The Cloud Configuration Era: Why IT Departments Must Get It Right in 2024 and Beyond

December 11, 2024 by Cloud Ogre

For 2024 and 2025, one of the most critical challenges in IT is configuration—or, more accurately, misconfiguration. As businesses race to adopt cloud-based systems, ensuring proper configurations is no longer just important—it’s essential. Let’s coin a term for this era: Cloud Configuration.

The reason is simple: with security being offloaded to major cloud vendors, IT departments must focus on configuring systems correctly. From firewalls to wireless access points, most modern hardware is accessible and manageable via cloud portals. These portals are the keys to your company’s security and efficiency. Securing them with tools like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Single Sign-On (SSO) is non-negotiable. After all, a single misconfigured portal can compromise your entire organization.

The Complexity of Cloud-Based Applications and Updates

Today, businesses rely on an ever-growing number of cloud-based applications. These apps are updated constantly, sometimes without the knowledge of IT teams. Managing this perpetual stream of updates and ensuring that every change is properly configured is a daunting, never-ending battle.

Take firewalls as an example. Configuring firewalls at the application layer isn’t just about security—it can significantly improve network efficiency. But keeping up with updates, integrations, and changes in cloud platforms like Microsoft Power Platform or security systems can leave IT teams overwhelmed. How do you manage this constant, ongoing battle?

This is where system integrators come into play.

The Role of Integrators in Cloud Configuration

Let’s talk about the broader business technology industry and its relationship with IT departments. Large organizations often turn to system integrators like CloudOgre for their expertise. Why? Because vendors, such as Microsoft, RingCentral, or even Amazon Web Services (AWS), are great at selling products but often lack the hands-on integration expertise businesses need.

Integrators bridge the gap. They attend calls, meetings, and events with cloud vendors to stay ahead of the curve—something that internal IT teams often don’t have the bandwidth to do. By staying up-to-date on the latest updates, maintenance windows, and emerging technologies, integrators provide a single point of contact with total system expertise.

In addition, many vendors incentivize integrators with margins, ensuring that these third-party experts are compensated for the value they provide. This model benefits businesses because it gives them access to a trusted advisor who knows how systems behave in real-world environments—not just in white papers.

The Real Cost of Misconfiguration

Here’s a fact: misconfigured systems are the leading cause of vulnerabilities. Whether it’s a firewall left open, an outdated API, or a neglected cloud setting, these small errors can lead to massive breaches. And let’s not forget human error—users, whether malicious or just negligent, are a serious threat if systems aren’t properly configured to stop them.

Properly configured systems are about more than security. They also:

Increase productivity by automating repetitive tasks.
Reduce manual processes, freeing up IT teams for strategic work.
Provide actionable insights through dashboards and analytics tools like those in the Power Platform.

The Future of AI in Cloud Configuration

The future of cloud configuration lies in artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Microsoft CoPilot. While building AI models is important, the real value lies in democratizing AI. Helping companies configure AI tools like CoPilot, IBM Watson, or others into their cloud systems to create efficiencies will be the game-changer for businesses.

The sheer number of SKUs that Microsoft offers is dizzying. Each SKU has slight differences, and updates roll out constantly. Internal sales reps can sell products, but integrators know the “delta” between SKUs and how to make them work in the real world. For example:

How do you configure CoPilot in a way that maximizes productivity while ensuring compliance?
How do you use Power Automate to create workflows that reduce manual tasks without introducing new risks?

Conclusion: Configuration is King

For IT departments in 2024 and beyond, configuration is king. Misconfigurations are the root cause of most vulnerabilities, inefficiencies, and frustrations. By partnering with integrators, adopting tools like Microsoft CoPilot and the Power Platform, and staying vigilant with cloud configurations, businesses can position themselves for success.

The era of Cloud Configuration is here. Will your business rise to meet it?

Supporting References:

Gartner Study: “Through 2025, 99% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault, primarily due to misconfigurations.” (Gartner)
Microsoft Power Platform Insight: “Microsoft Power Automate users report a 15% reduction in manual processes within the first six months.” (Microsoft)
IBM Security Report: “Misconfigured cloud settings accounted for over 20% of breaches in 2023, making it one of the top five vulnerabilities.” (IBM Security)

How Hackers Exploit Public Information to Impersonate Government Agencies

June 10, 2024 by Cloud Ogre

In the evolving landscape of cybercrime, hackers continuously refine their techniques to exploit vulnerabilities and deceive individuals. One particularly insidious method gaining traction involves the use of publicly available information to social engineer attacks, often by impersonating legitimate government agencies. This tactic preys on the inherent trust that individuals and businesses place in official institutions, making it alarmingly effective. A recent example includes hackers spoofing the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) telephone number to defraud patent applicants.

