Today, with increasing electronic communications and transactions, trust in the hardware used for these purposes has never been more important. To establish and ensure trust, the U.S. and other governments around the world have taken advantage of the trusted hardware and process for establishing trust that leading technology companies have developed through a not-for profit organization, called the Trusted Computing Group (TCG).

TCG’s hardware-based root of trust process relies on open standards — not proprietary processes. It starts with a Trusted Platform Module or TPM. Typically a secure cryptographic integrated circuit inside an enterprise-grade computer or server, the TPM is an integral part of these units and has been installed in over half a billion end products.

The hardware-based root of trust is a significant improvement over software-only protection schemes, since software is vulnerable to the same attacks from the malware that it attempts to thwart. In contrast, the more robust hardware-based TPM approach can manage user authentication, network access, data protection and more. The root of trust has a minimum set of functions to establish the trustworthiness of the host platform. Attestation or vouching for the accuracy of information, as well as authentication, or proof of identity, are among the tasks enabled by the root of trust established by the TPM.

With the TPM, users can set passwords and store digital credentials, including passwords in a hardware-based vault. The TPM can manage keys and can be used in conjunction with self-encrypting drives to restrict access to sensitive data.

The TPM has progressed from its first level over 10 years ago to the TPM 1.2 version today. The TPM and its associated specifications were designed to provide a high level of security to Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and other products used by government agencies.

As part of its High Assurance Platform (HAP) Program, the National Security Agency (NSA) uses the TPM in a virtualized approach to run multiple secure environments. Today, almost all computers acquired by the Department of Defense (DoD) are required to include a TPM.

This advanced level of trust and security has prompted the National Security Agency (NSA) to sponsor two Trusted Computing Conferences and Expositions. The most recent conference was held September 20-22, 2011 in Orlando, FL. In addition to demonstrating current successes from the use of the TPM in national security programs, presenters discussed the necessity to take these efforts even further.

Taking advantage of a hardware root of trust

In its as-delivered condition, the TPM in computers, servers and other products are in a ready-state to be activated. For government, business entities or individuals to obtain the improved security that the TPM offers, it simply requires security policy processes to be followed. This process is usually described in the operation manuals for the equipment, and is easy for trained information technology personnel to implement.

Once activated, the TPM provides increased security through linkage to other TCG specifications that have been developed for networks, such as the Trusted Network Connect (TNC) and self-encrypting drives (SEDs).

TNC provides trusted network access for fixed and remote mobile devices used enterprise-wide, so authorized users can safely interact with network systems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) worked together to integrate Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) developed by NIST and TNC standards developed by TCG. The combination provides a powerful automated compliance and network access and enforcement tool set. The use of SCAP’s ability to manage the security integration of devices, including desktop PCs, servers, laptops and more, with TNC’s complementary set of network capabilities provides users a level of security that was very difficult, expensive or impossible to deliver previously.

TPM used with the newest self-encrypting drives (SEDs) can take the encryption security to a higher level. While a TPM is not required for users to benefit from the automatic encryption that an SED provides, the TPM can prevent unauthorized access to the network or computer systems. Microsoft has step-by-step instructions for enabling and using the BitLocker disk encryption leveraging the TPM included in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Extending TPM security

With TPM-based security readily available to protect computers and servers, the transition is already well underway to use mobile devices including smart phones to access the restricted information in government and other networks. TCG’s Mobile Trusted Module (MTM) is a secure element and specification developed for use in mobile and embedded devices. The market requirements for these wireless devices dictate a reduced feature set from the traditional PC TPM developed for a wired computing environment, but can work cooperatively with TPMs in other devices for complete system security. The effort to develop the complete functionality required for mobile trust continues with the ongoing development of MTM 2.0. With these specifications, network service providers, third-party service providers and end-users all benefit from establishing trustworthy behavior.

TCG’s recent formation of an Embedded Work Group will provide additional tools to embedded system developers. With these specifications, devices that are increasingly connected to the Internet can benefit from the same approach to security that TCG has provided to computer, servers, drives and networks. With this protection, embedded devices can avoid becoming the weak link entry point for network malware.

