Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 3-A of 3

In addition to Superb Internet’s ITIL staff certification (Part 1 of this three-part series) and our SSAE-16 auditing (Part 2), we are certified for the ISO 9001:2008 standard. This is the first of a two-part within a four-part series, so 3-A & 3-B is the last one (because both are on this same standard). This article (3-A) covers the first 2 sections of the standard, Sections 4 & 5, and the final one (3-B) covers the last 3 sections, Sections 6-8.

“You and your standards. You’ll never mount a 28-point buck on your wall if you don’t lower your standards to the point where you can do and say whatever you want, such as call a 3-point buck a 28-point buck.”

3-point? That’s lopsided, isn’t it? Listen, sir, again – please stop disrupting my train of thought. ISO is short for the International Organization for Standardization (that’s correct, despite the lettering flip-flop). Its goal, as stated in its initial charter created by a 25-nation delegation that met in London in 1946, is “to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards.”

“Interesting. You do realize that most meetings of folks outside America in 1946 were just an excuse for pinkos to exchange bomb-making and dirty-dancing techniques, right? Or are we reading different websites?”

Well… Unfortunately I’m busy now writing this piece, but once I’m through, I’d love to hear what kind of sultry dance moves were most prevalent during the 1940s. ISO 9001:2008, one of the standards developed and maintained by the ISO, contains parameters for a credible quality management system. Regardless of the size of a business or its industry, 9001:2008 certification is useful for demonstrating the full functionality of quality management practices within an organization.

“My quality management system involves dunking my head in a bucket of ice water when I’ve had too much to drink. Makes me feel refreshed… and very cold.”

I can imagine. It’s a good system you have, though. No one can fault you for that. Below I will review the importance and scope of the International Organization for Standardization, why 9001:2008 has significance, and further explanation of what it entails as a third-party certification method.

The ISO: Diverse Scope, Unified Mission

Since its inception, the International Organization for Standardization has created almost 20,000 standards. All its standards are voluntary. However, as with the SSAE and ITIL credentials we hold, sometimes our clients have internal rules specifying that they can only work with organizations possessing certain third-party certifications.

“I’ll show you a third-party certification. It’s called my American Nazi Party voter registration card.”

Please, please don’t ever vote, my man. The ISO streamlines business practices by placing global guidelines on how organizational systems should be administered and managed. Additionally, because the ISO has members from over 160 nations and create standards via consensus, international trade is enhanced by agreements made at the level of standardization (or so say its advocates).

“Gotcha, you con-artist! Everyone knows there are only 43 countries. Well… I guess 44 if you count Antarctica.”

You have an interesting globe. How many countries are in South America, for example? Two? Paraguay takes up half the continent? Additionally, the ISO, because it is comprised of so many nations, is able to draw on the perspectives of experts from all over the planet. The diversity of the organization’s membership allows the standards it creates not only to be objective, but also to be flexible enough to allow application across a worldwide cultural tableau.

“I’m looking for a woman who’s flexible enough to allow application across a worldwide cultural tableau.”

Thank you for sharing.

What is the ISO 9000 Family?

Here’s how 9001:2008 fits into the broader picture of the standards. A topical subgroup within which the ISO organizes standards pertaining to certain subject matter is referred to as a “family of standards.” Sample families are quality management, environmental management, country codes, food safety management, social responsibility, energy management, risk management, currency codes, and language codes. The ISO 9000 family, of which 9001:2008 is a part, covers quality management.

“Ma’am, I’d like to uncover your quality, and then I’d like to manage it.”

Wow, your mind is really in the gutter. The quality management heading for ISO 9000 denotes creating a meaningful relationship between the needs and desires of a customer and the products and services offered by an organization. Examples of some of the “siblings” of 9001:2008 include 9004:2009, which specifically covers improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a quality management system, and 19011:2011, which standardizes auditing (both in-house and third-party) of such a system.

“I once got ‘audited’ by the IRA. They were very violent. I’m lucky to have survived.”

The Irish Republican Army? Huh, well, I’m sorry that happened to you.

ISO 9001:2008 – Section 4: “General Requirements”

Let’s take a look at the individual sections of the standard. The standard has 5 sections that run from “Section 4” to “Section 8.” They cover, in order, General Requirements, Management Requirements, Resource Requirements, Realization Requirements, and Remedial Requirements.

“I require that you stand at the other end of the shooting range during target practice.”

That’s not a very nice thing to say. Section 4 covers the following:

1.    Development of the Quality Management System (QMS) – Section 4.1 is kind of an overview. It includes doing the following with the QMS:

• Establishment
• Documentation
• Implementation
• Maintenance
• Improvement.

It also introduces the idea of basing the QMS in a process model – such as the PDCA (Plan/Do/Check/Act) Cycle – to allow for constant adaptation.

2.    Documentation of the QMS – Section 4.2 deals with documents in the following ways:

• Ensure that the paperwork is related to what your business does, that it’s properly customized to your culture and industry.
• Specifically it’s advised to create a manual that has to do with quality; it should be regularly reviewed/revised.
• Place proper controls on this paperwork. This applies both to documents and records (below).
• Records need to also be created and controlled. These records are data and information (aka inputs) related to quality over time — as opposed to general overview, descriptive, and policy statements made in the manual.

“I never met a man I respected who didn’t know how to control his records. Loved every one I met who could. Like Metallica once said, ‘Nothing else matters.’”

That’s an interesting perspective. Thanks for the Metallica reference. That’s helpful.

ISO 9001:2008 – Section 5: “Management Requirements”

Section 5 is the requirements for management. To be clear, this relates to managing the QMS; however, the individual in charge should also be someone within the management of the company (see #5 below). An overview of this section:

1.    Dedication to Quality – Section 5.1 has to do with the following efforts related to integrating a prioritized attitude toward quality into your company via support:

• Make sure it’s easy for the system to be created and developed.
• Make sure it’s easy for it to be put into place, to be implemented.
• Also ensure that you can easily make modifications and improvements to the QMS.

2.    Customer Focus – You heard it here first: the customer is always right. Section 5.2 deals with maintaining a customer-centered perspective in these two ways:

• Identification of their concerns. Find out what your customers want.
• Meet their concerns. Don’t turn customer concerns away at the door. Ensure that all needs are being properly addressed.

3.    Quality Policy – 5.3 addresses specifics of how to manage and maintain your internal quality policy in the following ways:

• It should be functional and clear about the requirements.
• It should express improvement processes and dedication to evolution.
• Your quality policy should directly reflect your objectives (below).
• Make sure that the policy is disseminated and fluidly open to suggestions from everyone in your organization.
• Perform regular reviews, and revise as needed.

4.    Proper Planning – Make sure plans are in place to allow the QMS to grow and thrive methodically, per Section 5.4, as follows:

• Support, create, and ensure the functionality of quality objectives, so you know what you’re trying to achieve.
• Plan to create the QMS, document it, and put it into place, as well as to perform regular upkeep and modifications.

5.    Who Does What – Section 5.5 mandates determining the roles and responsibilities for quality within your organization … like so:

• Make sure it’s clear who’s in charge of what, as well as what exactly the designated individuals need to do within their roles.
• Everyone in the organization should who know these designees are.
• An executive in your organization should be ultimately in charge of the QMS.
• You should have a framework in place to allow and encourage internal dialogue about the QMS.

6.    Regular Reviews – Section 5.6 relates to reviews of the QMS:

• Perform reviews at reasonable intervals. Look at opportunities for improvements. Keep records.
• Look at and study your QMS inputs (information/records).
• Create outputs. In other words, you need takeaways from these reviews. What did you learn? Also determine what resources are needed moving forward.

“9/11 was an inside job!”

Sir …

“You’re the one using bullets! You’re a hypocrite.”

OK …

Summary & Conclusion

These standards are important to us at Superb Internet. They allow us to demonstrate both our commitment to standards established by the international community and our ability to actually meet those standards. We are, after all, certified in ISO 9001:2008.

So far, we have covered general and management requirements. Essentially, you need to create a sustainable system, take it seriously, make it adaptive, and enhance communication; doing so will ensure it is an organic, flexible, organization-wide team effort. Assign roles and responsibilities. Collect data, analyze it, and document your takeaways. Ensure that there are always outputs to correspond to the inputs (data and info) flowing through the QMS.

We have three sections left, which will be covered in the final part of this series, 3-B: resources, realization, and remediation. OK I’m through. Let’s get to those sultry dance moves, buddy: I can handle the truth.

by Kent Roberts and Richard Norwood

Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 2 of 3

Along with Superb Internet’s staff certification for ITIL (covered in Part 1 of this series) and our ISO 9001:2008 certification and registration (Part 3), we are also SSAE-16 Audited.

“Oh, fiddlesticks, that’s a government-infiltration agenda if I ever saw one.”

Man – you again? OK, well, let me explain it. Just, give me a chance here. SSAE-16 (Statement on Standards of Attestation Engagements, #16) was created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) as a system of cut-and-dry standards which a business must follow with its finances.

“Must follow. Must follow the lemmings down to Mongoose Hollow.”

Mongoose Hollow … huh, that must be your euphemism for the IRS? Anywho, attestation engagements are worth a quick look. Let’s turn to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a governmental agency run by the Comptroller General that “works for congress” (though with its own independent sets of controls) and “investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.”  According to its Auditing Standard 2.07, attestation engagements “concern examining, reviewing, or performing agreed-upon procedures on a subject matter or an assertion about a subject matter and reporting on the results.”

“Yeah boy!”

Um … I’ll move on. SSAE is extraordinarily difficult to understand – not because its parameters are difficult but because the only explanation of SSAE-16 on the website for the AICPA is at this URL: http://www.aicpa.org/Research/Standards/AuditAttest/Pages/SSAE.aspx.

“You and your capital letters and your big ideas, typing it all in, like the Central Insanity Agency ain’t watching ya.”

Sir, I’m just explaining an accounting method. So … the information from the organization that created the document itself has all information about it BURIED within its website. Additionally, the extent of the information is a massive PDF which includes the language for the standard itself and this explanation describing it: “Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization / This section addresses examination engagements undertaken by a service auditor to report on controls at organizations that provide services to user entities when those controls are likely to be relevant to user entities’ internal control over financial reporting.”

“Read that fourteen times, and it will finally make sense. Once it makes sense, that’s when you know they’ve got ya.”

Well, all right they have me. You win, buddy. Actually it’s much simpler than it sounds. Let’s look below on how to understand SSAE-16 so you know why it means we’re credible alongside our other certifications. We will look at the two types of certifications/reports you can receive. Finally, we will look at critiques to get a broader perspective on the topic – and how it differs from other financial audits.

SSAE-16 in Action

When you get SSAE-16 audited, a third party accounting company makes an assessment of the financial controls your business has in place. It then creates a report and opinion stating the findings of its investigation. The results of the audit make it clear whether or not the business has appropriate, baseline checks and balances in place within its service model so that users can breathe easy.

“I will never allow any man to investigate my machines. It’s unwholesome. Bunch of fellas looking at each other’s numbers.”

All right, that’s uncalled for. And who said it was a man, anyway? Please stop making assumptions. There are two kinds of audit reports. One, also referred to as a Type I audit, is entitled “Report on Controls Placed in Operation.” The other, the Type II version, is called “Report on Controls Placed in Operation and Tests of Operating Effectiveness.” Essentially the first report focuses on the types of controls that are likely operating during a certain window, aka “period of review” – but it does not completely verify that the controls were in placement at that time. The second provides that additional verification that the controls were in place.

“No one will ever either view or review me. That’s why I stay in my cellar with the squirrel artillery, waiting for everyone to leave town.”

Hm. Thanks for the input.

Do You Need SSAE-16 or Not?

The good news: this type of auditing is not legally required for any company that distributes a service. However, it’s possible it will be requested by an outside party – or may even be demanded by their own requirements – or by someone auditing a company that is using your service. Plus, it means it’s less likely that an outside auditor will need to audit your system in order to gauge risk because they will have a standardized assessment of your controls based on the SSAE Type II report.

“Type I, Type II – sounds like they’ve found yet another way to get diabetes into us: through our accountants.”

I don’t think this has anything to do with diabetes, sir. Like many organizations, the reason we choose to have this type of auditing performed is threefold:

1. It gives us a chance to prove that, alongside our other certifications, we meet standards of legitimacy established by independent third parties.
2. It gives us access to clients who require this type of auditing and otherwise may not be able to work with us.
3. It provides another professional perspective on the accounting principles we have established internally.

“That sounds wonderful. Give the government all your business’s numbers, the keys to your house, and your eldest daughter.”\

Sir, that’s out of line. I’m just trying to go over some standards here. Please. A data center that is only used for internal business purposes will not necessarily need to have this type of auditing performed. However, those such as ours that provide a service can benefit from SSAE certification.

As Jeff Clark points out, SSAE-16, rather than being about your core business of the service itself – delivery of services to users –is centrally concerned with the financial needs of your clients. Keep that in mind. It’s why something such as ITIL, which has to do with the quality of service, is so important.

SSAE-16 Case Study: Acquia

Josette Rigsby looked specifically at one company, Acquia, a provider of products and services for use with Drupal (the open-source CMS), to get a sense of whether SSAE auditing can be helpful. She asked how the certification might be useful to vendors seeking to establish credibility.

“I sold cotton candy once at the state fair: no certification, no problem. Cash only. No receipts.”

Sir, we are talking about business services here, not cotton candy. A company such as Acquia, which has a cloud-based model, is able to quell fears among clients related to “security, lack of open standards to prevent platform/vendor lock-in and loosely defined service level agreements.” SSAE-16, however, does not cover all the bases to ensure business legitimacy. Additionally to SSAE, Acquia and other cloud service providers (CSPs) adopt the standards of organization such as OpenStack or CloudStack so that their system has been reviewed by external independent parties coming from numerous angles. Our business, similarly, has the ITIL and ISO certifications as well.

“My show pig Julie once won a certification at the Clarksburg Leaf & Stick Festival. She keeps it on her end table. She’s very proud of it.”

Excellent, tell her I’m rooting for her, and I hope she’ll root for me too.

Beyond SSAE: Why Multiple Certifications Matter

The controls reviewed by SSAE relate to a broad spectrum of business practices, including data backup and security, network maintenance and security, and customer support. However, it is not enough. Let’s see what two critics of the auditing procedure have to say about why the certification is only one piece of establishing legitimacy.

1. Baseline Standards – As Jeff Clark notes, SSAE-16 auditing does not grade on a scale. It’s a “yes or no” set of parameters. Passing the auditing inspection simply means that a company has a reasonable set of baseline standards as established by the AICPA.
2. Fuzzy Terminology – Josette Rigsby points out that a business can state during a review that its controls are fine regardless of the auditing process’s findings. If this occurs, the business can state that it has been SSAE audited even though it did not actually pass.

“I just passed gas, does that count? Where’s my certificate, buckaroo?”

Ah come on. We’re in a small room – have some respect. A loophole like that described by Ms. Rigsby means that additional certifications are essential to give clients and partners a better sense of your professional legitimacy. As far as Superb goes, our staff is ITIL Certified (a certification established initially by the United Kingdom government to provide IT standards so that they weren’t only developing independently, in some cases haphazardly, within businesses) as well as ISO 9001:2008 certified and registered.

“Wow, that last one has eight numbers. It must be important. Seven numbers, I would have said, ‘How about one more? Then you’ll have me impressed.’”

I think we’ve covered the fact that you don’t like or appreciate our certifications, sir. Here, have some chamomile tea.

How SSAE-16 Differs from Other Financial Auditing

If you get an audit, you’re typically just looking at your financial figures. SSAE focuses explicitly on how those figures relate to your services – how the services themselves are controlled and guided, and how the services interact with your financial system. An audit can give a sense that your financial system and finances themselves are efficient and sound, but that’s not your clients’ concern. The client cares that you have assurance specifically to your services, so they know that their information and processes are safe within your set of controls.

“I feel very safe. Hm. This tea is delicious. Do you have any honey? I don’t want to have to shake it out of the beehive again, that’s painful.”

Here you go. Drink up.

Summary & Conclusion

Though there are of course critics of SSAE-16, and though some of their concerns are valid, these types of certifications are incredibly important to letting our users know we are transparent about our internal policies. The standards we have adopted, and the analyses and examinations we undergo, allow us to simply and concisely express to our customers that

1. we meet major industry standards; and
2. we have undergone the scrutiny of multiple outside organizations to prove it.

by Kent Roberts and Richard Norwood

A Primer on IPv4, IPv6 and Transition

From www.circleid.com – 3 weeks ago

There is something badly broken in today’s Internet. At first blush that may sound like a contradiction in terms. After all, the Internet is a modern day technical marvel.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

I need a few days to absorb the information in this article. It’s extensive, not so much a primer, but a very in-depth article about the way the internet stands to date in terms of size and transition to the new IPv6.

How and Why All Devices in Your Home Share One IP Address

From Tech go simple – Today
If you’re like most people, your Internet service provider hands you a single Internet Protocol address and your router shares it amongst all the connected devices in your home. This actually violates the end-to-end principle, which the Internet was designed around. However, there are only so many IP addresses to go around – we’re running out.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

There are less than 4.2 billion available IPv4 IP addresses. In other words, there are more people owning connected devices on the planet than there are unique, public IP addresses for the devices, let alone the fact that many people will own more than one device. The Internet is running out of IPv4 addresses, even though we’re rationing them. The only way we can have so many devices connected to the internet is to do with something called NAT.

In the following article, using a bit of technical ingenuity a sysadmin demonstrates how he can use his android phone as a connection to the internet for several devices routed through his Linux laptop.

Setting up NAT and MASQUERADE for sharing USB Tether connection over LAN

From tuxdna.wordpress.com – Yesterday

I the only source of Internet connection I have currently is my phone. I wanted to share this network with other systems, via a LAN/wireless router. So here is a basic setup: Android Phone with USB…

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

The Laptop, becomes a default gateway for rest of the machines connected to the router – his phone. Given the recent Syrian internet cut off ingenius skills like these may come in handy for those with difficult internet connections. Let me know if you’ve also tried using your phone as a hotspot for the internet. - Juliana

Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 1 of 3

At Superb, we have a staff that is certified in ITIL.

“So, what? What is it? Tell me what it is!”

Just hold on, hold on, whoever you are. Let me get through the introduction. ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library http://www.itil-officialsite.com/WhatisITIL.aspx. It’s used by organizations as large and different as NASA and Disney. Providers who help implement accreditation and consulting for ITIL include IBM and Hewlett Packard.

“Whoop-de-do.”

Sir, please, no heckling. All right, let’s get to it. The man we’ve all been waiting for – well, not really a man, or a woman, but a thing – the Information Technology Infrastructure Library in all its glory. This is gonna be fun.

History of ITIL

“Hey, hey you, with the book-smarts and the highfalutin ideas. You ain’t from around here, are ya? I can tell by all the words and pages and … dag-nabbit, that’s a Europe accent ain’t it? Ooh-ee, I was wondering what was smellin’ so bad around here.”

Calm down sir, and behave yourself. Yes, it’s true: ITIL originated in the United Kingdom. The Central Computer Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), a department of the UK government, came up with a set of standards in the 1980s. These standards were not considered a set of rules but recommendations.

The original reasoning behind ITIL, then, was to offer companies a way to be held accountable and to help improvement IT management for the benefit of businesses, partners, and clients. It offered a freely given set of best management practices for IT so that those practices weren’t just growing independently within private businesses – a central knowledge base and certification process seemed desirable. The end goal was that service was improved as the IT management system was improved.

“Ohhh … I get it. Some kind of government takeover of our minds. I knew it! I knew it! Anytime I see a bunch of capital letters in a row, I go get ready for a shotgun wedding, because I know there are some squirrely men in town.”

Now that’s just not fair, sir. The IT Infrastructure Library was initially issued as a series of books. Each one focused on a different “best practice” area. The basis of the books may have been W. Edwards Deming (no, not the inventor of the modern toilet brush – that’s William C. Schopp … completely different names really), whose plan-do-check-act cycle is a version of organizational modeling for businesses – or any organization or person, really – to use to optimize their systems (discussed below).

ITIL Version 3, released in 2011, is now the standard for any type of ITIL accreditation. ITIL covers a broad range of IT topics, but generally speaking, the service-oriented knowledge is what’s of most interest to businesses, as opposed to application and management focused materials that have also been developed within the ITIL model.

It’s also important to note that ITIL itself does not give out accreditations. All it is is a government-developed system of recommendations that you can either follow or not – up to you. You can, however, become ITIL certified by any of a number of examination organizations that ARE vetted by the HM government via its partner the APM Group.

“HM, as in ‘Her Majesty’?? What, now I’m bowing down to the queen? Can I at least be knighted while I’m on my knees, like Dubya’s dad was?”

Well, uh … you might want to read this article. Also, I don’t think you’re qualified to be knighted, sir, unfortunately, but I’ll see what I can do.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (aka PDCA) Cycle

Let’s look briefly at Plan-Do-Check-Act, so we get a sense of the basic philosophy behind ITIL or at least something with a lot of similarities to its theoretical basis, so we know why it’s so damn awesome.

OK, so the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle is also called the Deming cycle (after Deming, above) or the Shewhart cycle (after Walter Shewhart). It’s a way to model an organization or a piece of an organization that allows for continuous improvement. It consists of course of four steps, but those steps keep continuing, cycling through repeatedly. There’s nothing mandatory about it, it’s just a system you can potentially use if you like.

“Oh, like Driver’s Licenses, I get it. They want my numbers.”

No, it’s nothing like Driver’s Licenses. Come on buddy. With the PDCA cycle model, you do the following:

1. Plan – The plan is, simply put, the activity of getting ready for a change in the organization. Note: The change is by trial, so it won’t have to be correct.
2. Do – Do involves taking a small sampling and seeing if the planned change improves things. Think of test-marketing or beta-testing – but this system also applies internally.
3. Check – This step is essentially analysis. Does it work, or not? The analysis is very important – if the analysis is rigorous and refined, you’re golden. This step is the easiest place for corruption, so Checking must be performed carefully.
4. Act – Go for it. Didn’t work? Start over with planning again.

Note how similar this system is to the scientific method – testing hypotheses (Do) and reviewing outcomes (Check) to determine if your objective (Plan) is correct. It essentially is the scientific method put into different words. Again, the Checking is crucial – it’s easy to think something works or trick oneself into thinking something works that doesn’t.

“Trickery from the state of Mississippi! They all want to build highways to the moon!”

Again sir, you’re making less sense all the time. Remember, this process we’re focusing on is ITIL, which comes out of the UK, not Missisippi. We don’t need your input. I’m not quite sure why you’re a part of the article.

“So it ain’t one-sided, you 1s and 0s bookworm!”

Right, gotcha. Hm, you understand binary … uh, let’s move on.

5 Goals of ITIL

ITIL today – vs. its past broad approach toward service, applications, and management as discussed above – is focused squarely on service and the management of service. ITIL calls itself “practical” and “no-nonsense” – so it’s an organizational IT cycle you can use that has a lot in common with wrinkle-free slacks. ITIL is intended to encompass the way that IT departments and IT professionals go about business.

“Encompass. Sounds like the Eye of Providence on the one-dollar bill to me, staring at me like a cackling witch.”

Uh … no comment. For us at Superb, having an IT staff who knows ITIL parameters means we can know that both our management and support teams are part of a structure that allows our IT services to be truly “Superb.”

Where’d the guy go with his snappy comments?

“I’m fishing.”

Oh, well … all right. ITIL is not one-size-fits-all: it’s an adaptable set of principles. You can customize it to your business. So the theory and principles are what’s important within the ITIL perspective. Application of ITIL will always be a little different depending who’s using it and the setting in which it’s used. The core of ITIL, though, is adaptation and improvement as a continuous cycle, as described above.

ITIL addresses the following through its five modules that comprise the ITIL v3 Service Management framework:

1. Needs/Requirements – This helps a business identify the “demand” for certain IT specifications. (Analogous to Plan of PDCA)
2. Design & Implementation – This is of course where design, development, and similarly active problem-solving come into play. (Analogous to Do of PDCA)
3. Operation – Next you’re putting all the pieces into play. This is the second part of actual systemic testing. (Analogous to Plan of PDCA – Part 2)
4. Monitoring – Here’s where the analysis comes in. A lens is focused on whatever aspect of the organization is attempting change: “Is it working?” (Analogous to Check of PDCA)
5. Improvement – Well, this is the goal. Based on monitoring, either the organization has improved or it’s back to square 1. That’s not a bad thing. It’s crossing out something that didn’t work. Sometimes service management, like anything, is about process of elimination. (Analogous to Act of PDCA)

“Shhh. You’re scaring away the … whatever kind of fish these are.”

That’s a very algae-infested pond you’re fishing in, sir.

“You and your ‘sanitation.’ I bathe when it rains, as does this pond.”

Why ITIL? 5 Reasons

Here are a few of the positive results that can arise from implementation of ITIL certification:

1. Efficiency: Better, streamlined, more efficient IT service.
2. Cost: Lowering the expenses of IT departments and the overall business.
3. Customer Experience: Customers have a better experience – because the system “works” coherently so that everything makes sense to all parties involved.
4. Productivity: The business becomes more productive before there are fewer snags preventing evolution to changes in the business and the market.
5. Employee Optimization: Positive employee attributes – skills and experience – are put to better use. This process allows individuals to flow into the most appropriate positions and tasks.
6. Partner Servicing: Better delivery of any services that are issued by a company outside the organization. This improvement is felt both by the business itself and by its partners. It’s especially applicable in the case of hosting, since that’s a service so integrally connected to its clients’ own businesses.

“In case you’re wondering, I’m taking a nap now. That’s why I’m … you know, it’s sunny out here. So I’m asleep in the hot sun.”

OK … thanks. Goodnight.

Summary & Conclusion

ITIL is part of a general picture for us at Superb Internet. We have a few other auditing and certification standards that help our business have the kind of credibility we want but that also help us see where we can do a better job. We take these standards very seriously.

ITIL itself has adapted considerably since the 80s (which is a good thing!), but it’s still fundamentally concerned with Planning, Doing, Checking, and Acting. In its own terms, ITIL allows a business to Identify needs; Design, Implement, and Operate potential solutions; Monitor the results; and Improve. All of this is a perpetual cycle, allowing the business to grow stronger for itself and its clients over the long haul.

by Kent Roberts and Richard Norwood

How Public WAN IP works

From wirelessvictory.wordpress.com – 1 week ago

When you are connected to the Internet, you actually have two different IP addresses, a private LAN IP and a public WAN IP. In most home network applications the router connects your local group of devices…

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

The router usually assigns unique local IP addresses to all of the devices connected to it via a service known as DHCP. The addresses assigned by your router are private addresses and are not routable across the Internet. Whilst you may be confused or sick of reading yet more acronyms, this article by Wireless Victory is an important foundation of definitions in today’s consumption of all things wireless. Most people probably don’t even realize they have a LAN (Local area network) at home connected by their Wireless Router.  It’s likely that all your family phones are connected as devices, including your iPad, your Digital television, your Wireless Printer, and your Blu-Ray, or Set-top-box digital receiver…

Here’s how to take control of your privacy:

How to Change Your Router’s IP Address | Wireless Home Networking

From blog.laptopmag.com – 1 week ago

By changing your router’s IP address you can give your home network an added layer of Wi-Fi security.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

You’ll want to change one or both of the last two numbers of the IP address in the LAN IP Address field. You can use any integer between 1 and 254, giving you 64,516 possible IP combinations and making it much more difficult for someone to guess your router’s IP address. Why is this important? Well you’ve often heard people hijacking your bandwidth from your ISP, or grabbing cookies that store your login information. By changing your router’s IP address from something that was allocated or generated, you’ve increased the hassle for someone to break through.

SafeIP Hides Your IP Address for Private Browsing, Blocked Media

From lifehacker.com – 7 hours ago

Windows: If you want access to streaming media restricted by your location, web sites that display differently depending on where you are, or just a little privacy, SafeIP can help.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

SafeIP has IP addresses in ten locations, including multiple servers in the US and the UK, and a handful of locations in places like Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Poland, Italy, Germany, and France. Conversely where your IP address identifies your location, you may want to piggyback on a proxy server to cloak your location. Now this is not as nefarious as it sounds. Quite often if you are travelling and this will alert your banking logins to multiple locations, you might want to reduce chances of lockout by setting up expected default proxy locations for you to check in from.

Now, every device has an IP address, it so that we can have end points for sending data when we trigger requests. Your website has an IP address, because it’s located on one server. Your phones, and laptops will have a different class of IP address also.

I hope this collection of recent articles helped you tackle your understanding of IP addresses, let me know if you have more questions you want followed up on in the comments below. - Juliana

I’ve pulled up three very recent articles today on the most up to date rollouts and feature sets of FTP clients, hopefully that can help you determine which one suits your needs best. Whether you are a Mac OS user, a light user like myself, or a heavy user  familiar with Linux/Unix Command Line code.

FileZilla 3.7.0 improves FTP performance

From betanews.com – Today’s news

Open-source FTP client FileZilla 3.7.0 and FileZilla Portable 3.7.0 have both been released. The new build now allows users to view the total transfer speed as a tooltip over the transfer indicators, and replaces the depreciated term SSL with TLS.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

There are a lot of FTP Client Programs available to choose from for you to Transfer files, but one that stands out of the Crowd is “FileZilla” which is an FTP client that works on any operating system. It was started as a computer science project by Tim Kosse and two classmates. They decided to release the code for the public use, and they licensed it. There have been minor updates to the software today that improve it’s security. Continuous rollouts like this I’ve noticed from Filezilla make it a big choice of comfort for users like myself who probably use FTP clients no more than once a week.

If you’re looking for something a little more in-browser friendly, since you may already be maxing out processor usage with high tech desktop client software, then maybe FireFTP is the client for you.

FireFTP is a Powerful Firefox FTP Client You Can Use in Your Browser

From www.makeuseof.com – 3 days ago

If you’ve ever done any sort of web management, then you’ve probably used FTP at some point or another. Most web hosts will have a primitive file uploader than you can use straight from your browser, but those are often a pain in the butt to use.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:
FireFTP doesn’t skimp on its feature set, which makes it a strong and viable alternative to other clients like WinSCP and FileZilla.

I used to be a big user of Firefox, and am also now inclined to use more cloud hosted software that can run from my browser opening up more of my laborsome laptop to more serious software applications. This seems like a great idea to me, except that I haven’t yet found a viable alternative for users that have switched over to Chrome. Please let me know if you find one!

In the meantime, here’s some awesome tips for Mac OS users:

Options for file sharing via SSH in OS X

From reviews.cnet.com – 10 months ago

Apple’s Remote Login feature in OS X can be used for securely transferring files using several protocols. Read this article by Topher Kessler on CNET.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

Topher, an avid Mac user for the past 15 years, has been a contributing author to MacFixIt since the spring of 2008. Topher presents a handy guide with screenshots to show you how you can access your server through the SFTP protocol. As with the SFTP protocol, using the command line to establish the connection may be cumbersome, but fortunately there is a tool called “Macfusion” available that can be used to store common server settings

Please point me in the direction of your favorite FTP clients in the comments below. - Juliana