Major Application Vendors Should Support *NIX
Mar 30
Posted: under Business.
Tags: firewall, Linux, MS SQL Server, Unix
I read an interesting post (followed by a host of comments and replies) entitled “Why does Microsoft not respect my firewall?” For most people this is just a bunch of techno-geek-speak, but some good points are made regarding network security. Businesses invest a lot of time and effort on the part of their Information Technology (IT) departments to make sure their local area networks (LANs) are protected from the hackers, crackers, sniffers, snoopers, spammers, scammers, and other technology sinners and devients. We set up firewalls with complex, convoluted rules to baffle and thwart attempts to break in. We put our web services in Demilitarized Zones (DMZs) to convenience the general users needing access to our business websites, online catalogs and shopping carts, etc. We use firewalls to allow us to export data to our web servers to keep them current and synchronized with our internal databases, without allowing traffic to pass from web server back into the internal LAN. We get everything working efficiently, securely, and reliably. Then Microsoft sells a new service or application or system or update/upgrade that requires us to punch a hole in our firewall so it will work. Why?
I’m glad for now we can do everything we need to do using Linux servers. Unfortunately one of our primary application vendors has announced that their next version will require installation on Microsoft SQL Server. To my knowledge this won’t require us to lower our defences, but if Microsoft continues this trend we may have to be ready to work around the problem. It would sure be nice if this application vendor will rethink their resolve to force all us UNIX / Linux / AIX / *NIX users to switch to MSSQL Servers. Let us keep our stable, secure, reliable, beloved technologies. Support or at least allow installation on platforms other than Microsoft, please.
Tracy Henness
