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EFFICIENCY
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FOR YOUR BUSINESS
10
50
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IMPROVE EMPLOYEE
SECURITY AWARENESS
30 DATA
a quick executive overview that explains what
big data really means
33 ENERGY
the latest news and research into
energy-conscious tech
36 IT
what to look for in a data center colocation
provider, why DevOps matters to businesses,
and how to prioritize when it comes time to
upgrade computers company-wide
42 NETWORKING
why VPN is essential for your mobile
workforce, and what security issues lurk
within the Internet of Things
48 SECURITY
best practices for spreading the word on
security awareness, and whether you should
invest in endpoint encryption
53 WEB
an introduction to the issues surrounding
net neutrality
56 ELECTRONICS
the latest in premium consumer electronics,
and a look at artificial intelligence trends
60 TIPS
advice for mobile professionals
Copyright 2015 by Sandhills Publishing Company. CyberTrend TM is a trademark of Sandhills Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of material appearing in CyberTrend TM is strictly prohibited without written permission.
Executives To Increasingly
Drive Key Cloud Decisions
6%
10%
55%
Have already
adopted a
project
29%
None yet; plan to adopt
a project in the next year
The majority of Americans say its very important that theyre able to maintain
privacy and confidentiality in commonplace activities in their lives, according to a
survey conducted earlier this year by Pew Research Center. More than 90% of respondents in two categories say that they care a great deal about who is in control of their
data and what information an entity collects. The following results are in responses to
questions about privacy in both daily online and offline interactions (not comprehensive, but highlights from the survey).
Envisioning A Landscape Of
Wi-Fi Roaming
Very
Important
Somewhat
Important
Not Very
Important
74%
19%
3%
72%
21%
2%
67%
20%
8%
65%
25%
5%
44%
36%
13%
28%
28%
22%
STARTUPS
KEY POINTS
Companies with or without
data centers can focus on energy efficiency even if they approach it in different ways.
When buying products, seek
out vendors that offer clear information as to why their solutions meet your standards.
Take advantage of potential
government and utilities incentives for greater efficiency.
Large enterprises and SMBs
should both consider green
initiatives and energy efficiency
programs because even though
the scale may be different, they
can both have an impact.
10
Establish A Baseline
& Discover Problem Areas
As with any project, you wont know
what to change or how to measure results if you dont know where to start.
This requires a combination of monitoring tools that cover as many bases
as possible, and employees who under-
11
center business to some degree and outsource some systems to a colocation provider or cloud provider, that may also
help with efficiency. Its possible, Vargas,
says, that taking advantage of someone
elses more efficiently run, lower PUE facility will help you achieve some savings
or reduce energy costs on that side.
Implement Corporate-Specific
Efficiency Programs
If you dont have a data center or
prefer to put more business-oriented
efficiency programs in place, there are
numerous opportunities to pursue. For
example, a fleet management solution
can help manage all of your individual
assets, which includes your personal
computing fleet, printers, and other technology assets throughout the organization, Vargas says. This helps you better
manage the tech life cycles and keep track
of power management for PCs and other
devices used in the workplace.
Another approach is to implement an
employee engagement program, such as
WeSpire (www.wespire.com), which gives
enterprises a means for providing incentives to employees who take on greener
mindsets. Its a way to socialize that
into a broader community, says Vargas.
Everyone has their own goals. I can say,
hey, I used compost instead of storing everything in waste or I made sure to turn
off all of my assets when I left work today
or did that at work. Its the gamification,
community, and socialization aspects of it
that really encourage the community side
to get involved in these things.
Vargas also recommends that businesses look at their overall energy supply
change, including renewable energy vendors, and work with partners and suppliers to ensure theyre holding to your
level of standards through SLAs [servicelevel agreements]. Whether you keep
everything onsite, bringing energy in
through utilities, or utilize colocation and
outsource some services, its important
to make sure that if energy efficiency and
12
Analyst
Forrester Research
You want to operate [servers] fully utilized. For most servers, that means you cant push utilization past 60% to be
safe, but most non-virtualized servers are operating at a
pitifully low average. . . . 5% to 15% and sometimes even
lower. No. 1 is to virtualize your workloads and pack your
[virtual machines] as efficiently as possible on the servers.
RICHARD FICHERA
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Forrester Research
Vargas warns that making major progress in energy efficiency among SMBs
remains somewhat of an uphill battle,
especially since they dont have as
many dedicated folks that are going out
and evaluating these types of tools, and
theyre more strained from a resource
and employee perspective. This causes
problems when it comes to education
and exposure because these bigger initiatives often target larger organizations.
Still, if you seek out these programs and
incentives on your own, there are ways to
make a difference regardless of the size of
your business.
13
KEY POINTS
Accenture Digital focuses
on both customer and enterprise, and offers ways to help
companies better interact with
customers across multiple communication channels.
Accenture Digitals Interactive
pillar focuses on customer engagement, social networking,
and digital marketing.
