Arraya Insights

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Regardless of what email platform your organization is operating on, email plays a critical role in your company. It is a recommended best practice to ensure that you’re properly authenticating your email messages. If not addressed your email can be flagged as spam or not be delivered to its desired destination. There are three standards of email authentication. In this blog, we’ll dive into each one of these components of email authentication and explain why they are important to your business. 

The Importance of Email Authentication 

Email Authentication at its simplest form is the process or action of proving or showing that your email is genuine and from a trusted source. This is done through SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These three email standards provide validation that an email is genuine and that it’s coming from who it claims to be from. 

  • Sender Policy Framework or SPF 

This email standard specifies the servers and domains that are authorized to send email on behalf of your organization. 

  • DomainKeys Identified Mail or DKIM 

This email standard adds a digital signature to every outgoing message, which lets receiving servers verify the message came from your organization. 

  • Domain Message Authentication Programming or DMARC 

This email standard provides you with the ability to tell receiving servers what to do with outgoing messages from your organization that don’t pass SPF or DKIM. 

The two primary email authentication protocols that help validate that an email message comes from who it claims to come from are SPF and DKIM. Stacked on top of these two protocols is DMARC. DMARC uses SPF and DKIM and provides a set of instructions to receiving email servers with what to do if they receive unauthenticated mail. 

Why Does Email Authentication Matter? 

The current state of email security, spam, and phishing messages exists in volumes, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Due to the number of phishing and spam attempts, it is especially important that your messages are authenticated. Essentially, email authentication will help Mailbox Providers (MBPs) and spam filtering systems recognize your emails as legitimate. 

What is Sender Policy Framework (SPF)? 

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an authentication protocol that lists IP addresses in a DNS TXT record that are authorized to send email on behalf of domains. SPF is a form of email authentication that defines a process to validate an email message that has been sent from an authorized mail server in order to detect forgery and to prevent spam. The owner of a domain can identify exactly which mail servers they are able to send from with SPF protocols. 

When you send an email, the recipient’s email system will check to see if there is a published SPF record and will validate the following: 

  • If a valid SPF record exists and your sending IP is on the list, then it is given the greenlight. 
  • If the sending IP is not on the list, then the SPF check will fail and could either be rejected or placed in the spam folder. 

There are some limitations when it comes to the validation of the message source. SPF also breaks when a message is forwarded and does not protect brands against bad actors who can spoof the display name or Friendly-From address. Don’t lose sleep over these limitations because they are the main reasons why DKIM was created. 

What is DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)? 

DKIM acts as your digital ID to verify who you are. When you send an email, your mail platform attaches DKIM so the receiving mail platform can verify that it is you. This is done by using an encrypted key pair (one public in DNS and one private) to add a digital signature to every email message. 

Receiving email servers use this DKIM signature to both validate the authenticity of the sender and to identify if the message was changed or altered during transit. DKIM-signed messages provide Mailbox Providers (MBPs) with trust that the message is authentic and is not being spoofed. 

If DKIM and SPF fail, then senders can rely on DMARC. DMARC leverages both SPF and DKIM and provides instructions from the domain owner about what to do in the event there is an unauthenticated email. 

What is Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, & Conformance (DMARC)? 

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), is the third and final email authentication policy. It helps domains in handling spoofing and phishing attacks by preventing unauthorized use of the domain in the Friendly-From address of email messages. 

DMARC allows the domain owner to specify how unauthenticated messages should be addressed. This is done by what is known as a “policy” that is set in the DMARC DNS record. The policy can be configured with three options: NONE, QUARANTINE, and REJECT. 

The R in DMARC is for the Reporting component of the protocol. These reports allow the domain owner to see where all email using their domain in the From address is being sent from. 

Next Steps: Out with the Spam & In with the… Emails You Actually Need 

Any email user knows that spam and phishing attempts are a daily occurrence. A quick peek into your spam or junk email folder might surprise you.  

As email is an easy vehicle for malicious actors to send ransomware and malware attempts, it’s not surprising that 75% of cyber-attacks are launched via email. On the other hand, legitimate emails that end up in the spam folder can be a fundamental problem.  

As email remains vital to conducting business (and personal lives), email authentication has become a necessity. With the right authentication standards in place, your mailbox provider will be able to identify and block spam and ensure legitimate emails are delivered appropriately.  

To learn more about email authentication standards or to review your current email configuration, contact your Arraya account executive today.  

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now. 

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There will always be uncertainty. As the world continues to deal with the pandemic, global conflicts, and more, it seems the only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty itself. In addition, businesses are grappling with inflation, supply chain issues, and a hot job market. Maintaining talent, especially within the IT industry, is a challenge as the demand for these skillsets remains sky high.  

It’s never been more important for businesses to be flexible and agile. For those looking to stay ahead, a contingent workforce is a great way to face the many challenges that businesses are experiencing today.  

The Benefits of Contingent Staff 

Leveraging contingent staff allows businesses to address immediate staffing needs, acquire specific skillsets, and remain flexible should they need to scale up or down quickly. 

Here’s what contingent staff can offer: 

  1. Remain Agile: Easily Scale Up or Down 

Certain industries were severely impacted by Covid-19, specifically. For example, the live events industry came to a screeching halt in March 2020 due to pandemic-related restrictions, making those within this industry almost entirely unable to operate. They had to suddenly scale way down to weather the lock-down storm and then as restrictions lifted almost two years later, they faced excessive demand for these live events.  

