Security

Cost of Hourly Downtime Soars: 81% of Enterprises Say it Exceeds $300K On Average

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

The only good downtime is no downtime.

ITIC’s latest survey data finds that 98% of organizations say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000; 81% of respondents indicated that 60 minutes of downtime costs their business over $300,000. And a record one-third or 33% of enterprises report that one hour of downtime costs their firms $1 million to over $5 million.

For the fourth straight year, ITIC’s independent survey data indicates that the cost of hourly downtime has increased. The average cost of a single hour of unplanned downtime has risen by 25% to 30% rising since 2008 when ITIC first began tracking these figures.

In ITIC’s 2013 – 2014 survey, just three years ago, 95% of respondents indicated that a single hour of downtime cost their company $100,000.  However, just over 50% said the cost exceeded $300,000 and only one in 10 enterprises reported hourly downtime costs their firms $1million or more. In ITIC’s latest poll three-in-10 businesses or 33% of survey respondents said that hourly downtime costs top $1 million or even $5 million.

Keep in mind that these are “average” hourly downtime costs. In certain use case scenarios — such as the financial services industry or stock transactions the downtime costs can conceivably exceed millions per minute. Additionally, an outage that occur in peak usage hours may also cost the business more than the average figures cited here. …

Cost of Hourly Downtime Soars: 81% of Enterprises Say it Exceeds $300K On AverageRead More »

Cost of Hourly Downtime Soars: 81% of Enterprises Say it Exceeds $300K On Average Read More »

IBM z13s Delivers Power, Performance, Fault Tolerant Reliability and Security for Hybrid Clouds

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

Security. Reliability. Performance. Analytics. Services.

These are the most crucial considerations for corporate enterprises in choosing a hardware platform. The underlying server hardware functions as the foundational element for the business’ entire infrastructure and interconnected environment. Today’s 21st century Digital Age networks are characterized by increasingly demand-intensive workloads; the need to use Big Data analytics to analyze and interpret the massive volumes and variety of data to make proactive decisions and keep the business competitive. Security is a top priority. It’s absolutely essential to safeguard sensitive data and Intellectual Property (IP) from sophisticated, organized external hackers and defend against threats posed by internal employees.

The latest IBM z13s enterprise server delivers embedded security, state-of-the-art analytics and unparalleled reliability, performance and throughput. It is fine tuned for hybrid cloud environments. And it’s especially useful as a secure foundational element in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. The newly announced, z13s is highly robust: it supports the most compute-intensive workloads in hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. The newest member of the z Systems family, the z13s, incorporates advanced, embedded cryptography features in the hardware that allow it to encrypt and decrypt data twice as fast as previous generations, with no reduction in transactional throughput owing to the updated cryptographic coprocessor for every chip core and tamper-resistant hardware-accelerated cryptographic coprocessor cards. …

IBM z13s Delivers Power, Performance, Fault Tolerant Reliability and Security for Hybrid CloudsRead More »

IBM z13s Delivers Power, Performance, Fault Tolerant Reliability and Security for Hybrid Clouds Read More »

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on Strong

2016, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

IBM Power Systems Servers Most Reliable for Seventh Straight Year; Lenovo x86 Servers Deliver Highest Uptime/Availability among all Intel x86-based Systems; Cisco UCS Stays Strong; Dell Reliability Ratchets Up; Intel Xeon Processor E7 v3 chips incorporate advanced analytics; significantly boost reliability of x86-based servers

In 2016 and beyond, infrastructure reliability is more essential than ever.

The overall health of network operations, applications, management and security functions all depend on the core foundational elements: server hardware, server operating systems and virtualization to deliver high availability, robust management and solid security. The reliability of the server, server OS and virtualization platforms are the cornerstones of the entire network infrastructure. The individual and collective reliability of these platforms have a direct, immediate and long lasting impact on daily operations and business results. For the seventh year in a row, corporate enterprise users said IBM server hardware delivered the highest levels of reliability/uptime among 14 server hardware and 11 different server hardware virtualization platforms. A 61% majority of IBM Power Systems servers and Lenovo System x servers achieved “five nines” or 99.999% availability – the equivalent of 5.25 minutes of unplanned per server /per annum downtime compared to 46% of Hewlett-Packard servers and 40% of Oracle server hardware. …

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on StrongRead More »

IBM, Lenovo Top ITIC 2016 Reliability Poll; Cisco Comes on Strong Read More »

Why the Gaming Industry is a “Target Rich Environment” for DDoS Security Hacks

Guest Blog / By

ITIC’s coverage areas continue to expand and evolve based on your feedback. Our Website content is growing as well. We will now feature content industry expert “Guest Bloggers.” Debbie Fletcher examines DDoS hacks on popular games.