Moving forward

The supply chain realizes the importance of hardware-based security and continues to embrace TPM technology with implementations in hardware and improved software and services. Upcoming Windows’ releases from Microsoft are anticipated to require TPM. As self- encrypting drives continue to proliferate that also take advantage of the TPM, Microsoft is just one of the examples that can be cited.

Acceptance of improved TPM-based trustworthiness by U.S. Government agencies has been demonstrated as well. With NIST and TCG’s initial collaboration viewed as quite successful, expanded use of SCAP and TNC technologies can be expected.

While there are few guarantees in life, one thing is for certain, a non-activated TPM cannot deliver the added security it was designed for. So, the admonition to government as well as business organizations is: let’s use what we own, turn on the TPM and use it.

Source:http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/26405?c=cyber_security

Intel’s 3rd-generation Core i7 CPUs are certainly forces to be reckoned with, but they aren’t the best option for most businesses. In order to give enterprise users an option, too, the company’s introducing a 3rd wave of their Core vPro CPUs. These units are shipping now, aimed at notebooks (Ultrabooks included) across the IT landscape.

To defend against identity theft, Intel introduced Intel Identity Protection Technology with public key infrastructure into Intel Core vPro processors. The technology provides a new second layer of authentication embedded into the PC that allows websites and business networks to validate that a legitimate user is logging in from a trusted PC by using a private key stored in a PC’s firmware. Intel has been working with solution providers and online Web properties such as Feitian, InfoSERVER, Symantec and VASCO to take advantage of Intel IPT technology to ultimately safeguard users’ identity. Clearly, enterprise features are at the heart of these chips.

The Intel Core vPro Processor family includes Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) to remotely manage computing issues. For example, retailers with point-of-sale machines, digital signs or other intelligent devices can remotely diagnose and fix problems over the network. Further details can be found in the Via link below; no word on when actual machines with the new vPro gear will start to ship, though.

Source:http://hothardware.com/News/Intel-Touts-3rdGen-Core-vPro-CPUs-Security-And-IT-Focused/

In a pair of candid blog posts, a member of Oxford’s network security staff says the Flashback malware episode is the worst they’ve seen since the Blaster worm of 2003. And Apple is “making minimal effort” and “putting customers at risk.”

So just how bad is the recent Flashback outbreak of malware for Macs?

Getting hard data about any kind of malware outbreak is always tricky.

Security companies have to make estimates, which might be influenced by their desire to whip up enough fear to sell their software. And corporations rarely publicize details about their internal workings.

That’s why it was refreshing to see a recent blog post from the network security team (OxCERT) at the University of Oxford, which offered some insights into its experience with a large population of Macs.

“Over the past couple of weeks, OxCERT have been somewhat overwhelmed by Mac malware,” the post begins.

The group has dealt with scattered problems on Macs before, says author Robin Stevens. “But with Flashback,” Stevens says, “the game has changed forever.”

We are seeing huge numbers of attacks of the sort that Windows users have had to contend with for years. Apple users, and indeed Apple themselves, just have not been ready. We are dealing with what is probably the biggest outbreak since Blaster struck the Windows world all the way back in the summer of 2003. That time OxCERT dealt with around 1000 incidents; we have seen several hundred Flashback incidents and they keep on coming.

Oxford’s critique of Apple mirrors what I’ve been saying for a long time:

Apple’s contention that “Macs don’t get PC viruses” is “technically true, perhaps, but very misleading: PCs get PC viruses, Macs get Mac viruses which may be extremely similar to that common on PCs.”
OS X antimalware capabilities are “extremely limited and no substitute for a proper third-party antivirus system.” (Oxford supports Sophos for its users.)
Apple’s claim that it “responds quickly by providing software updates and security enhancements” is met with this dry retort: “As we’ve seen, this depends very much on your definition of ‘quickly’.”
And I was gratified to see independent support for an argument I made a few days ago. Apple’s support lifecycle is too short: “There is however a nasty catch with operating system updates, of which many users will be unaware: Apple security support lifetimes are much shorter than in the Windows world.”

That issue gets a full discussion in a second post:

To the best of our knowledge, Apple do not officially state their software support policy anywhere, but from what we can gather, only support the two most recent versions of OS X. Currently that is 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Lion). 10.6 released in August 2009, which means that any Mac purchased prior to that date and not subsequently upgraded will be running a version which receives no security support. That’s for a system purchased under three years ago. Granted, users can upgrade – but at a cost. Users don’t like being told that they have to spend money.

