Today distributing applications is relatively easy, until you get to the data side of things. This is where the complexity in most applications comes into focus, where does the data go? How do I replicate or synchronize the data? How do or where do I cache data? What’s the geographic issues with data in one place and applications in another? How does the gravity of the data affect my application?

This talk will hone in on key details around implementing a true distributed system across geographically dispersed areas and how to provide the end user a solid synchronized experience while using the application. Examples will be provided with hybrid computing solutions and distributed software solutions including distributed databases, PaaS Deployment packaging and other key technologies.

Join us for an introduction to use of Open Source (OS) software in the enterprise. We will learn:

What is OS software? - Benefits and risks of using OS software - Types of OS licenses, which licenses are business-friendly, and how they apply to various use cases - Basics of OS compliance and risk management in the enterprise - Tools for automating compliance

About the Speaker

Joanna Lee is a tech-focused attorney (and geek at heart) at the law firm of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, where she advises tech companies, open source software foundations, and technology standards consortia.

Schedule

8:30 – 9:00 – Snacks and warm-up 9:00 – 10:30 – Presentation Standard Insurance Tower Atrium (900 SW 5th, please note Standard Ins. has multiple downtown locations)

Cost

Free for members (including ALL employees of corporate members) $15 for non-members $5 for students with valid student ID

RSVP at DAMAPDX.org for registration info for this online event.

Presented by Daniel Lenski, PhD

Virtual private network (VPN) software creates a connection between peers across a wide-area network (normally, the Internet!) and builds an encrypted tunnel that behaves like a direct connection to the same local, private network. VPNs have become a pervasive feature of modern workplaces, and even more indispensable in this era of COVID-19 and widespread remote work.

The most widely-deployed VPN client and server software in workplace environments — including Cisco AnyConnect, Juniper/Pulse Networks, PAN GlobalProtect, and others — is all proprietary and closed-source. These VPNs differ in idiosyncratic ways, ranging from authentication to security requirements imposed on the client computers. Combined with bugs, missing features, and often mystifyingly vague error reporting, they can be very difficult to use, especially for those who need to access multiple VPNs. Under the hood, however, they all work in extremely similar ways.

The speaker is one of the main developers of OpenConnect, an open-source VPN client which can connect to all of the aforementioned VPNs using a common interface (with several others in development). In this talk, he will explain in detail how modern client-server VPNs work, in terms of authentication, encrypted tunneling, Internet protocol routing, and client roaming. He will illustrate how the operation of a VPN can be reverse-engineered and reimplemented in OpenConnect, using an implementation of PAN GlobalProtect as an example. He’ll show some of the advantages of being able to connect to different VPNs in a consistent and automated way, which can be particularly indispensable for those who work as consultants or vendors to multiple companies using different VPNs. Finally, he’ll discuss some recent and ongoing developments in VPNs and other kinds of remote connectivity software

Speaker

Daniel Lenski received his PhD in semiconductor physics and has worked at Seagate, Intel, and Amazon Elemental, and he has been using Linux and open-source software since the ’90s. He started modifying and contributing to OpenConnect out of the necessity of interfacing with many different companies’ VPNs while at a semiconductor consulting startup (FPS, now part of Inficon) and has continued developing it as a side project.

Where

Virtual event, RSVP for Zoom registration details

When

Date – Thursday, Sept. 17th

Time – 8:30 – 10:30am