Messaging Wire Blog

Privacy Proves to Be Evasive for Smartphone Users

2011-04-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

By John Duckgeischel

Privacy concerns first came to light for iPhone and iPad users with the news that the devices made by Apple record user movements. Now a Wall Street Journal article reports that Android-based mobile devices continuously send user location information to the Google mother ship. To alleviate users’ concerns, Google issued a statement that this activity is not a privacy threat. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that smartphones using Google’s popular Android operating system constantly transmit user location data to Google. The news quickly led to new calls for federal legislation to protect the privacy of smartphone users. But Google says the practice is not a threat to privacy.

“We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing, and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices,’’ a Google statement said. Google has taken the position that it has been upfront about what it is doing. Google displays a very high profile notice on Android phones that asks users if they give permission to let the company “collect anonymous location data”. Google states that the location information about the phone is kept separate from the identity of the phone’s owner. John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog, a Washington D. C. advocacy group stated “These aren’t smartphones, they are spy phones.” The group is requesting that laws be put in place that make sure that phone users have the option of not being tracked. “Increasingly, children have iPhones and Androids at age 13, 14, 15, 16, when they are still very vulnerable to predators,’’ Congressman Edward J. Markey stated. “It makes it a lot easier for a predator if they can actually know where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re likely to go.’’ The controversy has spread to Europe where many countries have strong privacy safeguards in place and are especially sensitive to the latest revelations.

Related Link:

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/04/23/smartphone_privacy_fears_raised/

Salesforce.com’s Radian6 Buy Comes with Marketing Opportunity

2011-04-03T08:18:00.001-07:00

By John Duckgeischel

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s history of success is largely based upon his ability to make the most of business opportunities. This week’s Radian 6 acquisition for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock is the latest example. Salesforce is well known for its customer service and Salesforce automation offerings via its software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer relationship system, however Benioff sees a broader horizon with its latest acquisition. Salesforce has made clear that it intends to become “the enterprise cloud computing company” Radian6, a pioneer in social-media measurement , could be the kernel of what eventually becomes a fully fledged marketing suite offering from Salesforce.

Radian6 will help Salesforce customers interface with and monitor activity on Chatter and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which has become an important to companies that want to manage their brand on the internet. As Salesforce has seen competitors make moves into the marketing arena, such as SAS buying AssetLink, Teradata acquiring Aprimo, and IBM picking up Unica, the Radian6 acquisition may the first of several moves to bolster its own marketing related offerings. Potential future acquisitions could include Marketo or Equloa that are known for their lead and campaign management capabilities. As the competition heats up in this space, it would help Salesforce strengthen its foray into marketing and help the company move a step closer to its dream of being “the enterprise cloud computing company”.

Related Link:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400634

Apotheker's Dual Vision for HP

2011-03-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

By John Duckgeischel

Although cloud computing is a major part of HP’s future, it still wants to leverage its strong relationship with consumers. Unlike IBM, which walked away from the consumer market when it sold Lenovo in 2004, HP will try to extend its business with consumers beyond just laptops and printers. That is why Apotheker’s plan includes a focus not only on cloud computing, but also on WebOS, the mobile OS that was part of the Palm acquisition in 2010. HP also intends to leverage its strong relationship with corporate IT as it expands its cloud computing service offerings. "What we really aim for is that individual within an enterprise, the famous -- for the lack of a better term, forgive me if it's a horrible term -- 'prosumer”, said Apotheker.

It is an understatement to say that Apple has a healthy relationship with its consumer base. HP plans on expanding its business by building its business from both the consumer and enterprise perspectives. HP intends on building a WebOS product line that can be easily connected to the HP supplied enterprise infrastructure. HP believes that it can build on its multifaceted strengths to establish as vision that will play well for consumers, the enterprise and Wall Street.

Related Link:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214688/Three_bullet_points_Apotheker_s_battle_plan_for_Apple_IBM_the_world?taxonomyId=15&pageNumber=2

EEOC Federal Agency Expects 40% Savings Using Cloud

2011-03-12T07:23:00.001-08:00

By John Duckgeischel

The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has predicted that the agency will save over 40% during the next five year period as it transitions its financial management application to a cloud computing vendor. The winning vendor in the competitive bidding process was Global Computer Enterprises (GCE) of Reston, Virginia. The five year contract for $10 million follows after GCE won a similar contract with the Department of Labor, which included 12 sub-agencies and offices, in 2010. "We're not ones to break new ground," commented Jeff Smith, CFO of the EEOC, which enforces anti-discrimination laws in American workplaces. "It was important to us that the Department of Labor had already done this with GCE from a past-performance point of view. We had some comfort that they had done this successfully in the required time frame at Labor."

Meanwhile the Federal Office of Management and Budget is encouraging many federal agencies to transition to cloud computing service providers as a means to reduce costs and to speed up IT system deployments. The U.S. government’s CIO Vivek Kundra released the federal cloud computing strategy report which takes a cloud-first approach to computing. According to Federal government estimates, the current Federal IT expenditures of $80 billion per year, could be reduced by approximately $20 billion by outsourcing to cloud computing vendors. The EEOC contract marks the first case where a federal agency has adopted a cloud computing approach for a mission-critical application involving financial management. Previous government contracts for cloud computing have centered around e-mail and web-based collaboration applications.