[…]

Now, granted, users can upgrade to a newer OS X release than their system came with. Plenty of users are unlikely to bother unless forced – their system seems perfectly adequate, why spend money and risk breaking it? One college has reported almost 50 systems known to their student registration system running OS X 10.5 or earlier.

The conclusion neatly mirrors my post the other day about the big gaps in Apple’s security response:

Apple … have been complacent in terms of their attitude to security and support, especially when compared to their chief competitor. Microsoft have learned a huge amount from past mistakes, support their products for many years, and these days I feel do an excellent job. By comparison, Apple appear to be making minimal effort, and are putting their customers at risk as a result. …

I’d like to see from Apple the following:

Timely security updates
Greater openness regarding security issues
Minimum hardware and software support lifetimes stated clearly up-front
Longer operating system security support lifetimes: at least five years
Hardware that runs a supported operating system version for longer: minimum of seven years perhaps?
In a separate report on Forbes, Andy Greenberg reports new data from the Russian security firm tracking the number of Flashback installations. The current number of infections is around 460,000, down from a peak of 700,000, with the botnet shrinking at a rate of about 100,000 a week.

Apple has still not issued any public statement on Flashback except for a small number of security bulletins.

Source:http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/oxford-university-it-staff-somewhat-overwhelmed-by-mac-malware/4937

The strengthening U.S. dollar and slightly higher spending last year on hardware, software, and services as well as a reduction in projected spending by companies have combined to make Gartner revise its IT spending expectations for 2012 downward a bit.

Here’s the deal. Gartner reckons that IT spending was a little bit stronger in 2011 than its projections earlier this year pegged it, with sales of $3,661 billion worldwide across all categories of IT spending, including computing hardware, enterprise software, IT services, telecom hardware, and telecom services. In January, just after 2011 had ended but before many of the IT giants had reported its financials, Gartner said worldwide IT spending would be around $3,644 billion. So that’s an extra $17 billion, and that makes for a tougher compare now for whatever projections Gartner had for 2012.

On top of this, says Gartner, the greenback is getting stronger against other currencies. If you look at IT spending in local currencies and convert it to the prevailing dollar-local currency ratio at the end of 2011, then worldwide constant dollar spending on all stuff IT would rise this year by 5.2 percent, instead of the 4.2 percent that the economists at Gartner had been predicting in January. Such a comparison tells you how well everything is in local economies, but the biggest IT players are located in the United States, and they have to bring that money back here as dollars to count it and pay taxes. And when the dollar gets stronger, it means less of a revenue bump.

Finally, Gartner now says that companies will be spending a little bit less on IT stuff, particularly services.

Add all of these effects up, and IT spending growth is pegged at 2.5 percent for 2012 instead of 3.7 percent from the January projection. That’s a lot cooler growth than the 6.8 percent seen in 2011, obviously, and while there is not a direct link between global IT spending and our own pay rates here as employees in the IT ecosystem, there is some correlation going on, generally speaking.

Spending on computer hardware is now expected by Gartner to rise by 4.3 percent, to $421 billion, and enterprise software will grow even more, up 5 percent to $280 billion. IT services is cooling, with only 1.3 percent growth, to $856 billion. (Look at the ratio of hardware, software, and services. Do you think hardware is the problem, or services? I know what my answer is. . . . ) Telecom equipment spending will hot $472 billion in 2012, up 6.9 percent, if Gartner is right, but we are all going to try to cut back on the data and voice bills, with telecom services spending only rising 1 percent, to a whopping $1,721 billion.

Source:http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh042312-story06.html

Online wagering operator, Centrebet, (ASX: CIL), is consolidating its IT infrastructure to reduce costs and remove system duplication following its $183 million takeover by UK-based rival, Sportingbet, in September last year.

A migration of Centrebet’s Web infrastructure over to Sportingbet’s internal platform is underway as well as consolidation of the two companies’ wide area networks (WAN) and call centres.

According to Centrebet network operations manager, Shane Paterson, the company — which has an annual turnover of $1 billion a year and offers 6000 international sports and horseracing wagering events on its website — migrated Sportingbet’s Darwin call centre operations into its own call centre in Alice Springs late last year.

