Thursday, February 23, 2012

Network Security Is The Backbone Of Organizational Growth

Global organizations with the help of the Internet and the technological innovations have created a network of enterprises that are geographically separated but closely knit. With computers and technology becoming an integral part of everyday business operations, information and critical data are dependent on technology for its storage and transfer to various locations. However, with this fast method of information sharing comes the fear of data loss.
In a networked organization, the security of data and information is based on its network security. Network security which is complicated has been from historical times been handled by experts who managed network services. With the business expansion, an everyday scenario in most business establishments, new members get wired on everyday. Hence, a clear understanding of the information security services is required for managing the network security.
Wikipedia defines network -as any set of interlinking lines resembling a net, an interconnected system, or a network of alliances. A computer network then can be defined as a system of interconnected computers, wherein the interconnections can be in a number of ways. Networks are subjected to attacks from malicious sources. These attacks can either be passive (intercepted in the network) or active (initiated) to disrupt the networks operations.   When large volume of mission critical data is transferred and communicated through these networks, its security is a matter of grave concern.
Network security being the backbone of organizational growth, the process starts by authenticating the user with a username and a password. Authentication can be based on a single factor or multiple factors.  The password is an example of a single -factor authentication system. The authentication paves way for a firewall to be put in force that states the policies to access the network by the users. Effective for an unauthorized access, these firewalls fail to check the virus such as computer worms and Trojans that enter the network. Under such circumstances, the organizations tend to make use of antivirus software and intrusion preventive systems to detect intrusions. For cases like denial-of-service - a network threat, an anomaly-based intrusion detection system will be effective in monitoring the network. Further, encryption of the communication between tow hosts is done to maintain privacy and safety.
Leaders in network consulting services, also make use of honeypots to decoy the network accessible resources. These managed security services provider offer real-time protection to the organizations and reduces the risks involved in an ever-changing threat environment. A techno centric focus, proactive security posture, a flexible delivery model and a balanced approach, by these security service providers ensures that the enterprises are safe from cyber threats, malware infections, phishing attack and web application attacks besides being regulatory compliant to global standards.
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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Service Desk is the Nerve Center for Business IT

The IT service desk is an important limb of your business. A centralized and efficient service desk operation helps in saving costs and provides effective control with an integrated and comprehensive business operation. Ideally the IT service desk furnishes a rich and updated knowledgebase of issues that are faced commonly by the users while trying to find resolutions, creating requests, reporting incidents or reviewing the status of the requests that have already been submitted. This helps your business in identifying the relevant issue and applying the right solutions without wasting time.
The IT service desk is a supportive platform that assists in logging, tracking, resolving, and reporting of help desk incidents and service requests. It helps your business to maintain the quality of service provided to your customers by restoring the operations quickly without any severe damaging consequences. It provides notable service request management capabilities from the acceptance of a service request to prioritization, execution and a suitable conclusion.
The service desk operations also include dedicated services such as accelerated responses to the executive users. With a flawless IT service desk you can deliver awesome performances and gain the confidence of your customers. It helps in leveraging your business prospects and provides an impetus to achieve higher goals. Many businesses are inadequate in enforcing an efficient desktop management environment thereby increasing the costs and risks and rendering poor results.
You need to deploy managed desktop services that help in making your desktop environment cohesive, compact and secure. The managed desktop services provide a globally integrated service desk and include services like client application management, client support and asset management. The services are customized to suit the requirements of your business, and therefore yield productive results. An emphatic system integration between the tools, assets, resources and personnel is initiated which helps in developing a robust, flexible and optimized IT environment.
Nowadays you cannot rely on technologies that cannot provide you with precise and strategic solutions. There is no time to waste and you need tools that can deliver powerful and effective impacts. The managed desktop services help your business overcome all the challenges and aid in establishing a highly proficient and reliable IT environment without compromising on quality.  It strengthens the nerve center of your business by deploying best practices for a highly responsive and responsible service request management process. A prolific service desk operation rewards your business with promising returns and endless opportunities.

