ISI Announces Snapshot/Process Security Engine Software Discovers Thousands of Discontinued Servers Still Running on Client’s IT Infrastructure
Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) March 27, 2014 -- Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. (ISI), a leading provider of IT infrastructure assessment and optimization software products and services, announced that during a follow-up inventory scan, Snapshot/Process Security Engine (PSE) software detected thousands of discontinued servers still running on a client’s network, posing a serious network security risk.
A major U.S. media company used Snapshot software for an enterprise-wide server consolidation project. The goal was to reduce their power consumption by one megawatt due to restrictions at a key U.S. data center. The project was successful and Snapshot identified and proposed an action plan to consolidate several thousand servers to reach the desired power savings.
However, a follow-up inventory scan using Snapshot/PSE discovered that over 4,000 of the servers the client thought they had taken out of service were, in fact, still powered up and running. This oversight was costing the client much of what they thought they had saved in power usage and these servers continued to require software licenses that had counted as project savings.
In addition, having thousands of “out of service” servers still connected and running on the client’s network was a security risk because they were not being managed as tightly as needed. For example, security patches and operating system updates were not being applied. These types of lapses can provide openings for hacker penetration.
The regularly scheduled use of Snapshot/PSE allowed the client’s IT management to see that the discontinued servers were still in operation and allowed them to take appropriate steps to insure the company shut them down—minimizing the security risk and achieving the desired savings.
“If the client did not have a plan in place to use Snapshot/PSE for follow-up scans, this error may not have been discovered for a long time,” said Willard (Bill) Cecchi, President, ISI. “Snapshot/PSE provides another layer of defense by validating that intended changes were completed correctly, as well as identifying hardware and software changes. It gives clients a fast feedback mechanism, since scans can be run as frequently as desired, for all the changes occurring on their networks, letting them quickly identify unwanted changes. In this case, the client was missing out on substantial cost savings while putting the security of the network at risk.”
Cyber-security threats are increasing as quickly as businesses can implement measures against them and any penetration is extremely costly. Snapshot/PSE quickly and accurately scans the entire infrastructure to detect device and software changes, and sends alerts when changes are found.
ISI solutions have been used to help public and private clients—across a wide range of industries—with infrastructure planning, security, and performance optimization. To learn more about ISI or its software, or to request a demo, visit http://www.isiisi.com or email sales(at)isiisi(dot)com.
About Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. (ISI)
Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. (ISI) is based in St. Paul, Minnesota and has been providing leading software solutions to enterprise IT organizations worldwide through distinguished international channel partners, including IBM and Cisco Systems, Inc. ISI products help organizations manage IT security and performance optimization. For more information, visit http://www.isiisi.com.
Andrea Young, Infrastructure Solutions, Inc., http://www.isiisi.com, 949-981-5555, [email protected]
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