Realtime Nexus: IT eBook alerts

The Shortcut Guide to Prioritizing Security Spending

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:27:06 -0500

Complete eBook: Prioritizing Security Spending
by Dan Sullivan

The Shortcut Guide to Prioritizing Security Spending provides a framework for IT professionals and business managers grappling with challenges from an economic downturn to rapidly changing technology options. Any IT professional expected to maintain effective security practices in this increasingly complex environment will find this guide to be an invaluable resource. Topics include leveraging opportunities created by the changing economy, protecting business operations while maintaining staff efficiencies, and making judicious use of virtualization, cloud computing and other technologies for optimizing service delivery. Chapters in this eBook include: Chapter 1: Optimizing Business-Driven Security Chapter 2: Maintaining Effective Security Practices in an Increasingly Complex Environment Chapter 3: Security and the Dynamic Infrastructure Chapter 4: Best Practices to Prioritizing Security Spending

The Tips and Tricks Guide to Windows Server 2008 Features

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:25:40 -0500

Volume 1: Server Core Domain Controllers, Read-Only Domain Controllers, CHKDSK, IIS7
by Don Jones

Are you using - or preparing to use - Windows Server 2008? Make sure you're not just upgrading the OS, but also upgrading what you do with it by taking advantage of new features, new techniques, and subtle new capabilities. IT guru Don Jones guides you through WIndows Server 2008's most important new capabilities in a short, tip-focused format that helps you immediately take advantage of the greatest new features. Walk through installing a Server Core domain controller, secure Windows PowerShell, use a Read-Only Domain Controller, and much, much more!

The Essentials Series: New Techniques for Creating Better Backups

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:00:01 -0500

Complete Series: New Techniques for Creating Better Backups
by Eric Beehler

The world of backups is an essential piece of an IT infrastructure. With new technologies coming online and new issues around data security, the question becomes whether your backups are keeping up. Virtualization presents new challenges to the old agent based network backup, data breaches force you to take a second look at security, and the sheer volume of data puts backup solutions at their breaking points. The Essentials Series: New Techniques for Creating Better Backups takes a fresh look at backup technologies that address these challenges of virtualized servers, options and management of backup encryption, and the benefits of data deduplication for efficient use of backup resources. Articles in this series include: Article 1: How Virtualization Changes the Standard Approach to Backups Article 2: Avoid Making Headlines by Securing Your Backups Article 3: Reducing Backups with Data Deduplication

The Definitive Guide to Application Performance Management

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:19:52 -0500

Chapter 1: What is Application Performance Management?
by Greg Shields

The Definitive Guide to Application Performance Management offers a comprehensive look at Application Performance Management (APM), an industry-leading mechanism for monitoring business services and applications. APM looks at every facet of the IT infrastructure, from the services to the users themselves, to gain a holistic understanding of what’s going on in your business applications. Using APM, you can quickly dive into the root causes of problems within your infrastructure. You will understand the level of impact associated with those problems, and will recognize and quantify the overall health of your IT infrastructure and business services. The goal of this first chapter, and indeed this guide as well, is to help you understand the critical need for managing your applications’ performance and behaviors. Chapter One will document the problem with today’s traditional monitoring solutions and explain why APM is an effective solution. It will discuss an introduction to APM and where it fits into the environment.

The Shortcut Guide to Business Security Measures Using SSL

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:14:23 -0500

Chapter 4: Best Practices for Implementing a Business Centric Security Management Strategy
by Dan Sullivan

As Chapter 4 explores, a business-centric security strategy starts with the requirements of business, assesses the threats and vulnerabilities to the business, and formulates a combination of organizational and technical controls to mitigate risks. Several technologies, such as SSL-based encryption, digital certificates, anti-malware, and network security controls, as well as organizational controls, including polices and end user training, can be used collectively in a defense-in-depth manner to improve the security of the enterprise.

The Definitive Guide to Building Code Quality

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:37:34 -0500

Chapter 4: Addressing Coding Errors
by Don Jones

Without a doubt, coding errors - that is, bugs - are one of the first things anyone thinks about when they speak of code quality. And obviously, code that works is perceived as being of higher quality than code that doesn't! As I've mentioned in previous chapters, focusing on bugs as your exclusive measurement of quality is shortsighted, but that doesn’t mean we can't spend plenty of time getting rid of bugs, because bug-free code is definitely higher-quality code. In this chapter, then, we'll focus on types of coding errors because there are quite a few. Each type has distinct techniques for avoidance and removal, and we'll spend the bulk of this chapter focusing on these techniques as well as the tools that help implement those techniques more quickly and efficiently.

The Definitive Guide to Quality Application Delivery

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:26:55 -0500

Chapter 8: Functional Testing - Verifying Quality
by Don Jones

Automated testing cannot, by itself, add more quality to an application. That is, all an automation tool can do is make things faster and less tedious; it cannot inherently make them better. That’s why this chapter will focus on testing generally and not specifically on tools. You need to have a solid testing methodology in place before you begin automating it; in other words, you need to create the desired level of quality using manual processes, and then you can begin relying on tools to help automate those processes.

The Shortcut Guide to Prioritizing Security Spending

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:01:56 -0500

Chapter 4: Best Practices for Prioritizing Security Spending
by Dan Sullivan

Chapter 4 describes a multi-phased approach for prioritizing security spending. Starting with an assessment of the business environment, the process moves on to design and deployment issues followed by a discussion of implementation and management topics. The final phase considers education, a critical but sometimes overlooked practice in prioritizing security spending. The goal is to deliver optimized security that can adapt with agility.

