Is Cloud Computing the Next SAAS? Or Bigger?

Cloud computing has the potential to be so much bigger than SAAS. It is a perfect storm for cloud computing.

As technology becomes more efficient, companies are finding they no longer need to purchase their own dedicated colocation, dedicated servers, dedicated bandwidt. They also do not have the need to hire a full time body to support these services.

The push toward "cloud computing," so named because data and software is housed in remote data centers rather than on-site servers, is the latest consumer technology to migrate to the ranks of government. Companies such as Amazon and Salesforce, which do not typically sell services to the government, want a piece of the business.

Cloud computing is a perfect storm of Software As A Service, Utility Compute and Infrastructure As A Service. It may have finally solved some of the incomplete messages from all three services and made one very intriguing virtual service.

Not only does the efficiency add dollars to the bottom line it is extremely great for the environment. According to the Washington Post "Getting rid of one server is the equivalent of taking one and a half cars off the road for a year," said Aileen Black, director of federal sales for Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware. "Imagine the impact of taking 450 servers away."

Now that is a cause to get behind. Saving the environment and the economy??

The next question should be who might be a good candidate for this new cloud computing push. A possible might be your local government agency. They need to save tax payer dollars, they need to save the environment and since everything is going virtual, they will have the online business to be had. From a vendor stand point they are a great target for all of these items just listed.

The U.S. Census Bureau is using Salesforce's cloud to manage the activities of about 100,000 partner organizations around the country. But it will store personal information gathered from citizens on its own private servers.

Another great candidate would be anyone who just took down Venture Capital. The V.C.'s will be looking for the C.E.O. to focus on their day to day to maximize their talents, which in turn will maximize the return on investment. The last thing anyone wants to see is a newly funded corporation looking to overspend on colocation infrastructure and support.

The pay as you go model is ideal for start ups as well as any company looking to run as lean and mean as possible.

As bad as this is going to sound, the sky is the limit for cloud computing.

Mixed Messages All Around, What to Believe?

Consumers today are more confused than ever. It was much easier to assume everything is going badly. But these days, there seems to be hope, or is there?

"We may be seeing the end of the beginning of this recession, but it is not the beginning of the end of the downturn," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.

It's just that easy... Right?

Well the Yen dropped today, the New Zealand dollar is up and IBM and Google just announced job cuts. This economy is whimsical to say the least.

After a little digging it seems both IBM and Google are reducing salaries but not the overall effort or head count. It is almost as if they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The Washington Post reported that it IBM has been moving toward an outsourced model for quite some time.

"My understanding is that it isn't targeting the people who have skills leaning toward federal or local governments," said Ben Pring, who follows the company for market research firm Gartner. "Outsourcing those jobs doesn't fly in the government context."

Most of the jobs being eliminated come from the global services division, which ranges from software developers to data center managers, according to the sources who did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak about the layoffs.

Pring said IBM has been gradually moving jobs out of the United States to trim costs for nearly a decade. IBM reported in January that fourth-quarter revenue from its global services business fell 4 percent from the year-ago period. The layoffs come just two months after IBM cut about 4,000 jobs related to sales.

According to an article in The Business Journal “When companies grow that quickly it’s almost impossible to get everything right—and we certainly didn’t,” said Omid Kordestani, Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) senior VP for global sales and business development in a blog posting on Thursday. “In some areas we’ve created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process.”

The online search engine company also said it overinvested in some areas “in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time.”

The posting said “just under 200” sales and marketing positions would be eliminated globally.

Workers will be given a chance to find other jobs within the company, Google said.

Both of these companies are doing exactly what every company in the world should be doing. Taking an honest look at the business and cutting everything they can live without. They are also asking themselves can another person do this job for less money?

The mixed messages are really not too mixed, if it makes business sense the message is clear.

Integration of Technologies the Key to Survival

As I sat and watched No Country for Old Men with my JRT, I couldn't help but wonder, is this a metaphor for business today? Are the business rules changing?

Today's business environment allows for so much creativity the options are endless. One problem for many people is these so called options start far ahead of many consumers capabilities. This is due to the technological revolution that we have seen over the past 10 years.

