Accelerated Learning with the New Network

As technology plays an ever more important role now than it was in the past in the enhancing learning industry, it is noticed that education institutions have overlooked the importance and challenges of the fundamental infrastructure with the advanced applications and tools like computers, mobile devices and more. 

Concerned with such issues, Westcon Convergence, Nera Communication and Juniper Networks had jointly held a discussion and solutions sharing on 26 July 2012, at M Hotel Singapore to assist learning institution scale new height in providing a better education system. 

Progreso Networks is one of the exhibitors at the event. We are glad to share with some of the participants in the education industry on our IPv6 training programme and services that help in the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 technology.

IPv6 Security Audit Services

Following the transition of IPv4 to IPv6 and its official launch on the 6 June 2012, there has been security concerns on IPv6 issues. To assist our customer in network security issues, Progreso Networks now offers IPv6 Security Audit Services. The IPv6 Security Audit Services will involved  the following 4 processes.

1. Internal Assessment

This process involves a review of the internal network setup and collection of relevant data for further analysis. Detailed evaluation works will be conducted against the main network components with focus on software versions, security capabilities, configuration parameters and conformance to organisation policies. Risks of security exploits and configuration flaws or enhancements will be identified by the end of the process.

Range of devices typically covered for evaluation:

• Routers
• Switches
• Firewalls
• Servers
• Client Hosts

2. External Assessment

This process is similar to the preceding one, except that it focuses on external facing devices. Evaluation of these devices encompass deeper examinations against extended guidelines, given their “frontline” position which exposes them directly to external security threats.

Devices typically examined in this process:

• External facing Routers
• External facing Firewalls
• External facing Servers

3. Penetration Testing

This common industry method used for evaluating security of a network serves to detect and confirm security vulnerabilities (including those identified in preceding processes) which can be exploited to attack - or access without authorization - the network (or systems within). Industry standard penetration test tools employed can automatically / manually generate bogus and malicious traffic towards the target network and systems to pick up security vulnerabilities and flaws. The security vulnerabilities identified [along with their associated severity level, proposed mitigation action(s)] will be documented in the penetration test report.

4. Review & Recommendation of Security Policies

The closing process of this security audit framework summarizes the outputs from preceding processes and provides recommendations (in the form of security policies or other suitable measures) to strengthen security protection of the assessed network and the systems within. A follow-up assessment may be opted for to validate enhancements introduced or security vulnerabilities closed, based on the recommendations.

Please click here for our brochure or contact us at 6509 9600.

July Recreational Event – Happy Birthday KC!

09 July is KC’s birthday, and with the lack of July babies in Progreso, he had the honor to keep the July birthday cake all to himself!

To start with, we have our lunch at JustAcia, where the Progreso Hunks had a great feast and helped themselves to the free-flow of drinks and ice-cream. No words could describe how much they can eat, and so we shall let the following pictures speak for themselves.

Our Progreso Hunks have talents in many areas. In preparation for their participation in the upcoming Progreso Olympics 2012, Cindy, our event secretariat has specially arranged us for a Bowling session.

Our Winners of the day

And lastly, 

Happy Birthday, KC!

10 Top Tips for moving onto IPv6

1. Consider buying devices that support and are compatible with IPv4 and IPv6
These can be devices that are upgradeable to IPV6 or that are ready today to do IPV6 and can be a hardware or a software system.

2.Check your internet facing devices
If you run a website, an e-commerce application, or a VPN appliance you need to check if it has any reliance on the IP address of the client systems.

3. Check how well is your hosting provider connected to IPv6
IPv4 world Tier 1 providers were very well-connected, charging everyone else to cross their networks. In the new IPv6 world though, these providers don’t have the same connectedness as they used to and have actually largely been replaced by mid-level players. The easiest way to check if your service provider is IPv6 ready is to ask them, and ask for evidence.

4. Do a proper plan in order to move smoothly and seamlessly from IPv4 to IPv6
The move to IPv6 may affect enterprise business continuity so planning an IPv6 move in detail is very important.

5. Ask your service provider about their stock of IPv4 addresses
If the service providers have been careful with their address allocations, they should have enough IPv4 addresses left to allow you to grow your business, but you should talk with them about your plans as early as you can, and maybe even reserve addresses for systems like websites, firewalls and load balancers that are connected directly to the net.

6.Create a comprehensive IPv6 strategy
The enterprise must understand that the major issue with IPV6 is really about creating the right kind of strategy and solution to deploy the new internet protocol.

7. Don’t wait until you are forced to to handle IPV6
It is good to plan ahead. Even if an enterprise was to get a dual stack today, they might not get a lot of traffic on it but at least they will get some experience with it.

8. Understand the new requirements of IPv6
Enterprises should focus on and understand that IPv6 will put new requirements on their domain name system architectures. One of the most significant modifications that IPv6 makes to IP is in the area of addressing, so this means that using DNS on IPv6 requires some changes to how the protocol works.

9. Not adopting IPv6 can limit enterprise customers
If enterprises do not adopt IPv6 in the short term, at some point they are going to start limiting people in communicating with their infrastructure, specifically if their customers are in Asia, in the US and Europe.

10. staff training for IPv6 is essential for all enterprises
Ensure your staff is familiar with IPv6; there are many IPv6 training course options available across the globe, from online education to face-to-face training. Organisations that have failed to get their IT staff critical knowledge about IPv6 will soon find themselves in desperate need of IPv6 experience.

Source: http://www.itp.net/589447-10-top-tips-for-moving-onto-ipv6

The World IPv6 Launch

6 June 2012 is the official day for World IPv6 Launch. 

On this day, major Internet Service Providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world had gathered together to enable their Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) products and services permanently. The IPv6 Forum Singapore and Internet Society Singapore (ISOC) had co-organised the World IPv6 Launch event in Singapore. The theme of this event is named as The Way Forward for Singapore. The intention is to motivate organizations across the industry in Singapore to prepare for and permanently enable IPv6 on their products and services as Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address space runs out. This also represents a major milestone in the global deployment of IPv6. As the successor to the current Internet Protocol, IPv4, IPv6 is critical to the Internet's continued growth as a platform for innovation and economic development. 

Progreso Networks is proud to be one of the invited vendors to present our IPv6 Forum Certified Courses and other IPv6 customised courses and professional services. The following are some snapshots of the event, taking place on the 6th June 2012 at YMCA International House.

If you have missed the event, presentation slides are available at Singapore IPv6 Forum.