Archive for the ‘Cloud’ Category

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Observations from Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit – Part I

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Accellion is participating at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration (PCC) Summit this week as part of the launch of our new Secure Collaboration Solution.

A couple of interesting takeaways from the first day of the Gartner Summit:

Hybrid cloud deployments will be the norm for enterprise deployments of portals, content and collaboration as enterprise organizations balance security and cost management. Accommodating the security requirements of different geographies, users and information sensitivity means public cloud only solutions are not viable for most enterprise organizations.  This was good to hear given Accellion’s breadth of on-premise and in-the-cloud public, private and hybrid deployment options for secure collaboration and file transfer.

The real value of enterprise content is when it is in-motion being shared with people inside and outside the organization. Enterprise content management systems represent content at rest, which for most organizations is a cost. When this content is shared as part of a business process in the form of legal contracts, product designs, sales proposals, then it generates value for the organization. Sounds good to us, since Accellion is all about sharing information securely.

More today at the conference on the mobile worker and the social enterprise.  Accellion iPhone and iPad app demo got a good workout yesterday at the Exhibit – devices are both recharged for today.

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Collaboration, Product | No Comments »

Cloud Killer – Qu’est-ce Que C’est

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

What are the 3 surefire ways to kill a cloud project:

  1. Not understanding compliance
  2. Betting on the wrong horse
  3. Not including IT

Thanks to David Linthicum for his recent excellent short article “3 surefire ways to kill a cloud project.”

These 3 cloud killers are particularly relevant to deployment of secure file transfer in the cloud.  I thought it would be worth reviewing how Accellion defends against these cloud killers:

1. Not understanding compliance – It’s all about compliance

From Accellion’s perspective it’s all about compliance.  Ensuring compliance is foremost in any secure file transfer deployment, whether it be on-premise or in-the-cloud.  Since Accellion secure file transfer deployments can span on-premise and in-the-cloud we have implemented comprehensive data protection features to provide the control, tracking and reporting necessary to demonstrate compliance.

• Data in Motion - To protect the data moving through the Accellion secure file transfer system Accellion provides not only business level authentication but also encryption for data in motion.  Data is transferred using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol including 128 bit encryption, and Accellion includes additional file encryption capabilities before upload using the AES 128 bit encryption scheme.
• Data at Rest - Accellion provides disk encryption using 128 bit encryption to protect stored data. File names are de-referenced when stored by the Accellion secure file transfer system to ensure that files are inaccessible on the server.

2. Betting on the wrong horse – Betting on the right horse

Accellion utilizes the Amazon Web Services AWS Cloud Computing Platform to deliver our hosted Cloud Accellion Secure File Transfer service.  We picked Amazon Cloud because of its SAS70 Type II Certified Data Centers, 99.5% annual uptime service levels and its global distribution of data centers designed to anticipate and tolerate failure while maintaining service levels.  We think we are betting on the right horse, however we also give our customers the option to deploy Accellion secure file transfer in the cloud of their choice, either public or private.

3. Not including IT – Including IT

Accellion believes that ensuring data security and compliance should not be left to business users.  We don’t support adoption of rogue applications, in fact we think they are particularly hazardous for file transfer. Allowing business users to utilize free online file sharing services provides no visibility or control of the flow of enterprise information. At Accellion we work closely with IT organizations to deploy secure file transfer systems and provision business users to keep enterprise data transfer safe.

Thanks again David for the tips on staying away from 3 common cloud killers.

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Data Breach, Data Security | No Comments »

IT Nostalgia – Is it A Thing of the Past?

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

I read an interesting blog post recently entitled “Three Ways to Market Nostalgia in Social Communities.” As someone who has enjoyed more than a few good moments of nostalgia I thought maybe this topic would provide fertile ground for discussion.  Apparently products from the past are in vogue, such as retro versions of Pepsi and Coke, but does this have any relevance to IT?

While I can understand someone enjoying the nostalgic connection with Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger saying “They’re Gr-r-reat!” is there anyone out there yearning for the days of 20,000 vacuum tubes and the Eniac Computer or the FORTRAN computer language or the Pong computer game – okay on the last one I admit a small tinge of nostalgia.  Is there anything we miss about the past in IT? Computer Cards, Room-size computers, the floppy disk?

And by inference does this mean that everything new in IT is good?  One of the challenges with IT is the pace of progress.  Products and technologies are being rapidly superceded so where does that leave the IT staff and the vendors who are trying to keep pace?

