Articles by tag "cloud"

“We could have done it on our own working directly with AWS, but it would have taken at least three times longer,” the client estimates. “We also would have likely made mistakes that would have extended the go-live timeline even further—that’s one of the key reasons for working with cloud experts like the team from Digital Edge.”

by: Michael Petrov

Using cloud platforms does guarantee that customer deployments on those platforms will be automatically secured. Regardless of how advanced the security of the products is, if a customer leaves login as admin/admin - the entire deployment will be vulnerable. This admin/admin is only one very simple example, and is exactly why Equifax had its major security breach. 

Digital Edge not only suggests, but implores companies to implement security frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST Core or SOC2.

Recently, the resumes of potential, current, and previous employees of the US Department of Defense and the US intelligence community were exposed. The documents were found on an insecure Amazon S3 bucket that was not password protected. Amazon needs a stronger third-party cybersecurity to prevent these issues, especially since it is such a large company. This can become very disastrous, for clients and Amazon if the problem isn’t fixed. To find out more information, click here!

In the wake of these storms, Digital Edge Team is here to provide emergency technology recovery services, for any IT distressed company who is in need of immediate assistance to deliver clients with technology recovery. The Digital Edge Disaster Recovery Team will provide free assistance in recovering your IT and migrating it to the Digital Edge Cloud, in addition to providing your business with 6 months free operation.

If your business has been impacted by Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma, and is in need of Digital Edge’s Disaster Recovery, please contact the Digital Edge team. 

The extent of the destruction in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean isn't yet known, but it could be two of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. The damage wrought by these hurricanes has sparked a fresh wave of giving from corporate America, this includes Digital Edge. 

When disaster strikes, the gaps in traditional site recovery methods are truly exposed and without adequate preparation, your company’s data can slip through the cracks of faulty planning. Unfortunately, most businesses only begin to question the efficiency of their site recovery solutions after tragedies directly affect their area.  Conventional methods of keeping replicated data on standby and hoping they all work may not be enough. Allowing us to virtualize your disaster recovery site guarantees the lowest possible RTO.  

Digital Edge, using its virtualization platform, has an ability to move technologies from one geographical region to another. Using this capabilities, we can preemptively move critical systems to a region far from the hurricane, which the Digital Edge Disaster Recovery Team did in preparation for these record-breaking storms.  Digital Edge ensured that business data, backups, applications, and server images were safely stored off-site, in addition to moving critical systems to our Cloud environment, as requested by some clients.

By tomorrow, Hurricane Irma is expected to make landfall in Florida. With storm surges predicted up to 11 feet, the storm could cause catastrophic damage to those in its wake. While the storm’s path is still progressing, Florida has declared a state of emergency to prepare for the worst.  

Residents in the foreshadowed impacted areas are encouraged by officials to stock up on all necessary provisions and to move to safer grounds. 

After securing one’s personal safety and home, it’s also important to take into account the impact Irma could have on local businesses. If time allows, preparing one’s business to weather the storm will help those impacted get back to work following the storm. 

Over the past few days, the Digital Edge Disaster Recovery Team has been virtually migrating its southern-most clients with onsite systems to virtual servers in the New York Area. Digital Edge is ensuring that business data, backups, applications, and server images are safely stored off-site. If requested, Digital Edge can coordinate the process of moving any critical systems to our Cloud environment.  

These virtual servers will safely run during the entire storm. Digital Edge can assist clients prepare pre-built emergency messages to keep your customers and employees informed (closed, open for business, etc) so they can be quickly deployed to your website following Hurricane Irma’s departure.  It is highly recommended someone out of the path of the hurricane has access to update your website, and the Digital Edge team is here to fill that role.

The Digital Edge Disaster Recovery Team also urges businesses in Irma’s path to do the following: 

• Ensure all workstations/laptops are elevated off of the floor and powered off;
• Wrap any computer equipment that is directly near a window with light plastic; Do not wrap equipment that is online – heat buildup may cause damage or fire; 
• All surge protectors should be put in the off position where applicable- Systems without a surge protector should have a surge protector added or the equipment should be unplugged from the wall; 
• Place a thin plastic barrier over any critical network racks and secure them with painter’s tape; Do not place barrier over equipment that is online – heat buildup may cause damage or fire; Plastic should be removed before equipment is brought back online; 
• Ensure your disaster recovery team members have updated contact information and role assignments.
• Ensure your disaster recovery team shares with staff members what method(s) of communication will be available after the disaster; We highly recommend email as it will be far more reliable and accessible to most people;
• Generate and secure the following items in an offsite trusted fire/water proof safe or bank deposit box: 

o Digital pictures of physical assets/inventory for insurance purposes on USB stick
o Printed report of physical assets/inventory
o Printed copy of disaster recovery plan
o Printed report of employee contact information
o Printed report of all vendor contacts and account numbers (power, water, gas, fire alarm, hvac, EIN, insurances, etc)
o Printed copy of critical usernames and passwords such as banking, insurance, web host, etc

If you feel that your business is in need of Digital Edge’s Disaster Recovery assistance in preparing for Hurricane Irma, please contact the Digital Edge team. 

Today’s model and mindset is that it seems that you can assemble anything using services provided by different companies and it will be solid. Those services are like parts of LEGO. 

AWS could be like a LEGO. Kids are playing with it. You can make functional things. You can build a house out of LEGO. Is this the best tooling for building a house? Maybe, it is simple. A kids can do it. If you have enough LEGO a kid can build a house. Would it survive many summers and winters, hurricanes, maybe yes, maybe not. Depends how much engineering experience the builder has. A bad engineer may build a bad house out of good old time bricks and a good engineer can make a great house of LEGO. However if you want to build a rocket, you need an “enterprise” class LEGO. You can use one from ToysRs but at least you have to engineer your solution. 

Today’s simplicity is a good thing, a bad thing and a scary thing. 

Are we done with the cloud revolution? Is the crusade against hardware over? Was getting rid of the hardware from our closets the final goal? Right, the cloud movement started with the goal to free up IT departments from the subject that is universally hated –  hardware related headaches, from renewals, end of lives, end of supports, those sticky VARs, capital investment, to the constant feeling that when you invest capital into your new hardware that you are losing 10-20% of your money’s value right away. This feeling is comparable to the notion of buying a new car and driving out of the dealership – the car is now not worth that same as when you signed the contract, minutes before. 

Digital Edge received this White Paper from Plexxi, written by Plexxi in a partnership with Colovore,  King Star Computer, and Piston. We feel that this white paper has great importance to the IT community as there is a current misconception of the cost savings of the cloud is “as high as ever”. 

Digital Edge has reached out to Plexxi to permit us to re-publish this White Paper, however have not yet received any feedback. If we are requested to do so, we will remove it from our White Paper section. 

This white paper is completely aligned with Digital Edge’s view on TCO and ROI. Additionally, this paper explains latest news from Apple, that the company is planning to build their own datacenters, thus leaving AWS with a few billion dollar gap in AWS’s yearly gross sales.