How To Stretch Your Security Dollar

itwbennett writes "Taking an aspirin a day will keep you headache-free but it can also reduce your risk of heart attack. You're definitely getting your money's worth out of that bitter little pill. But experts say you can also get additional ROI from security, business continuity, disaster recovery and compliance investments, writes Daniel Dern in a recent article. In fact, you can get 'double or triple the value from "side effects,"' observes Jim Cuff, VP of strategy, Iron Mountain Digital. For example, tools purchased for compliance management can also help identify redundancies and other inefficiencies. Security appliances don't just provide security; they can also be used for performance and bandwidth management, and enforcing acceptable use policies. Or take the next step and use disaster recovery resources 'for part of your active environment, like load balancing, test and develop and QA, and backup, not something you have just in case,' urges Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst of the StorageIO Group. And for the ultimate bang for your buck, take your facilities and knowledge and turn them into an external business offering."

Comments

Press release

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when do press releases merit posting on /.?

Cannot compute analogy

[a1210]

I don't quite get the asprin analogy, can someone give me a car analogy please? :)

Re:Cannot compute analogy

[piojo]

Changing your timing belt before it fails?

Re:Cannot compute analogy

[Normal Dan]

Using a higher grade fuel will get you better gas mileage but it can also reduce your chances of breaking down. Disclaimer: I am not a car doctor.

Re:Cannot compute analogy

[asackett]

That's kinda why I said, "if the 'cheap gas' doesn't cause pinging". Detonation is a real bitch and can crack pistons, thrash pins and rod bearings, and just generally be a real pain in the wallet come repair time. But a broken piston is a good excuse to increase the bore... :-) Still, if you're not getting detonation, all you get from high octane gasoline is expensive exhaust gas.

If you get pinging only on hot days or only at high altitude, try curing it the same way you'd cure vapor lock on a carbureted engine -- I don't mean clamping wooden clothespins on the fuel lines and leaving them there forever, but that's a good way to prove whether or not that's your problem. If it is, just reroute the fuel lines away from the heat sources and call it good. Sometimes the heat source is the automatic transmission or the exhaust pipes so you have to look all the way back to the tank to find the likely suspects, but if you're doing it yourself the one-time expense of rerouting is a lot less than the every fill-up expense of higher octane fuel.

Re:Cannot compute analogy

[mister_playboy]

Any vehicle built in the last 15 years will have a knock sensor to prevent detonation, so it's a tricky business to determine whether you are getting anything out of premium fuel. The lower gas mileage (caused be the ignition being retarded by the knock sensor) from running on regular gas in a vehicle designed for premium can sometimes outstrip the cost savings of using regular gas. This has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis... there is no hard and fast rule. The compression ratio and head material (aluminum is less likely to knock than iron) need to be considered.

As for pinging at high altitude, that's unlikely... octane requirement decreases with increases in altitude as their intake charge is less dense, so the baseline fuel map will be richer compared to sea level. Many cars advertise the ability to compensate for altitude change, but that is highly dependent on having a correctly working oxygen sensor.

Or...

[UncleWilly]

Or follow the herd and move off-shore.

I've got a great idea for the US Mint...

[Tetsujin]

OK, you ready? Here it is...

Silicone bills

Ever felt a need to stretch your dollar further? Now you can, with silicone bills...

I need an asprin

[syousef]

...after reading that terrible analogy.

An ad for...

[cosm]

Norton ViagraWorks 2010?

Back to security

[sopssa]

Shutting down your computers improve your security, but you'll also get a girlfriend.

Re:Back to security

[DiegoBravo]

Bad analogy. The article(?) is about SAVING money, not money bleeding.

Re:Making disaster recovery part of your capacity?

[dgatwood]

Oh, no, it's far worse than that. As soon as I read that suggestion, I immediately had words going through my mind that I won't say in public, even on Slashdot. If your backups are online AT ALL, you have no backups. All it takes is one malicious employee who decides to nuke all your systems at once, and you've lost everything. Not to mention that if those systems are part of your normal operation, that usually means they're in the same building as your normal operations center, and thus all it takes is one fire and you've lost everything.