[ Get the latest IT news on the Australian government and businesses in Computerworld's Business & Government newsletter ]
Sportingbet’s Darwin hosting services were also migrated to Sydney, where Centrebet keeps its hosting services. The migration and consolidation will be complete in June 2012.

“The outcomes [of the project] will be significant cost reduction, simplified management and not having to worry about multiple WAN links,” Paterson said of the consolidation program.

Prior to its acquisition, Centrebet implemented a Microsoft Windows Azure platform for the Spring Racing carnival which takes place in October every year.

He said the company had considered buying hardware which would have cost $50,000 and hosting the platform internally.

“The return on investment for us was that we didn’t have to invest in any capital expenditure outlays,” he said of the decision to opt for Azure.

“The network also performed well because data was distributed over a large number of machines rather than a single database. We have access to sufficient bandwidth and processing power when punter numbers and transactions spike.”

Paterson said the company selected Azure also because of a long standing partnership with Microsoft. There are now plans to build microsites for other sporting events such as Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) grand finals.

Because of the amount of transactions going through the Centrebet website, security issues such as denial of service (DDoS) attacks are never far from Paterson’s mind.

“We got hit with a nasty DDoS attack back in 2004 which lasted a week and since then we get a serious attempt once a year,” he said.

The company was also a victim of cyber squatting in 2009. Attempts to expand to Greece ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup were hampered by cyber squatting on both the centrebet.gr and centerbet.gr domains. The company, through Melbourne IT, ultimately resorted to using dispute resolution laws in Greece to get back the domain names in time for the World Cup, through the ELTA, the Hellenic Post Office.

“We’ve used Melbourne IT brand protection services and that has helped stop further cyber squatting attempts,” he said.

While the company does not operate pokie machines, which are subject to a $1 maximum bet in Australia, Paterson said it is required by legislation to impose weekly and monthly wagering limits for its online customers to crack down on problem betting.

In November last year, the Internet Industry Association made a submission to the federal Interactive Gambling Act 2001 in which it said prohibition of online gambling sites and applications was ineffective given the availability of offshore services.

Instead, the IIA called for problem gambling to be regulated at the PC and smartphone-level.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/422318/centrebet_embarks_post-acquisition_it_consolidation/?fp=4&fpid=1398720840

Team 01 Synergy is excited and looking forward to participate in the 9th edition of HKTDC International ICT Expo. The HKTDC International ICT Expo is a powerful leading Asian trade event, linking information and communications technology product and service providers with buyers from around the world. More than 570 exhibitors from all over the world will showcase their latest products and solutions at the fair. Group pavilions include representatives from Australia, Canada, the Chinese mainland, India, the Philippines and Taiwan. We cordially invite you to visit us. Our booth number is 3G-E28 in Hall 3.

The main points of focus for this event will be:

• Mobile Software Development
• Rich Internet Application Development
• E-Commerce Solutions
• Legacy Application Re-Engineering
• Custom Software Application Development
• Consultancy
• QA & Testing
• Offshore IT Staffing

As a software development company, 01 Synergy has always provided innovative & cost effective solutions to its clients helping them to stay ahead of their competitors. 01 Synergy has also successfully maintained the trend of delivering superior quality applications to the clients in a timely fashion.

For more information visit us online at:
Web: www.01synergy.com
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/01Synergy

Michael Dell famously started PCs Unlimited, which eventually became Dell Computer Co., in his University of Texas dorm room in 1984. Within eight years, with his design-it-yourself desktop PCs, Dell liberated personal computing in its own image, providing a cost-effective alternative to IBM PCs and Apple Macintoshes. Soon thereafter, Dell started offering portable PCs (laptops) and x86-type rack servers for data centers. Later, it began reselling and servicing EMC’s lower-end storage arrays to midsize businesses. Then, about nine years ago, Dell realized that computer hardware was being commoditized, wasn’t going to be the long-term answer for his company and it had to move into other markets. Dell had to morph fast because others were already on their way to the same destination: software and services. On April 2, Dell added to its portfolio by acquiring Wyse Technology, which gives the Round Rock, Texas, company additional ammo in the world of cloud computing and virtualization. With this type of growth, Dell is on par with other large, all-purpose IT companies, including IBM and HP. How Dell made that journey is an interesting story, to say the least. eWEEK looks back to identify some of the key milestones in the journey from PC maker to full-service IT provider.

