|
Should You Buy? We've established that VirtualShield is cool, but do you really need it? If your company has excellent procedures for patch management on servers and the workstations that access them, downtime windows that let you get patches installed promptly, and good firewall separation from the Internet, probably not--though for the price, you may want the added peace of mind. Another crucial factor to ponder is whether Blue Lane's list of protected OSs and apps covers your environment, keeping in mind that policies can be used to protect many otherwise uncovered vulnerabilities, especially common problems in PHP Web apps. If you run critical servers on VMware and have uptime requirements or strict change-control processes that make it difficult to patch in a timely manner, Blue Lane's VirtualShield may be just the ticket. It could also be useful in environments with a large number of virtual servers managed by different groups, but housed together, and where it's hard to ensure that each group is keeping its servers well maintained. With the bad guys planning to release new exploits right after Microsoft and other vendors ship their monthly patches--thus ensuring almost a month without protection--Blue Lane's quick action on newly discovered exploits could really save your servers. Other Virtual Bargains Most offerings at VMware's Virtual Marketplace are meant as a quick way to try out a product or technology. Two we noted are StillSecure's StrataGuard and the SVIDS intrusion-detection system, a replacement for a physical network device. The former takes an innovative approach to packaging software that we found almost effortless to set up and get running, making it easy to try out a number of options before you buy. The latter is a way to run services that would normally require dedicated hardware in the virtual environment you already have. Obviously, you wouldn't run a high-traffic router or firewall on a virtual appliance, but for lower-traffic situations, or when the devices being protected also are virtualized, it can drastically reduce your cost and complexity. |
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
