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News

Exciting News: We’re Now ISO27001 Certified!

Posted on by wpdc
ISO 27001 Certified
14
May

We are thrilled to announce that we have achieved <strong>ISO27001</strong> certification!

This prestigious certification is a testament to our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of information security.

As a managed service provider specializing in managed cloud and managed security services, we’re dedicated to offering the safest and most reliable services to our clients.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Trust us to be your IT backbone, cloud, and security services with certified excellence.</p>

News

Join Us at the National Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition 2024!

Posted on by wpdc

We are delighted to announce we are participating at the upcoming <strong>National Manufacturing &amp; Supply Chain Conference &amp; Exhibition</strong>, taking place on <strong>May 28th and 29th, 2024</strong>, at RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin.

DNA IT Solutions is an award-winning managed services provider, dedicated to ensure your business operates at its best performance, by saving time, resources and software costs.

We are presenting on both days of the conference.

&nbsp;
<p class=”uppercase”><strong>Event Highlights:</strong></p>
<strong>Tuesday, 28th May: Presentation by Adrian Kelly, Sales and Marketing Director, DNA IT </strong>

Adrian will deep dive into the <em><strong>transformative power of AI in enhancing application and infrastructure performance</strong></em>, offering insights and strategies to leverage AI for optimal business outcomes.

Stage &amp; Booth Info: MedTech Stage, Booth Y2

<strong>Wednesday, 29th May:</strong> <strong>Fireside Chat with Robert Kelly and Adrian Kelly</strong>

Duration: 30 minutes

Robert Kelly: Managing Director of Heart Rhythm Ireland

Adrian Kelly: Sales &amp; Marketing Director of DNA IT Solutions

<em><strong>Discussion Topic: </strong></em>Why MedTech Business Heart Rhythm Ireland Chose the IBM Cloud Platform

This engaging fireside chat will explore the reasons why Heart Rhythm Ireland selected the IBM Cloud platform to operate their business in the MedTech industry.

&nbsp;
<p class=”uppercase”><strong>Visit Us at Booth Y2</strong></p>
We invite you to visit our booth, Y2, conveniently located in front of the MedTech stage. Our team will be there to chat to you more about how our award-winning, cloud-centric managed services can support your organization’s growth and operational efficiency. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about our innovative solutions and how we can help your business thrive in today’s technology-driven world.
<p class=”uppercase”><strong>Connect with Us</strong></p>
We look forward to seeing you there and engaging in meaningful discussions about the future of IT and business success. For booking time with us in advance at the show: <a href=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>

For more information about the event and to register, please visit <a href=”https://www.manufacturingevent.com/register/”>https://www.manufacturingevent.com/register/</a>

Stay connected with us on social media for updates and insights leading up to the event!

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-6441″ src=”https://www.dnait.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Navy-and-Yellow-Modern-Small-Business-Expo-Facebook-Post-1.png” alt=”” width=”940″ height=”788″ />

News

Defense in Depth (DiD): Think Like a Hacker (with E-Book)

Posted on by Sean Lucas
7 ELEMENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE DEFENSE IN DEPTH STRATEGY
30
Nov

Cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to bypass security defenses. That’s why it’s essential to think like a hacker and adopt measures to stay ahead of them. This is what Defense in Depth (DiD) is all about.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines DiD as “The application of multiple countermeasures in a layered or stepwise manner to achieve security objectives. The methodology involves layering heterogeneous security technologies in the common attack vectors to ensure that attacks missed by one technology are caught by another.”

In simple terms, DiD is a cybersecurity approach in which multiple defensive methods are layered to protect a business. Since no individual security measure can guarantee protection against every attack, combining several layers of security can be more effective.

Before you start your DiD journey, it’s crucial to stay informed about the changing threat landscape.

9 threats to protect your business against

While there are numerous threats that businesses like yours must be aware of, let’s look at some of the most common.

  1. Ransomware 

Ransomware is a type of malware that threatens to disclose sensitive data or blocks access to files/systems by encrypting it until the victim pays a ransom. Failure to pay on time can lead to data leaks or permanent data loss.

  1. Phishing/Business email compromise (BEC) 

Phishing involves a hacker masquerading as a genuine person/organization primarily through emails or other channels like SMS. Malicious actors use phishing to deliver links or attachments that execute actions such as extracting login credentials or installing malware.

Business email compromise (BEC) is a scam that involves cybercriminals using compromised or impersonated email accounts to manipulate victims into transferring money or sharing sensitive information.

  1. Cloud jacking

Cloud jacking, or hijacking, entails exploiting cloud vulnerabilities to steal an account holder’s information and gain server access. With more and more companies adopting cloud solutions, IT leaders are worried about cloud jacking becoming a significant concern for years to come.

