Author: Josh Achtemeier

New Virtual Intelligence Briefing Research Study Reveals Surprising Results and Emerging Trends in Virtual Private Network Usage

New Report Discloses VPN Pain Points and Highlights Urgent Need For Viable Alternatives to Address Security, DR, Configuration Complexity, and Cost Concerns

FORT COLLINS, CO – April 18, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced the release of a comprehensive research study regarding virtual private network (VPN) adoption rates and trends, the results of which are detailed in a report titled, “Virtual Private Networks (VPN) Report, 2022.”

The research, sponsored by DH2i and conducted by Virtual Intelligence Briefing (ViB), compared pre-pandemic VPN use to that of 2022. As anticipated, survey respondents (85%) indicated that the primary purpose of VPNs was to facilitate the ability for individual users (i.e., employees, partners, etc.) to link with an organization’s internal private network. However, what was surprising was the 2022 research also revealed a minuscule 2.4% increase in this metric in comparison to 2020.

“During 2020, the world experienced an unprecedented surge in the number of people working from home, a trend that has continued for many to present day. It would have therefore been reasonable to expect the VPN usage number to have climbed to closer to 100% in the most recent research,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder, DH2i. “The fact that it didn’t was unexpected and suggests that VPN remote user deployments may have reached a maximum saturation point.”

The survey suggested that a primary driver for this trend was the pain now associated with VPNs. Prior to 2020, VPN usage was relatively low and therefore manageable. After the dramatic increase in remote VPN users came a commensurate increase in VPN-related pain – particularly around security. Other grievances included disaster recovery (DR) limitations, slow connection speeds, bandwidth constraints, configuration and overall management complexity, and cost.

As a result, respondents indicated that they have implemented or are planning to implement more viable VPN alternatives. Many reported that they are increasingly looking towards a software-defined perimeter (SDP) as a solution for their remote user, multi-site/multi-cloud, and IoT connectivity requirements. According to the report, since 2020, 18% of the respondents have implemented SDP, and an additional 39% are considering evaluating and deploying an SDP in the coming six to twelve months.

“As technology continues to evolve, traditional perimeter security methods like VPNs are struggling to keep up with the increasingly heterogeneous computing landscape. The basic castle moat functionality of VPNs, while useful in the past, is no longer sufficient to protect organizations in today’s complex digital environment,” concluded Boxley. “SDP’s Zero Trust network access tunnels offer application-level segmentation and invisibility to untrusted access, eliminating the risk of lateral network attacks that are common with VPNs and reducing the need for complicated firewall policies. This makes SDP the safer choice for organizations looking to move operations across different clouds and secure IoT devices.”

Other interesting takeaways from the research include:

  • Cisco remains the leading VPN brand with 53% of respondents currently using it, but its market share has decreased by 15% while its competitors, particularly F5, have shown growth in their market share.
  • The 2022 report shows a 10% decrease in VPN usage for site-to-site connectivity, while there was almost a 10% increase in VPN usage to connect to cloud-based services from an on-site location, suggesting a pandemic-related trend of accelerated use of cloud-based infrastructure.
  • The use of microservices/containers increased by 42%, indicating that the future of application development and deployment will revolve around container technology, while the multi-cloud use case remained unchanged at 15%.

To read “Virtual Private Networks (VPN) Report, 2022” in its entirety, please visit: https://dh2i.com/vpn-report/.

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected].

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©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected]

 

DH2i DxEnterprise Software Receives 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award

New Container Sidecar Capability Enables Highly Resilient Zero-Downtime HA Clusters That Span Kubernetes (K8s) Pods, Accelerating Digital Transformation and IoT Solutions Development and Roll-Out

FORT COLLINS, CO – April 3, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced that its DxEnterprise v22 smart high availability clustering software, has received a 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award from IoT Evolution World, a leading magazine and Website covering IoT technologies.

DH2i’s DxEnterprise (DxE) smart high availability (HA) clustering software provides an all-in-one solution for maximizing performance, minimizing downtime, and ensuring peak security for mission-critical applications on SQL Server instances and containers across Windows and Linux. With its container sidecar capability introduced in version 22 (v22), the DxE sidecar can run alongside an application container in a Kubernetes (K8s) pod, delivering deployment benefits such as isolation, quick deployment, and increased scalability. The DxE sidecar also provides smart HA clustering services for application containers, enabling highly resilient zero-downtime HA clusters that span K8s pods, accelerating an enterprise’s digital transformation, IoT solutions development, and roll-out. 

