WindowsNetworking.com - Monthly Newsletter - June 2016

Welcome to the WindowsNetworking.com newsletter by Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MVP. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on the world of Windows Networking. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: dshinder@windowsnetworking.com

 

1. Big Data is Getting Bigger

“We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge.” So said Rutherford D. Rogers, and certainly when we look at the enormous quantity of data that’s available from so many sources, it can be overwhelming. Turning that information into knowledge is one of the goals of big data.
We’ve been hearing about big data and big data analytics for a while now, but many organizations are still at a loss as to whether they actually have it, whether they need it, and how they can utilize it to benefit their business. So you’ve hopped on the big data bandwagon and installed the tools you need to collect and store tremendous amounts of information. Awesome. What’s the next step?
There’s no doubt that big data is becoming a bigger part of the business strategy of big companies, and savvy mid-sized organizations are getting into the act, as well. Most are incorporating big data projects in parallel to their already-extant data storage systems, rather than replacing the latter with the former. In some ways, the physical implementation is the easy part. The more difficult question is the same one posed to the dog who finally catches the car he was chasing: What do you do with it?
To answer that question, you have to consider another: What’s the point of big data, after all? It’s easy to get caught up in the “collector” mentality, whether you’re accumulating books, souvenir refrigerator magnets or digital data. But most of us wouldn’t go out and by boxes of random books just to fill our shelves and if we collect magnets, we usually carefully choose those that have meaning, that represent some place to which we’ve traveled or some event we’ve attended.

Likewise, there’s not much point in piling up data just for the sake of being able to brag that you have X number of petabytes stored on your network. Your real goal should be to gather data that will provide you with insights into your business and/or your customer base, which you can analyze and use to make your processes more efficient, attract more customers, or otherwise improve your company’s reputation, industry standing and bottom line.
One of the benefits of big data is the ability to make better business decisions and do it more quickly, based on much more information. We all know from our own life experience that no matter how smart you are, how objective and logical your thought processes, if you have insufficient information to go on, your decisions may prove to be faulty. We also know that the right decision can be useless if it’s made too late. Figuring out that the long shot is likely to win isn’t of much use after the race has started and betting has closed.

The beauty of big data analytics is that it enables you to make decisions that take into account massive amounts of information, and thanks to the speed of in-memory analytics, you can get the feedback you need in real time. That can make the difference between whether you snag that interested customer (or retain the one who’s on the fence about leaving), whether you offer the right new products and services that customers want and need, or whether you prepare for risks and avoid threats that you wouldn’t have been aware of but for predictive analysis. Big data analytics can also help you to pinpoint where your company is overspending, how to motivate your personnel to work smarter and be more loyal, and which of your marketing campaigns are paying off (or not).

With today’s big data tools, you don’t have to be a programmer or a data scientist or an analyst or have specialized skills to be able to use the information that’s generated. Business users can view the data in forms that make sense to them and that put into perspective the issues that are relevant to their decision processes.
All of this might have some who haven’t yet dipped their toes into the waters of big data chomping at the bit to dive in – but the discussion wouldn’t be complete without looking at the dark cloud that goes along with every silver lining. For most orgs, the reality of doing business is that the budget is always looming overhead, limiting what you can do, and big data can entail big costs to create a big data analytics ecosystem.
The good news is that the cost of data storage hardware has continued to fall over the years, from thousands of dollars per gigabyte in the 1980s to a few pennies per gig today. The other good news is that the most popular of big data software, Hadoop, is a free open source solution. The bad news is that you’ll likely need to hire someone to set it up, and that can take a few months. You’ll need a business analyst to figure out what your specific goals are and how you want to use the data (what specific problems you want to solve) and then a developer to code the solution. You might need a database specialist to determine how to import data from other systems into your Hadoop cluster. Depending on the complexity of your needs, you might need a temporary or full-time data scientist, and of course if you opt for a hosted solution rather than on-premises, you’ll have to pay for the cloud hosting and support. If not, there are hardware costs – servers, peripherals, network equipment – to consider.

These specialists and services can present a significant initial investment and ongoing monthly or annual costs. Another approach is to contract with a DAaaS provider (Data Analytics as a Service), which can cut the cost in half or more. There are a number of such providers. There are also ways that even small businesses and non-profits can benefit from big data analytics and “do big data on a shoestring budget,” using free web-based tools such as Google Analytics, Open Web Analytics, Heap Analytics and others. There are social media-centric analytics tools such as Sprout Social and Beevolve. You can find free data visualization and analysis software such as R Project and PowerPivot. For more advanced analytics, you can take advantage of offerings such as Google’s Big Query service, which gives you a terabyte of data processing per month at no cost.
It’s obvious that big data is here to stay and it’s going to get bigger, in terms of its importance in the business world, in the years ahead. If you’re an IT professional in search of new career directions, big data provides some lucrative opportunities as an in-demand specialty with higher-than-average salaries. Any way you look at it, this is a technology trend that’s too big to be ignored.

‘Til next time,
Deb

dshinder@windowsnetworking.com

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Quotes of the Month

“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine." - Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President, Gartner Research.

"You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data." - Daniel Keys Moran

“Big Data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.” – Dan Ariely

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2. Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond – Order Today!

Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond By Thomas Shinder, Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Yuri Diogenes From architecture to deployment, this book takes you through the steps for securing a Windows Server 2012-based enterprise network in today’s highly mobile, BYOD, cloud-centric computing world. Includes test lab guides for trying out solutions in a non-production environment. Order your copy of Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond. You'll be glad you did

Click here to Order your copy today

 

3. WindowsNetworking.com Articles of Interest

This month on WindowsNetworking.com, we continue with new installments for two popular article series, wrap up another such series, and introduce two new standalone articles for your reading pleasure.