Organizations with contingent staff on board, were prepared to make these rapid changes. This allowed them to both handle the difficult times and to rise to the occasion when business was booming.  

  1. Fill Skill Gaps & Harness Specialization 

While the pandemic certainly increased society’s reliance on technology and the “Great Resignation” tightened the job market, the IT industry was facing a labor shortage prior to all of this. There are no signs that the demand within this industry will go down anytime soon as technology now provides the backbone of nearly every business.  

Whether your business requires specialized skills on an ongoing basis or for a single, specific project, contingent staff can help you quickly fill skill gaps within your team. These are often experienced professionals who would be difficult to find at a similar skill level on a full-time basis.  

  1. Flexibility as the Workforce Shifts  

There’s been a lot of discussion about the future of the workforce as more in-person activities resume. Some businesses have promised their employees the opportunity to work from home full-time, permanently. Others are requiring their staff to return to the office and resume operations as they did prior to the pandemic. Ultimately, it’s not going to be a one size fits all solution for every business.  

As the demand for talent remains high, flexibility should be a top priority for employers. With a contingent staff, businesses can provide this flexibility to staff and remain flexible themselves. How the workplace will operate in one, five, or ten years down the road is still very much a mystery.  

In addition, contingent staff can be more cost effective, provide a fresh perspective that hadn’t previously been considered, and provide the freedom for your business to walk away should a particular partnership not work out as expected.  

Next Steps: Hiring Contingent Staff the Right Way 

While there are clear benefits of contingent staff, there is always a good, better, best way of doing things.  

Here’s how your business can find the right talent in contingent staff:  

  1. Set Clear Expectations 

Make sure you’re setting clear expectations for both the role requirements and the specifics of the work environment. It’s not going to end well if you hire someone who had different expectations for the role than what they experience. For their work environment, these should also be clearly established ahead of time so you and your staff know when they’re needed in the office or when they can log on remotely. 

It’s also important to take the current job market into consideration. An unnecessarily drawn-out interview and hiring process can deter talent. Unexpected requests from you can make them reconsider. Your process should be straightforward, upfront, and streamlined with all decision-makers ready to act.  

Making the time to set these clear parameters upfront will ensure you don’t sacrifice staff quality for speed.  

  1. Scrutinize the Role 

The talent required for each role will vary based on what your business is looking to accomplish. For simple, straightforward tasks that only require manpower, the experience necessary for the role will be less specific. However, a complicated project or task may require specialization, specific expertise, or leadership skills. This hiring process will need a more high-touch, consultative process. 

  1. Identify Your Team’s Strengths, Weaknesses, & Skill Gaps 

As we’ve mentioned, contingent staff is an excellent way to fill skill gaps within your company. However, without proper consideration you may end up with more talent in one area and still lack in another. Taking the time in advance to properly identify your current talent, what your team may be lacking, and your specific needs will help you fill the role with the right individual.  

While technology is a fundamental part of nearly every business, it’s important to remember that these tools are only as good as the people who use them.  

  1. Consult Your Network 

While it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, referring to your network for potential staff is a tried-and-true method. In addition, this is a great way to stay in touch with staffing trends within your industry and local area.  

Whether you’re looking for contract staff or prefer contract to hire, at Arraya, our staffing solutions can provide support for your IT environment so your business can focus on mission critical operations. Contact an Arraya expert today to learn more.  

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now. 

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While cyber attacks in general remain top of mind for IT teams and CIOs, ransomware continues as the true stand out. No security measures are 100% effective in preventing ransomware, which is why we put such a focus on hardening your data backups at Arraya.   

Without a secure, fast, and reliable backup system in place, your business could run into issues when the time comes to recover your data. In short, your backup plan needs to work (fast) when called upon. 

Cohesity, a leader in next-generation data management, aims to address both the security of data backups and their reliability with its latest solution, Cohesity FortKnox. This software as a service (SaaS) data isolation and recovery solution will play a crucial role in helping businesses reduce the impact of ransomware.  

What Does FortKnox Do? 

Backing up your data has an enormous impact on your business’s ability to recover from an attack. However, the security and strength of backups significantly vary. As your network, endpoints, and environment are all susceptible to an attack, your backups are also a key target for malicious actors.  

While ransomware is certainly the most talked about form of data disaster, there are many ways data can be lost. From accidental deletions to insider threats, a data backup plan protects against more than ransomware alone.  

As a SaaS based solution, FortKnox improves cyber resiliency overall. This provides an immutable copy of your data in a Cohesity-managed cloud vault which acts as a secondary layer of protection against ransomware, among other threats. This provides businesses with the ability to confidently recover from attacks.  

The 4 Main Benefits of FortKnox: 

As the technology industry continues to face skill gaps while managing complicated data vaults, FortKnox provides a more straightforward and accessible approach to overcome these obstacles.  

Here are the key benefits users can expect from FortKnox:  

  1. Secure Virtual Air Gap 

Previously, the only way to get a true airgap was to leverage tape. However, this can be very slow to recover from (possibly a few days), which halts your business’s ability to respond to an attack. FortKnox keeps data secure via a virtual air gap that is achieved through physical separation, and network and management isolation.  

  1. Data Immutability  

With FortKnox, your data will be completely immutable, meaning it can’t be changed or tampered with. This is done by employing a rolling black out window that creates the virtual air gap, striking the balance between data security and agility. The immutable data can be recovered to your primary location, or to another location of your choosing.  

