Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah

March 02, 2013

The Open Group panel explores how the big data era now challenges the IT status quo
Big data means doing things differently — not just to manage the velocity and the volume and the variety of the data, but to really think about data fundamentally and differently.We also need to think about security, risk, and governance. If it's a "boundaryless organization" when it comes your data, either as a product or service or a resource, that control and management of which data should be exposed, which should be opened, and which should be very closely guarded all needs to be factored, determined, and implemented.

Office 365 confuses and bemuses

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) seems to enjoy confusing the world by adding more and more 'differentiated' options for its Office 365 suite. The additional editions bring the number offered for business to nine, not to mention all the other ones for education, government, and consumers. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers lose the will to live. Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment.

Developing Well-Architected .NET Applications
Webinar: CodeFluent Entities is a unique product, integrated to Visual Studio 2008/2010/2012 which allows developers to generate components such as scripts, code, web services and UIs. The code generation process is model-first and continuous: from your declarative model, a meta-model will be inferred which code generators will then translate into code. Over 20 code generators (a.k.a. ‘producers’) are provided ‘out of the box’ and that can be combined to obtain your own application following your desired architecture, using your desired technologies.

IT Skills Shortage: The Other Critical Cliff Facing Enterprises
The shortage of IT talent is real and likely to accelerate in the near term, according to Miano. "It is not a cost issue but a demand issue," he said. Although discussions about skills gaps can become political—as some are inclined to dispute the existence of a shortage—others agree with Miano. An IBM study released late last year found that the most acute need for IT skills is in the areas of mobile computing, cloud computing, social networking and analytics.

F5 tries to stay ahead of the curve with moves into security and beyond
The idea is to combine the two companies' divergent expertise in security into one product - F5's hardware firewall and access controls alongside Websense's malware protection and content inspection. While the only immediate result of the announcement was new interoperability for BIG-IP and V-Series appliances, the main goal is to offer the option of Websense services running on F5 hardware.

Private cloud-based services to see rapid growth
Among private cloud services, IDC expects that virtual private-cloud services will dominate dedicated private cloud for companies seeking to take advantage of their speed and lower costs. Virtual private cloud also is expected to benefit from the similarity to private cloud services, especially public infrastructure as a service, which many IT users already are using as a cost-saving alternative as they replace aging IT infrastructure.

Do You Remember to Ask Why?
The more you ask why, the better your answers become. The side benefit of this is that you not only make a better decision but you leave yourself better equipped to communicate the decision to those who have to execute it. This helps all of your stakeholders get excited about what you intend to do.

The second most important BYOD security defense: user awareness
It might sound trivial at first to say that user awareness is important to security but it might be the most important non-hardware, non-software solution available. An informed user is a user who behaves more responsibly and takes fewer risks with valuable company data, including email. Not only does user education make the user aware of all the potential dangers of mobile computing, it also places a lot of the responsibility for corporate security onto the user. And that's a good thing.

Why Innovation By Brainstorming Doesn't Work
Part of what we know about the brain makes it clear why the best new ideas don’t emerge from formal brainstorming. First, the brain doesn’t make connections in a rigid atmosphere. There is too much pressure and too much influence from others in the group. The “free association” done in brainstorming sessions is often shackled by peer pressure and as a result generates obvious responses. In fact, psychologists have documented the predictability of free association.

The Progress Principle: Sparking Employee Engagement and Performance
This webcast unravels the secrets of inner work life—the usually hidden emotions, perceptions, and motivations that arise as people react to events in their work day. You’ll discover how what you say and do every day can drive positive inner work life throughout your organization and fuel great performance for the long term. In addition, you find out ways to avoid the traps that can undermine inner work life and performance.

Quote for the day:

"If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business." -- B. C. Forbes

March 01, 2013

A Practical Glossary and Discussion of Relevant Terms, Concepts, Models, and Measures
An important aspect of ERM is the strong linkage between measures of risk and measures of overall organizational performance. Thus, this glossary begins with a description of some key corporate performance measures, after which successive elements of the ERM process (risk assessment, measurement, modeling, management applications, monitoring, and oversight) are described.

OLTP Performance of Exadata vs SSDs vs Violin Memory Flash Array
Ashminder Ubhi writes about his experience of running some performance tests against Exadata, SSDs and Violin Memory. The approach was to test the storage performance of the three configurations so he used the great SLOB OLTP type benchmarking tool developed by Kevin Closson. SLOB is very easy to setup and each test run is always consistent unlike some of the other available tools.

Being more agile with Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
ATDD seems to offset the increase in development efforts since it allows the whole team to collaboratively discusses acceptance criteria, with examples, and then distills them into a set of concrete acceptance tests before development begins. This ensures that everyone has the same shared understanding of what is actually being built. It may also facilitate a better shared understanding and definition of what it means to be Done.