Who Moved my Network?

Change is a part of life and is one of the only things you can completely count on, in IT and elsewhere. There’s an old saying that change is inevitable except from a vending machine, and transitioning to the cloud will bring big changes – some beneficial, some detrimental and some that are both good and bad – to the way we manage our networks. This standalone article discusses some of those changes that you can expect to deal with when moving to the cloud.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/cloud-computing/who-moved-my-network.html

Interview: MS architectures

Many if not most mid- and large-sized business enterprises and government or non-governmental organizations employ in whole or in part an IT infrastructure based on Microsoft products and solutions. To learn more about what it takes to successfully design and implement a large-scale Microsoft-centric architectural solution, Mitch Tulloch interviewed Raymond Comvalius, an independent IT architect and trainer from the Netherlands.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/interviews/interview-ms-architectures.html

Containerization Proliferation: The Docker Effect (Part 6)

In Part 1 of this multi-part article series, I briefly explained what containers are, some benefits of using containers and the scenarios in which they aren’t the best choice, and some generalities about how they work. In Part 2, we discussed popular container solutions, beginning with Docker. In Part 3, we started talking about container security in general and Docker security in particular. In Part 4 we addressed how you can harden the Linux host using SELinux, AppArmor, and Grsec, and in Part 5, we discussed Docker Content Trust, and some third party security solutions for Docker. Now in Part 6, I wrap up the series by talking a little about CoreOS, Kubernetes (Google’s container management solution), and Microsoft’s entries into this space: Windows Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/cloud-computing/containerization-proliferation-docker-effect-part6.html

Building a PowerShell GUI (Part 7)

In his previous article in this series, Brien Posey showed you how to configure the PowerShell GUI to display a virtual machine name. The script and its output might not have been impressive, but they demonstrated the fact that it is possible to display something other than static text within a PowerShell GUI. His goal in this article, is to show you how you can gain better control over the text that is displayed.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/netgeneral/building-powershell-gui-part7.html

PowerShell for Storage and File System Management (Part 11)

This ongoing series has addressed in great detail the how-to of using Windows PowerShell to manage storage and the file system, and in Part 11, Brien Posey continues with instructions for creating a health storage script by integrating mail notification into the script that was created in Part 10. This is the next-to-last installment in a 12-part series.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/netgeneral/powershell-storage-and-file-system-management-part11.html

 

4. Administrator KB Tip of the Month

Some tips on properly configuring networking for multi-site clusters

A tip about deciding whether to use SAN or DAS as your Hyper-V host storage solution.
Deciding whether to use SAN or DAS as your host storage solution depends on a number of different factors. For example, some of the advantages of the SAN approach include

"There are several techniques used to reduce the time it takes for client to reconnect after a failover.

• SAN allows multiple servers access to a pool of storage. This means SAN provides flexibility by allowing any server to access any storage unit in the SAN array.
• Because SAN is a centralized storage solution, it is easier to manage than DAS. This might be an important consideration if you will be deploying many Hyper-V hosts.
• SAN has a more scalable architecture than the DAS approach.
  The disadvantages of the SAN approach, however, include the following:
• SANs are usually more costly than DAS solutions, and depending on your business priorities this factor might weigh heavily in your decision.
• DAS solutions typically have lower latency than SANs. So if application I/O or service latency is a priority, DAS might be the route to take.

NOTE: Network-attached storage (NAS) is not supported for Hyper-V hosts.
The above tip was previously published in an issue of WServerNews, a weekly newsletter from TechGenix that focuses on the administration, management and security of the Windows Server platform in particular and cloud solutions in general. Subscribe to WServerNews today by going to http://www.wservernews.com/subscribe.htm and join almost 100,000 other IT professionals around the world who read our newsletter!

5. Windows Networking Links of the Month

• Barefoot Networks’ new chips will transform the tech industry
• Cost of a data breach: $4 million. Benefits of responding quickly: Priceless.
• Free network software might radically change how routing works
• Software Defined Networking (SDN) is coming. Is your workforce ready?
• Get ready for the shift to cloud Unified Communications (UC)
• My first IoT project: A guide for businesses

6. Ask Sgt. Deb

Are these security researchers for real?

QUESTION:

I’m an IT manager for a still smallish but growing company.  We were in the news a while back and got some good PR, which helped business but I think it also brought us to the attention of hackers or researchers, not sure which to call them. Anyway shortly after, I got email from somebody claiming to be a “white hat” good guy researcher who had penetrated our network but didn’t steal any data or do any damage (so he claims). But he wants us to pay to find out how he got in and what our security weaknesses are, and that seems to me to border on extortion. I contacted local law enforcement but they said if no damage was done and because he’s apparently out of the their jurisdiction there’s not much they can do but take a report.

So is this a legit security company business model or not? Maybe I’m just behind the times but it seems wrong to me.  What do you think? – Harley M.

ANSWER:

Hi, Harley. Coincidentally, I recently read an article on this phenomenon and it seems to be a growing one. This is a similar tactic to that of ransomware except that instead of holding data hostage, the attacker (and yes, it is an attack for someone to do “pen testing” on your network without permission) tries to come off as someone who’s there to help you – for a hefty price.
There are researchers who find security vulnerabilities in other organizations’ web sites or software but the ethical ones disclose that to the company who owns the site or makes the software so that they can fix it. At the very least, they give the company time to patch the flaw before disclosing it to the public. Although some large companies such as Microsoft and Google do pay bounties for bugs reported in their products, an ethical researcher would never demand payment and, in some cases, threaten to go public or to misuse the data if they don’t get the money.
I did a search and found the article in InfoWorld that addressed this topic. You might want to check it out for a more detailed discussion of the problem:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3078812/security/beware-fake-white-hats-peddling-bugs.html