  1. Insider threats 

An insider threat originates from within a business. It may happen because of current or former employees, vendors or other business partners who have access to sensitive business data. Because it originates from the inside and may or may not be premeditated, an insider threat is hard to detect.

  1. Denial-of-Service/Distributed Denial-of-Service (DoS and DDoS)

These attacks are common and easy to carry out. In a DoS or DDoS attack, hackers flood the targeted system with multiple data requests, causing it to slow down or crash.

  1. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) hacks

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are trending topics within the IT world for their path-breaking applications. However, AI and ML help hackers more efficiently develop an in-depth understanding of how businesses guard against cyberattacks.

  1. Internet of Things (IoT) risks and targeted attacks

IoT devices are a favorite target of cybercriminals because of the ease of data sharing without human intervention and inadequate legislation.

  1. Web application attacks

Vulnerabilities within web applications permit hackers to gain direct access to databases to manipulate sensitive data. Business databases are regular targets because they contain sensitive data, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and banking details.

  1. Deepfakes

A deepfake is a cyberthreat that uses artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate audio/video content that can deceive end users into believing something untrue.

Get up and running with DiD

To keep sophisticated cyberthreats at bay, you need a robust DiD strategy. Your strategy should involve layering multiple defensive methods, like firewalls, intrusion prevention and detection systems, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and more, to build a security fortress that’s hard to crack.

DiD is an undertaking that requires time and effort. That’s why collaborating with a partner like us who can implement and maintain your DiD strategy while you focus on your business is ideal.

If you want to learn more about how DiD can help protect your business, download our free eBook “7 Elements of an Effective Defense in Depth (DiD) Security Strategy.”

Download the full article as a pdf

News

7 Elements of an Effective Defense in Depth Strategy

Posted on by Sean Lucas
7 ELEMENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE DEFENSE IN DEPTH STRATEGY
22
Sep

WHAT IS DEFENSE IN DEPTH (DiD)?

With cyberattacks growing in frequency and sophistication, businesses like yours are susceptible to data breaches now more than ever, irrespective of their size and industry. As you grow digitally and handle increasingly greater volumes of sensitive data, cybercriminals are constantly looking for ways to penetrate your defenses.

To effectively defend your business against today’s sophisticated threats, amplifying your organizational security is critical. With that in mind, adopting a Defense in Depth (DiD) strategy could be exactly what you need to improve your cybersecurity posture and keep malicious cyberthreats at bay.

In simple terms, DiD is a cybersecurity approach in which multiple defensive methods are layered to protect an organization. Since no individual security measure is guaranteed to endure every attack, combining several layers of security is more effective.

This layering approach was first conceived by the National Security Agency (NSA) and is inspired by a military tactic of the same name. However, in IT, the approach is intended to prevent an incident and not delay it, as in the military.

Remember not to confuse DiD with another cybersecurity concept called layered security. While layered security uses different security products to address a particular security aspect, such as email filtering, DiD is more comprehensive and includes multiple security measures to address distinct threats related to the entire IT infrastructure.

KEEP AN EYE ON THESE THREATS

All businesses, irrespective of their size and industry, can fall prey to malicious
attacks. Listed below are 23 cybersecurity threats you should be aware of:

Malware (abbreviated from malicious software) is a generic term for viruses, trojans and other dangerous computer programs used by cybercriminals to severely damage an IT environment or gain access to business-critical data. These programs may propagate via email attachments, website downloads or by exploiting the gaps in your operating system or other software.

Ransomware is a type of malware that threatens to disclose sensitive data or blocks access to files/systems, most of the time by encrypting it until the victim pays a ransom amount within a stipulated deadline. Failure to pay on time can lead to data leaks or permanent data loss. Even if you pay, there’s no guarantee that you will recover your lost data or won’t be exploited in the future.

Insider threats originate from within the targeted business. They could be past workers, suppliers or other business partners who have access to critical business data and computer systems, and they knowingly or unknowingly misuse their access. An insider threat is challenging
to identify since it comes from within the organization.

These attacks are common and easy to implement. When DoS or DDoS attacks happen, hackers flood the targeted system with a high volume of data requests, causing it to slow down, crash or shut down. An abrupt slowdown or unavailability of a website or service is the most evident sign of a DDoS assault.

Credential theft involves the unlawful acquisition of information that an individual or business uses to access websites and sensitive data. Credential theft lets hackers reset passwords, lock the victim’s account, download private data, gain access to other endpoints within the network or even erase sensitive data and backups.