Understanding the Tactic

Social Engineering Defined

Social engineering attacks manipulate individuals into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security. These attacks often involve psychological manipulation, leveraging human trust and the perceived legitimacy of the attacker’s identity.

The Role of Public Information

Hackers utilize publicly available information to craft convincing narratives. This information might include phone numbers, email addresses, and even details about ongoing transactions or processes. Government agencies, with their extensive online presence and numerous interactions with the public, are particularly vulnerable to such exploitation.

Case Study: USPTO Spoofing Scams

The Scam Unveiled

In recent incidents, hackers have been spoofing the USPTO’s telephone number to target patent applicants. These scammers call applicants, informing them that a fee related to their patent application did not go through. They then request payment via credit card or wire transfer to rectify the supposed issue. Given the importance and complexity of patent applications, many victims comply without hesitation.

Execution of the Scam

Research and Preparation: Hackers gather detailed information about the USPTO and its interactions with patent applicants. This includes understanding the typical processes, timelines, and fee structures.
Spoofing the Number: Using readily available tools, hackers spoof the USPTO’s official phone number, making the call appear legitimate on the recipient’s caller ID.
Crafting the Narrative: During the call, scammers use industry-specific jargon and reference actual aspects of the patent application process. This makes the request for payment seem authentic and urgent.
Extracting Payment: Victims, eager to resolve the issue and avoid delays in their patent process, provide their credit card information or wire funds directly to the scammers.

Preventive Measures

For Individuals and Businesses

Verify Directly: Always verify requests for payments or sensitive information directly with the government agency using official contact information from their website.
Be Skeptical of Urgency: Scammers often create a sense of urgency to bypass rational scrutiny. Take a moment to question the legitimacy of urgent requests.
Educate and Train: Regular training on recognizing social engineering attacks can empower individuals to spot and avoid such scams.

For Government Agencies

Public Awareness Campaigns: Agencies should proactively inform the public about common scams and how to recognize them.
Enhanced Security Measures: Implementing more robust verification processes for sensitive transactions can help reduce the risk of fraud.
Monitoring and Response: Actively monitor for signs of spoofing and other fraudulent activities, and respond swiftly to protect the public.

Conclusion

The exploitation of publicly available information by hackers to impersonate government agencies is a growing threat. By understanding the tactics used and implementing preventive measures, both individuals and institutions can better protect themselves against these sophisticated social engineering attacks. Remaining vigilant and informed is crucial in the ongoing battle against cybercrime.

The Role of the Data Center in Today’s Increasingly Digital World

July 14, 2022 by Cloud Ogre

Today’s Data Center has an increasingly significant role in society. Much like a farm, a data center is mission critical. While the farm fuels our physical activity, the data center powers our digital world. Technology has woven itself into every facet of life and without the data center, none of today’s life-changing innovations would be possible.

What is a data center? Think of the data center as the skull which houses and protects a technological brain. This brain can have a wide variety of functions like serving end-users social media content, delivering TV broadcasts, driving your car, monitoring your washing machine, turning on and off your lights remotely, banking, and so much more. You name the tech innovation, and I will show you the data center or data centers powering that functionality.

The cloud is nothing more than a set of data centers with shared storage and computing resources. The cloud is servers in multiple data centers. Of course, some companies sell access to their cloud with only a single data center supporting it, others make the claim using other clouds they partition off as their own, and the largest, most reputable cloud providers have their own infrastructure composed of private data centers coupled with space in the leading colocation facilities with a high degree of resiliency. The configuration of a cloud is not set in stone, but it is a best practice to deploy in a hybrid environment distributed across diverse geographies and technologies for redundancy purposes.

Data centers can serve a variety of purposes. Some are nefarious like hosting gambling and adult websites; others may be the complete opposite serving basic tasks like depositing a check, making a Zoom call, or even watching the news. Some data centers are on total lockdown with multiple secure points of entry including biometric access controls and armed guards while others may simply be a shipping container or a windowless concrete structure.

Data Center Tiers

Data Center Tiers: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?