  1. Increased Data Security & Access Controls 

FortKnox is built on Zero Trust security principles. Beyond this, FortKnox is part of Cohesity Threat Defense architecture and includes role-based access control (RBAC), encryption, multi-factor authentication (MFA), a WORM lock policy, and requires the approval of at least two employees for any critical actions. Further, ransomware detection is done at the primary back up location to ensure the vaulted copy is clean.    

  1. Cost Savings & Simplicity 

The pay-as-you-go consumption model lowers costs as organizations can simply connect, vault, and recover their data. The self-service data vaulting and recovery has customizable protection policies. Further, the pay-as-you-go service dramatically simplifies operations and the single pane of management provides organizations with a centralized dashboard with a clear view of global data vaults.   

Next Steps: Reduce the Impact of Ransomware 

As cybercrime tactics become more inventive and malicious actors seek to involve cyber insurance carriers, targeting backups is a lucrative business. You must ensure your data will be there when you need it and that it will be easily accessible. Even if you have a secure back up, it’s not going to be helpful when it takes days to access.  

Cohesity FortKnox can help your business reduce the overall impact and effects of ransomware attacks which aren’t going to slow down anytime soon. 

To learn more about FortKnox and backup hardening in general, contact us to speak with an Arraya Expert who can help you determine how to address your individual challenges.   

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.     

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As the business landscape shifts, employees must be able to login from anywhere and at any time. While this provides employees with unsurpassed flexibility and convenience, it can also cause businesses security headaches, increased licensing costs, and infrastructure issues.  

Enter Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). AVD is a desktop and app virtualization service that runs on the cloud and can set up a multi-session Windows 11 or Windows 10 deployment with the full Windows experience for users. This means employees can work from anywhere, on any device, and in a secure environment.   

This service provides a number of benefits that help businesses stay secure, flexible, and save money:  

  1. Security & Regulation Compliance

AVD provides built-in intelligent security to help keep your applications and data secure. These security capabilities proactively detect threats and take remedial action.  

AVD separates your operating systems, data, and apps from local hardware and runs them on a remote server which separates the compute environment from the user devices. Traditionally, businesses relied on persistent desktops which are assigned to a specific user and can be manipulated. This means, apps can be added or removed, local files can be saved, and more.  

As AVD uses non-persistent desktops, users will log in, have access to applications, but be unable to save files locally. Once they log off, this virtual desktop simply goes away as it was only there temporarily for their access. The risk of confidential information being left on a personal device is significantly reduced.   

Azure AD unlocks a secure and consistent sign on experience for users with the ability to roam from device to device and makes sure only the right people have access to apps and data. You can also configure MFA to take advantage of additional conditional access controls.  

  1. Reduced Costs 

Your business will only pay for what you use with AVD and there are no additional license costs. As you can use existing eligible Microsoft 365 or Windows per-user licenses, this reduces costs by using a modern cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure. 

Your infrastructure costs can be reduced by right-sizing virtual machines (VMs) and shutting them down while they’re not in use. In addition, you can move all your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to the cloud with a managed service to reduce management overhead. 

For storage, OneDrive provides terabytes of files per user in an O365 service without incurring additional storage fees. The VM machine infrastructure and connection to unlimited OneDrive storage is both fast and bottomless.  

  1. Flexibility 

AVD provides your employees with the ability to access a full Windows experience with Windows 10 or Windows 11 virtually anywhere. This brings your existing Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Windows Server desktops and apps to any device, including a Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, or a browser.  

With a unified management experience, your business can manage desktops and apps from different Windows and Windows Server operating systems. 

  1. Deploy & Scale in Minutes  

Today, flexibility is everything for a thriving business. With so much uncertainty, it can be difficult to resource plan for a year, let alone a month. With AVD your business can scale quickly based on your business’s needs at that point in time. This simplifies deployment and the management of your infrastructure overall.  

With AVD’s latest autoscale feature, you can scale your session host virtual machines (VMs) in a host pool up or down to optimize deployment costs. These can be specified based on: 

  • Time of day 
  • Specific days of the week 
  • Session limits per session host 

In order to take advantage of autoscale, you’ll need to first create a custom role-based access control (RBAC) with your Azure subscription.  

Next Steps: Gain More Flexibility with AVD’s Latest Scaling Feature 

Flexibility is key in staying competitive in today’s market. Businesses have quickly learned that they need to be prepared for change at the drop of a pin. With AVD, they’ll have the flexibility to scale quickly, up or down, to address the demands within their market.  

In addition, employees appreciate the ability to log in from anywhere and on any device all while ensuring your business’s information is secure. 

Contact an Arraya expert today to learn more about Azure Virtual Desktop.  

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.     

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While digital transformation has become a necessity for any business who wishes to stay relevant, security isn’t always factored into this process. The security parameters that were in place while on-premises will not adequately protect an organization’s data and network while in the cloud.  

For many businesses, their cloud adoption progress outpaces their security controls. This should be a top concern for CIOs as they come to the realization that the traditional tools they previously relied on will no longer be adequate.   

As organizations accumulate more data than ever before, their attack surface and exposure grow. The extensive connection capabilities that come with the transition to the cloud have enormous benefits, but also present security challenges. This connection can become dangerous as cloud infrastructure grows and becomes more complicated. Cloud users must always ensure they’re in total control of their environment.  

Here are four steps your business can take to effectively transition your security from an on-premises environment to the cloud: 

Implement the Right Technology for the Cloud 

Organizations with a multi-cloud environment, those using cloud native applications, and those with critical assets in the cloud should reevaluate any traditional technology their business is relying on. 

