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I wonder how much of this is related to virtualization -- one of my previous positions was obviated due to this. Instead of having system admins maintain the s

I wonder how much of this is related to virtualization -- one of my previous positions was obviated due to this. Instead of having system admins maintain the software state and hardware state on a forest of servers, it's a lot simpler to have VMs that delete and reprovision themselves whenever they have a software issue. When you add in virtual HDDs or UNC paths for data locations, then the system is completely abstracted from the underlying hardware. If one of these physical hypervisor host systems has a hardware problem, the virtual servers on it can usually be live-migrated to other hosts, and the hardware can be repaired/replaced by a low-level hardware-only tech. When the hypervisor OS has an issue, it can be automatically reimaged as well. Changes like this have made Office365 much more efficient than BPOS, and are likely at play in AWS and other datacenters as well as the NSA's.

josh2600 13y ago
Virtualization solves a lot of these problems, but a lot of my milspec friends have been expressing concerns about APTs that jailbreak the virtual environment to attack the underlying physical host. It will be interesting to see how the human element of networks evolves over time.
- stephengillie 13y ago
  (APT = advanced persistent threat?) I'm thinking back to the HDD firmware hack[1] that was on HN earlier this week -- if a HDD was exposed directly to a VM, that would definitely be a plausible attack vector. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148347 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148347
  - josh2600 13y ago
    Yes, you're correct on the definition. I don't wanna go look it up but there's a good one about an embedded attack hidden in an internal PCI board's on board memory. If someone with $100M wants to get you, they're probably gonna find a way.
halviti 13y ago
They haven't even opened their data center in Utah, which they paid close to 2 billion dollars for, and is their largest single facility by far. I would say that the timing suggests that it's more to do with leaks than it does infrastructure.

josh2600 13y ago

Virtualization solves a lot of these problems, but a lot of my milspec friends have been expressing concerns about APTs that jailbreak the virtual environment to attack the underlying physical host. It will be interesting to see how the human element of networks evolves over time.

stephengillie 13y ago
(APT = advanced persistent threat?) I'm thinking back to the HDD firmware hack[1] that was on HN earlier this week -- if a HDD was exposed directly to a VM, that would definitely be a plausible attack vector. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148347 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148347
- josh2600 13y ago
  Yes, you're correct on the definition. I don't wanna go look it up but there's a good one about an embedded attack hidden in an internal PCI board's on board memory. If someone with $100M wants to get you, they're probably gonna find a way.

halviti 13y ago

They haven't even opened their data center in Utah, which they paid close to 2 billion dollars for, and is their largest single facility by far. I would say that the timing suggests that it's more to do with leaks than it does infrastructure.