Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for IT specialists. In this issue:
• Kris Kringle, Security Specialist
• Tech View: Virtualisation across a network
• Real People, Real Skills: Charmaine Ward
• B & M ProTech
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Kris Kringle, Security Specialist
This month we find a few minutes in the busy schedule of Kris Kringle, a highly experienced security expert
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...authenticate each packet...
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Kris Kringle is an experienced security specialist who has been working on contract for the majority of his career. He is now at the vanguard of his profession and finds that December is a particularly busy time. As he explained, "The need for security increases dramatically at this time of year. It is my responsibility to take the key to the store, enter and forensically examine all the assets to ensure that there are no infringements".
At the checkpoint, the elves issue a certificate for each child's present and put it on the trusted sleigh. Kris is extremely careful to authenticate each packet prior to dispatch.
To deliver to schedule, he must bypass intrusion detection when accessing every chimney (fire wall). At the end of Christmas night, Kris will return to his DMZ where he will handshake with his helpers.
After locking his files away until next year he sits down and tweaks his whiskers, comfortable with a secure job well done.
But what was it that made Kris decide to specialise in security in the first place? He explains, "Early in my career I knew that security was going to be a growth area, particularly for clients in the logistics sector such as where I now work. I undertook my technical training at the renowned Lapland institute and have now achieved my Storage Area Network Trusted Adviser (SANTA) certification".
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Tech View: Virtualisation across a network - a blessing or a curse?
Paul Smith considers some of the potential hurdles involved in adding virtualisation to a network
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Virtualisation is great, isn't it? It can significantly improve your business resilience and help in reducing costs. However, it is important to ensure that the network is ready for virtualisation if you don't want it to turn from a blessing to a curse.
Firstly, it is vital to consider the supporting structure for virtual servers and SAN storage nodes. A sound philosophy is to create a high-speed network (1Gb or more) that is dedicated to your SANs. Data traffic will be high even under normal circumstances, but in the event of needing real-time recovery of a virtual machine, there will be a temporary need for extremely large bandwidths.
zSeries hardware or Blade Servers and enclosures are a simple way to achieve good speeds, with both offering 10Gb or better - but only within the same enclosure. Discrete optical fibre channel and switches can deliver speeds of 2Gb, although these will demand a significant investment in new infrastructure, typically costing three to five times as much as copper wire. You can achieve 10GBase (10Gb) over copper by using Category 7 cable. This is fine for smaller networks, but it is worth bearing in mind that the maximum cable length for Cat-7 is around 100 metres between nodes, with distances varying according to the hardware being used. So once again it comes down to a trade-off of cost against performance.
One final thing to consider is that while it is not uncommon to have your networking, storage and systems software managed by separate sections or departments, the interaction and dependency for all three resources is very high in a virtualised environment. It is therefore vital that all three sections have a good dialogue and monitoring tools, and that proper attention is paid to systems' capacities.
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Real Skills, Real people: B & M's Charmaine Ward
This month, we find how HR Administrator Charmaine travelled from care to HR
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After completing NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Integrated Care for the Elderly, Charmaine worked as a carer in nursing, residential and rest homes for 10 years. She decided to broaden her horizons by embarking on a CLAIT Computer Training Course, and on completing levels 1 and 2, moved into a new career as a Warehouse Administrator for a national catering equipment supplier. Charmaine remained with the firm for several years and was promoted to IT Administrator for the Data Processing department, where she provided first-line support to over 300 employees. She also worked closely with the Finance Director, producing monthly sales figures and reports.
Charmaine held an administration role for a satellite and communications repair company before joining B & M in May 2007 as an Administrator in the HR team, where she provides vital support to the B & M Account Managers.
Charmaine and her husband are registered Kennel Club dog breeders and she, together with her two children, works alongside the RSPCA to foster and re-home stray or neglected dogs into loving and caring homes. Charmaine has two Old English Sheep dogs of her own and enjoys taking them for long walks in the countryside.
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B & M ProTech
Total project delivery
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B & M ProTech delivers technical projects tailored to meet each customer's ICT needs. We work closely with customers to agree whether the best solution is resources that are managed in-house, or to reduce risk by having B & M manage the project team on the customer's behalf via a professional project manager. Whichever form of management is appropriate, B & M ProTech delivers multi-disciplined teams with consistently high levels of technical knowledge and expertise who work to pre-agreed levels of service.
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