LEAP: The last Dutch masterclasses

In December, the last LEAP masterclass was held in The Netherlands. See my previous articles here and here. Masterclasses 4 and 5 were about Security and "The Knowledge Worker".

Security 

The masterclass about security had a huge amount of preparation documentation, mainly because security has so many aspects. It was not feasible to read it all, but I have kept it as a reference.

Security according to Microsoft started with a memo from Bill Gates, called "Trustworthy Computing". In 2002 it was the start to improve the security of the Microsoft products, and to change the way new applications and systems would be developed. In 2007, this memo was followed by a new one, called "Enabling Secure Anywhere Access in a Connected World". In this memo, the results since 2002 were discussed, and new strategies were set for the forthcoming years.

The .Net framework has improved the way programmers deal with security, because the framework hides much of the security complexity from the programmers.

Security for services in a SOA environment is also a wide topic. The WS-* standards are complex and there are many ways to implement security using these standards.

Security on the infrastructure level is based on 4 pillars:

  • Identity and access management
  • Desktop, device and server management
  • Security in networking
  • Data protection and recovery

A layered security policy is used to protect the data. The edge of a Microsoft infrastructure can be protected using ISA server or IAG. The network can be protected using IPSec and logical zoning. Identity and access management make sure only authorized people get access to data and applications. For Microsoft, Active Directory is a large supplier of security services.

The Knowledge Worker

This masterclass was a bit less technical than the previous ones. It was about how information workers do their daily tasks and how this could be improved. It discussed the following subjects:

  • Unified communications and collaboration (how to combine email, instant messaging, work phones, cell phones and other information streams to one unified messaging system).
  • Enterprise Content Management (how and where to store knowledge and documents)
  • Business Intelligence (how to create dashboards for management to easlily view Key Performance Indicators)
  • Enterprise search (how to find relevant knowledge and documents back)
  • Enterprise 2.0 (how to use Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise)

The main goal is to improve the effectiveness of knowledge workers using technology, just like it happened to factory workers 50 years ago.

Dik Bijl wrote a book about the subject (in Dutch), which we got after the masterclass, and which I found very useful.

Redmond

Next stop will be Redmond, USA. Between 20 and 25 January we will attend 3 days of masterclasses and workshops from Microsoft architects. They will share their vision of the future with the 200 LEAP trainees from Holland and Ireland.

Stay tuned for a article about this trip. The agenda looks good, and so does the hotel.


This entry was posted on Tuesday 15 January 2008

Earlier articles

Quantum computing

Security at cloud providers not getting better because of government regulation

The cloud is as insecure as its configuration

Infrastructure as code

DevOps for infrastructure

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

(Hyper) Converged Infrastructure

Object storage

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

What's the point of using Docker containers?

Identity and Access Management

Using user profiles to determine infrastructure load

Public wireless networks

Supercomputer architecture

Desktop virtualization

Stakeholder management

x86 platform architecture

Midrange systems architecture

Mainframe Architecture

Software Defined Data Center - SDDC

The Virtualization Model

What are concurrent users?

Performance and availability monitoring in levels

UX/UI has no business rules

Technical debt: a time related issue

Solution shaping workshops

Architecture life cycle

Project managers and architects

Using ArchiMate for describing infrastructures

Kruchten’s 4+1 views for solution architecture

The SEI stack of solution architecture frameworks

TOGAF and infrastructure architecture

The Zachman framework

An introduction to architecture frameworks

How to handle a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack

Architecture Principles

Views and viewpoints explained

Stakeholders and their concerns

Skills of a solution architect architect

Solution architects versus enterprise architects

Definition of IT Architecture

What is Big Data?

How to make your IT "Greener"

What is Cloud computing and IaaS?

Purchasing of IT infrastructure technologies and services

IDS/IPS systems

IP Protocol (IPv4) classes and subnets

Infrastructure Architecture - Course materials

Introduction to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Fire prevention in the datacenter

Where to build your datacenter

Availability - Fall-back, hot site, warm site

Reliabilty of infrastructure components

Human factors in availability of systems

Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

Performance - Design for use

Performance concepts - Load balancing

Performance concepts - Scaling

Performance concept - Caching

Perceived performance

Ethical hacking

The first computers

Open group ITAC /Open CA Certification


Recommended links

Ruth Malan
Gaudi site
Esther Barthel's site on virtualization
Eltjo Poort's site on architecture


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The postings on this site are my opinions and do not necessarily represent CGI’s strategies, views or opinions.

 

Copyright Sjaak Laan