Source:http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Dells-Long-and-Winding-Road-From-PC-Maker-to-IT-Services-Provider-350125/

In IT, failure is not an option. Not surprisingly, organizations have made it a high priority to develop and implement reliable business continuity plans to ensure that IT services are always available to internal users and outside customers.

But recent technology developments and trends, most notably server and desktop virtualization, cloud computing, the emergence of mobile devices in the workforce and social networks, are having an impact on how enterprises handle IT business continuity planning and testing. Much of the impact is for the better, experts say, but these trends can also create new challenges for IT, information security and risk management executives.

Here’s a look at how these tech megatrends are affecting IT business continuity specifically.

Virtualization

Virtualization is making business continuity planning easier for IT executives and their organizations, if for no other reason than it’s helping to reduce the number of IT assets, says George Muller, vice president, sales planning, supply chain & IT at Imperial Sugar Co, Sugar Land, Texas, one of the nation’s largest processors and marketers of refined sugar.
“For those of us who have been in the IT world for a few years, we’ve seen the transition from the old large mainframes to client server to Web-based applications to cloud based computing,” Muller says. “During that time the proliferation of PCs and servers has been wild.”

With so many devices to maintain and keep running, particularly physical servers in the data center, ensuring systems uptime had become a much greater challenge, Muller says. “With virtualization, we’ve now been able to reduce that footprint [of servers], which means when we are planning for business continuity now we’ve got fewer devices to worry about.”

Server virtualization has allowed communications and compliance technology services provider Walz Group in Temecula Calif., to greatly reduce its planned outages, and largely eliminate unplanned downtime, says Bart Falzarano, CISO.

Using server virtualization, the company can manage, support and secure its applications more effectively, Falzarano says. Walz has been able to achieve higher virtualization efficiencies (a higher number of virtual machines to hypervisor host) using newer infrastructure technology.

The company is then able to leverage workload mobility capabilities locally that allow it to quickly switch virtual machines and applications between different physical resource pools of compute, memory and storage.

“For maintenances, upgrades, firmware updates, critical patches, etc., Walz simply moves the applications away from the area being impacted by the maintenance activity,” Falzarano says. “Once the maintenance activity, testing and quality control checks are complete, [we] may move the application back to that region or area.”

Virtualization has actually had a bigger impact on disaster recovery than on business continuity, says John Morency, research vice president at research firm Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., although one area where there’s been an effect on continuity is work area recovery.

Many companies have relied on providers of work area recovery sites for business continuity, which can cost from $15 to $25 per seat, Morency says.

“But what more organizations are doing now is having people work at home or at Starbucks or the library or wherever,” he says. “The use of Citrix, DVI and other desktop virtualization technologies, in conjunction with secure tunneling, is enabling organizations to implement broader and more distributed work area recovery.”

Some businesses and functions, such a branch banks and customer service call centers, continue to use work area recovery services, Morency says. But a growing number of Gartner clients are leveraging virtualization to enable people to work offsite when needed, as an alternative to work area recovery.

[Also see CSO's ultimate guide to business continuity and disaster recovery--11-page PDF report, FREE CSO insider registration required]

Rachel Dines, senior analyst, Infrastructure & Operations, at Forrester Research in Cambridge Mass., says desktop, or client, virtualization is having a bigger impact on business continuity than server virtualization.

“Client virtualization is making workforce recovery [possible] for many companies that cannot rely on employees working from home with laptops,” Dines says.

For example, at companies with highly sensitive information–such as financial services and insurance firms or government agencies–where employees are not issued laptops to prevent data leaks, client virtualization enables the rapid deployment of client images to disparate hardware at workforce recovery sites, Dines says.

In addition, organizations can deploy client virtual machines over the Internet and allow employees to access them via personal computers at home. “Either way, users are able to use the same environment that they are accustomed to on a daily basis, which means they will be more productive during the outage,” Dines says.

Cloud Computing

Many of Gartner’s clients increasingly are using software-as-a-service (SaaS) to support business processes, Morency says.