Related Links:

http://www.cio.com/article/676137/Federal_Agency_Predicts_40_Savings_From_Move_to_Cloud?source=rss_news

Life after the Nokia Microsoft Partnership

2011-02-12T22:53:00.001-08:00

By Leanne Westphal

So it is 2011 and the smartphone landscape is shifting again. Moving into the New Year, Google’s Android and iPhone market share numbers are still growing, while Nokia Symbian struggles to hold the lead worldwide. For its part, RIM was fast of out the gate with BlackBerry but has been losing ground lately. Alas Microsoft struggles to gain significance in the market with its introduction of its Windows Phone 7 late in the year. The newly announced Nokia Microsoft partnership will take up to two years to develop as Nokia transitions it array of phones to the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Both the RIM BlackBerry and Microsoft Phone 7 have achieved limited success in attracting application developers. Meanwhile the Apple app store for the iPhone is bulging with300,000 applications, and the choices for Android users has be growing with over 130,000 3rd party apps. RIM’s management may be exploring whether it should make the move to Android as well, to better compete with the Nokia Microsoft partnership. Although RIM is closely watching the latest developments in the marketplace, no one is commenting for now. RIM and Nokia are both strong internationally, so the latest announcement has significance for both companies in their global business. The two year Microsoft transition time line for Nokia means it isn’t too late for the RIM BlackBerry folks to change their strategy, however the latest announcement puts pressure on the company to re-examine its options sooner than later.

Related Link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110211-710610.html

Google: Changing of the Guard or More of the Same?

2011-01-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

By John Duckgeischel

This week Google announced that effective April 4th, Eric Schmidt will step down as CEO, and co-founder Larry Page will resume the position of CEO that he relinquished in 2001. Fellow co-founders Larry Page, who has been very involved in Google’s various product lines, and Sergey Brin who focuses on strategic developments, both recruited Schmidt to become CEO in 2001. Since 2001 these three leaders have provided the guiding hand that helped produce the extraordinary growth that has made Google a household word. Before coming to Google, Schmidt held technical leadership positions at Bell Labs, Zilog, Xerox PARC. At Sun Microsystems he held the title of Chief Technology Officer, and later became CEO of Novell. Schmidt served on Apple’s board of directors from 2006 to 2009, deciding to resign when the competition began to heat up between Apple and Google.

Larry Page’s influence is well known within the company, however he has maintain a much lower public profile than Schmidt. As CEO, Page will be in charge of the day-to-day decisions facing the company while Schmidt will move on to become executive chairman. Brin is working on future products under development which will be announced sometime in the future. Many analysts feel that the shuffle at the CEO spot will not yield major changes, and that the move is more like fine tuning an engine that is already running strong. Google has shown itself to become a dominant contender in the search engine market and has made strong inroads in the fast growing mobile smartphone and device segment with its Android operating system. YouTube is finally beginning to generate serious income as well. If the company continues to innovate, strengthening products in existing markets and introducing new technology in emerging markets it should do well in the forseeable future.

CES 2011: Mobile Grows Up

2011-01-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

By Leanne Westphal

At the 2011 Consumer Electronic Show a lot of the buzz at the show centered on the emerging mobile universe and specifically the Android-based devices. While CES features the latest and greatest in web connected, 3D and entertainment content driven HDTV’s, home entertainment systems, and high technology audio, it was evident that the show’s hottest mobile products drew the lion share of the attention. The big picture view is that the host of mobile devices based on Android, iOS and other mobile operating systems are moving us closer to the beginning of the post-PC era. One of the best examples of this emerging mobile technology at CES is the new Android smartphone, the Atrix, which may help make the bulky laptop become part of technology history.

Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer at Motorola Mobility stated that, "Consumers are increasingly using smartphones as their primary digital screens." As the year 2011 unfolds, there will be even more post-PC developments as Google’s Chrome OS is expected to be released this summer. During 2011, Apple’s iPad can expect some serious competition develop from Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” tablets. With numerous implementations of the latest technology, it is evident that there is a common vision of ending the traditional PC era and moving on to mobile hardware such as iPads, tablets, and Chromebooks. As the mobile segment continues to mature it is likely that hardware and software will be iOS or Android centric for the foreseeable future. RIM and HP are projected to sell significant numbers of devices however they will not be leading the pack. Window Phone 7, contrary to what Microsoft states, appears to be headed for the “also ran” category even though it represents the company’s best effort to date for this segment.

Related Link:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/216367-3/key_mobile_trends_of_ces_2011.html

2011 Technology Trends

2011-01-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

By John Duckgeischel

As we say "goodbye" to 2010 and "hello" to 2011, there is an annual tradition of projecting the technology trends that will be most prevalent in the coming year.
In keeping with this tradition, consider the following....

1) In 2011, Senior IT Managers will continue to look at budgets that will stay tight for the coming year. That means doing more with less. In other words, how can technology be leveraged to provide more functionality while reducing cost? The strong growth trends utilizing cloud computing, virtualization and business analytics will continue into the New Year. New products that enable these technologies have become more sophisticated, easier to use and less expensive in 2010. Further enhancements and cost reductions can be expected in the coming year.

2) Mobile devices will be even more prevalent in 2011. New mobile devices and technologies make personal access to business and individual information easier than ever. Better mobile networks and device technology and apps means that more companies will join this trend in 2011, which already has strong momentum.

