Whitepaper Center

From IT Regulatory Compliance like SOX, HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11, and GLBA, to IT Security, IT Disaster Recovery, and Patch Management we have the best practices and practical guides to help you unlock the power of your Ecora Products.

IT Director's Reference Series:

IT Best Practices

  • Change Management

  • Configuration Management

    • Top 10 Keys to Gaining Enterprise Configuration Visibility™
      IT departments are inundated with a never-ending, diverse list of standards, regulations, initiatives, projects and best practices. As unique as the tasks are related to each of these challenges, they all hold one thing in common. Success depends on being able to produce understandable reports validating expected settings. This paper offers the industry's only solution for automating detailed reporting that ensures Enterprise Configuration Visibility™ – reducing the time and cost associated with IT control, compliance, and security, and ensuring the highest levels of availability and performance for your organization.
    • Ten Reasons Why Microsoft Excel Should Not Be Your Documentation Tool
      In an atmosphere of constant demand for IT services, many organizations are still attempting to monitor and control changes manually. If you're still going through this manual exercise, here's 10 reasons that prove you're wasting valuable resources to collect data that simply can't deliver the information you really need to ensure your IT infrastructure is secure, compliant and effective.

  • IT Disaster Recovery

    • The Weakest Link in Disaster Recovery
      Recovering from a disaster requires comprehensive planning, teamwork, and execution. Yet a crucial component is often overlooked. This paper exposes the weakest link in disaster recovery and provides steps to forge an unbreakable chain to reactivate any IT infrastructure.

Patch Management

  • Patch Management for the real world
    This document provides details for a systematic approach to preparing, acquiring, testing, deploying, and sustaining a patch policy that works in today's real world – Understand the challenges, recognize the benefits, and automate the patch process.
  • Patch Management Best Practices
    Reviewing the challenges, problems and solutions for patch management, we provide an outline of the six (6) steps to achieve Best Practices for your patch processes.

Regulatory Compliance

  • 21 CFR Part 11

    • Achieving Sustainable IT Compliance to 21 CFR Part 11
      21 CFR Part 11 continues to cause confusion. Recent FDA guidance documents help, but many IT departments still struggle to establish appropriate validation processes with limited time and resources. Ecora's FREE in-depth guide, "Achieving Sustainable IT Compliance to 21 CFR Part 11," gives you an overview of the regulation from an IT perspective. It also outlines how you can accurately and cost-effectively implement a systems-based best practices approach that will help you meet FDA requirements.

  • FISMA

  • GLBA

  • HIPAA

    • Practical Guide to Implementing HIPAA IT Security Standards
      Do you need to implement corporate policies regarding security and confidential health information? Learn: How to use IT documentation to prepare for and pass Security audits; What IT data is critical for Security Standards; What is the difference between Security and IT Audits. You can implement a sustainable HIPAA Security Standard – Read this paper to learn more.

  • Sarbanes-Oxley

    • A Practical Guide to Implementing Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
      Learn about the Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory background and its impact on IT departments. This document provides information pertaining to access issues, change documentation, disaster recovery planning and illustrations of key audit-ready reports.
    • A Practical Guide to Sustaining Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance
      Our guide shows you how automation can create a sustainable control and reporting system – a must-have with mandated quarterly and annual assessments. If you've already prepared for, and experienced, your first Sarbanes-Oxley audit, you'll want to read this guide on sustainability.

  • PCI DSS

    • New
      Securing Cardholder Data So You Don't Make Headlines
      High-profile data losses are grabbing more and more headlines every week, threatening the reputation, customer base, and overall bottom line of organization whose systems have been exploited. In addition to this lurking threat, now organizations face potential fines for PCI non-compliance from VISA, beginning in September 2007. Ecora Software will provide you with the information you need to proactively address PCI compliance and, of equal importance, minimize your risk of a costly data breach.
    • New
      You Can Survive a PCI-DSS Assessment
      This whitepaper will cover the process and assessment objectives of the PCI assessment, scope of systems that will be assessed as part of the audit, and how to implement automated solutions to strengthen security controls and reduce the cost of complying with PCI. There will be in-depth discussions and analysis of PCI-defined system components, including servers, firewalls, and wireless networks. Along the way, you'll learn what to do (and not do) as they share from "real world" audit experiences and best practices.
    • Achieve and Maintain Compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard
      Learn how to adhere to the PCI security standard by automating regulatory compliance and best practices reporting typically used to identify and validate IT configuration changes throughout operating systems, database management systems, applications and network devices.
    • Achieve and Maintain Compliance with PCI Data Security Standard – Part 2
      Deep dive into the first 4 PCI DSS requirements. Learn how to adhere to the PCI security standard by automating regulatory compliance and best practices reporting typically used to identify and validate IT configuration changes throughout operating systems, database management systems, applications and network devices.
    • Achieve and Maintain Compliance with PCI Data Security Standard – Part 3
      Deep dive into PCI DSS requirements 5-9. Learn how to adhere to the PCI security standard by automating regulatory compliance and best practices reporting typically used to identify and validate IT configuration changes throughout operating systems, database management systems, applications and network devices.
    • Achieve and Maintain Compliance with PCI Data Security Standard – Part 4
      Achieve and Maintain Compliance with PCI Data Security Standard – Part 4. Deep dive into PCI DSS requirements 10-12. Learn how to adhere to the PCI security standard by automating regulatory compliance and best practices reporting typically used to identify and validate IT configuration changes throughout operating systems, database management systems, applications and network devices.

Security & Compliance Audits

  • New
    Avoiding Costly Audit Deficiencies
    In this white paper, we'll show you how investing in a pre-audit assessment will let you know where you stand before your next audit. We'll go over the key controls you should have in place, automated methods for determining the reliability of those controls, and how to generate automated reports validating those controls.
  • Understanding and Managing Security Audits
    Better preparation means better results – Learn how to prepare for an audit; how to develop a self-audit process; how to develop a security template; and much more.

Virtualization

  • Real Help for Migrating to a Virtual World
    Virtualization brings so many benefits that it will continue to drive both the development and adoption of virtualization technology. Yet, despite the tremendous benefits of virtualization, there are still challenges.
    In this paper, we explore the importance of meticulous planning, accurate documentation, intelligent decision-making, and careful management of the changes in your physical and virtual infrastructure to successful p-to-v conversion projects.