The requirements for a proper backup are that it must be A. periodically checked for functionality, B. off-site, and C. not connected to the Internet in any way. The ideal implementation involves a vault made of 30 feet of concrete. Most people forget that first one, admittedly, and that causes a lot of problems when disaster strikes. That's still no excuse for ignoring the last two instead.

An online hot swap spare is not a real backup, period, no matter how you use it or implement it. It's great for getting up and running again quickly, but when the hackers compromise your password database, your replicated hot swap spare is compromised, too. When you accidentally introduce a bug that treats social security number 999-99-9999 as an end of record marker and causes records of resident aliens to be deleted or corrupted, your replicated hot swap spare is corrupted, too. Online spares (in any capacity) are to backup as RAID is to backup. They solve a limited class of failures, but do nothing whatsoever for several much larger classes of failures.

Indeed, it is this sort of thinking that is costing Microsoft a pretty penny. Given that the Danger incident just happened a few weeks ago (and they're still cleaning up the mess even today), it's amazing to me that a VP of a computer firm could have already forgotten it. It is this very sort of recommendation from so-called "consultants" that ends up utterly destroying companies in spectacular ways when a real disaster actually happens. To the VP in question, please stop giving such TERRIBLE advice.

Aspirin shmaspirin

[musicalmicah]

Actually, daily doses of aspirin can be harmful to many different sorts of individuals, though the parallel still stands, I suppose: just as many industry-prescribed security policies can have beneficial "side effects" for your business, they can also yield unintended consequences that generate more cost--and real risks (the feeling of security often leads to less of it!)--due to lack of careful planning or proper implementation.

A Aspirin a day? WTF?

[Hurricane78]

I really hope, that that is not a normal attitude in the USA. I mean, I hope that everyone here is perfectly aware how any why this is a really fucked up way of thinking.

It's basically the same thing, as automatically filtering all error messages regarding the risk of hardware failures out of your log files. It keeps you just as "error free".

Oh, wait. No. It's even worse. Because aspirin has side-effects. Like causing stomach ulcers on daily intake, in people that have problems with its acidity. And many other things.
Oh, and making you addicted, because as soon as you stop taking them, the headache and all the other masqueraded problems come back with a 100% guarantee. And most likely even much worse.

Just as with pretty much every common pill out there.

Sorry, but I refuse to read the rest of TFS, when it's written by someone with that attitude.

Re:A Aspirin a day? WTF?

[Fulcrum of Evil]

An asprin a day has nothing to do with headaches and such. Asprin (typically an 81mg daily dose) is a cheap and effective mild blood thinner with relatively minimal side effects and has been studied extensively for decades.

Mild effects? Sure, unless you take too many, or take Vicodin or have liver/kidney problems. Then it can kill you dead.

Re:A Aspirin a day? WTF?

[IllForgetMyNickSoonA]

Now, why in the world is this modded as "troll"?

In Europe, the most medical doctors scoff at the notion of taking medicine "just in case", "even" if it's an aspirin. If there is no medical reason to apply medications to your body, then DON'T DO IT. That is the widely spread and accepted attitude.

Now, of course you can choose not to believe MDs and rather to design your own medication programs instead, but you should not mod a person down saying this would be a dangerous and a stupid thing to do. Disagree != Troll!

Aspirin

[Dunbal]

Taking an aspirin a day will keep you headache-free

      Dear submitter,

      Since you insist on doling out pharmaceutical advice be aware that your statement is utterly false. Fortunately you won't be held as accountable as we practitioners are. Lucky you. I could lose my house because of something like this.

      You obviously have never heard of analgesic rebound headaches.

      Just in case you don't believe me. There, I'm bored. You look for the rest.

      A tip - if you have constant headaches, see your doctor instead of taking aspirin or some other analgesic every day.

      Love,

      A physician.

Aspirin.

[Geoffrey.landis]

"Taking an aspirin a day will keep you headache-free"

No, actually it won't.