These six security mechanisms can help your business strengthen your security posture within the cloud: 

  1. Cloud Security Posture Management: CSPM is designed to identify misconfiguration issues and compliance risks in the cloud by continuously monitoring cloud infrastructure for gaps in security policy enforcement.  
  1. Cloud Workload Protection Platform: CWPP protects a business’s growing attack surface within the cloud from the processes and resources that support each application. This protects common attack points including containerized applications or those running on virtual machines and cloud-based endpoints and storage.  
  1. Cloud Access Security Broker: CASB acts as a gatekeeper and sits in between a business’s on-premises and cloud provider’s infrastructure. This offers firewalls, authentication, and data loss prevention.  
  1. Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management: CIEM is a SaaS solution that manages access and enforces least privilege within the cloud. This addresses potential risks like inactive identities, over permissioned roles, and nonhuman identities.  
  1. Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform: CNAP is a combination of methodologies from CSPM and CWPP. This is “designed to help secure and protect cloud-native applications across development and production.” This addresses potential issues before they go into production.  
  1. Cloud Identity Access Management: CIAM provides users with secure access while constantly authenticating based on a zero-trust strategy. This allows businesses to scale their users or transactions up or down without an entire infrastructure overhaul.  

Access management within the cloud provides flexibility and eliminates the need for shared credentials. Polices and controls can be very granular, however, it can also get overwhelmingly complex. It’s important that your IT team keep track of all identities and what permissions they’re granted.  

These solutions will provide visibility of all activity within the cloud, detect potential threats, and perform necessary automated responses.  

Consider Privileged Access Management 

Also known as PAM, this locally deployed software solution is used to “secure, control, and monitor access to an organization’s critical information and resources.”  

This includes: 

  • Access password management 
  • Privileged session management 
  • Vendor privileged access management (VPAM) 
  • Application access management 

Today, 74% of all breaches start with privileged access abuse and recent staffing turnover across the entire job market should be a concern for managers.  

Due to this exposure, most Cyber Insurance audit forms will outline the need for PAM Solutions to be considered. Any organization looking to purchase a Cyber Insurance policy, those with large Active Directory Environments, or those who have concerns about rogue admins or contractors should implement a PAM solution.  

Understand the Shared Responsibility Model of the Cloud 

Many new cloud users incorrectly believe that their third-party cloud provider assumes all responsibilities for security. However, there are still assets, processes, and functions that are owned and controlled by the business, hence the need for shared responsibility.  

It’s important to have a clear definition of both parties’ ownership and each of those parties must maintain total control over the areas they’re responsible for.  

In addition, it is important that you’re familiar with your cloud provider’s security protocols and procedures and you ask them the right questions. For example, what are their security measures for protecting your data center? How often is their software updated? Where are the servers physically located? What is their encryption policy? 

If your business and industry must adhere to specific regulations (and most do) your business will have to be able to prove that your cloud provider addresses those specific regulations and is compliant with them.  

Utilize Standardization & Automation to Avoid Overbilling  

Cloud computing does offer extensive cost savings, however, there are various ways in which companies can face overbilling.  

Simple human error or configuration oversight can result in significant unnecessary costs and expose potential vulnerabilities. Where possible, configuration management or infrastructure as a code should be implemented to prevent these errors.  

Using a platform as a service (PaaS) specifically can lead to overbilling as you get charged based on usage. If the platform is not architected appropriately, the cost of the platform can quickly add up. Further, certain cyber attacks can lead to extensive unnecessary charges. 

Next Steps: It’s Time to Embrace Cloud Security  

While many businesses were already considering or beginning the journey to the cloud prior to the pandemic, the past two years have accelerated the widespread adoption of cloud computing. As the cloud computing market is estimated to be worth $832.1 billion by 2025, it’s clear there’s no going back.  

However, CIOs and IT staff need to take a hard look at the security posture of their cloud environment. If it remains unaddressed, it’s likely to keep them up at night—and for good reason.  

While cloud adoption is encouraged to take advantage of all the benefits of digital transformation, it’s imperative that your security controls don’t get outpaced.  

To learn more about securing your cloud, contact an Arraya expert today to start a conversation.  

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.     

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1 – World of Solutions entance

Cisco Live! is Cisco System’s annual conference where customers, partners, prospects, technology innovators, and members of the C-Suite gather for education, networking, and inspiration. The five-day event offers live booths showcasing new technologies from Cisco and partners, breakout sessions on every aspect of networking from some of the companies’ brightest minds, certification testing, lab environments, developer areas, and much more. Arraya Solutions once again attended this year to network with existing customers, prospect new technologies, and keep up to date on current IT trends.

I’m Kyle Dillon, Practice Manager – Networking with Arraya Solutions. In this blog I intend to take you through the full Cisco Live! experience, including everything from booking to the conference itself.

Event Information/Pricing

Cisco Live! ran this year from June 12 – June 16, 2022. The event resumed its normal in-person attendance this year in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center. The conference comes with different package options you can purchase, catering to different IT folks. The conference also offers discounted rates at the Mandalay Bay, should you choose to stay there (if you value your feet, you will). It is imperative that you register for everything early. As soon as registration opens, things book incredibly fast.

Full Conference passes are self-explanatory, granting you access to everything except IT Leadership sessions. IT Leadership is a newer option to purchase that provides enablement for anyone in a management position in the IT workspace. Leadership talks, meetings with high level executives, and inspirational stories come with that side. I chose the full conference option, as my role at Arraya requires a blend of technical expertise to continue to deliver quality solutions to our customers.