At Accellion we have experienced first hand the widespread adoption of virtual and cloud environments and the rapidly changing landscape for IT deployments.  Since we introduced the industry’s first virtual appliance for secure file transfer back in November 2007, now more than 80% of Accellion secure file transfer deployments are into virtual environments.  Originally we supported just VMware, and have since added support for Citrix XenServer and also most recently Microsoft Hyper-V.  And we see the same steep adoption curve happening this year with cloud deployments.

Today, deployment of Accellion secure file transfer can take just minutes and that’s a good thing for everyone. Some of our earliest customers from 2005 and 2006 are now replacing their original Accellion physical appliances with virtual and/or cloud deployments – it’s great to see them enjoying a whole new flavor of Accellion.

Are we nostalgic for the time when we were on first name terms with the FedEX guy, shipping large volumes of physical servers out to our customers – no way.

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Virtualization | No Comments »

Expect Storage Rationing to Begin Soon

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Check out these charts on the rise of cloud computing from GigaOm. It’s the last figure entitled “Projected Storage Shortage by 2020″ that really grabbed my attention.  In 2009 30% of the digital content created could not be accommodated in the cloud, by 2020 that number is expected to rise to 60% shortage.  Sounds like it is time to start issuing ration books for storage or to change our ways.

It’s surprising that the projected shortage of cloud storage hasn’t got more attention but perhaps it’s a topic akin to discussing the drought in California while it’s raining – not too many interested listeners.  For many organizations moving to the cloud, it offers the opportunity to tap into unlimited computing power and storage – well maybe not quite unlimited.

Somehow I don’t think the rate of creation of digital data is going to slow (check out Data Tsunami – 5 Exabytes of Data Created Every 2 Days?) but we certainly could do a better job of managing the storage of data. Many of today’s IT systems are designed as if storage grew on trees.  In some cases it’s the system that is wasteful and in some cases it’s the user who is wasteful.

In the world of email attachments we have wastage on both fronts, but if I had to pick sides, the users are probably the worst offenders.  At least with email systems, IT administrators can put limits on the size of individual mailboxes and on the size of email attachments that can be attached.  Unfortunately these constraints can make it impossible for a user to get their job done.  Email attachment limits are the IT equivalent of flow control valves on showerheads and toilets. While they constrict the flow which is good, they also prevent people from getting done what they need to, which is bad. You have to shower longer to rinse the soap off, the kids now flush the toilet twice, and your users go off looking for IT workarounds for file transfer.

One of the most popular features of Accellion secure file transfer is the automatic file cleanup, which means that file storage is rarely an issue with Accellion.  Files transferred via Accellion are available for a specified period of time, typically 14 to 30 days.  After that it’s “Hasta la vista” and the file is automatically deleted.

So our Accellion tip for today is – if email storage has got to the point where you are considering ration books it might be time to consider a solution for those email attachments – it’s called Accellion.

Other related blog posts

Do These Files Make My Email Look Big?

10MB Email Attachments Heading for Extinction

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Email Attachments | No Comments »

Musings from the Gartner Security Summit

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Last week I joined over 1,000 IT professionals at the 2010 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit in the Washington DC metro area.

Security in the cloud was a major theme during the conference. Interestingly while security was identified in recent Gartner surveys as the number one concern for companies moving to cloud computing, it isn’t stopping people moving to the cloud. The large majority of corporations surveyed expected to have systems running in the cloud very soon.  It seems the benefits are so compelling there is little foot-dragging on this score.

Another interesting topic raised during the conference was that despite all the millions of dollars invested in securing corporate networks and assets, it is often the non-technological leak that causes damage; typically an inadvertent mistake by an insider.  The example discussed was the security hazards of using removable media ie a thumb drive, to move files. Now that example really hit home.

All in all it was a good conference – so thanks Gartner for putting together a good program.

Gary Rogers

Senior VP Worldwide Sales

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Data Security | No Comments »

Accellion Cloud beats the Volcanic Ash Cloud

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Yet again, ash clouds from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland are seriously affecting airline traffic, with Heathrow airport closed again this morning. Over the past few weeks millions of passengers - and important documents – have been stranded across Europe and the world.

Clyde & Co. LLP, a leading international law firm based in London, recently purchased the Accellion secure file transfer solution to ensure safe delivery of sensitive documents and avoid paying courier charges.  They had originally chosen an Accellion hardware appliances but then fate intervened: Clyde & Co. ran into problems thanks to the flight disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano: it wasn’t only passengers that were struggling to get home, the Accellion appliance could not be delivered by FedEx either.