The Shortcut Guide to Implementing Virtualization in the Small Environment

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:11:41 -0500

Complete eBook: Implementing Virtualization in the Small Environment
by Greg Shields

Virtualization is a big and obvious play in enterprise environments. Its promise of shrinking the data center footprint, reducing costs, and enhancing the workflow of IT and the business make it a perfect fit for environments of size. But small businesses needn’t necessarily be left out in the cold. These smaller environments where no- or low-cost tools are standard and administrators must take broad responsibility rather than specialization stand to gain as well. Yet with so much information in the market today - much of which is focused on the needs of the large environment - small businesses and environments have a hard time justifying a move to virtualization. The Shortcut Guide to Implementing Virtualization in the Small Environment will illuminate the cost savings and the workflow improvements that small businesses and environments will see upon the move to virtualization. By asking and answering a series of four important questions, this guide will pull the reader through the four most critical hurdles that small businesses today must understand to be successful with their virtualization implementations.

The Essentials Series: Increasing Performance in Enterprise Anti-Malware Software

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:59:17 -0500

Complete Series: Increasing Performance in Enterprise Anti-Malware Software
by Eric Schmidt

Today's Anti-Malware clients have become bloated suites that often have a negative impact on system performance. Yet, ever increasing security threats require that every system within an enterprise must be protected. The Essentials Series: Increasing Performance in Enterprise Anti-Malware Software offers expert insight into the factors most relevant when evaluating anti-malware solutions, as well as a best practices list to optimize both anti-malware and overall system performance. Articles in this series include: Article 1: Why is Traditional Anti-Malware So Slow? Article 2: Considerations for Evaluating Performance in Anti-Malware Products Article 3: Best Practices in Deploying Anti-Malware for Best Performance

The Shortcut Guide to Productivity and Cost Savings through Collaboration and Information Exchange

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:23:38 -0500

New eBook: Productivity and Cost Savings through Collaboration and Information Exchange
by Dan Sullivan

In today’s enterprises, IT departments are faced with a wide array of challenges when it comes to content sharing and collaboration. Keeping costs down, sharing documents across and outside of the enterprise, following compliance and security standards, and optimizing business processes are each high priority concerns when determining a methodology for sharing information. Fortunately, content sharing and collaboration tools are evolving to meet these needs. The Shortcut Guide to Productivity and Cost Savings through Collaboration and Information Exchange illustrates examples of efficient content collaboration drawn from a variety of industries, including financial services, life sciences, manufacturing and government. It offers an insightful look at technology solutions, such as electronic documents and forms, which meet the various collaboration and sharing requirements. Lastly, a set of best practices is included to identify potential areas for more efficient content and forms management, as well as establish supportive workflow processes and security policies.

The Shortcut Guide to Certificates in the Enterprise

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:45:07 -0500

Complete eBook: Certificates in the Enterprise
by Don Jones

Do you use digital certificates? Not just utilize SSL certificates for Web servers but really use digital certificates in your enterprise? The many ways in which certificates can be employed to improve security, stability, reliability, and more are amazing -- and what's equally amazing is how few businesses really leverage these simple, powerful tools. In The Shortcut Guide to Certificates in the Enterprise, author Don Jones shows you all the ways that certificates can help easily solve common challenges, explains what certificates are and how they work, and offers creative ideas for using certificates effectively.

The Shortcut Guide to Understanding Data Protection from Four Critical Perspectives

Thu, 28 May 2009 19:01:23 -0500

Chapter 3: How Information Security Leaders Need to Address Data Protection Within the Business Context
by Rebecca Herold

Privacy and trust are essential to maintaining good relationships with customers, employees, and business partners. It is also necessary to address privacy issues to comply with a growing number of privacy regulations worldwide. An effective information security program is necessary to ensure privacy expectations, and trust, are maintained with your customers, employees, and business partners. Chapter 3 offers insight on leading practices organizations need to follow to help ensure an effective privacy program as well as to help demonstrate due diligence.

The Shortcut Guide to Implementing Virtualization in the Small Environment

Tue, 26 May 2009 17:49:36 -0500

Chapter 4: What Are the Best Practices in Implementing Small Environment Virtualization?
by Greg Shields

In three short chapters, this guide has discussed many of the questions you and your business should be asking about virtualization. You’ve learned about the technologies behind virtualization, with a focus on the underpinnings that make virtualization a play for small businesses. You’ve also come to know the financial benefits that virtualization brings to your environment. In the previous chapter, you got a comprehensive look at the components you’ll need to get started in virtualization. Chapter 3 took a technology‐based focus on the pieces of technology you need in order to start your virtualization project. There, you learned about the types of storage available, the impact of networks and network cards, and the critical role of available memory in your physical hosts. This chapter will augment that information with the added knowledge and best practices you need to properly implement that virtual environment.

The Essentials Series: Tackling Active Directory's Four Biggest Challenges

Wed, 20 May 2009 19:17:48 -0500

The Essentials Series: Tackling Active Directory's Four Biggest Challenges
by Greg Shields

Active Directory is pervasive in virtually every Windows environment. It’s the platform upon which all your users, computers, applications, and data reside. As such, managing it correctly is key to ensuring the health of your entire IT infrastructure. Yet for many, Active Directory is a big, black box. You know how to interact with its common tools like Active Directory Users and Computers. But do you know the best practices for more complex tasks? These critically important tasks like merging and restructuring domains, recovering deleted objects, automatically provisioning new users, and enabling useful auditing aren’t obvious to accomplish, and can be painful to use with Microsoft’s native tools. The Essentials Series: Tackling Active Directory's Four Biggest Challenges will discuss exactly how to accomplish those four tasks with an added conversation about the additional tools you may want to consider in easing the administrative burden of these activities. Articles in this series include: Article 1: Merging and Restructuring Domains without User Impact Article 2: Quickly Recovering Deleted Active Directory Objects Article 3: Automatically Provisioning New Users Article 4: Enabling Useful Active Directory Auditing