T H E

P U L S E

ITWORLDCANADA.COM

O F

C A N A D A ' S

I C T

C O M M U N I T Y

VOLUME 31, NUMBER 2 I MARCH 2015

SECURITY
MEETS
LUXURY
SAMSUNG'S
GALAXY S6
AND S6 EDGE

IT MANAGEMENT
STYLE
Executives reveal how their management style
helps them keep on top of technology trends
and workplace issues

AGENDA
I

Elements of IT
management style

SUBSCRIBE

Recently, considerable security concerns were

raised when reports came out that Hillary
Clinton used her own email-server at home in
sending out emails when she was serving as
U.S. secretary of state.

While Clintons actions have been characterized as an

example of shadow IT in high places, in his article on this
months Computing Canada, Shane Schick points out that its
really more a case of VIP IT" - people in a position of power
and privilege who flout IT policies.
As a CIO or IT manager, how would you respond to an
executives circumvention of company policies especially when
such actions create security risks or undermine compliance of
other workers to best practices?
Youll find the answer to that and other IT management
questions in the following pages.
We talked with different IT leaders about how they employ
their own management style in dealing with various issues
ranging from rolling out new technology, to recruiting and
training staff, to enforcing security policies and yes dealing
with VIP IT as well.
Guess who turned up at a recent CIO Association of Canada
event?
Amir Johnson, starting forward for the Raptors, was a
special guest at a CIOCAN dinner in Toronto. One of the few
cagers who really knows his way around Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube and other channels, Amir shares some social media
tips that can very useful for IT professionals as well.
Computing Canada explores how a new discipline called
strategic foresight can help chief security officers and risk
managers deal with rapidly evolving threats.
Kevin Pashuk, CIO of Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario
and a regular ITWC blogger, talks about why IT leaders should
focus more on improving user experience in his piece Its time
to change the way IT is done.
Nestor Arellano

ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

AGENDA

CONTENT CLOUD:
MARCH 2015
Follow the tag reference to the indicated
page. In our electronic version, simply
touch or click the tag to be transported
to the story.

Data Breach

PAGE

BLOGS

Johnson

PAGE

20

PAGE

23

s6edge

PAGE

21

RISK

PAGE

19

big data

PAGE

18

SEX AND TECH

CLINTON

PAGE

13 26

PAGE

PAGE

10

ON
AIR:
WAYNE BERGER, COUNTRY

MANAGER, REGUS CANADA

Berger discusses how Regus is adopting

to a workplace transformed by technology and a new generation of workers

IT MANAGEMENT
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SLIDESHOW

5 COOL DEVICES
FEATURED AT
MOBILE WORLD
CONGRESS 2015

The newest and coolest mobile devices

were on exhibit at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
Heres a quick look at some of the latest smart phones and tablets that wowed
people at the event.
4 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

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F ROM OUR BLOGGERS

Every month bloggers on ITWorldCanada.com sound off

on a wide range of issues. If you missed their columns,
heres excerpts from a few, with links to the complete blog:
CONTAINERIZED CLOUD
COMPUTING THE NEXT
BIG THING?

EXCITING TIMES AHEAD

FOR IBM IN 2015
CHRIS LAU

Due to its massive size,

IBM has trouble growCloud computing is no
ing. In 2014, it divested
longer a simple concept
a number of large busior a single solution it
nesses that did not fit
has rapidly evolved into
its strategic profile. The big divestia new and significantly
ture last year was the semiconductor
expanded IT ecosystem. Competition among cloud providers is intense manufacturing unit. But 2015 should
on many fronts, and yet many of the prove an exciting year for IBM.
Heres why...
innovations seem to be older ideas
re-visited.
DON SHEPPARD

Perhaps youve been wondering - what really is the next big thing in cloud computing?
Could Docker be the answer?

Read the entire blog here

Read the entire blog here

IS DATA MODELLING
REALLY DEAD?
YOGI SCHULZ

If your Agile software

development is delivering less functionality or
producing more defects
MICHAEL BALL
Systems monitoring po- in each iteration, then your Agile
tential network threats project team probably believes that
have become sterile and data modelling is really dead or irrelmonotonous, but Dark- evant.
trace reminded me of
the tools seen in Minority Report.
Read the entire blog here
The company touts itself to be your
enterprise immune system - it
learns like the human bodys immune system, which has an understanding of self or what belongs or
is normal, versus harmful foreign
bodies like bacteria or viruses.
DARKTRACE: THE ENTERPRISE
IMMUNE SYSTEM

Read the entire blog here

ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

F ROM OUR BLOGGERS

7 STEPS TO BECOMING
AN IT MANAGER
STEPHEN ABRAHAM

CIO LEADERSHIP
FUNDAMENTALS:
STRATEGY COMES FIRST

Are you ready to take

GARY DAVENPORT
IT to the next level?
In an attempt to provide
You've been working
more direct insights
in IT for several years
into the world of the
now, and have mastered
CIO from a laymans
almost all the aspects of your job.
perspective, here is the
You have been given increasingly
initial blog in a series on CIO Leadresponsible roles and you've received ership Basics.
outstanding performance reviews.
The first thing a CIO should remember is to
You are an excellent developer, an
define their own strategy for moving their oreffective business analyst, a skilled
ganization forward in a productive and positive
network technician or a superior
manner to best leverage the power of digital
QA analyst. Now you want to take
technologies.
the next step on the ladder to become a manager.
Read the entire blog here
Here are 7 steps to help you achieve your goal
of becoming an IT manager.
Read the entire blog here

