NetworkWorld THE MAGAZINE FOR NETWORK COMPUTING MIDDLE EAST
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NetworkWorld MIDDLE EAST
THE MAGAZINE FOR NETWORK COMPUTING ISSUE 119 | FEBRUARY 2009
NAC: NOW OR NEVER? COMMENT 04 The 802.11n ripple effect NEWS UPDATE
06 Norte'’s bankruptcy: A long time coming 08 HP readies for Cisco's data centra assault 10 Cisco targets SMBs
12 Citrix invests in desktop virtualisation
IN ACTION
16 The Mouwasat Group of hospitals in Saudi have made significant investments in IT healthcare solutions
SI WATCH
18 Smart moves- Brocade is gunning for Cisco
INTERVIEW
38 TippingPoint's president talks about the evolution of |PS
TEST CENTRE
40 Cisco ASR 1000 router
NEW PRODUCTS
42 A guide to some of the new products in the market ASK THE EXPERTS
Trang 4EDITORIAL The 802.11n ripple effect Wirele: However, 802.1 1n is not totally devoid of has alway:
driving horror stori
Wi-Fi offerings- this new flavour of wireles
dynamic radio-frequency control; QoS; and such security functions a but barely delivered 5Mbps, and 802.11g technology that promised 50Mbps but barely delivered 20Mbp: Protected Access 2, and stateful firewalls
technology offers what most enterprises would look for: sues, The products available on the mi
been a worry Bandwidth limitations, security and a host of other reasons have made enterprise IT managers think twice about taking the plunge Without delving too deeply into the past, we all remember the war-
: buggy Wired Equivalent Privacy implementations, 802.1 1b technology that promised 10Mbps
Wi-Fi
technology has been a tad disappointing However, all that could change with the advent of 802.11, which of course is likely to be one of the most hot technologies this year With blazing speed ~ throughput 10 times higher than current
Power over Ethernet;
intrusion prevention and detection, Wi-Fi rket are based on the Draft 2 of the
802.1 1n, as the standard is yet to be ratified Now, the question is, will the final version of the standard be siginificantly different from the Draft vers m, Which might warrant new hardware? Jendors are trying to as ige that fear, Many people in
the industry like the chip manufacturers, vendors, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the TEEE are working to ensure that any of the changes do not threaten interoperability and thirdly, all of the major enterprise vendors are committed to maintaining interoperability between draft 2.0 and the final standard Another issue is that of powe1
more power than what the existing Power over Ethernet infrastructure ca have to update any wireless intrusion-detection s
Newer 802.1 1n access points are likely to require in offer, A recent Burton Group paper says you will ystems, because older systems won't be able to recognize 802.1 1n access points So, should you deploy 11 in 2009 or wait for all the kinks to be ironed out? The answer is, depends Though there seems to be enough compelling ‘ons to adopt earh standard is ratified and the full ecosystem is in place prior to adoption A Jeevan Thankappan Editor jeevan@cpidubai.com most enterprises, however, would be best served by waiting until the QUICK FINDER Page 6-26 Anuba, Dimension Data, Symantec, Brocade, Suphos, Micrusoft, Nortel, IL Equinox, FVC, ConSentry, D-Link Page 27-48 CommVault, 11,
'TibpingPoinl, Axis, Kingston,
Cisco, Trend Micro, Citrix, Riverbed, NetworkWorld MIDDLE EAST
CEO and Publisher
Dominic Be Sousa Editor Jeevan Thankappan Chief Designer Denis Fuentes Managing Director and Contributing Editors
Associate Publisher Fi Narayan Design Amit Patera Kotak’ Banga ‘Mande Banda Matk Cantalelo ‘Avalon Balbero Managing Editor and
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Trang 5fast lane
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THENEWS @ THE MONTH'S BIG STORY
NORTELS BANKRUPTCY: A LONG TIME COMING NORTEL’S DEMISE — PUNCTUATED BY BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION FILINGS — STARTED LONG
BEFORE THE ACCOUNTING SCANDAL OF 2004 AND THE MULTIMILLION DOLLAR QUARTERLY LOSSES THAT THE COMPANY HAS PILED UP SINCE
Nortel began unraveling after failing to capitalize | Networks and Alteon WebSystems — in an effort for Alteon alone, which at that time had annual on the huge acquisitions it made in the late to transform itself from a century-old voice revenue just shy of $200 million — came amidst 1990s and early 2000s It paid $15 billion for telephony stalwart into an IP voice and data the dot-com bubble
two companies back then — switch makers Bay powerhouse But the acquisitions — $7 billion Navigating that while trying to establish itself
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in new markets like IP routing, and LAN and Web switching did not allow the company to grow or take substantial share in those markets This
inability, coupled with declining revenue in its le steered Nortel irrevo voice business and the accounting scandal,
ably off-course this decade even as IP leader Cisco deftly managed and made the most of its multibillion dollar acquisitions ‘A deep-rooted complacency at Nortel didn’t help
matters either,
s an incumbent telco equipment maker, Nortel was way too slow to embrace the reality of the change in the market that they served,” says
Thomas Nolle, president of consultancy CIMI Corp “They should have been the No 1 provider
of routers to telcos Tubris prevented them
from strategically absorbing Bay even though they financially absorbed them.” (‘Dell'Oro lumps Nortel into the “other” category in the telco router market, which has a 4% share of the $2.2 billion pie in the third quarter, well behind leaders such as Cisco and Juniper)
Nortel plodded along for years with stagnant or declining growth in IP routing and Layers 2, 3 and
4-7 switching, compiling just a 3.8% share of the $18 billion market in 2007 Meanwhile, the fraud forced the company to restate years of financial results, a situation inherited by CEO Mike Zafirovski when he took the Nortel reins in 2005
But Zafirovski's efforts to restructure Nortel and get it back on track by focus ing on 4G wireless, unified communications for enterpr Carri fruitless — culminating in last week's bankruptcy Ethernet and services have been largely
protection filings Two days before the filing,
Nortel unveiled a new line of stackable Gigabit Ethernet switches
Some watchers believe Nortel assets in its Carrier, Ethernet Solutions and Metro Ethernet operations, which went on the block in September, will be sold off and its share in key
markets dispersed among competitors Others say Nortel may emerge focused solely on the
enterprise and services, leveraging its strength
in VoIP and alliance with Microsoft for unified communications
The entire unified communications market for the third quarter of 2008 was $3.1 billion,
according ta Dell'Oro Avaya led the pack with
Mike Zaflrovskl, CEO of Nortel
22% of that market followed by Cisco with 18%, then Nortel with 11%
Nortel is also third behind Avaya and Siemens in share of the $4.8 billion market for hybrid TP/ TDM PBXs in 2007, according to Dell'Oro The company is also gaining share in enterprise voice applications, according to the firm
A year ago, Nortel had a net profit of $27 million in the third quarter, but the company
posted a net loss of $3.4 million in the most recent third quarter, which ended Sept 30, 2008
Between the same periods, revenues dropped 14% The company’s market value, peaking at $250 billion in 2000, $275 million, week on the New York Stock Exchange, with its now close to 0.1% of that at ales of its stock were halted last
price at Wednesday's closing just 32 cents per share The company is under a NYSE warning
that it will be delisted in six months if the price doesn’t rise above $1
Legal filings to protect the company from its creditors came one day before it had to pay a $107 million bond payment The company says the bankruptcy filings reflect that it will take even more drastic measures to turn things around in
this economic environment than the $400 million cost-cutting campaign it outlined in November that called for se! s metro Ethernet division,
laying off 1,300 employees and shuttering facilities, Nortel has been unable so far to find a
bu for the metro Ethernet division
Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States will allow the company to
re business
reorganize and undertake a comprehen
and finaneial restructuring, Zafirovski “T firmly beli e these are the right steps toward a solution for our company,” he says in a public letter addressed to Friends of Nortel Despite its financial troubles, the company rele: a pres that it will continue its day-to-day business as usual
But filing for bankruptcy protection — which can result in creditors receiving less than they are owed — could influence decisions by suppliers and
distributors about how to conduct business with the
company Already, competitors such as Enterasys,
Extreme Networks and Juniper are swooping in to woo customers and channel partners
Ent
competitors’ customers a 100% credit on their ays it is offering Nortel and other
equipment, ITP ProCurve has no Nortel-specific
enticement; rather, customers and resellers are
coming to them, says Vice President and General
Manager Karl Soderlund
Some customers are remaining steadfast in support of Nortel, at least for the short term The
International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA) issued a statement saying it backed Nortel's decision and believes it will result in a
stronger enterprise focus
FILING FOR CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES WILL ALLOW THE COMPANY TO REORGANIZE AND UNDERTAKE A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING, SAYS ZAFIROVSKI
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UPDATE | @ HP PROCGURVE Equinox achieves [0C eo 1|) /- certification The Group has met the n ce requirements to Cartified Partner
ulf The Cisco
of only handful SiIv
in the UAE and tỉ
installing and supporting Cisco
In addition Silver Certified Partnet Pam s
and demonstrated a high level
Istomer satisfaction
Pee eum eRe RS Internationals ability to serve both
xisting and potential customers and help
the Group to deliver further value and Senet Osama Qadan, Principal Partner at Certificated lationship with FOIE gi reditation, the Gold
rking very hard cout to deliver better solutions and services to our clients everyday’ FVC appoints new GM in Saudi
FVC, one of the leading Value Added Distributors (VAD) in the Middle Ea North Africa (MENA) region, has revamped
Tees MCR oan ea seo with the appointment of a new General
XecutiVe briefing ces Salsh D, Al-
Mutairi, the new in KSA takes over the offic 'Youssef who has now mị
versee the Egypt o}
"Our Saudi Arabian operations have doubled its business year on year and
8_Network World Middle East February 2009
HP readies for Cisco’s data centre assault
HP PROCURVE HAS UNVEILED ITS FIRST SWITCHES BUILT SPECIFICALLY FOR DATA CENTRE APPLICATIONS, AS WELL AS A SERVER MODULE FOR EXISTING SWITCHES THAT ENABLES USERS TO BEGIN INTEGRATING AND CONSOLIDATING SWITCHING AND APPLICATION PROCESSING
There
of Mobil
4a AIShiny, 8eneral Manager HP ProCurve Middle East
centre server racks, is broadening the role of its ProCurve networking arm in those compute- intensive environments just.as Cisco is about to step into the data center server fray Cisco's ‘California’ blade servers, which will reportedly integrate switching, application processing and
virtualization in a single platform, are expected late
in the second quarter:
The release of California also is expected to strain relations between Cisco and ITP (and
also IBM), which previously have collaborated on complementary data center opportunities for networking and servers
IIP’s weapons for this battle include a new
IRU switch line optimized for top-of-rack data center switching applications The 6600 line includes five 1 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches, available in a variety of configurations The 6600 24-G sports 24 1Gbps RJ-45 ports and four 1Gbps SFP ports It has a 48Gbps switch fabric and a throughput of 36 million
packets/sec The 6600 24-G-4XG has 24 1Gbps RJ-45 ports, four 1Gbps SFP ports and four
10Gbps SFP+ interfaces It has a switching capacity of 101Gbps and a throughput of 74
million packets/sec
The 6600-48G features 48 1Gbps RJ-45 four 1Gbps SFP ports, a 96Gbps switch and throughput of 72 million packets/sec The 6600-48G-4XG has four 10Gbps SFP+ ports instead of the four 1Gbps SFP interfaces It has a switching capacity of 152Gbps and a throughput of 131 million packets/sec, The 6600 24-NG has 24 10Gbps SFP+ ports,
ps and a a switching capacity of 336(
throughput of 214 million packets/sec, The vendor has also announced it HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem (IIP ProCurve ONE), a multi-vendor alliance program that optimises the performance of enterprise-class applications with TIP ProCurve infrastructure Participating in the programme
are technology leaders such as Microsoft, Avaya, McAfee, F5 and Riverbed
Adaptive Networks is HP ProCurve’s vision
for the future in which networ!