The explorer pass is likely only useful if you live within proximity to Las Vegas and have extra cash to burn. The explorer pass gets you access to the World of Solutions and major events, but no breakout sessions or exams. A nice benefit of the Full or IT Leadership packages is the free pass to take any exam at the event, subject to availability. However, CCIE Labs do book quick here, but I believe you can take them if you enjoy a bit of stress with your conference.

2 – Cisco Live Pass Pricing

Breakout Sessions

One of the nice things about Cisco Live! Is the ability to get access to Cisco’s technical teams that create the products customers and partners like Arraya must implement and troubleshoot daily. Most of the breakout sessions are about 45 minutes to an hour depending on what you select. I attended a plethora of them this time around. I tried to absorb as many best practices as I could across the many different focuses Arraya Solutions offers under the Hybrid Infrastructure line of business (Routing, Switching, Wireless, Security, and Collaboration).  

I recommend registering for the breakouts you’re interested in as soon as Cisco announces the availability. These sessions fill up fast, so you need to register quickly.

Here’s a high-level overview of the schedule I chose:

3 – Breakout session schedule

Some of the sessions were great, some involved content I was already familiar with, and some weren’t my favorite. Even if a breakout session doesn’t provide you much value, the speaker generally gives you 5-10 minutes after their presentation to chat with them. As there isn’t usually much of a line, I encourage you to come to the event loaded with questions to bombard them with. You’ve certainly paid for it.

My favorite session was BRKOPS-2259 Cisco Full Stack Observability – Solving Problems End-to-End, with Dave Zacks and Nagendra Kumar Nainar. Dave and Nagendra clearly articulated Cisco’s approach to FSO, something that I believe will be a key development for most major IT vendors in the next few years. Cisco harped on FSO at the partner summit earlier this year as well. Look for a follow up post about FSO from Arraya highlighting the key concepts of the solution in the next coming weeks.

World of Solutions

4 – World of Solutions entrance

The World of Solutions is the trade floor of the conference. Located on the first floor of the convention center, it is the centerpiece to the event. Multiple vendors, partners, and divisions of Cisco, all show up with their own sections and booths to showcase new technologies, products, arenas for labs, theaters for lightning sessions, and much more.

This is the best part of the event, for sure. I walked through it many times, but wanted to point out some of the highlights that I enjoyed:

5 – World of Solutions show floor

I stopped by the certification area to get my CCIE ribbon to attach to my pass and a free cable bag with the logo on it:

6 – Cisco cable bag

Cisco has gone full drive-in programmability with their products in the past seven years. The DevNet Zone is a Cisco hosted area encouraging programming and automation focuses on the networking industry. You can stop in this area and get free courses with Cisco-provided gear, intro classes, and more on programming.

7 – DevNet Zone

The technical solutions clinic is a must stop for anyone that is hands on with networking equipment. The TS clinic is a section of the event where Cisco brings their best technical assistance center (TAC) engineers. With a full conference pass, you can come to this area with ANY questions you have on any of Cisco’s products, and they will assign a TAC engineer to work on solving the issue with you right there. No case creation, no escalations, no conference calls to be scheduled. You walk right up and get help immediately. So come with many questions!

8 – Where TAC cannot hide

I stopped by the Panduit booth, a vendor that deals in Racks, UPS’, and Fiber deployment technology to look at their portfolio. They had new LC-LC fiber cables that you could change the polarity on and pop out of a little sheathe without tiny little plastic pieces that hurt your fingers. Their cassette style fiber deployments were also really nice.

9 – Panduit fiber racks

The NOC was a cool spot to visit. The entire event’s network and wireless is powered and secured by Cisco products (of course). So naturally, Cisco goes all out on design, capabilities, and showmanship, putting most of the gear in a glass case and featuring some cool technical stats, charts, and diagrams. They used a bloc design for the event for anyone who is reading this and studying CCDEs. ?

10 – full mesh, bandwidth has no price

They also had a number of TVs devoted to the wireless statistics. Cisco hosted their own WiFi environment, showcasing a controller-based deployment with around 17,000 active clients. An engineer showed me the client migration spikes between controllers on Twitter. For example, there was a huge spike in controller associations when everyone left the show floor to attend a keynote in the Michelob Ultra Arena.

11 – DCS probably pulling its digital hair out trying to adjust channel plans here

The World of Solutions is a must see, for anyone interested in networking topologies. This is the mecca to travel to and see the latest and greatest developments in the field. There were many more booths, each with their own pros and cons, and I highly encourage anyone that goes to the event to explore and try their best to see them all.

Keynotes

Another big piece of the event is the executive leadership keynotes, held in the Michelob Ultra Arena. Here Chuck Robbins (CEO of Cisco Systems) and other VPs talk about the headliners of the event.

12 – Keynote

Some of the big takeaways of this year:

  • Cisco Catalyst Integration with Meraki Cloud
  • Nexus Cloud Dashboard
  • Thousandeyes WAN Insights
  • Full Stack Observability
  • Continuous Trusted Access
  • Cloud Delivered Firepower Management Center (Finally)

Chuck Robbins also met with Ford Motors CEO, Jim Farley, and discussed a bit of what they wanted to see in the next few years in terms of automobile development. Farley made a very bold prediction that fully autonomous vehicles would be available from Ford in 4-5 years. The focus was on increasing productivity by turning your car drive into work into time you could be spent collaborating since you’re hands free. Will it happen? Who knows, but it’s bold, that’s for sure.

