McHeighway Technologies

McHeighway Technologies McHeighway is a dynamic Technology company that's at the forefront of providing IT solutions and Digital Security services to Organisations

13/05/2020

When designing for high availability, downtime isn’t the end of the world, but it’s pretty close.

17/07/2018

network functions virtualization (NFV)
Network functions virtualization (NFV) is an initiative to virtualize network services traditionally run on proprietary, dedicated hardware. With NFV, functions like routing, load balancing and firewalls are packaged as virtual machines (VMs) on commodity hardware. Individual virtual network functions, or VNFs, are an essential component of NFV architecture.

Multiple VNFs can be added to a standard x86 server and then can be monitored and controlled by a hypervisor. NFV's mission to use commodity hardware is important because network managers no longer need to purchase and manually configure dedicated hardware devices in order to build a service chain that links certain functions to perform a desired sequence. Each dedicated device, by comparison, needs to be manually cabled together accordingly, which is a time-consuming process.

Because NFV architecture virtualizes network functions and eliminates specific hardware, network managers can add, move or change network functions at the server level in a simplified provisioning process.

If a VNF running on a virtual machine requires more bandwidth, for example, the administrator can move the VM to another physical server or provision another virtual machine on the original server to handle part of the load. Having this flexibility allows an IT department to respond in a more agile manner to changing business goals and network service demands

06/07/2018

holistic security
Holistic security is an approach that seeks to integrate all the elements designed to safeguard an organization, considering them as a complex and interconnected system. The ultimate purpose of holistic security is continuous protection across all attack surfaces: the totality of all physical, software, network and human exposure.

Based on systems thinking, holistic security involves consideration of how any security system's constituent parts interrelate and work within the context of larger systems. A holistic approach can be applied to almost anything that requires security be it a person, a computer, a network, a building or a property, but must always be considered within the broader context.

The integration of different levels and types of security enables a more comprehensive understanding of vulnerabilities and more comprehensive protection against a variety of threats.

For security to be considered holistic, a number of requirements must be met. First, separate areas of security must be applied together: locks, for example, in the physical environment and security software in the virtual environment. Holistic security also demands that systems and devices be compatible and interoperable.

Employees, also an integral part of the system, need to be trained. All employees should be encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions and identify any security holes they detect. Security policies and procedures must be clearly understood by all personnel and those who will be working with the security system should have input to its implementation.

Holistic security is increasingly crucial in light of the developing Internet of Things (IoT). IoT security is complicated by the huge numbers of non-computing devices and other objects (things) being outfitted with networking and data transfer capabilities. Because these systems often communicate over the internet and/or interface with other networks, it's essential that they and their extended environments are secured.

06/04/2018

Power over Ethernet (PoE)
Power over Ethernet (PoE) is a technology for wired Ethernet local area networks (LANs) that allows the electrical current necessary for the operation of each device to be carried by the data cables rather than by power cords. Doing so minimizes the number of wires that must be strung in order to install the network. PoE was originally developed in 2003 to support devices like Wi-Fi access points (APs). PoE made AP installations easier and more flexible, especially on ceilings.

For PoE to work, the electrical current must go into the data cable at the power-supply end, and come out at the device end, in such a way that the current is kept separate from the data signal so that neither interferes with the other. The current enters the cable by means of a component called an injector. If the device at the other end of the cable is PoE compatible, then that device will function properly without modification. If the device is not PoE compatible, then a component called a picker (or tap) must be installed to remove the current from the cable. This "picked-off" current is routed to the power jack.

Equipment built to the 2003 standard initially delivered enough power for most APs, but could not provide enough power for other types of mounted technology, such as video surveillance cameras. Over the years, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and several vendors have attempted to address the power issue, but there have always been problems with interoperability. The IEEE will be solving the problem by releasing a new standard that supplies power through all four wire pairs in a Cat5 cable.



IEEE 802.3bt, also known as Next Generation PoE, can supply enough power to support LED lighting, kiosks, terminals and a variety of other devices, including security-card readers. It also defines a way to supply two different power levels simultaneously. Now that an industry standard is finally in place once again, it's expected that PoE usage will continue to grow and play an important role in the Internet of Things (IoT).

06/04/2018

Oracle Autonomous Database
Oracle Autonomous Database is a cloud-based technology designed to automate many of the routine tasks required to manage Oracle databases. Introduced in 2017, the technology layers the company's Oracle Database 18c software with a set of automated services that use machine learning algorithms. The combination is offered as a cloud service called Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud, which Oracle describes as "self-driving, self-securing and self-repairing."