MICROSOFT CANADA
PRESIDENT: 'WERE DEEPLY
COMMITTED TO OPENNESS'

HOMOGENEOUS IS GOOD
IF IT'S MILK, BAD IF IT'S
INNOVATION
KEVIN PASHUK

One of the key tools of

safe IT leadership is the
concept of standardization, or homogeneBRIAN CLENDENIN
ity. Homogeneity is the
Cloud applications are
state of conformity. For example,
often preferred by end
users for ease of use, but milk from various sources is mixed
they also desire harmo- together to become homogeneous so
nious co-existence with that every sip will taste consistent.
Microsofts foundational productivity
tools of Outlook and Office.
Read the entire blog here
Janet Kennedy, president of Microsoft Canada knows intimately what this means for IT
strategy development in Canadian organizations.
Read the entire blog here

6 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

CanadianCIO Census

Benchmarking the IT Function

and CIO Role in Canada

SURVEY 2015 NOW OPEN

PARTICIPATE TODAY
Our annual CanadianCIO Census is here.
And, were reaching out to you to participate
in the only survey report that looks at what
CanadianCIOs are seeing, thinking, and planning.
It takes only minutes to answer these questions.
The result we pool our experiences and share our
wisdom with our community. The benefits we all get
from the information lasts throughout the year.
If you didn't participate in previous iterations,
your voice was missing. And you were not able to
benefit from the shared wisdom of your colleagues
or from the insights that come from knowing what
challenges others are facing or which technologies
they are adopting. To review last years findings,
CLICK HERE
Be a part of this and we all benefit. All participants
will receive a complimentary copy of the full report
and a $20 Tim Horton's gift card.

PARTICIPATE IN THE SURVEY NOW

PRODUCED BY

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

SPONSORED BY

NEWS
I

BLACKBERRY
OPENS
SOFTWARE
TREASURE
BOX
BlackBerry has taken
a major step in its evolution as a company
by opening up its productivity and security
software and solutions
to other mobile platforms.
With the launch of
the BlackBerry Experience Suite, the
company brings its
productivity, communication, collaboration
and security software

solutions to iOS, Android, and Windows

devices.
The move is an extension of a strategic
shift for BlackBerry,
which had viewed its
security solutions,
and tools such as
BBM, as competitive
differentiators that
could help drive customer stickiness for its
smartphones. BlackBerry may now see the
revenue potential of
bringing its BlackBerry
Experience Suite to
other vendors as more
compelling.

8 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

FREAKING
NEW SSL
FLAW
The Heartbleed vulnerability revealed that
there can be problems
in the OpenSSL/TLS
encryption the world
takes for granted in
securing HTTPS connections.
Now comes word
of another flaw called
FREAK (Factoring Attack on RSA-EXPORT
Keys vulnerability
or CVE-2015-0204),
which has Apple,
Google and Web site
owners scrambling

to plug. The bug can

downgrade strong
encryption to a weaker
version that can be
cracked.
The bug has for years
made users of Apple
(iPhone and Mac OS
X) and Google Android
devices vulnerable to
hacking when they visited millions of supposedly secure Web sites,
including sensitive
American sites such as
Whitehouse.gov, NSA.
gov and FBI.gov.
More than one writer
has noted the irony
that NSAs public Web

NEWS
I

site is (was?) one of the

vulnerable sites.

CLOUDBASED BES12
LOOMING IN
THE HORIZON
BlackBerry is aiming to
expand its enterprise
mobile management
(EMM) business into
the small and medium
size business realm
by launching a cloud
version of its BES12
technology.
At the Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona, the Waterloo,
Ont.-based phone
maker announced a
new cloud-based EMM
solution designed to
manage iOS, Android,
Windows Phone,
Samsung Knox, Android for Work and
BlackBerry 10 smart
phones and tablets.
The solution will be
released this month.
The on-prem BES12
allows administrators
to manage employees
iPhones, Android and
BlackBerry devices
over cover networks.
BES12 Cloud is geared
towards enterprises
looking to manage mobile devices, protect
their corporate data
and enable employee
productivity. The company also said that the
cloud version contains

the core functionality of the on-premise

version but provides
greater ease in management and is geared
towards SMBs that
have limited resources
but want to obtain
and enterprise-grade
EMM, according to the
company.

HP NEW
BRITE BOX
OPEN
NETWORK
SWITCHES
Hewlett-Packard
has launched a new
line of open network
switches adding to the
growing assortment of
white box components
geared to the software-defined networking (SDN) trend. The
products are among
the first in the industry
in the emerging new
category of branded
white box switches
known as "brite box"
switches.
Gartner has described brite box
switches as a new
category that combines some characteristics of branded
switches and white
box switches.
HPs new line of open
network switches for
the data center will
provide Web scale
organizations and

service providers
more flexibility and
control of their data
center networks to
power cloud, mobile,
social media and big
data workloads. HP
will deliver these new
network switches to
Web scale data center
customers through
its partnerships with
Accton Technology
Corporation and Cumulus Networks.

WDS
PERSONAL
CLOUD
STORAGE FOR
PROS
Storage solution vendor WD, a division of
Western Digital, has
launched four new network attached storage
(NAS) solutions that
allow creative professionals, prosumers
and small business
users to access
their files anywhere,
through the cloud.
WD has expanded its
My Cloud Expert Series
of NAS systems with
two new models designed for creative professionals and prosumers that need the ability
to save, share, back up,
stream and manage
large amounts of data.
The My Cloud EX2100
and MyCloud EX4100
are two and four-bay

systems respectively
and are powered by the
dual-core Marvell Armada processor. They
offer high read/write
speeds for simultaneous, high-performance
HD media streaming
and up to 24 TB of storage capacity.