dapt to us applications and an organisation's needs
“To help customers address the increased TIP ProCurve is combining its own technology with
pace of change within their businesses, some of the most innovative, respected and visionary companies in the world,” said Alaa AlShimy, General Manager of HP ProCurve Middle East
Establishing partnerships with major technology companies to deliver open-standards choices delivers business value by increasing the efficiency of network applications.”
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UPDATE |
m cisco
we needed to double our resources tơ support our partners ín the Kingdom,*
1°
a firm commitment to our partners and their custom sure that the level of service to be of
Mg 0 "sẽ
WiMax Forum looks toward roaming The WiMax Forum kicked off : initiative that soreday may be crỉ for making WiMax a true rival to cellular ƠNG 000 2 its Global R Tes) at helping mobile WiMax operators set IIp roaming be c online when they †ravel to areas served by other carriers The program offers
UP Sổ 1 ding
technical specifications, a manual, a template and a test plan, on the TÊN HẾ 007 operators ahead of launc pecifications for exchanging information to tr Eee aa CƠ ANC IR participants, including iPass and Verisign Trend Micro names new GM Trend Miero lias appointed Chris Moore l0 15) I0 0000 1Ú TC) Trend M Middle Ea
on further growil TaN
region with i†s business partn\
10_Network World Middle East February 200
Cisco targets
Small business
CISCO HAS UNVEILED PRODUCTS SPECIFICALLY FOR SMALL COMPANIES AS PART OF ITS RECENTLY ANNOUNCED $100 MILLION COMMITMENT TO THAT BUSINESS MARKET
storage and unified communications platforms
designed to be inexpensive and e:
sy to use for small businesses They include:
— The Cisco Spam & Virus Blocker — an appliance intended to protect a business’ network and data from viruses and malicious e-mail attacks while mitigating spam
— The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network
Storage S) stems — desktop network-attached storage deyices to secure and protect data and let employees share information — The Cisco Smart Business Communications em (SBCS) Release 1.4 — a collaboration tem that connects offices, and communications sy
employees and customers, and includes a wireless
desktop TP phone with Bluetooth capabilities "The products come [rom Cisco's newly Íormed Small Business Technology Group (SBTG), which is focused on developing technologies within six small/ midsize business priori security, connectivity; productivity; remote access, customer interaction and customer support The Cis 1 million false positives acura ) Spam & Virus Blocker features one in ys Security updates are automatically sent from the company’s
e-mail and Web traffic monitoring network Tt also
includes a four-step installation wizard that installs the appliance within minutes for most networks, Cisco says The Cis 2000 and NSS3000 storage devices let businesses automatically back up
oD
every version of every file from every PC and server, so that data can be easily restored They store and archive digital files such as video from an TP video surveillance camera, and encrypt files to comply with growing regulatory and security requirements
the Tlealth Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Users can store up to 2B of da NSS2000 2-Bay Gigabit Storage §
up to 4B of data using the NSS3000 4-Bay Gigabit ‘The Cisco SBCS release 1.4 s to connect telecommuters, for customer and financial information such ., Cisco says 1 using the tem chassis; and
Storage System chassi
enables smal] business
mobile workers and employees in disparate locations to enhance their ability to communicate and collaborate with customers and colleagues, Cisco says, Release 1.4 includes the Cisco SPAS2
TP Phone, which allows businesses to add phones in
3 Wireless
places where traditional phone lines or network cables are not present or can not be added
Also in SBCS release 1.4 are the Cisco 520 Series Secure Router to give local and remote employees secure access to the Internet and business data; and the Cisco Configuration Assistant version
1.9 to allow partners to easily set up and deploy the system for customers
THE PRODUCTS COME FROM CISCO’S NEWLY FORMED SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP (SBTG), WHICH IS FOCUSED ON DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN SIX SMALL/MIDSIZE BUSINESS PRIORITY AREAS
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5//-UPDATE
MEITRIX
Riverbed to buy Mazu for analysis tools
c1 86 Roe eet earnest
analysis to its offerings, allowin
Cu lefits of WAN optimization
Riverbed's Steelhead WAN (wide etwork) optimizatìon applìan
0 :§ N5 nhì!
appliances as products on their own but uld also integrate the Mazu †echnolog into its own products, said Eric Wolford,
a Poca ee
D17 010 Ti diagnose the need for River and then quantify its benefits, plus 1 15015 0 †o prove the value of a managed WAN optimization service Aruba updates WLAN management software DU 0 Ảnh cic)
version of is Witeless managernerIt
Cm s that let retailers and others monitor compliance with the
DI 0 0O rd Industry Data Security
).The suite can Tae the wireless network is in sync with the „ and where t To support for Ci features; monitoring of Ci ch TU
cept a management trap by LAN controller as soon as it SU mI aoe eae Uren 1 12_Network Warld Middle East February 200 Citrix invests in - desktop virtualisation
THE COMPANY INVESTS IN DESKTOP VIRTUALISATION START-UP VIRTUAL COMPUTER
and a half redefining itself as a virtualisation company, first purchasing the desktop and server virtualisation vendor XenSource and then placing the “Xen” name on its flagship appli
tion delivery
software to reflect a focus on virtualisation
Now Citrix is betting on a desktop virtu start-up called Virtual Computer, which was founded in Noyember 2007, to focus on the provisioning, publishing and patching of desktop and laptop operating systems Virtual Computer, whose NxTop software is in beta and is based on
open source Xen software, exited stealth mode in September and on Monday is announcing Citrix as a key investor ‘This is an interesting and exciting young company and we have a shared vision abut what's going on in the space,” says Andy Cohen, Citrix’s ‘We think it's important to help support people who are senior director of strategic development “ coalescing around Xen-based technologies.”
When asked if this might be the first step toward acquiring Virtual Computer, Cohen said,
Because of the shared vision
We own a small percentage of them now that's certainly a possibility Although Citrix and Virtual Computer both
make desktop virtualisation products and could potentially compete against each other, Virtual Computer is going after a part of the market that
Citrix has not yet addressed, Cohen s:
Virtual Computer's NxTop software is a bare metal, or “Type 1” hypervisor, whereas most desktop virtualisation products are “Type 2” and thus run on top of an operating system,
ys Virtual Computer CEO and co-founder
Call, Type 2 hypervisors are sometimes
vulnerable to various security, management and 1
performance problems, according to Mc Although Virtual Computer relies on
virtualisation software, the company is describing itself more broadly as a PC life-cycle management
vendor “In the centralised servi ” McCall s
y to manage 1,000 computers as it is to
; You create one operating system “We try to make it as manage one.” Citrix currently does not offer a Type 1 or Type
2 desktop hypervisor, instead using a server-based virtual desktop infrastructure, which is completely centralised and streams the entire virtual machine
out to clients, Cohen says
However, Citrix recently began collaborating with Intel to create a Xen-based Type 1 desktop
hypervisor, which would be more along the lines of what Virtual Computer has developed
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_— UPDAITE
SYMANTEC
Dimension Data gets Telepresence cred PETS EMIS cece) TelePresence Global Authoriz Technology Provider (ATP) status Teese Mee uc EEE CIS Mere Rutt prese with the skills to sell, design, install, CC, are delighted †o be ete)
See creme asco eo I Solutions at Dimension Data Paramount seminar in Dubai
Paramount Computer Systems is organizing a seminar on optimlzi Ene Re col aoe ea atc 16th February in Dubai at the Atlantis hotel Paramount has been doing
ars and ít 6 our vendors and customers The
Pan ae] Omen (eds lo 1 A00) eC CU Renae decision makers of the various reputed organizations of this
The main foeus of this event has n to create a platform †ơ bring
TS âu TT, s of this market In Ie ee cen Ca en this platform to introduce new
in this region The T6 5 6 0
Tena ead TN RCS Sem) afternoon half The workshops help our attendess get an in di understanding of the technolog! presented at the event
this event for the pas
14 Network Warld Middle East February 200
Doing more with less
DATA CENTRES FACE RISING EXPECTATIONS IN TIME OF RECESSION, SYMANTEC REPORT FINDS
ttl || 4
centre managers pursue today has a common goal: getting more work done with fewer resources, according to Symantec's second
annual “State of the Data centre”
report
Data centre managers are being asked to accomplish more and reduce costs, and are responding with various initiatives, from server
virtualization and consolidation to automation
of routine tasks and cross-training of IT staffs stretched increasingly thin,
IT budgets are still rising at some companies, but may not be keeping pace with the increasing amount of work data centres must perform, Symantec says in a report
based on interviews with managers, directors and vice presidents at 644 companies in the
United States, Cana Brazil and Mexico
‘The companies range in size from 5,000 to more than 50,000 employees, and the median company has 500 IT employees and between 30 and 49 data centres
“Expectations are rising faster than the
budgets,” says Marty Ward, director of product marketing for Symantec's data protection group “The budgets are still rising — which we found interesting ~ but they're not rising dramatically.” pate
Half of the companies say they « funding increases over the next 12 months, While 34% say the budget will stay the same
s With
“one would expect that and 16% expect de a deepening
ion, Symantec sa
this finding will change as companies begin to feel the full effect of the finar 8." Most of the budget increases are being taken up by ial ¢ ructure and facilit s such a: cos power, infr: while dises
tionary spending is taking a hit, Ward says Data centre operators said their top priority was reducing costs, while the goals of improving responsiveness, service levels and
availability were secondary
s ‘to-do’ list is
“The IT manag s long as ever,” Symantec writes “Applications continue to grow in number and complexity Servers
remain underutilized Storage continues to
but is also underutilized And disaster-recovery are still not
plans — more important that ev fully complete.”
