Microsoft Azure is a growing collection of integrated cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy, and manage applications through global network of datacenters, using the tools, applications, and frameworks of your choice.
Very often when technology decision makers hear the word “Cloud”, skepticism takes over. How can you give a third party cloud provider control over your IT resources? That’s why you need a customized private cloud to setup a fully managed, dedicated environment for your business.
Sysfore can help you build a single dedicated private environment that is fast and flexible enough to run all your critical apps, systems or solutions on the Azure or AWS platforms.
A hosted private cloud is what you need when high security is your greatest business requirement.
So what is a private cloud?
A private cloud presents the OS and virtualization resources as a pool of shared resources.
The resource pool is created through management, based on business rules and executed through automation.
You no longer think about the number of VMs, server ratios, memory or storage. But how much compute resources you have to access it.
Your focus now shifts to the applications, where you rely on a pool of resources to supply the right capacity and capabilities.
By now, you have probably heard about the Panama Papers Leak, which leaked (and continue to leak) the names of high-profile persons who used fake companies to hide their wealth and/or avoid taxes.
The huge data leak, around 1.5 million documents were leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca, which exposes how the rich and powerful allegedly hide their money across the globe.
The 11.5m files, which date back as far as the 1970’s, were obtained from an anonymous source by Süddeutsche Zeitung – a German newspaper. They were then passed on to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a US-based group, and then distributed to various journalists and media organizations worldwide for analysis.
How these files were obtained remains a mystery. But it’s safe to assume that it was an inside job, which required privileged access to this huge amount of data. The anonymous source offered the 2.6 terabytes of data, which surpassed the combined total of the Wikileaks Cablegate, Offshore Leaks, Lux Leaks, and Swiss Leaks.
Can anyone with IT privileges and access get hold of your data? Where does your organization’s data security figure in this chaos? There are too much data, and too many ways for security breakdowns to occur. What will your company do to prevent these breakdowns?
It is this question that should be garnering more attention, especially for anyone who has to handle IT or security duties.
One possible theory circulated on how the Panama Papers breach happened is due to the sloppy patches and outdated plug-ins.
Mossack Fonseca uses WordPress on its main website and Drupal on the customer portal for sharing sensitive information, and both Its Drupal and WordPress sites were outdated, according to an extensive analysis by the team behind WordFence, a WordPress security plug-in.
Lessons learned from the Panama Paper Leaks:
There are fundamentally two key aspects to securing data:
Access – who has the right to the data. Broadly speaking, this is authentication (user id, password, and perhaps other methodologies and validations).
Protection – who is the guardian of the data. Who is responsible for the data. What precautions are taken, should someone break into a server, or an unscrupulous employee copy the data.
This wake up call to data security has made organizations take extra precautions and upgrading their existing security measures.
Prioritize your data – Know what data is valuable to you and your customers; set data protection depending on it. Set up Identity and Access Management (IAM) for all levels of your personnel and ensure it is not violated. You can use either Amazon or Azure Cloud IAM.
Data Redundancy and Replication – Spread your data across multiple infrastructures and locations to protect your information. Ensure latest technologies is employed and phase out your old legacy defenses and networks.
Educate employees – Train your employee about the latest security software, its use, recognize and spot the leak, block and report any suspicious attack.
The Panama Paper Leak is just the tip of the iceberg. If organizations want to safeguard their data in the future, the must bolster the perimeter, engage different authentication methods, educate employees and understand the strategy needed in a world where data, specifically stolen data, could be the end for your business and reputation.
You can employ Sysfore’s expertise in Cloud Security to boost your data security measures.
Give us a call at +91-80-4110-5555 or mail us on info@sysfore.com, to know more.
This means there will be no further security updates, increasing the likelihood of added costs to maintain legacy servers against interruptions and intrusions.
SQL Server 2005 support ends April 2016 – Here’s why that’s a good thing
You need to kick things into high gear, as Microsoft is ending support for SQL Server 2005 on April 12, 2016. The platform has been supported for a decade and Microsoft will no longer be patching the software after this date.
If you are looking to get out of this situation, Microsoft recommends that you move to SQL Server 2014 or Azure SQL database. If ensuring business-critical performance, maintaining security and compliance, and optimizing your data infrastructure are important to you, Sysfore has the tools and resources to support your migration from SQL Server 2005.
Sysfore offers you aFree Assessmentto move your workloads to:
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
Microsoft SQL Server On-Demand
SQL Server as a Service
Now’s the perfect time to deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2014. It enables faster data processing and performance, but that’s just the beginning.
Another update is that Microsoft will be releasing SQL Server 2016 this year but at this time (and it is also headed to Linux), it is not ready for general release and is still in the late-phase testing. You can try out that platform too but only 2014 is considered ‘production grade’.
If after April 12 you are still running SQL Server 2005, the software will continue to function but if any new exploits are found in the software, they will not be patched. In short, by running Server 2005 after this date you are putting your data at risk and more importantly, this software will become a line item on a security audit.
You can leverage Sysfore’s Technical expert in Cloud Databases and Storage by getting your Free Assessment. In addition to this, Microsoft has put together a page providing resources that will be of assistance if you are planning on upgrading from SQL Server 2005 to any other version; you can find that resource here.
Forget to upgrade your database and you’ll get into trouble putting your data at risk!
Call us at +91-80-4110-5555 to book your appointment with Sysfore or mail us at info@sysfore.com.