ITIL PROVIDER
AXELOS TO
LAUNCH
CYBER
SECURITY,
AGILE SKILLS
PROGRAM
Axelos, which provides
professional qualifications including the IT
service management
best practices ITIL (Information Technology
Infrastructure Library),
said it will launch a
new cyber resilience
certificate and publish
best practice guidance
on how to combine
Agile methods such as
Scrum with good governance and project
methodology PRINCE2
(Projects In Controlled
Environments 2).
Axelos is also working on continuing
professional development (CPD) which
is meant to keep IT
professionals skills
up-to-date. The CPD
program will also
launch in the second
half of the year.

ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

SPONSORED CONTENT

Lifting collaboration
to new heights:
Leveraging the cloud to make collaboration
more flexible, agile, and cost-effective

Business collaboration is not new and neither

are its benefits. For decades organizations
have sought ways to better connect employees
with their peersboth within and outside the
organizationin order to more effectively
share ideas, fuel innovation, enhance
productivity, and ultimately improve business.

advantage of unified communications, chat, mobility

and video technologies. These further enhance
employees ability to work together while at the same
time improving communications with customers and
partners. Still, despite the well-recognized benefits of
current collaboration technologies, many Canadian
businesses continue to struggle to keep pace with
thema problem exacerbated by the bring-your-owndevice (BYOD) reality that business must contend with.

In fact, it can be said that the speed of innovation

closely mirrors the efficiency and immediacy of
collaboration. As a result, a new collaboration
environment and tools have emerged that take

In many ways, this is an economic challenge more

than a technology one. Since the global economic
downturn of 2008 and 2009, Canadian businesses
already heavily CAPEX focused when compared with

By Aleem Mohummed, Program Management, TELUS

PRODUCED BY

their counterparts in the U.S. and other regions

have been more reluctant to jump on best-of-breed
technologies, wary of the impact a significant
investment will have on cash flow. No business wants
to risk being caught in another economic downturn
without the funds to weather the storm; however, the
result of this approach for many businesses is being
tied to aging technology, and stifled innovation and
competitiveness.
So how does an organization faced with relentless
two-year cycles of new collaboration tools and
technology keep competitive amidst ever-tightening
purse strings? After all, top-notch collaboration tools
enable greater revenue generation, but they dont
directly generate revenue.

ENTER CLOUD COLLABORATION

budgets and frees up resources to focus on issues

core to the business. Ideally, in fact, upgrades in a
cloud collaboration environment can (and should) be
managed to be as seamless to employees as possible.
From an economic perspective, cloud collaboration
doesnt simply reduce CAPEX. Operating costs
related to maintenance are also decreased. Consider
that most environments with 100 or more employees
must dedicate a resource that spends 30 to 40 per
cent of his or her time managing telephony and its
collaboration features.
With such benefits, interest is significant. A 2013
study by Forrester determined that two-thirds of
businesses plan to leverage the cloud to either
replace (26 per cent) or complement (41 per
cent) their existing collaboration tools. As such,
solutions must embrace a hybrid approach that brings
the efficiencies of cloud, while integrating fully with
existing infrastructure.

Looking to the cloud

Just as cloud has revolutionized and disrupted storage
and other IT resources, it does the same in the
collaboration arena. A cloud collaboration environment
provides organizations with the ability to manage costs
in a predictable fashion based on users (or seats)
and featuresallowing them to pay for capabilities
only when needed and eliminating the overbuilding of
infrastructure to support potential future needs.
Cloud-based collaboration also supports
emerging BYOD environments by offering platform
independence. This affords employees the freedom
to collaborate from any tablet, PC, smartphone or
browser of choice, an increasingly critical component
of inter- and intra-office productivity and connectivity.
It supports rapid exchange of ideas between staff,
management, and even partners and customers,
all while freeing up IT from the management of the
plethora of devices and the infrastructure.
In a cloud environment, upgrades to maintain bestin-class collaboration and communications features
are continuous and software-based. Again, this
offloads the burden from already cash-strapped IT

And despite significant savings and the benefits of

predictable costs, many of the businesses turning to
cloud collaboration are doing so for its other business
boons. Forrester research found implementation
speed and flexibility both topped costs as motivators
to adopting cloud collaboration. Attitudes around
cloud collaboration, like those broadly around cloud,
are maturing. In fact, implementation speed, the ability
to focus resources on other projects, improved agility,
faster upgrades, and greater innovation are becoming
top of mind.

CLOUD COLLABORATION CONSIDERATIONS

Like any solution, not all cloud collaboration solutions are
equal. A few considerations are crucial when migrating
to cloud collaboration and selecting a cloud partner.
Flexibility: One-size does not fit all employees.
Different executives and employees rightly have
different collaboration needs that any successful
collaboration platform must meet. For example, most
executives, sales representatives and other road

SPONSORED CONTENT

warriors use multiple mobile devices and require vastly

different services than a static workstation sitting in a
warehouse. Effective cloud collaboration must meet all
specific needs and, importantly, at different price points
to ensure the most cost-effective service.
Infrastructure: Similarly, infrastructure needs
vary from business to business and over time as
businesses develop new models. For this reason, a
hybrid cloud-based SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)
approach is important as it offers the option of
using dedicated servers or shared infrastructure that
leverage economies of scale. For those with client
data residency concernslocation requirements
based on privacyservers located in Canada are
another important consideration.
Resiliency and reliability: Elements of infrastructure
that cannot be overlooked are those of reliability
and resiliency. What is the cloud providers history?
Is the solution backed by a top-notch service level
agreement? Does the provider offer the safety and
security of Tier-3 data centres and geo-resiliency?
Few businesses can afford to have their ability to
work and communicate grind to a halt as the result
of disaster. The solution should strengthen business
continuity, not introduce new risks.