Below is a list of today’s data center use cases

Phone calls and video conferencing:

Phone systems and video conferencing solutions like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, GoTo, WebEx, 8×8, RingCentral, Mitel and others have their equipment in data centers. The first part of the communication is supplying dial tone, then there is the feature server that allows for functionalities like transferring or forwarding a call, adding someone to a call like a three way or conference call, sharing a desktop and your video feed all happens in servers collocated in data centers.

Banking and Financial Services:

The adage cash is king is not as relevant as it once was. Most of our banking is digital, both domestic and global. Whether depositing a check, overnight FOREX, or simply splitting the bill at a restaurant, it happens in the data center. What you see on your device is communicated back to an elaborate infrastructure of computing power designed to securely transact financially. Even the stock exchanges no longer need the trading floor, that all happens in data centers in Mahwah or Carteret NJ.

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain:

By and large, cryptomining is not taking place in your traditional data center collocation facility. Cryptomining needs less bandwidth and security than the other mentioned use cases. More importantly, the equipment doesn’t fit in standard 42U data center racks. Mining operations are focused on efficiency of processing, heat dissipation, and a low price per kilowatt hour. You’ll see mining operations in standalone storage container units without back up power, on home gaming systems, and a wide variety of unique deployments. They don’t follow compliance requirements like SOC2, Sarbanes Oxley, or others and can be a hazard to their surrounding community from the heat they give off, noise they make, and potential hazards that come along with equipment fires. It’s truly the wild west with no regulation and a lot of crime.

Blockchain on the other hand, the ledger behind cryptocurrency, NFTS and similar technologies, doesn’t consume as much power as mining. Again, that’s because ledger storage is less process intensive than ledger editing, verification and the other associated processes needed for mining cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency mining uses high powered graphics processors or GPUs instead of traditional processors. These GPUs create a high degree of heat and can overheat damaging itself and other servers collocated near it. This is only one reason for many traditional data centers don’t allow cryptomining and many times require clients to supply an equipment list to collocate their technology equipment.

IoT (Internet of Things) Devices:

Smart appliances and lights, smart irrigation systems for gardens, sensors and alarms, all talk back to centralized hubs in the cloud. They send data to their respective server to be processed. Things like saving video, playing back video, livestreaming, fitness wearables all talk back to their cloud. For example, a washer/dryer equipped with smart technology might communicate to an eCommerce platform to automatically buy detergent after a certain given period. The data these devices generate adds up quickly. According to TechJury there will be 64 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2025. Though IoT devices typically communicate in smaller package sizes and don’t generate a great deal of heat, with the number of devices in the wild there is an enormous amount of data points generated.

Social Media:

All those Instagram Reels, Stories, whatever it is you do on TikTok, your Facebooks photos, and posts across various platforms must exist somewhere. They exist in a data center. Facebook has built massive data center complexes and so have other social media companies. Your social media activity doesn’t necessarily all exist in the same place.

Social media sites are publicly deployed SharePoint servers with a very user-friendly interface. Pictures and videos may exist in two physically distinct servers. The Meta, FaceBook and Instagram platforms are all under one company, but all have different data centers, or as referred to earlier, skulls. According to JustAskeThales.com, interacting on a social media site uses 2.6M per minute or 3 Gigabyte if used an hour a day for a month. According to Statista, the global average per person is two and a half hours per day spent on social media.

IPTV

The two forms of IPTV or delivering video content to viewers over the internet are streaming like YouTube, where short videos are consumed on demand, and traditional IPTV which has higher quality content delivered in a manner as close to original broadcast as possible. It includes Video on Demand services like Netflix but today, providers like DirecTV NOW and YouTube TV are even airing live broadcasts of sporting events.

Sporting events take a notorious amount of data due to the live action, volume of cameras, and high-definition video they’re able to capture and broadcast. A decade ago, finding an IPTV provider with the rights to broadcast the NFL, NBA, MLB was nearly impossible. Fast forward to 2022 and it’s a necessity to have sports broadcasts rights as an IPTV provider and to provide that content to users and ensure a high-quality experience. This is all made possible by advances in many technologies such as broadband of course but more importantly video compression technology. Additionally, the rise of edge data centers for delivering content last mile has grown.

As equipment becomes smaller and bandwidth more ubiquitous IPTV providers will need to have their equipment closer to their end user to supply the best user experience possible. Do you remember what it was like watching video on dial-up or a 3G cell signal? IPTV needs sequentially and efficiently be delivered, decoded and decompressed. Video delivery is time sensitive.