***

By Debbie Fletcher

Ask any gamer; timing is everything. Even the smallest disruption in gameplay can be a virtual disaster in a heated competition.

Hackers understand the fragility of these networks, and they are willing to manipulate them for their own gain. Read on to find out DDoS is getting in the game, and how it is disrupting some of the most active and profitable networks in the world. …

Why the Gaming Industry is a “Target Rich Environment” for DDoS Security HacksRead More »

Why the Gaming Industry is a “Target Rich Environment” for DDoS Security Hacks Read More »

Parallels Access 2.0 Adds Android Support, Lowers Pricing

2014, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

Parallels Access 2.0 remote desktop application for Android and iOS tablets and smart phones is a “must have” for anyone that needs seamless, efficient remote access to PC and Mac desktop applications from Android and iOS smart phones and tablets.

Desktops to Go

Parallels, a well established and respected vendor in the remote desktop access arena for the Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad market has upped its game with the 2.0 release of its Parallels Access application (www.parallels.com/access). The newest version of the remote access package now supports Android phones and tablets. It also delivers a slew of new features for a more improved and seamless remote access experience.

At the same time, Parallels also lowered the retail pricing on the product. Parallels Access 2.0 now lists for $19.99 annually or $34.99 for two years, for individual users (with up to five computers). And finally, the company introduced Parallels Access for Business (www.parallels.com/access-business) which enables organizations to centrally assign, manage, and secure remote access to their computers. …

Parallels Access 2.0 Adds Android Support, Lowers PricingRead More »

Parallels Access 2.0 Adds Android Support, Lowers Pricing Read More »

IBM z/OS, IBM AIX, Debian and Ubuntu Score Highest Security Ratings

2014, ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

Eight out of 10 — 82% — of the over 600 respondents to ITIC’s 2014-2015 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey say security issues negatively impact overall server, operating system and network reliability. Of that figure a 53% majority of those polled say that security vulnerabilities and hacks have a “moderate,” “significant” or “crucial impact on network availability and uptime (See Exhibit 1).

Overall, the latest ITIC survey results showed that organizations are still more reactive than proactive regarding security threats. Some 15% of the over 600 global corporate respondents are extremely lax: some seven percent said that security issues have no impact on their environment while another eight percent indicated that they don’t keep track of whether or not security issues negatively affect the uptime and availability of their networks. In contrast, 24% of survey participants or one-in-four said security has a “significant” or “crucial” negative impact on network reliability and performance.

Still, despite the well documented and high profile hacks into companies like Target, eBay, Google and other big name vendors this year, the survey found that seven-out-of-10 firms – 70% – are generally confident in the security of their hardware, software and applications – until they get hacked. …

IBM z/OS, IBM AIX, Debian and Ubuntu Score Highest Security RatingsRead More »

IBM z/OS, IBM AIX, Debian and Ubuntu Score Highest Security Ratings Read More »

Contemplating a Hybrid Cloud Deployment? Why Infrastructure Matters

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

The forecast for 2014 and beyond is cloud, cloud and more cloud – cloud computing, that is. For a majority of organizations – irrespective of size or vertical market – it’s a matter of “when” not “if” they will initiate a cloud computing deployment.

And ITIC survey data indicates that hybrid clouds will predominate and be the cloud architecture of choice for 64% of businesses. Hybrid cloud solutions offer organizations the best elements of public and private clouds when properly architected, tested, deployed and maintained. The benefits include reduced costs based on a utility-like pay-per-use model, greater scalability, flexibility and greater efficiencies in terms of manageability and business processes.