Five smartphone and tablet trends from Mobile World Congress
This year's MWC may have been lacking in high-end smartphone launches, but the "W" stands for "world" and lower-cost models shown this week are needed to open up the mobile-phone market to more people globally. Here are some of the trends that indicate where the smartphone market is headed.

What's wrong with the Gartner Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2012?
There is a big difference between the description of phases of the cycle on the curve, such as "Trough of Disillusionment," and the report's table of contents, which labels sections by describing the transition between phases. The curve shows Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on the upslope of the trough, yet Gartner places it in a section titled "Sliding in to the Trough." This creates two very different perceptions.

An introduction to Firefox OS for mobile developers: Q&A with Andreas Gal, Mozilla
With the first device manufacturers expected to launch Firefox OS devices at Mobile World Congress this month and with major network operators inline to release them to consumers in early 2013, Mozilla’s new operating system (OS) is starting to make waves. Firefox OS is open-source, Linux-based and Web-friendly. mobiForge gets the low-down from Mozilla’s vice president of mobile

Applying big data approaches to information security a challenge
Unlike conventional security approaches that are focused largely on blocking attacks, the new approaches emphasize breach detection and response almost as much as breach prevention. The goal is to help companies block the threats they can while helping them detect and respond to the ones they miss. Instead of deploying point products and perimeter defenses, companies need to adopt a security model that is based on actual threats and threat intelligence, Coviello said.

New Hadoop distributions proliferate
Just in time for the O'Reilly Strata conference, three companies in the tech world have announced new distributions of Apache Hadoop, the open-source, MapReduce-based, distributed data analysis and processing engine. Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) 1.1 for Windows,EMC/Greenplum Pivotal HD, and the Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop have all premiered this week on the big data stage.

Asian users go DIY with BYOD
Companies in Asia are not rendering enough IT support to help employees use personal devices for work as part of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement. This is pushing workers to find their own ways to access corporate networks or data via their gadgets, and inadvertently risks creating security holes for potential company data loss or theft.

Microsoft Strikes Back At Amazon With Windows Azure Community Portal
Microsoft unveiled the Windows Azure Community portal, which provides dozens of popular open source applications and language runtimes contributed by partners. Even more recently, Microsoft took this a step further and made the images from the portal available directly in the Azure console, so they can be easily deployed onto Azure infrastructure. By making it easier to deploy third-party apps on its cloud, Microsoft is helping to grow its own ecosystem while increasing the utilization of its infrastructure.

Quote for the day:

"The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck." -- Anthony Robbins

February 28, 2013

In-Memory Technology: Keeping Pace with Your Data
In-memory technology presents two major advantages over traditional disk-based technologies. The first is speed. By storing all relevant data in its main memory, rather than on disk, new calculations can be performed on the fly, ... The second advantage is flexibility. Because a specifically structured data layer no longer needs to be built for a given query – which has long been a key part of most BI deployments – in-memory provides greater scope for analytics freedom, widening the range of what executives can query.

Forrester: 70% of "private clouds" aren't really clouds at all
Staten says if you call a highly virtualized environment a cloud, but it doesn't have one or more of the key characteristics of a private cloud, then the IT department is setting an unrealistic expectation for users. If users are disappointed when they find out the environment doesn't have self-provisioning, or an elastic resources pool, they can get discouraged. The next time they need a VM on the fly, where will they turn? The pseudo-private cloud IT has set up, or Amazon Web Services, which IT could have no control over.

Mobile devices will get next-gen Wi-Fi in early second half, Qualcomm says
The new Wi-Fi standard in Snapdragon will increase peak data transfer rates, but at the same time enable tablets and smartphones to retain battery life similar to mobile devices with 802.11 b/g/n technology, Renduchintala said. The theoretical data transfer rates for 802.11ac is expected to be three to four times faster than that of 802.11n, which are in mobile devices, PCs and routers today.

Despite the gloom, there is cause for optimism in IT security, says Microsoft
“There are significant advances the IT security industry has made, so my optimism is not delusional, but based in fact,” he told attendees of RSA Conference 2013 in San Francisco. The hardware security has seen the introduction of UEFI, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface specification designed to provide a more secure alternative to BIOS. This has enabled the introduction of secure boot and measured boot in software such as Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. “These are positive developments in security that the industry can build on,” said Charney.

The unfulfilled promises of health information technology
Realizing that the cost savings and improvements in healthcare delivery are nowhere near what was optimistically predicted in 2005, RAND recently commissioned a new study to take a fresh new look at the state of health information technology. The new study paints a very different picture and received broad coverage by mainstream news outlets, including “In Second Look, Few Savings From Digital Health Records” by the New York Times in January.