Features of Oracle Autonomous Database

Machine learning functionality allows Oracle Autonomous Database to assimilate the information it needs to provision databases on its own and find, allocate and configure all of the necessary hardware and software for users. The technology gathers statistics as new data is uploaded and regularly runs tests to ensure that all changes and upgrades are safe.

Autonomous Database scans for issues across all layers of the technology stack using diagnostic tools such as ORAchk, EXAchk, OSWatcher and Procwatcher. If an error occurs, Autonomous Database collects relevant diagnostic data, analyzes logs to establish a timeline and works backward to solve the problem. For example, it can back out data errors made by users.

Oracle Autonomous Database doesn't require manual tuning to optimize performance; instead, the technology tunes itself, including automatic creation of database indexes to help improve application performance. Autonomous Database also backs up databases, applies database updates and security patches and encrypts data automatically to protect information from unauthorized access.

The system also patches itself on a regular quarterly schedule, although users can override this feature to schedule patching when convenient. Oracle Autonomous Database can also apply out-of-cycle security updates when necessary -- for example, when Oracle releases an emergency patch to address a zero-day exploit. Additionally, the technology uses Oracle's Database Vault tool to prevent Oracle DBAs from seeing user data and the company's data masking feature to identify and conceal sensitive data.

Oracle Autonomous Database can scale itself up as needed; it also monitors capacity limits and bottlenecks in key system components in an effort to avoid performance problems. Updates are applied in a rolling fashion across a clustered system's compute nodes so applications can continue to run during the process, and the cloud service automatically repairs itself in the event of a system failure. According to Oracle, Autonomous Database provides 99.995% uptime.

03/03/2018

virtualization sprawl (VM sprawl)
Virtualization sprawl is a phenomenon that occurs when the number of virtual machines (VMs) on a network reaches a point where the administrator can no longer manage them effectively. Virtualization sprawl may also be referred to as virtual machine sprawl, VM sprawl or virtual server sprawl.

Although virtual machines (VMs) are easily created, they have the same licensing, support, security and compliance issues that physical machines do. To prevent virtualization sprawl, the administrator should define and enforce a process for the deployment of VMs and create a library of standardized VM image files. VMs that are being under-utilized should be archived.

Virtual machine lifecycle management (VMLM) tools can help administrators oversee the implementation, delivery, operation, and maintenance of virtual machines over the course of their existence. Such tools can provide administrators with a dashboard user interface (UI) that will show how many virtual machines are running on a network, which physical machines are hosting them, where their storage is located, what software or operating system (OS) licenses are associated with them and who created them.

03/09/2017

unicorn
A unicorn, in an investment context, is a tech startup that is assessed at a valuation of $1 billion or more; companies valued at more than $10 billion are sometimes called decacorns and those valued over $100 billion are called super unicorns.

Cowboy Ventures founder Aileen Lee first used unicorn in a financial context in a November 2013 TechCrunch blog post, "Welcome to the Unicorn Club." At that time, Lee identified 39 unicorns, including Facebook, Dropbox, Pinterest, Yammer, LinkedIn and Instagram. Research firm CB Insights, which maintains a current list, put the number of unicorns in the world at 140 in October 2015.
References to unicorns by venture capitalists have become increasingly common as the economy has gotten better. According to many investment experts, the burgeoning market for Internet of Things (IoT) products and technologies is likely to make the number of unicorns increase exponentially over the next several years.

In mythology, a unicorn is an elusive horse-like creature with magical powers. In human resource management (HRM), the term has been used for many years to describe a job candidate who has a very particular and very desirable skill set. A unicorn may also be called a purple squirrel, another metaphor used to describe the rare candidate who has exactly the right hard skills, soft skills and experience.

03/09/2017

DSC pull server
A DSC pull server (desired state configuration pull server) is an automation server that allows configurations to be maintained on many servers, computer workstations and devices across a network.

DSC pull servers use Microsoft Windows PowerShell DSC's declarative scripting to maintain current version software and also monitor and control the configuration of computers and services and the environment they run in. This capacity makes DSC pull servers very useful for administrators, allowing them to ensure reliability and interoperability between machines by stopping the configuration drift that can occur through making individual machine setting changes over time.

DSC pull servers use PowerShell or Windows Server 2012 and client servers must be running Windows Management Framework (WMF) 4. Microsoft has also developed PowerShell DSC for Linux.

