How VMware wants to reinvent the SAN

VMware is out with Virtual SAN today, which aims to virtualize the storage layer

VMware has released a virtual Storage Area Network (Virtual SAN), which the company says will usher in a new era of policy-driven and virtual machine-centric storage provisioning.

SANs are typically made of disparate storage components aggregated to create a pool that can be tapped by compute resources. Traditionally, SANs have been set up using external storage boxes which are then controlled by a switch; they’re ideal for dynamic storage needs.

VMware is taking a different approach for Virtual SAN, however. Instead of using external storage arrays that are pooled, Virtual SAN is a software-only product that runs on x86 servers that an enterprise may already have. It creates the shared storage pool out of the internal storage resources of the servers. This means Virtual SAN can be deployed as an overlay approach without the need to invest in new hardware.

Virtual SAN also takes a somewhat novel approach to provisioning the storage. Traditionally, SANs have worked by setting up Logical Unit Numbers (LUN) or other connections between the storage and the compute. Instead, Virtual SAN is integrated directly in with the kernel of VMware’s ESX hypervisor. That allows virtual machines to dictate how much storage they need and then the Virtual SAN software automatically provisions it.

Users set templates or policies related to how much storage their VMs can request, how fault tolerant the storage should be (and therefore how many copies of it there will be) and what sort of performance it requires (solid state versus hard drive). Then, when the VM is spun up, Virtual SAN automatically provisions the necessary storage within the parameters of the policies that have been established.

Simon Robinson, research vice president for storage at the 451 Research Group likes the idea. “Our research has been telling us for years that IT and storage managers are pretty tired of all the complexity involved in managing storage - managing LUNs, volumes, RAID levels, etc., and server virtualization makes it even more so,” he says. “For organizations that are well down the virtualization path, having a VM-centric way of managing their storage makes a lot of sense.”

Virtual SAN has been in development for three years and in beta for about a half year, since VMware announced it at VMWorld 2013. In that time 12,000 customers have signed up for the beta. Ryan Hoenle, director of the non-profit Doe Fund, is a VMware compute virtualization customer and has been testing Virtual SAN in its DR platform. “It’s really a no-brainer when the hypervisor you want to use also includes this virtualized storage,” he says. Virtual SAN allows the Doe Fund to have redundancy where Hoenle needs it and not pay for redundancy where he doesn’t. “We get that same sort of flexibility from a storage perspective that we gained from a compute perspective when we went to VMware.”

VMware isn’t alone in taking this policy-driven and hypervisor-integrated approach to a SAN. Robinson notes that there are a variety of startups doing this as well, but they take a slightly different approach. Companies like Nutanix and SimpliVity offer converged infrastructure systems which combine other features such as deduplication, compression and sophisticated snapshots into their platforms, for example. Some startups also enable multi-hypervisor support. But, one advantage to VMware’s Virtual SAN is that it is “baked in” with existing VMware tools. “Virtual SAN represents a major validation of this approach, and that will be good for all players,” Robinson says.

With Virtual SAN, VMware is finishing off the trifecta of its software defined data center (SDDC) strategy. The company is already clearly established in the compute virtualization market with a leading platform there. It bought Nicira and is working on its network virtualization strategy. Storage can be thought of as a last frontier for VMware to conquer, and Virtual SAN is a piece of that strategy.

VMware spokespeople say that they don’t expect Virtual SAN to replace an existing SAN or NAS (network attached storage); they see it as a complementary platform that is especially helpful for use cases such as disaster recovery, test and development, and virtual desktops. It’s generally available starting today, priced at $2,495 as stand-alone software.

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Network firewalls aren't dead yet

After 20-plus years of service, the technology remains a core part of the IT security stack despite its long predicted demise

Phil Cummings says network firewalls will continue to be a critical piece of Health Information Technology Services -- Nova Scotia security portfolio for one simple reason: nothing's come along to replace them.

For the past 15 years, Cummings, a security administrator at HITS-NS, has been responsible for managing the enterprise firewalls that are used to protect the 20,000-user network the company manages for the Nova Scotia government.