3) The model for improving unified communications continues to evolve. Advances in technology continue to enhance business communications, team workflows and accessibility of personnel and data. Add to this paradigm the new levels of accessibility to enterprise data on private or hybrid clouds via tablets and smartphones and it becomes easy to see how the implications for real life scenarios begin to explode. The bottom line is that we are still learning the best way to make use of all of this emerging technology in an integrated model that provides the maximum leverage.

2011 looks to be a great year. Enjoy the ride.

Java After the Oracle Acquistion

2010-10-11T08:35:00.001-07:00

By Marty Knuckles

I was curious to see what the Java community thought about Oracle's acquisition of Java, so I did a google search for +Future and +Java and the results were pretty interesting, especially the results that turned up with James Gosling's name in them. James, as you may know, has the reputation as the father of Java. It seems that James went to Oracle as part of the SUN acquisition, but left only a few weeks later. Based on my experiences at Oracle, I will read it as a bad sign. Things like this usually indicate political and territorial infighting at fairly high levels in the company.

Mr. Gosling made some insightful comments in his InfoWorld interviews. He believes Oracle understands the server side stuff, JVM, and the like and that it is critical to their future direction as wll as their middleware stack. He has serious doubts about Oracle's understanding of the device side of Java. He cites mobile devices as an example.

Additional articles turned up by my search seemed to cast a cloud over the future of Java. One article was an interview with Robert Dewar. Professor Dewar pointed out the decline in popularity of Java and the rise of alternatives such as Ruby. Another article pointed out the age and staleness of Java.

If I were a weatherman, I'd likely give this forecast: the Java core seems to have settled over Redwood Shores and shows little likelihood of moving any time soon. Although the core appears to be stable and may actually improve and grow over time, its future remains cloudy because of competition from its other siblings in the middleware stable and because the people best qualified to do the care and feeding are not yet integrated into the Oracle culture. Significant defections have occurred and are forecast to continue. These conditions and other uncertainties are likely to accelerate the decline in Java popularity and the whole mess could be outsourced to Mumbai.

FWIW

Marty

IBM reorganizes; SUN goes out of business, why am I not surprised?

2010-07-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

By Marty Knuckles

IBM reorganizes; SUN goes out of business, why am I not surprised?
Have we, as an industry, hit the saturation points predicted in Moore’s law and Kurzweil’s observation? Or are these events a reflection of our current global economic problems? If I were to put a bet on it, I’d put my money on the saturation side. There simply isn’t enough money in hardware anymore and given the current hardware feeds and speeds, I doubt that anyone sees any significant difference between hardware suppliers; hence, the pressure on companies such as IBM and Oracle to find other ways to feed the profitability beast. Based on things I’ve said in previous posts and these current events, I would double down my bet on the hardware saturation issue as the real root of marketing ideas and business strategies such as cloud computing, churning the installed hardware base, and having hardware sales folded into software sales. Without adding “a sale is really a software consulting gig” into their business model how will IBM meet the 2015 profitability goals they discussed with investors? Ditto for Oracle.
I’m interested in hearing your opinion.

iPad and the brave new world

2010-07-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

By Marty Knuckles

In the Datamation article, “Where’s Microsoft ‘s Enterprise iPad?”, Mike Eglan makes some very valid points about Cisco pushing forward with a corporate iPad like device, meanwhile we still are waiting for forthcoming products from Microsoft.

The article opens several good discussion threads.

The first one is: Don't tie the underlying need to a hardware or software implementation. The article suggests that a better user interface and a more human interface are needed. I agree with that. The mouse and keyboard are useful, but they are really concessions to technological limitations, rather than enablers of the use of computing. MPG type interfaces get more at the underlying need for simple, ubiquitous, human style interaction, but those interfaces could be done in even better ways than an iPad or Blackberry or Cius. Just watch an episode of Star Trek and notice the use of the individualized communicator. Given the current status of the wearable computer project, it isn't too hard to imagine a communicator style device that only requires a blank wall to do the projection of a presentation and simple voice commands. I, for one, would rather dictate this reply to your question than to use any sort of keyboard, whether or not that keyboard was implemented as a touch screen on an iPad.

A second discussion thread is: does everyone really need mobile access and does it have to be available 24 X 7? A whole line of interesting discussion opens up, if you look at the statement, "MPG tablets like the iPad will be the dominant mobile device for consumers, and five to seven years from now will be the dominant mobile device in enterprises.". The number of enterprises giving iPad like devices to every employee is quite small. Taking a company like Oracle, you might see iPad like devices in the hands of sales people, field service people and engineers, but you won't see them in the hands of admin types or Finance types. When you get to companies in the $50 M/yr in sales or $100 M/yr in sales, these types of devices are going to be pretty rare as company supplied devices. I'm guessing the "enterprise" side of this thing is going to be fairly small. The consumer side should be where the big money is. However, if a better device comes along (see comment 1 above), consumers are likely to abandon the current devices and current implementations even faster than they adopted them.

A third discussion is: Can a company be all things to everyone in every market and market segment?: I would say, "No". Is Microsoft really supposed to dominate every market segment? I'm sure you'll find people who say, "Yes!", but such a goal is impossible. A company has to have a center and a core value. No company has ever done well with out one. It was interesting to see Digital Equipment and Ken Olson cited in the article. Digital couldn't be all things to everyone and when we tried to move in to spaces that were outside our center and core value, we got killed. As an example consider the DEC PC line. If you are interested in a detailed reads on this idea, then the book, "inside the tornado" by Geoffrey Moore is fascinating as is "from ENIAC to UNIVAC" by Nancy Stern.

