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Prospect Partners and Management Acquire World Data Products, Leading Provider of Refurbished Computer and Networking Equipment

Written by Jim Keister

Minnetonka, Minn. – August 25, 2010: World Data Products, Inc. (WDPI), a leading provider of refurbished computer and networking equipment and repair services, has been acquired by Prospect Partners, LLC, of Chicago, Ill., a leading private equity firm focused on building companies over time and committed to maximizing their values. Prospect Partners co-invested with World Data Products’ management team in the acquisition.

Founded in 1987, WDPI has become one of the largest independent resellers of refurbished servers, storage and networking equipment, including platforms such as Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems. The company sources, refurbishes, and sells used and new equipment to a diversified worldwide customer base of more than 4,000 wholesale broker/dealers and corporate end-users in markets that include technology, government, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and education.

Maintaining, Monitoring, and Testing

Written by Steve Hall, IT Manager & Services Consultant

Now that your design and implementation are complete, you will transition to maintenance and monitoring mode. This is the day-to-day functioning and maintenance of your systems.

Designing and applying security policies to your network

Written by Written by Steve Hall, IT Manager & Services Consultant

Now that you have identified policies and the company’s responsibilities for security, you can start your design. It is not likely you will get a clean slate to design whatever you want. It is more likely you have inherited the network, and it is not ideally setup the way you would like it to be. In either case, you can add value by bolstering the security or designing from scratch. There are many different methodologies from various vendors, but most of the methodologies all touch on a key foundation…Defense in Depth. Civilizations have understood the concept of Defense in Depth for ages.

Militaries have often designed their defenses in a layered approach. For example, aircraft carriers have destroyers that provide a perimeter and act as an early warning system. Obviously the carriers are the “crown jewels”, however, the destroyers, even though they are expensive, are more agile and made to detect threats and take action in order to protect the carriers.

This concept can easily be applied to designing networks and network security. Like the destroyers that surround the carriers, network design and security form a perimeter of defense.

Developing a Security Program

Written by Steve Hall, IT Manager & Services Consultant

Have you ever heard the statement, “Networks evolve”? Ask any System Administrator whether they think this statement has merit and most will agree. It has been my experience as well that this is indeed accurate. The company grows, and one server turns into two which turns into ten; or, one location turns into five, and before you know it, your network has evolved into its own entity.

As this entity grows, the administrator’s time is consumed, causing some priorities to take a back seat. One area I have seen take a hit is security. As threats change, having a solid security program is important to helping identify and react to these threats, and when your bandwidth is stretched, it is easy to let security slip to the back burner. However, security is much too important to any organization to not keep it a priority.

Over the course of the next four newsletters, I will give you examples and provide reasons why a sound security plan is so important. Then, I will provide you an outline for how to develop and implement a security program for your organization and/or clients.