“Moreover, with DxEnterprise support for containers, you can harness the power of creating distributed Kubernetes AG clusters across different availability zones/regions, resulting in dynamic hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments that have the ability to pivot and quickly respond to market changes,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder of DH2i. “This means that your organization can seize new revenue opportunities and stay ahead of the competition, as well as improve operational efficiency while delivering exceptional products and services to customers at a lower cost.”

Boxley concluded, “Winning a 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award is a significant achievement of which we are understandably proud. Ias it is a clear indication that DxEnterprise v22 is recognized by industry experts and peers as a trusted top-tier solution for Industrial IoT applications.”

“The solutions selected for the Industrial IoT Product of Year Awards represent the diverse range of innovation driving the multi-billion dollar IoT market today. It is my honor to congratulate DH2i for their innovative work and superior contribution to the rapidly evolving IoT industry,” said Moe Nagle, Senior Editor for IoT Evolution World.

“It is my pleasure to recognize DxEnterprise, an innovative solution that earned DH2i the 2023 Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “I look forward to seeing more innovation from DH2i in the future.”

Tweet this: @DH2i DxEnterprise Software Receives 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award https://dh2i.com/blog/ #Microsoft #SQLServer #HA #containers #IoT #DigitalTransformation 

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected]. 

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©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected] 

Containerize and Conquer: Achieve Your SQL Server Modernization Dreams

Containerization in production. The technology of our dreams, promising to unlock unparalleled agility. Today, containers have become even more than that. They have evolved into a vital tool for IT pros to modernize their SQL Server environments. Gartner predicts that 90% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production by 2026, so this technology is well on its way to establishing itself as the new industry precedent.

Unsurprisingly, modernizing your SQL Server environment(s) with containers is accompanied by an initial expense. However, SQL Server containers unlock powerful benefits that ultimately enable your organization to reduce overall costs, enhance performance and agility, and push total downtime to zero.

Reduce Overall Costs

Inherently, containers are lightweight, agile, and flexible. Organizations can use them to help deploy business-critical workloads more swiftly and consistently across any mix of physical, virtual, and cloud servers. This “consistency” is the critical factor that helps organizations reduce overall costs. Containers help unify differing orchestration tools and management systems to increase time to market for applications, and significantly reduce the recurring management expense. They can allow you to create the perfect pay-as-you-go multi-cloud or hybrid environment to maximize cost-efficiency. And because multiple containers can be run on any given server, big savings can be achieved through consolidation of your SQL Server environment as well.

Bridge Your Organization to Easy Cloud Adoption

The allure of the cloud is clear for organizations. Unparalleled agility and the ability to easily scale your organization’s environment to match operational needs. Containerizing your SQL Server can absolutely enhance application portability within your existing cloud deployments, or help pave the way to a new hybrid or multi-cloud infrastructure for your company. Containers ensure that applications run consistently, regardless of the infrastructure they are hosted on.

Achieve a Virtually Zero Downtime SQL Server

Containerizing your organization’s SQL Server environment—the home of some of your most valuable data assets—has obviously not always been straightforward. Downtime mitigation is a significant concern, and appropriately so. Relying on pod-level high availability alone is a grossly inadequate level of protection for many global organizations whose cost-of-downtime can reach 7-figure sums every hour.

DH2i’s DxEnterprise (DxE) can completely resolve this concern as the only clustering solution on the market capable of facilitating fully automatic database-level failover of SQL Server Availability Groups in Kubernetes. This capability unlocks failover automation at the database level and ultimately shrinks failover windows from minutes to seconds for containerized SQL Server.

SQL Server Modernization is Easier Than Ever with Containers

Aging infrastructure in the context of SQL Server can be a dangerous vulnerability and a slippery slope the longer you ignore it. Leveraging the power of containers to modernize is the easiest path to the future for any organization though. While the initial cost can be a hurdle, the integration of production containers in your environment ensures an eventual and significant reduction in management and infrastructure costs your organization faces. It also enables a scalable and optimized existence for your SQL Server assets in the cloud. Most importantly however, containerizing your SQL Server environment unlocks absolute minimum downtime, but only if you are leveraging appropriate HA clustering technology.

If you’re curious about learning more about how DH2i’s DxEnterprise unlocks a containerized SQL Server ecosystem with virtually zero downtime, reach out and schedule a personalized demo with our team.