A fourth thread is: the mention of "dominating computing for the next 30 years". Given the rates of change over the last 30, it is very difficult to see anyone or any company doing that. Computing history has a lot of carcasses when we turn our heads and look behind us. Also, at this point in time any assignment of preeminence to Apple or iPad or even MPG technology is premature. If we consider past performance, Apple has been innovative just as Digital Equipment was innovative, but Digital failed to survive much past it's 40th birthday and Apple is not the dominant desktop today.

Related Link:

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/mowi/article.php/3891711/Wheres-Microsofts-Enterprise-iPad.htm

Always do the math

2010-06-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

By Marty Nuckles
I don’t know who originally said it, but I believe it is still good advice. Do the math and see where it leads. In the case of the AMD Opteron servers, the key data elements I would like to have are:
1. What was the total number of Opteron Server sales versus the total number of x86 servers for the last 3 years, year by year?
2. What are the projected numbers for the next year, two years and three years?
3. What percentage of these servers, both Opteron and Intel, were sold with Oracle software?
4. What are the projected numbers for the next three years?
I no longer have inside contacts at SUN or oracle, so I can’t get the actual numbers, but I’m guessing that the Opteron numbers are fairly small. In all likelihood, the Opteron numbers are too small to justify the costs of development, maintenance and support. So, from the business side, it makes sense to simplify the product options and stick with things that you are sure you can sell, despite the arguments that can be made over technological superiority.
However, given the fact that I’m discussing Oracle here, I’m can’t assume that anything is being done on a rational, dollars and cents approach to business. I’ve always got to give in to the mild paranoia that I developed while working there. The Opteron decisions could be founded in another set of political moves inside Oracle as it digests SUN. Check Paul Ruebens’ article on Oracle and Linux at:

http://www.serverwatch.com/eur/article.php/3873696/Oracles-Linux-Server-Slant

for some interesting insights. Additionally, pay attention to announcements on changes in licensing, support and consulting. Savio Rodrigues’ article at:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/license-change-leaves-sun-solaris-users-crossroads-858?page=0,0>

is another good read. So, from my paranoid side, I suspect this is not good news in the long run for current Oracle customers or future customers. I’m guessing that everyone should be preparing for fewer choices at higher costs over the long haul.

IT Professionals Get The Nudge Toward Cloud From Microsoft

2010-04-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

By Marty Nuckles

Part 1: Homework
When I got the request to review the article “Microsoft pushes cloud computing”, the first thing I did was to make sure that I had clear understanding of the term “cloud computing”. I set out to make sure that I knew the difference between it and other ideas such as “Software as a Service”, “Grid Computing”, “Platform as a Service”, “Scalable, Virtualized, Business Applications” and a dozen other variations on the theme. As I soon discovered, there isn’t much steak or sizzle here. There isn’t anything here that I haven’t seen or heard before. A motley crew of vendors, marketers and others, each pushing their technology, that’s about it. And, most certainly, there is no clear definition or technology standard here.
A few cynics have called it the “marketing phrase de jour”. One of the more interesting cynical reviews is “Why Cloud Computing is for the birds" by Mike Elgan and I found it funny that Cloud Computing Journal has an article titled, “21 Experts define cloud computing”. Why does it take 21 experts to define it? It reminds me of those light bulb jokes we used to tell.

I came away from my homework with several conclusions. The first one is: this is an idea in its infancy. It is closer to a marketing banner than a solid technology or a foundation for long term IT planning and deployment. Most IT departments and IT planners should be commended for casting a skeptical eye on the cloud computing hype and the cloud computing marketing efforts of hardware and software vendors.

Part 2: Building my perspective
Does this mean that cloud computing should simply be consigned to the trash bin reserved for marketing hype? No, it doesn’t. There are some legitimate issues that it addresses and in time in may offer real solutions to some thorny IT problems. We have all lived through software and hardware upgrades that set us back weeks and months. We have all lived through the problems of systems management, systems configuration and systems security. Being able to pass those concerns off to someone else or something else, such as the cloud, is an appealing proposition. If it saved time and money, that would be even more attractive. I would imagine that we are in a situation similar to the one our grandparents might have experienced when the telephone system moved towards standardization in early part of the twentieth century. It might have seemed like a loss of control and a risk, but the benefits of self-service dialing and the reliability of the utility proved out. Ditto for the change from rotary dial to digital phones. That lead to my second conclusion: give the infant time to grow up and try to imagine what might be possible. After all, the switch from rotary phones to digital made it possible for me to get my bank balance at 4 AM while I was on a business trip to Philadelphia and when I needed three more extensions for my home phone, I just went down to Costco, bought a base station with three remote unit and in a couple of minutes, I had phones in every room that I wanted.

I’m still trying to work out the target market for cloud computing and that remains hazy (pardon the pun). Cloud computing seems to appeal to the “big boys” first and foremost. They’ve got the biggest needs for systems management, scalability as well as the biggest need to save money. I can’t see the appeal for small and medium sized IT shops. Nor can I see the appeal for people who believe that their data is their most valuable asset. There are some pretty serious data privacy, data security and data reliability issues here. HIPPA is the first example that comes to mind. As an IT planner, I would need a lot of proof that these issues had been solved and that there were no vulnerabilities before I moved my company’s IT infrastructure to a cloud based solution.

I would be interested in hearing your opinions and if you have them, I would like to hear about experiences in implementing cloud computing.

