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sandy ingram

SurveyHigh storage costs, long backup windows, litigation risk and inefficient eDiscove... - 0 views

  • Enterprises are retaining far too much information. Seventy-five percent of backup storage consists of infinite retention or legal hold backup sets. Respondents also stated that 25 percent of the data they back up is not needed for business or should not be kept in a backup.
  • Enterprises are misusing backup, recovery and archiving practices. Seventy percent of enterprises use their backup software to implement legal holds and 25 percent preserve the entire backup set indefinitely. Respondents said 45 percent of backup storage comes from legal holds alone
  • Differences in how IT and legal respondents cited top issues for lack of an information retention plan Forty-one percent of IT administrators don’t see a need for a plan, 30 percent said no one is chartered with that responsibility, and 29 percent cited cost.
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  • Storage costs are skyrocketing as over retention has created an environment where it is now 1,500 times more expensive to review data than it is to store it,
  • Backup is not an archive, and it is not recommended to use backup for archiving and legal holds
  • Enterprises should also develop and enforce information retention policies (what can and cannot be deleted, and when) automatically. Automated, policy-driven deletion creates less risk than ad-hoc, manual deletion.
  • Paper policies that are not executed can be a litigation risk.
  • Enterprises should deploy data loss prevention technologies to measurably reduce their risk of data breaches, demonstrate regulatory compliance and safeguard their customers, brand and intellectual property.
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    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - August 4, 2010 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today released the findings of its 2010 Information Management Health Check Survey, which highlights that a majority of enterprises are not following their own advice when it comes to information management. Eighty-seven percent of respondents believe in the value of a formal information retention plan, but only 46 percent actually have one. Survey results also found that too many enterprises save information indefinitely instead of implementing policies that allow them to confidently delete unimportant data or records, and therefore suffer from rampant storage growth, unsustainable backup windows, increased litigation risk and expensive and inefficient discovery processes.
sandy ingram

Most Large Enterprises Already Active in Cloud Computing: Survey - Cloud Computing - Ne... - 0 views

  • The results indicate that "there are more cloud implementations within the enterprise than people were aware of," Jay Fry, vice president of marketing for the cloud computing division at CA Technologies, told eWEEK. The report indicates that IT administrators are starting to get some visibility on what the various groups within the organization are working on, he said. As more people begin to discuss the cloud within the enterprise, the visibility will continue to improve, said Fry.
  • In the past, there were "rogue deployments" that the company’s IT staff didn’t even know about, because the individual line of business was purchasing software-as-a-service offerings without involving IT.
  • Collaboration tools such as hosted e-mail, antivirus and spam filtering and Web conferencing software accounted for a bulk of cloud deployments, at 75 percent, according to the report
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  • The primary incentive for initially going to the cloud is to trim costs, he said. While that result was expected, the report found that IT staff considered other benefits, such as agility and adaptability as soon as six months after deployment, said Fry.
  • Many large organizations are already active in cloud computing in some form and are planning more deployments, according to a CA Technologies study.
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    "More than 80 percent of surveyed enterprises and 92 percent of the largest enterprises, have at least one cloud service, the report found. Additionally, more than half, or 52 percent, of organizations using the cloud claimed to have more than six cloud services."
sandy ingram