Symantec also examined the state of disaster-
recovery planning, and found good and bad
news Nearly two-thirds of companies report having average, pretty good or excellent disaster- recovery plans for their data centres The remaining 36% say their disaster-recovery plans either need work or are undocumented, which Ward believes is a high proportion considering that the survey targeting only companies with
at least 5,000 employees “These aren't small
companies,” Ward says
DATA CENTRE MANAGERS ARE BEING ASKED TO ACCOMPLISH MORE AND REDUCE COSTS, AND ARE RESPONDING WITH VARIOUS INITIATIVES, FROM SERVER VIRTUALIZATION AND CONSOLIDATION TO AUTOMATION OF ROUTINE TASKS AND CROSS-TRAINING OF IT STAFFS STRETCHED INCREASINGLY THIN
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Reflections and Innovations Ahead’
ead Lê 6 ebruary 8 - 9 at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai S
Registration for this exclusive event is strictly by invitation only
IDC MENA CIO Summit 2009 oO
Regional Representation - ClOs
OVERVIEW:
IDC's exclusive ClO Summit 2009 is about the CIO and for the ClO Individual Lebanon Pablstant
conferences will examine the evolving role of the ClO within the organization, the S85 hen
relationship with line-of-business and financial decision makers, and, ultimately, 7% detail how IT underpins business-critical processes to impact the bottom line Qatar Aiming to build upon the success of its inaugural CIO Summit in 2008, IDC’s latest 9% installment — running under the theme of 'Reflections and Innovations Ahead! — will
bring together the top 100 IT end users from across the Middle East, Levant, Kuwait Pakistan, and North Africa to interact with the world's leading ICT players and their 9% senior global representatives The event will provide a priceless opportunity for
industry insiders to discuss and share their unique solutions for overcoming day-to-day professional challenges It will present a view into the world of the ClO in 2009, analyzing the key challenges they face today, their expenditure and budgets, and the technologies and solutions they are looking to deploy over the next 12-24 months
CRITICAL THEMES ADDRESSED AT THE SUMMIT: 4%
The Global Economic Crisis and What It Means for ICT F
Compute More / Consume Less Industry Representation - ClOs
Tales from the Compliance Edge eal Estate Weathering The Crisis: From Operational Excellence to Management Excellence i 2%
Data Center Trends that are Redefining the way IT will be Deployed in Businesses RgiÍirädIng
Managing the Physical Layer -High density's Imperative for Integrated 2%
Management Systems Healthcare
The way forward - Technologies and delivery solutions essential to surviving in the i 1%
current economy
Readying your business for Cloud Services
Creating the GREEN strategic plan for today’s ICT while saving money ee eee Se
Aligning IT to the CXO's Agenda (Panel Discussion)
SOA imperatives of Today and a Vision for the Future € ‘onstruction : Strategies for Lower Carbon Economies 5% The Skills Gap in the New Age of Technology Advancement (Panel Discussion)
Predictions for the ICT Industry Oil & Gas 10% ( http:/www.ide-cema.com/events/ciouae09_) soup Companies 10% ICT Partner Summit Partners Platinum Partners ma ¬ meee Ù aun
ly Sehnelder tieric Alcatel-Lucent
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IN ACTION: MOUWASAT
HEALTHY DOSE O
Having recently added the Mouwasat Hospital in Riyadh to its existing chain of hospitals in Dammam, Jubail, Madinah and Qatif, the Mouwasat Healthcare Group in the Kingdom of Saudi (KSA) is on a mi The Group's mission is a simple one ~ to esta
sh itself as a dominant force to be reckoned with in healthcare provision in the Middle East region
In addition, Mouwasat is also shaping
itself into a healthcare chain that delivers comprehensive healthcare and medical services
to patients throughout the KSA and the entire Middle East region by adopting the latest state-
of the art technologies
Clearly, technology standardisation of hardware and software platforms, as well as process within
the group's IT infrastructure is priority as the hospital group adopts the latest healthcare solutions
THE MOUWASAT GROUP OF HOSPITALS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA [KSA] KNOWS THAT TO IT
CONTINUE PROVIDING QUALITY HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL SERVICES, IT NEEDS TO HAVE STATE-OF- THE ART TECHNOLOGY THE GROUP HAS OVER THE YEARS MADE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS AND INNOVATIONS IN IT HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS AIMED AT ELIMINATING INEFFICIENCIES IN THE DELIVERY OF HEALTH SERVICES, WRITES NWME’S CONTRIBUTING EDITOR MANDA BANDA
that meet the ever changing landscape of medical
services in the region By standardising its processes, the Mouwasat group is hoping to eliminate the duplication of process through out its hospitals, a move that will assist all its hospitals to have a
single view of a patient’s history To achieve this,
the healthcare group is aware that it can not be
content with just implementing the latest and advanced technology The company says it needs to
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utilise technology to better serve and provide quality healthcare and efficient medical services to patients Although the group has used IT healthcare solutions
in its network of hospitals, pharmacies, medical
centres and education centre,
's coming up with an integrated ITT infrastructure which meets regulatory and corporate governance issues on the one hand and providing patients with excellent medical care on the other that Mouwasat needs to get right
‘This means, overcoming day-to-day challenges
that hinder the provision of medical services that any healthcare provider faces in this sector, For the Mouwasat Group, ensuring that the group's billing
systems, accounting and financial systems, patient
history and medical records archiving systems and electronic insurance filing systems are in order is of utmost importance In addition, the Mouwasat needs to link its chain of hospitals with an efficient and reliable network platform that meets today’s
data, voice and video
converged network that carri all on the same network
IT Infrastructure
With more than 4000 employees in the group comprising doctors, nurses, paramedics, administration and other supporting staff, the company has had to implement an integrated ERP system to effectively manage its day-to-day functions management of the
hospitals and other administrative related functions
‘Ali H Ghunaim, IT manager at Mouwasat Group, says as the group’s network of hospital continues to grow, it has become imperative for the company to continue investing in innovative technologies that help it to manage not only the growth but also propel
it forward in healthcare provision Ghunaim says the
group already boasts a wireless IP Telephony network
infrastructure, video conferencing solutions and is also
exploring possibilities in the TelePresence space
On the administration side of the business,
Ghunaim says the Mouwasat Group has implemented
the Oracle ERP solution on its back-end and has centralised its entire administration operation across the all the hospitals, pharmacies, medical centres and the education centre However, despite all these IT
investments, Ghunaim says it is meaningless to have the best IT healthcare solutions when your patients have to wait for long hours before receiving any medical attention “As we implement new technologies, we take cognisance of the fact that any technology we implement should improve the overall patient
experience,” he says Ghunaim says that the technology implementations have had to come with some
challenges “Eventually through our ERP systems the group is moving towards an integrated billing, medical hi
for medical insurance as required by the KSA lav,” he jory archiving and electronic filing system
says He says all these governance issues and regulatory requirements have meant that Mouwasat implements
technology that is resilient and reliable
‘The Mouwasat Group has Cisco as it main platform for the group’s entire network infrastructure and will continue to innovate and implement technologies that assist its network of hospitals in KSA to provide the highest of standard of medical care,
Brief history
‘The origin of the Mouwasat Group dates back to 1975, when the Mouwasat Dispensary in Dammam
was launched — the first private medical clinic in
that region, Four years later in 1979, Mouwasat
undertook the operation and the administration of the clinics in the residential area of Jubail industrial
city, through a 9-year operation contract amounting
to more than SAR 400 million
In 1984, Mouwasat established its first owned
comprehensive medical facility which was named
Al-Mouwasat Hospital in Dammam with the actual operation starting in 1988 This start is considered to be the real start of the healthcare Group and the cornerstone which led to establishing other Mouwasat medical facilities through the KSA In the years
that followed in 2000, the Group started operating Mouwasat Medical Dispensary in Al-Ahsa, and
Mouwasat Hospital in Madinah through a rental contract with a duration of 20 years
Looking ahead
With a two to three year IT budget of approximately
US$4million, Mouwasat would like to continue
investing in technology that has a positive impact
on the provison of healthcare services in the Middle
East To this end, Mouwasat plans to enhance the its chain of hospitals and medical centres with
cated IP Telephony infrastructure that makes it easy for inter-hospital and hospital
as sophisti
communication In addition, the Group would like to integrate all its back-end systems, a move it believes
ill give it a centralised a consolidated view of its
entire operations
Ghunaim adds that today, the medical network of Mouwasat hospital and medical fa ‘ilities cover
the main cities in the KSA including Dammam, Riyadh, Al-Qatif, Al-Khobar, Jubail, Madina, and AL-Ahsa *
rapid pace,” he notes It is important for us to focus
We have grown and continue to do so at a on ways which will help us to manage this growth prudently without compromising services to patients.” He says by implementing technologies that simplifies healthcare delivery to patients, the company is keeping its promise of being a trusted medical services provider in the region
Ghunaim emphasises that new technology adoption and rollouts throughout its chain of hospitals is not, just about having the latest technology, but how the
company can leverage off its
ting IT healthcare solutions’ infrastructure and build better business solutions that delivers the bottom line “At the end of the day, it’s is the bottom line that counts With most vendors such as Sony Professional and Cisco Systems pushing for TelePresence solutions for the healthcare industry, Mouwasat will definitely be following developments in this space closely
“TelePresence solutions in the healthcare sector are becoming mainstream, with public and private sector hospitals in the Middle East jumping onto the bandwagon Going by the group's innovative approach to using technology in its core business of
offering healthcare services, it will be sooner rather
than later that the company adopts TelePresence and other video conferencing solutions for its hospitals When that happens, it will be mission accomplished for Mouwasat
TELEPRESENCE SOLUTIONS IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR ARE BECOMING MAINSTREAM, WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR HOSPITALS IN THE MIDDLE EAST JUMPING ONTO
THE BANDWAGON
Trang 18
VENDOR WATCH >>
SMART MOVES
WITH THE ACQUISITION OF FOUNDRY HAVING CLOSED, BROCADE |S AIMING TO BECOME CISCO'S CHIEF COMPETITOR FOR CUSTOMERS THROUGHOUT THE DATA CENTRE
Brocade is already the top player by market share in the modular SAN switch market, ahead of second-place Cisc
Acquiring Foundry and its switching and routing technology gives Brocade a foothold in the enterprise LAN and service provider market
Following its McData acquisition, Brocade has garnered around 80 percent market share in the SAN switch market “Foundry acquisition will catapult us into the big league We are talking about $20 billion addressable TP
N
market as opposed to around $2 billion S/
connectivity market Though the IP space is new for Brocade, our goal is to provide robust, cost- effective alternatives to Cisco in the
