The following noteworthy identity management statement comes from the Cyberspace Policy Review issued last year by President Obama: “Build a cybersecurity-based identity management vision and strategy that addresses privacy and civil liberties interests, leveraging privacy-enhancing technologies for the Nation.” To be clear, I am an avid opponent of “anonymity for all” on the web. I do not think it is in our common interest to have anonymous communication in the public sector. I know that I will draw the ire of many who view the Internet as a constitutional right, but I persist with this view because the very nature of our constitution provides for the free and open exchange of ideas in the public forum. With this protection in place why would we need anonymity given the extreme handicap that it places on us in processing information?

Who doesn’t like free apps? Autodesk has launched a free app that allows you to take a picture of any object or person and get it translated into a virtual 3D image that you can zoom in on and rotate. The “123D Catch” app works for those who have iPad 2 or the new iPad with a built in camera.

What do you do when you have a client that is not communicating with your master server? First, you should check the firewall rules and open port configurations to verify that everything looks right. You should then check the host file where you are likely to see line after line of names. If you’re anything like me, you probably find this very frustrating. Everyone wants to use a short name, bypass protocol, or short cuts via host files, but do they realize this can create confusion and issues?

Datacenter growth is one of the larger challenges encountered by datacenter managers today. The key solutions to combat these challenges are consolidation and virtualization. There are many virtualization solutions available, such as Oracle VM, and all of them are effective for server consolidation. The Sun ZFS Storage Appliance can integrate and interoperate with any of these solutions but does best with Oracle VM and VMware.

Contrary to a sea of white papers and hours of slick video clips, the point when your back is against the wall is NOT the time to start looking to “the cloud” to save you. Instead, you need to start with a controllable situation of your own choosing that is as far from the fire, but as close to reality as possible. The IT battlefield is littered with mangled reputations and dead careers from those who picked up the shiny new technology-of-the-month and went chasing windmills, while hordes of very real IT problems overpowered them in a cruel game of attrition. Cloud technologies can help even the odds in many situations; however they very rarely can go straight into production without a proper evaluation. After all, you’re not just playing with technology here, but with workflow & mindset as well.

Congratulations to our CFO Craig Adler, for being named by the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) as a finalist for their 16th annual Greater Washington Technology CFO Awards. Craig has played a key role in several successful endeavors including negotiating an expanded credit facility, which enables DLT's executive team to focus on managing the business for growth, while maintaining the core business base, in the current economic environment.

Privacy vs. Security The AFCEA Global Intelligence Forum was scheduled for this June but given the ongoing debate in Congress on the conference topic and the FY13 budget uncertainties, the event has been postponed. Nevertheless, they have proposed some interesting questions: • What does it mean to be a citizen of the information nation? • Who are the protectors of that nation and what is the appropriate balance between personal privacy and public security? • Is the choice between security and privacy a false one? Can technology itself enable safe and secure citizenship? • Who and how should the ethics of information technology be determined? How does the next generation – the generation of cyber “citizens” – view the issue of privacy and security? It is easy to believe that there are more questions than answers but that is not a particularly useful ground to stand on for analysis. Let’s explore these questions.

DLT Solutions and its Cloud Advisory Group have been named one of four finalists in the Excellence in Team Building, Management and Development category of the 2012 Institute for Excellence in Sales & Business Development (IES&BD) annual awards. The IES&BD Awards are the only independent awards that promote and advance excellence in Sales & Business Development by recognizing companies and organizations who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and strategic vision in Sales & Business Development.

In the past, we’ve discussed server consolidation using virtualization technologies like RHEV. And we know that there are tangible reductions in physical footprint by moving to an enterprise virtualization solution as increased utilization of fewer, more powerful servers with advanced memory capabilities is standard fare for today's data center architectures.

This year’s RSA conference was a deluge of technology centered on the usual security suspects with an addition of recent year themes surrounding the challenges of cloud computing. Two years ago the conference was all about cloud, last year it was “Bob and Alice” (the challenges of compliance vs. defection surrounding lack of trust in cyberspace).This year’s “Mightier than the Sword” theme was the next logical step towards cyber warfare. After all, regardless of the strength of security controls, the presence of global information availability coupled with the absence of trust inevitably tends toward war. Perhaps it is time to work on this “trust” problem. After all, it’s all about risk… right?