Soon, we’ll see more real-time and latency sensitive technologies getting closer to the edge. In fact, the edge data center market has grown over 12% in 2021 with projections of $8.72 billion dollars of incremental growth between 2020 and 2025. This is because we are using more of the above technologies to increase our quality of life. According to TechNavio 46% of the growth can be attributed to North America. That makes sense given the North American economy, consumer habits, and the fact that there are over 11 billion IoT devices in use currently across the globe.

A data center supplies a home for a computer system. A computer system can be broken down into two parts, storage and processing. Storage is less power intensive because it is simply data at rest, accessing said data requires processing power. Processing is what heats up your phone when you watch too many YouTube videos or are on social media too much.

Chips are in high demand and legislation is on the table to boost semiconductor manufacturing right here in the USA. Chips from companies like Intel and AMD are a key part of all computing. Apple has its new M1 chip, but supply chain constraints hit their production as well.

Mission Critical means that a system cannot do without this essential cog in its wheel. In 2008 banks were considered too big to fail because they are mission critical to the financial system. Matters of national security, responsible for human life and the continuity of society as we know it, are mission critical at its highest level. For data centers, power is absolutely mission critical so positioning on the right grid or multiple energy grids, automatic generators, renewables, and batteries are of key significance.

Lithium-Ion vs Nickel-Zinc Batteries

The power grid, hospitals, roads, etc., supply safety and security to massive amounts of citizenry. Farms are absolutely mission critical. Can you imagine what the country would like if it did not produce enough food for its population? That’s why the NSA and Department of Homeland Security recognized farm workers as essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. We simply cannot lose our food supply. Data centers have a comparable status.

Hopefully from the list above it’s clear why the data center is of mission critical importance. Of course, banking operations, your smart appliances, and autonomous cars need to communicate with the data centers that control them but, more importantly, the emergency services and national security that data centers empower is of the highest mission critical status. The old telco pops and central offices are largely being converted to data centers. Since calling now uses SIP instead of TDM, telecom equipment is smaller and more efficient allowing for carriers to provide colocation to other technology providers in their latent space.

Even cell providers want access in the data center. Equipment being smaller and more powerful, coupled with the availability of bandwidth, allows technology providers, including phone companies, to have a more geographically diverse infrastructure. This allows for more latency sensitive technology to become ubiquitous, adding a layer of security via guaranteed high speed data transmission to technology like autonomous driving, video conferencing, controlling drones, monitoring video feeds from municipal CCTV systems. Simply put, these technological advances lead to users being able to watch live sports on their cell phones wherever they are. Imagine what it can do on a governmental level.

Processing creates a lot of heat and has a much higher power consumption rate in comparison to basic storage. Cryptocurrency mining requires such a high degree of processing that most mining operations use graphics cards to get the most out of their power bill and pay close attention to their price per kilowatt hour. If you have ever played a gaming system for a few hours you know how hot the consoles can get, even with the best fans. Your first-generation flat screen heated up quite a bit as well after hours of TV watching, didn’t it?

Home Office Internet – Yes It Needs Its Own Account

October 20, 2020 by Cloud Ogre

If you’re wondering whether or not you need a dedicated account for your home office internet, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’! Your home office is more important now than ever. You’re not using your home phone to make calls for work are you? So why are you using your family’s internet connection for work?

You may not be the only person “working from home” in your house anymore. Your children, often, are distance learning and/or playing video games which eat up a ton of your bandwidth from your home office internet. When different applications are fighting for bandwidth it has a detrimental impact on your conference calls, video chats, applications like Salesforce or Dynamics365, and other remotely accessed business applications.

Having a secondary account can add a measure of redundancy. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to choose between multiple carriers you can set up a fault tolerant network ecosystem for your home office internet. All it takes is a connection from the ILEC (phone company) and one from your MSO (cable company). You can use the connections independently or bond them with dual WAN router.

You’ll want to make sure your account is a business account. Not only is this good for accounting and tax purposes, with a business account you get a higher level of support, SLA, customer service and technical group to service your account. Pricing is higher than residential service but its worth it. Again, you’re not using your homophone to conduct business right?

Whose gonna pay for it? That’s a conversation that your company needs to have internally and it should. Many times companies leave it to their employees to supply their bandwidth because its easier from a logistics perspective. From a security perspective, I’d want to manage that at the employer end, providing a turn key work from home solution with compute device, phone, wireless access point, and security solution (mobile device management, firewall, network based security solution).