Bringing BI Back to the Executive
From the executive’s perspective, the most important piece of this is realizing that the executive is not an endpoint consumer of BI; the executive is a driver and collaborator within the organization from the start. So what is the starting point, and what is the ending point? And what about the steps in between? Let’s look at the flow of processes that should be followed, what each of those phases is and what they will provide.

The Lost Art of Eye Contact
When is the last time you consciously looked into someone’s eyes and had a meaningful conversation? When nearly every personal and business interaction uses a screen as an intermediary, it’s difficult to develop and maintain meaningful relationships with employees, customers and partners. But such relationships are the cornerstone of building a long-term business. So put down that smart phone, walk away from the computer, and think about these five things

Paypal Accepts Coins and Paper Currency At Coinstar Kiosks
The rollout is part of PayPal's bid to play a role in brick-and-mortar retail in addition to its significant presence in online payments. The payments processor said it had lined up 23 national retailers last year that would accept payments using PayPal in their stores. Customers can make payments using a PayPal payment card that is accepted at participating stores, or by using their mobile number and a PIN (personal identification number).

Union Budget 2013 gives lucid reaction to IT Inc concerns
While giving a target fiscal deficit number of 5.2% of GDP, Finance Minister P Chidambaram's Union Budget 2013-14 did not do much about crucial concerns of IT industry. Will all these minimal measures rescue the economy from the possibility of a sovereign rating downgrade? And how much can $100 bn IT industry of the country can gain from these subtle measures?

Aveksa's Approach to Identity & Access Management
Good identity and access management can make sure your people have the access they need to do their jobs. It will ensure that information is secure, and your company meets its regulatory needs. But can it do more? Can it be a business enabler? To find out, Adam Burns spoke with Deepak Taneja, CTO and founder of Aveksa… the discussion started with the big challenges of today’s workplace – information security in the context of cloud, mobile and big data

Quote for the day:

"If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled "subordinates",then you know nothing of leadership.You know only tyranny." -- Dee Hock

February 27, 2013

What's the Real Truth About IT Process Automation?
One thing to keep in mind is you get what you pay for. Although ancient advice, it still makes sense, especially in today's confusing world of enterprise software applications and IT process automation. As you approach your "crawl, walk, run" to ITPA, consider selecting a platform that scales. Plan for success so when you start "running," your gear can carry you the distance.

Application-specific passwords weaken Google's two-factor authentication, researchers say

The problem is, "ASPs are -- in terms of enforcement -- not actually application-specific at all!" the Duo Security researchers said Monday in a blog post. "If you create an ASP for use in (for example) an XMPP chat client, that same ASP can also be used to read your email over IMAP, or grab your calendar events with CalDAV."

Knowledge | Part 4: Influencing Right Action with the Right Insight
This video examines the drivers and emerging best practices of having the right knowledge for: Voice of the Customer Feedback: Knowing how to move satisfied customers to long-term loyal and committed partners; Internal Team Feedback: Measuring the impact of your customer facing resources; Relationship Data Points: Measuring the alignment between your organization and the Customer; Strategic Account Plans: Developing an ongoing internal/external account review strategy; and Joint and Balanced Scorecards: Closing the loop with metrics on collaborative customer/supplier performance

Are Cyber Attacks on the Rise?
It's clear that the sophistication and determination of cyber attackers continues to rise dramatically. A months-long investigation by The Times last week alleges the origin of a spate of attacks coming from the Chinese military, a charge its government vehemently denies despite a deep trove of evidence pointing its way including a 76-page report from the cyber security consultancy Mandiant, based on extensive research.

How To Embrace Change In Today’s Organizations
When it comes to successfully leading today’s organizations, one skill that’s been growing in importance and need is the ability to manage change. While many of us have read about various organizations to understand how they’ve dealt with change, Tanveer Naseer shares an experiment done with crows to highlight some key lessons we can glean from this research on how to embrace change.

The role of software-defined networks in cloud computing
SDN is increasingly accepted as the path to "cloud networking," meaning the transformation of networks and services to support the use of cloud computing on a massive scale. Navigating the various missions and technology models of SDNs is critical to properly position cloud services and realize advantages of cloud computing.

Samsung Knox – An IT Perspective
Samsung KNOX is a tremendous step forward and is something both Jamie and her IT counterpart should be excited about. For Jamie it means IT does not fuss with her personal stuff, but she gets access to the information she needs from the hot new smartphone or tablet she actually wants to carry. For IT KNOX means a more secure version of Android with secure boot, government-grade encryption of data at rest and in transit, and the ability to completely isolate business content from personal content in a secure container.

Intel Releases Hadoop Software Primed for its Own Chips
The Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop includes core pieces of the data analysis platform that Intel is releasing as open-source software, as well as deployment and tuning tools that Intel developed itself and which are not open source. Organizations will be more willing to expand their investments in Hadoop if they know there's a consistent distribution backed by a big, stable vendor like Intel, said Boyd Davis

The Culture of Comaking with Jeff Patton
Jeff Patton helps teams build better products by helping them understand their users in a more thoughtful manner. By using the principles of comaking, teams begin to take more responsibility for their projects and their outcomes, thereby creating a more streamlined process of meeting their users' needs and having fun while doing it.

