Mitigate IPv6's Fright Factor
Today everyone is competing for IP addresses. Rather than jump into the complex realm of IPv6,
many companies are scrambling to maximize their IPv4 allocations—an increasingly challenging prospect as IP addresses become scarce. (Some analysts predict that, by around 2010, we'll run out
of IPv4 addresses.) IPv4 supports 4.3 billion addresses, which can't hope to fully support the exploding mobile-device market. By contrast, IPv6 supports 50 octillion addresses. That number would
provide an IP address to just about every atom on Earth.
However despite its greater capacity, "IPv6 scares everyone!" said David Berg, director of product
management at BlueCat Networks (http://www.bluecatnetworks.com). "It's incredibly complex." The
solution is IP Address Management (IPAM), which promises to become the new industry standard
in IPv6 management. BlueCat Networks is at the leading edge of this technology, developing end to-end IPAM solutions that overcome legacy limitations—such as laboriously tracking addresses in
spreadsheets or homegrown databases—and let midsized to large enterprises get the most out of
their IP infrastructure.
—Jason Bovberg
See Associated Figure
US Companies Ready for Preboot Security Solution
Secuware (http://www.secuware.com/en) sees opportunity for its
Secuware Security Framework in the United States. The Spanish company recently opened an office in Silicon Valley in response to requests by large US customers
such as Wal-Mart, said Feliciano Rivera, who will head up the US operation.
Carlos Jimenez started Secuware in 1988 after selling his antivirus software company to McAfee and
deciding that he wanted to create a better solution for keeping enterprises secure. The result, Secuware
Security Framework, comprises a module that authenticates the user before Windows boots, encrypts the
user's computer, and features modules for device and application control and security event auditing.
Secuware already has large customers in Spain's Ministry of Defense as well as in other European
countries and in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Jimenez and Rivera believe that large
enterprises in the United States—and smaller businesses that handle sensitive information, such as
healthcare providers—are also ready for Secuware's comprehensive security infrastructure.
—Renee Munshi
See Associated Figure
Can You Recover Critical Data in Seconds?
I recently spoke with Symantec Corporation (http://www.symantec.com/index.htm) about what
the company calls its biggest feature release ever, Backup Exec 11d. Frank Mong, senior director of product marketing, and Brian Greene, director of product management, told me that Backup Exec
11d's development has been driven by its customers. Symantec's customers, like everyone else, need
to shrink backup windows and reduce storage media costs. But an even
greater need exists for backup and recovery customers: Businesses want
to protect their data on and off site but, even more important, want granular
recovery in their applications—that is, recovery of critical data within seconds.
With Backup Exec 11d, administrators can recover individual Microsoft Exchange Server messages, folders, and mailboxes; Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 documents; Active Directory
(AD) users and properties; and SQL Server 2005 snapshots. And if you want secure backup data,
Symantec offers both 128-bit and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption.
—Blake Eno
See Associated Figure
High Availability
Keeps RIM
BlackBerry Users
Connected
Executives were the first—and
sometimes the only—employees —to have a BlackBerry. Now,
it often seems that all employees
have one. Neil Robertson, Neverfail Group's (http://www.neverfail
group.com) CEO, told me during
a recent industry briefing that, by
functioning as a mobile PC, the
BlackBerry has transitioned from
an email tool to a complete business tool that is capable of running
software applications under an OS.
Because of this added functionality, employees now expect to be
able to reach their corporate network at any time, prompting what
Robertson sees as an "interesting
proliferation of applications to the
[BlackBerry] tool."
Neverfail recognized that, in
many businesses, productivity has become dependent on an
employee being able to access the
network from his or her mobile
device at all times. So the company
created a high-availability product:
Neverfail for RIM BlackBerry. If a
company's primary server goes
down, Neverfail for RIM BlackBerry seamlessly switches users'
workloads to a backup server so
that mobile connectivity remains
unbroken and productivity is not affected. When IT brings the
network back online, the solution
instantly switches users back to
the original, primary server.
According to Robertson, Neverfail for RIM BlackBerry, and
products like it, represent only the
beginning of the growth of mobile
device applications and their
impact on business. "Currently,
screen size is the only limiting
factor; in two years all mobile
devices will have the ability to do
everything a PC can do," said
Robertson.
—Megan Bearly
End of Article
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