Phishing is a type of social engineering attack in which hackers appear as reliable sources to trick victims into opening phony emails or SMSs so they can penetrate those networks. Business email compromise
(BEC) is a scam where cybercriminals
use compromised or impersonated email accounts to manipulate victims into transferring money or sharing sensitive information.

Cloud jacking, or cloud hijacking, is a type of attack where cybercriminals exploit cloud vulnerabilities to steal the information of an account holder to gain server access.

A MITM attack takes place when an unauthorized entity breaks into a company’s network and behaves as part of the network. It’s a form of eavesdropping in which the attacker intercepts the entire conversation and controls it from the inside. Hackers do this to capture and manipulate sensitive personal information in real-time, such as personal login information, account details and credit card numbers.

A DNS attack is a threat in which the hacker exploits vulnerabilities in the DNS protocol. This is a significant problem in cybersecurity because DNS is a vital component of the IT infrastructure. Hackers often target the servers that host domain names in DNS attacks. In other instances, these attackers will aim to identify flaws in the system and exploit them for their own gain.

Botnets are networks of hijacked, interconnected devices that are manipulated for scams and cyberattacks. A botnet attack is usually conducted by sending spam, stealing data, exploiting sensitive information or launching a vicious DDoS attack.

Hackers use a victim’s computing power to secretly and illegally mine cryptocurrency. Cryptojacking can target individual users, big enterprises and even industrial control systems (ICS). Whatever the method of transmission, cryptojacking code usually operates covertly in the background as unwitting victims use their devices as usual.

This cyberattack aims at stealing classified data from a corporate house or the government for financial, political or competitive advantages. Most cases of cyberespionage are classified as advanced persistent threats (APTs). An APT is a sophisticated cyberattack in which a hacker infiltrates a network without being discovered to acquire critical information over an extended period.

AI and ML help hackers become more efficient in developing an in-depth understanding of how businesses guard against cyberattacks. Using machine learning, hackers can tailor phishing emails to avoid bulk email lists and optimize them to encourage engagement and clicks. To give the interaction the best possible legitimacy, hackers even generate realistic images, social media personas and other content using artificial intelligence.

The adoption of IoT is undoubtedly on the rise. However, due to unregulated data exchange and insufficient legislation, IoT has become a favorite target for cybercriminals. Threat actors’ ability to harm not only the network and software that enable IoT devices, but also the devices themselves, is a significant source of concern regarding the security of IoT devices.

Vulnerabilities within web applications allow hackers to gain direct access to databases to manipulate sensitive data. Business databases are regular targets because they contain sensitive data, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and banking details. Common web application attacks include DDoS, SQL injections, path traversal, cross-site scripting and local file inclusion.

An APT is a sustained and sophisticated cyberattack in which a malicious actor gains access to a network and continues undetected for a prolonged duration. Most of the time, it aims at stealing data rather than damaging the IT environment. These persistent attacks are frequently orchestrated by nation-states or criminal cartels.

SQL injection is a code injection technique in which hackers place malicious code in SQL statements. This technique can destroy a database. A successful attack might lead to the illegal access of user lists, the deletion of entire tables and, in some circumstances, the attacker obtaining administrative rights to a database.

Zero-day exploits are cyberattacks aimed at vulnerabilities that a software vendor has not yet fixed or patched. By exploiting such an unpatched vulnerability, these attacks have a significant chance of success and are tough to protect against by using outdated security tools.

Spyware is software that, if installed on your computer, stealthily monitors your online behavior without consent. It can gather information about an individual or business and transfer that data to other parties. You can protect your business from spyware by using defenses like secure email and web gateways, automatic software patch management and regular employee awareness training on security.

Identity theft is a type of fraud in which a cybercriminal creates a fake account/profile like a genuine one in order to carry out scams like money laundering. Synthetic identity theft is a form of identity theft in which scammers combine real and fake information to create a new false identity. Most often, the crimes frequently go unreported or unobserved until the fraudster commits any fraud.

A software vulnerability is a flaw present within software or in an operating system (OS). They can enter your network through various channels, some of which are the fault of the software vendor and others that are the fault of the user. Almost all software will have vulnerabilities in one form or another that must be fixed before cybercriminals rush to exploit them.

A deep fake is a cyberthreat that uses artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate audio/video content that can deceive end users into believing something untrue. To make their messages seem more credible, scammers now leverage AI to create realistic looking user profiles, photographs and phishing emails.

The initial overlaying of 5G technology will be over the existing 4G LTE network. Because of this, there will be vulnerabilities that the new technology will inherit from its predecessor.