U.K., India Sign Cybersecurity Pact
What's particularly interesting is that the agreement-- framed as designed to improve "the protection of personal data and sensitive commercial and government information" -- may herald much greater use of offshoring and outsourcing of U.K. state information and communications technology (ICT) work to India. "Other countries securing their data is effectively helping us secure our data," Cameron said during his visit to India. "The threat in terms of cybersecurity comes from all sorts of different places and organizations -- a lot of it is criminal.

Quote for the day:

"Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get." -- Ray Kroc

February 26, 2013

Researcher unearths two new Java zero-day bugs
"We had yet another look into Oracle's Java SE 7 software that was released by the company on Feb. 19," said Adam Gowdiak, in an email reply to questions today. "As a result, we have discovered two new security issues, which when combined together, can be successfully used to gain a complete Java security sandbox bypass in the environment of Java SE 7 Update 15 (1.7.0_15-b03)."

Intel demos perceptual computing software toolkit
With a special depth-perception camera clipped to the top of his laptop lid and connected over USB to the computer, Solomon was able to show how the SDK software rendered his facial expressions and hand gestures on the computer screen, accompanied by an overlay of lines and dots to show the precise position of his eyes and fingers.

The Future of Internet Lies in HTML5!
With no support for Flash on future versions of Android and iOS, it seems that most web administrators will have to change their websites over to HTML5 to cater to the exploding consumption of mobile media consumption. Once HTML5 gets ratified by the W3C, Adobe hopes it will provide the best cross-platform experience.

The Mandate for Social Collaboration in Business
58 percent of organizations now allow open social collaboration across the enterprise, while on the other hand 39 percent explicitly deny people the opportunity to interact using this technology. ... The largest number of new hires in organizations over the next five years will come from a younger generation of workers called Millennials, who are used to engaging in collaboration and are unresponsive to electronic mail. Organizations will need to look at a spectrum of methods to fully engage their attention and realize their potential.

Mozilla previews Firefox OS with four phone makers and 18 operators onboard
Considerable operator support underlines the desire for an HTML5-based alternative to iOS and Android, but the depth of commitment is unclear, according to CCS Insight. Success hinges on apps, attractive devices and operator subsidies, it said. The real acid test for Firefox OS and its long-term prospects is the quality of the software itself and the user and developer experiences that it fosters, according to Ovum. However, it will be difficult to say whether it meets those needs sufficiently until we have seen retail devices.

HTML5 versus Flash – What’s the Story?
The big problem for Flash is the backlash it received from Apple with many of the world’s largest company’s products such as the iPad and iPhone no longer offering built-in Flash support (although there are add-ons that will allow it to work). Another big player in YouTube also serves up only limited Flash support with the video browser preferring HTML5 for new features such as video playback.

Sudoku using MS Solver Foundation
The following is an example of how Microsoft Solver Foundation can be used to solve a constraint satisfaction problem(CSP) like generating a typical Sudoku problem. In this article the author does not attempt to explain everything there is to know about constraint satisfaction problems, but he goes over the concepts, in the hope that even if you have never heard of CSP, you will still get the idea.

CIOs may be usurped by CDOs and CTOs: Gartner
"It could be," Laney said. "Most CIOs are so much consumed with technology that they have forgotten their title has 'information' in it. They are very much fixated on the technology side of things." Laney isn't the only analyst that has expressed doubt about the future of CIOs. IBRS analyst Sue Johnston considered the role of the CIO to be bloated with too many responsibilities.

Ex-Yahoos Confess: Marissa Mayer Is Right To Ban Working From Home
Here is why: "A lot of people hid. There were all these employees [working remotely] and nobody knew they were still at Yahoo."; These people aren't just Yahoo customer support reps. They're in all divisions, from marketing to engineering; Mayer saw another side-benefit to making this move. She knows that some remote workers won't want to start coming into the office and so they will quit. That helps Yahoo, which needs to cut costs. It's a layoff that's not a layoff. Bigger picture:

RSA 2013:Weatherford outlines 'cyber 9-1-1' plan
"Currently, there is a lot of confusion when it comes to who organizations should call should they suffer a breach, or find themselves under significant attack pressure," he said. "We want to make DHS the cyber-91-1. Currently, people don't know why they should call, and we want to change that," Weatherford said. Toward that aim, Weatherford's goals include expanding government and private industry attack-data sharing. "The president has given us a mandate to up the ante on data sharing. When I was in the private sector, that was a big challenge. If the government had threat information, I wanted to know about it," he said.

