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Message
from the President
by Steve Brooks
The
lion's share of our existing customers have
adopted the Fortinet family of Unified
Threat Alliances. While these appliances have
proven to provide robust edge-based security
with multiple levels of functionality, Fortinet
has upped the ante with a new release of firmware FortiOS
4.0. This version adds a whole new set
of capabilities previously unavailable, and
should continue to enhance your security posture
and productivity at the Internet edge. Specifically
FortiOS 4.0 addresses the following:
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WAN
Optimization
Provides
acceleration for applications traversing
slower network connections - which are
typically Wide Area Networks. The combination
of multi-threat security, traffic optimization,
and VPN technologies provides cleaned,
accelerated, and secured communications. |
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Application
Control
Uses
a dynamic application identification engine
that recognizes applications based on
their behavior. By coupling application
control policies with sophisticated security
features, administrators can achieve comprehensive
protection with granular and more meaningful
policies. |
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Data
Leakage Prevention (DLP)
A
sophisticated pattern-matching and regular-expression
engine is used to identify and then prevent
the communication of sensitive information
outside of the network perimeter. In
addition, DLP technology also provides
audit trails for data and files, which
can aid in legislative compliance. |
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SSL
Inspection
Ensures
protection from malware infection that
is camouflaged by secure protocols, allowing
the FortiGate to decrypt the data passing
through the SSL-encrypted connection.
Once decrypted, the data can be passed
to FortiOS security engines for inspection. |
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make sure you review your WAN based
requirements with your PSGI Engineer to
take advantage of this newly increased functionality. |
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Intel New Product Launch
"Nehalem" |
by Tom
Westervelt
Intel will be launching a new product architecture
called Nehalem this month. They have proclaimed
it to be the greatest performance leap in
their history. The Architecture takes
a three pronged approach: improving
performance, energy efficiency, and virtualization.
The improved performance and energy efficiency
come from new platform technology, which includes
the Xeon 5500 series processors, DDR3 memory,
and Solid State Drives.
The
Xeon 5500 series CPU features 4 cores, 8Mb
on chip cache, simultaneous multi-threading,
integrated memory controller (DDR3), new instruction
set, and the Quick Path Interconnect using
point-to-point link architecture. The CPU
has a new Turbo Mode, which converts any power
headroom into higher frequencies. It opportunistically
and automatically allows the processor to
run faster than the marked frequency if the
part is operating below power, temperature
and current limits.
More
power efficiency in the Nehalem platform is
achieved through improved low power states,
power technology for leakage control and tuned
architecture for power efficiency. The new
processors boast 40% lower power at the same
performance of the Penryn CPU. The tunable
options of the platform allow for increased
performance at the same power level or increased
power efficiency at the same performance level.
Virtualization
is the creation of Virtual machines running
multiple operating systems sharing the hardware
resources of one machine. Intel's Virtualization
Technology is a holistic platform centric
approach to virtualization. VT-x provides
hardware assists for virtualization in Xeon
Processors. VT-d refers to all the hardware
assists for virtualization in the chipset.
VT-c refers to all hardware assists for virtualization
for the Intel networking and I/O devices.
The Intel hardware assist is enabling all
virtualization use models including, Hyper-V,
Vmware, Xen Server and Virtual Iron.
The
new Intel Nehalem product line will have a
significant impact on the industry by increasing
performance, energy efficiency, and enabling
virtualization. Now is the perfect time to
integrate new servers and workstations with
the Nehalem Platform into your network.
Penn Systems is an Intel Premier Provider.
We use Intel components in our server and
workstation builds.
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Backup
vs. Recovery:
The
Importance of a Solution that Works |
by Mike Collins
When
did your most recent backup run? Are
you backing up everything you would need
in the event of a disaster? Do you even
know what data you are backing up? Most
importantly, do you know how long it would
take to recover from a disaster?
Penn
Systems Group, and the technicians it employs
have extensive experience in what it takes
to fully protect your server environment
and the restoration of your environment
in the event of a disaster.
These
are questions that need to be addressed
by all businesses maintaining large databases
and inventoried information. And while each
answer will be slightly different depending
on the environment in which the network
operates some fundamental principles will
be the same: what is being backed up and
how long it would take to recover in the
event of a server or network failure.
Invariably,
disaster strikes; we've fielded many
calls of this nature. A user accidentally
deletes a directory containing 8 years of
spreadsheet documents. A server fails outright
due to a failed disk controller. A virus
infects and trashes a mail server. And our
first question is: Where is your backup
media?
Here's
where things start to get interesting.
I've heard answers from I have the last
7 days' information backed up onto portable
hard drives, to I haven't run a backup in
4 months.
