Software Defined Perimeter: Why it Should Be on Your School Supplies List

Long gone are the good ol’ days of IT security—the days when you were a savvy individual as long as you weren’t using “password” as your password. The world is just a tad more complicated now, and unfortunately the nature of cybersecurity threats has evolved just as quickly as the technology itself. Obviously, cybersecurity awareness continues to be critical, but organizations have a growing responsibility to utilize the tools and innovative approaches available to them to create the most secure IT environment.

Here in the United States, it’s that time of year when millions of students are starting anew, or returning back to their colleges and universities to begin another academic year. Sustaining this massive influx of user activity means having your IT infrastructure as dialed-in as possible by the time the end of summer rolls around. This makes August an especially stressful time in this industry.

The lingering and permanent effects of a global pandemic have not done education-based IT professionals any favors either. Fully-remote and hybrid learning models that colleges and universities were pushed to in order to survive the pandemic have culminated in a higher volume of network vulnerabilities than ever before. Resultantly, higher-education institutions have become some of the most prevalently targeted organizations by cyber attacks in recent years. Attackers seek financial gain, intellectual property, and personal information.

This Dashlane Blog touches on several such horror stories from just the last couple years. We’re talking catastrophic effects like a college that has been around since the 19th century being shut down completely—due in large part to an unrecoverable ransomware attack. Another university ended up being forced to do exactly what the FBI advocates against, and pay $1.14 million to appease its attackers in order to recover critical academic data.

What are the most common types of cyber attacks on the education industry?

Phishing Attacks

  • Hacker pretends to be a reputable organization (e.g. College or university)
  • Users are asked through an email or other source to verify their personal details/login credentials
  • Victims may be linked to a fake (but undistinguishable from the real page) landing page to dupe them into entering sensitive information

Ransomware/Malware Attacks

  • Often gain access to system through initial phishing campaign
  • Brute force bot-driven attacks can be leveraged as well to guess credentials
  • Hackers take control of internal systems and applications to make them inoperable
  • Demand ransom payments in return for control back of your IT environment/data

What are some tools and best-practices that organizations can leverage to lower the risk of a security breach?

It goes without saying, cybersecurity awareness education is critical when dealing with a user-base of college-aged young adults (and anyone else), but there are some additional tools and best practices that IT teams can utilize to help set users up for success and cultivate a safety-conscious cyber culture.

Mandated Password Changes – Proactively prompt network users for mandatory password updates quarterly, or at whatever cadence your organization sees fit. Any effort to reduce the stagnation of login credentials can contribute to increased security.

Keep Software Up-to-Date – It’s important to only download software from trusted sources, but also to keep it up-to-date. This doesn’t just include antivirus software either. Operating system and browser updates can make UI changes and bug fixes, but they also positively benefit your device from a security standpoint.

Back Up Data – Regular data backups can help immensely with the disaster recovery process if your system does get compromised by an attack, because oftentimes the best recovery solution ends up being an environment-wide shut down/uninstall.

Centralized Password Manager – There are many password manager applications available that keep track of all your personal logins and allow you to autofill into trusted websites. Letting apps like this do the memorization work for you means you can max out the character count and complexity of your passwords for optimal security. One example of an implementation in an education environment is the University of California, Berkeley offering a free LastPass Premium account to all faculty, staff, and students.

2-factor Authentication (2FA) – 2-factor authentication involves needing both your login credentials, and perhaps a device or additional set of login credentials that belong to you to gain access to an account. For example, applications like Duo can enable an authentication method in which users must enter account login credentials, as well as a unique, constantly-changing pin number sent to their cell phone in real time.

Domain Name Monitoring – A successful email phishing campaign often relies on a legitimate sounding URL to fool security-conscious users into believing a landing page is genuine. Tools like PhishLabs allow organizations to be alerted about new domain registrations that could potentially pose a security threat to their team or customers.

What is the best thing you can do to bolster cybersecurity in 2022?

As we’ve attested to, there are plenty of educational resources surrounding the topic of cybersecurity, and a constantly growing array of useful tools too. However, in 2022 there is nothing more valuable you can do than making the commitment to a Zero Trust approach to IT security. This means, “Eliminating implicit trust and continuously validating every stage of a digital interaction,” as Palo Alto Networks eloquently puts it. You create an IT environment that doesn’t trust any user whether they are inside or outside the network.

This is a broad departure from the methodology of more traditional solutions that don’t have any measures in place to prevent the lateral spread of an attack once it gains initial network access. For example, generally thought of as a secure solution, virtual private networks (VPN) possess vulnerabilities that are simply not compatible with the hybrid and multi-cloud direction of the world. VPNs are a single access point with a massive lateral attack surface—unlocking the full swath of a network for attackers who need only make it through the door. A true Zero Trust architecture can only be enabled by utilizing newer technologies like software-defined perimeter (SDP) and secure zero trust network access (ZTNA) tunneling.