Quote for the day:

"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding" -- Leonardo Da Vinci

February 25, 2013

Here is how cloud computing, big data, and some innovation can reinvent healthcare
The rise of big data as a set of new technologies provides new options for both the storage and analysis of information. This leads to better patient care and cost reductions. The use of cloud computing provides the elastic capacity requirements at costs that almost all healthcare provider organizations can afford. When combined, you have something that is clearly a game changer.

The One Question to Ask in an Exit Interview
Generally, HR pros open an exit interview by asking “Why are you leaving?” While useful to a point, HR could be asking a far more revealing question: “What made you start looking for another job in the first place?” says Sharlyn Lauby, who blogs at www.hrbartender.com and is president of HR consulting firm ITM Group, Inc.

Driving Innovation with Total Rewards

You don't have to resort to providing wacky toys or jeopardizing the bottom line with monster R&D labs. Believe it or not, your compensation mix, recognition and rewards programs, and development opportunities can go a long way in creating that next great idea. Here are three ways you can drive innovation with your total rewards strategy:

BYOD Boosts Macs vs. PCs
"When we were having BYOD discussions employees said they wanted a choice. At the time, we wanted to be a single-platform shop so we could get scale pricing. But with the Mac, we could buy a whole bunch or just a few, so that didn't matter. We had two PC vendors and Apple ticked up in part because the form factor was attractive even to PC users," he says.

Setting Up A Sound Risk Management Framework
The main driver of a positive risk culture lies in individual accountability. If a risk or set of risks is assigned to a group, its management will be hazily diluted amongst its members without a clear understanding and accountability. Individual accountability maintains individual awareness at every level of an organisation. A risk or set of risks should fall into one's duties, and individuals' performance should be assessed according to their effectiveness in managing them.

Serve stored data on the cloud to mobile apps using visual search engines
Visual search engines have created a new paradigm of mobile applications. However, to use this technology effectively, a large, publicly accessible data set must be established and maintained. Cloud-based storage is a great solution to use when deploying an app with a visual search engine. Learn how an organization can use a visual search engine and cloud-based storage to automate business processes.

WebOS lives! LG to resurrect it for smart TVs
LG said today it was acquiring WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, with the intention to use the operating system not for its mobile phones, but in its smart televisions. With the deal, LG obtains the source code for WebOS, related documtreentation, engineering talent, and related WebOS Web sites. LG also gets HP licenses for use with its WebOS products, and patents HP obtained from Palm. The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

MasterCard launches MasterPass: Will this digital wallet fly?
MasterPass will launch at the end of March in Australia and Canada followed by the U.S. and U.K. MasterCard also said that MasterPass will roll out in Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and Sweden in 2013. ... The big question remains whether MasterPass will manage to gain traction among shoppers, who know of digital wallets but aren't exactly clamoring for them.

Microsoft's own code should prevent an Azure SSL fail: So what went wrong?
That leaves me with two remaining possibilities. The first: Microsoft isn't using its own rather excellent technology to handle these certs. I'm not fully sure of the underpinnings of Azure; does it run on Server 2012? Bing.com does. Even if Azure isn't using off-the-shelf Windows Server, there would be a delicious irony to Microsoft – enthusiastic player of the constant, cacophonous drumbeat of "upgrade for your own good" – had failed to take advantage of technology they themselves invented to solve this exact problem.

Are SIs Meeting CIO Expectations?
Increasing business complexities and adaption of newer technologies along with forever-rising employee demands, the CIO's challenges are only increasing day by day. Hence they have started looking beyond IT when engaging systems integrators (SIs) with the objective of driving business results through innovative business solutions. But, are these SIs delivering on their promise? A Forrester survey of over 30 CIOs yielded some grim findings

Quote for the day:

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." -- Harry S Truman

February 24, 2013

Keeping Up With the Future: Risk Management for Rapid Technology Adoption
That rumbling you hear? It's the pace of change quickening for organizations thanks to advances in technology. That pace is having an impact on risk profiles; companies no longer have the luxury of time to adapt to new paradigms or threats. Fortunately there are ways to mitigate the changes so that organizations don't have to feel like they're being steamrolled by the future.

How to Create a Company Culture That People Will Be Excited to Join

It takes a certain type of person to join a startup. The ideal candidates can demonstrate risk tolerance and flexibility, as their roles are bound to evolve with the changing needs of the business. Those that combine talent with the ability to roll up their sleeves to get the job done, even if it isn't technically theirs, are the ones you’ll want with you in the trenches. These people are out there, but it can be a challenge to not only find them but also make the case for them to join your business instead of another one.

Why Are There No True Cross-platform Filesystems?
Yulian Kuncheff has this valid question: Over the last few months I have made it so that my PC desktop runs Windows 8, Linux Mint 14, and OSX Mountain Lion. ... everything works nicely and I have the development environments I need on all 3 platforms ... So that no matter which platform I am on, I just work as normal. But there is one massive thorn in my entire setup. Filesystems. After so many years of multiple OSes, I am surprised that there isn’t a single filesystem that is truely cross-platform and modern.