Expertise: One of the advantages of turning to

cloud collaboration is removing the complexity (and
associated costs) from managing the communications
and collaboration platform. What management
expertise does the cloud provider bring? Are the
resources replacing internal staff fully-trained and
certified? Do they have access to the latest advances
and solutions?
Armed with a cloud collaboration solution from a
provider that provides the right answers to those
issues, theres no longer any reason for organizations
to be tethered to legacy systems and obsolete
collaboration features. Employees can become more
effective, productive and efficient, customers can
be better served, and business continuity can be
strengthenedall with reduced capital expenditure. All
thanks to the cloud.
For more information, please visit
telus.com/cloudcollaboration

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H

A NA LYSIS

In this case, abuse might go too far. The

various reports suggest Clinton and her staff
were managing some of her email remotely
and through third party managed services
firms to protect the privacy of communications. Still, I can think of any number of ways
CEOs and other senior executives could rationalize a decision to circumvent policies that
CIOs have gone at pains to create and implement across an organization.

What CIOs should

do about the Hillary
Clintons in their lives
BY SHANE SCHICK
he didnt have to be one of the most famous women in the world for CIOs to
recognize her type. Hillary Clinton could be
any woman -- or any man with enough power
and privilege to feel shes above the law. Or at
least above the organizations IT policies.
A story by the Associated Press which saidthe
former U.S. Secretary of State was essentially
running her own e-mail server from her homehas
raised considerable questions about security
and federal record-keeping laws. Though at least
one expert suggests this was morea question of
a hosted domain name than an actual serverin
her basement, Clintons behaviour suggests
that its not just everyday employees who are
choosing their own cloud-based services for
professional purposes. Yet to call this shadow IT,
as many are doing, is missing an essential difference involving Clintons authority. This isnt
shadow IT. This is VIP IT.

PHOTO CREDIT:CLINTON.ENDORSES.OBAMA.AXE.EFFECTVIAPHOTOPIN(LICENSE)

Im An Exception
Anyone who has worked in any large organization, or even for a small business, knows there are
always higher-ups who believes the rules dont
apply to them. This can include everything from
what they claim as a business expense to how
much time they take off for personal reasons.
Technology, which provides so many conveniences, luxuries and opportunities to gain advantage
over others, is just another perk to be abused.

The problem with IT VIPs

VIP IT is worse than shadow IT because it conveys a sense of entitlement to which others will
aspire. Just as IT experts will always say you
need support from the top to get a successful
project pushed through, flouting IT policies by
the CEO or someone in a similar role sets a tone.
Its a tone that says, You dont have to take the
CIOthatseriously.
For years now, I have suspected that one of the
real catalysts that driven bring-your-own-device
(BYOD) programs into Canadian organizations is
not a desire to be an employer of choice or to
help staff feel more empowered, but to appease
CEOs who wonder why they cant connect the
iPad Air they just bought to the network.
Two Tactics To Take
Theres only two ways I can think of to deal with
VIP IT. One is to manage up and convince the
Hillary Clinton in your life that what they are
doing puts the organization in greater jeopardy
than whatever benefit they are enjoying. Thats
the hardest route, and it probably requires either
a CIO who feels they can be brutally honest, or
one who feels they will have the backing of other
senior leaders.
The other way to manage VIP IT is to make
it public. That may not have been possible or
prudent in Clintons case, but in many organizations its probably better to acknowledge
that being in the C-suite means you are trusted
with a greater degree of flexibility than IT policies that must be obeyed by admin staff. The
disgruntlement may still be there, but at least
theres a layer of honesty.
ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

13

CA R EER WATCH

How a counterintelligence
program can help your company
fend off a cyber-attack
Jarvie said the incident brought home the imn attempted cyber-attack against L-3
portance of establishing what he called a counCommunications that was thwarted
terintelligence program to learn as much as
with the assistance of the Canadian
possible about potential risks to an organization
government is an example of how criminals
in order to mitigate them. This can make workare coming at companies through unexpected ing with members of an IT department, includroutes, according to the firms vice-president ing the CIO, somewhat challenging, he added,
of corporate security.
because threats can encompass a wide range of
Speaking at a session of the Conference Board factors that may involve physical security and
of Canadas recent event on insider threats in
human nature as much as software.
Ottawa, Level 3s Vincent Jarvie told the audiPartnering with IT is a pain in the neck, he
ence he couldnt provide many details about the said. They think the solution to everything is
attempted attack, except that it involved doing
ones and zeroes. Thats only part of the solution.
an end run around the company, which sells
On the other hand, Jarvie said he has created
systems to the space industry.
a organizational structure at L-3 that effecWe have more problems with our contractors tively combines tech talent with other areas
than our staff. You need to know who your key
of expertise. He reports into the ISPs COO as
suppliers are, and to educate them (about poswell as its CEO, and a staff of seven who report
sible dangers), he said. We found out that an
into him directly. This includes half a person
adversary was interested in one of our prodwho spends 50 percent of their time acting as
ucts, so instead of targeting us they started hit- the companys CISO, but who spends the reting our suppliers. Only because we educated
mainder working for Level 3s CIO. Although
them were they attuned to that activity. We
this could sound like a constrained use of
actually worked with the Canadian government resources, Jarvie said it can be helpful to have a
to stop the threat, but it was cross-border.
staff member with a foot in both areas.
BY SHANE SCHICK

