Ocean waters are warming and becoming more acidic, ice caps are melting, and sea levels are rising. Warmer global temperatures affect our water supplies, agriculture, power and transportation systems, the natural environment, and even our own health and safety. Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree 1: Climate-warming trends over the past century are mostly due to human activities. While technology has played its part in causing climate change it can also help us get to solutions. Here are five initiatives taking place in the technology community that can fight climate change: 5 Initiatives in the Technology Community to Fight Climate Change 1. Data centers The world’s most influential companies including Apple, NIKE, IKEA, Johnson & Johnson, and Starbucks, representing over US $1 trillion in annual revenue, are committed to 100% renewable power. Much of the energy used in data centers is not from the actual technology. Instead, it’s from cooling the servers. As well as delivering on emission reduction goals, renewable power can help manage fluctuating energy costs, improve reputation and provide energy security. It also shows business leadership on climate change. This could have massive impact if paired alongside robust government policy that boosts confidence and enables long-term investments. 2. Mobile apps It takes some digging to find apps that will help you create real change on a daily basis, but they’re out there. Here are some examples of apps that can help you monitor and reduce your carbon footprint and waste: Oroeco is an app that tracks your carbon footprint by placing a carbon value on everything you buy, eat, and do, and then shows you how you compare with your neighbors. PaperKarma is an easy way to cut paper waste. Take a photo of your junk mail, send it through the app, and PaperKarma will figure out what it is and take you off the mailing list. GiveO2 tracks your carbon footprint as you travel. Turn on the tracker when you start a new trip, and it will automatically calculate a timeline of your carbon usage. At the end, you can “offset” it by supporting a sustainable project of your choice. 3. IoT Monitoring our energy usage makes it possible to be smarter about it. Take Nest, for instance. While an un-programmed thermostat can waste 20% of heating and cooling, Nest tackles the issue with a smart thermostat that learns your patterns and automatically adjusts to save energy. The Internet of Things can save energy and carbon footprints with things as simple as using an app to turn off the lights or with apps like IFTTT, which hooks up to many different types of systems. The IoT can also involve monitoring your sprinkler system to save water, or use sensors to tell you to take a different route when driving to avoid idling in traffic and wasting gas. 4. Open source movement Open data and open source technologies are a huge way to accelerate environmental research and innovation. Take Tesla, for example. By opening the company’s patents to everyone, Elon Musk wanted to make sure electric vehicles succeeded faster. 5. Mapping Interactive maps really drive home the point of climate change and can lead the way to remedies. Map layers defining vegetation, soil type, geology, precipitation, and human infrastructure can help model and plan for future change. New mapping technology can make us safer and less reliant on fossil fuels. The U.S Geologic Survey’s 3D Elevation Program is being developed to use advanced mapping to better update hazard maps for floods and earthquakes and find out where the best areas for solar and wind farms. As you can see, many of these things only require small changes from individuals in order to make a difference for our climate. Some will require much more intentional decisions from businesses. The good news, however, is that with this intentionality, individuals and corporations alike can take action to help our climate. If we’re all in this together, perhaps it’s time that we take a look – individually and corporately – at how we can make a difference. 1. J. Cook, et al, “Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming,” Environmental Research Letters Vol. 11 No. 4, (13 April 2016); DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002
What is Linux? Strictly speaking, Linux is the kernel, or core of Linux distributions. I like to think of the Linux kernel like the base plate for Legos. It’s where all other pieces attach to. A distribution, or “distro” for short, is a complete operating system including a kernel, packages, package managers, and everything else needed. In other words, distros are pre-assembled building block sets depending on user preference and needs. Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu are examples of some of the more popular distros. There are too many others to list here, but here are some resources to give you an idea. Resource One Resource Two Linux Use Cases As a long time Linux user, I can understand why it didn’t take off as a general purpose operating system like MS Windows. There are just too many choices, differences between those choices, and perceived lack of standardization. There’s also the reputation of being difficult to use. Why then would anyone want to use Linux, instead of Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X for example? Like the number of distros, the number of Linux use cases is also very extensive, so I’ll cover just a few popular ones. IoT Open source software is typically free, though some commercially backed distros such as RHEL do charge subscription fees. Linux runs on many different types of hardware such as IoT devices, personal computers, networking equipment, load balancers, supercomputers, and just about anything it seems. It can run on very low end or less common hardware. This makes it perfect for IoT devices, where processing power may be limited, and cost needs to be kept down. Related: Linux Logical Volume Manager Overview “The Cloud” It also powers very high end hardware, including much of what powers “the cloud.” Servers powering the internet