The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Strategic Storage Decisions
Network Appliance (http://www.netapp.com) recently visited our editorial offices and discussed the storage market. One recent development that will greatly impact enterprises and storage vendors is the November 2004 deadline for compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which requires companies to store records relevant to any audit or financial review for 7 years. SOX legislation is the result of the public's outrage over recent corporate scandals. The penalties for noncompliance are harsh and include holding executives criminally and financially liable. Compliance with SOX requires IT managers and executives to rethink the current storage structure, including reliability, performance, open standards, investment protection, security, scalability, and migration. Choosing a storage platform is suddenly a very strategic decision. NetApp and other vendors are aware of the importance their solutions will have as IT managers and executives make storage-purchasing decisions. NetApp is working hard to educate businesses about its product offerings as well as the consequences of noncompliance with SOX.
Automating Processes with APIs
Compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was a topic that caught my attention in a recent conversation with Chris MacKenzie, vice president of marketing and business development at Biscom (http://
www.biscom.com). Biscom's FAXCOM Suite for Windows--which works with FAXCOM Server and supports Microsoft Exchange Server and SMTP (through Microsoft Outlook)--integrates with workflow, business, and messaging applications through its set of APIs.
Chris told me that Biscom, with its solutions for government and health care, has a lot of experience with compliance. Now that SOX requires all IT shops to retain and archive email and other information, compliance is a key concern in the life of every IT person. Chris said that "Compliance is forcing companies to automate processes," and FAXCOM's APIs facilitate this automation. Biscom has found that, after setting up FAXCOM's audit-trail capability, administrators will spend about 5 percent of their time dealing with compliance.
Need Help with XP SP2?
ScriptLogic (http://www.scriptlogic.com), well known for its client-side, server-side, and Active Directory (AD) solutions that help simplify the ongoing tasks of administering Windows-based systems, recently announced two ways that the company is supporting systems administrators who need to manage the deployment and configuration challenges that Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) presents. First, in early September the company released Desktop Authority 6.0, which includes features that let you enable and disable Windows Firewall, open and close ports to any computer or local subnet, and selectively target and control service pack deployments. "The challenge with Desktop Authority 6.0 was to incorporate the level of granularity and configuration hierarchy required by our enterprise customers without a negative effect on the intuitive interface enjoyed by all our customers," Brian Styles, ScriptLogic founder and chief technology officer (CTO), said. "This release delivers by allowing IT administrators to more closely mirror Desktop Authority's settings to their organization's own unique structure."
Second, ScriptLogic hosts an XP SP2 resource center on its Web site (http://www.scriptlogic.com/Support/XPsp2rc/default.asp) that includes links to TechNet articles as well as news articles and FAQs from a variety of sources. You can also download custom scripts to use with ScriptLogic 5.60 and later and Desktop Authority 5.60 and later to close an open Windows Firewall port, open a Windows Firewall port, and enable and disable the firewall.
Windows Server 2003 x64
In a recent briefing, John Borozan, product manager for the 64-bit versions of Windows Server, and Clyde Rodriguez, the Windows 64-bit lead program manager, shared some of Microsoft's plans for the upcoming 64-bit version of Windows Server. The new version will be named Windows Server 2003 x64 and will run on the AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 processors as well as on the new Intel EM64T processors. Unlike the 64-bit Itanium version of Windows Server, Windows 2003 x64 is feature-complete with the 32-bit Windows Server OS and capable of running 32-bit applications at full speed. Windows 2003 x64 is expected to be available in the first half of 2005, and Microsoft will offer a no-charge OS upgrade to any customer who has purchased 64-bit AMD or Intel hardware and is running the 32-bit version of Windows Server. However, to upgrade, you'll need 64-bit drivers for your NICs and other devices, so check with your device vendors to make sure 64-bit drivers are available.
End of Article