Out with VPN, in with SDP – The Future Demands It

The Virtual Private Network (VPN). What a marvelously impenetrable fortress of IT security brilliance! VPNs were virtually—pun intended—uncrackable at the time of their creation in… 1996. Yes, you read that year right. VPN technology is in its late 20s, and unfortunately, its best days are undoubtedly behind it.

Though the tide had already turned in favor of newer approaches, COVID-19 was a significant breaking point for VPN technologies. The pandemic demanded a massive shift to remote work for countless organizations around the world. Unfortunately, this shift also represented a proverbial gold mine to hackers, and 44% of organizations surveyed by the 2022 Cybersecurity Insiders VPN Risk Report said they observed a tangible increase in exploits targeting their VPNs.

So, why is the thought of thousands of organizations leveraging VPN technology a mouth-watering prospect to cybercriminals, and why have many organizations already phased (or are working on it) this technology out? To start, you have to think about the world that VPN was conceptualized and created within. VPN technology was never designed to protect organizations existing in the hybrid and multi-cloud world we know today, and it certainly was not designed to support the infinitely expanding Internet of Things. Thereby, the continued use of VPNs in these complex, heterogeneous environments has culminated in some acute vulnerabilities to network security and uptime.

Every Single VPN Connection is a Key to the Network

Perhaps the single most critical vulnerability of VPN is how network access is regulated (or the lack thereof) for its users. Any single VPN connection represents access to a full slice of an organization’s network. In other words, a single entry point can be exploited to the tune of limitless lateral attack surface.

Physical Infrastructure is An Expense and Point of Failure

Hardware VPNs require a physical processor to support VPN tunnel creation, and as the need for additional VPN tunnels grows, so does the hardware footprint. Setting up and configuring this physical infrastructure is a complex and costly process to begin with. Not to mention, these physical appliances also must be diligently maintained, because ultimately, they represent a potential point of failure within any IT environment. This leads to VPN appliances being accompanied by significant recurring expense in order to remain reliable.

VPN Security Can Be at the Mercy of Password Strength

Best practices for password security have certainly evolved over the years. There are mandated bi-annual or quarterly updates, prohibited repeating of passwords, and growing minimum character limits. However, many organizations don’t have the resources to enforce policies like this, and humans are, well… Human. Convenience often outweighs optimal security for those who haven’t experienced a data breach personally, and in the context of VPN, one set of compromised credentials can unlock an entire network to bad actors.

External AND Internal Bad Actors

When people consider the cybersecurity threats facing today’s corporations, it’s natural to think about external bad actors hacking into your network for the first time and compromising your organization’s data immediately. However, there are thousands of recorded instances where bad actors have quietly and covertly breached a network perimeter, and then remained dormant for an amount of time before actually executing an attack.

SDP: The Answer to VPN Vulnerabilities

Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) and Zero Trust technology is where the information technology industry must continue heading to have the best chance of defending against today’s cyber threats. Not only do these solutions avoid the significant expense and vulnerability accompanied by physical VPN appliances, they also include critical functionality such as the following.

Application-Level Access – SDP solutions regulate access much more granularly—limiting user access to specific authorized applications. This is a huge distinction from the excessive permissions and full slice-of-the-network access enabled by VPN. If a user were to be compromised, this capability eliminates lateral attack vectors and isolates the adverse effects of a breach to the authorized application(s).

Cloud-Ready – Software-defined perimeter technology was purpose-built for today’s heterogeneous multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments. It gives you the power to interconnect disparate infrastructure safely with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) connections.

Trust Nothing, Verify Everything – This has become the mantra of Zero Trust Security, and a call-to-action that software-defined perimeter technology delivers on. Whether internal or external to the network, users are asked to complete continuous verification and authorization throughout their interactions with a network.

With more VPNs being exploited every day, the future of information technology security is relying on organizations to get proactive when securing their network perimeter. VPN technology is over 25 years old, and a changing of the guard to SDP technology is critical to protect organizations in our hybrid and multi-cloud world.

DH2i’s Take on Software-Defined Perimeter

 DH2i’s DxOdyssey SDP software integrates all the standard functionality of other Zero Trust solutions in the industry, but it also contains some powerful differentiations such as:

  • No “middleman” data path intrusions (we never see your data ourselves)
  • Up to a 40% increase in network throughput with patented hybrid TCP/UDP technology
  • Ensuring uninterrupted access with highly available tunnel groups

Let us know if you’d like to check out a free personalized demo.