13 – Ford CEO and Chuck Robbins talk via WebEx

Next Steps: Tips & Insights to Plan Your Visit

Cisco Live! Is a must visit for any aspiring network engineer. There’s so much value in all its offerings. You walk away with a fresh, more forward-looking perspective on the industry every time. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide on what you feel works and doesn’t work for your business, but this is the forum to do it in. This was my third year attending and before I end this article, I’d like to offer a couple very important tips and insights, if and when you decide to attend:

  • Wear very comfortable shoes. You will be walking a lot.
  • Register early, book your hotel early, and book your sessions early because all of it fills up fast.
  • Come with questions for your areas of interest. There will be plenty of people to answer them.
  • Don’t spend the whole event in breakout sessions, take only the ones that you are interested in. The WoS is a much better experience.
  • The Cisco Store has a booth where you can buy clothes/merchandise at a reasonable discount and it’s worth looking at.
  • Take a certification exam here if you’re ready. It’s free, so why not?
  • Don’t be afraid to network with other conference goers. It never hurts to have more friends in the industry.

To learn more about our partnership with Cisco, contact an Arraya expert today!

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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Data compliance continues to challenge businesses of all sizes and across all industries. With more data real estate than ever, it’s becoming more difficult to govern our data.

At Arraya, we’re continuing our focus on compliance and Microsoft Purview. This is Microsoft’s comprehensive set of solutions that help businesses govern, protect, and manage their entire data estate to stay in compliance with ever-changing regulations.

With Microsoft Purview Information Protection (formerly known as Azure Information Protection or AIP), businesses can control their data wherever it lives or travels. Here, we outline how to easily discover, classify, and protect sensitive information using this solution.

Know Your Data

Each business has an individual level of risk, depending on the amount and type of data they gather. This can vary widely between different industries and types of businesses. Without understanding what data you’re collecting; your business can’t adequately protect it.

Here’s how you can get started in discovering your data:

  1. Define your sensitive data: Your business must first determine what data is most vital to your organization and requires extra protection. This can be done manually, with automated pattern recognition, or by machine learning. Sensitive information types (SIT) are available pre-configured, or you can define your own.
  2. Discover and classify your sensitive data: Marking your sensitive data allows your business to control where it goes within your organization and beyond. This can be done through sensitivity labels, retention labels, and sensitive information type classifications.
  3. View your sensitive items: Get an overall view of your business’s sensitive data with the content explorer to monitor how this information is being used, by who, and where it’s going.

Protect Your Data

Based on the rising frequency of cyber attacks, specifically ransomware, your business shouldn’t wait to bolster your data protections. Once your sensitive data is appropriately labeled, your business should act immediately in protecting that data.

Here’s how you can get started in protecting your data:

  1. Define your policies and sensitivity labels: A sensitivity label is like a stamp. It will be customizable, stored in clear text within the metadata, and will roam with the content no matter where it’s moved or stored. You can configure specific label settings to publish those labels as you’ve designated.
  2. Apply labels using Microsoft 365 apps and services: Sensitivity labels can be applied through manual labeling, automatic labeling, default labeling, or mandatory labeling. These can be applied within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and within containers such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 groups.
  3. Discover, label, and protect sensitive data in the cloud: Using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, users can access improved visibility and control of data travel and analytics and identify and combat cyber threats across Microsoft and third-party cloud services.
  4. Discover, label, and protect sensitive data on premises: The Azure Information Protection unified labeling scanner provides your business with the ability discover, classify, and protect files on UNC paths for network shares that use the SMB or NFS protocols and SharePoint document libraries and folders.  
  5. Extend your sensitivity labels to Azure: The Microsoft Purview Data Map is a cloud native PaaS service that captures metadata about enterprise data present in analytics and operation systems on-premises and in the cloud.

Prevent Data Loss

The practice of data loss prevention (DLP) protects sensitive data by prohibiting users from inappropriately sharing that information with people who shouldn’t have it. With a DLP policy in place, your business can identify, monitor, and protect your sensitive information.

As many industries face increased threats, here’s how you can prevent data loss:

  1. Plan your DLP implementation: Every company or organization will require an individual data loss prevention plan as every business has a unique level of risk and must adhere to different regulations, depending on their industry.
  2. Design and create a DLP policy: Putting extra thought into the design of your DLP policy before you implement it will help you achieve more desirable results in the end. Your policy should clearly define your business needs and then map those needs to policy configuration.
  3. Fine tune your DLP policies: Once your DLP policy has been deployed, some fine tuning may be needed to ensure your policy is as effective as possible.

Next Steps: Focus on Your Security & Compliance

As businesses gather more data than ever, appropriately managing it has become too complex for many organizations to keep up with. When we add today’s volatile cyber landscape to the mix, along with the growing data protection regulations that businesses face, data governance must be a priority.

Take control of your business’s security, compliance, and overall data governance. To learn more about Purview Information Protection or Microsoft Purview overall, contact an Arraya expert today.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.    

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As businesses are gathering more data than ever, their digital footprint is growing. It’s becoming more challenging to manage, organize, protect, and utilize the growing volume of data we collect. With new updates to data protection regulations every day, it’s difficult to track which regulations will affect your business and how to ensure you’re in compliance.

Microsoft is simplifying the data governance process with Microsoft Purview. This is a set of solutions that provides your business with the ability to govern, protect, and manage your entire data estate from one, single dashboard.