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Need of End-to-End Solution to Ensure Information Security

Information security is defined as "The protection of information and information systems against unauthorized access or modification of information, whether in storage, processing, or transit, and against denial of service to authorized users. Information security includes those measures necessary to detect, document, and counter such threats." However, in today' corporate environment where companies and organizations need to exchange vital information among employees, suppliers, partners and customers, risk of data breaches and cyber attacks increases manifold. Apart from external attacks in the form of malware infections, phishing attacks, web application attacks and so on enterprises need to be wary of internal attacks by employees like unauthorized access to information, disgruntled employees, and password mismanagement.

 
Though financial implications are one of the greatest outcomes of cyber attacks, companies have to face other problems such as legal liabilities, bad reputation, reduced productivity, brand erosion, and customer loss. The following are shocking statistics of a recent IT security consulting survey conducted by Ponemon Research.

 
* Around 90% of businesses became victims to security breach at least once in the last year. More than half of the respondents faced two or more breaches in the last one year.
* The financial implications with regard to security breach came up to $500,000 and more for 41% of the respondents. The average cost of one data breach was $7.2 million and that of cyber attack was $6.4 million.

 
Today most companies and organizations depend on user names and passwords to protect their critical company information, employee details, financial transactions, client information and so on. However, in today's hacker-filled world this is not enough to provide the ultimate protection. What is actually needed is an end-to-end solution, which is exactly the solution suggested by 75% of the respondents in the same survey. However, apart from putting in place an effective strategy, companies and organizations must also need to take strict measures to execute it proactively.

 
Enterprises need to collaborate with eminent market players who have the capability to provide end-to-end spectrum of information security services and the ability to address information security life cycle need for enterprises from any industry vertical. What the enterprises need is a service desk provider who can provide financial, strategic and technical benefits by taking the organization to the desired state of the information security robustness.
However, enterprises need to consider some important factors before selecting a service provider. This includes service provider qualifications, capabilities, experience, and trustworthiness.


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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

IT Outsourcing Models for Various Outsourcing Needs

Most people are of opinion that the essential benefits of IT outsourcing is all about cutting down expenses. That is not all it has to offer. Rather the advantages have very less to do with cutting down expenses, and are more about ensuring that the IT performs to the level that it promises or maximum level. What it means is that IT capacities are considered as a strategic differentiator. IT offers organizations with innovative methods to help in business transactions and information management. These capabilities offer the enterprises with a competitive edge that helps them to move ahead of their peer groups.

Recently, the only way that resulted in IT outsourcing gain was to "build" such capacities in-house. This is done so that one can leverage maximum advantage that IT can offer. This means that the companies had to hone up their skills of operation, developing and maintaining the data systems. Considering, the fact that every enterprise has its own traits and individuality, today there are unique solutions that are customized to cater to the special needs people have.

Leading companies dealing in information security services and cloud computing services today have forayed into efficient IT outsourcing solutions. They help to cater the overall global outsourcing needs of users and clients with the help of various service models. A noteworthy one is the Co-Sourcing model that offers new disruptive sourcing proposals to organizations that are on the look out for elasticity and strategic control from overall IT outsourcing assignments. The model is set up on a collaborative approach that defines outsourcing as a partnership between the service provider and the user depending on the basic principles of asset right cycle, flexibility, and user retains control.

In addition to that, these service providers help their customers with the ease and flexibility to choose the apt outsourcing model for them. There are options for Asset heavy and light as well as Alternative delivery models for instance the cloud based services, establishing and assisting the business ready architecture for assisting the SaaS environments. At the same time, there is delivery elasticity that is provided by setting up dedicated and shared delivery centers based on the client's requirements. At the same time, the economies of scale and expense too are balanced. These service providers apart from IT outsourcing also specializes in innovative managed hosting services.

 
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