An Introduction to vSphere Networking: vSwitch & VLAN
This week we're taking you behind the scenes of your cloud environment and looking at vSphere virtual networking, including the difference between virtual switches/networks and their physical counterparts, plus the primary configuration options for vSwitches and vLANs.
Getting Up to Speed with Cloud Application Testing
There are plenty of ways to use cloud computing for your enterprise applications, but if you’re going beyond Software as a Service options, chances are high that you’ll want to test your cloud application before deploying it to a live user environment. Because cloud is such a malleable term, “cloud testing” can be confusing too. Let’s clear up what exactly needs to be considered when you launch a cloud testing initiative.
Data Center Energy Efficiency Benchmarks Continue to Morph
For the past decade, Power Usage Effectiveness has been the most common standard to measure data center energy efficiency. While PUE remains in the news with recent controversy over its inclusion in the latest ASHRAE standards, other energy efficiency metrics are starting to catch on – specifically server utilization.
We’ve covered PUE before on the blog, but basically it’s the ratio of overall power used to power used for strictly computing equipment. The closer to a 1.0 ratio, the more efficient the facility.
As the industry has matured, PUE has come under fire as being too simple, easy to manipulate, or failing to consider other environmental concerns. This led to the development of other data center energy efficiency and environmental impact measurements and benchmarks, for renewable use, reeuse of energy, and even water consumption.
As IoT Grows, Identity Management & Access Controls Must Tighten
Everything’s online. It’s all connected. The Internet of Things might feel like it’s slowly creeping up until one day your refrigerator, toaster, front door, and dog’s collar are all talking via the cloud—but even if that reality hasn’t yet come to exact fruition, the time to lay the infrastructure groundwork for the IoT is upon us.
That means that security is also growing in importance. Big data comes from a wide variety of sources and is accessed along many different network vectors and locations along the way. From the initial record sent out on the network to the storage array holding it to the analytics platform and end user crunching the numbers, big data and the IoT translate into new ways for critical information to leak.
Identity management and access controls must be simple, enforced, and strengthened in order to keep our future of cloud big data platforms intact.
Top 5 Cloud Security Tips for eCommerce
For eCommerce companies, the cloud has been an attractive option for years now. Scalable IT infrastructure, elastic load balancing across geographies, and integrated backup abilities all combine to make cloud platforms a great choice to host eCommerce sites, which often face rapidly shifting demands from buyers.
While the notion of the cloud being insecure has largely been debunked, the fact remains that eCommerce providers are a major target for hackers, thanks to their juicy stored credit card and personal information. Denial of Service attacks on internet sellers are also common. PCI Compliance is largely placed upon your organization, so be sure to maintain a secure eCommerce site by following these tips.