Sometimes as a network engineer, you may feel like you're walking through a carnival where the barker shouts, "Step right up, ladies and gentlemen," promising something never seen before, only to find a poorly constructed paper mache replica of the impossible (or in our world, vaporware). Eventually, you become jaded and ignore the shouts until someone you trust tells you to take a look.
Nobody likes getting audited or inspected. Well, almost nobody; there’s always one person who consistently blows the curve. They gleefully anticipate inspections because they know they’re going to get a glowing review. We all have names for that person, most of which shouldn’t be included in a business blog. But what if, (bear with me) we could be that person?
Hack weeks and hack-a-thons are like foosball tables; if you don’t have them, are you even a tech company? These events, once revered for innovation, are now relegated to being blasé and often perceived as little more than playtime for engineers. As someone who’s worked in tech for longer than I care to admit, I had started to ignore them - until I came to Forward Networks.
Cybersecurity is front and center as part of our national defense strategy. Civilian networks responsible for life-sustaining services such as water and power must be protected with the same vigor as networks that host sensitive data. To accomplish this the Department of Homeland Services developed the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program in 2012.
Security has been a top concern for years, and the reasons for this focus are increasingly clear. Government agencies are being asked by the President and governing agencies to make changes that will protect the integrity of their network and the safety of the nation.
A customer posed this question to me recently; after pausing and smiling (a little too) broadly, he continued, “Their lips are moving.” I thought this would be funnier if it weren’t partly true. The software industry has over-promised and under-delivered for years, making technical executives rightfully skeptical when they hear a new promise. Unfortunately, it’s common for software to lack promised features or to create new headaches when deployed across the enterprise.