DEFEND AGAINST THREATS BY IMPLEMENTING A DiD STRATEGY

You can categorize DiD into three security control areas:

Your business’s policies and procedures fall under administrative controls. Make sure to document your policies and procedures to ensure that the security guidelines are available and adhered to. Whether it’s employee onboarding protocols, data processing and management procedures, information security policies, vendor risk management, third-party risk management frameworks or information risk management strategies, you should have clearly defined policies for all.

Your business’s hardware or software intended to protect your systems and resources falls under technical controls. Examples of technical controls are firewalls, configuration management, disk/data encryption, identity access management (IAM), vulnerability scanners, patch management, virtual private networks (VPNs), intrusion detection systems (IDS), security awareness training and more.

Anything aimed at physically limiting or preventing access to your IT systems falls under physical controls. Examples are fences, keycards/ badges, CCTV systems, locker rooms, trained guard dogs and more.

7 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF DiD

Here are seven key elements that must be a part of your DiD strategy:

1

FIREWALLS

A firewall is a security system comprising of hardware or software that can protect your network by filtering out unnecessary traffic and blocking unauthorized access to your data. Other than blocking unwanted traffic, firewalls can also prevent malicious software from infecting your network. Firewalls can provide various levels of protection, so you must select the level of protection your business needs.

2

INTRUSION DETECTION AND
PREVENTION SYSTEM (IDPS)

IDPS monitors your network traffic, evaluates it and provides instant resolution whenever it spots any malicious behavior. Additionally, it monitors your network for any anomalies around the clock, and it notifies the stakeholders and blocks attacks if any suspicious activity is discovered.

3

ENDPOINT DETECTION AND RESPONSE (EDR)

EDR solutions operate by constantly monitoring endpoints to find suspicious or malicious behavior in real time. This is effective against internal and external attacks and is powered by innovative technologies such as machine learning.

4

NETWORK SEGMENTATION

When you divide your business’s network into smaller units, you can monitor data traffic between segments and safeguard segments from one another. Additionally, by automating the process, you can restrict unauthorized entities from accessing vital information.

5

THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST PRIVILEGE (PoLP)

PoLP is a cybersecurity idea in which you provide users only the access they need to carry out their tasks. You can safeguard privileged access to resources and data that are important to your business by using this information security best practice.

6

STRONG PASSWORDS

Poor password hygiene, including the use of default passwords like “1234” or “admin,” put your business at risk. Equally risky is the habit of using the same passwords for multiple accounts. It’s essential to have strong passwords and an added layer of protection by using practices such as multifactor authentication (MFA).

7

PATCH MANAGEMENT

Poor patch management might leave security holes that can expose your company to cyberattacks. Do your employees manually patch software updates or deal with the hassles of outdated on-premises patch management solutions during working hours? It’s time to transition to automated patch management if you want to increase security and boost employee productivity.

News

Data Centres

Posted on by Sean Lucas
How a data centre works DNA IT
30
Aug

With words such as flexible and scalable, a data centre solution should be tailor made to fit your requirements. Storage should be cost effective with you only paying for what you need, when you need it. Welcome to this introduction to data centres brought to you by DNA IT Solutions. This guide is one of a series that we hope will be useful to give you an insight into what you can do to help make the right IT decisions.

What is a Data Centre?

A data centre is more than a facility used to house computer systems it can be the brain of company. Most critical processes are run in the data centre so it is important that your choice of data centre meets your requirements. A data centre houses servers, storage devices, cables and a connection to the internet and allows your IT infrastructure to function efficiently.

We have come a long way in the past 80 years from when a single computer would fill a complete room. In the modern office today our IT equipment is more powerful than ever. In any sizeable organisation there is a need for a dedicated area to store and manage the IT hardware. In smaller businesses that may result in a ‘server room’ within the building itself or as a company grows it will evolve to using an external data centre.

The Brain of the Business

This data centre facility will be the place where the organisations IT operations are centralised. It will be a place that stores and manages data that is crucial to the day to day workings of the business. A data centre will provide a cloud solution for the organisation where they can run systems and store data with great flexibility and scalability. It really is the choice for the modern enterprise with ambition for growth.

Secure

The security of the data centre will be of concern and that is why we only offer solutions that are tried and tested and up to our high standards. The right environment must be in place to protect from theft and ensure protection of hardware.

The building itself must be secure and well protected to prevent unwanted visitors. It should provide an environment that has proper cooling systems in place to prevent overheating and keep temperature and humidity at consistent levels. Data centres need great power to operate and systems in place should power fail. We would also expect procedures in place for natural disasters such as fire, flood or storm.