switching and routing market for enterprises and service Khalid Khalil, Brocade’s Sales A He says the two compani providers,” says Manager for M technologies are complementary, he says Foundry will
bring Brocade an Ethernet portfolio for LANs,
complementing its Fibre Channel SAN technology
But the purchase wasn't made to help Brocade
tackle the emergence of Ethernet in storage Brocade was already working toward that with “lossless Ethernet” technology that gi in SANs, he adds The company has already
es Ethernet the deterministic quality required
developed its own silicon for this emerging < Backbone multiprotocol storage switch, which will support the future Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) standard, according to Khalil
technology and put it in the DC
The company has not yet detailed how it will integrate Foundry’s ‘Iron’ switches and routers It did say, however, that the buy would not result
18_Network World Middle East Februar
Trang 19in downsizing at either Brocade or Foundry “Though Foundry will cease to exist, we are not planning to change the product brand names after assimilation into our fold,” says Khalil It’s would compete with Cisco in the FCoE market ly
smart move for Brocade who typi
Cisco, who has dominated Ethernet forever,
may face increasing press
ure from storage
networking buyers who are considering FCoE and the converged network Hesitant to switch to Cisco, these buyers will now be able to rely
on Brocade to supply their Fibre Channel/ Ethernet needs
Brocade, who dominates the Fibre Channel market, will now have an additional entry into FCoE with Foundry’ and routers combined with its own Fibre Channel Ethernet switche
and storage-savvy products
Khalil also discussed the future of Fibre
Channel over Ethernet, an emerging technology
that lets the Fibre Channel storage protocol take advantage of 10Gigabit Ethernet networks
Brocade is ready to release FCoE products
but doesn’t believe there is enough demand,
he says The primary benefit of FCoE is the consolidation of cables and adapters, but that can also be achieved simply by using blade servers, Khalil says
“There is a lot of hype around FCoE What Lis
work on Ethernet as we know it today What it
people don’t r is that the technology doesn't
requires is converged enhanced Ethernet, which
“T don't think [FCoE]
going to be big in 2009 I think we could see
some adoption in the back half of 2010,” he adds Brocade has publicly discussed its FCoE is yet to be standardi road map but is holding back on releasing a comprehensive product
“The more intriguing implications of the union
will be to the rest of the Ethernet switching
market Cisco's 70%-plus market share dwarfs that of other players — Nortel, HP ProCurve, Force10 Networks, Extreme Networks, Enterasys Networks
and new entrant Juniper, among them This deal
leaves them further behind, observers note
And though Foundry was one of the Ethernet switching companies fighting an uphill battle against Cisco for market share, Brocade picked the best of the lot, according to
BROCADE IS BETTER ABLE THAN CISCO TO COOPERATE WITH KEY SYSTEM VENDORS SUCH AS IBM, HP AND EMC BECAUSE OF ITS DEEP, LONGTIME RELATIONSHIPS WITH THOSE COMPANIES
industry analysts A bonus for Brocade, they
say, is the technology depth for future product
innovation and Foundry’s presence, albeit tiny, in service provider routing
Also, Brocade is better able than Cisco
to cooperate with key system vendors such
as IBM, HP and EMC because of its deep,
longtime relationships with those companies
Interoperability with other vendors’ products will be critical as enterprises ease into
transformations of their data centers We already have an OEM agreement with IBM and are talking to other system vendors Recent
moves by Cisco, including its rumoured fray
into the blade server market, make it look
more like a competitor of the system vendors, he said Cisco has been pushing to put more of
Trang 20II T4
NAC: NOW:
OR NEVER? NEW TECH GADGETS AND A HIGHLY MOBILE WORKFORCE HAVE
RAISED THE SECURITY STAKES FOR CORPORATE NETWORKS NETWORK ACCESS CONTROL TO THE RESCUE? PERHAPS, BUT EXPERTS DEBATE THE VALUE AND USERS FACE A CONFUSING MORASS OF OPTIONS
Today's highly mobile workforce, along with a plethora of new tech gadget :
has raised the
Laptops, PDAs and cell phones were just the beginning The number of Internet from anywher stakes for corporate netwi network threats has increased exponentially, with VoIP phone capabilities, Web a from hotels, dorm rooms, airports and coffee shops, and even internal sabotage
Access Control (NAC), a set of technologies that aim to ensure that only authorized
Networ
users with fully patched and virus-protected hardware can access corporate resources, is more important than ever—not just for outside guests gaining accesses to internal networks, but for employees who have no business in the company’s more data-sensitive systems
A full NAC cycle solution includes pre-admission
inspection and post-admission monitoring, a policy decision and enforcement point, and a method of quarantine and remediation for noncompliant
the m
machines, When a user requests access, is checked and, if found to be compliant, it is allowed to access the network, Post-admission monitoring will ensure that the user stays compliant by entering the assessment/decision/enforcement process again periodically: If the user is found to be noncompliant, NAC solutions should offer a means of quarantine and remediation to bring the user
into compliance The user should then be allowed to
access the network, once again under post-admission monitoring NAC roadblocks
Adoption of NAC solutions has been slow The
realities of the economy are starting to hit NAC, The firm’s estimate of the market for NAC enforcement
according to market analysis firm Infoneti
THIS YEAR THE QUESTIONS FOR CUSTOMERS WILL BE WHERE DO WE DEPLOY NAC, AND HOW MANY NAC FEATURES DO WE TURN ON? MOST CUSTOMERS TODAY ARE USING NAC JUST TO CONTROL GUEST ACCESS THAT'S IMPORTANT, BUT THE TECHNOLOGY CAN DO MORE
20_Network World Middle East Februar
Trang 21
appliances has shrunk based on its most recent numbers Last year at this time, the firm's
prediction was for $670 million in worldwide
revenues for the appliances by 2010 But based on new results, the number has been changed to $534 million by 2011
“The NAC market is struggling with adoption when defined in terms of the pure access control Customers
es
are generally unprepared to rip
out network infrastructure and
take on huge disruption and cost to advance their authentication
on connection This combined with budgetary constraints is limiting the adoption of this market
in the mainstream,” says Michelle Rae McLean, Director, Product Marketing, ConSentry Networ!
Mohammed Arif, Product Manager, Server & Tools, Microsoft Gulf, offeres a different perspective: “NAC technology has gone through
many iterations over the past few years, becoming
more mature and
asier to adopt Customer
adoption historically has been hampered by confusion about NAC requirements, technologies and policies, though customers understand the benefits clearly, You have seen vendors like Microsoft and Cisco collaborate to address interoperability concerns that customers might have And the industry has begun to standardize on a select number of NAC architectures, and you'll see more standardization and interoperability efforts moving ahead We also see a shift from traditional infrastructure and appliance based solutions to software based solutions Regulation, compliance and security concerns remain the primary drivers for adoption
Gartner Research Director Lawrence Orans
says there are three issues causing network managers to delay deployment of network access control solutions,
“People tell us they think the technology is too immature,” Orans says, but that’s not entirely true “There are some very strong proven solutions from small companies, and you have some of the big players out there making the biggest noise.” For starters, Microsoft in February began shipping its Network Access Protection (NAP) solution with Windows Server 2008 product and a framework,” s Robert
Whiteley, a senior analyst at Forrester, “The framework has been around, so there are bits and pieces» that companies have been deploying, but
they couldn't fully commit until now, he says Cisco's Network Admission Control solution
has also been released but hasn't lived up to some
analysts’ and users’ expectations, “That combination of events has caused people to view the technology
as not mature,” Orans adds, but it has also created a window of opportunity for the little guys
Last year was a turning point for NAC, however The si and everything looks like it’s falling into pl indards battles appear to have been resolved,
Customers apparently decided to wait for Microsoft to deliver its NAC products
Trang 22oad C3 rt vluct Manager,
has become a no-brainer for many customers
NAP represents a clear choice, rather than a
technology that requires extensive research, RFPs,
product tests and evaluations, and so forth Another important development has been the collaboration between Microsoft and Cisco, Microsoft and Cisco understand customers
needs for interoperability and have collaborated to enable rich interoperability between the
Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) and Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) solutions This interoperability will
ize the benefits of both
NAC and NAP while using and preserving
allow customers to re:
their investments in their NAC network and Microsoft NAP desktop and server infrastructure
NAC CONTINU
Customers now have a choice between Cisco NAC, Microsoft NAP, or the interoperable solution from both companies,”
‘ion
The joint architecture allows communic: and policy enforcement across Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP, enabling an end-to-end solution to be built around the Cisco and Microsoft interoperability Technology partners of the Microsoft NAP and Cisco NAC eco
also refer to the joint architecture for building stems can
solutions that work within the joint framework
Microsoft has also announced interoperability agreements with TCG’s Trusted Network Connect (TNC) architecture and Nortel's Secure
Network Access (SNA) Whither NAC?
‘This year the questions for customers will be where do we deploy NAC, and how many NAC
features do we turn on? Most customers today are using NAC just to control guest access That's important, but the technology can do more
NAC for guest access control is of course
useful, but the more expensive and difficult
problem to solve, A greater value in most organizations can be attributed to the post admission assessment and measurement of risk Most businesses start of wanting to solve guest access control but end up focusing further on the managed estate to secure additional value As technology in the infrastructure matures we will
see more aggressive use of pre-admission and integration of the endpoint agent
“NAC continuously a:
ses computers, on
or off the network, to ensure compliance with an organisation's security policy If a contractor
or employee’s computer, for instance, does not comply with the company’s IT policy, access Dr Kamel Tlues, Senior Business Development Manager MEA, Sophos to the network is not granted,”
Y ASSESSES COMPUTERS, ON OR OFF THE NETWORK, TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH AN ORGANISATION’S SECURITY POLICY
NAC OPTIONS
NetWork Access Control choices fall into three general categories Here are some of the leading vendors |n each graup
NAC |nfrastructure Provider: "co HP oe yey Nortel Networks: NA Appliance Vendors: lsco S/stems ConSentry Networks To MEU Cd Lackdawn Networks Mirage Netwarks Nevis Networks: TipplngPolnt—lntruslon PreyeiitIgii System appllance: Aruba Networks Endpọnt Software Vendors: Bradford Networks: fee aia lmpulse Paint InfiExpress D2 S2 Spphos Tụ
On the post-admission side, it can make sure that a clean machine remains that way, and that users access only those parts of the network to
which they have authorization
Though potential NAC use may have become confused by the marketing din generated by
many vendors, what is for sure is that NAC
is slowly emerging as a ‘must-have’ security solution for companies looking to ensure compliance
ith external industry and regulatory
Trang 23Communications for Enterprise
connect TEE
Strategic Telecoms Summit CEO Forum
Reserve your space TODAY!