17 Steps to Cloud Migration -- Federal Computer Week - 0 views

  • “The trick is to determine which services, information, and processes are good candidates to reside in the Clouds, as well as which Cloud services should be abstracted within the existing or emerging SOA,” Linthicum said.
  • Do Your Homework Linthicum says to start with your Architecture and make sure you understand your organization’s business drivers, information already under management, existing services under management and your core business processes.
  • In that way you can begin to look where Cloud Computing is a fit according to Linthicum. You can look to migrate to the Cloud when:*The processes, applications, and data are largely independent.*The points of integration are well defined.*A lower level of security will work just fine. *The core internal enterprise architecture is healthy.*The Web is the desired platform.*Cost is an issue.*The applications are new.
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  • not all computing resources should exist in the Clouds and that Cloud is not always cost effective. It shows you need to do your homework before making any move. So, Cloud may not be a fit when the opposite conditions exist:*The processes, applications, and data are largely coupled.*The points of integration are not well defined.*A high level of security is required. *The core internal enterprise architecture needs work.*The application requires a native interface.*The cost is an issue.*The application is legacy.
  • external Cloud services should function like any other enterprise application or infrastructure resource and Cloud resources should appear native.
  • It goes without saying that as with any purchase, you should evaluate Cloud providers using similar validation patterns as you do with new and existing Data Center resources. You know there is going to be hype, but Cloud is not rocket science. If you feel you need to, hire a consultant as a trusted advisor.
  • CSC’s Yogesh Khanna told Summit attendees to embrace the business models that Clouds offer. Security barriers are all addressable not only through technology but also through policies. 
  • Be wary of the fact that there are a lot of Clouds out there. Some of the Public Clouds (e.g. Google’s or SalesForce.com) are proprietary in nature. Because this landscape is changing so fast, it is very important to maintain a level of flexibility and don’t fall prey to “vendor lock-in”.
  • “Look for some level of transparency that allows you to be certain exactly where your data is and who is seeing it,” said Khanna. “Have the flexibility to see where your data is at any given point and be able to monitor the health of the Cloud that’s delivering those services to you.”
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    What the government IT manager needs when getting ready to embark on their migration to the Cloud is a good template; one that defines a proven roadmap to follow.What Cloud Computing Summit attendees learned (and now you) is that help is on the way. Cloud and SOA expert Dave Linthicum has developed a step-by-step plan to help you scale the heights. He goes through them meticulously in his new book Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence In Your Enterprise: A Step-by-Step Guide. At the Summit, Linthicum outlined the plan. Afterwards he told 1105 Custom Media you can consider Cloud Computing the extension of SOA out to Cloud-delivered resources, such as storage-as-a-service, data-as-a-service, and platform-as-a-service.
sandy ingram

20% of Businesses Will Get Rid of All IT Assets As They Move to Cloud, Gartner Predicts - 0 views

  • But it's not just cloud computing that is driving a movement toward "decreased IT hardware assets," in Gartner's words. Virtualization and employees running personal desktops and laptops on corporate networks are also reducing the need for company-owned hardware.
  • Gartner's prediction was part of a release Wednesday that highlights nine key predictions that will affect IT organizations and users this year and beyond.
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    The shift toward cloud services hosted outside the enterprise's firewall will necessitate a major shift in the IT hardware markets, and shrink IT staff, Gartner said. "The need for computing hardware, either in a data center or on an employee's desk, will not go away," Gartner said. "However, if the ownership of hardware shifts to third parties, then there will be major shifts throughout every facet of the IT hardware industry. For example, enterprise IT budgets will either be shrunk or reallocated to more-strategic projects; enterprise IT staff will either be reduced or reskilled to meet new requirements, and/or hardware distribution will have to change radically to meet the requirements of the new IT hardware buying points."
sandy ingram

Organisations fail to meet security awareness and compliance training best practices - ... - 0 views

  • “If this assessment demonstrates anything, it's that IT and security departments have got to gain greater visibility over all of their security and compliance activities and take steps to better understand and manage them.”
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    A survey of high-risk organisations has found that more than three quarters fail to perform quarterly security and compliance training. According to a survey by enterprise key and certificate management solutions provider Venafi and IT security research provider Echelon One, 77 per cent of respondents failed to perform quarterly security and compliance training while 64 per cent failed to encrypt all of its data in the cloud. However 90 per cent did use encryption throughout the organisation. The survey of 420 enterprises and government agencies also found that almost 100 per cent of respondents had some degree of unquantified or unmanaged risk. When asked if their organisations encrypted data stored in public clouds such as Google Apps, Salesforce.com and Dropbox, 40 per cent said they did not know.
sandy ingram

REPORT: show lack of executive oversight in data protection. - 0 views

  • survey also said that cybersecurity issues need to be seen as an enterprise risk management problem rather than an IT issue.
  • "Managing cyber risk is not just a technical challenge, but it is a managerial and strategic business challenge,"
  • senior management has not budgeted for key positions requiring expertise in cybersecurity or privacy areas. "No wonder the number of security breaches has doubled in the past year
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    survey also said that cybersecurity issues need to be seen as an enterprise risk management problem rather than an IT issue.
sandy ingram

Why IT Is Moving to the Cloud - 0 views

  • While concerns about security, identity, SLAs, and other topics are still on the minds of many IT pros, those concerns are gradually being addressed by cloud providers
  • While cloud computing may not be a complete solution for every enterprise—nobody is talking about ditching internal data centers yet, and probably never will—a number of pressing factors are driving the growth of cloud computing. I’ll cover some of the biggest drivers towards cloud computing adoption here.
  • Improved IT Agility As recently as a few years ago, it took far too long for many IT departments to respond to increasing demand for computing capacity.
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  • Cost Savings and ROI Cloud computing isn’t a panacea, but there are clear-cut cases where moving part of your IT infrastructure to the cloud makes solid operational and financial sense.
  • Private Cloud vs. Public Cloud
  • Cloud-Savvy IT Staff
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    "70 percent of IT decision makers are using or plan to use cloud computing in their own enterprises within 24 months."
sandy ingram