Accenture Mobility Services
help customer develop new mobile experiences for customers.
Advanced Analytics provides insight into customers,
financing, risk, HR and talent, IT
operations, and much more.
14
An Interesting Backstory
When an enterprise reaches out to a
consulting firm for guidance, the first
thing it looks for is expertise in a given
subject matter. This usually means that
the consultants or analysts on staff previously worked in marketing, for example, or around servers and storage
solutions, depending on the area in
which the enterprise is trying to improve. Its rare for a consultancy firm
to not only have experts on staff, but
to also have organization roots buried
deep in the IT industry. Thats what
makes Accenture unique in this space;
to be sure, the company retains on-staff
experts and has made concerted efforts
to add more experience through rigorous hiring programs, but the company that is now Accenture got its start
in 1951, so Accenture also brings to the
table decades of cumulative experience.
Originally called Administrative
Services, the company made a big
splash in the tech world in 1951 when
it unveiled the Glickiac computer
from Joseph Glickauf. In 1954, the company would install its first computer
system at GE Appliance Park. From
1955 to 1962, the company branched
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16
Mobility Services
Accentures Mobility Services are
crucial for enterprises because mobile
devices are more prevalent than ever,
and the trend toward increased mobility
isnt likely to wane. In fact, having a fully
featured mobile company website that
works well on touchscreen devices, if
not a dedicated mobile app, is expected
to become a baseline requirement for
customers. For that reason, companies
need to make sure they are crafting truly
worthwhile mobile experiences that grab
the attention of potential customers and
keep existing customers engaged.
Accenture breaks down its mobile service offerings into industry-specific categoriesamong them financial services,
health and public services, and communications and mediato help companies
better serve their customers via mobile
technology. Accenture offers mobile
strategy and consulting services as well as
specific advice for developing and implementing mobile business solutions, which
Diagnostics, Digital
Optimization platform,
Web Evaluator, and
Accenture Technology
Labs Social Network
Analytics Platform. The
key with this project
was that the two groups
worked together as a
team to make Accenture
Interactive more serviceoriented. This made it
easier to implement and
manage.
With the help of
Accenture, Telefnica
was able to meet every
single one of its technical and customer
experience objectives.
And in addition to those
goals, it was also able to
increase sales optimization by 70%, increase
organic Web traffic
by 37%, and improve
overall sales conversion
rates by 66% across all
of its market regions. In
the end, Telefnica was
able to meet all of its
preset expectations and
actually chose to extend
the partnership in 2012
and expand the program
to 10 other countries
outside of its initial pilot
program.
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18
19
KEY POINTS
The goal of hybrid computing is
to give businesses more agility and
scalability in terms of performance
and access to resources.
Hybrid cloud environments let
you keep your sensitive data and
workloads onsite while moving
other workloads to the public cloud
for less expensive storage and
equal or better performance.
IT needs to establish a centralized process for managing and
monitoring the hybrid environment.
Cost savings are possible, but
you need to consider the other
major benefits of the hybrid cloud
first when making a decision.
20
increase flexibility, scalability, and elasticity; and gain access to resources as you
need them.
Unique Problem-Solving
Benefits Of Hybrid
When it comes to the benefits of implementing a hybrid cloud strategy, first
and foremost is the ability to run related
workloads in two separate operating environments without there being a major
performance disadvantage. It also allows
companies to take advantage of the public
cloud without jeopardizing mission-critical data. Hybrid cloud computing allows
some sensitive application workloads to
run in a more secure and protected environment while making it possible for
the business to run other applications in
lower-cost cloud multi-tenant cloud infrastructures, says DeCarlo.
Another unique benefit of the hybrid cloud is that because companies can
put different data and apps in different
locations, they can actually pair application and workloads scenarios with the
cloud environment that best address their
needs, Anderson says. This gives companies a best-of-breed approach that ensures
the highest possible level of performance,
regardless of where the workload is hosted.
Anderson does warn, however, that hybrid models can introduce complexity, but
that when good hybrid cloud tools are
used and when organizations plan for and
21
Hybrid clouds can be implemented by either IT organizations or by providers. . . . Whether an organization decides
to implement a hybrid cloud environment, or use a third
party to do it for them, is really a function of what role they
want to play and what responsibilities they want to retain.
ED ANDERSON
Research Vice President
Gartner
22
applications, your IT team needs to communicate with the cloud service provider
or cloud software vendor to determine the
lines of responsibility. This fundamentally
changes the way IT has to look at its company-wide infrastructure. The challenge
for hybrid cloud from ITs standpoint is
to start building a consolidated view of IT
operations that spans public, private, and
hybrid infrastructures, Bartoletti says.
To help with these monitoring and
management challenges, Bartoletti recommends that a company develop a monitoring framework and then have all of
its cloud vendors contribute to that. This
means taking an independent view of operations, instead of focusing on one clouds
monitoring and management offerings.