Home office internet — Which one of these devices will be prioritized?

It’s really annoying when you’re on your VoIP phone on a work call and, on the other end, the caller is hearing echo and jitter because your kid is playing video games, live streaming and chatting on Playstation. It is simply unprofessional. If you and your spouse are working from home and your children are going to school online its just not enough to increase your bandwidth, you’re better off with a separate business account. It won’t stop you child from barging into your home office while you’re on a call but it will ensure your audio and video is always on (Hmmm… possibly not a good thing?).

Your systems need to be up to date and provide your clients with an experience that is up to par with what we come to expect today. With more and more employees working from home its imperative that companies increase their bandwidth at their core and renegotiate rates on burstable circuits with higher usage in recent months. Furthermore, if you’re going to be on TV, recorded, or livestreamed you’ll want to make sure you’re really nailed up. If you can’t get a second circuit at least prioritize your traffic.

If you’re an employee, especially an executive, you want to talk to your team about implementing a strategy to provide employees with an internet circuit for their home offices. It will provide additional security and reliability with an immeasurable value. If you’re on the IT side of things and you know it will be a hard sell to the folks looking at the bottom line, especially since you have to increase your z-side’s bandwidth, but it has to be done. In many cases, its as simple as adding a MiFi card but those cell towers have to connect back to the terrestrial network eventually to access those services. Get your folks an business internet account with a static IP or reimburse them so the company’s productivity isn’t fighting employee’s kids for bandwidth. You’ll lose every time.

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Integrate CRM with PBX and Conferencing

October 19, 2020 by Cloud Ogre

Integrate Microsoft Dynamics with Teams and your PBX

If you’re looking to integrate a CRM with your PBX and conferencing solution then you’ve likely discovered there’s a lot of nuance. Every phone system and CRM, whether on premise or in the cloud, has to be tweaked to exchange the correct data. After all, garbage in garbage out, right?

When considering a CRM integration with a PBX and conferencing solution there are a few things to keep in mind. Caller ID format, capabilities of the PBX, end user experience, & client expectations, first impressions, and automations.

Definitions of terms – When referring to a PBX I mean your phone system. For example, this can be a Mitel, Star2Star, RingCentral, GoToConnect, 3CX, Asterisk, etc. Many of these have built-in conferencing or collaboration solutions yet some companies my need more horsepower from their solution and may integrate a Microsoft Teams or Zoom solution. CRMs include Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, Salesforce, Insightly and many others, again, both on premise and in the cloud.

CRM Solutions have a positive impact on profitability.

Caller ID is the first step in the process of communication in your CRM integration between your phone system and your CRM. Caller ID comes in a particular format from your carrier or telephone company. A call triggers an event in a CRM either creating a new entry for an existing contact or a new contact based on that Caller ID data so getting it right is critical in keeping clean data. Handling characters like the plus sign, ampersand, pound or hashtag can have impacts on both data and functionality.

PBXs all operate differently. Softphones are gaining in importance and dial tone is accessed more often via the internet instead of a copper line. Call recording and conferencing functionality will certainly have an impact on your integration. What information your PBX receives from your CRM and what it does with that information is a more integral factor to consider.

Some PBXs will only create a lead from every caller whereas others will allow creation of leads, contacts, and/or accounts. Other PBXs have advanced contact center features that provide functionality like chats within a website. You may be researching a topic on a website when a “Can I help you?” message pops-up with a chat bot or a live person. Both are functionalities of a well programmed PBX. The strength of your PBX and CRM integration lies in the prebuilt API that governs the interaction.

Integrate Webinars and Meetings into Marketing CRM

Let’s take that end-user satisfaction to a higher level. Sending an automated response for a survey, a simple follow up, or even a document for signature is possible using Microsoft Power Automate, Zapier plug ins, and other Low Code No Code solutions. These aren’t only helpful in sales environments either. CRM integrations are also used to manage ticketing systems in IT management environments ensuring end user satisfaction.

So, using a CRM can improve your bottom line and increase productivity. Integrating your CRM properly with your PBX can dramatically improve efficiency, make your employee’s jobs easier, and your customer communications better. In doing so, keep in mind the nuance of your dial tone provider, PBX, and CRM to kinda make sure they’re talking about what you need them to be talking about. Make sense? Give me a shout if you need assistance.

Posts By: Cloud Ogre