Trang 24II ĐT
VỤ Si me
LAN ZONE
The building that houses Seven Seas
headquarters Without delving too deeply into ng buggy Wired Equivalent Privacy the past, we all remember the war-dri horror stor
implementations, 802.11b technology that promised 10Mbps but barely delivered 5Mbps, 802.11g technology that promised 50Mbps but barely delivered 20Mbps, and prolonged standards battles over 802.11n
Yes, Wi-Fi technology has been a tad disappointing On the other hand, we have come
to expect and appreciate wireless networks in our
homes, coffee shops, rports and hotels And emplo) await the wir s workplac In our test of 802.1 1n a controller: cess points and 802.1 1n technology delivered impressive data rates of 250Mbps per ac
point In addition, it delivered solid performance
numbers on latency and jitter, which means it
can support such real-time applications as yoice and video The systems we tested had a variety
802.11N WIRELESS NETWORKS ENHANCE THE CORPORATE NETWORK BY COMBINING THE MOBILITY AND FLEXIBILITY OF WIRELESS WITH THE THROUGHPUT AND PERFORMANCE OF WIRED NETWORKS
ees, particularly younger ones, impatiently
FOR NOW IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, BUT 802.11N IS
FINALLY HERE AND THAT MEANS WIRELESS LANS NOW ARE A VIABLE REPLACEMENT FOR WIRED LANS
of enterprise-level features, such as Power over radi
Ethernet; dynami frequency control; QoS; and such security functions as intrusion
prevention and detection, Wi-Fi Protected Access
2, and stateful firewalls Should you bite? Rabih Dabbousi
ems Engineer Director ns why the WLAN market share leader believes 802.1 1n is ready for
prime time now, “802.11n wireless networks
enhance the corporate network by combining
the mobility and flexibility of wireless with the
throughput and performance of wired networks
The corporate environment is going through a technology transformation and wireless access plays a crucial role in this transformation
With the emerging collaboration and interaction tools and applications such as
High-Definition video conferencing, the need
26 Network World Middle East Februar
Trang 25for reliable, high bandwidth coverage is more
important than eve:
Nicole M sst Marketing Manager, D- Link Middle
the mainstream wireless technology this year
ays, 802.11n will become “The migration to 802.11n has al:
ady begun and 802.11n clients can now increasingly be found in laptops, notebooks and DMAs The additional boost is expected to take shape with
efficient wireless
the soon to-be-launched, cos
N products from manufacturers like D-Link As a consequence, the price gap between Lig and 11n products will shrink significantly so
that 11n products will be obtainable at almost
the same rates as 11g products, which - in turn
- will facilitate the migration to 11n." The industry also believes the fact that 802.11n is yet to be ratified will not hinder
adoption, “Customers are no more asking
for fully ratified 802.11N standard products
as the standard is taking too long and the
ailable revisions of the standards are almost
set for no more hardware changes, plus the fact that the industry has already produced millions of 802.11N đevic( at current revision,” Rabih Dabbous!, Systems eng
THE CHOICE GETS TRICKY, HOWEVER, WHEN IT COMES TO
EXISTING NETWORKS IF YOU ALREADY HAVE SOME 802.11A/B/G/, KEEP IN MIND THAT RUNNING A MIXED NETWORK WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED BANDWIDTH
Ammar Ena East and Africa
Meier adds that people can invest in the
, Sales Director - Aruba Middle
technology without fear for a number of reasons First of all, organizations like the Wi-Fi Alli
by verifying that the systems from different
nce ensure multi-yendor interoperability
manufacturers can be used within the same wireless infrastructure If consumers are cautious to purchase only 802.11n products that are Draft 2.0 certified by the Wi-Fi
Alliance, they simultaneously
choose solutions
with features that are most likely to be expected ndard, Secondly, the draft 2.0 features are very unlikely to change in a way
in the final
that threatens the interoperability, she says When it comes to new construction, 802.11n
should be the default choic
The choice gets ng
some 802.1 la/b/ g/, keep in mind that running a mixed network ntly reduced bandwidth tricky, however, when it comes to exis networks If you already hav will result in significa So what's the best way to migrate from existing b/g infrastructure to 11n? ion servi
Cisco provides detailed migr:
from existing wireless infrastructure, namely 802.11 a/b/g, to 802 department follows the following steps with In The corporate IT
this detailed appr Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate and Optimize
These steps involve both business and technical requirements development, network architecture reviews and design, site readiness assessment, Operational readiness assessment
and a migration plan, Compatibility and co-
location with a/b/g based networks is a must Migrating to n technologies doesn't just end with ace s points, In addition to 802.11 ac wireless controllers also need to support your points, newly deployed n network It is also essential
to ensure end-user devices such as laptops, servers and smart phones support the new technology, says Dabboussi
Enaya talks about other methods including
an AP-overlay approach, which means the “Draft-n' network would be planned as if there were no existing network, for optimum placement of the new APs The old and new networks will be able to operate in parallel if c
and when the new one is complete and all eis taken with RF channel allocation, clients are 802.11n-capable, the old APs can
be de-installed or abandoned, For th ‘heme, it is important that the radio planning and
management algorithm of the WLAN can manage 802.1 1a, b, g and ‘Draft-n’ cells
and APs simultaneou:
another option In this model,
are swapped one-for-one with ne’
APs If every AP is replaced with ‘Draft-n’, the resulting network will have plenty of capacity
~ resulting in perhaps a three-fold improvement,
depending on the mix of 802.1 1a/g and ‘Draft-
n’ clients — but will have more APs that would
be strictly necessary In most networks it will be
possible to abandon some AP locations ~ either
running an RF planning tool, or using RF self-
calibration tools on a network mid-way through migration will give an indication of whether this is feasible A network of mixed ‘Draft-n’ and 802.1 1a/g or even 80:
indefinitel:
11b APs can operate this is a possible solution where
Trang 26
FEATURE HOT TECHNOLOGIES FOR 09 =<" 802.11n
It’s been ä long tỉme coming, bụt 802.11n is finally here And that means wireless LANs now are a viable replacement for wired LANs
In Network World’s groundbreaking test of 802.1 1n access points and controllers, 802.11n technology delivered impressive data rates of 250Mbps
ss point, In addition, it
delivered solid performance numbers on latency and jitter, which means it can support such
e and video The systems we tested had a variety of enterprise-
real:
ime applications as voi
level features, such as Power over Ethernet; dynamic radio-frequency control; QoS; and such security functions as intrusion prevention and detection, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2, and stateful
OUR ANNUAL LIST OF HOT TECHNOLOGIES INCLUDES A FEW THAT EXPLODED ON THE SCENE RECENTLY PLUS SOME THAT HAVE BEEN SIMMERING FOR YEARS AND JUST NOW ARE COMING INTO THEIR OWN
firewalls When it comes to new construction,
802.1 1n should be the default choice The choice gets tricky, however, when it comes to existing
networks If you already have some 802.1 1a/b/ g/, keep in mind that running a mixed network will result in significantly reduced bandwidth In our tests, mixed-mode throughput was 24% of the throughput in an all-802.11n network Nevertheless, no matter how you decide to roll it out, 802.1 1n is ready for the enterprise
Unified communications: Getting warmer Unified communications is one of those
technologies that’s seemingly forever been on the verge of exploding but has never really become hot
Maybe the reason is that the term «unified communications» means different things to different people To the telecom manager,
it means replacing the tried-and-true PBX with an IP-PBX from a traditional telephony hardware vendor or from an open source start- up - or maybe even jumping to a software-based platform from Microsoft
To the desktop user, it means switching to an IP-based phone and taking advantage
of a variety of such UC-based productivity applications as audio- and videoconferencing, instant messaging and presence, integrated
voice and e-mail
UC technology isn’t setting the world on fire, but it is spreading inexorably across enterprise networks Nemertes Research
Trang 27an initial planning phase; 28% have a limited deployment of specific applications that make up the technology, or a full deployment to a limited number of people; and 19% have developed their
strategies and are implementing the technology companywide
10 Gigabit Ethernet
In 2001, when 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches
were introduced, the average per-port cost was
$39,000, according to IDC
Today, a 10G Ethernet port costs less than
$4,000, which makes 10G Ethernet switches
affordable for the enterprise wiring closet or data center With ongoing data-center server
consolidation, not to mention the needs of service providers and high-volume Web sites,
standards groups and vendors are hard at work
on 40 Gigabit Ethernet and even 100 Gigabit Ethernet For now, however, 10G Ethernet is the
industry standard, and customers are flocking
to 10G Ethernet switches Switch-based 10G
Ethernet port shipments grew by 140% in 2007,
Infonetics Research reports Worldwide revenue for 10G Ethernet services and equipment will hit
nearly $9.5 billion by year-end, a 30% increase from last year, the firm predicts
If your Fast Ethernet boxes are becoming
stressed, this might be the time to move to 10G
Ethernet Per-port prices are coming down and feature sets are going up A recent Network
World test of seven 10G Ethernet switches
found these products offer not only powerful packet-pushing capabilities but also 802.1X
authentic:
ion, enhanced multicast support, protection against denial-of-service attacks and IPV6 support The test demonstrated that these switches have extensive management and security features, which are just as important as how many packets they can move per second
Virtualization
By now, you've most likely implemented some
level of x86 server virtualization So, the question of the moment is this: Does data-center virtualization on x86 boxes represent the end of
your virtualization efforts or just the beginning?
What about storage virtualization? What about desktop virtualization? What about application virtualization? What about
virtualizing all your data-center hardware
including Unix boxes and mainframes? Those are the key, long-term virtualization questions facing IT executives Once you've started down the road to decoupling the underlying technology infrastructure from the services you're providing to the business,
doesn’t it make sense to extend that strategy
across the enterprise?