You have to develop a game plan and then
find cloud providers that will fit with that
plan. IT teams should take a look at the
current tools they use to manage their data
center infrastructure, and talk to those tool
vendors about whether or not they support
hybrid today, he says.
Cost-Saving Potential
& Other Benefits
Anderson says that the two main reasons most organizations adopt cloud
computing is for agility benefits and cost
reduction. And while you can certainly
see an increase in agility and flexibility
with a move to the hybrid cloud, its the
cost savings aspect that is more elusive,
unless you put a strong foundation in
place and use it in the right way. Most organizations realize that cloud computing
may not result in cost savings, but will
produce other types of benefits, agility
being the primary benefit, says Anderson.
Hybrid cloud environments can be part
of the solution for recognizing cost savings
but can also produce the other benefits I
mentioned [previously].
DeCarlo agrees that, anecdotally, the
movement in the hybrid cloud space today
is as much about agility as cost, but says
that most of these implementations are
too new to really derive good numbers in
23
KEY POINTS
Employees often seek out
third-party collaboration apps
because voice, email, and text
dont meet their needs.
A company may choose to
limit third-party apps because
they introduce risk.
Put a collaboration advocate
in place to determine employee
needs and choose appropriate
apps and solutions.
Make sure IT is as transparent as possible with employees to ensure there is
proper communication about
potential risks and how to
avoid those risks.
24
Third-Party Solutions
As some business workers find basic
mobile device capabilities are no longer
suitable for what they are trying to accomplish, they turn to third-party applications
to get the job done. Battista says, there
is often a third-party app that performs a
specific function much better than a general-purpose enterprise app can, and it
can actually be a step backwards to be
stuck with a less capable app at work.
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26
GO DEEP
If quality time with the latest, fastest home computing technologies is your
idea of well-spent leisure time, CPU is the magazine for you. Each month CPU
serves up how-to articles, interviews with tech industry leaders, news about
cutting-edge research, and reviews of the newest hardware and software.
28
hogging bandwidth with their simultaneous video streaming, which also drags
down the network, the inconsistency
in the connection could be enough to
impact VoIP performance. This idea
also applies to important tasks, such as
backups and archiving, that tend to tie up
networking resources. Avoiding these situations requires communication across
departments to determine when is the
proper time for those processes.
If youre a data center manager or network manager whos focused on voice,
and youre working in a different silo than
people working in backups, make sure
youre talking to each other, says Conde.
Make sure you have a center of excellence
or collaborative type of meeting every once
and awhile so that people that are setting
up backup windows are making other
people aware that there are certain times in
the day or evening when youre going to be
sucking up a lot of bandwidth.
29
30
order to, say, uncover particular customer patterns that were previously
unseen, thereby gaining the ability to
make better marketing decisions that
the business will prosper from.
A big data solution can broadly
be thought of as the various storage,
database, analytic, and other tools and
technologies, along with possibly subscription services, that a company collectively uses to capture, store, process,
and perform analysis on big data to
forge strategies and decisions. Though
not always the case, these tools and
technologies are generally more sophisticated and differ from traditional data
warehouse and analytic tools used with
structured data.
in manufacturing, shipping, helpdesk, and other areas; drive innovation; create new products; streamline
processes; decrease operating costs; increase and generate new revenue; and
develop better, more targeted strategies. In terms of customers, big data
analytics solutions have helped organizations gain a more in-depth and encompassing view of their customers,
predict buying behaviors and choice,
and produce better recommendations.
Some companies are also obtaining
security-related benefits, including in
terms of fraud detection and cyber security monitoring and analysis.
What is Hadoop?
31
Certied Piedmontese beef tastes great: lean and tender, juicy and delicious.
But theres more to it than just avor. Certied Piedmontese is also low in fat
and calories. At the same time, its protein-rich with robust avor and premium
tenderness. Incredibly lean, unbelievably tender: Its the best of both worlds.
piedmontese.com
Greenovations
ENERGY-CONSCIOUS TECH
The technologies
that make our
lives easier also
produce some
unwanted side
effects on the
environment.
However, many
researchers,
manufacturers,
and businesses
are developing
solutions that are
designed to keep
us productive
while reducing
energy demands
to lessen our impact on the environment. Here's
a look at some of
the newest such
initiatives.
Googles 14th and newest data center will be built on the current home of the Widows Creek coal
power plant in Jackson county, Alabama, and will be powered by renewable energy.
33
A Speedy Charge
For Every Business
As support grows for electric vehicles, one dream for drivers and businesses alike is to be able to quickly top
off a vehicles charge at different locations throughout the day. This would
give drivers more power for extended
range (no more worrying about making
it home on just a little bit of juice), and
it would benefit businesses offering the
service by drawing in more customers
looking for a fast charge. ChargePoint is
one of the companies working to make
this dream come true.