Our company, WBS Connect, has a Network Operating Center that follows the sun around the world, meaning it is open 24 hours in many countries.

We utilize an internal portal based on open source technology which allows our software packages to integrate with one another.

The phone system is run in the cloud and the calls are terminated using voice over IP. From a support stand point it does not matter where our staff sits.

Sales people have shown an increased interest in social networking sites for business purposes. . LinkedIn is a great prospecting tool and has outlook integration. Facebook has so many plug in's that it needs it's own article. And of course there is Twitter. Personally, I have found Twitter to be one of the best tools invented.

There is major integration going on right now. According to Fox Business News Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced Salesforce CRM for Twitter, enabling companies to search, monitor and join conversations taking place on Twitter directly in the Service Cloud.

I love this quote by the CEO of Twitter; "Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter's success, making it quick and easy for consumers to connect to their community. With Salesforce CRM for Twitter, enterprises can replicate this same experience by keeping track of the conversations happening right now on Twitter," said Evan Williams, founder and CEO of Twitter.com.

Simple only if you understand the value and I am contending there are groups of people that have the deck stacked against them because Web 2.0 is moving too rapidly.

Another example of corporate integration is Netflix now has a rating system on Facebook, for their users. According to Reuters Netflix Inc is the latest media company to integrate with social networking website Facebook, whose huge community of young, tech-savvy users could help drive growth of the online DVD rental service's subscriber base.

Very smart marketing on both sides.

All of these very useful tools but only to those who have the option to use them. The generations to follow will be exponentially more productive than we are today. And we all have technology to thank for it.

Obviously there will be no escaping the basic business principles. However once the basic foundation is in place there are a great deal more options for the companies of today. Sales, marketing, operations and even customer support now have ways to reach, prospect, target and satisfy customers that companies ten years ago simply did not have.

This business world is playing by a new set of rules and integrating technologies will be a key to survival for 2009.

Cloud Computing Services to Grow to $42 Billion by 2012

Cloud computing services are projected to hit $42 Billion by 2012. It is certainly the hottest buzz word since SAAS. Some even consider SAAS to be Cloud Computing.

It seems there is a land grab for the cloud computing market.

According to Information Week, in three separate announcements, software vendors SAS Institute, NetSuite, and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).com show they have deepened their commitments to cloud computing.
SAS Institute announced Thursday plans to build a $70 million, 38,000-square-foot cloud computing facility to support expansion of its OnDemand software-as-a-service offerings.

The OnDemand model is what is so attractive for many cloud computing consumers. In a colocation environment there will be committed and unused bandwidth, power, space and server capacity. In the cloud model, the customer only pays for what they use. Currently the household names in the cloud space are Terremark, 3Tera and Amazon, and a few others.

It seems SAS Institute will really attempt to challenge Terremark, 3Tera and Amazon in the cloud space. To build out a 38,000 foot server farm inside a data center is no small task. It also leads to believe they are either going to have a very strong sales and marketing campaign or they already have some of it pre-sold.

Before the cloud concept there was no possible way anyone would attempt to build this data center unless either near a major internet hub or they may have taken over a distressed asset.

Cloud computing has really flattened out the server market where companies in the tier 2 markets or buildings can compete along side the major metropolitan areas and or carrier neutral data centers.

The companies that do well in the cloud market will have the infrastructure and revenue stream in place. Amazon made the most of their infrastructure when they formed the EC2. Salesforce is another great example of a company building to the need when they complimented their hosted CRM software with a true cloud computing offering.

As the economy forces companies to become more creative cloud computing will grow. The Apache Website posted in October 2008 stating, over the next five years, IDC expects spending on IT cloud services to grow almost threefold, reaching $42 billion by 2012 and accounting for 9% of revenues in five key market segments. More important, spending on cloud computing will accelerate throughout the forecast period, capturing 25% of IT spending growth in 2012 and nearly a third of growth the following year.

As companies look to add revenues they will also look to become more efficient. From the service provider side, they will try to look at where they have already sunk costs and maximize them. From the customer side they will try to pay as little as possible only for what they need.

Either way it means the virtual land grab for tech customers is predicted to keep growing by leaps and bounds, so get it while it's hot.