There will be critical hardware and software on the premises so backups are vital. We would expect the onsite team to have both the expertise and the experience to perform the tasks necessary.

Technicians and maintenance staff will need access to the server rooms but that should be tightly controlled. Security systems that include biometric access, perimeter control and video surveillance systems will be standard in the data centres. An effective data centre will have invested in both the facility and the equipment housed to ensure a robust security system.

High Standards

Standards need to be high for a modern data centre and it would be expected to provide:

Always Available

Organisations need 24-hour access to information for 365 days a year. Downtime is not an option for most business so we should expect Uptime to be over 99% and as near to 100% as possible. A company needs its IT systems at all times so it is vital that there is guaranteed availability of cloud applications running in the data centre. This level of performance is both expected and achieved by the partners we work with.

Power Uninterruptible Power Sources including battery banks and generators should be in place in the event of a power failure occurring. The UPS will ensure that the power remains constant without any breaks. It will compensate for fluctuations in voltage and frequency and protect the sensitive computer electronic components and systems. Data centres will also have a redundant power supply. This enables repairs on one network without having to turn off servers, databases, or electrical equipment.

Environment

Data centres need the correct internal environment control. This includes computer room air conditioners, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and exhaust systems. The many processors and electronic components will naturally generate heat and if this is not dissipated there is a danger that they could fail. The correct cooling equipment must be in place to prevent this and the power to run this is considerable. Normally the cool air is blown through holes in the floor and it flows around the racks in a measured way to counteract the heat from the servers. The warm air is then removed by the air conditioning system

Equipment

A data centre will be a building filled with equipment and that hardware should be of a high quality and fit for purpose. Equipment for IT operations and storage of the organisation’s data including servers, storage hardware, cables and racks. It should be of the correct specification and kept up to date and properly maintained. The operations team within the centre will physically monitor operations at all times.

Hybrid

Sometimes an organisations needs are a little more complex and this is where hybrid can be the solution. A business can now put in place a combination of third party, cloud based and on-premises services that are flexible. Different data can be deployed depending on what the organisation needs and certain data can be given extra layers of security. Again, this is flexible and can move and change as the business develops.

Modern Enterprise

As technology moves on and data centres evolve there is a need for knowledge to make the right decisions for a business. With growth being the main objective of most businesses, having the IT infrastructure can be an enabler to access new markets and launch new products.

Shifting from an on premise situation to a multi-tenant data centre can seem like a daunting prospect but that is where we come in. DNA IT Solutions work on projects for businesses like yours every day of the week. We take an extensive overview of your business requirements so we can make sure your transition is smooth and with the minimum of downtime. We are there for you through the process and beyond.

If your servers are old, if you are considering moving some or all of your systems to a data centre then you should talk to us. DNA IT Solutions work with businesses that are interested in ensuring their IT infrastructure is ready for growth. We not only work with you to give the technology for today, we also plan with you for the future.

News

Cloud Services

Posted on by Sean Lucas
Hybrid Cloud & your business DNA IT Solutions
30
Aug

There are many advantages in moving to the cloud including both flexibility and scalability.

There can be significant cost savings if you choose the right option for your business. That is why it is critical to make the right decision.

We have helped many organisations with their transitions, we know businesses like yours and we can make the change straightforward.

Our range of services address your requirements at any stage of your cloud journey:

Cloud Design & Transitioning Planning

Cloud is not just a solution for meeting storage needs. Progressive companies are transitioning to the cloud in order to use new technologies.

READ MORE

Capacity Planning & Workload Analysis

Capacity planning is the process that determines the IT infrastructure that is required to meet future workload demands.

READ MORE

Infrastructure Design & Transition

At DNA IT Solutions we have the ability to meet all your networking requirements, no matter how comprehensive or complex your IT infrastructure.

READ MORE

 

Our Cloud Partners

We partner with all the major cloud providers to ensure that you have the best options available to you.

A true enterprise grade network and architecture that offers total data sovereignty. With datacentres that are linked together and spread across the world IBM offer security and total compliancy.

READ MORE

 

Microsoft Azure Cloud

Microsoft Azure is a growing collection of integrated cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy, and manage applications through a global network of data centres.

READ MORE

 

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally.

READ MORE

Case Studies

Cloud Computing Case Study – Marie Keating Foundation Concert4Cancer

Posted on by Sean Lucas
16
Nov

 

Established by the Keating family in 2001, the Marie Keating Foundation is one of the leading voices in Ireland for cancer prevention, awareness, and support. Their services are committed to being there for people diagnosed with cancer, and their families at every step of this cancer journey. Through their information and support services, they reach thousands of people a year, giving education, information and advice focused on cancer prevention and early detection, as well as providing support services and financial assistance to those living with and beyond cancer.