The Campbell, Calif.,-based company
recently added the ChargePoint Express
100 to its lineup of EV (electric vehicle)
charging stations, which includes commercial and residential models. With
Express charging, drivers can run errands, shop or stop for a cup of coffee
while they quickly top off their battery
to extend their cars range, ChargePoint
CEO Pasquale Romano, said in a
press release for the new product. The
ChargePoint Express 100 allows drivers
to charge their vehicles in as little as 20
to 30 minutes and provides up to 100
miles of RPH (range per hour), according to the company.
Used Chevrolet Volt batteries are going to good use at the new General Motors Enterprise Data
Center in Milford, Mich. (Photo by John F. Martin for General Motors, General Motors.)
34
Co-located in Kern and Los Angeles counties in California, the Solar Star PV
(photovoltaic) power plant project was recently connected to the California ISO
(Independent System Operator) grid. The plant, a joint effort of SunPower and BHE
Renewables, will reportedly have a 579MW (megawatt) capacity, 29MW more than
the two 550MW facilities (Topaz Solar and Desert Sunlight, both in California)
that formerly tied for first place as the worlds largest solar plants. SunPower says
electricity from the plant will displace approximately 570,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of removing more than 2 million cars from highways
over 20 years. SunPower is a solar company based in San Jose, Calif., and BHE
Renewables (which until recently was MidAmerican Solar) is a Berkshire Hathaway
Energy company based in Des Moines, Iowa. The Solar Star project got underway in
2013 and, according to SunPower, will be finished by years end.
GENERATORS
UPS
INQUIRIES
Kris Davenport: 602.622.5619
kris.davenport@empire-cat.com
What DevOps Is
& Where It Came From
Although the issues between developers and IT operations has existed for
quite some time, the actual term DevOps
and the philosophy behind it is relatively
36
new one. In fact, Stephen Hendrick, principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group,
says he started getting questions about
it around 2009 and since then the issue
has gotten better over time as the tools
have improved. But, he adds, some issues
still remain in terms of companies actually taking the necessary steps to properly
implement the DevOps methodology.
Hendrick says DevOps is traditionally seen as a way to better initiate the
developer-to-IT-operations hand-off that
occurs once an application is about to be
deployed, but that certainly isnt the only
function of the method. He recommends
that companies also include decisionmakers and policy-makers in the process
because they are the ones responsible for
laying out the needs of the organization
and making sure applications and software meet the guidelines of established
corporate policies and business processes.
DevOps goes beyond bringing developers
Increasing Agility
& Decreasing Cost
The ultimate goal of DevOps is to
shorten the time-to-market of applications
without sacrificing quality. This means that
it much easier to support multiple platforms because many cloud vendors offer
the ability to keep an app in the cloud or
essentially export it to a desktop, mobile
device, or other platform.
Some companies may be hesitant to
use PaaS for app development and/or deployment because they either dont use the
cloud at all, dont trust it, or simply dont
feel comfortable enough with it yet. But the
key thing to remember is that just because
something is cloud-based doesnt mean
that it has to be hand-off. You actually
have quite a few options available if you
want to take full advantage of DevOpsrelated cloud options.
Leveraging the act of deployment as
a way to unify developers and IT operations suggests a couple things to the enterprise, says Hendrick. One is that it has
to take PaaS seriously and has to do some
adoption of technology there. PaaS has a
distinct cloud orientation to it. You can
do it in your own data center, publicly, or
do a virtual private thing. There are different options for how you do it, but you
have to get to the point where you understand what PaaS is and be ready to roll that
technology out inside of your enterprise,
and use that as a way to bring everybody
together and solve your DevOps issue,
Hendrick continues. Thats a big part of
the story. If youre going to embrace this
idea of DevOps, in order to do it well, you
also have to embrace cloud principles and
bring PaaS into the enterprise.
37
PC Upgrade Priorities
WHEN TO REFRESH, WHAT DEVICES TO BUY & HOW TO MEET EMPLOYEE NEEDS
38
39
Space
One of the most important factors to
consider when comparing data center
colocation providers is the amount of
available space. The last thing you want
to do is move crucial equipment into a
40
Track Record
Find out how established the colocation provider is and get an idea of its
track record. Compare providers and, if
possible, look for recommendations and
referrals. Indeed, the best way to gauge
whether a certain provider will meet
your needs is often to find out whether
it met the needs of other companies past
and present, particularly if those companies are in your industry.This should
provide peace of mind that the provider
is familiar with your type of implementation and has proven it can accommodate your needs.
Security
When it comes to colocation facilities,
there are two types of security to keep
in mind: software-based and physical.
Colocation typically means that the provider gives you the space, power, and
cooling to handle your offsite infrastructure, but you are typically responsible
for securing the data and applications
stored on that equipment. This provides
you with a degree of control so you can
implement your own choice of security
COLOCATION
BY THE NUMBERS
The following information is from a
Q1 2015 report from 451 Research.
example, you plan to store highly sensitive data and require biometric (fingerprint or retina) scanners for access,
speak with the provider to make sure
thats possible.