The Three Pillars of High Performance Teams
“The more decisions a leader makes, the further he or she is from leading a high-performance team. … Make too many command decisions, and you’ll doom yourself and your team to mediocrity,” Mark Miller in, “The Secret of Teams.” Everyone serious about success is serious about teams. Great teams lift organizations. Lousy teams drain everyone. Mark Miller explains three pillars of successful teams.

The 9 most popular arguments for targets deconstructed
Hundreds of researchers, academics, bloggers, psychologists, managers, more bloggers, statisticians authors have written about the damage caused by targets. It isn’t an abstract problem, targets can kill. But politicians, civil servants, managers, HR people, consultants and pundits all over the world think they know better. People continue to argue targets have their place. What are their arguments?

Google Fixes 22 Flaws in Chrome, Slams Silent Add-ons
Google yesterday released Chrome 25, patching 22 vulnerabilities and debuting a new security feature that blocks silent installations of add-ons. The latter is Chrome 25's most noticeable change to users. It automatically disables third-party add-ons that are installed on the sly by other software. Add-ons -- Google calls them "extensions" -- that were previously installed by third-party software will also be barred from running.

Modern.ie Helps Developers Test Code for Browsers
modern.ie, developed by Microsoft consists of free tools and resources used for testing code and sites using various versions of Internet Explorer. It includes a code detection wizard which addresses common coding problems that result from supporting older versions of IE. The engine scans the requested website for HTML5 compatibility problems and also provides the hints and tips to enable your site to work properly across various browsers and mobile devices.

Google's Chromebook Pixel: An even worse idea than Windows 8
Windows 8 may have gotten poor reviews for its tablet-based interface forced onto traditional PCs and laptops, but Google's Chromebook Pixel makes that look like a design of genius. Who would want to spend top-dollar for a laptop that lacks serious storage, runs Web-based apps rather than client apps, and isn't much use when not connected to the Web?

Can Microsoft bring BI to the masses if the Excel 2013 masses can't get BI?
Excel has become a cornerstone of Microsoft's business-intelligence strategy. With Excel 2010, Microsoft made PowerPivot -- one of its prime data-analytics technologies -- available for use by anyone with any edition of Excel 2010 by installing the PowerPivot for Excel add-in. But with Excel 2013, the latest version of Microsoft's spreadsheet program, only those with the Office Professional Plus version of the new Office will have full access to Excel 2013's BI capabilities.

Engage or die: Five lessons from a CIO innovation workshop

Despite the complexity of achieving CIO value, relevance, and influence IT is a service function and success demands that we adopt a spirit of genuine humility and helpfulness toward users. In the innovation report mentioned earlier, Erich Matola, now CIO of Colorado State University at Pueblo, summarizes this perspective: "we also have to be a service organization and … really humble in a sense that everybody, all your customers are important… I instill that in my staff…"

Quote for the day:

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. " -- Lou Holtz

February 23 2013

CIO's mastery of M&A puts her at center of Dell's turnaround strategy
In an interview with SearchCIO.com following Dell's big announcement, Karaboutis revealed she occupies a prime spot at the table for the many acquisitions critical to Dell's turnaround -- eight and counting, just on her watch as CIO. The Michigan native is no stranger to business strategy shakeups. Before becoming CIO, she led a transformation of Dell's manufacturing operations.

Security on the street with SearchFinancialSecurity.com: Risk management
In the listed podcast you will learn more on the intersection of technology and risk management, including: Risk assessments, including how they should be conducted, what business processes should be included and what to do with the results; and Risk management policies, including who should create them, what should be included and what kind of training and education they should include.

Spyware, viruses, & security forum: How can I be sure software updates are legit?
Check out CNET's forum to find the answers for this question. The most voted response to this question is "... From emails that look like they are coming from a friend to fake warnings from Banks and other financial institutions, it is getting that you cannot trust anything or anyone. Unfortunately, you cannot count on security software to catch these especially if you initiate the install by agreeing to it or by allowing it when the User Account Control pops up. Unfortunately, the bad guys always seem to be a step ahead of the security software. ..."

VMware Bundles Apps Into BYOD Management Suite
The Horizon Suite will allow employees to access work applications from any device they use, whether it is a laptop, tablet or even smartphone, said Erik Frieberg, VMware senior director for end user computing. VMware's approach is "to transform the silo apps, such as operation systems, into services that can be delivered to end users in any device, with policy-based management," Frieberg said.

AppSense Redefines BYOD As BYOX. What Is X?
AppSense, which develops people-centric solutions recently released MobileNow, a SaaS based mobile device, application and data managements solution designed for Enterprise and Mid-Market organizations that bridges application/data access, corporate compliance and strong security to personal devices in work environments. BYOD is just about your own device. MobileNow supports BYOX where X can be anything from apps, data to the latest mobile device.