Related Link:

http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid68_gci1510373,00.html

Scientists Still Learning to How To Count Stars

2010-03-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

By John Duckgeischel

According to a recent article in Discovery News astronomers "may have underestimated the tally of galaxies in some parts of the universe by as much as 90 percent." It turns out that astronomers use ultraviolet light signatures as a means of counting stars; however they have found that this may not be the most accurate measurement method. The article goes on to say that In the case of very distant, old galaxies, the telltale light may not reach Earth as it is blocked by interstellar clouds of dust and gas -- and, as a result, these galaxies are missed by the map-makers." This gross miscalculation may cause doubts about the integrity of data gathered by scientists for major scientific theories such as global warming and others.

In another space related story, NASA has given credit to an amateur who has captured photographs of space which have captured the attention of the U.S federal space agency. From the UK, Robert Harrison made a device at home which can orbit the earth 20 miles above it surface and take pictures of the edge of space with incredible clarity. NASA was so impressed it made an effort to contact the father of three children. Harrison made the device for only $815. NASA admitted it would have had to spend millions of dollars to accomplish the same feat.

P2P File Sharings Has Its Risks

2010-02-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing has opened up a significant breach in data security. The breach is so serious that the FTC has taken steps to notify hundreds of US businesses, of all sizes, that confidential information is freely circulating on P2P networks. This breach gives all sorts of unauthorized users access to sensitive and confidential information. For example: Jon Leibowitz, FTC Chairman, pointed out that “…health-related information, financial records, and drivers' license and social security numbers …” are visible on these P2P networks.
The existence of the data security breach underscores the issues of identity theft and fraud. The breach also underscores the legal issues and business liabilities. Closing the breach is imperative. Tony Bradley in his article “How to Stop P2P” data breaches” offers 3 sound ideas along with recommendations for closing the breach. Pay heed to Tony’s recommendations and implement them right away! Business data, especially confidential data, is an asset. It deserves even more protection than a physical asset. Lock it down!

In brief, Tony’s recommendations are:
1. Beware the Software. Remember where the P2P software comes from and remember that often it not built with the same concern for data security as commercial software. Additionally, the software can contain malware, viruses and the like. System performance issues and network performance issues can ensue.
2. Watch What You Share. The default share folder and sharing options can expose data to the world.
3. Just Don't Use It. There are legitimate uses for P2P networks. However, there is arguably no legitimate reason for accessing a P2P file-sharing system from a business network. In addition to the potential system and network performance issues, improperly configured and inadequately secured networks open you up to attack and compromise, or inadvertently exposing sensitive data.
As a final illustration, if you don’t believe this is an important business issue, then you may want to leave your wallet and credit cards on the front seat of your car and while you are at it, leave the windows down, the door unlocked and the keys in the ignition. I’m sure some unauthorized user will appreciate it.

The Risks of Using P2P File Sharing

2010-02-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

Written by Marty Nuckles

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing has opened up a significant breach in data security. The breach is so serious that the FTC has taken steps to notify hundreds of US businesses, of all sizes, that confidential information is freely circulating on P2P networks. This breach gives all sorts of unauthorized users access to sensitive and confidential information. For example: Jon Leibowitz, FTC Chairman, pointed out that “…health-related information, financial records, and drivers' license and social security numbers …” are visible on these P2P networks.
The existence of the data security breach underscores the issues of identity theft and fraud. The breach also underscores the legal issues and business liabilities. Closing the breach is imperative. Tony Bradley in his article “How to Stop P2P” data breaches” offers 3 sound ideas along with recommendations for closing the breach. Pay heed to Tony’s recommendations and implement them right away! Business data, especially confidential data, is an asset. It deserves even more protection than a physical asset. Lock it down!

In brief, Tony’s recommendations are:
1. Beware the Software. Remember where the P2P software comes from and remember that often it not built with the same concern for data security as commercial software. Additionally, the software can contain malware, viruses and the like. System performance issues and network performance issues can ensue.
2. Watch What You Share. The default share folder and sharing options can expose data to the world.
3. Just Don't Use It. There are legitimate uses for P2P networks. However, there is arguably no legitimate reason for accessing a P2P file-sharing system from a business network. In addition to the potential system and network performance issues, improperly configured and inadequately secured networks open you up to attack and compromise, or inadvertently exposing sensitive data.
As a final illustration, if you don’t believe this is an important business issue, then you may want to leave your wallet and credit cards on the front seat of your car and while you are at it, leave the windows down, the door unlocked and the keys in the ignition. I’m sure some unauthorized user will appreciate it.

“This is like Déjà vu, all over again” -- Yogi Berra

2010-02-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

Written by By Marty Nuckles

Yogi’s quote was the first thing that went through my mind as I was reading Paul Ruben’s article titled, “Google vs. Microsoft -- You Say You Want a Revolution”. Déjà vu, because getting huge numbers of small and medium sized businesses to buy the latest, hottest technology was a goal we repeatedly chased for years. When I was working in the hardware end of the business and when I was working in the software end of the business we tried simplifying. We tried bundling, partnering and embedding. We tried making it sexy and we tried making it cheap. Some of the technologies became market successes and others remained stuck in their niches. But overall, the massive tidal wave of adoption and subsequent buying never seemed to come. Why didn’t it happen?