Infosecurity (USA) - Passwords becoming risky form of enterprise authentication - 0 views

  • “The fact that passwords remain the cornerstone of enterprise authentication represents a significant and increasing risk. The vulnerability of password-based authentication is widely recognized: From the earliest phishing attacks to the most sophisticated spyware, passwords still represent one of the most common methods hackers target and use to access corporate systems and sensitive data”, the study observed.The way to reduce the costs of lost passwords and the increased vulnerability of similar user passwords is through the use of strong multi-factor authentication, explained Chatterjee. For example, two-factor authentication involves the use of something the user remembers, such as a password, and something the user has, like a token.
  • This approach increases security because a hacker needs both to gain access to a system or account; figuring out the password is not enough. It also reduces the need for users to have multiple, complex passwords. The system's two factors provide the complexity from a security point of view, he explained. Chatterjee used the example of a bank ATM card, which requires the use of the card along with the password for the user to gain access to his or her account.
  • With the two-factor authentication, users do not need to have complex passwords that change frequently. This reduces the burden on the employees as well as on the help desk, he noted.
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    "30% to 50% of help desk calls relate to forgotten passwords"
sandy ingram

The Future of Enterprise 2.0 Technologies - ReadWriteWeb - 0 views

  • Forrester predicts that social networking tools and internal wikis "will have the greatest impact on workplace collaboration"
sandy ingram

Mobile malware, "whaling" top challenges of 2011, says IBM report - SC Magazine US - 0 views

  • To address these new challenges, the report said, enterprises need to shape their risk exposure, communication, end-user education and technology in a delicate balance.
  • One of the newest vectors of attack – the so-called “bring your own device” approach – has sprung up from the burgeoning market for smartphones and tablets and their adaption into the enterprise network, the report said. Security issues seen on the mobile platform are rising with the market – with double the number of mobile exploit releases that were seen in 2010.
  • Third-party app markets, a Wild West of often unregulated offerings, are the primary bazaar for malicious software created to attack mobile phones.
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  • Infected mobile applications can also come from peer-to-peer networks hosted on websites
  • This year's breaches have highlighted the emerging risk of “whaling,” a variant of spear phishing that targets "big fish,” or high-level personnel
  • Of further concern for IT security professionals is the rise of professional teams charged with collecting intellectual property and strategic intelligence, the report found.
  • In addition, so-called hacktivist groups, such as LulzSec and Anonymous, have used well-worn attack techniques, such as SQL injection, to successfully target websites and computer networks for political ends rather than financial gain.
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    An unprecedented number of successful attacks on corporate networks in the first half of the year illustrates that "basic network security is not just a technical problem, but rather a complex business challenge,"
sandy ingram

Governance 101: Best practices for creating and managing team sites - SharePoint Online... - 0 views

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    If you're a team site owner, it's a good idea to create a governance model to address your site's policies, processes, roles, and responsibilities.
sandy ingram

Extending Your Enterprise Risk Management Program #grc #smb - 0 views

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    In today's economic climate, many organizations outsource parts of their business to take advantage of cost savings and solution-expertise. However, as vendor relationships increase, it becomes more difficult to manage them. The risks assumed by outsourcing can be significant without a vendor management program. According to the Ponemon Institute Study - 2009 Security Mega Trends, an average of 50.5% of organizations who outsourced sensitive and confidential data to third parties experienced a security incident or data breach as a result of outsourcing. In this 1-hour live webcast, Michael Rasmussen, President at Corporate Integrity, will share his insights on the importance of vendor management, as well as his recommendations of best practices for defining and executing an effective strategy. Chris Noell, EVP of Product management of TruArx, will then provide a brief overview of how GRC tools such as TruComply can automate key vendor management activities and enable these best practices. In this session, you will learn about: *The importance of vendor management and how it applies to your business *Best practices for defining and executing an effective vendor management strategy *How you can quickly and cost-effectively establish a mature vendor management program
sandy ingram

Survey Finds Gap in Attitudes Between the Cloud "Haves" and "Have-Nots" - ReadWriteCloud - 0 views