If you're inclined to agree, the next logical step would be storage virtualization, because you're dealing with another technology residing
in the data center
The advantages of creating a virtual storage pool include lower-cost data migration,
easier storage-resource management, common
ation services and the ability to maximize and extend your storage resources Client virtualization, which comes in a variety of options, also offers real benefits In the hosted virtual-desktop setup, applications are hosted on a server and users work on thin-client machines This would be ideal, for example, in a call center
Most companies today are in the first stage of virtualization, says Gartner analyst George Weiss This means they’re consolidating and virtualizing servers as cost-cutting measures, typically with a single vendor
The next phase would be using virtualization technology for the dynamic
allocation of resources across servers And
THE TWO MOST COMMONLY CITED EXAMPLES OF CLOUD OFFERINGS COME FROM AMAZON.COM AND GOOGLE, BOTH OF WHICH BASICALLY RENT THEIR DATA-CENTER RESOURCES TO OUTSIDE CUSTOMERS
the final phase, which won't occur for several
more years, is heterogeneous virtualization, the ability to move workloads dynamically across hardware platforms
Cloud computing
As we arrive at 2009, cloud computing is
the technology creating the most buzz Cloud technology is in its infancy, however, and
enterprises would be wise to limit their efforts to small, targeted projects until the technology matures and vendors address a variety of potentially deal-breaking problems
The two most commonly cited examples of cloud offerings come from Amazon.com and Google, both of which basically rent their data-
center resources to outside customers
For example, Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) lets customers rent virtual- machine instances and run their applications on Amazon's hardware Other services under the EC2 umbrella include storage and databases in the cloud Amazon uses Xen for virtualization and offers customers a choice of Linux, Solaris or Windows operating systems
The pitch is that customers can take advantage of Amazon’s expertise in running
large data centers, that customers pay only for
the compute and storage resources they use, and that Amazon can scale up or down easily, depending on the demand That's the most basic level of cloud computing - infrastructure in the cloud In this scenario, the customer is aware of and makes choices concerning the infrastructure itself
The next level is cloud computing as a Web development platform The best example is Google’s App Engine, a place where Web application developers can upload code (as long as it’s written in Python) and let Google’s infrastructure take care of deploying the application and allocating compute resources The third level is running enterprise applications in the cloud A cloud vendor could host an enterprise application and take responsibility for that application’s availability and performance Gartner predicts e-mail will become one of the first enterprise applications
that move to the cloud
Trang 28
PERSPECTIVE >> FIVE KEYS FOR DATA CENTRE ENERGY SAVINGS ENERGY SAVINGS ARE THERE TO BE FOUND IN MOST DATA
CENTERS HERE ARE FIVE PLACES TO LOOK FOR THEM
Retrofitting a data centre is about managing limitations and trade-offs De sion-makers have to consider physical limits (such as the weight a floor will support and how much cooling ©) Then there's infrastructure to think about: It would equipment can fit into an existing s be difficult to swap out an old uninterruptible
power supply (UPS) cable for a brand-new one Such restrictions have an impact on energy efficiency to
: Existing UPS cables generally operate at 85 percent efficiency, whereas the newest ones are in the range of 97.5 percent To reach the highest efficiency numbers, you’d need to change your entire data centre architecture, which is impractical for most companies
Retrofitting a data centre to make it more energy efficient has its restrictions, but doing so can be less costly than having to rebuild an entire facility To weigh the variables—and achieve energy cost savings - you need to know what's broken Here are five tips for determining the efficiency of your data centre and how to make it green as can be
1 Get to know your data centre
An energy efficiency assessment from someone who specializes in data centres should be a
priority, says Neil Rasmussen, CTO of American
Power Conversion (APC), a provider of data
centre power and cooling equipment IBM, EYP Mission Critical, Syska Hennessy, APC and Hewlett-Packard offer such services
HP recently added Thermal Zone Mapping
to its
ssment offering This service uses heat sensors and mapping analysis software to pinpoint problem areas in the data centre and helps you adjust things as needed, says Brian Brouillette, vice president of HP Mission
For
Critical Network and Education Services example, the analysis looks at the organization of equipment racks, how densely the equipment is populated, and the flow of hot and cold It's important to place air-conditioning vents air through different areas of the spac
properly so that cool airflow keeps equipment
running properly, without wasting energy, says Brouillette
2 Manage the AC: Not too cold,
not too hot, but just right Energy efi
ncy often starts with the cooling system “Air conditioners are the most power hungry things in the data centre, apart from the IT equipment itself,” says Rasmussen If your data centre is running at 30 percent efficiency, that means for every watt going
Trang 29
MANY RACKS IN DATA CENTRES CONTAIN GAPS, EITHER AS A RESULT OF EXTRA SPACE OR EQUIPMENT THAT HAS BEEN REMOVED WHATEVER THE REASON, IT MAKES AIRFLOW UNNATURAL, AND THAT'S BAD FOR EFFICIENCY wi ted energy, one of the
implest and most
important things you can do is turn on the AC
economizers, which act as temperature sensors in the data centre According to Rasmussen,
80 percent of economizers are not used, just as IT administrators often turn off the
power management features in PCs It’s also important to monitor the effects of multiple air- conditioning systems attached to a data centre;
sometimes, Rasmus:
n two AC systems
can be “out of calibration” one sensing humidity is too high and the other sensing it’stoo low; their competition, like a game of cooling tennis,
can waste energy
Richard Siedzick, director of computer and telecommunications services at Bryant University, uses such features in his data centre
“If the temperature ri to a certain level,
the AC in that rack will ramp up, and when
it decreases, it will ramp down.” The result is a data centre climate that few are used to Instead of being met with an arctic blast at the
door, Siedzick says people have told him his
data centre is too warm That's not actually
the case: AC economizers help cooling stay
where it is needed, rather than where it is not And that means increased efficiency and
monetary savings “We estimate we've seen a 30 percent reduction in energy [in part, due
to more efficient cooling] and that translates into $20,000.” Siedzick
controls, such as humidity
ays other precision
sensors, are used in the data centre as well
3 Place equipment in the right spot
Most data centre floors are raised and tiled Tiles should be located near the air inlets of
IT equipment, not near the exhaust Since the
exhaust areas (where the air is coming out) run
hotter than the inlets, making sure tiles (which provide ventilation) are located in the right place makes the AC units run more efficiently Also, make sure you have the right number of vented tiles in your data centre If you have too many or too few, efficiency goes down
4 Mind the gaps Eliminate
nooks and crannies
Many racks in data centres contain gaps, either as a result of extra space or equipment that has
been removed Whatever the reason, it makes airflow unnatural, and that’s bad for efficiency “The exhaust air can go back through the intakes
of the equipment, which makes you have to run
the AC colder,” says Rasmussen The answer:
blanking panels Installing these panels onto
server rack cabinets are a way to make the air flow
in a data centre more efficient Many people forget to install blanking panels, even though server
manuals from OEMs mandate their use But
Rasmussen says they are inexpensive (sold 100 to the box, in some cases) and easy to install
5 Can it get hotter in here?
Once you've done everything listed above, check to see if you can run the air-conditioning at a
higher temperature Rasmussen says that most units are set at around 55 degrees and some get as low as 45 degrees The lower the temperature,
the less efficient your data centre You should run that AC hot as you can without the servers
overheating,” Rasmussen says He says 68 degrees is a good target, but unless you are operating a
brand-new data centre with a top-notch design,
you are unlikely to hit such a number If you
Trang 30TUTORIAL 3> BACKUP RESOLUTIONS
WE'VE FOUND THE TECH THAT CAN HELP YOU GET A HANDLE ON YOUR BACKUPS—AND HELP YOU STICK TOA PLAN YOU'LL FIND MANY OPTIONS THAT LEAD TO THE SAME RESULT PART OF YOUR CHALLENGE IS PICKING THE ONES THAT ARE BEST FOR YOU
l=
1
Devise a Backup Plan of Attack-Survey your backup needs, and think about what you have that is“ ing library of
that don't is “live” data—your ongoing, wor
files—versus what is archival data, files
require changes or additions Live data might include your collection of digital music and your business documents, while archival data might include your digital photos from the past five years, Think about
whether you want all of your data to reside in a single
place, or whether you want to spread your backups
across multiple devices Also consider your habits: Do
you need prompting to back up, or do you want to
invoke a backup at will?
Having evaluated your files and needs, you can
better decide on a backup strategy—and on which combination of technologies makes sen: for you You'll likely settle on a strategy that encompasses various dev and servi
, selected from among USB flash drives, external hard 4
attached storage, and online backup
» network- Many hardware devices now include a backup: utility as a matter of course; but whether you'll find
that backup utility (be it a separate application or one
that:
integrated with the drive) useful will depend in part on the backup approach you've chosen Do you want to back up all of your files? Or are you aiming to do larger, more-current sets while leaving the file archive to reside on a NAS or on a dedicated TB
hard drive attached to your system?
In steps two through five, we'll identify some of the best technologies for helping you with your backups—and what situations and needs those technologies are most suited for
Organize Your Files-Various software programs— including the traditional backup programs w rounded up recently, such as NovaStor NovaBackup Professional, EMC Retrospect Backup, and NTT Backup 5 Advanced—will find specific file types on
your hard drive and back up those file types per your instructions
Use a Flash Drive- USB flash drives are ubiquitous, but nowadays 4GB is a baseline
capacity, not the high end And larger capacities—
16GB, 32GB, and greater—are becoming more commonplace
‘The benefits to using a flash driye can be multifold You can store your files—perhaps both your critical documents and your multimedia
files—on a drive the size of your index finger, and you can keep your data close to you, in your pocket or ona keychain, Many drives offer software encryption and password protection; still more include a file-
synchronization utili
Send Data to an Online Backup Service - Online backup makes sense in some circumstances but
not others, Certainly, Web-based services (such as
the Webroot Secure Backup service) provide off-
site redundant storage that can keep your data
against natural and unexpected disasters (such as flooding, earthquakes, or fire), But online backup may not be appropriate if your data measures into the tens of gigabytes, or even terabytes (yes, snap-happy digital photographers and devoted music gurus, I'm looking at you) Content creators with high-capacity
needs may prefer to keep their files on NAS drives and hard drives locally (or on drives located at
secondary sites) rather than dea
Trang 31
STORAGE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (SRM) TOOLS CAN HELP YOU IDENTIFY AND Dan In OR PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS AND TO PLAN FOR FUTURE lo co
ỷ—
Trang 32FEATURE 3> REACH TOWAR NG Sy NITY
STORAGE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (SRM) TOOLS CAN HELP YOU IDENTIFY AND PREVENT CAPACITY OR PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS AND TO PLAN FOR FUTURE STORAGE GROWTH
Storage resource management (SRM) products provide the m
s for collecting information on the heterogenous resources
- operating systems, host computers, and SAN
devices such as Fibre Channel switches and storage ys — that exist on shared
arr orage networks,
Delivered as software or dedicated appliance,
these tools collect information to help increase
utilization, assist storage provisioning, and improve age area network (SAN), IP
SAN or network-attached storage device
performance of the s
Storage
resource management products can provide a host
of functions; typically these tools offer capacity planning and management; performance, event, and quota management; SAN design, provisioning,
and workflow automation; analysis, change, and configuration management; and reporting features A repository is often included for storing discovered information, as is a centrally managed console
“With more business applications and compliance requirements, optimizing the usage
of storage systems became very important where
fast configuration provisioning and correct storage resource allocation are the main objectives This
is where SRM steps in In addition, proper availability and performance of Storage systems is another driver for acquiring SRM solution to
monitor and report about all storage systems from
multiple vendors from a centralized location,” says Mahmoud Mounir, Middle East Hani Esber, GM-Middle East, CommVault, s buy SRM softwan track of their application and unstructured data Software Director, HP adds that custome e to keep growth and to understand who is doing what and
where changes might cut costs, improve reliabi and productivity “For example, 2 year old data on
Tier 1 storage is a waste just as critical data sitting ‘on a box that just suffered an outage due to lack of
redundancy will cost you money or customers.” How does SRM work?
