Exclusive: Inside the NSA’s private cloud

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Date: Sep 29, 2014 8:22 AM
Subject: Exclusive: Inside the NSA's private cloud
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Lenovo set to complete acquisition of IBM x86 server business With new OS, Microsoft will try to put Windows 8 era behind it Network World Daily News AM September 29, 2014 Exclusive: Inside the NSA's private cloud The National Security Agency (NSA) had a problem familiar to any enterprise IT manager executive: it was running out of space for hundreds of disparate relational databases that contain everything from back-office information to intelligence on foreign interests. And it needed to consolidate those databases to make it easier for NSA analysts to do their job. The NSA's initial approach was to scale up capacity. But halfway through the process, the staff realized that simply increasing the scope of the network was not going to work. So, CIO Lonny Anderson convinced General Keith Alexander, who was then Director of the NSA and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, to approve a move to the cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE   Issue highlights 1. Lenovo set to complete acquisition of IBM x86 server business 2. With new OS, Microsoft will try to put Windows 8 era behind it 3. Oracle's Larry Ellison throws down the cloud gauntlet 4. China blocks Instagram, mentions of 'tear gas' amid Hong Kong protests 5. Two scenarios that would make OS X vulnerable to the Shellshock bug 6. Tim Berners-Lee wants Internet Magna Carta to guarantee netizens' privacy 7. Immersion: The surprising history and connections in your messaging network 8. dtSearch: How to handle Big or even Biggish Data 9. Bitnami: Making it easy and efficient to test server apps on your desktop and in the cloud 10. Microsoft rolls out Groups feature to Office 365 users, but only on the web 11. Yahoo will ring in the new year by killing its website directory 12. Apple's rotten week: Bent phones, broken software, and shattered security WHITE PAPER: McAfee SIEM: Five Requirements that Solve Bigger Business Issues McAfee spoke with SIEM users and asked them to tell us about their primary issues with SIEM. This brief lists the top five issues along with corresponding customer case studies and use cases. Learn More>> Lenovo set to complete acquisition of IBM x86 server business Nine months after it was first announced, Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's x86 server business is headed towards closing.Having received regulatory approval from the U.S., the European Commission and China, the companies will start closing the US$2.1 billion deal on Wednesday. The handover will take place in most major markets starting this week, and will be completed in the remaining countries into early next year, the companies said.As a result of the deal, Lenovo is receiving a host of IBM products including its System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, along with its NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE With new OS, Microsoft will try to put Windows 8 era behind it After spending the past two years in damage control mode over Windows 8, Microsoft will officially begin a new era for its OS on Tuesday, when it's expected to unveil a preview of Windows' next major version during an event focused on enterprise customers.After the success of Windows 7, Microsoft misread the market with Windows 8 and botched the product's user interface, leaving a trail of many unhappy customers, especially in the consumer market.Among businesses, Microsoft encountered much resistance to upgrade, as many CIOs clung to the very stable Windows 7, and took a pass on Windows 8 and its subsequent revisions, afraid that the UI, optimized for touch-screen tablets, would confuse their users, lead them to revolt and affect productivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE Oracle's Larry Ellison throws down the cloud gauntlet Ellison has come full circle from cloud skeptic to the proprietor of a one-stop shop READ MORE China blocks Instagram, mentions of 'tear gas' amid Hong Kong protests China started blocking the popular photo-sharing app Instagram on Sunday, as part of its moves to squelch any mention of the use of tear gas on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.Instagram, owned by Facebook, had remained one of the few U.S. social networking apps still accessible in a country known for its strict censorship of political topics. But on Sunday, users in China began reporting that the product had been blocked. From Beijing, the app was no longer loading new posts.In an email on Monday, Instagram said, "We are aware of reports that people are having difficulty accessing Instagram and looking into it."The Chinese government never comments on why certain Internet products are blocked, only suggesting that they've broken the law in some way. The block on Instagram could be an attempt to stop photos of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests from spreading into mainland China.