Examples of how built-in DSC resources automation can configure and manage a set of computers or devices include:

Enabling or disabling server roles and features.
Managing registry settings.
Managing files and directories.
Starting, stopping, and managing processes and services.
Managing groups and user accounts.
Deploying new software.
Managing environment variables.
Running Windows PowerShell scripts.
Fixing configurations that drift away from the desired state.
Discovering the actual configuration state on a given client.

03/09/2017

blue/green deployment
A blue/green deployment is a change management strategy for releasing software code. Blue/green deployments, which may also be referred to as A/B deployments, require two identical hardware environments that are configured exactly the same way. While one environment is active and serving end users, the other environment remains idle.

Blue/green deployments are often used for consumer-facing applications and applications with critical uptime requirements. New code is released to the inactive environment, where it is thoroughly tested. Once the code has been vetted, the team makes the idle environment active, typically by adjusting a router configuration to redirect application traffic. The process reverses when the next software iteration is ready for release.

If problems are discovered after the switch, traffic can be directed back to the idle configuration that still runs the original version. Once the new code has proven itself in production, the team may choose to update code in the idle configuration environment to provide an added measure of capability for disaster recovery.

Blue/green deployments need two identical sets of hardware, and that hardware carries added costs and overhead without actually adding capacity or improving utilization. Organizations that cannot afford to duplicate hardware configurations may use other strategies such as canary testing or rolling deployments. A canary test deploys new code to a small group of users, while a rolling deployment staggers the rollout of new code across servers.

28/07/2017

Node.js
Node.js (Node) is an open source development platform for executing JavaScript code server-side. Node is useful for developing applications that require a persistent connection from the browser to the server and is often used for real-time applications such as chat, news feeds and web push notifications.

Code built on the Node platform does not follow the traditional model of receive, process, send, wait, receive. Instead, Node processes incoming requests in a constant event stack and sends small requests one after the other without waiting for responses. This is a shift away from mainstream models that run larger, more complex processes and run several threads concurrently, with each thread waiting for its appropriate response before moving on.
One of the major advantages of Node.js, according to its creator Ryan Dahl, is that it does not block input/output (I/O). Some developers are highly critical of Node.js and point out that if a single process requires a significant number of CPU cycles, the application will still block and potentially crash the application. Proponents of the Node.js model claim that CPU processing time is less of a concern because of the high number of small processes that Node code is based on.

28/07/2017

Chief data officer (CDO)
A chief data officer is a C-level corporate executive who is responsible for an organization's data governance. The CDO position is related to, but separate from, the job of the chief information officer. As a rule, the CDO reports to either the chief operating officer, chief technology officer or the chief executive officer of an organization. If the organization has a retail division that is customer-facing, the chief data officer may also work closely with the chief marketing officer.

The CDO position was originally created in response to increased compliance regulations after the great recession of 2007. At that time, a large part of the job typically was to help an organization create data governance policies that would ultimately reduce the organization's compliance burden. The focus of the position has since shifted to helping organizations understand that big data is a business asset that can be used strategically to identify new revenue opportunities and reduce operating costs.

As more organizations move to a data-driven decision management strategy, the CDO must ensure that business users have easy access to relevant data and reporting tools and be able to trust in the data's quality. To that end, the International Society of Chief Data Officers, a vendor neutral peer-advisory resource, seeks to "empower CDOs and others charged with leading enterprise strategy, governance, and management of information and data assets." ISCDO is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

24/07/2017

serverless computing
Serverless computing is an event-driven application design and deployment paradigm in which computing resources are provided as scalable cloud services. In traditional application deployments, the server's computing resources represent fixed and recurring costs, regardless of the amount of computing work that is actually being performed by the server. In a serverless computing deployment, the cloud customer only pays for service usage; there is never any cost associated with idle, down-time.

Serverless computing does not eliminate servers, but instead seeks to emphasize the idea that computing resource considerations can be moved into the background during the design process. The term is often associated with the NoOps movement and the concept may also be referred to as "function as a service (Faas)" or "runtime as a service (RaaS)."

One example of public cloud serverless computing is the AWS Lambda service. Developers can drop in code, create backend applications, create event handling routines and process data - all without worrying about servers, virtual machines (VMs), or the underlying compute resources needed to sustain an enormous volume of events because the actual hardware and infrastructure involved are all maintained by the provider. AWS Lambda can also interact with many other Amazon services, allowing developers to quickly create and manage complex enterprise-class applications with almost no consideration of the underlying servers.

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