Additional Services
In addition to the baseline colocation
services you might expect, some providers go above and beyond to make
sure your experience is as positive as
possible. This can include service offerings, such as private or hybrid cloud
hosting; physical offerings, such as multiple sites to choose from in order to
achieve geographic separation; or simply
the opportunity to take advantage of onsite experts to ensure your infrastructure
is maintained in the best possible way.
With so many colocations vying for clients across the U.S., its important to
look for and compare these additional
service offerings to identify which ones
stand out from the crowd.
41
KEY POINTS
The billions of devices involved
with the IoT will introduce a bevy
of security concerns enterprises
will need to address.
IoT devices used in relation
to critical infrastructure environments, such as the oil and gas industry, are considered particularly
enticing targets for hackers.
As OT and IT networks/systems
increasingly combine and share
information, employing new, more
holistic security approaches may
be needed.
Although the IoT is still relatively
new, security vulnerabilities already exist.
42
IoT enables connecting energy grids, transportation systems, smart homes, manufacturing facilities, and more to the Internet.
For a 2013 summit on the Internet of
Things, the SANS Institute described IoT
as enabling any-to-any connectivity,
noting three waves of connectivity, including a first wave of homes and offices
connected to business buildings via wired
connections and a second involving mobile devices connecting to businesses and
other mobile devices via wireless connections. The third wave, though, entails
things connecting to users, businesses,
and other things via wired and wireless connectivity. Examples include automobiles, airplanes, medical machinery,
personal medical devices, windmills, and
environmental sensors.
The SANS Institute notes that most IoT
devices will be used in either critical infrastructure (power production, generation,
and distribution; manufacturing; transportation; etc.) or personal infrastructure
(medical devices, automobiles, etc.) areas.
Critical infrastructure in particular is an
attractive target for national and industrial
espionage, DoS (denial of service), and
other disruptive attacks. Devices associated with personal data are also enticing
targets. Therefore, both critical and personal infrastructure will require adding
new security approaches to legacy security processes and technology, the SANS
Institute says.
At the CyberMaryland conference held
in October 2014, Admiral Michael Rogers,
commander of U.S. Cyber Command, reportedly said that securing IoT is a huge
issue for everyone. Literally every person
43
MIKE KRELL
The Connections
Examples of how corporate networks
are now connecting to networks that involve machines and sensors are numerous.
HVAC and lighting systems are common
ones. These systems, Krell says, connect
to the same networks that tap into company data. Also, lets remember that all
networks are connected to the Internet,
which in turn is connected to various machines and sensors, he says. Printers and
multifunction devices, for example, are
often overlooked in terms of IoT and vulnerabilities, even though remote workers
frequently connect to them outside the
corporate network.
Perkins says asset-intensive industries with automation production or
engineering-oriented infrastructures and
services are the best examples of how corporate networks connect to machines and
sensors. These include electric utilities,
oil and gas companies, manufacturing,
and automotive industries. Within commercial-oriented industries in retail and
facilities management, examples include
the production use of sensors, robots, and
process control.
Perkins uses electric utilities, which for
decades had two personalities involving
technology, to illustrate IoTs influence
on security. Generally, corporate IT network and systems served business units
Analyst In Residence
Moor Insights & Strategy
primarily involved with information processing, while OT systems served operations and production environments. Some
OT and IT technologies were and are similar, but other unique OT technologies, IT
may know little about. This is changing,
however, Perkins says, and IoT technologies and architecture are having an impact.
While many OT and IT systems were
once strictly separated in their daily functions, theyre increasingly sharing information and opening up to other networks
and the Internet, Perkins says. The result
will be a sea change in how digital security
is handled for these converged environments. In general, as more proprietary,
closed systems that OT used are replaced
with more traditional IT and in some cases
IoT systems, the sins of IT security are
visited upon OT, he says. To offset the
increase in network connections and IT
usage, digital security teams must establish
better and more structured security. This is
also true for physical security automation
systems. Everyone is starting to join the
party, Perkins says.
The Impact
The extent to which the Internet of
Things might impact how large businesses
44
45
network will require. For some companies, it may make sense to choose the
simplest form, which is called PPTP
(Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol),
while for others it will make more
sense to go with something more advanced, such as IPsec (Internet Protocol
Security) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).
PPTP is one of the most widely supported types of VPN, but that by no
means makes it the best. This protocol
was developed by Microsoft in cooperation with other remote networking
groups and can be used on almost any
operating system or device in use today.
The problem with PPTP is that it isnt
as secure as SSL or IPsec, and it has numerous exploitable security vulnerabilities. Its widely used because it is quite
easy to set up and it might be a good
place for newcomers to dabble, but most
organizations will want to opt for SSL or
IPsec instead.
IPsec is often considered to be one
of the most secure types of VPN available today, and it is also quite flexible
and extensive. IPsec protects data from
inside the Internet layer, which is the
part of the network where data packets
are transferred back and forth. Because
IPsec is implemented deeper within
the network stack, it can be used to encrypt and protect any data or application traffic that goes through the VPN.
