July 3, 2007

FEATURE EDITORIAL

Top 10 Successful IT Virtualization Strategies

One of the hottest trends in IT management is virtualization and according to recent research conducted by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) 75 percent of enterprises have already deployed virtualization in one form or another. The results show the overall virtualization market growing by approximately 26 percent annually. EMA's research also reveals several common success strategies that IT professionals can utilize to accelerate deployments, including taking a very deliberate and careful approach to planning and making sure that any virtualization initiative is closely aligned with and supports specific corporate goals.

The Top 10 factors focused on three main areas: human issues; security and risk; and technical management. For example, EMA research found that 74 percent of enterprises that have not deployed virtualization are not sure that they have the skills to do so. "Even of the enterprises that have deployed virtualization, over half still report that they do not have the appropriate skills," comments Andi Mann, EMA's senior analyst and the project lead for the research. The report emphasizes the importance of training, consulting with experts, and working with peers through user groups and internally, to avoid some of the human issues.

On security and risk, the research explains how virtualization means more systems to secure, more points of entry, more holes to patch and more interconnections. "It also introduces entirely new forms of malware that are virtually undetectable with current tools – a major concern that no one has solved," says Mann. The report recommends specific actions to address security and risk, such as a phased approach to virtualization, and not locating mission-critical applications together on a single physical system. Despite the current hype surround virtualization, it even suggests that highly risk-averse organizations should consider deferring plans for virtualization due to the unsolved security and risk issues.

Technical management is also a big issue. The report advises enterprises that addressing technical issues early can be the difference between success and failure for virtualization deployments. The research highlights many specific issues including VM sprawl, hardware compatibility and software support and recommends ways to deal with them, like deploying capacity planning, configuration management and cost accounting procedures.

EMA says that perhaps the most important factor in the Top 10 is the most overlooked in the rush to virtualization: will virtualization help meet strategic business goals? Enterprises face many different choices and each requires a different approach. "EMA recommends that organizations take the time to clearly define realistic goals before deploying virtualization," says Mann. "For example, cost saving may be an initial goal that is set at the onset. But our research shows it is one of the least likely outcomes. Enterprises must instead look to long-term strategic benefits and view virtualization as a long-term opportunity. The enterprises that approach virtualization carefully as a strategy, not just a project, will be better positioned to benefit in the long run."

Responsibility Holders for Enterprise Email Governance

MessageGate, Inc., a provider of enterprise email governance solutions, released findings of recent survey results that identify top drivers and responsibility holders for enterprise email governance.

Preparation for future litigation was named as the leading factor behind email governance adoption, receiving 29 percent of the approximately 250 survey responses. Adhering to regulations (21 percent), risk mitigation (20 percent) and gaining a better understanding of email usage (17 percent) complete the top four responses.

The company notes that litigation preparedness forces legal counsel and IT departments into cohesive, and sometimes new, relationships. The survey singled out legal departments and general counsel as the leading responsibility holders for setting email governance policies and procedures (28 percent), followed by IT departments at 22 percent. Not surprisingly, 20 percent of responses indicated that more than one corporate department holds responsibility for email governance and 28 percent split the responsibility between three or more departments.

MessageGate points to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and other e-discovery regulations as leading drivers for implementation and enforcement of email governance.

New Alliances for Commtouch

Last week Commtouch, a developer and provider of proprietary antispam, Zero-Hour virus protection and IP Reputation solutions, announced two new industry alliances to combat the abuse of children on the Internet, and to enable pornography-related compliance. The alliances are with the Internet Watch Foundation and Image Analyzer Ltd., two organizations that are active in fighting online child abuse images and pornography in the workplace. Both alliances enable Commtouch licensing partners to offer compliance-related features to their customer base.

"In addition to the moral imperative to eradicate online child abuse images, enterprises face a serious threat from pornography, due to both the legal risk and the fact that it can be a severe resource drain," said Commtouch CEO Gideon Mantel. "We are committed to working with both IWF and Image Analyzer to eradicate online exploitation, while assisting enterprises to enhance their compliance with sexual harassment and other legal statutes. Several of our partners have already begun offering these special protections in their security products."

MESSAGING NEWS CASE STUDY BRIEF:

Secure Computing and Swiss Re

Secure Computing Corporation, an enterprise gateway security company, last week announced that Swiss Re, a leading global reinsurer, has deployed the Secure Computing Webwasher solution to protect against digital threats and ensure regulatory policy compliance. Webwasher delivers reputation-based URL filtering for corporate users surfing the Web, and bi-directional protection for enterprise networks. It incorporates global intelligence from the Secure Computing’s reputation system, TrustedSource, which provides source-based reputation scores for web page content, messages, attachments and images. This enables organizations to detect and deter security threats.

Swiss Re chose Webwasher to further strengthen its strong security policies and practices at the gateway, adeptly filtering Internet traffic, efficiently blocking increasingly sophisticated inbound threats such as spyware, phishing and other malware or fraud, and guarding against outbound threats such as sensitive data leaks. Prior to deploying Webwasher, Swiss Re had a security IT environment comprising of multiple point products, which needed to be upgraded to provide an increased level of protection or flexibility in an ever-changing security environment.

"The Webwasher technology and appliance met our requirements best," said Christian Bai, senior systems engineer at Swiss Re. "The appliance offers the highest level of flexibility because of its ability to define very granular rule sets and enforce them."

We welcome your ideas and your news for Messaging Newswire’s News & Trends in Email Security. Let us know what you think by sending your comments to editorial@messagingnews.com. Written or compiled by Stephanie Jordan. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For marketing information on this newsletter or other Messaging News products contact jvictor@messagingnews.com