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February Issue of the Taos Newsletter: IT Security
Message From the Founders of Taos
Why This Newsletter?
Every day, we at Taos talk with the CIOs, Directors
of IT, and others in the community of brainy and passionate individuals
who drive the deployment of Information Technology around the
Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. We talk with them
about their most vexing challenges, and about their most promising
opportunities to leverage IT for greater benefit. We brainstorm
with them: learning from them, sharing our perspectives, and
ultimately partnering with them to deliver solutions that empower
them & give their
organizations a greater return on their IT investment.
We are privileged to participate in these dialogs, and in this
new Newsletter we aim to share with you some of what
we hear & learn. Each month we will focus on a particularly
topical area. In this first issue, we are focusing on IT
security . Future topics may include discussion of
the Open Source & Linux phenomena, the revolution in storage
technologies, issues raised by mobile & wireless users, techniques
for significantly increasing the productivity of IT workers, and
of the robustness of IT environments. They will also undoubtedly
include discussion of topics whose importance is just about to
emerge - those topics that we're uniquely positioned to recognize
as they develop - which is after all the raison d'être for
this Newsletter .
Two of our clients have graciously contributed
material to this first issue. Tim Keanini of the "Proactive Network Security" firm
nCircle has written an
article based on a talk he delivered
at Taos on January 7, 2004 entitled "Enterprise Defense Strategies
to Reduce Network Risk". Keanini cogently argues that firewalls
and intrusion detection systems are actually reactive measures
that have done little to reduce the incidence of intrusion or the
damage caused. The alternative is a fundamental shift in philosophy,
from "attack management" to "vulnerability management". We live
in dangerous times, and innovative thinking like Keanini's is essential
to our welfare and survival.
Another perspective comes from Moses Cesario, the CIO of Affymetrix , a Taos client at the forefront of the creation of the tools of
the genomic revolution. The acquisition and analysis of genetic
information is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing areas of
demand for computing power and infrastructure. Cesario shares
his perspectives on information security and the role of a CIO in leading
their organization to make the technical and policy choices that
fit both the culture and business demands of the organization while
meeting technical security challenges and the requirements of the
SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, and the competitive environment in which the
company operates.
Finally, our own Professional Services group
reaches into our experience at implementing proactive security
measures for several of our clients to present two
composite case studies, including specific technical decisions
taken. As these examples make clear, no one approach is appropriate
for every environment - business
realities and uniqueness across environments make the real world
a lot more complex than any abstract model would allow.
Over the course of 15 years, 1,000 clients, and
many thousands of consulting engagements Taos has become a part of
the fabric of the Silicon Valley. We pride ourselves not only on
the phenomenal team of technology experts who form the backbone of
our company, but also on our contribution to the success of our many
clients and on the ways in which they rely on us for advice, insight,
and support. It is our hope that this newsletter ultimately becomes
another way we give back to our community - a community that includes
you and all those who strive to advance the state of the art of IT
in these wonderfully dynamic times.
Sincerely,
Alexis Tatarsky & Ric Urrutia
Co-Founders & CEO's
Taos
"Delivering Excellence in IT"
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