Upcoming Meeting Notice

The Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI) is a 30 year old, worldwide non-profit organization made up of companies who provide technology solutions, technical support or value added services to the business community.

Members and non-members are invited to learn how to grow your business, find new business opportunities, hear from industry representatives and enjoy some fabulous networking events at our conferences:

2012 ASIA CONFERENCE
February 1 - 3, 2012
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2012 USA CONFERENCE
March 7 - 9, 2012
Clearwater Beach, Florida   USA

2012 USA CONFERENCE
September 13, 2012
San Diego, California   USA

2012 EUROPEAN CONFERENCE
October 3 - 5, 2012
Madrid, Spain

Click here for more information on ALL ASCDI MEETINGS, to view the agendas, lodging details, attendee lists and to REGISTER AT THE EARLY BIRD RATE.

Book review
Cisco
Cloud
Conferences
Frontiers
HP
IBM
Leasing
Power
Security

Book review

Network Security Auditing
Reviewed by Jeff Owen, Independent IT Consultant

The need for securing IT networks is nothing new.  This book explains in detail how you can constantly improve your security via auditing.  An audit, done correctly, is nothing more than a learning opportunity.  This is a well laid out book that will be useful to not only learn about various issues and implementation strategies for conducting a network security audit, but also as an ongoing reference.

Written as a primer, this book assumes the reader is new to network auditing, in general, and Cisco networks, in particular.  The author thoroughly covers the 5 pillars of security auditing, namely: assessment, prevention, detection, reaction and recovery.  Useful for anyone wanting to build and maintain a program to measure the security effectiveness of their networks (especially Cisco networks), the book contains several checklists, an introduction to various IT governance frameworks (e.g. COBIT, ITIL, and ISO 17799/27001) and references to several federal and state statutes governing IT security.

Jeff Owen is an independent consultant with 30+ years experience in telecommunications/networking and IT. Contact him at [email protected].

Author: Chris Jackson
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Cisco Press (June 2010)
ISBN – 10: 1-58705-352-7
ISBN – 13: 978-1-58705-352-8
List Price: $70.00; Amazon: $51.49
^Back To Top

Cisco

Cisco unveils new ways to collaborate in the post-PC era
At the Cisco Collaboration Summit 2011 event, Cisco unveiled new solutions to help people collaborate more effectively in the “post-PC” era. The advancements Cisco introduced — from Cisco WebEx to Cisco Jabber — can change how people meet utilizing expanded cloud-based services, and can give workers an easy way to collaborate directly from Web applications they use every day, driving new levels of business productivity and competitiveness. Cisco unveiled the next generation of Cisco WebEx. Additionally, Cisco is extending cloud conferencing to more people with a new free basic edition of WebEx designed for three people or less. Cisco is also transforming the workspace by dramatically changing how people collaborate from Web applications they use every day, like SAP Streamwork, Cisco Quad or Google Apps. Cisco is making collaboration much easier by advancing Cisco Jabber with a freely downloadable Web browser plug-in that will help extend collaboration to tens of millions of people that use Web browsers on Windows- or Mac-based OS devices.
Visit www.cisco.com.
^Back To Top

Cloud

Alcatel-Lucent connects communications networks and cloud
Alcatel-Lucent is introducing a new solution called CloudBand, which brings together the computing power and flexibility of the cloud with the high performance, reliability and security of communications networks. CloudBand is the foundation for a new class of ‘carrier cloud’ services that will enable communications service providers to bring the benefits of the cloud to their own networks and business operations and put them in an ideal position to offer a new range of high-performance cloud services to enterprises and consumers. CloudBand is comprised of two distinct elements: the CloudBand Management System – which delivers orchestration and optimization of services between the communications network and the cloud; and the CloudBand Node, which provides the computing, storage and networking hardware and associated software to host a wide range of cloud services. CloudBand will be available for deployment in the first half of 2012.
Visit www.alcatel-lucent.com.
^Back To Top

Conferences

The SIP Forum announces dates for the second annual SIP Network Operators Conference
The SIP Forum announced that it will host the second annual SIP Network Operators Conference (SIPNOC US 2012), a two day educational conference focusing on the challenges and opportunities related to the deployment of SIP-based carrier services globally. SIPNOC US 2012 will be held in Herndon, VA on June 25-27, 2012 and will build on the success of the inaugural event last spring, which attracted leading technical and operations personnel from the global carrier community and earned high praise from attendees for its educational, non-commercial and technical content that focused on the real-world challenges operators face when deploying SIP services in global IP networks. The conference, which is designed specifically for SIP network operations personnel and engineering staff, will feature well-known industry speakers and a number of highly technical educational and instructional panels and sessions.
Visit www.sipnoc.org.
^Back To Top