14 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

CA R EER WATCH

People lie at heart

of successful
management style
BY DANNY BRADBURY
ne thing lies at the core of a successful
management style, said experts interviewed by Computing Canada: a collaborative approach that puts people at its heart. Ron
Stinson, CIO of Vancouver-based visual effects
house Rainmaker Entertainment, said that he
treats each person as a subject matter expert in
their area of responsibility, with the authority to
make decisions there. He also offers them the
chance to talk to him and collaborate on technology solutions to business problems.
The big benefit of that is that it makes everyone an owner, he said. When someone takes
ownership of what they do, theyre more committed, and they want to succeed, which makes
the company succeed.
Making sure that individuals do what theyre
good at is a crucial part of Jories Timmers management strategy. The CIO at BC Hydro subsidiary wholesale energy trader Powerex, divides
IT roles into projects, and operations. Typically,
operations staff are firefighters, who keep systems running and deal with problems, he explains. Although some
people are happy to keep working
in operations, most would eventually like to move into projects, Timmers believes.
Whenever I combined the roles
of ops and project work in one team
or person, it failed, because the ops
work is unpredictable and never
ending, so the project work suffers, he said.
What has worked best is to have
dedicated teams for ops and projects, and to provide specific ops
people some non-critical projects,
so they are not only in the firefighting mode, he added. This not only
keeps operations running smoothly,

but also provides a career path to move from operations to project-based work.
Note that some of those projects might be to
improve the ops processes, fix underlying problems or collecting better KPIs, so it will make the
ops work easier, he concluded.
In the 3.5 years she has spent building a solid
IT team at waterpark attraction manufacturer
WhiteWater, director of IT Carmen Plesch has
also focused on giving staff responsibility. I am
not a specialist in anything. I empower them
to do what they are good at, and this way I can
cover way more territory and accomplish way
more, she said.
Plesch doesnt necessarily recruit subject matter experts, though. She looks for people with
initiative to change what they think isnt working, rather than relying on some external event
to happen. Hire young people who have the
right attitude and then grow them into the right
roles, she said, adding that she has a strong
team now, but she played a long game while
building it, waiting for the right people.
Plesch evaluates technology by mapping it
to touchpoints where the company can deliver
value to customers. "Every business system
must be aligned with one of our corporate
goals," she said.

ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

15

TEL ECOM WATCH

CIOs are not venture capitalist

BY SHANE SCHICK

ven if they never watch Dragons Den,

most CIOs could probably see some
similarities to what they and venture
capitalists do.
Like VCs, CIOs get pitched by all kinds of
companies to take an interest in their products
and services. Like VCs, they need to separate
the hype from the value. Like VCs, they are
highly accountable for the decisions they make
about what companies are worth the investment and which are not. No wonder so many
people think CIOs and VCs could learn from
each other, that CIOs should apply VC best
practices and even that CIOs will start to look a
lot like VCs.
I want to suggest an alternative theory, one
that doesnt deviate too far from what others
are saying but which I think reflect more about
what CIOs really do.
Introducing venture builders
In a recent post on VentureBeat, Ali Diallo
discusses the emergence of a very different kind
of organization within Silicon Valley that shows
a remarkably pragmatic approach to turning innovative ideas into real organizations.
Theyre called venture builders.
Unlike incubators and accelerators, venture
builders dont take any applications, nor do
they run any sort of competitive program
that culminates in a Demo Day. Instead,
they pull business ideas from within
their own network of resources and assign internal teams to develop them
(engineers, advisors, business developers, sales managers, etc.).
. . . Venture builders develop
many systems, models, or projects at
once and then build separate companies around the most promising
ones by assigning operational resources and
capital to those portfolio companies.
The thing is,
16 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

there is a vast difference between taking an

equity stake in an organization and merely
coming on board as a customer. VCs are deeply invested in their portfolio companies not
merely from a financial perspective but in
terms of helping hire and fire leaders, giving
guidance on business models and go-to-market strategies. CIOs have a job to do and once
they have achieved the right balance of risk
and reward, they simply want a good partner
who will provide good results for their organization, not necessarily other customers.
As CIOs are increasingly constrained by
budgets and human resources, I think venture
builders might be a better role model to follow. As a sort of startup to build other startups,
they remind me of what todays IT department
is challenged to do: solve business challenges
by cobbling together an appropriate mix of vendors and technologies. Just as a venture builder
is a new kind of holding company, a CIOs team
is becoming much more involved in applying
its expertise to the customization and management of disparate IT components, particularly
from an on-demand perspective.
CIOs still arent providing startups capital
(other than one-time or subscription fees)
but they certainly provide a lot of intellectual capital to promising suppliers in terms
of what works well in their organization or
their industry.