This protocol is also supported on most
operating systems and devices, which
is a reason why IPsec and SSL are so
common in enterprises today.
SSL VPN is singular relative to PPTP
and IPsec in that it doesnt require a
dedicated client on the endpoint device
to connect to the network. In fact, a user
can connect to the network via VPN
using any supported Web browser. SSL
VPNs are highly customizable, and with
SSL network administrators have the
option of only giving employees access
to Web-based data and applications or
they can open it up to other internal
resources. There is also an open-source
46
48
The Approaches
Encryption in general can be classified
into hardware- and software-based categories. Michela Menting, ABI Research
practice director, says both are valid for
endpoints. The former includes hardwarebased full-disk encryption and can involve
usage of external hardware such as USB
dongles or flash drives that essentially contain a random number generator that creates an encryption key. Hardware-based
encryption can be more efficient and uses
less power, but it is more expensive than
software-based encryption, Menting says.
The Market
Beyond health care companies and financial sectors, any organization dealing
with considerable personally identifiable
data is a good candidate for endpoint encryption. Insurance companies and some
educational entities where FERPA (Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act)
comes into play are examples. McCloskey
advises organizations that deal with sensitive or valuable IP (intellectual property)
information to consider endpoint encryption for at least a portion of the user base.
That said, while encrypting every laptop
may not be necessary, McCloskeys perspective is that companies are better off
deploying encryption more broadly than
49
General Awareness
If your company isnt in a highly regulated industry and would like to give
employees a heads up as to potential
risks, then awareness may be enough to
get the job done. Andrew Walls, managing vice president at Gartner, warns,
50
Materials must be refreshed on a regular basis to keep them fresh and entertaining. CISOs must anticipate this
increased investmentand the skills
required to develop effective training
and budget appropriately.
To properly develop a training program for your employees, you need the
help of an expert that has experience in
the areas of behavior influence and education. Walls says that too often companies will blame the failure of security
education on its employees rather than
on its own incompetence as training
developers. He understands that some
companies simply dont have this experience in-house, but they need to gain
access to those skills through engaging
vendors or other teams within their
own enterprise that are responsible for
other forms of training. If you can get
your employees on the right track in
terms of security training, then theres
a better chance that theyll think twice
before putting the company at unnecessary risk.
51
STAY AHEAD
OF THE CURVE
www.cybertrend.com to get up
to speed on the latest technology news and information about
products for your company.
53
NET NEUTRALITY
ORIGINS
The term net neutrality was
coined by Tim Wu, a professor
at the Columbia University Law
School, in an article called
Network Neutrality, Broadband
Discrimination. This article
was published in the Journal of
Telecommunications And High
Technology Law in 2003. In it,
Wu introduced the idea of broadband providers discriminating
against certain users or types
of network traffic as far back as
the early 2000s, which shows
just how long this issue has
been around.
54
devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other Internetenabled products. The policy introduced
a variety of rules, with the three key rules
being no blocking, no throttling, and no
paid prioritization.
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58
AI Trends
One of the biggest reasons to be excited about AI is that there are several
well-funded programs throughout the
United States that are focusing on developing AI technology and software.
A number of companies . . . are actively
working on neurocomputational hardware technologies, says Dan Kara, practice director, robotics, at ABI Research.
Neurocomputing is a field of study that
uses computers to simulate the human
brain and perform specific tasks, such
as improving operational efficiency or
automating repetitive activities. There
is a sizable effort dedicated to developing commercial neuromorphic hardware (neuromorphic computing), and
the ability [to] perform massively parallel
processing on low-power, embedded processors, makes possible a wide range of
new, dramatically more powerful, devices
and applications, says Kara.
AI Use Cases
The advancements in AI have started
to move into the realm of the business
world and commercial systems. As a
whole, the AI community is more focused on providing working, practical
solutions, and solving problems as opposed [to] emphasizing theory, says
Kara. AI techniques are being used successfully every day for manufacturing,
Whats Next
Great strides are already being made
in many areas such as perception and
language understanding, says Kara.
For example, machines are now nearly
as good as humans at recognizing images. Imagine when these same machines will have global, pervasive access
to distributed, indexed repositories of
the worlds images [and] databases, by
the way which will continue to grow exponentially. Extra help may come from
big companies that are researching AI
technology. Battista says that these large
companies have access to a whole lot of
raw digital data about people, and about
the world, that may be necessary for AI
to flourish. He also notes that Perhaps
even more importantly, they have the
resources to try an expensive idea, fail
miserably, [and] then try another.
In terms of effects of the business
market, AI experts are working to help
people make better decisions. Goetz says,
The next wave will be to move expert
systems to interactive problem solving
platforms. He explains, they are
working on how to connect todays corporate silos of analytic competency centers to operational competency centers
and reduce the bottleneck to corporate
knowledge and fast time to scalable business value. Kara echoes those thoughts,
saying, In the near term, the greatest
benefit will be to industries that can benefit from drawing understanding from
massive amounts of data. Health care,
retail, and logistics provide examples.
