An IT Support Blog from London

Data centre optimisation and consequential benefits for businesses

With so much focus on hacking and internet security, many firms of 10 - 100 people will feel that they have put a lot of effort into making their data as secure as possible. Unfortunately, internet security is a moving target, where the threat may be characterised as agile and continually evolving. Consequently, it is impossible for networks to remain impenetrable.

Standard IT best practice, such as upgrading and patching operating systems and applications, and maintaining a reliable backup and Disaster Recovery capability, are all layers that help to ensure that a firm is in a position to resume normal operations within an acceptable timeframe, should it be the victim of an attack.

DDoS attacks that force websites to go offline and cripple servers are nothing new, but many of the massive DDoS attacks last year, which also happened to be the biggest in history, had a common characteristic we’ve never seen before. They all originated from hordes of zombified IoT devices, also known as IoT botnets.

Because IoT devices are here to stay, this threat won’t be going away anytime soon. If your network includes websites and other Internet-facing applications, you need to understand what these threats are, how it can impact your business, and what we in the business community can do to protect our IT infrastructures from these types of attacks.

The thing about data security…

Uncertainty about the security of the cloud has often been the deciding factor that has made some businesses retain an on-premise approach to provisioning technology to support operations.

High profile, security breaches involving large volumes of data, typically hackers stealing account and password and other personal information from online businesses, have created much doubt and distrust about the cloud, not to mention anxiety for those that have had their information stolen.

Safe Harbour renegotiation by the end of January

Following the EU ruling that rendered the Safe Harbour agreement invalid last October 2015, in November Sataya Nadella (the current wearer of Bill Gates’ big Microsoft CEO shoes), announced investment in UK data centres as part of a $2bn European cloud infrastructure development plan.

Microsoft refuses US government access to data stored in Ireland

Despite a court order in 2014 ruling in favour of the US government, Microsoft is refusing to hand over emails stored at a data centre in Ireland alleged to contain details of narcotics sales. The US government position supported by the court is it could force the company to hand over data it controlled and stored abroad because it is a US-based business.