Security by Frank Wickham: Be Secure!

Was recently at one of my customers.  My typical customer requires  that  I  have a badge or should be escorted while visiting their facility.  In this case I was issued a "visitor badge" which was nothing more than a small sticker with their logo, my name, and the current date.   It also stated I must be "escorted" at all times.

This particular day I was joined by 3 co-workers.  We left the customers office for a brief lunch.  On our return we were waiting in the elevator lobby for our escort to take us to his office.  While standing there we were "offered" access to the office area several times by employees entering or exiting for lunch.  They stood their politely holding the door us.  Our "visitor badge" was in plain sight.  We politely refused the offer knowing the rules.

On the way out I felt funny since I was not being escorted out.   I opened the door and there was an employee approaching the door.  He flashed his badge at me and passed me as I was exiting.  Hopefully their employee educational program covers data security policies better then their visitor policies.

-- Frank

A Sunday wedding at a public pavilion in the town park. Another two restaurants closed and are up for sale.  In front of a church a sign that read "Free Lunch Saturday" was still displayed.  Many motor homes and boats for sale too along the way. Was upstate this past weekend. Took a ride.  Hesitant due to gas increasing in price again, but went anyway.  Great day for a ride. Motorcycles are starting to arrive for Americade.   Elvis Convention and the Tow Truck Show are just winding down.  

A quick stop at a motorcycle show.  A stop to take in the beauty of a lake.  A very nice couple offers me the 2 hour balance of their parking meter. Thanked them, but passed since I was only passing through. 

-- Frank

Had an opportunity to participate in a conference on IT Greening sponsored by the NYS Forum and NYSERDA.   The primary focus was the sharing of energy saving best practices as they relate to IT.  I had the pleasure to attend a session delivered  by Brian Day, Senior Program Manager in Sun's Global Lab & Datacenter Design Services organization.  He has been working on the consolidation and energy saving projects in California and Colorado.  His presentation is pointer to his presentation.

FUTURE PROOFING THE DATACENTER - Eco DC Reality,  April 30, 2009

Brian is part of a team that is documenting their best practices via the Sun Blueprints.  Here are two of them:

Energy Efficient Datacenters - The Role of Modularity in Datacenter Design

Energy Efficient Datacenters - Electrical Design

I also enjoyed hearing Dr. Steven A. Leib's  Updating an Inconvenient Truth which was an updated version of the material originally made presented by former Vice President Al Gore.  Dr. Steven A. Leibo is the District Manager Upstate NY and VT, The Climate Project. 

-- Frank

We were challenged recently to demonstrate the capabilities of our Sun Ray 2 technology with the embedded VPN feature to several customers that required wireless networking.  So here is what was done to showcase this technology.

We had on hand a Sun Ray 270 thin client which had the latest firmware that allows configuration of the integrated VPN.  We employed the help of a LinkSys Wireless-G Access Point  model number WAP54G revision 3.1 with firmware version  V3.04, dated December 27, 2007.  The WAP was configured via the web interface to function as a "access point client" prior to connection to the Sun Ray 270.   By doing so it allows a hard wired Ethernet device to plug in and participate on a wireless network.  To put the WAP in "access point client" mode a MAC address of the remote access point is required.  The LinkSys WAP web interface has the facility to conduct a site survey to determine existing access points and allows for the selection of a remote access point.

• Insure you have a Sun Ray 2 or 270 thin client with the latest firmware with VPN capabilities.
  
• Get and configure a wireless access point (WAP) via another computer.
• Verify connection to the wireless network with that computer. 
• Connect the WAP to the Sun Ray.
• Power on the Sun Ray. 
• If previously configured to access a VPN you will be prompted for a username and a one time password generated via a secure id device.















• Your internal login screen will be displayed.
• If you have deployed smart cards insert it at this point.







• If a previous session exists you will be displayed a lock screen, Enter your password.
  
• The Sun Ray should come to life and your desktop through the VPN should be displayed with the applications you had previously started.

-- Frank

A few weeks ago I had a chance to visit one of our new Sun Blade 6000 System customers,  the University at Albany which is part of the State University of New York or SUNY  System.  A little background on the University at Albany  They are an internationally recognized institution, with a mission of undergraduate and graduate education.   More than 17,000 students are enrolled in nine schools and colleges.  The University at Albany's location, in the capital of New York State, provides a rich environment for collaboration with NYS government, other educational institutions, and private industry.  University at Albany is part of the the State University of New York system which is the parent agency. The   SUNY consists of 64 campuses with 427,398 total students enrolled during the 2007 school year.

The newly installed Sun Blade 6000 System is located in their datacenter on the uptown campus at 1400 Washington Ave.  It is equipped with (4) AMD processor-based server modules and (2) Intel Xeon processor-based server modules with (4) open slots for future expansion.  The Sun Blade 6000 System is protected by a APC UPS which is mounted in the lower quarter of the cabinet.  The system is being used to consolidate their existing Microsoft Windows/Exchange infrastructure servers.  This project followed a major redesign of their datacenter with the placement of interconnect cabling in overhead trays  and system cabinets positioned for optimal air flow.

IMG, an Albany, NY based Sun Microsystems partner, was instrumental in the university's deployment of the Sun Blade 6000 System.

-- Frank