In his article, Paul said, “By the end of this year, when ChromeOS is due to released … Google will be ready to offer enterprises its own take on the single vendor solution: Users will be able to use low-cost netbooks (and maybe desktop machines?) or smartphones running Google software to access data stored in a Google-managed cloud and manipulate it with apps running in Google data centers. It will be as inexpensive as chips and need very little in the way of patching or updating by IT departments.” Later in the article, Paul went on to ask, Will it happen?
Will individuals and small business be ready? Will they adopt the vision?
I asked myself can Google and the Chrome OS generate enough momentum, enthusiasm and motivation for me to replace the Microsoft products, the web services and the applications I use every day? Maybe they can. Chrome has become my browser of choice. I’m taking a wait and see attitude on the rest of it.

I went on to ask myself, can Google and Chrome get the $25M/yr businesses motivated to adopt the vision and buy? What about the $150M/yr businesses? And in those questions, I began to see an answer. The answer is: it may happen if there are compelling reasons for a small business to do so. Low-cost netbooks and smartphones, along with vendor managed applications are not compelling reasons, nor are the Google name and cloud computing. Just as an experiment, go say the words, “vendor managed, stateless device, anywhere access, cloud computing” to any owner of a $100M/yr business and watch his or her eyes glaze over. To a small business owner: better, faster, cheaper are compelling reasons, so are: quicker quotes to customers, fewer errors on billing, accurate tracking and faster delivery. Quicker access to the web is not high on their list of requirements; neither is reducing start up time. Spending money on new smartphones, netbooks or vendors is likely to be viewed as a significant cost and the perception that a changeover is required would likely be viewed as disruptive, regardless of how it plays out in actual practice.

Give me the net, net!

1. Take a good look at yourself and your business structure. If you see yourself as an aggressive and leading edge small business, then go for it! Evaluate the technology and build it into your plans to innovate. Use the speed of any-where, any-when access to push your company. You could be the next Under-Armour. Lower IT costs could provide money for investments in other areas. The same is true for devices and web-access that would allow you to “do a deal on the spot”.
2. If you are a conservative business, then evaluate the technology and look at your IT current costs. Would you recognize any costs savings or operational improvements by adopting the Google computing model? If so, develop plans for phasing them in over time. Use the cost savings as investment for further improvement and measure, measure, measure!
3. If none of this makes any sense to you, then ignore the whole thing and wait 5 years. If the Google model fails to catch on, you won’t have spent anything. If it does catch on, you’ll have enough historical information to evaluate it and you can make your plans from there.
4. If you’re selling technology, then learn to talk about the current problems it solves. Learn to talk about what could be done in the future. Above all else, learn how to construct and present a compelling business case that someone actually cares about. Make sure you can prove it too!
Final thoughts

I am in favor of simplifying things. The easier the access to the services and applications that we need daily, the better! The simpler and more transparent the access, the better. Fast access is great. Ditto for universal access and stateless devices.
I believe this computing model provides an excellent platform for more effective and efficient businesses.
I believe the potential inherent in this model will become more and more obvious as the members of the wired generation move into the small business arena and as they achieve success.
Competition is a good thing. It forces innovation.

Larry Ellison’s Dreams Come True

2010-01-28T09:07:00.000-08:00

Oracle is officially moving forward with integrating its latest acquisition, Sun Microsystems. Oracle’s CEO, Larry Ellison, usually get what he wants, and even if there huddles to overcome such are questions from EU about MySQL. One only has to look at the acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2005. After being rebuffed multiple times, it is now part of Oracle. Since 2005, Oracle has made 52 acquisitions, including BEA systems, Siebel Systems, and the aforementioned PeopleSoft. With the Sun Microsystems acquisition complete, it is now providing a glimpse into the future. Today, Oracle is holding an event for customers which lays out the strategic vision on how Sun’s servers, storage, operating system and software will complement the database and application middleware that are the company’s signature products.

"We've been talking about this for years," Oracle president Charles Phillips stated during the presentation. "We've extended it down to more and more layers." "One upside of this transaction taking so long to close was that it gave us plenty of time to work on the details," he stated as he went on. "We have a complete system that's engineered to work together and be delivered faster across domains." "The breakthroughs will be the interaction between the stacks," Phillips added. "With separate vendors developing products at each level, it's very hard to get engineers to work together. It just never happens. It's hard to get them to work together even when they work at the same company. Ask IBM. They know."

In fiscal 2011, Oracle will increase its research and development spending from $2.8 billion to $4.3 billion. It plans on making a sizeable investment in Sun’s Solaris operating system, the Java program language as well as the SPARC chipsets and servers. "We're going to spend money to re-energize the key assets at Sun, the products," Phillips stated. Oracle is planning on hiring 2000 engineering and sales professionals offsetting, if only partially, the layoffs it planned when the deal was first announced.

Oracle has combined both its hardware and software in one stack, which moves it into the category of system provider similar to HP and Cisco. Oracle claims to have the best comprehensive offering in the industry. "There's no other company that can claim that they're in the complete systems business," Phillips said. "We're in all these categories and engineer across all of them. They couldn't do it from a coordination perspective and simply don't have components."

Sometimes history repeats itself as today’s Oracle somewhat resembles the old IBM from the 1960’s. "It is odd that the computer industry ships all these separate parts and expects customers to assemble them," Larry Ellison said in an interview with The New York Times earlier. "You will now be buying this complete system, and don’t have to hire IBM or someone else to assemble it for you.