Storage resource management (SRM) software
collects information on the heterogeneous
resources - operating systems, host computers
and SAN device:
and storage such as Fibre Channel switches - on shared storage networks Information is collected to help increase utilization, to help with storage provis ning and to improve performance of the storage area network (SAN), IP SAN or network-attached
storage devic
Unlike tools that handle storage management tasks like backups, SRM tools provide a central view of either physical storage resources such as
RAID systems, tape libraries and SAN switches or of logical storage objects such as volumes, files,
Trang 33
CÁ
users, database tables and 1/0
According to Gartner, SRM packages should contain:
© A repository for the resources that are discovered
& The ability to plan capacity and manage it © Performance, event and quota management © SAN design, provisioning and the automation of workflow; © Root-cause analysis, change and configuration management @ Reporting and chargeback
Once storage resoure
need to bị are discovered, they
stored in a database so that the state of
the
AN can be assessed and provide information for historical and future trending Data is stored
in the repository by size, creation date and owner if it is a file, and by capacity and performance if it is a storage system
Capacity management includes the ability to
identify use of resources and to reclaim unused
capacity if necessary The software should also
let the user determine when it is necessary to
acquire more disk space or improve performance It should predict storage utilization by busine
unit, application, user, server or department,
In managing performance, SRM software
should look at the relationships between applications, servers, host bus adapters, switches and storage arrays, and let users monitor and diagnose performance problems and bottlenecks caused by different resources in the SAN or by configuration changes
Quota management lets the IT administrator set disk limits by user, department, group or
tk for out-of-disk conditions Within quota management, rules can be
business unit and monitor the d
created that enforce the type of files being saved
Event management is the recognition of triggers or alerts that may signal out-of-disk events or performance issues It is important that the event management function be integration with systems or network management packages
SRM packages should also include tools that make it easier for the IT admini:
rator to provision more storage when the quota management and
capacity management pieces indicate it is necessary
Provisioning includes the ability to assign storage
volumes to he
t computers and applications or to
delete these relationships or change them Finally, an SRM package must have three other capabilities - reporting, chargeback and a central
management console Reporting is necessary so the IT administrator and upper management can assess the effectiveness of the SAN Chargeback is a
recommended function in that it allows IT to charge
such as messaging and databases “Entry level SRM software will report on what data you have, how old
it is and who owns it, allowing you to predict the effect of archiving and sending warnings if free-space level's become critical More advanced SRM will add functions like trending and have plug-ins for databases and email, helping you to tune and set policies to control use or growth,” says Esber
Mounir says another major function of SRM is to be part to the Runbook Automation system
D7 0
SRM PACKAGES SHOULD SPAN A VARIETY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS - WINDOWS, LINUX AND UNIX SERVERS - AS WELL AS A WIDE VARIETY OF STORAGE SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS SUCH AS MESSAGING AND DATABASES
departments, business units or groups of users for
their use of storage resources
Tn addition, each SRM package should have the
ability to manage storage resources from a Web-
based management console, scalability to adapt to
large or small environments and integration with tems and network management packages
SRM packages should span a variety of operating
systems - Windows, Linux and Uni: is well servers - a wide variety of st ‘age systems and applications
to be able to deliver end to end configuration provisioning and management for a complete IT Service acros all IT Infrastructure domains such as Network, Servers and Application for
data centers With an explosion in data growth, regulatory and
better operation of enterp:
compliance mandates
and growing heterogeneity within data centres and storage environments,
customers can ill afford to overlook the
importance of SRM in driving business growth
Trang 34
HEADLINES
NetApp CEO: Virtualisation
driving sluggish storage market
N7
D
torage companies are feeling the pain of companies cutting IT costs and
S alt spending, bụt the move to server virtualization is driving some:
demand, according to NetApp CEO Dan Warmenhoven
The market is not rabust, but it's not dead either,” he said in an interview
The economic downturn has changed the character of projects companies are uIndertaking, with them now tryjng to keep down costs and improve efficiency
Right now there is only one thing on anybody's mind: | got to cut my budget and how are you going to help,” said Warmenhoven,
Cl0s wilLtoday go for projects that have a return ơn investrnent of no more
0P 0000 ND 2 ng 000 0l 0 in Rea es
Currently, more than 20% of NetApp revenue is coming from virtual server
environments, which is pretty big, Warmenhoven said “Generally, when you move aggressively to virtual servers and virtual desktops, there is also a
reengineering of the storage infrastructure that goes with that, and that is driving some degree of demand,” said Warmenhoven
Tơ simplify the mowe to a virtual world, NetApp has done a lot of integration work with VMware, in particular, to integrate NetApp capabilities under VMware's management interface, according to Warmenhoven
The management integration includes features such as cloning and thín
Cae has anngunced a new version nf its flagship deta managernentt software, Simpanz AY emia eats ce eee eM lec an backup for Virtual tnachlnes and a cantent search: aa na
Zahab Ilkal, CommVault’s product manager, noted that Simpana 8's predecessor had only file-level deduplication, The new version offers block-level compression that runs øn.a media server and begins with a simple compression atgorithim and completes with fulLdeduplication on secondary diskk storage TƠ 000.010 10
Initial compression rates run as hìgh as 50%, willi
final deduptication on the secondary disk storage
arrays achieving rates as hÌgh.as #D% 'And it performs deduplication across the enterprise, based ona one policy,” Ilkal said As data is deduplicated, a searchable idex is created ơn the rmedia server 76 7 0.7100 70 mobile and remete office recovery management tools,
compliance or civil litigation purposes
DU 00.0000 not only on data center clients but on femote office desktops as well as mobile devices by using a light Seer nt eau nce tl the device and then replicates any incremental data J7 000.06
'Todays economic environment is challenging enterprises ta do more With less,» N Robert Hammer, CommVaulfs chairman, president and CEO, sạd ïn 2 0a n0 io aes store and manage rapldl growing amounls of data and can helb customers ensure compliziics, gai operational efficiencies, and dramatically reduce their đata management and relatecl storage expenses hy No
I\kz\ said Siinpana Balso adds =napshot capabillly that can potentially eliminate dally backup windows b0 070 0007 EMC and NetApp storage systems for paint-in-time
CommVault adds deduplication to data management software
dat recovery For example, system administratars
can create an Exchange rmail recovery box øn an! EMC primary storage syste, allowing Simpana 8 1o recower from disk an individual user's mailhox — dgwn toan Indjidual e-mail
E001 00 77v.) management for backup and recovery, including inerementaLfile-level backup The feature also DU TU 70 00 0 0
Data recovery options range fram single files ta
vVirtual diskks ta an entire virtua\ machine, The software
also restores from virtualsystems to physicaL servers, or acrossVirtual platforms, such as recovering a VMware image directly ta a Microsoft Hyper-V system
Trang 35provisioning Cloning uses one physical image to create multiple virtuaL images without taking up additionaL physicaL storage space lt was first developed for database environments, but has turned out to be a good fit for virtual Ce RSW eee RU an ae
ni
Many customers are at first cautious about turning both those features
on Anything new is a little scary, so customers first want to know who else is running it in a production environment, Warmenhoven said
But if companies want to get the fulL potential of their virtualized
environments they need to start using more advanced storage features,
C1000
To achieve that, NetApp has introduced the 50% Virtualization Guarantee Program for VMwere, Citrix and Microsoft virtuaL environrments — the latter: two where added last week
The notion is that customers only have to buy half as much storage fro NetApp as from any other vendor in the industry For the offer to be valid, companies have to use a list of features that include thỉn provisioning and deduplication, which can reduce storage utilization by eliminating redundant CB ốc 00.0 656 storage-efficiency technologies collectively come together to provide a mụch more cost effective solution,» said Warmenhoven lf NetApp fails to live up to that promise, it will provide the additional capacity at no additional charge,
Cisco delivers storage for small business
Ge has-unvelled products specifically for small companies as part of its recently announced US$100 million commitment to that business market The products include security, storage and Unified communications platforms [compare unified communications products) designed to be inexpensive and easy to use far small businesses, They include:
—The Cisco Spam & Virus Blocker — an appliance intended to protect a business’ network and data from viruses and malicious e-mail attacks while
mitigating spam
—The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems — desktop network-attached storage devices to secure and protect data and
lel employees share information
—The Cisco Smart Business Communications System [SBCS) Release 1.4 — a collaboration and
communications system that connects offices,
employees and customers, and includes a Wireless desktop IP phone with Bluetooth capabilities The products come from Cisco's newly formed Small
Business Technology Group (SBTG), which is focused on developing technologies within six small/midsize business priority areas: security, connectivity, productivity, remote access, customer interaction
and customer support,
The Cisco Spam & Virus Blocker features one in 1 million false positives accuracy, Cisco says Security Updates are automatically sent {rom the company’s
é-mall and Web traffic monitoring network Itatso includes a four-step installation wizard that installs the appliance within minutes for most networks, isco says The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 storage devices let businesses automatically back up every version of every file from every PC and server, so that data can be easily restored, They stare and archive digital files such as Video (rom an IP video surveillance camera, and
encrypt files ta comply with growing regulatory and
security requirements for customer and financial information such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Cisco says, Users can store up to 2TH of data using the NSS2000 2-Bay Gigabit Storage System chassis; and up to 47B of data using the NSS3000 4-Bay
Gigabit Storage System chassis
Trang 36
FEATURE >> DR CAN YOU MANAGE DISASTER PROACTIVELY?