Microsoft hacked by same attackers as Facebook, Apple

According to IGN, the tech giant has been attacked by the same hackers that accessed Apple and Facebook's internal computer network, stealing company data as they went. The tech giant said the attack used "techniques similar to those documented by other organizations." The security breach was discovered on a small number of internal computers and said that customer data was unaffected.

Can Big Data + Big Dating = True Love?
The system compares the users extensive list of answers to the site’s 20 million other users – a process that requires a billion calculations for each bachelor or bachelorette. After comparing information using a sophisticated algorithm, the site provides the user with matches. eHarmony’s dataset alone exceeds 4 terabytes of total data, not including photos and other information. These fine-tuned formulas and powerful datacenters are the trade secret of these online dating services.

Leading from the Driver’s Seat
Let’s think about what Laing said, especially “we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.” Picture that. It’s like driving your car but instead of looking at the road right in front of you, you only look through the rear view mirror. So you only see things after you have already passed them! Fortunately nobody drives a car this way – but many people do drive organizations this way.

Is it Now Crazy to Offshore IT to China?
Ten years ago, there was wide expectation that China would emerge as India's top threat in the IT services outsourcing business. Those expectations have been thwarted largely due to language issues and ongoing security concerns, say analysts. China's job building an IT and BPO outsourcing industry may have just gotten harder. The blow-by-blow details of Chinese government espionage that arrived this week in a report by security firm Mandiant, lay bare, in ways never seen before, the extent of the security risks of working with China.

Interview and Book Review: Enterprise Software Delivery
Enterprise software delivery is primary to the organization’s success. It provides the infrastructure that the organization relies on for smooth operation of its key business processes, provides key information- focused services that differentiate the organization’s business offerings, and supports a wide variety of stakeholders who communicate through a common set of information managed by the group.

Quote for the day:

"It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, that your greatest successes will be derived." -- Ralph Charell

February 22, 2013

Dear Oracle: Cloud Multitenancy DOES Matter
Meg Bear of Oracle, who manages their Cloud Social Platform, hammered multitenancy in her post “Multitenancy and Other Useless Discussions,” on Oracle’s blog. She says “multitenancy doesn’t matter … in the same way that your VHS player having progressive scan doesn’t matter.” Alok Misra casually responded to the post but the Oracle moderators didn’t approve his response (seems like they only allow their own marketing people to comment on their blogs), so here is his more cogent argument.

Providing XACML Fine Grained Authorization to WebApps
XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) is a XML schema based policy language used to check the authorization of requests for particular resources in a fine grained manner. To check the authorization of a request, a set of attributes of the request are checked against XACML policies. In order to obtain the authorization for a resource all the various attributes have to be matched. For an example there can be a XACML policy such as: “Only members of the WSO2 Application Server team have read access to this document within WSO2 premises”.

No, it isn't faster to do it yourself
You're feeling overwhelmed. You'd like to get some tasks off your schedule. But you think about the time it would take to train someone else -- who then wouldn't do the task as well as you do, so you'd have to supervise anyway -- and you sigh. "It's faster just to do it myself." Sound familiar? I hope not, because this approach to time amounts to being penny wise but pound foolish.

Security Enhancements in Jelly Bean
Android 4.2, Jelly Bean, introduced quite a few new features, and under the covers it also added a number of security enhancements to ensure a more secure environment for users and developers. This post highlights a few of the security enhancements in Android 4.2 that are especially important for developers to be aware of and understand. Regardless whether you are targeting your app to devices running Jelly Bean or to earlier versions of Android, it's a good idea to validate these areas in order to make your app more secure and robust.

A Smart Card Framework for .NET

This article demonstrates how to use the interoperability features of .NET and use them to write a simple framework to use a Smart Card in your applications. A Smart Card is a small embedded device that receives commands through a card reader using the PC/SC Win32 API. If you want to use this API, you will need a Smart Card reader to use a Smart Card such as a SIM card.

U.K. Public Sector's Top Security Worries
Survey results suggest that most companies do think about the importance of security when partnering with other organizations but aren't doing enough to make it happen. Ninety percent of respondents said information security was an important issue that needs to be clarified when selecting business partners and third parties. The majority (93%) said they regularly exchange information with third parties, and of this data 84% is likely to contain sensitive material.

Going Mobile with C++
Even with the boost in C++ usage, it's important to note that it has positives and negatives in this new computing era. In addition to the aforementioned power advantages, it also delivers superior efficiency without compromising its inherent object-oriented abstraction power. The latest C++ standard, C++11, is simpler and more concise, thanks to features such as smart pointers and lambda expressions.