Related Link:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/3861176/Oracle-Takes-a-Page-From-IBM.htm

New Study: Texting While Driving Is Dangerous

2009-12-22T13:54:00.001-08:00

The University of Utah has now confirmed what every one has known for quite a while. Texting while driving is dangerous. The study provides information on how distracting texting can be. The study indicates that texting can be six times more distracting than talking on a cell phone while driving.

The University of Utah study showed that the distractions associated with texting resulted in delayed braking and reaction times. Perhaps this study is useful since so many people are texting. Last year over 1 trillion texts were sent. It seems however people need to use more common sense and not attempt to do multiple things at the same time, especially when one of them is driving. Since driving a car which weighs 2000 to 4000 pounds, at normal driving speeds, creates a potential lethal weapon, it would seem that not texting while driving should be a rule of thumb that everyone would naturally follow. Evidently not, as more and more elected representives look at new laws and regulations to prohibit such activity. Many states have banned the activity, while many others are exploring creating new laws. Overall I think we need to promote a society where people take responsibilty for safe behavior rather than creating new laws for every circumstance. Unfortunately this maybe a necessary evil in today' society. Perhaps this is a sign of the times.

The Risks of Cloud Computing

2009-11-24T10:39:00.000-08:00

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) published its Cloud Computing Risk Assessment Report which derived data from Educational Organizations, Industry Experts and Government Organizations. The biggest risk identified was likelihood of being locked into a cloudbased solution, with many companies not offering the tools, standardized formats or procedures to provide data and service portability. This makes the task of moving back to an in-house architecture or a to another service provider difficult at best. The second risk area of concern is the inability to isolate failures due to the shared resource approach by cloud service providers. Failure protocols which separate storage, memory and routing are often not offered in the cloud computing environment, making fault isolation difficult if not impossible with an attack on the operating system. The third risk area identified is a compromised management interface which is accessible via the internet, provided a larger risk of exposure than a traditional in-house model. The report provides some serious food for thought as companies look at their list of pros vs. cons when deciding on their computing strategy.
Related Link:
http://web2.sys-con.com/node/1198718

10 Things I Hate About My Wireless Carrier

2009-11-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

As AT&T responds with their legal team to recent Verizon television ads that make their 3G coverage look bad, there are still plenty of things to dislike about your chosen wireless carrier. For 2009 spotty coverage is still a huge problem in America, even worse if you would like to use all of the data features of your new smart phone. Want to change carriers? Better think twice. The penalties are stiff for leaving your wireless contract earlier. To add injury to the insult, Verizon doubled its early termination fees this week.

Let’s examine the the quality of the phones offered. Unfortunately, except for iPhone, most of the mobile phones offered don’t deliver the performance as advertised. The 3G networks have limited coverage and you still get the privilege of paying a $20 to $30 per month up charge. Theoretically competition is supposed to drive down prices; however there must not really be much competition because prices remain sky high. Even texting costs a lot considering the limited bandwidth that text really requires from the carriers. Spotty coverage with dropped calls stills happens routinely and limited 3G coverage, and dead zones today’s norm which should not be the standard for a supposedly mature industry. The carriers in Europe and Asian provide a much higher level of service. Unfortunately for Americans, improved service is not just around the corner. Even though the iPhone is starting to have a little competition from Motorola’s Droid and of course the Palm Pre, the fact is that the network behind them is still pretty weak. It seems the carriers would rather invest in snappy ads instead of investing the infrastructure itself.

Strategic Moves in Technology

2009-10-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

Microsoft strategic decision making process is puzzling at best. Once upon a time Microsoft woke to find out that the internet train had left the station when they didn't notice. After Bill Gates "woke up" the troops, Microsoft responded with the Internet Explorer browser and the launched the "internet friendly" version of Microsoft Office. Fast forward to 2009. After capturing over 95% of the browser market, Microsoft market share has shrunk to approximately two-thirds. Meanwhile Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome keep gaining market share consistently each quarter. Microsoft has not been totally asleep as it launches the Bing search tool and signs a deal with Yahoo. So far Bing has made a dent, although it is a small dent in the overall search market. For it's part, Google has launched Google Doc's which are OK but not great...yet. However, they could still prove to be a viable thorn-in-the-side low cost alternative to Microsoft Office. Although it can be said Microsoft has some moves of its own to be aggressive in the internet security space as it has recently launched a free version of Microsoft Security Essentials, which is enough to ruffle the feathers of McAfee and Symantec.

When we look at Google Wave, a comprehensive communication too, which has previewed this year, we see a very innovative product which is well regarded by the industry with a lot of potential. When we look at Microsoft's equivalent.....well lets just say that Microsoft is still are trying to figure out how Google came up with this product.

Two big growth areas on the horizon seem to be mobile communicating/computing and cloud computing. For cloud computing Microsoft has been making moves to fully participate, on mobile computing, not so much. Microsoft has been investing heavily in software for cloud computing and in building datacenter hubs containing huge compute and storage infrastructure. Google is heavily investing in this space as well as virtually all of the other technology industry heavy weights. Microsoft's effort to secure a place in the mobileOS market seem half-hearted at best. For its part, Google Android is beginning to carve out a substantial part of the mobile OS marketplace. According to Gartner, Google Android is projected to have 14.5 percent of the mobile OS marketplace by 2012. The Gartner 2012 projection will put Symbian in first place with 39 percent share , with Android in the 2nd place and iPhone OS in 3^rd. The the projections seem to indicate that Windows Mobile from Microsoft will be most likely struggling to stay in the game by 2012. Stay tuned as the giant chess game continues.