DNA IT provides a comprehensive IT managed service for the Marie Keating Foundation and runs their day-to-day IT management.

As their traditional fundraising was shut down by COVID-19, in August 2020 the Marie Keating Foundation introduced a televised event to help raise funds to continue to provide their support services. This was the first “Concert4 Cancer” and although well received, the first 2hour telethon event was impacted by technical issues on the crucial night when the concert was live on TV and the public were trying to donate to the organisation via a donate page on the web site. The volume of traffic hitting the site was simply far too much for the underlying infrastructure to cope with and so there was prolonged downtime for several minutes at a time, when people were trying to donate – they got a web page hanging and couldn’t contribute. This really affected the level of donations received on the night and had the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of badly needed donations that the foundation receives.

So, when planning the 2021 Concert4Cancer, the issue of how well the web site’s infrastructure could cope with a very high spike in visitors over a couple of hours had to be addressed. However, due to a combination of factors and the impact of the COVID crisis – the team planning the event had less time to plan the fine detail of the technical aspects of this year’s events. As a result – the website provider realised their hosted web servers would not be adequate to run the website for the televised event and the risk of the site crashing was too high, with a bigger TV audience anticipated this year, over the original one in 2020.

DNA IT got a call from the Marie Keating Foundation to see if we could help and provide a high-performance website infrastructure for the event; the problem was there was only seven days to go the live event! 

Project Description

When the technical architect in DNA looked at the requirement and talked to the website providers, he quickly realised what was being asked was going to be impossible to do within the time frame allowed using a conventional IT Solution.

Using the traditional IT infrastructure model, we would have had to design the architecture to run in the Marie Keating Foundation’s existing IT environment. To spell out the basics of what this would have involved:

  • We would have to decide on all the technical elements involved – the servers / compute power needed, storage, the networking required – switches, routers, additional firewall capacity, cabling etc.
  • Then we would have to order all these components from distributors and wait for them to arrive.
  • When they all arrive – rack them and install them (assuming the space was available in the existing rack, otherwise we would have to buy a new rack!
  • Then we would have to send technical engineers on site to physically set up the new environment; build the servers, test everything and then go live. This would have taken at least 7-8 weeks, assuming no delays in the supply chain and no networking problems.

 

Obviously – given the time frame we had to work with, this option was not going to work, so we turned to our IBM Cloud environment instead.

DNA IT are a strategic partner of IBM in Ireland and we are one of their primary Cloud partners between Ireland and the UK. We provide a full managed Cloud infrastructure service to many of our customers who now run all or part of their IT systems in our IBM Cloud environment. We provide both multi-tenant and dedicated bare metal environments for our customers, as well as IBM public Cloud services where required.

So, we had to design and build a high performance, highly available clustered web server environment in our IBM Cloud, complete with load balancing and enterprise grade networking and firewalls for security. This had to be able to withstand an extraordinary number of hits on the web site and deliver a seamless performance, or consumers will leave the page and not come back.

One of the main challenges was trying to assess what level of hits the site needed to be able to withstand. There was very little real site traffic hit telemetry available and besides, what was available was relating to the previous year, and this year we were anticipating a much larger audience – so knowing what level to set this performance at was difficult.

In the end, we opted for a cautious approach, better safe than sorry with a live TV event – and the system that we built could take two million hits over the two hours of the live TV broadcast and we knew that even then we would be comfortable. If the server did encounter a technical problem and failed, the workload would seamlessly fail over to the redundant servers in the cluster to carry on. In the event of a datacentre outage the servers were replicated in real time to a second datacentre, so if required, this redundant datacentre could have been made live within 5 minutes, however this was not required during the event.

Outcome

Within five days, the technical team in DNA IT had designed, built and thoroughly tested a high-performance web site infrastructure that would be able to handle a TV fundraising event of any scale up to a million hits per hour.

The Concert4Cancer ran successfully on Virgin Media One TV on the night of Friday the 27th of September.

The web site infrastructure worked perfectly and there were no performance issues whatsoever. The average page load time on the night was 1.6 seconds.

The high-performance Cloud infrastructure was stood down following that event weekend and the Marie Keating Foundation website now runs on the normal web hosting servers that are used day to day. It can be re-created again for the 2022 Concert for Cancer and now that we know how well it worked for this year’s event, we have a head start in terms of planning for the 2022 event.

Declan Hussey, MD of DNA IT Solutions said, “This project demonstrates the incredible power and flexibility of the Cloud in a real-life situation. What was achieved in such a short space of time demonstrates very clearly what Cloud technology can deliver to an SME, in combination with a partner like DNA IT, who has the skills and experience to deploy this kind of complex solution, at very short notice,” he said.