That said, in order to ensure optimal hybrid cloud performance and maximize Return on Investment (ROI), companies must start with a strong foundation. This includes a robust, reliable, flexible, scalable, manageable and secure infrastructure that provides integration and interoperability among legacy network components and the firm’s public and private clouds. Any hybrid cloud deployment lacking in these aforementioned elements is almost certainly doomed to failure. …

Contemplating a Hybrid Cloud Deployment? Why Infrastructure MattersRead More »

Contemplating a Hybrid Cloud Deployment? Why Infrastructure Matters Read More »

IBM Watson Takes Cognitive Computing to the Head of the Class

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By

Pardon the pun, but there’s nothing elementary about IBM’s newly formed, New York City-based Watson Business Unit (BU).

IBM is committing $1 billion and 2,000 employees, as well as its considerable research and development (R&D) talents and marketing muscle to Watson, thus putting the full weight of its global technology and services brand behind the newly formed BU and initiative.

IBM CEO Virginia Rometty said that Michael Rhodin, most recently SVP of IBM’s Software Solutions Group, will take charge of the Watson Group. According to Rometty, the company established Watson as a separate BU based on the strong demand for cognitive computing. The IBM Watson Group will develop cloud-based technologies that can power services for businesses, industries and consumers.

Rometty also said the new IBM Watson Group notably integrates design, services, core functions, technologies, and a fully formed ecosystem which includes a design lab as well as hundreds of outside external partner applicants, foundations and advisors. All of these elements are crucial if Watson is to succeed. …

IBM Watson Takes Cognitive Computing to the Head of the ClassRead More »

IBM Watson Takes Cognitive Computing to the Head of the Class Read More »

IBM Platform Resource Scheduler Automates, Accelerates Cloud Deployments

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

One of the most daunting and off-putting challenges for any enterprise IT department is how to efficiently plan and effectively manage cloud deployments or upgrades while still maintaining the reliability and availability of the existing infrastructure during the rollout.

IBM solves this issue with its newly released Platform Resource Scheduler which is part of the company’s Platform Computing portfolio and an offering within the IBM Software Defined Environment (SDE) vision for next generation cloud automation. The Platform Resource Scheduler is a prescriptive set of services designed to ensure that enterprise IT departments get a trouble-free transition to a private, public or private cloud environment by automating the most common placement and policy procedures of their virtual machines (VMs). It also helps guarantee quality of service while greatly reducing the most typical human errors that occur when IT administrators manually perform tasks like load balancing and memory balancing. The Platform Resource Scheduler is sold with IBM’s SmartCloud Orchestrator and PowerVC and is available as an add-on with IBM SmartCloud Open Stack Entry products. It also features full compatibility with Nova APIs and fits into all IBM OpenStack environments. It is built on open APIs, tools and technologies to maximize client value, skills availability and easy reuse across hybrid cloud environments. It supports heterogeneous (both IBM and non-IBM) infrastructures and runs on Linux, UNIX and Windows as well as IBM’s zOS operating systems. …

IBM Platform Resource Scheduler Automates, Accelerates Cloud DeploymentsRead More »

IBM Platform Resource Scheduler Automates, Accelerates Cloud Deployments Read More »

Rise in Security Threats Increases Risk, Pressures on IT and Business

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By

An overwhelming 80% of companies say that “end user carelessness” constitutes the biggest security threat to their organizations, surpassing the ever-present peril posed by malware or organized hacker attacks .

Additionally, 65% of businesses do not calculate the cost or business impact of security-related downtime and over 30% of firms are unable to detect or defend against a security breach in a timely manner when one does occur.

Those are among the top findings of the ITIC/KnowBe4 “2013 – 2014 Security Deployment Trends Survey.” The joint independent Web-based survey polled 500 organizations during October/November 2013 on the leading security threats and challenges facing their firms and their top priorities over the next 12 to 18 months. In order to maintain objectivity, ITIC and KnowBe4 accepted NO vendor sponsorship and none of the respondents received any remuneration for participating.

The data indicates that IT departments are hard pressed to stay abreast of myriad security issues which represent just one portion of their overall job responsibilities. Some 44% of survey respondents said their IT departments and security professionals spend less than 20% of their time on daily operational security. Another 32% said they devote 20% to 40% of their time on security. Only 20% of participants dedicate a significant portion of their daily and weekly administrative activities to securing their systems and networks. …

Rise in Security Threats Increases Risk, Pressures on IT and BusinessRead More »

Rise in Security Threats Increases Risk, Pressures on IT and Business Read More »

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