If you use Google Apps and have Linux machines you access via SSH, this is a handy method to add two-factor authentication to your environment:

When Google introduced two-factor authentication for the Google and Google Apps accounts, they also created a pluggable authentication module PAM for Linux. This is great news for people running Linux servers who want to protect their remotely-accessible SSH accounts with two-factor authentication. For free.

via Two-factor SSH authentication via Google secures Linux logins | TechRepublic.

Thank you Google, on behalf of my employees who get married and change their names.

The ability to rename a user’s email address is now available in the administrator control panel.

How to access what’s new:
Go to ‘Organizations and users’ > Select the check box next to a user > Click ‘Rename user’ under the ‘More actions’ dropdown

via Google Apps update alerts: Need to change a username? Ability to rename a user’s email address is now available.

Excellent new feature, and easy to use!

We recently released the ability to recover a deleted site in Google Sites. If an owner of a site accidentally deletes a site, it will be immediately removed from view but they may recover it by visiting its URL within 30 days. Once 30 days have elapsed however, it will not be possible to recover the site under any circumstances and it will be permanently deleted.

via Google Apps update alerts: Accidentally delete a site? Owners can now recover a deleted site in Google Sites.

This will be useful to know how to do:

Ethernet-based storage networks, such as those providing iSCSI or NFS disk resources, may be the last frontier for the IPv4 to IPv6 transition. Should these networks need to be updated, now is the time to verify all of the pieces and parts are supported and work as expected.

In this gallery, I’ll go through configuring an ESXi host to an iSCSI LUN over IPv6. Be sure to reference VMware KB 1010812 for more information on this configuration.

via Verify IPv4 to IPv6 transition | TechRepublic.

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office is now available to download for all Google Apps domains. With this plugin, you can now share, backup and simultaneously edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint®, and Excel® documents with co-workers without the need for sending attachments back and forth.

Handy!

via Google Apps update alerts: Teach your old docs new tricks with Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office.

2-Step verification is now available for Google Apps (free) edition. When enabled by an administrator, it requires two means of identification to sign in to a Google Apps account. A mobile phone is the main requirement to use the second form of identification. It doesn’t require any special tokens or devices. After entering a password, a verification code is sent to the user’s mobile phone via SMS, voice calls, or generated on an application they can install on their Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device.

This makes it much more likely that it is the user accessing the data: even if someone has stolen the password, they’ll need more than that to access the account. Users can also indicate when they’re using a computer they trust and don’t want to be asked for a verification code from that machine in the future.

via Google Apps update alerts: 2-Step authentication now available to Google Apps (free) edition.

What happens when a significant number of your users use their own devices at work (Bring Your Own Device — BYOD), and an OEM patch breaks the system for those users?

I have talked to several clients that want to move forward with BYOD initiatives, but are predictably cautious. Several have initiated small pilots with the goal of supporting a specific use case (e.g., iPads for c-level executives). Others are more cautious with planning and architecture and have yet to support any BYOD implementation. However, some clients are already using server-hosted virtual desktops (SHVD) to support call center employees that work from home. In some instances, those workers access their virtual desktops from personal PCs.

That leads us to a significant problem that occurred this week. A Windows 7 update broke the VMware View client. You can read about the problem in the VMware KB here. The problem can be resolved by upgrading the View client or by uninstalling the Windows 7 patches noted in the workaround here.

via Windows 7 Update Breaks VMware View Client: An Important Lesson In BYOD.

TechRepublic presents a webcast featuring SmartPractice, and why they switched to Google Apps. (Free registration required to view the webcast.)

Businesses are increasingly turn to Google Apps as a versatile and affordable solution for effective business communication and collaboration. In addition to its strength as an alternative to more traditional on-site email, calendar, and sharing applications, Google Apps also works equally well on both PCs and Macs.

One such company is SmartPractice, a 500-employee marketing services company that helps healthcare providers build their practices through a variety of marketing channels, a process that requires intensive collaboration. With an aging on-premise solution that was prone to frequent crashes, difficult to support on Macs, and less-than-optimal with mobile devices, SmartPractice needed a more effective solution to better serve its business and ultimately decided to go with Google. Not surprisingly, the company now reports extremely high satisfaction among its users, most of whom will tell you that Google Apps has actually exceeded their expectations.

via Businesses Thrive With Google Apps | TechRepublic.

It’s a one-day-only event, but it’s a start.

The Internet Society, an organization dedicated to the good of the Internet, is organizing “World IPv6 Day” on June 8 of this year. Web giants Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, with a combined one billion visitors per day, are participating by enabling IPv6 for their main services that day. Content distributors Limelight and Akamai are also joining the party by enabling their customers to participate. But unlike during the IETF IPv6 experiment, IPv4 won’t be turned off.

via Tech giants to enable IPv6 on “World IPv6 Day” in June.

See also:

Arbor Networks surveyed IPv6 adoption in the summer and found less than a tenth of a percent of all traffic used IPv6, “almost below the threshold of what we could measure,” according to Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist at Arbor Networks.

via  IPv4 Address Exhaustion Not Instant Cause for Concern with IPv6 in Wings – IT Infrastructure – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.