Government agencies around the country are adopting Google Enterprise Solutions to manage information securely, increase collaboration, and reduce search time. Learn from Google product experts how enterprise solutions help your agency overcome current challenges and stay compliant.

Who hasn’t run into that pesky old ‘Status Code 2’ problem? Your backup fails with a NetBackup message indicating that "none of the requested files were backed up." Well, let me dig through my notes and see what I did about it… Ah, yes! I remember when a customer ran into a Status Code 2 error when running an SQL database backup. In my investigation to help them fix the problem, I stumbled across a Symantec support article specifically focused on this issue.

Last month, we began addressing some frequently asked Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) questions. Now that we have clarified what SCAP is, what it consists of, and how it helps with compliance issues, let’s look at FAQs about how validation and independent testing factor in. What is validation? The SCAP Program is responsible for maintaining established standards and ensuring that validated products comply. Validation is achieved through proving that the testing performed by the laboratory has been carried out correctly. Who does independent testing? Test results for validation are accepted from laboratories that are accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). This accreditation is earned after full review of the laboratories’ Quality Management System (QMS) and passing of the technical proficiency tests.

Continuous monitoring involves assessing an agency’s information security posture based on changes to risk resulting from new threats or newly discovered vulnerabilities. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems (Special Publication 800‐37, Revision 1) specifies continuous monitoring as one of the six steps in information security. As agencies begin looking at cloud initiatives, the challenge is implementing a continuous monitoring program that reduces risk and ensures compliance with NIST and other relevant guidance in an environment of decreased control. The solution begins with knowing where compliance ends and risk begins.

When having what seems to be a complex network connectivity problem, sometimes the best method to tackle the issue is to implement the KISS Method. Look for the simple stuff first and keep these tips in mind when troubleshooting network connectivity.

Top 10 Tips for Troubleshooting Network Connectivity

Each cloud service and delivery model is designed to meet specific business requirements. Some offer greater cost savings, but may not provide the appropriate level of visibility and security. Others may offer higher levels of security, but at the expense of elasticity and costs. The key is to find the best fit for the business requirements and the IT service.

Cloud computing and virtualization. If you work within the federal, state and local, and higher education IT industries, you most likely have been exposed to these terms. However, for some, understanding the distinction between the two can be a little confusing. This year at FOSE 2011, DLT Solutions and Quest Software helped visitors cut through the fog of uncertainty surrounding this issue. During the event, DLT asked public-sector IT professionals to participate in a series of “Minute to Win It” style games to illustrate the complexities of cloud computing and virtualization. These games were designed to show participants that not everything is as simple as it looks which according to a Norwich University study*, proves that they are not alone.

LiveUpdate is a NetBackup feature that allows administrators to quickly and easily upgrade NetBackup clients under central control using a special NetBackup policy. Previous releases of NetBackup offered limited functionality for LiveUpdate, providing only the ability to upgrade to a minor update of the current version (e.g., from NetBackup 6.5.5 to 6.5.6). In contrast, NetBackup 7.1 has the ability to update a client even if it’s running a previous major version (NetBackup 6.5 and later). LiveUpdate operates with any supported NetBackup client system, including UNIX, Linux and Windows machines, and can update a mixture of UNIX, Linux and Windows clients from a single LiveUpdate policy. It’s important to understand that NetBackup LiveUpdate is not the same as the LiveUpdate service that many other Symantec products use. The NetBackup version only runs when the administrator explicitly executes it and it does not pull data from Symantec or any other location on the Internet. All update information is contained on servers that are controlled by the NetBackup administrator. It’s also important to note that other installation methods are still supported; LiveUpdate is an optional tool. If administrators prefer to use the standard NetBackup client installation utilities, they may still do so.

Way back in 2003, an eternity in tech years, Network Appliance purchased Spinnaker Networks an appliance maker that utilized SpinFS. Since the acquisition NetApp , as it is now called, has developed two different operating system offerings a.k.a. their “special sauce.” The original ONTAP “flavor” (ONTAP 8 7-mode) and the ONTAP 8 Cluster-mode, a reincarnate of technology acquired from Spinnaker and previously known as ONTAP GX.