  • This post is part of our ReadWriteCloud channel, which is dedicated to covering virtualization and cloud computing. The channel is sponsored by Intel and VMware.
  • London-based communications SaaS provider Mimecast has announced the results of its second annual Cloud Adoption Survey. The survey, conducted by independent research firm Loudhouse, assessed the attitudes of IT decision-makers in the U.S. and UK about cloud computing
  • The majority of organizations now use some cloud-based services. The report found 51% are now using at least one cloud-based application. Adoption rates for U.S. businesses are slightly ahead of the UK with 56% of respondents using at least one cloud-based application, compared to 50% in the UK
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  • Two thirds of businesses are considering adopting cloud computing. 66% of businesses say they are considering adopting cloud-based services in the future, with once again, U.S. businesses leaning more towards adoption than their UK peers (70% of U.S. businesses, and 50% of UK ones).
  • Email, security, and storage are the most popular cloud services. 62% of the organizations that use cloud computing are using a cloud-based email application. Email services are most popular with mid-size businesses (250-1000 employees) with 70% of organizations this size using the cloud for email. Smaller businesses (under 250 employees) are most likely to use the cloud for security services, and larger enterprises (over 1000 employees) most likely to opt for cloud storage services.
  • Existing cloud users are satisfied. Security is not considered to be an issue by existing cloud users: 57% say that moving data to the cloud has resulted in better security, with 58% saying it has given them better control of their data. 73% say it has reduced the cost of their IT infrastructure and 74% believe the cloud has alleviated the internal resource pressures.
  • Security fears are still a barrier. 62% of respondents believe that storing data on servers outside of the business is a significant security risk. Interestingly, this number was higher for users of cloud applications than it was for non-users (only 59% of non-users thought it was risky, while 67% of users did.)
  • Some think the benefits of the cloud may be overstated.54% of respondents said the potential benefits of the cloud are overstated by the IT industry, and 58% indicated they believed that replacing legacy IT solutions will almost always cost more than the benefits of new IT.
  • "The research shows that there is a clear divide within the IT industry on the issue of cloud computing," says Mimecast CEO and co-founder Peter Bauer. "While those organisations that have embraced cloud services are clearly reaping the rewards, there are still a number who are put off by the 'cloud myths' around data security and the cost of replacing legacy IT
  • It is now up to cloud vendors to educate businesses and end users to ensure that these concerns do not overshadow the huge potential cost, security and performance benefits that cloud computing can bring."
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    Existing cloud users are satisfied. Security is not considered to be an issue
sandy ingram

Three Things That Every CEO Should Know About Cyber Security Spending - The Firewall - ... - 0 views

  • ONE: If your enterprise isn’t in energy, defense, or finance, it’s not a high priority target so don’t spend money like it is.
  • TWO: If you do lead a company in one of those 3 sectors, there’s nothing on the market today that will stop an adversary from stealing your most valuable data. The best that you can hope for is to raise the cost to an adversary to mount a successful attack against you, which means he’ll target a less well-protected company instead. This is known as the You-Don’t-Have-To-Outrun-The-Bear School of Security.
  • THREE: Your IT department’s job is not to protect you. It’s to protect the enterprise’s network. That makes you and your C-level colleagues the “10 ring” of the target.
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  • Most C-level executives are inundated with far more material then they could ever read, so this post will be short and to the point. If you’re a CEO, CIO, or other C-level executive, here are three things that you need to know to avoid over-spending on cyber security:
  • I’m giving a free webinar at 10am (Pacific time) this morning for UBS and their clients on the evolving state of cyber warfare in general and risks to C-level executives in particular. In addition to surveying the threats, I’ll offer some advice on how executives can defend themselves. Here’s the information you’ll need to join the call: Participant Toll-free: 800-768-5109 Toll: 212-231-2909 Code: 21488152
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    "Most C-level executives are inundated with far more material then they could ever read, so this post will be short and to the point. If you're a CEO, CIO, or other C-level executive, here are three things that you need to know to avoid over-spending on cyber security:"
sandy ingram