But what about our lacking IT security budget?

It’s true, any large-scale technology adoption such as software-defined perimeter is going to have an associated price tag. I would unequivocally wager it’s a much more sustainable investment than ransoms though. The benefits are far-reaching and can appeal to all levels of the IT decision-making hierarchy. Benefits include:

  • Isolated network access at the application level that eliminates lateral attack surface
  • No need for expensive, maintenance-intensive physical networking appliances
  • No ACLs or firewall configuration headaches
  • Overall reduction in lifecycle management man-hours and physical overhead
  • For cloud deployments, removal of costly hourly VPN connection fees

Once your organization makes the commitment to SDP and weathers the initial expense, it is a truly silver bullet-esque path to greater security, simpler management, lower costs, and reduced physical overhead. In 2022, it’s worth being proactive, not reactive to cyber attacks.

DH2i’s Take on Software-Defined Perimeter

DH2i’s DxOdyssey software provides all benefits of SDP with the added distinction of:

  • Direct micro-tunnels, meaning no intermediate brokers and superior performance
  • Easily making tunnels redundant and highly available with automatic failover
  • Remote-user access to tunnels that leads the industry in simplicity
  • Up to a 40% increase in network throughput performance

Want to learn more? Get signed up for a DxOdyssey demo and we’ll give you a tour of the product.

Enterprise IT in 2022: Docker Has Fallen, But Containers Will Rise

Well, in case you’ve been living in a dark cave with no WiFi for the last decade, I should inform you that Docker and its containerization technology spent a chunk of time in the limelight. Docker gobbled up hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital funding since its founding, and eventually even crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold in 2015. To add a little further perspective, the first DockerCon in San Francisco took place only 8 years ago in 2014, and according to Docker, there are now over 12 million registered Docker developers representing more than 200 countries around the world. If that doesn’t illustrate how quickly the world of IT can evolve, I’m not sure what does.

But at least within the scope of Enterprise IT, Docker has fallen off.

How did we get here?

Docker’s hype was fueled by a universe with an insatiable demand for new applications. Docker containers brought the promise of unicorn-like portability, so developers could build-containerized apps in one server with the confidence they would work in any server. Even still, recent innovations such as Docker Extensions and Docker Desktop for Linux continue to enhance the efficiency at which developers can spin new applications up.

However, big changes over the last few years like Docker’s partial sale of its business to Mirantis, and the more recent deprecation of Docker container runtime by Kubernetes has taken its toll. Docker is still as popular as any container runtime in enterprise IT right now, but not for much longer. Kubernetes’ Docker deprecation announcement has put Docker on a defined path towards irrelevancy in the enterprise space. It’s a big changing of the guard, but don’t view this as the end of Docker as a whole. The Docker team is back to going all-in on its DevOps roots, and we think they are going to be around for a long time.

What about the rest of the containers?

There’s not really a different way to say it. “Docker” really was (and still is to some extent) to containers what Ziploc is to plastic baggies, essentially an interchangeable synonym to refer to the technology that everyone used.

However, Docker was just the first organization to bring containers to the mainstream, and while they did it in a huge way, there are plenty of other container runtimes ready to fill the void in enterprise IT. There are going to need to be too, because organizations are starting to adopt containers in production at rapid pace in this era of digital transformation. Organizations adopting this technology are achieving huge enhancements in portability, scalability and overall speed of deployment—all things needed for organizations to embrace a cloud-based future.

At DH2i we’ve been excited to hear about how our current customers are endeavoring into containers in production. Some of them have even reached the point of deploying their most vital, heavy-duty SQL Server workloads in containers. The sky is the limit for deployments of this nature, but only if you do it carefully. Containerization definitely adds another layer of complexity to the high availability (HA) equation, and you certainly can’t just jump into it with container orchestration alone.

DH2i recently published an eBook all about how we recommend approaching high availability in a containerized SQL Server environment with DxEnterprise. We’re proud to have the only technology on the market that enables fully-automatic failover of SQL Server Availability Groups in Kubernetes—enabling true, bulletproof protection for your containerized SQL Server environment.

Cloud Computing Magazine Names DH2i a 2022 Product of the Year Award Winner

DxOdyssey®, the unVPN Security Software Delivering Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Recognized for Exceptional Innovation

FORT COLLINS, CO – June 8, 2022DH2i® the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) and Smart High Availability Clustering software for Windows and Linux, today announced that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has awarded DxOdyssey, the unVPN security software delivering Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), a 2022 Product of the Year Award, presented by Cloud Computing magazine.