Jamie Hawkins of DH2i Honored as a 2023 CRN Channel Chief

Recognized for Dedication, Innovative Strategies, and Programs That Have Driven Partner Success 

FORT COLLINS, CO – February 6, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has recognized Jamie Hawkins, Director of Marketing, on its 2023 Channel Chiefs list. Every year, this list honors the IT channel executives who work tirelessly to advance the channel agenda and deliver successful channel partner programs and strategies.

The 2023 CRN Channel Chiefs were selected by the editorial staff based on their record of business innovation and dedication to the partner community. This year’s list represents the top IT executives responsible for building a robust channel ecosystem. 

Hawkins and her esteemed colleagues on this year’s 2023 Channel Chiefs list were recognized for having helped their solution provider partners and end customers navigate an increasingly complex landscape of interconnected challenges and shifting industry dynamics. With their innovative strategies, programs, and partnerships in place, the solution provider community has continued to thrive.

“Once again, this year’s list gives well-deserved recognition to the IT Channel Chiefs who are dedicated to driving the channel agenda and advocating for the development of strong channel partnerships,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “Under their exceptional leadership, influence, and innovation, the IT channel vendor community continues to deliver solutions and services that meet the rapidly evolving needs of their solution provider partners and their customers.”

“I am honored to have been recognized by one of the most well-known and respected voices in the industry – CRN,” said Hawkins. “I believe it is a reflection on my unfailing dedication to the success of DH2i’s channel partners and my fervent belief that the channel isn’t a flick-the-switch solution. In order to build and maintain a mutually beneficial and profitable relationship with channel partners it is critical that you are prepared to invest a great deal of time, effort, and budget. Partnering can be hard work. But, a successful channel program can result in enormous dividends for your business and theirs.”

The 2023 CRN Channel Chiefs list will be featured in the February 2023 issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/ChannelChiefs. 

Tweet this: Jamie Hawkins of @DH2i Honored as a 2023 CRN Channel Chief https://dh2i.com/category/news/ @TheChannelCo @CRN #CRNChannelChiefs

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected]. 

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©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 

CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected]

DH2i Awarded 2022 TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence Award

DxOdyssey Honored for Enabling Users to Create Direct Connect Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) with Application-Level Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) Tunnels 

DxOdyssey Eliminates VPN Vulnerabilities

FORT COLLINS, CO – January 31, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has named DxOdyssey as a 2022 TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence winner presented by TMCnet. 

The TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence Award recognizes the leaders and pioneers in the industry with the best and the brightest providers, offering the most innovative, effective solutions. DxOdyssey (DxO) software was honored for its ability to enable its users to create a direct connect Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) with application-level Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) tunnels. With DxOdyssey users don’t need to trust an outside vendor with their data because DxOdyssey is never “in the middle” of the data stream. DxOdyssey gives servers, storage, applications, IoT devices and users direct access to the data endpoints they need — no more, no less. Deploying DxO:

  • Eliminates lateral network attacks
  • Improves data transfer rates up to 3x faster
  • Gives users total control over their data stream

“We are delighted to have been recognized by the esteemed TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence Award judges panel,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder, DH2i. “We believe it is a reflection on DxOdyssey’s unique and highly critical ability to enable its users to build ZTNA tunnels that securely connect on-premises sites and/or hybrid and multi-cloud environments. In doing so, servers, IoT devices, applications and users can be connected without VPNs for superior network security. In addition, with DxOdyssey users can leverage ZTNA tunneling for scalable multi-site, hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deployments, as well as build application-level access control for workloads such as RDP and SSH connections.” 

“It gives me great pleasure to honor the recipients of the TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “The award recognizes solutions providers championing the ‘Trust nothing, verify everything’ mantra of a Zero Trust approach to security at a time when businesses are facing more complex and frequent threats than ever. The TMCnet Team is thoroughly impressed and congratulates the recipients.”

Ready to Push Downtime and Security Holes to Zero? Ready to eliminate VPN vulnerabilities? Try DxOdyssey for free here: https://dh2i.com/trial/ 

Tweet this: @DH2i Awarded 2022 TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence Award https://dh2i.com/category/news/ #ZeroTrust #Data #Security #VPN #SDP

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected].

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 ©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected]