Startup Journal

Nirvanix, the cloud storage start-up, has hired Paul Froutan, who ran Google's worldwide data center infrastructure, as CTO. His job, apparently a new one, is to drive the company's strategy and vision, accelerating its market share capture against both cloud service providers and storage hardware vendors. He's also supposed to optimize Nirvanix' data center efficiency. He reports to Nirvanix CEO Scott Genereux. At Google, Froutan was responsible for designing, building and managing the company's worldwide data center operations. Before Google, Froutan was VP, product development at Rackspace Hosting leading the team that launched the Rackspace Cloud. According to Genereux, "Over the last six months, Nirvanix has posted major share gains in Fortune 500 companies versus its principal competitors. With Paul's strong background in managed services and data center effi... (more)

Twenty-Five Linux Server Hardening Tips

When it comes to having a Linux server hosted in a data center or it is not behind any kind of Firewall or NAT device there are a number of security requirements that need to be addressed. Linux servers generally come with no protection configured by default and depending on the hosting company or distro can come preconfigured with many services installed that are not required, including Web Servers, FTP Servers, Mail Servers and SSH Remote Access. The following is a compilation of various settings and techniques you can employ to harden the security of your vulnerable Linux sys... (more)

Xen Boys Start Bromium to Secure the Cloud

XenSource founder Ian Pratt and his sidekick Simon Crosby are leaving Citrix, which bought XenSource for a half-a-billion dollars in late '07, to start a new company called Bromium. The name obviously suggests Chromium but might easily be mocked like Itanium's been and Chromium might be if they don't come up with "the very cool technology that's going to get a lot of heads spinning" that Citrix claims the stealth operation's working on. The start-up's reportedly focused on virtualization and security, promising an infrastructure product in the second half that's supposed to let t... (more)

Monitis Re-names Free Server Monitoring Site to Monitor.Us

New Easy-to-Remember Domain Name Press release SAN JOSÉ, CA., June 22, 2011 – Shakespeare wrote it: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Now, Monitis Inc., the award-winning provider of the world’s first all-in-one systems monitoring cloudware, is picking a new name for its highly successful free monitoring service for networks, servers and websites: Monitor.Us. The new name (re-christened from Mon.itor.Us) goes into effect immediately.  However, for the immediate future, both domain names will direct users to Mon.itor.Us. “Now it... (more)

McNealy’s Getting Back in the Game

Scott McNealy, often mistaken for one of Sun's founders - technically he wasn't but he was so identified with the company for so long people assume he was - has been hinting about a new start-up called WayIn on Twitter, according to GigaOm. Actually Twitter's the way WayIn will launch if it sorta hasn't already. GigaOm says WayIn was registered as an LLC in California by former Sun exec Damien Eastwood in February. LinkedIn identifies Eastwood as having been VP, legal at Sun. GigaOm also says that WayIn told the SEC on June 7 that it had raised $6.39 million and identified Wilso... (more)