need a reliable operating system that can run continuously without downtime, while maintaining a high level of security. There are far fewer circumstances in which Linux based OSes require a reboot. Though I wouldn’t recommend it for most use cases, it is certainly possible for Linux devices to run continuously for YEARS without a reboot. It is also much easier to avoid viruses and malware. This is great for web servers, databases, load balancers, routers, switches, firewalls, storage servers, virtual machine hypervisors, and many other pieces of critical IT infrastructure. Containers The trend to “containerize” everything has taken the world by storm. Though MS Windows containers are now an option, until recently Linux was your only option. It is a much more mature platform for containers. There is much better documentation and support for containers on Linux. It is much lighter weight which allows for much denser deployments, as well as portability. One example of a popular container OS is Alpine Linux . ” It is built around musl libc and busybox. This makes it smaller and more resource efficient than traditional GNU/Linux distributions. A container requires no more than 8 MB and a minimal installation to disk requires around 130 MB of storage. Not only do you get a fully-fledged Linux environment but a large selection of packages from the repository.” AI AI, machine learning, and deep learning are also getting a lot of attention these days. Linux offers a number of advantages in this space, including better integration with containers. There are many examples and lots of documentation to help someone building an AI project on Ubuntu for example. Want to train your model in the cloud, but deploy at the edge to a low powered IoT device and/or container? You will likely have a much easier time, along with better and more predictable results on Linux. If you are considering an IoT or AI project, and/or the infrastructure required to support it, ProCern has the expertise. Schedule an assessment today, we’d love to help!
Increased Vulnerability Identifying what connects to the network is the first step to securing your enterprise. Control through the automated application of wired and wireless policy enforcement ensures that only authorized and authenticated users and devices are allowed to connect to your network. At the same time, real-time attack response and threat protection is required to secure and meet internal and external audit and compliance requirements. Laptops, smartphones, tablets and Internet of Things (IoT) devices are pouring in the the workplace. The average employee now utilizes an average of three devices. The addition of IoT increases the vulnerabilities inside the business adding to the operational burden. Wired and Wireless Devices The use if IoT devices on wired and wireless networks is shifting IT’s focus. Many organizations secure their wireless networks and devices. Some may have neglected the wired ports in conference rooms, behind IP phones and in printer areas. Wired devices – like sensors, security cameras and medical devices force IT to think about securing the millions of wired ports that could be wide open to security threats. Because these devices may lack security attributes and require access from external administrative resources, apps or service providers, wired access now poses new risks. As IT valiantly fights the battle to maintain control, they need the right set of tools. Tools that can quickly program the underlying infrastructure and control network access for any IoT and mobile device – known and unknown. Today’s network access security solutions must deliver profiling, policy enforcement, guest access, BYOD onboarding and more. They should offer IT-offload, enhanced threat protection and an improved user experience. Mobility and IoT are Changing How We Think About Access Control The boundaries of IT domains now extend beyond the four walls of business and the goal for organizations is to provide anytime, anywhere connectivity without sacrificing security. How does IT maintain visibility and control without impacting the business and user experience? It starts with a 3-step plan. Identify – what devices are being used, how many, where they’re connecting from, and which operating systems are supported. This provides the foundation of visibility. Continuous insight into the enterprise-wide device landscape and potential device security corruption. Which elements come and go gives you the visibility required over time. Enforce – accurate policies that provide proper user device access, regardless of user, device type or location; this provides an expected user experience. Organizations must adapt to today’s evolving devices and their use, whether the device is a smartphone or surveillance camera. Protect – resources via dynamic policy controls and real-time threat remediation that extends to third-party systems. This is the last piece of the puzzle. Being prepared for unusual network behavior at 3 AM requires a unified approach that can block traffic and change the status of a device’s connection. Organizations must plan for existing and unforeseen challenges. With their existing operational burden, it’s not realistic to rely on IT and help desk staff to manually intervene whenever a user decides to work remotely or buy a new smartphone. Network access control is no longer just for performing assessments on known devices before access. HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass The stakes are high. It’s surprising that more companies have not embraced secure NAC to prevent malicious insiders from causing damage to the enterprise. The uses cases are many-control devices connectivity, simplify BYOD, secure guest access leads to the same answer, HPE Aruba Networrking ClearPass. Over 7,000 customers in 100 countries have secured their network and their business with HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass. They have achieved better visibility, control and response. Shouldn’t you? Contact ProCern to find out how you can secure your network.