DxOdyssey is a lightweight software built on patented technology that enables its users to create highly available (HA) application-level micro-tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. And it does so more easily, more securely, and more discreetly than any other solution on the market. Using DxOdyssey puts users on a path to ZTNA security and helps networking and security admins secure multi-site & multi-cloud operations.

“Congratulations to DH2i for being honored with a Cloud Computing Product of the Year Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “DxOdyssey is truly an innovative product and is amongst the best solutions available within the past twelve months that facilitates business-transforming cloud computing and communications. I look forward to continued excellence from DH2i in 2022 and beyond.”

“We are honored to have DxOdyssey recognized by the esteemed editorial staff at Cloud Computing magazine, and believe it underscores the industry’s recognition that the network perimeter has evolved and consequently, traditional VPN and direct link approaches are no longer sufficient. Not only are these technologies cumbersome to maintain and expensive, but they have been rendered inherently vulnerable in numerous ways, such as opening the entire network to lateral movement,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder, DH2i. “DxOdyssey was designed with this in mind. DxOdyssey takes a more secure approach, giving users app-level access rather than network-level access, thereby reducing the attack surface. And it does all of this with the most secure and performant approach to create a Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) to grant connectivity to distributed apps and clients running across multiple sites, clouds, and domains.”

 

Tweet this: @tmcnet Cloud Computing Magazine names @DH2i a 2022 Product of the Year Award Winnerhttps://dh2i.com/press/ #ZeroTrust #ZeroTrustNetworkAccess #ZTNA #SoftwareDefinedPerimeter #SDP

 

About Cloud Computing Magazine

Cloud Computing magazine is the industry’s definitive source for all things cloud – from public, community, hybrid and private cloud to security and business continuity, and everything in between. This quarterly magazine published by TMC assesses the most important developments in cloud computing not only as they relate to IT, but to the business landscape as a whole.

About TMC

Through education, industry news, live events and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC’s content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all participants. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360-degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on FacebookLinkedIn and Twitter@tmcnet .

 

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart High Availability Clustering software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey® and DxEnterprise® enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is “always-secure and always-on.”  To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected].

DH2i Wins 2022 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award

DxOdyssey for IoT Honored for Exceptional Innovation for Ensuring Zero Trust Security for IoT Deployments

FORT COLLINS, Co. – April 21, 2022 – DH2i® the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart High Availability Clustering software for Windows and Linux, today announced its DxOdyssey for IoT, edge-optimized software defined perimeter (SDP) solution, has received a 2022 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award from IoT Evolution World, a leading magazine and Website covering IoT technologies.

DxOdyssey for IoT extends a Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) to the edge, enabling organizations to build Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) tunnels between edge devices, the datacenter, and the cloud. DxOdyssey for IoT provides organizations with a single, cost-effective network connectivity solution that virtually eliminates any attack surface, achieving a Zero Trust Network Architecture. Secure communication can be achieved without legacy approaches to IoT connectivity such as VPNs or open ports which require in-depth networking knowledge, are expensive, complex to configure and widen network attack surfaces, making IoT networks more vulnerable to attack. DxOdyssey for IoT can also be integrated with Microsoft Azure SQL Edge to create the ultimate end-to-end security solution for all IoT deployments.

“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 DxOdyssey for IoT, an innovative solution that earned DH2i the 2022 Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “I look forward to seeing more innovation from DH2i in the future.”

“DxOdyssey for IoT enables organizations to build secure, dynamic workload-centric connections between edge devices, datacenter and cloud environments at the highest ROI – all while eliminating network attack surfaces,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder, DH2i. “We are indeed honored to have been recognized by TMC’s IoT Evolution World and its esteemed judges’ panel. We believe it is a reflection on the fact that with DxOdyssey for IoT, organizations are finally freed from having to use traditional IoT connectivity solutions that rely on VPNs or open ports which require in-depth networking knowledge, are expensive and tedious to configure, and create large and dangerous attack surfaces.”

Tweet this: @DH2i Receives @IoTEvolution 2022 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year #Award https://dh2i.com/press/ #DxOdyssey #IoT #Edge #Security #Software #ZeroTrust

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) and Smart High Availability Clustering software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey® and DxEnterprise® enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is “always-secure always-on.”  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 2022. 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® Honors DH2i with 5-Star Rating in 2022 Partner Program Guide

DH2i DxAdvantage Included on Definitive List of Most Notable Partner Programs from Industry-Leading Technology Vendors, Providing Innovative Products and Flexible Services

 

FORT COLLINS, Co. – March 28, 2022

DH2i® the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart High Availability™ software for Windows and Linux, is being celebrated by CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, with a prestigious 5-star rating in its 2022 Partner Program Guide. CRN’s annual Partner Program Guide provides a definitive list of the most notable partner programs from industry-leading technology vendors that provide innovative products and flexible services through the IT channel. The 5-star rating is achieved only by select vendors that deliver the best of the best, going above and beyond in their partner programs to help push growth and positive change.