PCI DSS cloud computing guidelines strike discord among would-be adopters
"Cloud computing is a form of distributed computing that has yet to be standardized," the report states in its executive summary. One expert said the report sets a dark tone from the start. "There is no standard yet, and you're basically led to believe that going to the cloud is fraught with danger," said Chris Steffen, principal technical architect at Kroll Factual Data and a Microsoft MVP on cloud and data center management.

Is Cloud Computing a Threat to Older Tech Companies?
In 2012, the Informational Data Corporation (IDC) made some pretty bold predictions regarding the development of a new high-tech industry in the convergence of social networking, -- cloud-based computing and data storage. The IDC suggested that many industry giants may scramble to maintain relevance, while some startups would gain leadership positions in what some anticipate will be the technology industry's fastest transition ever.

Visa introduces 'Visa Ready' partner programme
The Visa Ready Partner Program is designed to provide innovators a path to ensure that devices, software and solutions used to initiate or accept Visa payments are compatible with Visa's requirements, which may vary by country. It also provides a framework for the collaboration with Visa, as well as guidance and best practices to access the power of the Visa network.

Quote for the day:

"Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed." -- Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator

February 21, 2013

Chief Data Officer role is a work in progress
The only argument against creating this role that I've run across is that if CIOs and CTOs did their jobs right, we wouldn't need this new role. That's pretty feeble since we're not just talking about IT's history of relative ineffectiveness in managing information outside of application silos (and don't get me started about content management) -- we're adding to that a significant increase in the value of information and a significant increase in the amount of available information.

The Practitioner’s Journey: Departure

In the first post of this series, Daryl Conner offere a high-level overview of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, using The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien as a point of reference. Going forward, he hopes to draw out some specific implications of the hero archetype and relate them to the path many seasoned change practitioners (my intended audience) follow as they come to terms with how they work with clients.

AMD docking technology adjusts tablet, laptop performance in hybrids
The company's Turbo Dock technology will adapt system performance when a hybrid laptop is in tablet mode, and vice versa, said Steve Belt, corporate vice president at AMD. The underlying technology behind Turbo Dock cranks up the clock speed of a processor when the tablet is connected to the dock, turning the hybrid device into a high-performance laptop.

Maybe Management Isn’t Your Style
A bad boss is born each time someone goes into management without knowing whether he or she is truly suited to the role. When people are offered a managerial job, they may become intoxicated by the idea of more power and a bigger salary. Refusing such an offer can seem out of the question. “It’s hard to stop and think rationally when you’re being offered a promotion,” said Phil.

Data destruction: Top Ten Tips for avoiding fines and reputational risk
In April 2013, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will detail it plans for data protection practices of the private sector, with particular attention to SMEs. Companies risk massive fines, reputations and even their business if they ignore the guidelines on secure storage and disposal of confidential information. In order to secure your business and comply with ICO regulations, Simon Brailsford of Advanced Digital Dynamics Ltd offers these necessary steps to avoid any costly mistakes:

Sound waves used to increase disk drive capacity
The breakthrough could allow greater amounts of data to be stored on both hard disk drives and NAND flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs). "We're near the peak of what we can do with the technology we now use for magnetic storage," said Pallavi Dhagat, an associate professor in the OSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "There's always a need for approaches that could store even more information in a smaller space, cost less and use less power."

The free GRC tools every compliance professional should know about
Compliance professionals know that governance, risk and compliance (GRC) tends to get short shrift when it comes to securing investment dollars for software tools and new funding for process improvements. This puts compliance professionals in a precarious position, considering the number and complexity of regulations on the rise. You can do nothing, or you can look for ways to "short circuit" the spending cycle and gain efficiencies despite minimal investment dollars. One way to do this is to leverage free and open source toolsto automate some aspects of GRC.

When things go right
No matter how much our head tells us that we can’t change others we seem to have a hard time taking this into our hearts. We mean well, as we all want things around us to be perfect, including the people. But when was the last time you changed when you received a criticism? It’s generally not a great strategy to help others improve without some attention to what’s going right.

What Does EIM Look Like?
Across the many definitions of EIM, a thread emerges that unifies EIM as a legitimate discipline. It takes the concept of information as an asset and attempts to make it real. IT can turn the asset management philosophy into a program that adds significant value to an enterprise or organization through improved ability to analyze and exploit all types of data assets and, ultimately, leads to increased business success.

Women Who Run Tech Startups Are Catching Up
It shows that the average age of women entrepreneurs founding tech companies has dropped, from 41 to 32, since an earlier, smaller study was done in 2009, and the percentage who have had graduate-level education has risen, from 40 percent to 56 percent. The findings about women’s contributions to success bolster previous research from several sources, including a Credit Suisse Research Institute (CS) report and Dow Jones VentureSource (NWS) analysis.

Quote for the day:

"Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain" -- Henry Ford