In this blog, we’ll focus on Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager, which is a feature within the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager

Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is a dashboard page with Microsoft Purview that provides your current compliance score so you can see where you stand, what needs attention, and how to address those items with guided improvement actions.

Here is an example of a Compliance Manager dashboard:

Compliance Manager simplifies the data governance process with:

  • Pre-built assessments for common industry and regional standards and regulations or custom assessments for those with more unique compliance needs
  • A single tool for completing your risk assessments more efficiently
  • Guidance on suggested improvement actions to help you stay in compliance with the relevant standards and regulations for your individual organization
  • A compliance score that helps you measure your current posture

This compliance score helps your business understand what needs attention and how to address those areas that need improvement.

Understanding Your Compliance Score

Initially, you’re given a score based on your Microsoft 365 data protection baseline, which is a set of controls that includes key regulations and standards for data protection and general data governance. This is drawn from NIST CSF, ISO, FedRAMP, and GDPR.

Your overall compliance score will be determined by regulation, standard, or policy improvement actions items that have been completed. Depending on the risk involved, each action item will have a different impact on your compliance score. This will help your business prioritize which action items are the most critical and will improve your position overall.

A score value is assigned at three levels:

  1. Improvement action score: Each improvement action has a different impact on your compliance score, depending on the level of risk involved
  • Control score: This is the sum of points earned by completing improvement actions and your implementation status equals “implemented” or “alternative implemented” and any tests have been passed
  • Assessment score: This is the sum of your control scores and is calculated using action scores

Compliance Manager will automatically update your dashboard and compliance score within 24 hours of a change being made (such as completing an improvement action).

There are three types of improvement actions, some of which are mandatory, and others will be discretionary:

  • Preventative actions: These address specific risks to prevent attacks and breaches
  • Detective actions: These monitor your systems to identify irregular conditions or behavior that may signal intrusions or breaches
  • Corrective actions: These actions reduce the immediate effects of a security incident

These improvement actions provide recommended guidance to help you consistently align with the changing data protection regulations and standards.

Microsoft Purview Data Map

The Microsoft Purview Data Map provides the foundation for data discovery and data governance. There are two components to the Microsoft Purview Data Map: metadata storage and operation throughput.

Operations are the throughput measure of the Microsoft Purview Data Map, including Create, Read, Write, Update, and Delete on metadata stored within the Data Map.

Storage includes the following types of metadata:

  • Technical Metadata: Schema, data type, columns, etc.
  • Business Metadata: Automated and manual tagging of descriptions, glossary terms, etc.
  • Operational Metadata: Data factory copy and data flow activity run status, and runs time
  • Semantic Metadata: Collection mapping to data sources or classifications

All Microsoft Purview accounts start with one capacity unit and elastically grow based on usage.

Next Steps: Take Control of Your Data Governance and Compliance  

Staying compliant with the constant rotation of data regulations can be an enormous challenge for businesses of every size and industry. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager provides your business with the ability to manage your compliance requirements in a simpler and more streamlined manner.

Understanding your compliance score, you can take advantage of this broad view of your data governance and act quickly to make any necessary improvements.

If your business could benefit from a more efficient approach to data governance and compliance, contact your Arraya expert to learn more about Microsoft Purview.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.

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Even prior to the pandemic, the IT industry faced a labor shortage as technology took on a greater role within nearly every industry and business. Since March 2020, this reliance on technology has reached unprecedented levels and, when coupled with rising cyber threats, the demand for IT talent has never been higher.

Once the “Great Resignation” was added to this combination, the job market tightened significantly as 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021. There are no signs that this trend is slowing and it’s estimated that 4.4 million Americans left their roles in February 2022 alone, bringing the total number of current job vacancies to more than eleven million. This tight job market has created a challenge for businesses looking to maintain and expand their IT teams and infrastructure.

CompTIA’s Tech Job Report for April 2022 outlines that the demand for tech occupation job postings have gone sky high with more than twenty thousand new roles posted from March 2022 to April 2022 (the majority of which are for Software Developer/Engineer roles).

As the pandemic progresses, the future of the workforce and the workplace will continue to shift, which can make it difficult for businesses to resource plan when they don’t know what next year or even next month will look like.

Amid all these complications, the ball must keep rolling. Here’s how your business can manage your IT workload throughout ongoing staffing changes and challenges.    

How to Manage Your IT Workload Amid Vacant Positions

As employers scramble to fill empty roles, they’re facing burned out employees, increased employee demands, limited skillsets, and supply chain shortages. These issues can have significant consequences, including an impact on the quality of service or product that’s being provided, an increased time to market, and more.

Here’s what your organization should consider doing to address these challenges:

Think Through Your Recruiting Strategy

While many employees focus on the specific role they’re interviewing for, in addition to company culture and benefits, the application and interview process will also have a major impact on their decision-making.

It’s important to be realistic in your recruiting strategy. Since most employers are facing stiff competition, an unnecessarily drawn-out interview and onboarding process can quickly lose candidates to another company who is faster. Your process should be quick, streamlined, and any necessary decision-makers should be ready to get an offer out within a matter of days, not weeks.

Leverage a Contingent Workforce Through a Trusted Partner

Bringing on contractors whenever necessary through a trusted partner is one of the quickest ways to support both operational and project initiatives. Recruiting outside skillsets can engage your team with an individual who has knowledge of a specific product, methodology, practice, or more for a specific project or on a broader, ongoing basis.

