Network management automation is no April Fool’s joke

AUSTIN, TEXAS (April 1, 2014) - Uplogix today announced network management automation that can be implemented with confidence. Designed to work as an onsite Level 1 technician-in-a-box, the Uplogix Local Management Platform automates the routine tasks that eat up the bulk of IT's time and effort when it comes to maintaining network infrastructure. And we're [...]

Cost cutting no longer top IT priority – what is?

IT leaders are less focused on cutting costs and turning their attention to the broader goal of building the business. In a recent survey by McKinsey of 800 IT executives, those citing their top priority as reducing IT costs dropped from 44 percent to 31 percent since 2011. "Improving the effectiveness of business processes" now [...]

Detailed monitoring feeding intelligent, automated actions

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Traditional network management has a lot in common with Chicken Little. SNMP polling lends itself to snap decisions or delayed information, and relying on the network path for sending traps can fail at the times when you need it the most. See this post as a presentation [...]

The risk and pain of configuration change

To update or not to update. Too often it's the question asked in IT. Even when the answer is that yes, you should update. Security patches, OS upgrades and password updates take time and effort, and often provide an opportunity for introducing errors. Enterprise Management Associates estimated upwards of 60% of network downtime is caused [...]

How-To: Maintain visibility and accountability in outsourced IT

The combination of a competitive managed services market and increasingly complicated enterprise network expectations have lead many companies to outsource their network management. Benefits that include lower cost of ownership, outside expertise and fewer inside demands must be balanced with less direct control and visibility. Or does it? A common complaint is that when problems [...]

Cisco, health care reports show no industry is safe

Data breaches clearly aren't limited to retailers like Target. Cisco's annual security report predicts "unprecedented growth" for more and more advanced attacks coming in 2014. Mobile devices are clear targets, with about 99 percent of mobile malware affecting the Android platform. The behavior of mobile users tends to be less guarded, leaving devices with [...]

Cybersecurity Framework released in the calm before the storm

A day before another winter storm shut down Washington DC with up to a foot of snow, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released the first version of a long-awaited cybersecurity framework. The report follows several recent cyber-attacks that compromised more than 100 million customer records from major retailers. The framework was billed in [...]

Assume that you are a Target

There has been a buzz in the Uplogix office about the much-publicized Target credit card information breach. No, not just because many of us are now carrying shiny new credit cards proactively replaced by our banks due to our vulnerability as frequent Targét (say it Tar-zhay) shoppers, but because initial reports indicated that the breach relied [...]

Locking down long-time vulnerabilities

Don't worry -- National Cybersecurity Awareness Month isn't until October, you still have many months to plan that perfect awareness event. But this month we're going to focus on the security topic because you need to be aware of security every month. Today we're going to talk about two forms of critical security vulnerabilities continue [...]

Groundhog Day for network configuration

Every year, on February 2nd, crowds in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania gather at dawn to witness a rodent pass judgment on just how much longer winter weather will torment the country. The Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day combined the weirdness of this 127-year tradition with a time loop/karma story where an unpleasant TV weatherman relives the same [...]