Month: May 2010

Where’s My Data

In the past, I maintained a backup of my primary working drive on my laptop, so that when I was mobile I had what I might need. However, I had to change my way of thinking, and operation as I feared the day that I would lose or my laptop would get stolen and all that data would be compromised. So, I had to change how I did things.

Now when I travel, I maintain no uncompromisable data on my laptop. If I do need to work on a file, or get something, it takes only a few minutes to securely connect my laptop to my network and away I go.

This same connection provides me full UTM protection as I would have from my office. The downside to this is that I have to have an internet connection and it takes a few extra minutes to get connected. The upside is, that the most I will ever lose is the laptop, and they are replaceable. Certainly a good excuse to upgrade.

So, if you are one of those mobile workers, and you keep private data on your laptop, this might be a good time to consider changing the way you do things.

Going Mobile

There is a great deal to consider when you take your office on the road. Pretty much the same issues that you have in the office, but with added problems. Security, Data Protection and UTM.

How do you protect your laptop from attacks, viruses and threats when you are mobile. What is the best means of keeping your data safe and/or out of the hands of someone else should the unthinkable happen and your laptop is lost or stolen. An how can you securely communicate with your home or office when on the road and using public hot spots and untrusted Wifis.

For those of you who currently hit the road with your laptop without addressing all of the above, hate to say it, but it is only a matter of time. And in all honesty, the chances are actually greater of something disastrous happening when you are mobile.

Utilizing a full featured firewall can provide you the peace-of-mind of being safe and secure while on the road.

UTM – Explain

UTM stands for Universal Threat Management. In today’s market we are no longer in fear of viruses as they are now only a small part of the threats against us and our computers. Let’s take a look at some of the key threats; gateway and network anti-Virus (GAV/NAV); anti-Spam (AS), Phishing (AP), Intrusion Protection (IP), Application Intelligence (AI) and Content Filtering (CF).

How do we manage all of this? If you have a business or even a small home office with more than one computer you address these threats at the point of attack. Each computer. And the more computers you have the more UTM applications you have running. As the number of computers grows, so does the number of application and along with it, yearly renewals to keep it up to date. And as you increase this number, you magically increase the chance of something going wrong. And the last thing you want is an unprotected device.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could take the UTM from each device and put it in one place and have it protect the network instead of the computer. That is primarily what a Firewall Device is designed to do. Not only does it greatly reduce the overhead of maintaining UTM on each device, it centrally controls it. It also increases the security level of your network as now as any would be attacks are now at the firewall device rather than your computer.

The Cost Of Doing It Right!

Part of having good Managed Services network is to employ the right equipment. This goes beyond having a sophisticated router to protect your network and data. Having UPS (Uninterpretable Power Supplies) on you equipment is surely a MUST. But one thing so many people miss is all the additional hubs and switches we may have within our LAN(s). Once again, I see so many ‘consumer’ grade product out there that I shutter. These devices might be good for the home or home office, but, they can really do an injustice when mixed in a large LAN. They are like dead ends. Aside from them not being designed for ‘commercial’ use, they do nothing for helping your IT personnel in troubleshooting a problem.
Then answer is simple, Managed Switches. These are switches with a lot more brains. Let me step back and quickly define the difference between a hub and switch. A hub routes all traffic to all ports. Thus any data coming in to the hub is output on all ports. Whereas, a switch is a little smarter in that any incoming data is deciphered and the data is then placed on the proper output port. Thus, reducing the overall traffic flowing within the device. A Managed Switch is a switch that can be managed, or addressed. It has an IP similar to any other device on the LAN and can be probed for status and operation. Thus, an IT person can see if a router is up and running just like they can a workstation or server. There are many other features that can be found on a Managed Switch (Later Post), but the key is that it can be tested.
Last week countless hours were saved at one of my Managed Sites as I was able to within just a few minutes track down and resolve an issue where a number of workstations went offline. Although the device (Managed Switch) had not failed, I was able to determine that a wire was either out or bad. I ended up the former and the whole mess was cleaned up simply by pushing the the plug back in. All of this was done remotely, minimal downtime and a satisfied client who is happy I had him invest in Managed Switches.

Yourimage.org Has a New Face

Welcome to the new yourimage.org site. Out goal of this site is to keep it updated with new information, technologies and solutions. As we move into the new era of Managed Services, away from the traditional “Break-Fix” way of life we need to keep up with the times and provide a means of defining the many benefits of taking a pro-active approach.

In addition, we have purposefully migrated our website design and support on the Content Management System model. This has proven itself over and over from both an end-user and support aspect. So, in keeping with the ‘new’ and to practice what we preach, we have built the new site accordingly.

As the new site get off the ground, we will be doing our best to keep it fresh with new content. We hope to see you soon.