I will briefly
cover the types of backup strategies available,
and what they actually mean in terms of
keeping your business operational. They
all have benefits and drawbacks, but a good
combination and a strict routine will go
a long way in making recovery from a failure
as painless as possible.
1)
Flat file backup:
These are files that simply get copied onto
either a USB disk or tape drive. Suitable
only to backup and restore individual documents
& files.
Pros - fast and easy to manage
Cons - Unsuitable for server recovery
or database/mail storage backups. Not a true
backup/restore solution
2) Program-set backups
(e.g. BackupExec): This program
offers the ability to backup your server in
its entirety; including databases, mail stores,
and the server Operating System itself, as
well as flat files. This is the most common
type of backup.
Pros - able to backup and recover
an entire server
Cons - can result in a VERY lengthy
restore process (sometimes days) depending
on level of failure, the amount of data to
be recovered, and availability of media. Also
dependant upon to user to independently maintain
backup media (i.e., change tapes or swap drives)
3) Web-based backups:
This type of backup copies data from your
server into a web vault, to be recovered when
necessary. Very secure storage and recovery.
Pros - off-site secure storage
available on demand
Cons -
Limited amount of storage space and speed
of uploading makes this option really only
suitable for the most important data in your
environment
4) Imaging Solution
backups (e.g. Acronis, Symantec Server Recovery):
A relatively new technology which allows a
program to take a Snapshot of your server,
then copy that image to a disk. This image
can then be used to restore the server in
its entirety to another server or back onto
itself. Very fast recovery times when compared
to the Backup Exec standalone product. This
technology has recently become fairly reasonably
priced, and is an option Penn Systems Group
has come to fully endorse.
Pros - complete recovery of a
server, even onto new hardware
Cons - none
5) Real-time mirroring
(e.g. DoubleTake): This backup process
actually mirrors a server onto a spare box,
creating a real time 1 to 1 server failure
solution. Should something fail on the server
being replicated to the spare, you simply
failover to the spare server and you are back
up and running, usually within an hour's time.
The spare assumes all responsibilities of
the original and the failover process is transparent
to your users.
Pros - fastest failover time,
zero loss of data
Cons - initial cost is very high due
to hardware necessary to implement
As
you can see, there are many new options that
have not been available to the small business
environment until quite recently. While all
options are not suitable for all environments,
a combination of the technologies listed above
can protect you and, more importantly, recover
your environment in the most time-efficient
manner possible.
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- Message
from the President:
Protecting
your Network
- Intel
New Product Launch:
Discussing "Nehalem"
- System
Backup:
Recovering
from a Disaster
- March
'09 Product Specials
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Penn
MSP is our Managed Services program. It
allows for the automation of patches,
updates, and Malware cleaning on your
workstations and other hardware.
These actions can be performed at night
while you sleep, without the need for
an onsite visit by a technician or an
interruption to users.
Call
today for more details: 610-353-3800
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ACT
NOW!
The
following Product Specials only last until
March 31, 2009.
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March
Product Special:
Seagate FreeAgent 1.5 TB Desktop Hard
Drive
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This
external hard drive from SeaGate Technology
is an affordable solution for desktop
& project backup, storing media,
and image saving. Additionally
its sleek design and small size takes
up a minimal amount desk space. We are
offering this drive for the special
price of $184.00
1.5
TB storage capacity
7200 rpm disk speed
USB 2.0
connection port
480
MB/sec data transfer rate
Attractive
form factor
For
more information please contact us at
610-353-3800 or email us at info@pennsys.com
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March
Product Special:
Lenovo ThinkPad SL300 Notebook
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The
Lenovo ThinkPad series of notebook computers
are built for small business. The SL300 is
smaller and lightweight (4.76 lbs.), making
it perfect for someone on the go. For the
special price of $898.00
the SL300 features:
Intel Centrino 2 Core Duo processor (2 GHz)
Windows XP Professional OS
13.3" screen with backlight
2 GB memory, upgradable to 4 GB
DVD-Writer drive
4.5 hour battery life
Gigabit Ethernet Wi-Fi Networking
For more information please contact us at
610-353-3800 or email us at info@pennsys.com
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March
Product Special:
LG Widescreen 22" LCD Monitor
This Widescreen
LCD monitor displays sharp
images and text. It comes
with a title and height adjustable
stand, with a pivot function that
allows rotation
from landscape to portrait modes.
We're offering this LG Widescreem
Monitor for the low price of $199.00.
Features include:
22"
HD Screen
16:10
Aspect Ratio
1680
x 1050 Max Resolution
8000:1
Digital Fine Contrast
VGA
& DVI ports
For
more information please contact us
at 610-353-3800 or email us at
info@pennsys.com
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Want to learn more about the products and services offered by Penn
Systems Group? Visit us on the
web:
www.pennsys.com
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