Over that time, Cummings has seen firewalls evolve from relatively rudimentary tools for blocking threats at the network edge to sophisticated, policy-based, traffic filtering and intrusion prevention systems.

"We see firewalls becoming more than just a block" on the network, Cummings says. "We see a lot of perimeter firewalls taking more of an enforcement role in protecting the desktop" and mobile devices.

Networks firewalls are seen by some observers as an anachronism in an industry obsessed with the latest and shiniest security tools. Networks firewalls aren't sexy. They've been around for more than 20 years, plugging away as the threat landscape changes beyond recognition.

But rather than fading away like respectable mature technologies should, firewalls have stubbornly remained a vital part of enterprise security stacks.

For one thing, they still offer a reasonably strong first line of defense against an array of threats. Despite talk by some experts that perimeter technologies have become useless against modern malware, firewalls do block a lot of junk that would otherwise inundate enterprise networks. The technology continues to be critical in enabling network segmentation and in ensuring critical business and corporate systems are separated.

For most companies, a firewall is the only device that is designed and deployed inline as part of the network infrastructure. It remains in the best position to filter and regulate traffic flowing into the corporate network.

Firewalls have also evolved over the years to become a 'Swiss-army knife' of security technologies. A growing number of firewalls now integrate capabilities previously found in separate, standalone security devices.

Gartner says such emerging firewall technologies will eventually "subsume" mainstream deployments of new intrusion prevention system (IPS) appliance technology over time.

Not bad for a technology that some had predicted would have faded away by now.

Vendors such as Palo Alto Technologies -- whose products are used at HITS-NS -- embody next generation firewall technology.

Founded in 2005 by a former Check Point Software Technologies engineer, Palo Alto is now one of the hottest security companies. Palo Alto is bankrolled by some of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capitalists and has 65 of the Fortune 100 companies on its list of 16,000 customers.

Palo Alto's firewall products are considerably different from the stateful inspection firewalls of the past that basically gave companies a choice of blocking something entirely at the perimeter, or letting it all through.

Palo Alto firewalls are application aware, said Lee Klarich, senior vice president of product management.

Instead of blocking Skype or Facebook entirely, companies can use Palo Alto's firewall products to control what users can do with these applications. Want to enable Webex, but only for a select set of users? Palo Alto has an app for that, Klarich says.

"What we would say first and foremost is our platform is designed to safely enable applications" instead of blocking them due to security concerns," Klarich said. "We go way beyond a traditional firewall."

The products natively integrate firewall, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention and URL filtering functions and enable visibility and control over everything flowing into and out of a corporate network.

"Newer firewalls have more identity and application functionality built in," says Pete Lindstrom, principal at Spire Security.

Along with permit/deny functions for connections on different network ports, the latest firewall technologies also include functions for monitoring applications running on Internet ports 80 and 443, he said. That's a big deal at a time when a lot of Web applications and malware use the same entryways into the corporate network.

"It allows administrators to know what is going in and out the front door," Cummings says. "And because you know what is going on, you can assess the risk and control it."

The key is that next-generation firewalls can enforce contextual access controls based upon users, applications, locations, time-of-day and other factors, said Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Security Group. Think of new firewalls as network security services, he says.

"These services won't go away but may morph into different physical and virtual form factors. What enterprise organizations really want is central control and distributed policy enforcement across all network security services -- physical, virtual and cloud-based. Think single pane-of-glass control," Oltsik said.

Several other firewall vendors, including Check Point, Fortinet and Juniper, have taken a cue from Palo Alto and are rushing to market with newfangled firewalls that offer a set of integrated capabilities.

Each of the companies are moving along at a different pace, but they already have the full attention of enterprises and of investors, if their market capitalizations are any indication.

"The modern firewall must be flexible in deployment and serve as a platform for security services," said Michael Callahan, vice president of product marketing at Juniper Networks. In the next few years expect to see firewalls incorporating diverse sets of threat intelligence information from the cloud and within a network. Such data will be used to actively defend against attacks in real-time, he said.