The Cloud's Green Advantage - Forbes.com - 0 views

  • When small organizations (100 users) move to the cloud, the effective carbon footprint reduction could be up to a 90% savings by using a shared cloud environment instead of their own local servers
  • For large corporations, the savings are typically 30% or more. In a case study with a large consumer-goods company, the team calculated that 32% of energy use and resulting carbon emissions could be saved by moving 50,000 e-mail users in North America and Europe to Microsoft's equivalent cloud offering.
  • What accounts for these significant energy savings? Think of cloud computing as being like mass transit. The data center is essentially getting computing applications to carpool or take the bus instead of sitting in their own individual servers. However, unlike mass transit, there is no sacrifice in convenience or performance with this move. Consider the disappointing fact that a typical server in a company often runs at about 10% of capacity, meaning there are lots of servers out there drawing power without doing much computing
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  • The economies of scale of cloud data centers allow much higher utilization of servers, dynamic provisioning to better match server capacity to demand, and multi-tenancy to serve thousands of organizations with one set of shared infrastructure.
  • The efficiency benefits of the cloud won't be realized unless customers are thoughtful about decommissioning or repurposing unused servers, and cloud providers like Microsoft continue to innovate in the name of greater and greater efficiency.
  • For companies with their own large-scale infrastructure, this study identifies the key drivers that will let them optimize for the greatest efficiency as well.
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    "In his piece, "Cloud Computing Meets Energy Management," William Clifford makes important points about the need to optimize the efficiency of both cloud data centers and on-premise computing. However, a new study released this week challenges his assertion that cloud computing "just transfers the consumption problem to another location." The findings suggest instead that cloud computing can significantly reduce the overall net energy use of business computing needs."
sandy ingram

Malicious insider attacks to rise: "This is one of the most significant threats compani... - 0 views

  • Microsoft said so-called "malicious insider" breaches are on the rise and will worsen in the present downturn.
  • "This is one of the most significant threats companies face,"
  • "The malicious insider is classed as the greatest security concern because they have access, and relatively easy access, to corporate assets," said Mr Leland.
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  • The problem is not just a serious one for business.
  • "The national security and economic health of the United States depend on the security, stability and integrity of our nation's cyberspace, both in the public and private sectors,"
  • A report last week by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and data-protection research group, found that 88% of data breaches were caused by simple negligence on the part of staff.
  • While insider attacks are lower in number, Mr Rowney said they can be more devastating because the employee knows where "the crown jewels" are kept
  • Verizon indicates these protections are a critical form of risk management that no enterprise can no longer afford to ignore.
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    "This is one of the most significant threats companies face,"
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    People to Google: Doug Leland, Microsoft John Brennan, the President's top adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security. Kevin Rowney, Symantec, founder of the firm's Data Loss Prevention Unit
sandy ingram

Data Security Breaches Cost Real Money - 0 views

  • PGP Corporation, an enterprise data protection company, and the Poneman Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, as part of their fifth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study, tracked a wide array of cost elements
  • These elements included outlays for detection, escalation, notification, and response along with legal, investigative and administrative expenses, customer defections, opportunity loss, reputation management, and costs related to customer support like information hotlines and credit monitoring subscriptions
  • data breaches caused by malicious attacks and botnets were on the high end of severity and cost responses. These types of breaches doubled from 2008 to 2009.
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  • data breaches involving data outsourced to third-parties, especially those offshore, remain very costly.
  • The study shows that companies are spending more on legal defense costs in the area of data security breaches
  • Furthermore, companies that have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or equivalent high-level security/privacy leader in place who manages data security breach incidents experienced a 50% less per cost of compromised record than companies that do not have such leadership.
  • Somewhat surprisingly, the study indicates that companies that notify victims of data breaches too quickly may incur about 12% higher response costs. The study suggests that moving too quickly through the data breach process could cause inefficiencies that raise total costs
  • companies that engage outside expertise to assist them during a data breach incident tended to have a lower $170 cost per victim than companies that do not seek outside help at $231 per victim.
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    study shows that companies are spending more on legal defense costs in the area of data security breaches. This has been attributed to fears of potential class actions, and other lawsuits resulting from consumer and employee data loss. In fact, companies that engage outside expertise to assist them during a data breach incident tended to have a lower $170 cost per victim than companies that do not seek outside help at $231 per victim.
sandy ingram

Microsoft Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Team Blog : EDiscovery in SharePoint Serv... - 0 views

