Handle Daily Internet Usage cost effectively... with Link Balancers.

Link Balancing commonly referred to as dual WAN routing or Multihoming, Network Load Balancing is the ability to balance traffic across two WAN links without using complex routing protocols.

A Link Balancer is an affordable and powerful solution for routing and managing traffic across multiple Internet connections. Designed to scale for high bandwidth requirements and provide business continuity for an organization of any size, it optimizes the use of multiple Internet links, such as T1s, T3s, DSL and cable connections from one or multiple Internet service providers. Capable of automatic failover in the event of link failure, the Link Balancer helps assure that your network is always connected to the Internet.

This capability balances network sessions like web, email, etc over multiple connections in order to spread out the amount of bandwidth used by each LAN user, thus increasing the total amount of bandwidth available. Example: A user has a single WAN connection to the Internet operating at 1.5Mbit/s. They wish to add a second broadband (Cable, DSL, Wireless) connection operating at 2.5Mbit/s. This would provide them with a total of 4Mbit/s of bandwidth when balancing sessions.

Advantages to your Business/Organization:



• Aggregates Internet connection links
• Automated failover
• Bandwidth management
• Quality of Service (QoS) for Internet applications
• Traditional firewall
• Reduces the need to purchase multiple high speed and high cost links to handle the daily Internet usage.
• Provides Network Redundancy.

References: Wikipedia
Barracuda Networks Inc.

Image Reference: www.searchsecurity.de

Walking the Network Tight Rope made easier... With Load Balancers

Load Balancing is defined as a process and technology that distributes site traffic among several servers using a network based device. This device intercepts traffic destined for a site and redirects that traffic to various servers.
It is a technique to spread work between two or more computers, network links, CPUs, hard drives, or other resource. in order to get optimal resource utilization, throughput, or response time. Using multiple components with load balancing, instead of a single component, may increase reliability through redundancy. The balancing service is usually provided by a dedicated program or hardware device (such as a multilayer switch). It is commonly used to mediate internal communications in computer clusters, especially high-availability clusters. This process is completely transparent to the end user.

Benefits of Load Balancing:

- Optimal resource utilization
- Better throughput and response time
- Increases reliability through redundancy
- Streamlining of data communication
- Ensures a response to every request
- Reduces dropping of requests and data.
- Offers content aware distribution, by doing things such as reading URLS, intercepting cookies and XML parsing.
- Maintains a watch on the servers and ensures that they respond to the traffic. If they are not responding, then it takes them out of rotation.
- Priority activation: When the number of available servers drop below a certain number, or load gets too high, standby servers can be brought online.
- SSL Offload and Acceleration reduces the burden on the Web Servers and performance will not degrade for the end users.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection through features such as SYN cookies and delayed-binding to mitigate SYN flood attacks and generally offload work from the servers to a more efficient platform.
- HTTP compression: reduces amount of data to be transferred for HTTP objects by utilizing gzip compression available in all modern web browsers.
- TCP buffering: the load balancer can buffer responses from the server and spoon-feed the data out to slow clients, allowing the server to move on to other tasks.
- HTTP caching: the load balancer can store static content so that some requests can be handled without contacting the web servers.
- Content Filtering: some load balancers can arbitrarily modify traffic on the way through.
- HTTP security: some load balancers can hide HTTP error pages, remove server identification headers from HTTP responses, and encrypt cookies so end users can't manipulate them.
- Priority queuing: also known as rate shaping, the ability to give different priority to different traffic.
- Client authentication: authenticate users against a variety of authentication sources before allowing them access to a website.
- Firewall: Direct connections to backend servers are prevented, for security reasons

References: Server Load Balancing by Tony Bourke
Wikipedia

Image Reference: http://images.newsfactor.com/images/id/4443/story-data-012.jpg

PC LCM----> Your Virtual Assistant…

Are you a Sys Admin perplexed and tired of running around maintaining your systems…
Are you worried that the right patches have not been downloaded and installed….
Are you not aware of which licenses are about to expire and when?

Do not Despair… Just adopt a PC Life Cycle Management Solution and put all your fears to rest… Relax and Relish your work…

Properly managing an IT environment requires expertise and often takes significant amounts of time and effort. System administrators are responsible for providing their organizations with access to critical applications and services while ensuring that systems perform optimally and remain secure. Unfortunately, keeping pace with the frequency of changes in an IT environment of any size can be a daunting task. The problem is often more pronounced in midsize organizations, where system administrators are forced to juggle many responsibilities.

Issues such as deployment, monitoring, and updating computers can have a significant impact on organizations’ budgets (not to mention system administrators’ blood pressure).

While it might be possible to complete some tasks manually, the number of devices and applications that must be managed can quickly become overwhelming. Add in priorities unrelated to desktop lifecycle management, and help is sure to be welcome. The best solution for managing IT environments that are increasing in size and complexity is through automation.

It is here that PC Life Cycle Management Solutions step in and help you mitigate all the associated complications.

A typical PC Life Cycle Management Solution will do the following for you:

• Sophisticated MSI packaging
• Unattended remote client resets
• Comprehensive inventory-based distribution
• Global scheduling of jobs and executing them
• Intelligent multicast replication
• Complete system repair

• Drag and drop configuration management
• Backup/restore of user personality and locally saved data from a single PC
• Centralized reporting functions
• Native integration with the Directory services.
• Patch management to distribute patches and virus updates
• Bandwidth throttling
• Mandatory (push) and software request (pull) distribution
• Wake on LAN
• OS deployment
• A single Management console to manage all your devices
• Security Management
• Define process workflows to dynamically manage the devices on the network right from purchase to retirement

How does my organization and I benefit if we opt for a PC LCM?
• Reduces I.T. Labour and Asset ownership costs
• Adherence to both internal and external compliance standards.
• Consistent User Experience
• Centralized and Single Management Console reduces the strain on the Sys Admin
• Know what you have in your network and where in a jiffy.
• Up to date and current information about the health of your devices allows you to undertake preventive measures.
• Streamline the existing process and ensure that there is a common policy to handle unforeseen circumstances.
• Automatically update, deploy and manage the software on the clients.

References:
1. www.Microsoft.com : White paper on PC Life Cycle Management
2. www.Pactech.net/wininstall