Liz Yeates, CEO of the Marie Keating Foundation said, “we are truly grateful to our longstanding IT partners DNA IT Solutions who came to our rescue at our hour in need this August. Given the challenges we faced with COVID 19 with all our traditional fundraising events curtailed, we became very reliant on the Concert4Cancer as a way of raising funds to keep our cancer awareness and support services going. By providing the high-performance cloud infrastructure, we could rest assured that donors coming to our website to donate would not have technical issues despite the heavily increased volume of traffic within the two-hour period. Thank you so much to all the team at DNA, we really appreciate your ongoing support of our Concert4Cancer.”

 

To make a donation to the Marie Keating Foundation click here:

Donate Money

 

News

So, what’s stopping businesses going to the Cloud?

Posted on by Sean Lucas
IBM Cloud
24
Sep

Even though Cloud computing is not a new idea and by now every business is using some form of Cloud technology service; on a global level, it is estimated that about 80% of critical computing workloads are still run on-premises, with hardware that a company owns and manages itself.

In our experience we find that most companies are interested in the Cloud and many have already tried to use the Cloud, but there is a lot of factors holding back further Cloud adoption. Migrating to the Cloud is often hampered by confusion about what options are available and where to start.

Here are some of the most common ones:

  • Hidden costs of using Cloud services are a major problem – by now, many businesses have had a bad experience of Cloud being more expensive than they had anticipated and there’s always horror stories out there about different company’s bad experiences.
  • Unpredictable costs – in particular, the egress fees that can catch people out. This is when the costs of drawing data out of the Cloud environment is much higher than anticipated and can make the entire Cloud solution uneconomical.
  • Confusing pricing models – in fairness, some of the pricing models of the public Cloud vendors is designed to bamboozle the customer and funnily enough, always tends to favour the vendor if costs are higher than expected. The problem can be that whatever pricing model is in place at the start, changes to the environment can lead to massively unexpected hikes on the fees and we have seen several customers who tried to run an application in the Cloud and ended up taking it back onto traditional server infrastructure again, as the costs simply went through the roof.
  • Vendor lock-in – this is a real problem for some Cloud services, because the more bespoke a solution is, and the more complex, it can often heavily rely on specific tools that the Cloud vendor has in place. The problem is that in many cases this leads to a situation where the customer is “locked in” to that particular Cloud service and moving is going to be very difficult, complex and costly.
  • It can be hard to differentiate between one public Cloud or the other. Choosing which one to work with is difficult for some customers as the vendors are often perceived to be all offering pretty much the same thing.

Time for a better approach.

The IBM Cloud has been developed through learning from the mistakes and shortcomings of the first generation of Cloud providers. It’s designed from the core to take on the more difficult enterprise applications and so called “legacy” systems, which were designed in the era of traditional IT infrastructure, and do not always work well in the Cloud environment.

DNA IT chose to partner with IBM as our primary Cloud provider as we could see first-hand, the challenges that many customers had in the market.

We have found that what businesses really need from an MSP offering Cloud services are things like clear, predictable costs – so that IT budgets can be realistic and financial planning is meaningful and flexibility to react quickly to changing business requirements.

To give a recent example – one of our customers in the charity sector was holding an annual televised fund-raising concert and for the space of a weekend they need to host a web page where people could visit to donate during the concert or indeed in the days that followed. This short-term web site was going to be getting huge visitor traffic with very unpredictable spikes in demand over the course of the weekend and during the first live TV broadcast. DNA IT were able to spin up a high performance, highly resilient, clustered web server environment in the IBM Cloud and have it built and tested, ready for the TV concert – all within a week. Once the event has passed, the environment can be stood down and the customer will not need this level of performance for any of their systems until the same event in a year’s time. This is a great example of the power, speed, and flexibility of the Cloud. You simply couldn’t dream of moving that fast with your own infrastructure in-house, and even if you could, the costs would be astronomical and way out of reach for businesses in the SME sector.

Security is on everyone’s minds now and for good reason. Customers need to feel that moving to the Cloud isn’t going to undo their security posture. They need a Cloud environment where security is by design, not an afterthought as it usually is. Right from the start, security must be first and foremost on the minds of the technical team building the Cloud systems for the customer. This is critical; all too often we have seen that security only comes into the picture at the end of the project, and people try to make something secure that’s already designed and built, rather than having security built-in from the start.

Cloud providers are not security companies, they just provide an infrastructure – whereas IBM is the only global Cloud provider that is also a leading global security company. You really feel the difference in this when you’re designing a Cloud architecture – the emphasis on security is there from the start.