  • In this post, I want to highlight three major improvements in SharePoint that support eDiscovery. You can: Manage holds and conduct eDiscovery searches on any site collection Use SharePoint Server Search or FAST Search for SharePoint out of box to search and process content Automatically copy eDiscovery search results to a separate repository for further analysis
  • SharePoint Sever 2010 addresses the Information Management, Identification, Preservation and Collection stages
  • Hold and eDiscovery is a site level feature that can be activated on any site.
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  • Activating this feature creates a new category in Site Settings that provides links to Holds and Hold Reports lists
  • With the Hold and eDiscovery feature you can create holds in the hold list and then manually add content to the relevant hold by clicking on Compliance Details from the drop down menu for individual items.
  • What if you have a large amount of items you want to find and add to a hold? For that you can use the features on the Discover and hold content page, which is a settings page in Site Settings. From this page you can specify a search query and then preview the results. The configured search service (SharePoint Search Server or FAST Search for SharePoint) will automatically be used. You can then select the option to keep items on hold in place so they cannot be edited or deleted, or if you have configured a Content Organizer Send to location in Central Administration you can have content copied to another site and placed on hold
  • When searching and processing, the search will by default be scoped to the entire Site Collection and run with elevated permissions so all content can be discovered
  • In summary, SharePoint Server 2010 contains key features that make it an essential aspect of your eDiscovery strategy. With the new SharePoint Server 2010 capabilities you can easily apply proper retention policies for all content and make it easier to discover content if an eDiscovery event occurs. eDiscovery often prescribes tight deadlines for production. SharePoint 2010 helps you find the right content and deliver it faster.
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    i everyone, I am Quentin Christensen and I work on document and records management functionality for SharePoint. Electronic discovery (commonly referred to as eDiscovery) is an area we are supporting with new set of capabilities in SharePoint Server 2010. In case you are not familiar with eDiscovery, it is the process of finding, preserving, analyzing and producing content in electronic formats as required by litigation or investigations. eDiscovery is an important concern for all of our customers and given that SharePoint has grown to be an integral part of collaboration, document, and records management for many organizations, we recognize the need to support the eDiscovery process for SharePoint content. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 included a hold feature that could be used for eDiscovery, but it was scoped to the Records Center site template. With SharePoint Server 2010 the eDiscovery capabilities have been greatly expanded to provide more functionality and the power to use these features across your entire SharePoint deployment. In this post, I want to highlight three major improvements in SharePoint that support eDiscovery. You can: Manage holds and conduct eDiscovery searches on any site collection Use SharePoint Server Search or FAST Search for SharePoint out of box to search and process content Automatically copy eDiscovery search results to a separate repository for further analysis
sandy ingram

The Fed 2011 Agenda: Rush to the Cloud ! - 0 views

  • The new 25-point plan establishes a Data Center Consolidation Task Force with a goal of reducing the number of data centers by 800 as of 2015.
  • The plan also touts scalability as a reason for embracing the cloud over traditional solutions. It cited the example of a private-sector company doing video editing that experienced a surge of demand and was able, using the cloud, to scale from 50 to 4,000 virtual machines in three days.
  • There's an expectation that moving applications such as e-mail to the cloud will facilitate data center consolidation and reduce IT budgets. Some federal agencies have already awarded contracts to move e-mail to the cloud. In addition, the government has selected a dozen vendors to supply Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas).
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  • Google and Microsoft want the government’s cloud business and they’ve undertaken a PR campaign including announcements of high-profile contract awards. The General Services Administration (GSA) recently awarded Unisys and Google a contract to host e-mail in the cloud. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) selected Dell to supply Microsoft Online Services for the migration of 120,000 users and 21 e-mail systems to the cloud.
  • Microsoft was the winner of a Department of the Interior contract for moving e-mail to the cloud, a selection that Google protested. Google and its reseller, Onix Networking Corp, have filed suit against the Department of the Interior to overturn that selection.
  • Both Google Apps for Government and BPOS have been certified as being compliant with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Being given FISMA Authority to Operate (ATO) is a certification the cloud infrastructure is a secure, trusted environment for government applications and databases they use.
  • The federal contracts for hosting e-mail in the cloud are not the first Big Government embrace of hosted e-mail. Microsoft reportedly has several hundred state and local agencies using its cloud services. New York City recently announced it will adopt Microsoft BPOS for 30,000 city users.
  • The State of California awarded a contract to Microsoft and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) for the migration of 130 of e-mail systems to Microsoft BPOS.
  • The State of Minnesota Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) announced an agreement with Microsoft to migrate Exchange e-mail and other communications services to BPOS in a private cloud.
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    "In December 2010, the government's CIO, Vivek Kundra, released a 25-point plan for an overhaul of Federal IT that emphasizes a cloud-first policy for federal agencies. Currently the federal government is on pace to spend $79 billion on IT this year, with more than 20% going to infrastructure spending. Because the US government has spent $600 billion on IT over the past decade, the plan's intent is to reduce IT spending by the federal government."
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