For a number of years, the security industry built effective defences from security threats using technologies including firewalls, anti-virus software and intrusion prevention systems. However, today, the majority of security threats have moved to the web instead of through email, and attackers’ techniques have matured. This shift, coupled with the proliferation of collaborative Web 2.0 sites, has changed the threat landscape and the way businesses need to think about security. Websense’s Adam Bradley walks us through the changing landscape.

As the new managing director at Cisco Australia and New Zealand, but an old hand at Cisco, it is Les Williamson’s responsibility to help the local arm of the company capture new and emerging market transitions. In that role, he says he is extremely excited to be leading a business at a time of great change, wrought chiefly by the current wave of internet technologies and the incredible productivity benefits they provide.

Telstra Business, which has been headed up by Deena Shiff since 2006, has the distinction of touching more small businesses other than the Australian Tax Office so she understands their needs and her focus is on making sure they get it.

Three Coca-Cola employees were charged with stealing confidential information and samples of a new drink in the hope of selling them to competitor PepsiCo. Information is the lifeblood of the company. Carlo Minassian knows this only too well as he is charged with the security of many companies’ data.

Clearly, improved electrical efficiency within the IT room - the ‘greening of the data center’ - is now a priority. APC’s Gordon Makryllos outlines why data centres are so energy inefficient and offers practical tips that they can use to become ‘green’.

Unified Communications has been the subject of much discussion in recent years with vendors, analysts and the media all putting forward views and predictions. Yet, for many, the profusion of information has simply been confusing and it appears that for now, only those organisations with distributed, remote and mobile workforces seem to be reaping its clear advantages, reports Pushkar Taneja, managing director of GlobalConnect.

No one can deny the way we work has changed dramatically in the past five years. Business requires us to navigate complex inter-company networks of customers, colleagues and partners. Up to now, however, organisations have struggled to truly succeed in adapting collaboration technologies. Cisco’s Peter Hughes elaborates on ways to make these new technologies work for your business.

Instead of succumbing to all the gloom and doom emanating from the global financial crisis, which by some rather alarmist reports will see 100,000 Australian small and medium businesses (SMBs) go down the gurgler, why not look for the opportunities, suggests D-Link’s Maurice Famularo.

The truth is that VoIP technology is really as simple as putting another IP-based application - voice and voice-related services in this case - onto the network. And it does provide cost savings as it enables a method of doing away with the legacy voice network by digitising voice into data so that it can ride on the existing data network. Grant Howe, country manager, ANZ for 3Com, poses the question: so what’s not to love about VoIP? He explains that VoIP’s cost and complexity is really in the licensing.

IT consolidation can reap significant ROI, but how realistic is it for your organisation? Riverbed’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Steve Dixon, looks at the challenges around consolidating and how a WAN acceleration strategy can help.

Global electricity prices have jumped more than 50% in the past five years, right along with a dramatic upswing in data centre energy consumption. Whether the motivation is reducing costs, minimising carbon footprint, or both, many Australian organisations are committed to finding solutions that help improve data centre efficiency. Emerson Network Power’s David Scott uncovers one solution guaranteed to lower your high-density energy bills.

A scant decade ago, packet-filter firewalls were sufficient to protect against virtually all threats coming from the internet. Today, however, the number, variety and sophistication of threats against business networks have multiplied, and firewalls and antivirus software on desktops are no longer sufficient. This has led to the evolution of unified threat management (UTM) solutions, reports Fortinet’s Richard Stiennon.

The topic of sustainability or green IT remains a key focus for everyone in the industry this year. On the bright side, doing business is more accessible than ever before. Advances in technology have reduced transaction costs, created broader access to global markets and advanced technologies, and levelled the playing field among small businesses, large corporations, emerging economies and industrialised nations. IBM’s Mark Latchford tracks the positive changes in sustainable IT.

Cloud computing is becoming an important new tool for IT managers in controlling the cost and complexity of business-critical applications and data. The technology is compelling to enterprises because it allows them to consolidate resources, provision services more quickly and even rationalise costs more effectively with new business models. But there are limitations that often limit the effective gains of a scalable cloud computing model.

Oracle Sun will join IBM, Dell and EMC at Storage Decisions Australia 2010, the premium storage event. [ + ]