Business continuity, Disaster Recovery, Redundancy and Uptime — these are no longer terms restricted to a server room in an IT company They've come out from the technical infrastructure and begun making an impact on
real life, practical processes
‘The question of whether or not you can manage disaster is perhaps 1n incomplete one considering humans have been given the
will and desire to survive through the most challenging circumstances So the fact that the survival is already happening, is somewhat irrelevant What people are becoming more aware of is the fact that they are unable to prepare themsel
es to cope with disaster In order to maintain the continuity of busine
it is essential to be able to have the necess:
backup or secondary switch that you can turn
BEING _
on, and keep going
A few months ago, we covered LMKR and how they had managed the aftermath of the Marriott Bombing, something that people appreciated around the world Other IT
companies were also able to follow their DR plans and mitigate the after effects of the tragic incident, but here’s the point: because IT companies know about all of this because the
largest chunk of their busi is dependent
on their intellectual property In a world where
technology helps manage business, you really
don’t have an ex se to get caught unprepared Whether it is a natural disaster or an attack of sort
have you thought to ask your office building on what their DM plan is? How about the school where your children may go? In the event of chaos, what plan of action will be followed? Same list of questions apply
to hotels, restaurants, city district planning
agencies — this is an endless list In a lot of cases where d
saster planning for physical damage is done, people still fail to plan how they are going to rehabilitate themselves back
into the system It’s the same sustainability (or
lack there of) challenge all over again Tf you conduct a Business Impact Analysis in your
organization, it will help you to figure out what your various operations are and since most apps are linked to one another, how long you can
Trang 37
BUSINESS CONTINUITY IS THE UMBRELLA WHICH SITS ON TOP OF DISASTER RECOVERY RECOVERING LOST DATA OR ASSETS IS SIMPLY A PART OF BUSINESS CONTINUANCE
afford to have one app or area down, before it begins impacting the core business function
You'd like to think that the BIA is
something that is done through technology, but it’s not The majority of the BIA planning is done by an analyst who can communicate with each of the departments and areas and actually assess the importance of every step of the
organizational and virtual hierarchy Before selecting a Disaster Recovery strategy, the Disaster Recove
planner should refer to the company’s business continuity plan which should specify the key metrics of
Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for various business Recover
processes The metrics specified for the business processes must then be mapped to the underlying IT systems and infrastructure that support those processes
While it is important to have Disaster RPOs and RTOs in place, here
about: what if the critical data you are currently
omething to think using, becomes corrupt? Worse yet, what if
someone accidentally deletes some portion? Well, the IT manager will head over into the most recent backup data, and simply recover But because when there is no crisis as such, the
daily eating for the organization — the daily RTO and RPO back is up 24-24 (24 hours each), whilst lets say that you define the disaster RTO and RPO to be 4-4 In the event of an unplanned incident data backup is usually done on a 24-hour, basis, think about the situation you are cr which is not necessarily a disaster, you can’t get to the data until hours later, which means
that unless you ‘declare’ the organization to be in a state of disaster, you will have lost 24 hours worth of data! So it is imperative that your regular metrics match with your disaster or
in-crisis metri
You can always rebuild brick and mortar
however once your virtual operations are compromised, there is nothing you can do to bring it back
Initiating the process for business continuity Business Continuity is the umbrella which sits on top of Disaster Recover
assets is simply a part of business continuance up and structured, you or your clients need to have real-time access to specific bits of data so
that business can be continued,
interaction with your customers is through a website interface, then it would serve you
well if you were mirroring that website in a
secondary location, whereby customers trying
to resolve the DNS of one server, can be
redirected to another In case you cluster the application so that you are able to make that switch Clustering will also help you to reroute your data through an alternate node should an unplanned incident happen on the node outside your organizational premises This is something which helps you to become more fault tolerant regardless of the fact that the solution you might be running isn’t a high availability solution So if PTCL gets a cable fault, at least you can still be running your operation
Recovering lost data or It is also important to have role-based recovery in place, rather than specify one, Depending on how your organization is set single individual who will be responsible for
a specific task in the time when the c hot Different people react differently in the time of crisis and you don’t want to have to If you run a company where your major put someone in a place he or she can’t handle
Rather, put the position or job description to
Trang 38INTERVIEW @ TIPPINGPOINT PREVENTION IS
BETTER THAN CURE
JAMES HAMILTON, PRESIDENT OF THE NETWORK-BASED IPS VENDOR TIPPINGPOINT, WAS IN DUBAI RECENTLY TO MEET THE KEY CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS IN THE REGION HE SPOKE TO NWME ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF IPS AND THE EVER-CHANGING THREAT LANDSCAPE
What kind of key opportunities
do you see in the Middle East market? The market here has matured quite a bit and in some ways, it has matured a lot quicker than other regions that we have For instance, a lot of the business
ve see here is with service providers, and a few years back that was a small part of the business
for us globally Now, half of the business we have here with is with operators, and globally, it’s half the business as well
What are your customers telling you? Any common themes?
‘The message that we are getting from our customer ba One of the things we are starting to see is that is that they are continuing to invest in security,
the IPS market is maturing, and CTOs and our customers are asking us to do couple of things
One thing in particular is, because our product is
a networking appliance and sits inline, they are
challenging us to do more with that platform, They IPS as the core of our value proposition and they don’t want us to leave tha
However, they are asking us to also look at other technologies that we can embed into that engine, Over the course of the next year we will try to become more of an application and
software player One of the additional services we are
looking to provide is data leak prevention We are developing additional modules to address DLP, and
other industry-specific modules
Are you going to develop that kind of technologies
in-house or take the acquisition route? Tt's a combination of both We actually have a ‘ide, ftware teams are already on the job and list of apps that we want to develop i our There
are also a number of partnerships that we would like announce as well, wherein we would test the ide, Frank! one of the challenges we face in the industry is that products and let the customers d there are some of good companies available at good valuations, and we are looking to bring them to bring them under the umbrella
How has the IPS technology evolved over the years?
‘The fundamental value proposition hasn't changed
too much In the early days what people were looking for was just blocking worms So it sits
inline and looks at every bit of traffic and decides what's malici
us Fundamentally, it hasn’t changed What we were able to do back then we are able to do now with simple filters and signatures The application for IPS has expanded broadly Now, ¥ have to look at phishing, spyware and even abus traffic such as peer to peer Besides, the acceptance of E
day, the hesit
S has grown among enterprises In the early
ation, especially from the networking folks, was that deploying something virtually inline could create latency and slow down networks That kind of mindset has changed, fuelling the adoption of IPS further
Are end-users really harnessing the full potential of these systems? Research reports indicate
that most of them are still using IPS for passive
network monitoring
When you look at the market together, there is not Jot of industry data, They tend to combine IPS and IDS mark
globally deployed and the
as one, We have close to 20000 units all inline, fitters
turned on Our boxes are really designed
to go inline and block malicious traffic
Is stand-alone IPS dead?
Standalone IPS as an appliance still has a strong life ahead of it, But as T mentioned earlier, v
are getting
requests from our customers to be able to provide more functionalities on the platform They don't want to put multiple boxes inline and turn them on
38_Network World Middle East February 2
Trang 39
INTERVIEW
M8 đ-LINK
MAKING BIG STRIDES TONY TSAO, WHO TOOK OVER THE REINS AS CEO AND PRESIDENT AT D-LINK LAST YEAR, IS A ON A MISSION
TO ESTABLISH HIS COMPANY AS A TOP OF THE CLASS NETWORKING HARDWARE COMPANY HE SPOKE TO NWME ABOUT HIS STRATEGIES TO ACCELERATE GROWTH AND HIS VISION FOR THE COMPANY
Where is D-Link heading?
The IP market continues to grow, and we are in the right industry In the past 7 ye „ we have grown 25 percent every the Middle ure en 1, and in emerging markets such as
ast the growth has been more than 50% ing high growth in almost all product categories, especially wireless and well-entrenched in
telcos
MBs and enterprise markets, not to mention
our traditional consumer networking market We have
the full spectrum of IP-centric products and are well
positioned to address the market requirements
What is your vision for the company?
We are making a transition from product-focused company to a solution driven company Our core competency is TP and we understand it better than our competitors, including the big ones We have a strong geographical coverage and work
closely with vendors such as Microsoft and Intel
for different applications
What differentiates D-Link?
Will price remain the key differentiator for you?
Not just the pr c We have a strong background in R&D, tech support, local support We offer the whole package, starting from pre-sales consultancy, after
ales support
and service level agreements With a strong service background and more local support for our channels, we are confident we will double our growth in the next three
years
Can you tell us a bit about your Green initiatives? We have an R&D team focused on making our products more environment friendly and energy efficient In fact, D-Link was the first company to introduce Gigabit Ethernet switches with green technology, way back in 2007 These switches are
able to tell when a port is inactive, and can cut back
their power usage accordingly Another interesting capability of the switches is the ability to analyze
the length of any Ethernet cables connected to them
- and adjust the power accordingly, Shorter lengths
don’t require as much power With the energy and
costs savings the technology can deliver, the simply no excuse for organizations not to migrate to energy-optimizing network solutions
Are your Green Ethernet plans different from IEEE's energy-efficient Ethernet plans?
Yes our plans separate, but we will incorporate the IEEE-EEE specs when they become available Green Ethernet technology
particularly relevant to Gigabit Ethernet switches, as they generate
more heat than slower varieties Reducing a switch's power consumption could also extend its lifespan D-Link is as far ing its green initiative s for the
s it can, qualifying its adapt Energy Star program, making boxes out of recycled materials, and more,
You have a strong presence in both consumer and SME markets How different are these markets?
The market dynamics are definitely different However, we see the lines are blurring between
consumer and br s technologies Mobile
phone is a case in point It is a consumer device
and a productivity-enhancing enterprise tool as
well Tt all depends on applications Are there any particular products or markets where you see most growth? W
marke
very bullish about the digital home
and the fixed mobile convergence domain
For us, the next wave of growth will come from
IP surveillance, storage, digital signage, while we
continue to growth the traditional business in Ethernet switches and wireless
IN FACT, D-LINK WAS THE FIRST COMPANY TO INTRODUCE GIGABIT ETHERNET SWITCHES WITH GREEN TECHNOLOGY, WAY BACK IN 2007 THESE SWITCHES ARE ABLE TO TELL WHEN A PORT IS INACTIVE, AND CAN CUT BACK THEIR POWER USAGE ACCORDINGLY
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CISCO ASR LOOO
ROUTER BUILT FOR IQ-YEAR TENURE WITH ENTERPRISES LOOKING TO CONSOLIDATE DATA CENTERS AND DEVICES, CISCO'S
NEW ASR 1000 SERIES ROUTER OFFERS A COMPELLING MESSAGE: DO MORE WITH LESS
A few years out, Microsoft wants Azure to be seen In an exclusive test, the ASR not only moyed traftic at 20Gbps but also did so while running QoS, security and monitoring functions on 120 million
flows from hundreds of concurrent routing sessions ‘The ASR also proved a capable performer when
VPN traffic And with SR has enough headroom
handling multicast and T
a 40-core processor, the
to run firewalls, load balancers and other services without requiring additional hardware
That's not to say the isn’t still a work in
progress Its data-plane capacity still needs to grow,
and Cisco hasn't yet rolled out all the services that
ASRs eventually will support But this is a strong idering for the many of aging 7200 routers with a single more powerful
ini effort, well worth con
enterprises looking to replace ti
Introducing the ASR
The ASR’s most notable new feature is
module, all of which features the 40-core Quantum Flow Processor (QFP) Through separate software licenses, QFP supports numerous services such as
firewalls, NetFlow and Nbar classifiers and, in the future, caching load balancers The ESP module also offers powerful QoS features, with 128,000 queues
and support for up to 1,000 global policies and
classification maps
While the RP is functionally similar to Cisco
7200 routing modules, it scales higher; a million