But it got worse than that. The continuing disruption also meant that courier companies couldn’t deliver legal documents to Clyde & Co’s clients either – a major disruption of service for a legal company.

Clyde & Co. IT manager, Phil Newnham, called Accellion for urgent help and while we couldn’t charter a plane, we set up a hosted Accellion cloud appliance and within minutes Clyde & Co. was able to send confidential legal documents. Clyde & Co. files were flying again.

Even volcanoes can’t stop Accellion.

Posted in Accellion, Cloud, Product, UK | No Comments »

Email in the Cloud

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Email in the Cloud is forcing organizations to think more dynamically about email migrations.

Enterprises need to rethink their email migration strategies to respond to the growing reality of email deployments in the cloud. Business email is in transition. Traditionally, email vendors such as Microsoft and IBM have rolled out major releases every couple of years.  Each new release giving customers a new reason to migrate. However, there is a larger trend on the horizon – corporate email moving into the cloud.

Google Apps, Microsoft BPOS and IBM Lotus Live are making hosted business email a viable option for companies of all sizes and in all industries. As business email transitions to the cloud, email migration needs are changing as well. IT managers are now expected to respond to the new reality that email migrations are no longer a scheduled one-time project for the entire organization. Email migrations are becoming more dynamic.

What do organizations need to do to respond to this new dynamic migration environment?   Enterprises will need to be nimble, agile and flexible as the migration process is no longer a one-time project.  Going forward, email migrations can be tailored by department or group of users to accommodate specific needs.

Regardless of whether the email migration is for an entire organization or for a department, IT managers can turn the complex migration to simpler departmentalized tasks by implementing policies to limit the amount of data that flows through the email servers. Ask us how? http://www.accellion.com/solutions/it/email-migration

–Sunita Reddy

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Agility in the Cloud – I want my file transfer and I want it now.

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

The Network Computing wrapup on the Cloud Connect conference last week was a refreshing read.  The role of cloud computing in providing business agility doesn’t seem to get as much air time as it deserves. The cost savings from increasing business agility can easily far outweigh the IT cost savings.

In the example from Network Computing – a business user earning $160,000/yr can cost an organization $1.20 per minute, once you factor in benefits, salary and overhead costs.  If deploying an application in the cloud enables an organization to quickly roll out timesaving apps to their business users then the cost savings add up quickly – 100 users, 1 minute saving per day = $40,000+ per year.

So which business apps are the best candidates for deployment in the cloud?  From the Network Computing article here are some interesting takeaways on the suitability of apps for migration to the cloud

1. If the app operates at close to capacity on on-premise servers – leave it alone.

2. New apps are a better bet for the cloud than legacy

3. Apps used only sporadically during the day are good candidates for the cloud

4. Apps whose use grows rapidly – eg a social networking site, good for the cloud

5. Apps with spikes in usage good for the cloud

These takeaways make sense based on our experience at Accellion.  It seems that organizations want to get their feet wet with deploying apps in the cloud and are looking for  good candidate apps that are well tested, new to the organization, are used sporadically during the day, and usage is expected to grow over time.  No wonder organizations are selecting Accellion file transfer for deployment in the cloud.

From our perspective the agility of the cloud leads to faster cost savings, making file transfer in the cloud a great choice.

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Seeds being sown for a different kind of IT

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Interesting article this week in InfoWorld about 2010 CIO priorities. Nope, it wasn’t surprising to read that Virtualization and Cloud Computing top Gartner’s 2010 top ten CIO priorities.  But the article did provide a good read on the role Virtualization and Cloud Computing are playing in re-shaping IT.

At Accellion we see the “seeds being sown for a different kind of IT”. Over the past 12 – 18 months we’ve seen the significant and rapid shift in demand for managed file transfer deployments for Virtual and Cloud environments.  Yes, virtual and cloud deployments are  faster to deploy and scale, and lower cost. And yes it is interesting to read that CIOs and CFOs are getting excited in this shift to scalable technologies that get away from monster IT projects with huge upfront investments and long deployment timeframes.

We like this new kind of IT that allows organizations to quickly get  business solutions into the hands of business users.  With security and compliance regulations placing increasing demands on organizations it’s good to know that at least IT is making it easier and faster to deploy solutions.

Virtualization and Cloud Computing – bring it on.

Posted in Cloud, Virtualization | No Comments »

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