Callahan says pointing to new "intrusion deception" technology built into the Juniper's latest firewalls. The technology, gained from its $80 million acquisition of Mykonos in 2012, is designed to identity and stop malware attacks both early in the process and after a network is penetrated.

"By leveraging visibility into endpoints, internal network traffic and the network edge, the technology can detect malware in places where other [products] cannot," Callahan said.

Over the next few years, new generation firewall technologies are likely to be integrated even further into the enterprises. Even advances like software defined networking are unlikely to diminish the need for firewalls, argues Jody Brazil, founder and CTO of security vendor FireMon.

"Nowhere have I seen anyone say that this increased move toward automation will eliminate the need for firewalls," says Brazil. "In fact, just as we've seen with virtualized networks, there will be an increased demand for firewall technologies to support both existing processes and some of these newly emerging models."

Trends like SDNs will not lead to the demise of the firewall but will reemphasize the need for them, he predicts. "Firewalls may not be sexy but they [are] the underlying backbone of all IT security infrastructure. And that's not changing anytime soon, if ever," Brazil said.

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Businesses told to lockdown Bitcoin wallets against malware threat

Malware designed to steal digital currency from Windows PCs has risen with Bitcoin value since beginning of last year, says studyBusinesses considering accepting Bitcoins or other forms of cryptocurrency should be prepared to battle a rising number of malware aimed at emptying digital wallets.

[Why security pros should care about Bitcoin's troubles]
That's the takeaway from a new study by SecureWorks, computer maker Dell's security unit. Researchers found that the number of malware targeted at stealing cryptocurrency from Windows PCs increased along with the rise in value of Bitcoin since the beginning of 2013.

As of January of this year, SecureWorks had identified on the Internet 100 unique families of malware capable of stealing wallet files or digital currency from users' exchange accounts. The increase in the number of cryptocurrency-stealing malware made it "one of the fastest-growing categories of malware," the study said.

While Bitcoin is not the only type of cryptocurrency, it is the most popular and the most valuable. The price has ranged from a high of roughly $1,150 in early December to a low of $420 Feb. 25. Bitcoin's price on Thursday was about $565. Other digital currencies include Namecoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, PPCoin and Mastercoin.

The recent shutdown of Mt. Gox, which once had the largest market share of all digital currency exchanges, highlights the risk of cryptocurrency traded over the Internet. The Bitcoin exchange closed this month after cybercriminals stole $400 million. The heist is under investigation by U.S. federal authorities.

The rising popularity of digital currency has led to its adoption by retailers. Overstock.com became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoins, and industry observers expect others to follow. The site SpendBitcoins lists many places on the web where people can spend their digital currency.

To protect the digital wallets used in conducting transactions, SecureWorks researchers recommend the use of a "split wallet," which has a portion of the file on the computer connected to the Internet and the rest on a system with no network connection.

The file kept on the Internet-enabled system would let the business track its running balance and perform transactions with customers. On the offline system is the private key for authorizing a transaction before it is transmitted.

Electrum is an example of a split wallet done through software. Examples of hardware-based products include Hardware Wallet and Trezor, which plans to release its product soon.

By using the proper security, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of accepting digital currency, Pat Litke, security researcher for Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit, said.

"It's simply a matter of understanding how to do it safely, and that's where the general population falls short," Litke said.

[Ransomware like Cryptolocker uses Bitcoin, other virtual currencies for payment]
The SecureWorks study found several categories of PC malware targeting digital currency. One form searched an infected system's hard drive for the typical file names used for wallets, such as "wallet.dat." The file was copied and then sent to a remote server.

Another malware family would set up a man-in-the-middle-like attack in which the address of the recipient in a transaction is altered, so the money goes into the thief's account.

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Gigabit Internet Service Providers Challenge Traditional ISPs

Gigabit Internet Service Providers Challenge Traditional ISPs

Last fall, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute published a study examining high-speed Internet prices around the world. Compared to its international neighbors, the bulk of the United States pays higher prices for slower services than the majority of the planet.

Internet access itself is only part of that cost. Comcast and AT&T, for example, charge monthly fees for modems, routers and additional wiring (along with cable boxes, remotes and recording equipment for cable customers), which almost doubles the advertised monthly cost. Internet service providers can do that because, apart from a handful of spots in America, the competition is severely limited, if not nonexistent.

That could change, experts say - and Google's high-speed, low cost, gigabit Internet service deserves the credit.

Google Fiber By the Numbers: Better, Faster, Cheaper
Google Fiber costs $70 per month, or $120 per month for an Internet/TV bundle, with installation fees up to $30 installation. Google says it's 100 times faster than the average cable Internet connection. Compared to what other services list on their websites, Google Fiber is 22 times faster than AT&T's best offering, 10 times faster than Comcast's and 3.3 times faster than Verizon's top choice - and it costs 24 times less than AT&T, 15 times less than Comcast and 10 times less than Verizon.

Google Fiber is even cheaper than ISPs' slowest connection options. Comcast's slowest plan, at 6 Mbps, costs $8.33 per megabit, while AT&T's comparable package is $7.67 per megabit! Google's gigabit plan is 167 times faster but cost only $.07 per megabit.

What's more, Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen has argued that Americans don't need high speed Internet because they can't handle it. (Time Warner agrees.) According to Cohen, even if Comcast could deliver gigabit service like Google Fiber's 1 Gbps), most customers couldn't access those speeds because of insufficient equipment. (He neglected to mention that Google provides its high-speed compatible equipment to all customers at no additional costs, along with a free Nexus 7 tablet, unlike the additional monthly fees Comcast charges for its equipment.)

Forrester communications and networking analyst Dan Bieler says Google Fiber increases Google's leverage in negotiations with carriers regarding connectivity provisioning. Clearly, the carriers and cable providers want to retain a major role in the connectivity provisioning. If Google builds its own networks to the home and business users, carriers risk losing customers to Google.

"Google Fiber has forced the competition to take a closer look at the need to roll out 'real' broadband at a reasonable price," Bieler says. This will happen in areas with "high purchasing power and a high business density, but it's less likely in rural areas, where fiber investments aren't always as easy to justify. "Competition for fiber will increase," Bieler says, "but not everywhere."

Ian Keene, research analyst and vice president at Gartner, agrees: "High bandwidths of 100 Mbps and above will only be available in the large cities for the foreseeable future."

Telecommunications firms and cable multiple-system operators (MSOs) are competing to get fiber closer to subscribers, Keene says. Telcos have mixed feelings about fiber into the home. Some bring fiber closer, using existing copper to provide broadband, since the emerging G.fast copper standard can deliver 500 Mbps services. Others swallowing the capital expenses needed to install new cables and equipment in the home. Finally, along with competition, government broadband initiatives are driving improved services, he says

Gigabit Internet Arriving, Slowly But Surely
Google Fiber - installed throughout Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo., with Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah next on the list - isn't the only gigabit Internet provider in the United States. The ranks vary, too, from ISPs to electric companies to municipal governments, all offering services for a fraction of the cost of cable. This suggests that competition is coming from all corners.

Chattanooga, Tenn., can thank its electric company, EPB, for its 9-county service area. EPB needed its systems to monitor and communicate with new digital equipment - but the nation's biggest phone and cable companies said they couldn't do it for another decade or more. So EPB became the sole ISP for Chattanooga, also referred to as Gig City, and now manages 8,000 miles of fiber for 56,000 commercial and residential Internet customers. The service costs about $70 a month (compared to $300 a month before EPB stepped in).

In addition, the Vermont Telephone Co. has brought gigabit Internet to Burlington, the state's largest city, and Springfield, the town where it's headquartered. CTO Justin M. Robinson says "it's certainly not without concern" being among a handful of companies providing gigabit Internet, "but we like to think what we are doing on a small scale here in Vermont could be replicated in a thousand different places across the country or, perhaps, even expanded to become a nationwide goal."

Vermont Telephone's gigabit Internet rollout is part of a larger project, funded in part by the federal Broadband Initiatives Program, that's also upgrading the state's voice telephone switch, adding an IPTV video head-end and deploying a 4G/LTE wireless network to most of the state, Robinson says.

According to Robinson, the goal is to build fiber to all 17,500 Vermont Telephone customers. Approximately 3,500 homes and businesses have been converted so far, with broadband penetration for those converted exceeding 80 percent. The IPTV video service, built using the former Microsoft Media Room platform, which Ericsson recently acquired, is in a trial phase.

One of the most compelling reasons for the gigabit Internet rollout, Robinson says, was the realization that significantly higher throughput has only a minor effect on total usage but still improves customers' experience.

"They can access data more quickly and perform multiple tasks at once," Robinson says. "My wife can watch a movie on Netflix and browse Reddit while, at the same time, I remotely connect to the office ... listen to streaming music from Pandora and download the latest [game] from Steam in the background.

"At GigE speeds," Robinson continues, "the worry about bandwidth disappears. The bandwidth is always available and waiting for the customer, instead of the customer waiting for the bandwidth."

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The 12 most powerful IT security companies

It’s not just revenues and size; influence counts, such as when a company makes widely-used software that gives them control over the security architecture of vendors and users; and certainly, excellence matters--some security vendors just keep getting high marks from independent test organizations and analysts year and year.

Symantec is the top vendor in terms of worldwide IT security-product revenues, dominating in endpoint security and messaging, according to research firm IDC. Steve Bennett was named CEO of Symantec in 2012.

Cisco is the top vendor in network-security gear, especially firewall and web security, says IDC. With the acquisition of Sourcefire last year, Sourcefire founder Martin Roesch took on the leadership role at Cisco of president and chief architect of Cisco’s Security Business Group.

Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, acquired security firm McAfee (the second-largest vendor in terms of IT security products) three years ago, and is now re-branding all things “McAfee” into “Intel Security” as it continues to pursue Intel’s “hardware-assisted security”” strategy. Brian Krzanich was named CEO of Intel last year.

According to IDC, IBM has pushed into third place in worldwide enterprise security revenue, dominating in identity and access management as well as security and vulnerability management. IBM is considered to be in third place in “server security” and “network intrusion detection and prevention.” Brendan Hannigan is general manager of the IBM Security Systems Division

Influence counts: Apple’s design of the iOS platform with its app-checking requirement subjects apps to a security review, though not everyone likes this closed-source model. But most acknowledge it has held down the problem of malicious apps and code. Apple’s interest in mobile payments processing could take it yet further into security.

VMware’s success in enterprise virtualization means that when it comes up with security plans related to its virtual-machine software, it has a huge impact on what other security vendors do on the VMware platform—whether they like it or not. VMware’s latest integrated security strategy is NSX, directed by Martin Casado, CTO for networking and security at VMware.

Both admired and scorned over the years for its security efforts, Microsoft started the once-a-month tradition of “Patch Tuesday” in 2003 for releases of software updates for its products, an event that doesn’t go unnoticed due to Microsoft’s market share. Microsoft, ranked among the top 15 IT security vendors in terms of revenues by IDC, has grown savvier over time, working more closely with security researchers, and is now known for its aggressive effort to take down crime botnets operated worldwide that have seized control of vulnerable computers.

Oracle's acquisition of Sun in 2010 gave it control over the Java framework and all the good, bad and the ugly of Java patch updates and security advisories.

Though it did give its customers some heartburn last year with a notoriously bad anti-malware update release, Kaspersky Lab consistently receives top marks year after year in independent anti-malware test evaluations for the effectiveness of its security software. Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO and chairman of the privately-held company he founded in Moscow, is a globe trotter who speaks his mind on issues ranging from botnet crime to cyber-espionage.

Gartner is the IT consultancy whose “thumb’s-up, thumb’s down” verdicts on IT products and services can make the biggest security vendors enraged or exultant, depending on each Gartner “Magic Quadrant” report. Gartner’s security analysts, including Neil MacDonald, Greg Young, Avivah Litan, Paul Proctor and Lawrence Orans, are among those influencing vendor product and service development and enterprise adoption.

As the official point for Android open-source code, Google plays a major role in guiding the security architecture of mobile devices based on it. In Google search, “Google hacking” techniques can be used to locate vulnerable websites. And with its cloud-based applications and large user base, Google infrastructure is a target of government cyber-espionage and hackers. All this means Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt can find his day filled with security and privacy controversies worldwide.

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11 best places to take a techie on a date

11 best places to take a techie on a date
Not too late to plan a Valentine’s Day extravaganza

For Valentine’s Day, drag your techie sweetheart off the couch and into the real world. We’ve looked across the U.S. for a sampling of the best spots to mix romance and geekiness.

Bell Museum of Natural History: Birds & the Bees (Minneapolis)
Reservations are required for Valentine’s Day night: “The great outdoors are indoors at the Bell Museum making it the perfect place for an intimate Valentine's Day picnic with your special someone or friends. We're turning the lights down for this evening event among the dioramas and focusing on the "birds and the bees" —quite literally in fact! Enjoy special honey bee programming and the opportunity to tour Audubon and the Art of Birds, Birds & DNA and From the Field.”

Computer History Museum (Mountain View)
If you’re in Silicon Valley and have had enough of the young social media tycoons and their inventions, go old school and take a trip back through the history of computing at this museum. The History of Computer Chess, Revolution: The First 2000 years of Computing and the Hall of Fellows are among current exhibits worth checking out. Here’s a handy 1-hour tour guide if you want to combine the visit with other activities.

The Shire of Montana (Trout Creek)
No kids allowed at this resort that features Hobbit houses intended to whisk you away to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Loved to Death shop (San Francisco)
This shop in the Haight-Ashbury district started out as an art endeavor making Victorian-theme anthropomorphic taxidermy dioramas, but has evolved into much more than that, as fans of the Science Channel’s “Oddities: San Francisco” program can attest.

Mapparium (Boston)
Walk inside a three-story stained glass globe across a 30-foot glass bridge. Better than It’s a Small World at Disneyworld. This globe is located at the Mary Baker Eddy Library near Northeastern University. This activity will take less than an hour. If you’re really into maps, check out the map room at the Boston Public Library and if you’re really into globes, the 25-ton outdoor globe at Babson College, 20 miles west of Boston.

Museum of Science Fiction (Washington, D.C.)
OK, we hate to be a tease, but this museum doesn’t actually exist yet. But it could! Head over to crowdfunding site Indiegogo and lend your support to the creation of this planned nonprofit mecca for sci-fi.

IMAX movies (many locations)
So you don’t live in one of the big cities highlighted so far: How about visiting a local IMAX theatre and checking out a Hollywood or educational film (yes, mutually exclusive). This site has listings for IMAX theaters around the country.

Pinball Hall of Fame (Las Vegas)
Take a break from the ringing and lights at the casinos and check out the ringing and lights at this one-of-a-kind tribute to arcade games of the mostly past. For 25 or 50 cents per play, we’re smelling a very cheap date at this 10,000 square foot facility.

DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park (Orlando)
Five floors of virtual worlds, 3D encounters and classic video games. Attractions include Cyberspace Mountain and a Virtual Jungle Cruise.

National Museum of Mathematics (New York City)
This museum surely gets overshadowed by the Empire State Building and Central Park, but how can you resist a place that caters to those aged 105 to 5? Not to mention the Square-Wheeled Trike, Hyper Hyperboloid and coaster rollers.

Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
It’s pretty hard to pick just one museum of science, as there are many good ones across the country and many are being more and more interactive. And while a lot of exhibits are geared more for kids than dating adults, there’s typically something for everyone. At the Chicago museum, for instance, you can see a German submarine, a futuristic sustainability game and artifacts from Walt Disney’s collection.

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IT inferno: The nine circles of IT hell

IT inferno: The nine circles of IT hell
The tech inferno is not buried deep within the earth -- it's just down the hall. Let's take a tour

Spend enough time in the tech industry, and you'll eventually find yourself in IT hell -- one not unlike the underworld described by Dante in his "Divine Comedy."

But here, in the data centers, conference rooms, and cubicles, the IT version of this inferno is no allegory. It is a very real test of every IT pro's sanity and soul.

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How many of us have been abandoned by our vendors to IT limbo, only to find ourselves falling victim to app dev anger when in-house developers are asked to pick up the slack? How often has stakeholder gluttony or lust for the latest and greatest left us burned on a key initiative? How many times must we be kneecapped by corporate greed, accused of heresy for arguing for (or against) things like open source? Certainly too many of us have been victimized by the denizens of fraud, vendor violence, and tech-pro treachery.
Off the Record submissions

Thankfully, as in Dante's poetic universe, there are ways to escape the nine circles of IT hell. But IT pro beware: You may have to face your own devils to do it.

Shall we descend?
1st circle of IT hell: Limbo
Description: A pitiful morass where nothing ever gets done and change is impossible
People you meet there:Users stranded by vendors, departments shackled by software lock-in, organizations held hostage by wayward developers

There are many ways to fall into IT Limbo: When problems arise and the vendors start pointing fingers at each other; when you're locked into crappy software with no relief in sight; when your programmers leave you stranded with nothing to do but start over from scratch.

You know you're in Limbo when "the software guys are saying the problem is in hardware and the hardware guys are saying the problem is in software," says Dermot Williams, managing director of Threatscape, an IT security firm based in Dublin, Ireland. "Spend eternity in this circle and you will find that, yes, it is possible for nobody to be at fault and everyone to be at fault at the same time."

A similar thing happens when apps vendors blame the OS, and OS vendors blame the apps guys, says Bill Roth, executive vice president at data management firm LogLogic. "Oracle says it's Red Hat's fault, while Red Hat blames Oracle," he says. "It's just bad IT support on both sides."

Michael Kaiser-Nyman, CEO of Impact Dialing, maker of autodialing software, says he used to work for a nonprofit that was locked into a donor management platform from hell.

"The software took forever to run, it only worked on Internet Explorer, it crashed several times a day, and was horribly difficult to use," he says. "The only thing worse than using it was knowing that, just before I joined the organization, they had signed a five-year licensing agreement for the software. I wanted to kill whoever had signed it."

Organizations also find themselves in Limbo when their developers fail to adopt standard methodologies or document their procedures, says Steven A. Lowe, CEO of Innovator LLC, a consulting and custom software development firm.

"Every project is an ordeal because they've made it nearly impossible to learn from experience and grow more efficient," he says. "They spend most of their time running around in circles, tripping over deadlines, yelling at each other, and cursing their tools."

How to escape: "When you're digging a hole in hell, the first thing to do is stop digging and climb your way out," says Roth. That means making sure you have the tech expertise in house to solve your own problems, going with open source to avoid vendor lock-in, and taking the time to refactor your code so you can be more efficient the next time around.

2nd circle of IT hell: Tech lust
Description: A deep cavern filled with mountains of discarded gadgets, with Golem-like creatures scrambling to reach the shiny new ones at the top
People you meet there: Just about everybody at some point

The circle of tech lust touches virtually every area of an organization. Developers who abandon serviceable tools in favor of the latest and greatest without first taking the time to understand these new frameworks and methodologies (like node.js or Scrum), thereby preventing anything from ever getting done. Managers who want hot new gizmos (like the iPad) and invent a reason why they must have them, regardless of the impact on the IT organization. Executives who become fixated on concepts they barely understand (like the cloud) and throw all of an organization's resources behind it in the fear of falling behind the competition.

"In reality, we all visit the circle of lust now and then," says Lowe. "The problem with tech lust is the accumulation of things. You can get so mired in 'we can't finish this project because a new tool just came out and we're starting all over with it' that nothing ever gets done."

How to escape: It is difficult to break free from the circle of tech lust, admits Lowe. "We all love shiny new things," he says. "But you have to know what's good enough to get the job done, and learn how to be happy with what you have."

3rd circle of IT hell: Stakeholder gluttony
Description: A fetid quagmire filled with insatiable business users who demand more and more features, no matter the cost
People you meet there: Demons from sales and marketing, finance, and administration

This circle is painfully familiar to anyone who's ever attempted to develop a business application, says Threatscape's Dermot Williams.

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