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.
Adds Azure IoT Gateway SDK and Device Management to Azure IoT Hub
Microsoft held their annual developer conference called Build out in San Francisco. The three-day event from March 31 to April 1, had various Microsoft executives detailing and demonstrating the vision for computing. There were hundreds of mini-seminars on Windows development detailing what is new.
At Build 2016, Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise Group, and Qi Lu, executive vice president of the Applications and Services Group, demonstrated how Microsoft Azure services and the Office platform can empower developers to easily leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, emerging cloud development models and the Internet of Things (IoT) to build their intelligent apps.
Azure Internet of Things (IoT) gets a boost
Two new offerings were announced that make it significantly easier for customers to manage their IoT deployments: Azure IoT Hub device management and the Azure IoT Gateway SDK. The preview of these powerful new capabilities, shows Microsoft’s support for providing developers, IT managers and OT operators with tools to make managing their IoT deployments easier than ever.
The diverse Internet of Things (IoT) environment is mixed with many types of devices with different software, firmware, connectivity and security capabilities dispersed geographically . For many businesses, it’s a challenge to keep the software, firmware and configuration of new devices up to date.
They also need to connect to older or legacy devices to communicate directly with the cloud. The new offerings address these challenges and continues to simplify IoT, so customers can focus on development instead of the logistics.
Azure IoT Hub device management
The device management feature in Azure IoT Hub allows enterprises to remotely maintain, interact with, and manage IoT devices at scale from the cloud using accepted open source standards. Administrators can enroll, view status and health, organize, control access, and update the software, firmware and configurations of millions of geographically dispersed IoT devices.
Customers can now realize significant time and resource savings by removing the burden of developing and maintaining custom device management solutions.
Azure IoT Hub scales to manage millions of devices supporting the LWM2M protocol, the leading standard from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) for IoT device management. The IoT Hub device management enables a simplified cloud programming model for IoT solutions through new service side APIs:
Device Registry Manager API:Provides a first-class device object for working with IoT devices in your cloud solution. Through this device object, your cloud solution can interact with device and service properties, which is used by the device for configuration or to inform the IoT solution of device state (e.g. firmware version, OEM name), service properties, such as tags etc.
Device Groups API:Work with your fleet of devices in groups and control access in a way that maps to your solution topology.
Device Queries API:Find devices in your IoT solution based on tags, device, or service properties.
Device Models API:Define the information model for the devices and entities in your IoT solution.
Device Jobs API:Run and monitor simultaneous device orchestrations on your global fleet of devices across a heterogeneous device population.
Azure IoT Gateway SDK
The Azure IoT Gateway SDK enables businesses to connect legacy devices and sensors to the Azure cloud without having to replace existing infrastructure. And for developers, the SDK helps to easily build and deploy “edge intelligence” modules that optimize and process data before it’s sent to the cloud, allowing your business to benefit from minimized latency, reduced bandwidth costs, and more effective enforcement of security and privacy constraints.
The Azure IoT Gateway SDK achieves this by providing source code that takes care of much of the necessary busy work required for the development of a gateway application, including dynamic module loading, configuration, and data pipelining.
Get the latest information on the Azure IoT Hub device management and the Azure IoT Gateway SDK from our IoT specialists. Mail us at info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555 to leverage the new updates using Sysfore’s IOT Suite.
The cloud computing is still an emerging technology with people discovering its true potential. One important feature which draws attention is Cloud Security.
Cloud computing can help businesses cut costs in any number of ways, but the information that cloud systems handle is varied, confidential with high security measures in place.
Here are some of the biggest actual security features that cloud providers use to protect client data, and make systems effectively secure against hacking and unauthorized access.
Multi-Factor Authentication
It’s a major source of user security for cloud systems, which often get deployed across many different business locations and individual access points. Essentially, multi-factor authentication just means authenticating users in a combination of ways. Using multiple authentication strategies or factors creates better security for digital systems.
In general, multi-factor authentication involves combining different categories of security inputs. One category is the password, which is an intangible concept that someone creates and uses for access. Another category is a physical possession, such as a traditional key, a key card or even someone’s mobile device.
A third category of security is called biometrics. This focuses on things that are inherent to an individual body. Unlike the above two categories, biometrics security components cannot be lost or misplaced. Biometrics uses things like fingerprint scanning, voice recognition and facial imaging.
Multi-factor authentication requires two or more of these different security components to work together, which makes systems much more secure.
This category of security is closely related to authentication, but it works a bit differently. Here businesses have a way to assign access and privileges to individual identities that will be authenticated within the system. If multi-factor authentication is the method of access, then identity and access management is the assignment of clearances or the “permission vehicle” for letting people into the system.
Cloud services should incorporate this design, so that managers can think carefully about what information people need access to, and assign access based on those considerations. It’s important that people who are doing the work can get into the system to do their jobs, but the system must also keep a lid on sensitive data and ensure that it’s distributed to as few people as possible.
Encryption Standards and Key Handling Tools
Encryption is a core component of cloud security. In various ways, cloud providers encrypt data so that it can’t be stolen or leaked as it makes its way to and around the cloud. Each cloud company will have its own security encryption standard, where better encryption generally means better security.
Encryption standard along with key handling should be the focus of the enterprises. Encryption systems typically use sets of encryption keys that allow for authorized use of the data. Businesses can now opt for Amazon Web Services or Azure which offers a set of key management tools. Some cloud providers also offer key management services of their own that not only encrypt data, but also preserve the right kinds of access.
Cloud Encryption Gateways
It’s also important to figure out how and when data is encrypted and when it is decrypted, because again, without decryption, valuable data can become useless to those who need to handle it.
A cloud encryption gateway is very much like a virtual private network or VPN system. It provides a secure tunnel for data from one specific point to another. In VPN systems, data is often encrypted as it leaves a private network and makes its way through the public Internet. It’s decrypted on the other side, which is why people refer to it as a “security tunnel” for data.
A cloud encryption gateway acts the same way. It provides a consistent means and method of encrypting data as it leaves the private network and enters the cloud. It’s going to serve as both an effective means of security, and maintaining compliance if regulators start looking into how a company handles its data.
Mobile Platform Security
Cloud security also needs to address the rapidly growing area of IT that so many of us are now using to do all kinds of computing and perform all kinds of transactions: mobile. The mobile arena is becoming more and more a part of our lives, and cloud services need to anticipate the challenges of keeping data safe while it’s going to and from mobile endpoints.
Cloud mobile strategy needs to look at effective encryption, any vulnerabilities inherent in mobile operating systems or commonly used mobile applications. They should be able to explain to clients in a way that doesn’t make their heads spin.
You can contact us at info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555 to better understand the requirements of the Cloud Security for your Enterprise use.