TEL ECOM WATCH

ITS TIME TO
CHANGE THE
WAY IT IS DONE

celery - designed to move the dip (or in

this case the experience) from the bowl to
your mouth. A lot of the other devices are
like celery without the dip. The experience
runs out of steam pretty quickly.
BY KEVIN PASHUK
Not to quote yet another saying by
he best advice I ever received
Steve Jobs, but the following is fitwhen I was looking to start
ting of the streamlined user expea consulting business was
rience and device capabilities of
this: To guarantee success, find a
the iPad:
need, and fill it.
Youve got to start with the cusOn occasion, an organization
tomer experience and work backwill come up with a game changwards for the technology. (WWDC
ing product and redefine a whole
1997)
Kevin Pakush,
industry, such as RIM in the early
So what can an IT leader learn
CIO,
Appleby
days, replacing pagers with email
from this?
College
anywhere, and Apple with its
It would seem that many of us in
iPhone and iPad, which brought smart
IT leadership missed the lesson on customdevices to the masses. But for the most
er experience:
part, the businesses that thrive are those We have a service catalogue, but have
who have mastered the ability to identify
never defined what a successful experience
a need and fulfill it.
would look like.
In my role as a CIO, I get to preview and
We ask our users to use products and sertry a lot of different devices, software
vices that we ourselves would never incorapplications, and computer hardware. I
porate into our own department.
admit that much of what I see leaves me
We launch new technology initiatives
underwhelmed, like the array of slate dewithout ever consulting the people who
vices that have come my way recently.
will actually have to use the new system.
I also know that I would never, ever rec We get defensive when we are quesommend that my parents use one of these
tioned about missing functionality or disother slate devices.
missive when new features are suggested
No one will deny that Apple has made
that we didnt think of.
a huge impact with the iPad. Even if you
And on and on...
are not an Apple fan, you cant deny the
Its time to change the way IT is done in
device is simple to use. I can hand mine
your organization.
to a 3-year old and she will flick and
Dust off your service catalogue; sit
swipe at the screen like a pro to find her
down with your team. Take each of these
games and books.
services and discuss what a successful
I got an iPad for my parents (who are in
user experience would look like. Its not
their eighties). A week later, they wanted to
about whats most convenient for your
buy a second one so they dont fight over
team, but what would make the user
who gets to use it. These devices have
experience the best it could possibly be.
opened up a whole new world of opportunity Talk about how you are going to make it
and discovery from the comfort of their Lahappen. Then do it.
Z-Boy recliners.
If you start at the end, you are leveragThe iPad comes with the Apple ecosysing proven wisdom for running a successful
tem. The iPad, while intuitive to use, is like organization.

ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

17

SECUR IT Y WATCH

Latest attack
strategy: Create
subdomains to
deliver malware

Rogers loses some business

customer info in breach

Rogers Communicationsstaffer has apparently become the

latest Canadian employee to
fall victim to a phishing scam
which resulted in the theft of
customer data.
The company said that human error allowed an attacker
to access the account of one
staffer who managed accounts
of a small number of medium-sized business customers.
Patricia Trott, Rogers director of public affairs, said
in an email to ITWC that the
attacker was able to get the
business agreements managed
by the staff which included
business name, address,
phone number and pricing
details of the corporate customers, but not personal or
financial information.
According to the Globe and
Mail,an anonymous person
posted a zip file with copies of
dozens of contracts that apparently came from the account. The Globe saw the file
and said the documents dont
18 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

include password information

to accounts. However they do
have some business customer
telecom information such as
the number of data and phone
lines purchased.
Rogers has notified the police
about the intrusion. It has also
put in additional security procedures.We take the privacy
and security of our customers
information very seriously.
Trott said, and we will continue to review our policies and
procedures.
Although publicly-revealed
data thefts at Canadian companiesdont amount to the
millions of filesthat have
been reported in the U.S., the
country isnt immune from attacks. Social engineering is a
favoured way of skilled attackers to make their way into an
enterprise. Symantec warned
in a reportthat in 2013, 39
per cent of targeted spearphishing attacks were sent to
large enterprises of more than
2,500 employees.
Howard Solomon

IT security professionals need

to be on the lookout for signs
their organizations domains
have been hijacked with the
discovery of a new exploit kit
that delivers malware through
ads to unsuspecting Web site
visitors,
Organizations particularly at
risk are those using GoDaddy
as their provider because -- at
least initially -- the majority of
the compromised domains are
registered through it.
Cisco Systems Talos security research group warned
the danger is the result of the
spread among attackers of
the Angler exploit kit, which it
describes as having ahigh level
of sophistication.
The kit is being used to hijack
domain registrant accounts,
create subdomains which shift
rapidly and are then used to
deliver malicious content. Cisco
calls this technique domain
shadowing, and it is increasing
-- it has found almost 10,000
unique subdomains are being
used this way. The advantage of
using subdomains is they avoid
typical detection techniques
such as blacklisting of Web
sites or IP addresses.
These subdomains can point
to a single IP or a small group of
IP addresses.This lastest outbreak of Angler has been seen
exploiting both Adobe Flash
and Microsoft Silverlight vulnerabilities.
Howard Solomon

