansion slots.


FINALLY,PUT IT ALL TOGETHER RIGHT
simple, install the softwares that would optimize your server hardware.(e.g don't plan to install 32-bit software on your 64-bit machine)
Know your requirements,know your wants, stay within budget whilst ensuring high ROI. Have fun Buying!

TIPS FOR MANAGING YOUR COMPUTER HARDWARE

Ever entered into an examination hall ill? you have all the right answers to the questions,you want to elaborate, illustrate, exemplify, ...  but you just dont have the energy. Thats analogous to having the right software,  that has passed every available benchmark, but is being run on  poorly managed hardware.the following tips would keep your hardware happy with your software:

1. Keep  a dust-free PC environment. dust particles that get into the system unit(what non computer proffessionals would call C.P.U) totally mess up the entire heating-cooling-heating-cooling .. cycle of the system unit's design.Dust is also unfriendly and clogs up most of our input/output devices.In addition to keeping the environment dust free, you should vaccum-clean(BLOW-OUT) your system unit say once a year.

2. Computer Hardware are brought to life by electrical power. They are therefore rated to function withing certain electrical supply limits.Make sure you check Power ratings of purchased hardware before connecting them to AC power supply especially when the device was shipped in from another country.This would save you some time, money(MORE IMPORTANTLY), and quite frankly, save the environment some oxides of carbon.

3. Install proper device drivers for your hardware. Device drivers are what translates the instructions you issue via your application software or operating system to a language the device can understand.using an improper device driver is like visiting China to deliver a speech and taking an Italian speaking translator along to help you translate  your speech to your Chinese audience.

4. Keep a close eye on your hardware vendor for release of  firmware and BIOS updates.firmware updates to hardware are what ervice packs are to the Operating system.

5. Be Vigilant. Notice changes in behaviour of your hardware such as humming noises, over-heating, changes in tone,brightness or contrast(in the case of display hardware).Alert a proper engineer when noticed (especially when these behaviour are accompanied by loss of performance or quality of computer output.

After all said and done, your computer harware is still driven by software. Follow the tips in my 12th of july article, combine thpse with these 5 and your computer usage would be stressfree not to mention predictable.  

TIPS FOR MANAGING YOUR COMPUTER SOFTWARE

I usually tell my friends that "computers dont just crash". more than likely, if anything goes wrong trust me ITS YOU!! either directly or in some remote way. I got two calls this week to fix one dell inspiron desktop(a very old model!!) and one LG laptop(cant remember the model). what they had in common was that their users' were doing things they shouldn't be doing. so i decide to let you guys know 10 things i think would improve youre general computer usage experience.Personallly, i believe software is always on top of hardware so i'm starting with software management tips. follow me:

1.Remember that the most important software on your computer is the Operating System.

2. Install genuine windows/provider Operating system.

3. As a benefit of  (2.) above, make sure you install any operating system patches in form of service packs or fixes.

4. Make sure you have a personal inventory of every application software  you install/uninstall.(the operating syatem itself keeps track of this information in event viewer(start-control panel-administrative tools-event viewer)) its only fair that you have yours.

5. Make sure you only install software from TRUSTED sources.

6. Make sure you always check the company website of important software that you use for sofware updates(this is essential because, your software provider works day and night to find and close-up loop-holes in their software, the closing up is in form of updates or newer enhancements)

7. Install a good anti virus software( i wont go into the argument of which is the best?!?!?!).

8. BE PATIENT. When users click a button and its taking more time than usual to respond,i notice that  users always respond to this by clicking more and more. i want to let you know that the OS now has to respond to the first click,and your zillion subsequent clicks.

9.If you notice any unusual computer behaviour just after u install a software. do a system restore(start-all programs-accessories-system tools- system restore) this restores your computer to its state before certain installations. simply uninstalling the software might not fully remove all the traces of the software(to make sure this works well you can use windows clean-up tool. download this at http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Windows-Installer-CleanUp-Utility-Download-18442.html

10. After all said and done, the software is meant to run over hardware. Make sure your installed hardaware meet the pre-requisite for any software you are installling.Not to mention that your softwares should be interoperable(see 9. above)


AND ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR CRITICAL DATA.

Keep pressing F8

Virtualization;the Ace Technology

I know u guys were expecting the sequel to my june 24 post about cloud computing. So as not to be guilty of putting the cart before the horse,i would lets first look at a veritable tool for driving efficient cloud computing, 'SERVER VIRTUALIZATION'.

Today’s datacenter is a complex ecosystem with different kinds of servers,operating systems, and applications interacting with a wide variety of desktop computers and mobile client computers. For IT departments, managing and supporting this assortment of mission-critical technologies is a challenge.

Deploying server virtualization technology—moving disparate servers to virtual machines (Virtual
machines) in a centrally managed environment—is an increasingly popular option for facing this challenge.

Virtualization reduces IT costs, increases hardware utilization, optimizes business and network infrastructure, and improves server availability.
Windows Server® 2008 includes Hyper-V (formerly codenamed viridian), a powerful virtualization technology that enables businesses to take advantage of the benefits of virtualization without having to buy third-party software.

The most widely leveraged benefit of virtualization technology is server consolidation, enabling one server to take on the workloads of multiple servers. For example, by consolidating a branch office’s print server, FAX server, Exchange server, and Web server on a single Windows Server, businesses reduce the costs of hardware, maintenance, and staffing.

