RunAs Radio Show Number Five is now online. Richard and I speak with John Savill about application virtualization. This is not the same things as server virtualization (or virtual machines), but instead is about virtualized instances of software apps. For organizations that are distributed (more and more of us as time goes on), app virtualization is a cool things to look into. John does a great job of explaining app virtualization and gives some examples of how it works and can be leveraged.

RunAs Radio Show #5 | 5/9/2007 (36 minutes)
John Savill on Application Virtualization

John Savill is Director of Technical Infrastructure for Geniant. He is a CISSP, a Security and Messaging MCSE on Windows Server 2003, an eight-time MVP, and a Krav Maga instructor. He is also the author of Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Design and Implementation from Packt Publishing. 

Links: RunAs Radio web site and RSS feed

We welcome your input and ideas - Just email info@runasradio.com and let us know what's on your mind! We might even read your email on the air, and we are always interested to know what you would like to hear about as we book our guests.

You know the best way to get a real grasp of how many people read your blog? Just stop posting. They'll come out of the woodwork with questions...

"Hey I noticed you haven't written much on your blog recently - everything okay?"

"What happened? Nothing new recently."

"Did you stop blogging or something"

"When are you going to start writing again?"

... and on and on. Which is nice. So thanks to all of those who have asked. I am alive and fairly well, thank you very much.

I've been pretty tied up at my job lately, with an even-more-than-usual workload. Between that and all the related (and unrelated) travel, any available time to think and write has been quite scarce. Then add in the fact that Richard and I have been working on our new IT podcast, RunAs Radio, and the situation gets even tighter.

But I am still here, so thanks for the thoughts and there is more to come.

News is that Microsoft is (again) looking at buying Yahoo! That's an interesting proposition. At probably $50 billion, it would be quite an investment to make. But it would be an interesting shakeup move from a search and web-delivered software market standpoint. But the online advertising business is what really needs to work. That's where the money is. At least for now.

More via Reuters over at at news.com.

RunAs Radio Show Number Four is now online. Richard and I speak with Simon Goldstein, who (it just so happens) works with me and is a good friend. Simon has a depth of knowledge and expertise that sets him apart in the areas of risk management, compliance and a variety of other topics. In this interview we discussed the compliance and security world and how it applies to practical IT. Simon distills a lot of broad topics down into the nuts and bolts, so pretty much anyone can understand how compliance works and why it's important:

RunAs Radio Show #4 | 5/2/2007 (44 minutes)
Simon Goldstein on Compliance

Simon Goldstein talks to Richard and Greg about making sense out of compliance with rules and regulations around Information Technology.

Links: RunAs Radio web site and RSS feed

We welcome your input and ideas - Just email info@runasradio.com and let us know what's on your mind! We  are always looking to know what you would like to hear about as we book our guests.

I'm playing host in mid-May at my company's annual Security Summit, and thought you might be interested. It's geared toward people who have technical and operational security as a part of what they are charged with professionally, and the sessions will have a financial services slant. There are a couple days left to sign up, so if you might be interested then either act quickly or let me know of any questions. We'd be glad to have security professionals attending.

Among the activities and sessions, we will be talking ISO 27001 certification and standards, hacking and investigating violated web servers in order to see both sides of the game, practical exercises around dealing with security incidents, sessions on identity management and CardSpace (Kim Cameron from Microsoft will keynote), Mobile banking and related security, and much more. Plus some great fun activities in the area.

The summit itself is free-of-charge for participants. You just pick up the cost of travel and hotel. An agenda is located here that also includes hotel information (the conference hotel block expires on Friday this week), and of course I am glad to answer any questions.

We already have a great list of attendees and participants, so if it's also of interest to you I hope you'll check it out!

So, Carl let us know this morning that in the first two weeks of RunAs Radio, there have been 13,588 downloads - a figure that pleasantly surprised me - Pretty exciting!

And we're keeping at it: RusAs Radio Show Number Three is now online. Richard and I spoke with Dana Epp of Scorpion Software about CardSpace and the future of access management and authentication:

RunAs Radio Show #3 | 4/22/2007 (35 minutes)
Dana Epp talks CardSpace on the Client-Side

Richard and Greg speak to Microsoft Security MVP Dana Epp about Microsoft's CardSpace initiative for secure authentication. They hint at another show focusing on the server side.

Links: RunAs Radio web site and RSS feed

We welcome your input and ideas - Just email info@runasradio.com and let us know what's on your mind! We have a couple good shows coming up in the next weeks, and are always wanting to know what you would like to hear about as we book our guests.