SECUR IT Y WATCH

Why CSOs should plan

for the future
BY HOWARD SOLOMON
The World Economic Forum produces a range
t is the nature of many security pros to
of future scenarios, he said, some of which have
look to the past to prepare the organizaIT elelments.
tion's IT defences. After all, theres never
Some service providers, asShaping Tomorrow,
a shortage of historical data spewed out by
have automated tools that help risk managers
everything on the network.
scan the Internet for trends, he said. HowBut an expert says chief security offiever, he added, insights still have to come
cers and risk managers instead should
from a broad set of stakeholders contribuse tools and skills in a new discipline
uting to the analysis.
called strategic foresight to look into
You cant predict the future, Kabilan
the future.
emphasized. However you can get a
Thats the message Satyamoorthy
broader view of the future that allows you
Kabilan, director of national security and
to make a better decision today
strategic foresight at the Conference
Satyamoorthy A non-IT example he gave is an orgaBoard of Canada, gave at a recentconnization figures out that mobility will be
Kabilan,
ference in Toronto on enterprise risk
Conference a big trend without knowing if consummanagement.
ers will want tablets, phablets or smart
Board of
In the world of IT we know we are
phones.
Canada
facing a world that is evolving very rapFrom an IT security perspective a risk
idly, he said in an interview during the meetmanager may be able to see that the human eleing. Traditional risk management is depenment is more important than hardware.
dent on the past you look at past data, you
He believes that broadly speaking many Canalook at past occurrences, at risk, you look at
dian organizations are aware and are preparing
statistics, all of which are historically based.
to meet the possibility of external cyber attacks.
(But) if youve got a rapidly evolving environBut, he added, in many cases people try to
ment where things are changing quickly you
manage down the risks and dont put in place
are more than likely not going to have histori- all of the pieces and the knowledge they need to
cal data for some of the big changes and new
deal with an incident if it happens.
risks you are going to face. This is particularly
That in part is because organizations mantrue in IT. Some of those risks are not techage risk by looking backwards, and that across
nologically based, theyre based on choices
Canada the of number data breaches have so far
of people and how they behave and what they been small.
do with technology.
The challenge, he added, is to convince organiStrategic foresight uses multiple scenarios to
zations that with the world evolving as quicky as
build a picture of plausible alternate futures to
it is they shouldnt just manage risk down and
better understand some of the risks an organihope that it doesnt happen.
zation may face.
But the problem is risk evolving from the
Although the field is still emerging, Kabilan future, and some of those risks and the potential
used to be the head of strategic futures in
for breaches and other problems you might see
Britains Home Office, and said its cybermay not be ones were currently aware of. And
security group developed very good threat
that big unknown is what we need to be prescenarios.
pared for.

ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

19

F E ATUR E

A MATTER
OF
STYLE
Three Canadian IT bosses
share how their management
style helps them keep on top of
things at the workplace
BY NESTOR ARELLANO
20 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

F E ATUR E

Compass Group Canada is one of the largest foodservice and hospitality businesses in the world. The
company manages and provides the technology and
workforce for many cafeterias in universities, hospitals, offices, banks, oil and gas facilities and serves
various restaurant chains.
For example, the cafeteria at Torontos
Sunnybrook Hospital is using a mobile
payment system developed by Compass
called Tap2Eat. The app allows staff members and even guests to check the menu,
order and pay for their food using their
phones, says Humza Teherany, chief innovation officer for Compass which has
32,000 employees across the country.

Promoting technology
But when I pitch ideas like these, technology takes a backseat to business goals,
says Teherany. The technology exists to
serve the business goal. If it's not aligned
with the goal we dont pursue it.
His team builds what Teherany calls excitement and alignment around the technology and present it to the C-suite.
Its a 360 view of the technology that
not only shows how it can solve the business problem but also serves as a platform
for obtaining additional value critical to
our internal or external customers, he
explains. For example Tap2Eat solves the
problem of how harried healthcare workers
can order and pick-up their lunch during a
very busy shift. But if I can show our inter-

nal or external clients how the same platform can provide data that can be analyzed
to improve efficiency or boost sales, then
weve got them hooked.

Getting a team to work

from the same playbook
Stephen Eyre, director of the Internet of
Things partner ecosystem for Telus, lays
out the three main challenges he faces:
- Hes working with a very new team. Its
most recent member just got onboard
about four weeks ago and the first recruit
signed in just about a year ago
- Telus IoT practice is a very new initiative
for the company
- Managing and helping his team members
grow
IoT is a new field with very little experts, says Eyre. We have to become the
IoT go-to experts for Telus and the companys clients and we need to accomplish this
in a very short period of time."
He has seen his share of managers who
use fear and strong hand tactics to get
employees to do what he or she wants. Its
a method that may get results in the short
run, but tends to undermine the productivITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

21

F E ATUR E

I do expect
them to meet
expectations
and we
definitely
don't relax on
standards

ity, individual confidence and team spirit.

The result is that
people disengage.
Its a poor substitute
for leadership, he
says. I believe the
best and fastest way
to build my teams
competence is to set
goals for each individual and the team
and empower every- Stephen Eyre
one to work towards
those goals.
Far from being a pushover, he says his style focuses
on properly communicating expectations and standards as well an encouraging feedback. I do expect
them to meet expectations and we definitely dont relax
on standards.

Opening up to challenge
from subordinates
Change and innovation is an integral part of Tangerine, the online bank formerly known in Canada as ING
Direct before its local operations were acquired and
rebranded by Scotiabank about a couple of years ago.
For example, says Tangerine CIO Charaka Kithulegoda, the bank was the first to introduce a fingerprint
authentication system for mobile banking. It is currently
using a tablet-based account solution that enables customers to open a chequing account in as little as 10 minutes and Tangerine is piloting a voice biometric authentication solution.
In order to foster innovation, it is essential that team
members feel confident to present their ideas even if
these run counter to his own, says Kithulegoda. When
Tangerine was introducing its touch ID system, Kithulegoda thought the technology should be rolled out as
the only authentication option for customers in order to
ensure adoption.
My employees challenged me on that saying we needed to provide a password option, says. We tried it their
way and customer feedback proved them right. The
password option provided the comfort level that many
customers required before adopting something new.
22 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

EDITORIAL
Editor
Nestor E. Arrelano
Twitter: @cwceditor
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President and
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AUDITED