Microsoft’s virtualization strategy includes five key components:


• Server virtualization, enabling multiple servers to run on the same physical server

• Presentation virtualization, enabling remote users to access their office desktops or serverbased applications

• Desktop virtualization, enabling desktop operating systems to be consolidated into the datacenter

• Application virtualization, helping to prevent conflicts between applications on the same PC

• Comprehensive management, tying virtual components into the same management tools used to monitor and control physical components


Server Virtualization


Microsoft has two server virtualization offerings: Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008, and Virtual Server 2005 R2. Hyper-V extends virtualization capability to manage 32-bit Virtual machines alongside 64-bit Virtual machines, enable Virtual machines to access larger amounts of memory, and enable Virtual machines to leverage multiple processors. Virtualization is a key feature of the operating system and helps customers get complete isolation of the different virtual machines and still benefit from server consolidation.

Desktop Virtualization


When server virtualization is used host client OSes for remote access, this approach is often called desktop virtualization. While the principles of desktop virtualization are similar to server virtualization, this approach can be useful in a variety of situations. One of the most common is to deal with incompatibility between applications and desktop operating systems. For example, suppose a user
running Windows Vista needs to use an application that runs only on Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
By creating a VM that runs this older operating system, then installing the application in that VM, this problem can be solved. Microsoft VirtualPC is an example of a solution in this space to help address th scenario for hosting VMs in a desktop environment for application compatibility.

Application Virtualization

Application virtualization helps isolate the application running environment from the operating system install requirements by creating application-specific copies of all shared resources and helps reduce application to application incompatibility and testing needs. With Microsoft SoftGrid, desktop and network users can also reduce application installation time and eliminate potential conflicts between
applications by giving each application a virtual environment that’s not quite as extensive as an entire virtual machine. By providing an abstracted view of key parts of the system, application virtualization reduces the time and expense required to deploy and update applications.

Presentation Virtualization


Presentation virtualization is a technology that enables applications to execute on a remote server, yet display its user interface locally. Microsoft’s presentation virtualization technology, Microsoft Terminal Services, enables remote users to connect to their office desktops from anywhere in the world, taking full advantage of applications, resources, and familiar interfaces even from computers with different operating systems or system capabilities. Administrators can access system management tools from remote locations, for example, or applications can be run on a server and accessed by remote users.
Presentation virtualization enables customers to centralize and secure data, reduce cost of managing applications, reduce test costs for compatibility between the OS and applications, and potentially improve the performance of systems overall.

Comprehensive Management in a Familiar Environment


Virtualization technologies provide a range of benefits. Yet as an organization’s computing environment gets more virtualized, it also gets more abstract. Increasing abstraction can increase complexity, making it harder for IT staff to control their world. The corollary is clear: If a virtualized world isn’t managed well, its benefits can be elusive.To a large degree, the specifics of managing a virtualized world are the same as those of managing a

physical world, and so the same tools can be used. To this end, Windows Server virtualization and the Microsoft System Center family of products includes many management features designed to make managing virtual machines simple and familiar while enabling easy access to powerful VM-specific management functions.
culled from: hyper-v product overview.
                   by microsoft corporation,October 2008

Windows Azure and the "Cloud Computing" story(Part1)

I first heard the phrase "cloud computing" on one of my visits to my friend and mentor, Yinka (i visit him from time to time and we discuss information technology generally,we also argue on certain issues. Yinka works with a top notch IT solutions provider in Nigeria). at that time even He didnt have a clear-cut idea of what "cloud computing" was all about.

If you'v had your IT ear to the ground in the last 2 years, you would have heard the phrase "cloud computing" used in  place/collaboration with SAAS(Software-as-a-service), PAAS(Platform-as-a-service), IAAS(Infrastructure-as-a-service), and more recently, Windows Azure.

The concept of cloud computing is this;consider a company  XYZ( irrespective of size),XYZ can have their applications, databases, security/certificate servers located OUTSIDE XYZ complex/group of complexs.

let me paint a clearer picture, if a user in XYZ wants to use a spreadsheet /word processing software, he can simply connect to XYZ's "cloud", use the application, save changes back to the "cloud". now the cloud here represents an internet-facing  datacenter managed by IT solutions providers that specialise in rendering such a service. 

As for the origin of the term “cloud computing”, there are a few possibilities…

In May 1997, NetCentric tried to trademark the “cloud computing” but later abandoned it in April 1999. Patent serial number 75291765.

In April 2001, the New York Times ran an article by John Markoff about Dave Winer’s negative reaction to Microsoft’s then new .Net services platform called Hailstorm (if you want a laugh sometime, ask a Microsoft Azure person about Hailstorm). It used the phrase “‘cloud’ of computers”. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/09/technology/09HAIL.htmlex=1230872400&en=5d156fc75d409335&ei=5070

In August 2006, where Eric Schmidt of Google described there approach to SaaS as cloud computing at a search engine conference. I think this was the first high profile usage of the term, where not just “cloud” but “cloud computing” was used to refer to SaaS and since it was in the context Google, the term picked up the PaaS/IaaS connotations associated with the Google way of managing data centers and infrastructure. http://www.google.com/press/podium/ses2006.html



Much like “Web 2.0″, cloud computing was a collection of related concepts that people recognized, but didn’t really have a good descriptor for, a definition in search of a term, you could say. When Schmidt Google used it in 2006 to describe their own stuff and then Amazon included the word “cloud” in EC2 when it was launched a few weeks later (August 24), the term became mainstream. People couldn’t definite it exactly, but they roughly knew it meant SaaS apps and infrastructure like Google was doing and S3/EC2 services like Amazon was offering.

On my next post we'l explore the relationships between cloud computing,SAAS,PAAS,IAAS,windows Azure.watchout for  WINDOWS AZURE and the CLOUD COMPUTING STORY(PART2).