The future of Cloud technology is based on the idea of IT being flexible and able to offer real competitive advantage to businesses. It must enable customers to grow their businesses and be able to react quickly to changing circumstances. Going to the Cloud cannot mean that the customer is locked in and has less control and freedom than they had in the old traditional model.

It is no surprise to us that the IBM Cloud is growing so rapidly and is now the 3rd largest Cloud provider in the world. It has enabled DNA IT to deliver Cloud services without the problems of the first-generation Cloud providers. Customers get the benefit of the Cloud’s flexibility and scalability, but with security services built into the design from the start, fixed monthly costs with no surprises for the Finance director, no punitive egress fees, and the freedom to migrate workloads easily, anywhere you like, should your needs change.

 

Adrian Kelly is the Sales and Marketing Director of DNA IT Solutions.

Case Studies

DNA Customer Case Study – TM Blinds’ Journey to the IBM Cloud

Posted on by Sean Lucas
11
Sep

T.M. Blinds Limited is a member of the multinational Hunter Douglas group of companies since 1999. TM Blinds are the market leader in Ireland in the supply of window blinds to the retail industry.

The company employs 120 people at its manufacturing site in Newcastle, Co Dublin. The company manufactures to the highest quality standard and daily. They operate a Just in Time (JIT) supply chain and work to a very efficient 48 hour turn around target for inbound orders.

DNA IT Solutions have been working with TM Blinds as their IT managed services provider since 2007.

Initially the IT environment was a traditional environment comprised of all physical servers hosted on-premise. The primary technology comprised of Novell Netware, Exchange 5.5 and Microsoft SMB server 2003, with the group ERP platform being Microsoft AXAPTA.

As the business grew more and the demands around IT became more complex, with ever more importance of no downtime and greater security threats, DNA and TM Blinds recognised the need to evolve and utilise more enterprise-class technology.

Utilising best in class technology for the time, DNA designed and implemented a new highly resilient IT infrastructure using VMware for server virtualisation. The new environment also consisted of a SAN with 10 TB of storage and a multi-node virtual machine environment with 20 virtual servers and Active Directory replacing SMB server.

This new infrastructure was hosted on-premise and was designed, implemented and managed by DNA. It was fully operational by 2012 and worked very well since being rolled out.

By 2017, the IT infrastructure was coming to end of life and again, DNA sat down with the management team of TM Blinds and began planning for what the next iteration of the IT environment would look like.

Due to the scale and growing importance of IT in the business, both TM Blinds and DNA felt that Cloud technologies needed to be looked at as part of the future IT strategy.

DNA presented two strategies to TM Blinds – one that continues with the existing model for IT and refreshed the infrastructure every five years or so. The second strategy looked at the Cloud option and considered all the major vendors in this space.

The financial realities of operating in the Cloud were considered very carefully as this often proves to be a problem with Cloud deployments. Sometimes the costs of operating from Cloud environment are more expensive than in-house. As with most organisations, ensuring the financial impact of migrating to the Cloud would also be a positive one, was a critical point of consideration for TM Blinds.

The outcome of the solution development workshop was that of all the Cloud platforms, the business case for the IBM Cloud was the best option – both technically and commercially. The IBM Cloud provides world class data centre facilities and enterprise levels of resilience and security.

The entire migration process was completed in under five months and went live in January 2019.

The IT infrastructure is now operated on a purely “On Demand” model, in which the IT compute power scales to whatever is required by the business, with no hardware refresh cycles and the capability to expand rapidly, without having to buy new hardware etc.

Philip Casey, Financial Controller of TM Blinds said, “Moving to the IBM Cloud gave TM Blinds more options in every sense regarding IT and made things far more efficient in the long term. Our entire IT infrastructure is now run on an OPeX basis, so there is no waste and we are only paying for what we use, which is ideal for us.”

 

 

News

Tech Excellence Awards 2019

Posted on by Sean Lucas
02
May

We’re delighted to announce that DNA IT Solutions are shortlisted in two categories in the 2019 Tech Excellence awards.

Project of the Year – SME

This award is given to reward a project that demonstrates outstanding technical excellence in the Irish SME Sector

DNA have been shortlisted for the IBM Cloud migration project we completed for Blue Insurance.

Cloud Partner of the Year

We are also shortlisted in the category of Cloud Partner. This award recognises companies with outstanding services and standards of excellence in Cloud services. DNA have been shortlisted for the work we have done with IBM in the past three years as an IBM Cloud Partner.

For more information on the awards, click here: https://techawards.techcentral.ie/