DH2i was recognized for its DxAdvantage™ Partner Program, under which value added resellers (VARs), system integrators (SIs) and other solutions providers are provided with simplified access to DH2i’s world-class portfolio of data availability, security and remote access solutions, as well as its team of sales, marketing and service specialists in order to identify, fulfill and maximize sales opportunities. The DxAdvantage Partner Program includes, but is not limited to:

  • Pre-qualified Leads – to help partners focus resources, drive conversion rates and enjoy faster time to profitability and growth.
  • Partner Registration and Locator – to enable end customers to find and contact DH2i resellers.
  • Discounts, Incentives & SPIFFs – to ensure the highest possible margins with additional generous incentives and bonuses for sales.
  • MDF – market development funds (MDF) to help drive strategic partner market awareness and sales.
  • Opportunity Registration – for margin protection.
  • Demonstration Training & Support – partners can engage with DH2i to help provide customer demos and/or utilize DH2i’s admin tour and build-out to incorporate demo capabilities directly.
  • Sales Support – to ensure the fastest and highest close ratios.
  • Service Training & Support – to ensure customer expectations are exceeded today, and tomorrow.

“CRN’s Partner Program Guide delves into the strengths of each organization’s partner program in order to honor those that consistently support and promote good change within the IT channel,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “As innovation fuels the speed and complexity of technology today, solution providers want partners that can keep up with and assist their growing business.”

“We are indeed delighted to have our DxAdvantage program honored with CRN’s annual Partner Program Guide’s top 5-star rating,” said Connor Cox, Director of Business Development, DH2i. “We believe it underscores DH2i’s deep commitment to maintaining a channel partner program that reflects the industry’s continuously evolving market demands, thereby enabling our channel partners to ideally serve the needs of end customers, while dramatically bolstering their trusted advisor status and bottom-line.”

CRN’s annual Partner Program Guide provides the channel community with a deep dive into the partner programs offered by IT vendors, service providers and distributors. Companies are scored based on their investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support, and communication. A 5-star rating helps narrow the field to find the best fit, identifying the most rewarding partner programs and providing crucial insight into their strengths. The 2022 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April 2022 issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/PPG.

Tweet this: @CRN Honors @DH2i with 5-Star Rating in 2022 Partner Program Guide https://dh2i.com/press/ @TheChannelCo #CRNPPG

 

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by nearly 40 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com. Follow The Channel Company:Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

 

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart High Availability™ software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey® and DxEnterprise® enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is “always-secure and always-on.”  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 2022. 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. The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

 

PR Contacts:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications / PR
DH2i
M: 508-397-0131
[email protected]

Jennifer Hogan
The Channel Company
[email protected]

DH2i Closes 2021 As Another Year of Record Sales Growth, Product Innovation, and Strategic Partnership Development

Attendees Will Learn How to Set Up and Configure Highly Available SQL Server Availability Groups (AGs) Between Containers In Google Cloud Platform

 

FORT COLLINS, Co. – February 7, 2022

DH2i® today announced that 2021 marked another year of record growth, with a 44 percent sales growth year-over-year, across both its DxEnterprise™ multi-platform smart availability software and DxOdyssey™ software defined perimeter (SDP) security software solutions.

“2021 was a transformative year for DH2i,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder of DH2i.  “In addition to our enviable sales growth, DH2i strengthened its foothold across key verticals, such as financial services – making strong gains in the multinational investment banking segment – as well as technology, healthcare, and media.” He continued, “We also continued to build-out a market leadership product feature set, transitioned to a 100% software as a subscription model, and strengthened and entered into new highly strategic channel and technology partnerships.”

DH2i’s 2021 Milestones:

Product Innovation

New Customers

Strategic Channel Partnerships and Global Expansion

Market Education and Thought Leadership

These and additional DH2i webinars are archived and available on-demand here: https://dh2i.com/webinars/.

Market Intelligence

Tweet this: @DH2i Closes 2021 As Another Year of Record Sales Growth, Product Innovation, and Strategic Partnership Development https://dh2i.com/press/ #SQLServer #Kubernetes #Containers #HA #SDP #Data #Security

About DH2i
DH2i Company is the leading provider of multi-platform Software Defined Perimeter and Smart Availability™ software for Windows and Linux. DH2i software products DxOdyssey™ and DxEnterprise® enable customers to create an entire IT infrastructure that is “always-secure and always-on.”  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 2022. 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.

 

PR Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications / PR
DH2i
M: 508-397-0131
[email protected]