Sun to Become IBM?

The two biggest names in internet infrastructure may soon become one. International Business Machines Corp. is in discussion with Sun Microsystems for a possible acquisition.

According to Bloomberg News, IBM is in talks with Sun about an acquisition, according to people familiar with the matter. Shawn Dainas, a spokesman for Santa Clara, California-based Sun, declined to comment.

After the dot-com bubble burst, Sun’s sales and profit growth stalled. Customers shifted orders to rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM. The competitors provided cheaper machines based on Intel chips and Microsoft Windows software -- two technologies McNealy had ridiculed.

“Scott’s been a lightning rod for a long time, but it hasn’t helped his business,” said Peter Sorrentino, a fund manager for Huntington Asset Advisors, which oversees $13 billion, including IBM shares.

The acquisition of Sun also may start a trend, as companies with good technology get absorbed into larger rivals with broader product lines, bigger customer rolls and more cash, Sorrentino said.

These product lines will open up to a best of breed company. Companies are moving toward virtual products relying not only on the technology they supply but putting into action as a service provider. These service providers will be classified as cloud computing, utility computing or software as a service.

The article also points out, Amazon.com Inc., Salesforce Inc. and Google Inc. are already offering cloud-computing services, by providing access to software that they manage from their own data centers. Sun announced plans yesterday to offer two cloud services later this year.

Providing the services requires the integration of computer hardware, software, networking switches and storage, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint Amtech Inc. in San Francisco. Right now, no company owns all the pieces it needs to do these projects solo, he said. That may prompt some of them to make acquisitions.

The three leading companies in data-center equipment are Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard and IBM, Marshall said. Hewlett-Packard could buy F5 Networks Inc. or Brocade Communications Systems Inc. to bolster its switching capability. Or Cisco, the biggest maker of networking equipment, could buy EMC Corp. to get storage equipment and software, he said.

IBM needs more networking technology too, Marshall said.

“Everybody and anybody is in play if IBM and Sun are getting together,” IDC’s Turner said. “Cloud is one of those opportunities you need to be in because that’s where the market is going.”

The consolidation will only increase as companies look for synergies to add revenue and reduce SG&A.

Technology will be the first to bounce back, but there will be a lot of movement in the mean time.

How Undersea Cables Are Repaired

I was reading a great post by Rich Miller of Data Center Knowledge and wanted to share it with you. Enjoy!


During a recent discussion of Internet outages, my son asked an interesting question. “Who fixes those cables when they break?” The answer: submarine operators like John Rennie of Global Marine Systems, whose work is profiled at Popular Science. Rennie pilots a six-ton, $10-million remotely operated vehicle (ROV) known as “the Beast,” which can scour the ocean floor to find and fix damaged telecommunications cables.




PopSci.com's James Geary describes the sub as a “lunar lander on steroids.” Here’s am excerpt: “Working at depths of more than a mile, it can trundle along the seabed on caterpillar treads or, when its thrusters kick in, skim above canyons like a hovercraft, at a top speed of three knots. Rennie and his team of six control the Beast via a joystick, using its sonar, video cameras and metal detector to locate damaged cables. Plucking a cable from the ocean floor is akin to picking up a piece of thread in a blizzard while wearing a catcher’s mitt. Currents can be fierce, which makes it difficult to hold the Beast steady above the cable. Visibility can be close to nil, which means that even finding the cable in the first place can be a long and frustrating process of trial and error.” An interesting read about the workers who fix the Net when it’s busted. (Link via Slashdot).




WBS Connect

TELX SCHEDULES 7th ANNUAL CUSTOMER BUSINESS EXCHANGE EVENT FOR JUNE 25, 2009

New York, NY (March 17, 2009) – Telx, a leading provider of network-neutral colocation and interconnection services, announced today that its 7th annual Customer Business Exchange (CBX) will be held on Thursday, June 25, 2009 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. in New York City. The Telx CBX is one of the largest colocation and interconnection networking events held each year; its goal is to facilitate business relationships and deals that generate new interconnections among the global networks, enterprises, and technology companies that reside within any of Telx’s 15 facilities.

The 2008 CBX event touted c-level and other senior-level executive attendees that representing 458 companies in 21 countries around the world. CBX attendees are focused on creating new business opportunities that will extend networks, facilitate faster data transfers, add new services and grow businesses organically.

“In this challenging economic environment, companies are searching for quick and easy ways of creating opportunities that drive revenue and allow them to meet prospects, talk to customers and strengthen relationships.” said Tesh Durvasula, Chief Marketing and Business Officer for Telx. “Telx is pleased to host the colocation and interconnection industry’s premier networking event that cost effectively helps foster tangible new business opportunities.”

Enterprise customers will find considerable opportunities for business growth and expansion at CBX as well; those needing the services of a variety of carriers or service providers can meet all of their needs by choosing Telx and its partners. In addition, each industry including Financial Services can benefit from an ecosystem of providers targeted to meet the industry’s specific needs. For example, financial service customers will enjoy particular benefits, as a variety of financial service providers, networks, and exchanges attend CBX.

CBX 2009 will once again offer a press room, where sponsors or exhibitors can make impactful business announcements to an audience of the IT industry’s leading journalists from publishers such as Dagda Mor, TMCNet, and Virgo Publishing. CBX 2008 saw industry-leading announcements from Tiscali, Packet Exchange, and Arbinet.

“Attending CBX 2008 provided our company with real results that helped grow our business,” said Anthony Rossabi, Vice President of Carrier Services at Tata Communications. “So when opportunities to have even greater visibility at this industry-leading networking event arose, we jumped at the chance to be more involved. We look forward to CBX 2009.”

Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities for CBX 2009 are currently available. Sponsors already signed for this year’s event include Cisco, Ciena, Lexent, Mzima Networks, Mobilitie, and Tata Communications. To learn more about sponsorship packages or exhibition space for CBX 2009, contact Telx Director of Marketing Events and Sponsorships Jennifer Sauer at jsauer@telx.com. To register for the event, go to the CBX Registration page online.




WBS Connect

WBS Connect's Mike Hollander Interviewed on Your Brand Radio

Your Brand Radio was kind enough to have my wife and I on their show today. Their slogan is "Your business is not unique, but you are".

Since my wife and I are both entrepreneurs we were asked to share some of the dynamics of our businesses as well as our relationship.

Your Brand Radio is a fantastic show that broadcasts live here in Denver weekly, where hosts David Sandusky and Mark Crowley chat about everything from business strategies to community involvement, and achieving success in small businesses.

Click on the play button, for the episode 'Thorns Among Roses.'

Meru Networks Brings Wireless to Farmingdale State College

Meru Networks has given the students of Farmingdale State College wireless access in their library, dormitories, and classrooms thanks to a campus-wide IEEE (News - Alert) 802.11n draft 2.0 wireless LAN.

According to TMCnet Farmingdale State College upgraded its existing Meru WLAN during 2008, from the 802.11a/b/g standards to 802.11n, letting its users have access to the Internet and share files at speeds that were five times faster than those supported by the previous standards. The WLAN's 200 access points have been installed in approximately 20 buildings on the 380-acre Long Island campus.

Jeff Borah, Farmingdale State College's assistant systems manager, said: “We’re the largest college of technology in the SUNY system, and we wanted to give our students the latest technology. We first installed a Meru 802.11a/b/g WLAN several years ago, and Meru's single-channel virtual-cell technology allowed students to move around campus as if they were on one big access point, without suffering disconnections.”

Farmingdale State College's 802.11n WLAN uses Meru's AP320 dual-radio 802.11a/b/g/n access points, that support creation of two full layers of wireless coverage network-wide; and MC3000 series controllers, which are used to provide the centralized intelligence to easily deploy and manage large-scale wireless WLANs. The college plans in the future to extend the Meru 802.11n WLAN to outdoor campus spaces, enabling its students to maintain their high-speed wireless connections while they walk between buildings, in plazas where they congregate and at all sporting events.

Meru Networks has been widely known as an engineering heavy company that is quickly establishing themselves as a player in the wireless space. They have focused on the security aspect more than many of their competitors and it seems to be paying off. Great work Meru.

Comcast Moves into Third Place for Phone Users

Comcast Corp. said Wednesday it has become the nation's third- largest residential phone service provider as the cable-television giant's customers continue to add landline telephones to their services from the company.

According to CNN.com Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator by subscribers, now has 6.5 million voice customers, more than Qwest Communications International Inc.'s (Q) reported residential lines of 6 million as of Dec. 31.

Comcast has placed an emphasis on customer service which seems to have helped with the customer retention.

The digital phone service which typically accompanies the cable phone service has a newer infrastructure which leads to fewer service calls.

Another obvious draw to the service is the cost is traditionally lower than the incumbent local exchange carrier. Cathy Avgiris, general manager of Comcast's voice operations, said the company's phone-services offer has proved popular because its price is 20% to 30% less than some phone company services and can be packaged with video and high-speed Internet products.

Both phone and cable companies in recent years have ramped up so-called Triple Play packages, offering customers most, if not all, of their telecommunications services on one bill.

Google Turning Voicemail's into Emails

Google is getting ready to take their phone service a little more seriously. Google Voice will allow their users to use one phone number as a single point of contact. Google will offer cutting edge features like voicemail in an email or text format.

According to Reuters the new service weaves traditional phone features with Google's Gmail email product, allowing a person to store transcripts of voicemail phone messages in their email inbox and to find a specific nugget of information within a phone message as if trawling through a sea of emails.

This is part of Google's acquisition of Grand Central, a voice over IP company purchased in July of 2007. This is the first movement from Google with the calling service in almost 2 years.

The new version uses speech-recognition technology that Google developed for its Goog-411 telephone directory service, automatically transcribing voicemails into text. The transcribed messages can be forwarded as an email or SMS text message to a person's email inbox.

Although seemingly outside of their core product set, their gmail customers alone will give this Google Voice a wonderful audience.

Zayo Group Closes on $95 Million for Expansion

The Zayo Group announced tuesday that they have closed on $95 million in equity funding.

Under the direction of CEO Dan Caruso, Zayo has closed on over $314 million dollars since 2006.

In an article in the Denver Post Caruso explains, "We are in a very unique position in this economy to be able to do acquisitions with cash," said Zayo chief executive Dan Caruso, a former Level 3 executive.

He said Zayo maintains a list of 40 to 50 fiber-optic-network companies that it keeps track of as potential candidates to purchase.

Most of its 20,000-mile fiber network has been assembled through a series of 11 acquisitions since 2007.

The majority of new funding was provided by venture firms Charlesbank Capital Partners and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. Earlier rounds of financing came from Battery Ventures, Centennial Ventures, Columbia Capital and Oak Investment Partners.

In a time where Telecommunications firms are going one of two ways, the Zayo Group finds itself with the leadership and the money to build something very special.

As with any strong financial play they are buying low and selling high. Caruso is picking up assets for fractions of what they were valued even 6 months ago.

The acquisitions are not done in vain, the Zayo Group is creating new opportunities for the companies they purchase. The companies that succeed these days will be those that have a strong enough balance sheet to weather the storm. The Zayo Group is allowing some of their subsidiaries to get over what might be a lull in the business in hopes of a nice return on investment.

Experts believe this recession might last as long as a couple years. But they are also saying that technology will come back first and when it does companies like The Zayo Group will find themselves doing very well.

Panel Addresses HD Conferencing Opportunity

High-definition conferencing sales might scare away some agents who fear their customers aren’t ready and willing to write fat checks for the hardware and bandwidth necessary for such solutions; but statistics are showing a rise in HD conferencing adoption. So, are agents ready to stand up and grab this opportunity? How can HD conferencing be positioned to different customers with varying concerns? How can agents portray and guarantee the ROI of an HD investment to their customers? Monday’s panel aims to answer the question of whether or not HD conferencing is ready for prime time.

Panelist Roger Thomas, CEO of TeleComp, said that HD conferencing started to get hot because of fuel and travel expenses, but it stayed hot because employers started to understand the ROI on HD conferencing investments in these cases. Additionally, “vertical applications like schools (distance learning), architectural firms (project presentations to clients via laptops as endpoints), health care industry (distance medical consulting), multiple location companies (sales and admin meetings) are saving time and money by not having to travel to different locations,” Thomas explained.

“Video conferencing has been around for years, but with generally poor acceptance,” added panelist Scott Charter, co-founder of WBS Connect. “The latest in video communications technology provides high-quality audio, true eye contact, and life-size images, putting the legacy systems to shame. Adoption rates of high-definition video conferencing and telepresence are soaring because people actually like to use it.”

Charter said HD conferencing is a prime opportunity for channel partners of any size. “It’s not a complex sell; and contrary to what many believe, it’s affordable,” explained Charter. “Those already embedded in end-user accounts are in a unique position to introduce the latest in video conferencing. Any business with T1 or Internet connectivity, more than one office, the need to communicate with clients, partners or suppliers, and who currently travel by air can benefit from the new video technology.”

The panelists hope to address how to not leave money on the table in these sales by providing advice on which sectors to sell to, what types of products to sell, what is needed to support such solutions, and various ways to approach prospective customers.

Phones Plus

Over 60% of World Has Cell Phones

More than half of the world's population now has cell phones. Last year a report by the United Nations showed that over 60% of the worlds population uses cell phone. This is a drastic change from a 2002 report where only 15% owned cell phones.

According to Channel Web, the report shows that mobile technology is becoming the most desirable means of communication -- especially in poor countries. The numbers show dramatic growth: By the end of 2008, there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with roughly 1 billion in 2002, according to the International Telecommunication Union, one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations.

The study also looked at the Internet, and found that worldwide, usage has more than doubled: Approximately 23 percent of the population uses the Internet, up from 11 percent in 2002. Still, poor countries are far less likely to surf the Net. For example, only 1 in 20 people in Africa went online in 2007.

It also went on to mention that the U.S.A. has slipped down to 17th place for the country's use of communication and technology. Topping the list was Sweden, with over 80% owning at least one computer and almost all of the homes had internet access.

China and India although very technically advanced and educated were limited because of the amount of people in each country.

Marine One Blueprint Found Online Due to Security Flaw

A complete blueprint of Marine One, President Obama's helicopter was found online.

According to ZDNet, a company that monitors P2P networks says it found details about the president’s helicoper, Marine One, on a computer in Tehran. Pittsburgh station WPXI reports.

Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, said, ”We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One. … What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One,” Boback said.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, an adviser to Tiversa, added:

We found where this information came from. We know exactly what computer it came from. I’m sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went.

It’s no accident the information wound up in Iran, the company said. Countries like Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar and China are “actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is a great source of intelligence,” Boback said.

As technology advances so must security. Security for Information Packets can isolate a session or it can be broken down to the specific packet.

There are a couple known problems which need to be addressed. One being non-secured 3rd party application in a secured network.

Even if a company has a firewall in place with encryption, it does not always offer enough protection. In the article is made reference to soldiers downloading music from an outside source.

In this case, the outside source is not the culprit, the problem is there is a window opened and not closed in time. While this window is open, a bot trolling for information attached it's self to the message being downloaded. When the information was saved, it was then locked inside the secured environment thus infiltrating the network.

Another known security problem is blue tooth technology. Currently the military has been struggling to make blue tooth safe enough to issue to everyone. As it stands right now, it does not offer enough control of the information.

There are company's that will begin to address these types of security problems. The technologies that are being exploited are new enough that the complete understanding of the vulnerabilities are not known.

One company that has really addressed this issue is Relevant Security. They are a company that is offering a new type of authentication. It is done continuously. The offer security by authenticating and encrypting every transmission, every time, on any device, on any network.

Relevant Security’s patented technology is a fundamentally new method that is capable of delivering the required features of future data networks: true scalability for Peer-to-Peer and owner-controlled trust models, small code size, superior computational efficiency, constant mutual authentication and a sound, provable mathematic foundation. Relevant Security solves the performance, scalability, and complexity issues associated with today’s data and communications security solutions.

Peer-to-Peer security over the world wide web is very complicated. Some fear the only way to offer true security is to keep the information within a closed network. Today the amount of information being transfered and the amount of different types of users and networks is too great for a closed network environment. Companies such as Relevant Security who encrypt each individual packet will be the type of security needed for all sensitive material.