All in all, it looks like a bright future for
AI technology.
59
Images, clockwise from top left, courtesy of Apple (1), Samsung (2), Sony (3), Microsoft (4, 5), and BlackBerry (6)
Smartphone Tips
GET MORE OUT OF YOUR DEVICE . . . OR SWITCH TO A NEW ONE
BLACKBERRY
60
ANDROID
Keep Private Events Private
Say OK Google
If youre in a location where your
Android smartphones microphone can
determine what youre saying (that is,
someplace without a lot of loud background noise) and you dont mind
talking to your phone when a live
person isnt listening on the other end,
go to your smartphones home screen
and say OK Google. Doing this in
Android 4.4 launches the operating systems voice search feature, which you
can use to search the Web, contacts, or
anything on your phone.
61
iOS
Turn Off Wireless
Airplane Mode might be a thing of
the past someday soon with airlines
easing their restrictions on in-flight device usage, but if you find that you need
to turn off wireless connectivity quickly,
your iPhone gives you a few options.
To turn off just Wi-Fi (not your cellular
connection or GPS), tap Settings, WiFi, and slide the Wi-Fi switch to disable
Wi-Fi. To prevent location-based applications (including Maps) from using
your iPhones wireless capabilities to
track its location and find other locations, tap Settings, Privacy, Location
Services, and slide the switch to disable
the services. To turn off only cellular
data, tap Settings, Cellular, and slide the
Cellular Data switch to the off position. If you need a total wireless shutdown, though, simply access Settings
and slide the Airplane Mode switch to
the on position.
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WINDOWS PHONE
Find Nearby Wi-Fi Hotspots
63
Understand Roaming
Roaming occurs whenever a wireless carrier other than your own provides your device with a cellular signal.
International roaming rules and rates are
typically different from those that apply in
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Share A Presentation
Lync not only lets you share your
Desktop, a program window, a whiteboard, or a poll, but it also lets you share
PowerPoint presentations. When you
start an IM (instant message) conversation, click the Share drop-down menu
and select the PowerPoint Presentation
option. After the presentation uploads,
you can enable restrictions, such as
who can join the presentation, who
presents, and who is allowed to annotate
the presentation.
There are plenty of helpful features built into Office 365 to keep you organized. For example, you can
customize your Outlook calendar Web app as you plan meetings and work toward deadlines.
67
Bluetooth Finder
$20+
Ever set down the keys to your rental
car or your own vehicle on a restaurant
table only to get up, walk away, and leave
them behind? Many of us have done
this. One way to prevent the aggravation
that typically follows is to attach a small
Bluetooth dongle-like device to the key
ring. These devices communicate with
a smartphone, warning you when the
phone moves out of range of the dongle.
Typically, such devices cost about $20 or
more and have a smartphone app that
sounds an alarm, emits a beep, or even
provides a visual indicator that lets you see
when you get closer or move farther away
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Bluetooth Keyboard
$60-$100+
No matter how adept or comfortable
you are typing on a mobile devices touchenabled keyboard, there are times when
a full-fledged keyboard would be a better
choice. Some tablets bundle a Bluetooth
keyboard. For those that don't, there are
plenty of third-party options available.
Nearly all Bluetooth keyboards are thin
and light enough to make an ideal travel
companion, and some double as a protective tablet cover as well as conveniently
fold into a stand to present a laptop-like
form factor. Depending on the model, a
particular Bluetooth keyboard may include
backlighting and specialty keys, integrate
a rechargeable battery, and provide a carrying case. Pricing generally ranges from
$60 to $100 or more.
Device Charger
$40-$100+
If theres one certainty about mobile
devices its that they dont hold their
power forever. Further, an outlet isnt always available for recharging. Thus, its
a good idea to pack your own portable
power supply so you can keep using your
device. Though price, size, and weight
can vary, general portable charger options include battery packs that are solar
powered and/or integrate a rechargeable
battery. Typically, models bundle multiple
device adapters, and some models may
include multiple connectors to charge several devices simultaneously. Some packs
also function as a cover for a smartphone.
Other power-related products worth considering include USB power adapters that
plug into power outlets to provide a USB
port for charging, solar backpacks, power
adapters for overseas travel, and mini
surge protectors.
Luggage Tracker
$50-$100
Some people would pay a small fortune to know where their luggage is at
all times. Anyone who has experienced
lost luggage understands why. The good
news is you dont have to pay a fortune to pinpoint the exact location of
your baggage. For somewhere in the
neighborhood of $50 to $100, you can
acquire a device (perhaps even an FCCcertified and FAA-compliant one) that
uses GPS (Global Positioning System),
GSM (Global System For Mobile Communications), and other technologies
to provide tracking abilities for luggage. These devices are small enough to
easily fit in a bag and can do such things
as email or text you a verification that
your luggage arrived at its destination.
If your luggage is lost, the devices let
you pinpoint the bags locations on a
Web-based map.
