Expanding Maneuver Warfare in IT

Virtual Machines in Virtual Networks

By G C Network | August 4, 2008

One of the key value propositions in cloud computing is built around increase efficiencies. These eficiencies are diven by the use of virtual machines (VMware, XEN, etc.) and the automated…

SOA-R Interest Grows

By G C Network | August 1, 2008

Interest continue to grow in the use of cloud computing concepts for national security missions. Although some view the idea of a “private cloud” as an oxymoron, I personally see…

Microsoft: “Cloud Computing is the Plan”

By G C Network | July 31, 2008

From the Wireless Business & Technology Cloud Computing News Desk : “Ballmer highlighted software-plus-service, associating it with a ‘platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and…

CC Tidbits

By G C Network | July 31, 2008

Interesting tidbits from Maureen O’Gara in Apple, Google, Yahoo & Cloud Computing: Industry gadfly John Dvorak is advancing a theory culled from the blogosphere that Microsoft wants Yahoo for some…

Correlative Analytics: Cloud Computing Google Mindshare

By G C Network | July 30, 2008

Correlative Analytics (A.K.A. “The Google Way of Science“) postulates that extremely large databases of information, starting in the petabyte level, may be sufficient to skip the theory part of the…

What is Cloud Computing? — Another view

By G C Network | July 29, 2008

Irving Wladasky-Berger, chairman emeritus of IBM’s Academy of Technology, recently wrote and article on cloud computing titled “What is Cloud Computing, Anyway?”. The following is my interpretation of a few…

Dark Cloud Computing

By G C Network | July 28, 2008

In his blog article “The Rise of The Dark Cloud” Reuven Cohen wonders about a growing interest in covert computing. Although he briefly mentions malevolent uses of the net, the…

July Military Information Technology magazine

By G C Network | July 25, 2008

This month’s issue of Military Information Technology magazine has the Army’s Chief Information Officer, Lieutenant General Jeffrey A. Sorenson, on the cover. The enclosed special report, titled LANDWARNET Transformation, has…

“The Big Switch” and Intellipedia Highlighted

By G C Network | July 24, 2008

During last week’s SOA-R session, Steven Armentrout referenced “The Big Switch” by Nicholas Carr as a very enlightened view of our changing world. On July 17th, Information Week’s Richard Martin…

Does anybody really know what cloud computing is?

By G C Network | July 23, 2008

Less than 2% of the CIOs in an Infoworld survey said that cloud computing was a priority. The surveyed indicated that server virtualization and server consolidation are their No. 1…

Earlier this week I published “Cloud Computing: The Dawn of Maneuver Warfare in IT Security” via Ulitzer. In publishing the article my intent was to explore the more dynamic approach to information security offered by cloud computing. Although the conversation continues in earnest, today I would like to highlight Ben’s thoughts from Iron Fog:
“What about managing virus outbreaks, patch deployment and vulnerability detection?
managing virus outbreaks – If I can scale my security infrastructure rapidly, I can scan my distributed filesystem and workstations, I can hunt down and remove infections – in theory I can scale my cloud rapidly enough to combat warhol-esque worms.
patch deployment – if I need to force patches across my environment, I can deploy a swarm of servers that will connect to every server and workstation in my enterprise and force the patch down (after I’ve spun up a multiple VM’s to test/socialise the patch against my standard configurations).
vulnerability detection – Scanning a class B sized network can take a while, but what if I can launch a few hundred servers and ask them to scan a less than a class C each, in parallel (note: this idea wasn’t mine, credit to Richard at Enomaly) – I can get near-realtime vulnerability intelligence on my environment at relatively low cost. Running a few hundred EC2 servers for less than an hour is pretty cheap, especially if compared against buying a whole bunch of expensive scanning appliances (then again, there’s nessus).”
These examples are perfect extensions on the idea of maneuver warfare in information technology.  His post also brings up some concerns that need to be addressed.  Let’s keep the ideas coming.
Follow me on https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson

G C Network