Transcript Emerging Technologies: Which Are Right For You

Emerging Technologies:
Which Are Right For You
David Strom
Technology Editor, VAR Business
Breakaway San Deigo
August 2002
Some perspective: looking back
to 1990
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Illegal to have your own dot com domain
Novell was the biggest thing going in networks
Windows was still pretty dismal, v3
Unix was exclusively for geeks
P2Cs cost $2000 for 25 MHz/200 MB hard disks
Email wasn’t used by anyone in your family
Today’s important technology
questions
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IP protocols or not?
Windows or Unix/Linux?
Where is networking going?
Can we ever secure our networks?
Are Java and XML going to be important?
What about web services?
Whither wireless?
IP or not IP
• Just about every corporate network is built
around IP protocols
• But still have Netware and non-IP
applications around (including mainframes)
• Trick is for VARs to keep up with advances
in IP technologies and yet maintain
expertise in niche services
Voice over IP issues
• Deployment
• Do you need to upgrade your infrastructure?
• Managing your combined VoIP/data
network
• Whether to run parallel networks for voice
to obtain high enough QoS
Windows vs. Unix
• Desktop is still Windows
• Linux gaining ground in app servers
• Unix now looked at as the new
mainframe/data center OS
• Microsoft vulnerable when it comes to
stability, cross-platform apps delivery
Advances in networking
• Gigabit Ethernet to desktop soon
• Cheaper routers and firewalls
• Everything becomes a 1U appliance (good
news for VARs to integrate)
• No one cares what your file server is
running, just as long as it is running
Securing networks
• Viruses will never go away
• Viruses hoaxes now being spread
• The hard part is securing the LAN from
within (wireless, other intruders)
• VARs that know this stuff will never lack
for work
Web/database issues
• Understand security weaknesses and access
controls of local database users
• Understand web/database interaction from
security perspective
• Understand proxy server attacks (ala Adrian
Lamo)
• Block them CGI scripts!
• Who is root and what can they really do?
New security options
• Applications-layer scanning tools like Web
Inspect from SPIdynamics.com
• Multi-layered IDS from OneSecure.com
• Better email filtering and scanning tools
• Combined anti-virus/proxy/cache tools from
Cacheflow.com
Java and XML
• The beginning of the whole open systems story:
Apache, Sendmail ….
• Applications will never be the same
• Open systems have come and won’t leave
corporate developers
• Important standards for developing web-based
applications
• Java and XML have their place on servers, not on
individual desktops
Web services
• New breed of applications that reside partly
on the Internet, partly on an enterprise’s
servers, and partly on an external web
browser
• Safe, solid, and full of high profits for the
right VARs
• Look at Intuit’s web Turbotax and
Quickbase as examples
Application server vendors
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Oracle 9i Applications Server
Sun One Net
IBM Websphere
BEA Weblogic
Microsoft .Net
Various open source products
Issues with web services
• Choosing the right applications server
platform
• Whether to go with J2EE or MS .Net
• Who will own your directory of apps?
• What kind of development environment do
you need?
• How deep do you go to integrate business
processes and logic into your apps?
Wireless issues
• Boon for home and SMB marketplace
• Boon for VARs that can understand security
and environmental setup issues
• Bust for enterprises looking to keep control
over their computing resources
Wireless LAN loopholes
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Do you even know if they are running?
NetStumbler.com: good resource
New products like AirMagnet
Read this article too.
Wireless VPN/firewall appliances
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BlueSocket
ReefEdge
Vernier Networks
Mobility from Netmotion Wireless
Conclusions and questions
David Strom
Technology Editor
VAR Business magazine
[email protected]
(516) 562-7151