Media Temple is a very cool evolution in remote hosting. Part web host, part application server, part grid, it is an interesting look into the parallell computing world we are rapidly moving into.

Most interesting to me was their grid service, which provides an on-demand capability for web hosting that allows a site to handle the slashdot effect without having to blink an eye. Sites (and their corresponding media and applications) are running on multiple servers, which allows traffic to be spread out seamlessly, allowing for spikes in service and usage. This is all done without significant additional configuration, which makes it all the more sweet.

Now, they have had some problems, especially with non-grid oriented applications. However, I think that these are pretty minor compared to the utility that high-performance sites will get from using a grid environment.

Absolutely worth a look …

An interersting finding in IT World relating the people who commit sabotage in the workplace and their work behaviors. The article details that …

The research suggests that potential troublemakers should be easy to spot. Nearly all the cases of cybercrime investigated were carried out by people who were “disgruntled, paranoid, generally show up late, argue with colleagues, and generally perform poorly.”

From an organizational point of view, this seems pretty obvious. People who aren’t happy and aren’t performing are the most likely to act out. This isn’t an IT specific thing, I would guess you see the same behavior in people who work in finance and embezzle company funds.

The article goes on …

According to security management vendor Calum Macleod of Cyber-Ark, most organizations are leaving themselves exposed by “not paying due care and attention to the people who are charged with looking after their systems and applications.” Even outsourcing cannot resolve the problem fully, he said.

This sounds like a wise thing. Organizational problems are the responsibility of the organization, and the responsibility isn’t just to punish or to root out bad seeds. The responsibility is to make a culture where this sort of thing is unlikely to happen, then to monitor for any possibilities that may arise.

While it is individuals that perform these acts, they don’t happen in a vacuum and often there are components of the behavior that can be prevented cheaply, quickly, and easily. Don’t discount your people by ‘profiling’ out suspects and thinking that will solve your problems.