theartofservice

The Information Age should be renamed the Communication Age. At no time in our history has our society ever been inundated with communication devices and methods and simple ways of staying in touch. Our neighbors are no longer across the hall, but may be a person halfway around the world.

With the opportunities, however, comes a curse. The devices and tools and software required to stay in touch can become overwhelming with cellphones, blackberrys, instant messaging, email, voice mail, web conferencing, Internet chats, and the like. Recently though, a new technology has been gaining wide attention – Voice Over IP or VoIP.

Initially adopted the business to cut rising telecommunication cost, VoIP has become a vital component for unified communication. That is, having email read through the voicemail system or having voicemail readable through an email. The purpose of unified communication is to merge collaboration tools such as calendaring, email, instant messaging with voice technology.

The greatest benefit of VoIP goes to the gains in mobile computing, where from a single device, a person can access their phone, the Internet, email, and almost anything that can be imagined from a simple handheld.

For enterprises, there is one potential pitfall. Traditionally, the IT departments for services unified VoIP were separated and still are. With VoIP, the collaboration between these different departments has become a high priority for the success of the implementation and during operations. This requires the integration to extend to business processes, not just applications. If everyone is not on board with VoIP, than the entire system can fail.

Network Access Control products are another craze for IT departments. The purpose of these new products are to manage access to the network. However, to do so some considerations need to be taken.

First, NAC is policy driven. Each policy has two parts: conditions and actions. Conditions are specific information used to determine the appropriate access and actions allowable on the network. The configuration of the computer and user information are examples of conditions that may be found within a policy.

Actions use conditions to determine the appropriate control of a system. In typical binary fashion, policies have two actions for the conditions covered: accept or denial. For instance, if the configuration matches the minimal acceptance level for the network, the computer is allowed access to the network; if not, the computer can be redirected to a update site or given limited access, usually Internet only.

The purpose of the NAC is to secure the network from attacks. Working in conjunction with common anti-virus, intrusion, and authentication applications, NACs work at the network edge to identify if the computer linking to the network is compatible. Similar to ensuring inoculation before going to foreign counties, the NAC will survey a computer for the right configuration and if it doesn’t exist, recommend the appropriate update. If the user declines the recommendation, they are given restricted access to the network.

So say you were able to access the full functionality of the network yesterday, but today, you seem limited: consider that a security patch was not installed and your NAC is compensating. Just install the patch. The problem is that dozens of patches may be required at any given time. Gone a week? When you come back, connecting to the network may take a few minutes ensuring that all the updates are installed so you can connect.

For the system administrators, the NAC requires management of a number of policies; providing direction for every possible situation that may occur when a computer connects to the network.

NACs are not a bad tool: they are quite useful. They simply are a small product with a big mission.

Hi everyone,

To follow up our previous blog entry promoting the entire ITIL V3 certification pathway being available via elearning at our site (www.theartofservice.org), here is sample of recent feedback from our happy elearning clients:

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Thank you.  Yes, I am using the book and the online online training modules.  I had previously bought a self study DVD for $400 from another vendor and found it absolutely useless.  The Art of Service is crisp in delivery of relevant information.  I highly recommend your program.

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Passed today with 90%!

A great thanks for your study guide and online course. I only had one weekend (literally day and night…) to prepare ‘coz I need it for a job application. No way could I have done it without your brilliant materials.

Thanks a lot!!!

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Hi all

Passed the ITIL V3 Foundation Exam with 98% (39/40), the book has everything you need to ace the exam. The depth and breadth of the book adequately covers the required material for the exam. Do not try and memorise instead study and fully understand the material covered. The book is well written and makes easy reading.

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Passed the ITIL V3 foundation exam today morning with a score of 85. I wanted to thank Tim and all the folks who have created the certification guide as well the computer based learning “Art of Service” online learning portal. Read the book and went thru the online learning multiple times and my work experience with software release and change management helped me understand the core principles and concepts.

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Passed the exam this morning.  The book, quizzes and sample exams were all very helpful.

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Thanks to everyone for taking the time to send or post their feedback. We’re glad the the materials we have developed have been valuable to so many clients looking to add another level of ITIL certification to their CV.

Best wishes,

The Art of Service

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to promote our elearning site (www.theartofservice.org), as there has been quite a few questions regarding the programs there. To summarise:

• We offer the ENTIRE ITIL V3 certification pathway online. You can do all the programs required (Foundation, Intermediate  Managing Across the Lifecycle) to attain your ITIL Expert certification.
• These programs have been accredited by EXIN, so there is NO extra programs needed in order to gain your certification.
• We offer package discounts to clients wishing to customise their pathway towards their ITIL Expert certification.
• All programs come with narrated flash presentations (for content), additional resources and exercises + exam preparation resources.

Have a look now at www.theartofservice.org to see what is on offer and view the preview program to see how the programs are delivered.

So far we have helped over 2000 clients achieve their ITIL certification via this site, and it definately feels good to give people a cost-effective option in the current economic climate.

Best wishes,

The Art of Service

Hypervisors are small bits of code that enable the creation of an abstract layer within computing. This is the basis for most efforts in virtualization. The greatest critique to virtualization is security and hypervisors are the first agents to providing security. Below are some notes on hypervisors and security concerns:

Not every hypervisor is created equally. VMware is a completely proprietary, meaning that it is developed and tested inhouse before being released for use. Xen utilizes an open-source community to vet and test the product. Because of the open collaboration, the Xen product has fewer lines of code which will result in fewer potential problems with the code.

Hyperjacking is the worst problem with using hypervisors. The term refers to the subverting the hypervisor to plant malicious software within the abstract layer which can potential provide access to the entire virtual platform which may be utilized by several customers in the form of guest OSs. The trick is to maintain hypervisor integrity while making each guest OS ‘think’ they are the only system that has access to the physical layer. Most of this is done through a series of privilege checks, specifically on transactions between the abstract layer and the physical layer. A widely adopted standard for building trust between the abstract and the physical layers is TPM, or Trusted Platform Module.

The abstract layer has most of the same security issues as a physical LAN or SAN. More so in some ways. Most threats come from internal traffic because they don’t pass through external firewalls where many of the security checks are perform as traffic enters the network. Fortunately, the risks are manageable with a little extra physical capacity, performing migration drills on virtual services and maintaining patches and updates.

A virtual machine is still a machine. Though obvious, it’s not as easy to put this fact into practice. A few rules applied in this context can reduce the amount of exposure given to threats. Disable emulated devices that are unnecessary, including virtualized features and services on the host and guest platforms. They can be made available when required and turned off at disconnect. Find where critical components like third party device drivers reside – within the hypervisor where they performance increases but are slightly more vulnerable or at a higher layer. Adopt ‘least privilege’ rules to who has access to virtual network segments, thus reducing the attack surface exposed.

Bottomline: A hypervisor is simply a tool for IT – understanding what it can and cannot do will assist in fulfilling any security plan you should already have in place.