In addition, contractors can provide immediate relief to existing internal staff and ensure that all mission-critical business operations run uninterrupted while vacant roles are in the process of being filled.  

Engage a Managed Services Partner

Engaging a managed services partner is an excellent way to ensure your environment has the resources and support it needs without draining your team and budget. By allocating these responsibilities to a trusted partner, your organization can better focus on crucial business objectives. 

Whether your business requires enterprise managed services, which oversees the full breadth of your IT environment, or more specific, individual service offerings, a managed service partner should tailor their services to meet your individual needs and adapt to any necessary changes.  

Next Steps: IT Resources On Demand

If your business is facing changing staffing needs, Arraya’s staffing solutions can provide support for your IT environment so your business can best focus all efforts on what matters most.

Consider these two contingent staffing offers:

  • Contract Staff

Bringing on contract staff is best for supporting operational or project initiatives that require rapid turnaround times. Contract staff can be hired to fill vacancies for several reasons, such as business change, attrition, maternity or paternity leave, disability, and more.

As these contracts are non-committal, your business can assess the candidate on an ongoing basis and accommodate staffing changes, whether you’re scaling up or down.

  • Contract to Hire

For those businesses looking to fill a role fast without the lead time of bringing on a full-time employee, a contract to hire solution is another option. A contract to hire employee’s capabilities and performance can still be assessed on an ongoing basis and if desired, they can be hired full-time at no charge after six months.

This allows businesses the opportunity to fill openings faster and make an instant impact on their existing employees’ workload but aim for an end goal of staffing full-time roles.

Balancing the rapidly changing technical demands of today’s businesses with the right staff to handle those needs is challenging. Whether you need assistance in infrastructure engineering and support, security and compliance, or applications and software, our staffing team can put together a leading solution tailored to your business.

With the right people in place at the right time, your business will maintain a competitive edge within your industry. Contact an Arraya expert today to start a conversation.

Visit https://www.arrayasolutions.com//contact-us/ to connect with our team now.    

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Throughout the last few years, many businesses have seen a massive increase in their digital footprint. Businesses have never gathered more data and our growing attack surfaces have led to an inherent risk of cyber attacks. In addition, we’re now operating across multiple clouds and on-premises platforms.  

As our relationship with technology expands, the cyber risk landscape heats up, and compliance regulations tighten. There are many moving parts in constant flux. Managing our growing data estates has never been more challenging. 

Microsoft is now simplifying the challenge of data governance with Microsoft Purview. By combining what was formerly known as Azure Purview and Microsoft 365 Compliance, this comprehensive set of solutions helps your business govern, protect, and manage your entire data estate whether on-premises, in the multi-cloud, or in software-as-a-service (SaaS).  

Microsoft Purview offers one, single dashboard with many capabilities, including:  

  • Data Classification 

Due to the sheer volume of data being collected every day, manually classifying all your data can seem impossible. With Microsoft Purview, users can take advantage of automated data discovery, lineage identification, and data classification.  

Further, Microsoft Purview establishes the foundation for effective data governance with the Microsoft Purview Data Map. This allows users to automate and manage metadata from hybrid sources, classify data using built-in classifiers and MIP sensitivity labels, and easily integrate all your data systems using Apache Atlas APIs.  

  • Data Insights 

Many businesses aren’t taking advantage of their data and utilizing it in decision making. Data that is collected and then simply stored is often referred to as “dark data.” This is a wasted opportunity.  

Microsoft Purview makes data more easily discoverable. With an enterprise-grade business glossary, you can easily discover data using familiar business or technical search terms. In addition, you can provide your data scientists, engineers, and analysts with the data they need for BI, analytics, AI, and machine learning.  

Further, Purview’s single pane of glass view provides specific data insights for data source administrators, business users, data stewards, data officers, and security administrators. 

  • Data Security 

The more data your business collects and stores the higher your risk will be, especially when working with sensitive data. As cyber attacks, particularly ransomware, continue to grow in frequency and severity, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to secure their data.  

As Microsoft Purview is built on Azure, users are protected by Azure’s comprehensive built in security and data compliance features. In addition, Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevent (DLP) helps organizations detect and prevent data exfiltration during cyber attacks. As some malicious parties will use renaming tools to evade detection when completing file transfer utilities, DLP can still identify the execution of these tools, even when renamed.  

  • Data Compliance  

Compliance requirements are constantly changing and there are over 250 regulatory updates each day. As it’s anticipated that these will only become more stringent in the future, it’s hard to monitor how each daily update affects your business.  

With Compliance Manager, users are notified of specific regulations that will impact their business and continuous assessments provide real-time alerts of anything that needs to be addressed. An overall compliance score helps your business quickly check your current posture and act where needed.  

Next Steps: Take Advantage of Purview’s Free 90-Day Trial for Microsoft Customers  

As technology advances and holds a larger role in nearly every industry, it’s only going to get more difficult to manage our data. It’s time to take advantage of a more streamlined, comprehensive approach that gives your business the opportunity to control this growing challenge.   

In short, with Microsoft Purview your business can know your data, protect your data, prevent data loss, and govern your data.  

Microsoft customers can take advantage of a free, 90-day trial of Microsoft Purview and check out all features of the Microsoft E5 license package. To sign up for the free trial, users must hold either a billing, compliance, or a global administrator role. Admins can then disable the free trial at any time.  

To learn more about data governance and Microsoft Purview, contact an Arraya expert today.  

Visit Contact Us – Arraya SolutionsArraya Solutions to connect with our team now.   

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