A New Kind of Firewall

I had heard of Palo Alto Networks several years ago but didn't tweak to the message. (It was founded in 2005 by security visionary Nir Zuk.) Today I was introduced more formally to the company's line of enterprise network firewall devices and I must say, I am impressed!

I'm no firewall expert but, from what I gather, these folks offer a completely new, highly appropriate, and much needed way to secure networks based upon the ability to uniquely identify the various types of traffic transiting the firewall with almost no latency and at up to 10 Gbps.

That's news!

What's more, the management interface -- as my lovely wife and partner Patricia Blythe pointed out -- looks and acts much like a fully-featured call management system from a large telecommunications network -- Avaya CMS, for instance -- because it offers such an extensive compliment of browser-based control and reporting features.

It's THAT fully-featured. And THAT familiar.

So, if you haven't already done so, Palo Alto deserves a closer look.

I must note, though, that I did find reason to question Palo Alto's commitment to Canadian customers.

The firm's Cincinnati-based Central Area Manager, Tony McIlvenna, gave one of the best presentations I've seen. Very informative. Very straight forward. He seemed ultimately comfortable with and confident in the products.

But I noticed that, while the title slide announced him as "Manager, Central Area and Canada", the "and Canada" part is noticeably absent from his business card.

Not so bad, I guess. Just a little slip up. One would think that having such a large and sovereign territory to the North as part of your bailiwick would be considered worth crowing about? Perhaps not.

But when, upon mentioning it as an example of a demanding Internet application, Mr. McIlvenna failed to realise that Hulu's HD movie programming is not available in Canada, I began to wonder just how familiar the company's area manager is with his territory in the great grey area to the North?

But don't get me wrong. My reserve is not about Tony. He did a bang-up job. My doubt stems simply from personal intuition. A sense of foreboding that has developed over years of exposure to U.S.-based firms that spin themselves as 'international players' but fail to deliver. Kind of like the sense of foreboding that can develop from a simple whiff of smoke.

So, while I left quite impressed by the gear, I find myself wondering about customer service and technical support? Is the Canadian market simply an afterthought? A place to dump a few more boxes and go home? Or will the company walk-the-walk as much as it talks-the-talk?

If anyone knows. Do tell.

... A Thousand Words.

'N' News

Two rather interesting wireless developments are in the news today:

First, after 7 full years of development, the IEEE announced Friday that the 802.11n wireless standard has finally been fully approved. (Reuters Press Release.)

Better know as "WiFi-n," and the progeny of WiFi a,b and the current wide-spread standard WiFi-g, the significance of this is two fold:

First, WiFi users will have access to much higher bandwidth wireless connections (300 Mb/s plus, compared to WiFi-g's 54 Mb/s but touted as a ten-fold improvement). Great news for enterprise, home and public WLANs currently labouring under the ever-escalating demand for bandwith to service today's multimedia applications.

Wireless routers and access points touting WiFi-n Draft compatibility have been available for years. Most, if not all, of these will reportedly be upgradable to the official standard with a simple firmware update.

Read the CNET report - "802.11n Wi-Fi standard finally approved."

Second, hard on the heals of the WiFi-n announcement, CNET reports the newest version of Apple's iPod Touch PDA, announced Sept 10, carries a Broadcom BCM4329 chip

capable of supporting WiFi-n, leading to suggestion that the high-end Touches will provide n access sooner rather than later.

(Photo: iFixit)

Sign of the Times Two!

Looking back at the "Sign of the Times" post below, it turns out we have more than enough great examples right here at home. These two shots are from Toronto's Kensingnton Market. Notice both cable and telephone practice the general technique. Should be illegal.

Photo's: Pat Cameron

Climate dialogue

Let's connect to climate issues for a moment. This short 'Letter to the Editor' of Britain's New Scientist Magazine deserves a read. It is a very thoughtful and rarely heard view that, in my opinion, brings new urgency to the debate.

"I heartily support Bjørn Lomborg's appeal for "a more reasoned, more constructive" dialogue on global warming, which you quoted in Viewfinder (27 June, p 25). A search for the phrase "save the planet" on New Scientist's website turns up over 100 articles. While many may use it ironically, such an evocative phrase is surely not helpful given the prevailing level of ignorance. As far as I can tell, global warming is no danger to the planet, which can do very well without polar bears, us or even a biosphere.

So tackling global warming is not about saving the planet, nor about saving life on Earth. It's not even about saving mammals as a class, or humans as a species. Surely all we can confidently say is that a lot of species are endangered, biodiversity is declining, and that there will be major upheavals even if we do take steps to reduce emissions.

The debate is really about preserving our way of life. In the worst case we will be trying to save enough civilisation not to have to start again from the Stone Age."

Harriet Coleman, Nice, France

New Scientist Magazine - 22 August 2009 (issue 2722)

LINK: (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327224.800-climate-dialogue.html)

Sign of The Times

There was a day when Bell installers took time and care. Times have changed. Now I see rat's nests in switch rooms, hyper-messy cable runs and loose, interior cable, running willy-nilly all over the exteriors of people's houses. This photo from India provides a glimpse of what may well be in our future.

Thanks to J. David Windrim for this one. (I have no idea who took the shot.)

The Management Myth

"The thing that makes modern management theory so painful to read isn’t usually the dearth of reliable empirical data. It’s that maddening papal infallibility."

Written from front-row experience, this timely and refreshing article from Atlantic magazine provides a down-to-Earth, witty, and somewhat unconventional view of today's management-by-numbers style and the MBA arena in general.

Much to think about.

Take-home pointers from the article:

- Expand the domain of your analysis,

- Hire people with greater diversity of experience,

- Remember the three Cs: Communication, Communication, Communication.

Thanks to Douglas Reid, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Distinguished Faculty Teaching Fellow at the Queen’s University School of Business, Kingston for pointing out this article.

Atlantic Magazine - The Management Myth

All About Mobile Apps

Oh! And one more from the ITU!

(Why not let's just call it 'an ITU Weekend?)

Anyway. You may have noticed how quickly mobile terminals (smartphones) are moving into the enterprise/business user space. This is primarily due to the recent ability to actually make your 'cell phone' very useful by loading small applications that help you get things done. Once you've tried it, guaranteed, you'll be hooked -- assuming you're not already.

Anyway. This brief does a great job of laying out what an 'APP Store' is, why people use them and what's coming down the tubes in the near future.

Mobile Applications Brief

The Future of the Internet

Here's another great brief from the ITU. A current view of ongoing I-way development, including an update of wireless on the Web and a once-over of an increasingly popular movement to reinvent the Internet from clean slate.

'The Future of the Internet'

Clouds, Grids and Utilities.

This very clear. concise, interesting and useful report from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) provides a great overview of current network trends:

'Distributed Computing: Utilities, Grids & Clouds'