Multi-Tool Knife
$25-$100+
While you still cant carry a pocketknife onto a plane, you can take one with
you when traveling by land, and having
a multi-tooled knife on hand can get you
out of a fair number of jams, including
in a storage sense. Thats because beyond
packing an actual blade (as well as possibly a screwdriver, scissors, wine opener,
pliers, etc.), some multi-tool knives integrate a USB memory stick for storing and
transferring several gigabytes worth of
document, image, video, audio, and other
files. Thus, even if you lose your notebook
or tablet, youll still have important files
handy. Depending on the storage amount
and model, prices of multi-tool knives can
span from about $25 to $100 or more.
Noise-Canceling Headphones
$50-$100s
Whether in a plane, shuttle bus, taxi, or
room in a not-so-quiet hotel, noise seemingly always surrounds a traveler. Noisecanceling headphones provide an escape
Portable Hotspot
$50+
Staying Internet-connected while traveling is an absolute necessity for business travelers, but doing so via Wi-Fi
isnt always easy. Although public Wi-Fi
hotspots are available, theyre not always
free and security can be an issue. An alternative is to use a portable hotspot device
(costing about $50 or more) that uses a
mobile broadband connection (a 4G LTE
network, for example) to form a wireless
hotspot for multiple devices. Another option is to use a portable router. Plug an
Ethernet cable into, say, a hotel rooms
wired Internet port, plug the cables other
end into the router, and youve created a
wireless network with multiple-device support. Elsewhere, various companies provide private Wi-Fi services for a monthly/
annual charge that provide a welcomed
layer of security when connecting to a
public Wi-Fi hotspot.
Portable Monitor
$75-$200+
In some office environments today, you
may see two (or more) monitors on an
employees desk. This setup allows users
to easily switch among open programs,
keep tabs on continually updating information in a Web browser, and perform
other multitasking chores. Travelers can
get this same second-screen ability away
from the office by bringing along a USBbased portable monitor. Such screens
(generally $75 to $200 and more) connect
Storage Device
$10+
One thing you cant have too much of
is storage, including for reasons tied to
accessing and backing up data. Packing
an extra memory card, USB thumb drive,
or external drive on which you can grab
or offload photos, videos, and other files
is smart. (Just make sure not to lose the
storage device on which that data resides.)
If youre expecting rugged conditions
where youre going, some external drives
and USB memory sticks offer water- and
shock-resistant features to provide protection against the elements and drops.
Overall, storage continues to be an excellent value. Memory sticks, for example,
can start at around $10 depending on the
storage capacity.
Video Streamer
$35-$100+
Its possible you already have a set-top
box-like device attached to your HDTV
at home to stream on-demand TV programs, movies from subscription services,
and audio from Internet radio stations. A
nifty aspect of these devices is that travelfriendly sizes (some are essentially a glorified USB stick) means they can easily stow
away in a suitcase. Unpack it once in your
hotel room; connect it to the TVs HDMI,
USB, or AV port; configure the Wi-Fi settings; and all the content you have at home
is now available for watching in your hotel
room. Should you forget to pack the remote control the device bundled, many
streamers have compatible apps that enable a smartphone or tablet to function as a
remote control. With prices ranging from
about $35 to $100 or more, these devices
are an entertainment steal.
69
PowerPoint Tips
ADD CHARTS & GRAPHS TO YOUR PRESENTATION
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Highlight Important
Data In A Chart
Whether youre presenting numerous
charts or need to add emphasis to specific data within a chart, sometimes its
beneficial to call out key points. Locate
the Drawing pane in the Home tab and
expand the Shapes menu. Select a shape
that is appropriate for emphasizing information in your chart, and then click
anywhere in the chart to place the shape.
To customize the shape, select it and
click the Shape Fill, Shape Outline,
Shape Effects, and Quick Styles options
in the Drawing pane.
Insert A Chart
Linked To Excel
If youre used to working in Excel
and prefer to construct the skeleton
of your chart first, you can use Excel
to compile data and create a chart for
use in PowerPoint. Start by entering
Microsoft PowerPoints
Design tab in the Chart
Tools contextual tab lets
you modify the layout of
your chart and adjust its
style. These settings help
you create one-of-a-kind
charts and graphs that
illuminate important
statistics or values.
Add Animation
You can outline a graphical element, change its color, and add unique effects to a chart or graph all
within PowerPoint. In addition, applying WordArt Styles will change the fill color, shade, and outline of
selected text.
If you want to emphasize a particular data group, you can add animations to a graph or chart. Under the
Animations tab, the Animation pane has
a variety of animations you can apply
to a chart. Explore extra effects by expanding the pane and clicking More
Entrance Effects, More Emphasis Effects,
or More Exit Effects at the bottom of
the menu. To stagger the animation of
individual objects, click Effect Options
in the Animations pane and select one of
the following functions: As One Object,
By Series, By Category, Be Element In
Series, or By Element In Category.
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