Microsoft’s Bing Gains More Market Share In August

2009-09-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well it may not be earth shattering news, but Microsoft’s Bing went from an 8.9 percent of the search market place in July to 9.3 percent in August. It has gained market share for 4 consecutive months in a row. The current data shows Google at 64.6 percent, Yahoo at 19.3 percent, Microsoft at 9.3 percent Ask at 3.9 percent and AOL at 3 percent. Google actually gave up a meager .1 percent to Bing. Google may not be losing sleep at this point, however if this trend continues it could prove to be especially troublesome.

Microsoft is planning on providing a new release twice a year with the latest technology enhancements. The latest Bing release was previewed to employees at the Microsoft annual meeting. The comments were heard to be very favorable. Google is not known for sitting on its hands, so it will be interesting to watch what kind of changes makes in its next release.

The Law, Privacy and Cloud Computing

2009-09-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

The rapid advancement of Cloud Computing has the government scrambling to evolve privacy protection laws to keep them relevant. If the laws do not keep pace with technology, the constitution protections are seriously jeopardized. Unfortunately the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was written more twenty years ago and pre-dates the internet. Many legal experts are advocating serious reform of the ECPA to provide clear guidelines to service providers about all the data that is in their cloud infrastructure.

The popularity of cloud computing resources being used by businesses and consumers for storing photos, e-mail, private data, and medical records is growing as it provides a low cost alternative. The security of this information may be jeopardized as a subpoena for e-mail can be served to a service provider and the owner of the e-mail may never be notified. As a result the government and attorneys are utilizing the vast amount of data and information stored on the cloud for purposes of their lawsuits and investigations. A single subpoena can provide the potential to gather information from millions of users. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution affords protection against unreasonable search and seizure for houses and papers. As technology has changed how information is shared and stored, it is time to extend the protections afford under the Constitution to provide appropriate level of protection to digital information.

Reliable Cell Phone Service In 2009?

2009-09-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

How hard can it be to find a reliable cell phone service provider in America in 2009? Well unfortunately, it is harder that you would think it would be. AT&T first did a prototype way back in 1977. Lots of time has passed, so you would think with technological advances it should be perfect by now. Not quite.

In a survey published in 2008, by Consumer Reports, it looked at the top 20 metropolitan areas and included responses from 47629 readers. It says that cell service typically gets the lowest ratings of any services offered with "fewer than half of the respondents were completely or very satisfied with their cell phone service." Verizon took the survey lead with a meager 70% approval rating, followed by closely by T-Mobile. AT&T came in third, followed by Sprint coming in last place of the major cell phone service providers.

Service quality varies widely by carrier and metropolitan area. Take California for example. In California T-mobile and Sprint are known for spotty service throughout the state. Verizon is strong in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, but mediocre in Los Angeles and elsewhere. AT&T is strong in Los Angeles, Sacramento with just OK but not great service in the Bay Area and San Diego.

Check the local reputation with your friends and associates before signing up for a long term contract. MetroPCS provides low cost service in select major metropolitan areas; however do wander too far if you want to stay in the service area. It is best to stay with the major four service providers if you live in rural areas. Some carriers such as T-Mobile, provide detail coverage map which may be helpful as a rough guideline, but check with your neighbors just to be sure. I live two blocks from a major freeway in California and I was amazed to find out that my service provider, a major carrier, provided no service at that location. Now that my contract has expired, I am ready to make my move. Good luck and good hunting.

Making the Case for Unified Communication In Today's Economy

2009-09-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Although Bernanke has stated that the economy is on the "cusp" of recovery, the harsh reality of day to day business in 2009 puts a lot of pressure corporate IT budgets. Unified Communications (UC) offers real productivity gains; however IT managers face the daunting task of making the case that the spending for unified communications really justifies the benefits especially with the current state of the economy. One problem is identifying the real cost base line for non-integrated solutions that are already deployed, along with the support required for these services. It is common for IT managers to under estimate the cost of the current solution because it is difficult to gather all of the information on the separate tools, processes, and support costs.

Some IT managers have found it beneficial to present information on building a unified communication solution as part an overall effort to provide business process automation. UC solutions that encompass the breadth of an enterprise's need for integrated solutions can save money over separate solutions in numerous ways. The effort required to use, integrate and support communications from various sources requires time (i.e. money) for the users as well as the IT staff. In addition to productivity gains for the whole enterprise, moving to an integrated solution simplifies the support process and reduces support costs.

Microsoft Word Strategy With Pending Legal Challenges

2009-08-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

After receiving a court order to suspend sales of its popular Microsoft Word program in 60 days from a Texas judge, the company has begun reveal how it will handle this legal challenge. I4i, a Canadian software company prevailed as it sought to protect its custom XML patent. With millions of dollars of revenue at stake, Microsoft has already filed for an injunction to stop the court order and is expected to file a full appeal as well.

Although Microsoft has begun the process to vigorously defend legally, it knows that options outside of the court room may be more advantageous. Trials can be expensive and can take a long time and the company does not want a legal cloud hanging over its flagship product. The chances are that it has begun to look at technical ways around the patent issue. I4i was silent about any on discussions which may or may not be taking place for an out of court settlement. Both of these options may be quicker and potentially less expensive in the long haul. Right now it appears that Microsoft is keeping its options open, both legally and otherwise.

Welcome to the Messaging Wire Blog

2009-07-14T15:32:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Messaging Wire blog!