Frontiers

FXI demonstrates any screen connected computing
FXI Technologies demonstrated the world’s first any screen, connected computing USB device. Codenamed “Cotton Candy”, this sweet little device serves as a technology bridge between any display, the Cloud, and any input peripheral. The vision for Cotton Candy is to allow users a single, secure point of access to all personal Cloud services and apps through their favorite operating system, while delivering a consistent experience on any screen. The device will serve as a companion to smartphones, tablets, notebook PCs and Macs, as well as add smart capabilities to existing displays, TVs, set top boxes and game consoles. “Today’s device functionality is often limited by the size of the screen it inhabits,” said Borgar Ljosland, founder and CEO of FXI Technologies. “We’ve turned things upside down, eliminating the screen and delivering the power of a PC and the web to any screen.”
Visit www.fxitech.com.
^Back To Top

HP

HP helps organizations transform application portfolios
HP announced that organizations worldwide are creating a competitive advantage by accelerating the reliable, secure delivery of applications and services with the HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) 11 software platform. HP ALM 11 allows businesses and governments to automate the workstreams associated with application modernization -- including requirements management, project planning and tracking, development management, quality assurance, defect resolution, performance validation, and release management. HP ALM 11 is a component of the HP IT Performance Suite, an enterprise performance platform that enables IT management to improve performance with operational intelligence. The suite delivers a comprehensive view across all IT assets, automates IT management and adjusts IT performance to meet specific business goals.
Visit www.hp.com/go/alm.
^Back To Top

IBM

IBM unveils mobile security service to protect sensitive corporate data
IBM is unveiling a new service to help businesses secure the exploding number of mobile devices with access to corporate data. The new IBM Hosted Mobile Device Security Management service extends the company's existing mobility portfolio to include a security application for smartphones and tablets, along with managed services including policy management and user compliance monitoring. The service helps organizations protect against data loss and other risks caused by device theft, unauthorized access, malware, spyware, and inappropriate applications. It is designed to help mitigate security risks associated with the increasing number of employee-owned and corporate-liable mobile devices accessing sensitive business data. Delivered as a hosted, managed service, clients can put these controls into action without the need to deploy and manage systems or to make a major investment of in-house personnel and technology.
Visit www.ibm.com/security.
^Back To Top

Leasing

GreatAmerica deploys Info-Zone.com 2.0
GreatAmerica Leasing Corporation announced the release of Info-Zone.com 2.0, a significant upgrade from its first generation Info-Zone.com website. The site is an exclusive online Dealer/Distributor portal that automates credit applications, autofills forms and provides customized reports to help manage customer bases and identify sales opportunities. The new site, which is compatible with iPAD and Android mobile tablet devices for online application completion, also features a customizable dashboard that helps users get important information quickly. Other upgrades include security enhancements, improved navigation, pricing calculators and greater flexibility in quoting and document creation. The site communicates with major ERP systems such as Digital Gateway’s e-automate, OMD, and LaCrosse for automatic meter uploads/downloads and data comparison. This reduces administration expense and improves billing accuracy. Data from Tigerpaw, Compass, Sales Chain, Falcon, MWAi, and CorsPro can be received by the GreatAmerica Vendor Billing Services team.
Visit www.greatamerica.com.
^Back To Top

Power

Data Center Efficiency Assessment from Emerson Network Power helps North American data center managers
Emerson Network Power introduced the Emerson Network Power Data Center Efficiency Assessment, a comprehensive, onsite infrastructure assessment designed to help enterprise companies identify, evaluate and resolve cooling and power vulnerabilities that could threaten data center performance and efficiency. Offered in North America, the assessment uses industry benchmarks and best practices to identify opportunities to increase availability, reduce costs and unlock capacity, and provide prioritized and actionable recommendations. The assessment is ideal for data centers undergoing strategic projects such as virtualization, consolidation or blade implementations; and for those that are capacity constrained, have experienced unplanned downtime, or are experiencing IT equipment degradation due to excessive heat. Designed for data centers with at least 2,000 square feet, the data center efficiency assessment uses best practices for the IT environment and sophisticated tools such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.
Visit www.EmersonNetworkPower.com.
^Back To Top

Security

Norman releases next generation endpoint protection system
Norman announced the availability of Norman Endpoint Protection 9, an advanced IT security defense system that protects PCs and servers against sophisticated malware threats. Norman Endpoint Protection delivers cost effective, easy-to-administer threat protection for small and medium businesses and scales, using a new multilevel architecture, to serve even the largest, most complex enterprise networks. Security policies may be set and managed centrally across multiple sites ensuring rapid security updates and effective local control. Norman Endpoint Protection installs in minutes and its intuitive user interface displays all clients and servers in a network. All computers are updated with the latest protection and stay secure while reporting status to the powerful Endpoint Manager console application. The Endpoint Manager is easy to use through logical, drag-and-drop actions for group handling and security policy management.
Visit www.norman.com/products.
^Back To Top