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE WHITE PAPER: Masergy Communications Inc. An Integrated Approach to Managed Network Security For a growing number of organizations plagued by continuing security issues, the answer to the high cost, complexity and uncertainty surrounding network security is a managed security service built on a unified, behavioral-based security architecture that is integrated, modular, and centrally managed. Learn More Two scenarios that would make OS X vulnerable to the Shellshock bug Apple's OS X is vulnerable to the Shellshock bug, but it's not that easy for attackers to take advantage of it, according to Intego, which specializes in security software for the operating system.Shellshock is the nickname for a flaw in the Bourne Again Shell, or Bash, which is a command-line shell processor widely present in Unix and Linux systems. The flaw in Bash, which has been present for two decades, could allow an attacker to take complete control of a computer.Apple, which plans to patch the flaw, said most users are fine unless they've tweaked advanced Unix settings. By adjusting those settings, Bash could be exposed to attackers, wrote Derek Erwin of Intego in a blog post. Intego has already seen proof-of-concept exploits for OS X, he wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE Tim Berners-Lee wants Internet Magna Carta to guarantee netizens' privacy At the London Web We Want festival on the future of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee said we need a Magna Carta for the Internet to guarantee netizens' privacy and freedom from governments and corporations. READ MORE Immersion: The surprising history and connections in your messaging network MIT's Immersion is a browser-based service that connects to your email account on Gmail, MS Exchange, or Yahoo and, after grabbing your metadata, graphs your connections. It can show you who have been the top connections over your entire email history as well as who mattered in any windows within that span. You may be surprised at how easily your relationships are revealed ... READ MORE dtSearch: How to handle Big or even Biggish Data Dealing with Big Data, or even just Biggish Data, isn't easy so if you've got a lot of content to search you're going to need something more powerful than the standard tools. dtSearch is just what you need: Fast, capable of indexing huge amounts of text, and even capable of Web crawling to build an index. dtSearch gets a Gearhead rating of 5 out 5. READ MORE WEBCAST: Interactive Intelligence How Moving Your Contact Center to the Cloud Eliminates Risk The total cost of ownership (TCO) debate between a premises and cloud decision continues to wage on. Depending on how you look at it, it seems that you arrive at a different conclusion. However, the missing factor in nearly all cloud contact center and unified communications TCO discussions is the consideration of buyer risk. Learn More Bitnami: Making it easy and efficient to test server apps on your desktop and in the cloud Bitnami Stacks are server-based open source applications packaged to a consistent standard with all of the app's required libraries and dependencies, optimized for performance, and kept updated to the latest stable version. You can also deploy Bitnami Stacks directly to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure (other platforms are promised). READ MORE Microsoft rolls out Groups feature to Office 365 users, but only on the web If you've been trying to figure out out how to better work collaboratively with coworkers, Microsoft has a new tool for Office 365: Groups. But right now, it's only for those using Microsoft's Office 365 web apps. READ MORE Yahoo will ring in the new year by killing its website directory Other services like Yahoo Education and Qwiki will also close READ MORE Apple's rotten week: Bent phones, broken software, and shattered security The only magic in Apple land this week is black magic. READ MORE WHITE PAPER: Instart Logic A New, Better Approach for Web Experiences across Devices For media and entertainment companies intent on delivering high definition web experiences across all devices, web performance can make or break their engagement levels. Learn more>> SLIDESHOWS The wild world of workplace wearables Here are some examples of wearables coming to a variety of vertical industries. JOIN THE NETWORK WORLD COMMUNITIES As network pros you understand that the value of connections increase as the number of connections increase, the so called network effect, and no where is this more evident than in professional relationships. Join Network World's LinkedIn and Facebook communities to share ideas, post questions, see what your peers are working on and scout out job applicants (or maybe find your next opportunity). Network World on Facebook Network World on LinkedIn MOST-READ STORIES of 2014 1. Why Amazon is rebooting 10% of its cloud server 2. iPhone 6: The phone for people who can't do math 3. iOS 8 tips and tricks you need to know 4. 'Bigger than Heartbleed' Shellshock flaw leaves OS X, Linux, more open to attack 5. Microsoft rolls out free Office 365 for Students, but hits activation snag 6. The FBI's big, bad identification system 7. Amazon readies major cloud server reboot 8. Apple quickly issues iOS 8.0.2 update 9. Why Cisco lost two key officials in data center, cloud 10. What is Ello? A social network with a terrible business plan Follow Network World You are currently subscribed to networkworld_daily_news_alert as aquarianm@gmail.com. Unsubscribe from this newsletter | Manage your subscriptions | Subscribe | Privacy Policy Learn about INSIDER When accessing content promoted in this email, you are providing consent for your information to be shared with the sponsors of the content. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information. If you are interested in advertising in this newsletter, please contact: bglynn@cxo.com To contact Network World, please send an e-mail to customer_service@nww.com Copyright (C) 2014 Network World, 492 Old Connecticut Path, Framingham, MA 01701 ** Please do not reply to this message. To contact someone directly, send an e-mail to customer_service@nww.com. **