F E ATUR E

Raptors Amir
Johnson passes
three social media
lessons to CIOs

During his talk with CIOCAN members, he

shared some of his experience with using
technology (sensors and analytics helped
him adjust the way he runs to avoid injuries)
and social media.
Here are some of Amirs social media tips:
BY NESTOR ARELLANO
Use it, dont lose it Amir has a healthy
Members of theToronto
towards social media. He seems to
chapter of the CIO Association attitude
want to try anything. For example he and
of Canadagot some very
swingman DeMar DeRozan, Raptors shootuseful pointers on how to use
ing guard, love to post funny basketball
social media from a stellar but
videos on YouTube, post selfies on Facebook
seemingly unlikely guest at one and tweet when they have the time.
Social media helps me connect with the
of their events recently.
Amir Johnson, the 27-year-old starting
fans, Amir said. Growing up, I never had
power-forward for the Toronto Raptors
things like Twitter and Facebook to see what
was guest of honour at an exclusive dinner
my favourite players like (Charles) Barkley
hosted by the CIOCAN Toronto Chapter and were doing. Now kids can ask their heroes
Telus. It was, as one CIOCAN official said,
hey whassup and they get responses alone of the moments when the orgamost right away.
nization ventured out of its comfort
IT decision makers should explore
zone to explore something new.
what social media channel works
Apart from being a rising star with
best for their brand. They also need
GET MORE
the Raptors, Johnson also happens to
to determine what they want to use
SOCIAL
be a very astute and prolific social me- MEDIA TIPS social media for. Consider these
dia user who has his own Web site and FROM AMIR points: Is it for connecting with cusmaintains a presence on Facebook,
JOHNSON tomers, providing some service, or
HERE
Twitter, YouTube and other channels.
promoting a brand or campaign?
ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

23

MOBIL E

How to access a better

computer that lives in the cloud

o you need to upgrade your current computer, but you dont want to spend money
on expensive hardware? Tech startupPaperspace, is offering people a full computer
you can access from any web browser.
Paperspace is offering IT professionals, designers, students and consumers a low-cost
service that could be described as a fully-managed, agentless, virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI) solution. It is somewhat similar to solutions like Amazon Workspaces, Citrix and
VMware.
The company is founded by Dillon Thompson
Erb and Dan Kobran. The thought of creating a
cloud-based computer came to them while they
were developing applications for the architec24 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

ture sector while studying at the University of

Michigan. Their work required enormous computing power for simulations. That was when
they focused on cloud computing.
In order to access the computing power that
Paperspace offers, users need to purchase a
small fob-sized device called the Paperweight.
It serves as a zero client that connects the users
own machine to Paperspaces servers.
The service is suited for 3D CAD rendering,
simulations, photo and video editing and transferring files. The company allows developers
to work on multiple cloud-based machines or
multiple operating systems. Paperspaceworks
with Windows and Linux but there are plans to
expand the OS options.

MOBIL E

SECURITY
MEETS LUXURY
IN SAMSUNGS
GALAXY S6 AND
S6 EDGE
BY JEFF JEDRAS
Samsung Electronics launched its new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smart phones,
and unveiled a new mobile payments solution, Samsung Pay.
The Galaxy S series is Samsungs flagship
premium smart phone lineup, blending premium materials including metal and glass with
high performance technology.
The Galaxy S6 edge features a curved
display on both sides, with a glass body
made from Corning Gorilla Glass 4 in an
array of jewel tones, including White Pearl,
Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue Topaz and Green Emerald. Samsung says
both smart phones also feature a new and
lighter user interface.
Samsung has always invested a lot of effort
into the camera on the Galaxy S lineup, and
the S6 and S6 edge feature F1.9 lenses and
high resolution sensors
for the 5MP front camera and 16MP rear
camera. Tools including Auto Real-time High
Dynamic Range, Smart Optical Image Stabilization IR Detect
White Balance ensure quality pictures even in less than ideal circumstances, and a new quick launch features takes the user from
any screen to taking a shot in 0.7 seconds.
Support for wireless charging has been broadened to any wireless pad that supports WPC and PMA standards, with a 1.5x
improvement in charging time from the Galaxy S5.
The S6 and S6 edge measure 6.8mm and 7.0 mm thin and weigh
138g and 132g respectively. The phones are powered by what
Samsung claims is the worlds first 64 bit, 14nm mobile processor
with a new LPDDR4 memory system and UFS 2.0 flash memory.
The 5.1 Quad HD Super AMOLED screen boasts pixel density of
577ppi. Models with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of storage are available. On the security front, both models will also come pre-installed with Intel Securitys VirusScan Mobile technology, the first
smart phones to come with the solution.
ITWorldCanada.com I MARCH 2015 I

25

SH A R K TA LE S

Sex and tech

pitch causes
headache

A recent press release from leading

condom manufacturer Durex promised
to reveal the future of sex with the
companys initial attempt to penetrate
the mobile technology market. It was
meant to tease readers and whet their
appetites. It ended up giving us a headache instead.
Thick on sizzle and lean on details, it left
many scratching their heads as to what Durex
actually meant. The company said it is opening a new technology division called Durexlabs
which will be the firms first significant step
into the digital field helping to embrace changing social behaviours and the paradigm of
26 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

intimacy with mobile technology.

Theres mention of a partnership with tech entrepreneur Susie Lee, CEO of Siren Mobile - that
might be a hint.
But more confusion ensues when they drop
lines like: We took inspiration from modern
habits as well as the ever growing reliance on
portable technology for virtually everything in
our day-to-day lives. Our market research has
identified a genuine desire for this technology
to exist in our sex lives.
We asked around in the workplace what
Durex might be up to and naturally we got
the usual erudite conjectures a new form
of wearable technology or perhaps a performance analytics solution?
Durex came out clean a few days later and
revealed that after hours of research, it found
that the secret to keeping the coals hot in the
bedroom was to push the off-button on TVs
and mobile devices.