“With the use of SaaS for client-facing applications and even internal customer support applications there’s a much improved means of continued availability, even in the presence of minor or major disruptions,” Morency says. “You have a set of applications delivered from the cloud.”

But this also imposes additional responsibilities on IT as far as being able to broker those services or provide additional problem management triage when necessary, Morency adds.

Walz Group operates a private cloud and uses cloud management tools that Falzarano says are a key to the company’s business continuity initiatives. One such product the company is using is FlexPod, a data center management platform from Cisco Systems and NetApp that provides a design architecture with combined networking, computing and storage infrastructure.

Every Walz application that’s running on FlexPod has a template associated with it, Falzarano says. These templates are checked into an “environments catalog”, and are centrally managed by cloud management software. Using the software and the templates within an environment catalog, the IT team at Walz can maintain business continuity effectively, Falzarano says.

The consumption of resources (for example, CPU, memory, storage, bandwidth) for these environments are displayed via dashboard, alerting and reporting metrics, and detailed trending such as daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly consumption helps with planning, determining and provisioning the capacity needed for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes.

Using the cloud management tool Walz can set up defined policies for scaling out additional applications, and this allows it to maintain business continuity through a more automated, on-demand type of provisioning, Falzarano says.

The software also allows Walz to provision to its private cloud or to a service provider’s private cloud. For example, if Walz is using 80% of the internal private cloud and suddenly sees a demand for a new application and wants to rapidly spin up development systems, it might choose to provision these development systems to a service provider’s private cloud instead of provisioning systems to the remaining 20% on its private cloud, so that it can maintain some growth reservation. The same type of model can also be used for business continuity, Falzarano says.

Imperial Sugar operates a hybrid cloud environment, with about 95% of its applications running on a private cloud in its data center and the remainder accessed via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The private cloud is provided by a network service provider and the SaaS software is delivered by software vendors on a hosted basis, Muller says.

Because the cloud environment is maintained by service providers and software vendors, the onus falls on them to ensure continuity, and that can be a benefit as well as a risk, Muller says.

“When I have a third party hosting the environment for me I look to them as part of the service-level agreement to have the resources–the people and hardware and infrastructure in place–so that they can guarantee me if the hardware has a problem at one location they’ve got another location that will bring up my apps in a manner that is seamless to our internal users,” Muller says. “That’s sort of their problem, as long as I’ve got a strong service-level agreement in place with them.”

On the other hand, even with a service-level agreement holding the service provider responsible there are no guarantees that service will not at some point be interrupted, Muller says.

Not everyone sees cloud computing as influencing business continuity. “As of today, I don’t see a huge impact,” Dines says. “However, I do expect this to become a significant complicating factor in the future. As more organizations outsource more services to the cloud, it will become the job of the business continuity manager to audit the recovery plans of many different suppliers.”

In addition, Dines says, during a failure or testing, recovery will need to be coordinated across many different sites run by different vendors. “Longer-term, cloud will make business continuity much more complicated,” she says.

Mobile Devices in the Workforce

The proliferation of mobile devices in the workforce is a benefit for business continuity strategies because it gives more flexibility for workforce recovery options, Dines says.
“As compared to the days when employees only had desktops and laptops, the ability to remain productive without access to a computer via tablets and smartphones is a significant advantage,” she says. “Additionally, it means that employees should be easier to communicate with during a disaster.”

Business continuity planning software vendors are putting more emphasis on ensuring that the software and information needed for business continuity can be accessible via mobile devices, Morency says. This includes information such as the current status of recovery, the locations to which employees should be going, what applications and services they can access and where they connect to get the latest emergency updates.

“This is not only for telecommuters but for the workforce in general and the mobile sales folks who need ways to access the information that is most relevant to them, and be able to access this through the device of their choice,” Morency says.

Enterprises “cannot depend on corporate headquarters or the data center always being available following a disruptive event,” Morency says. “They have to ensure that critical plan content is always available [including to mobile users] regardless of what happened.”

Many Imperial Sugar employees use smartphones, tablets and other devices for work, Muller says, and these devices would likely prove useful from a business continuity perspective because workers would be able to use them to conduct business transactions and communicate with co-workers and customers from multiple remote locations.

The key issue is ensuring that these devices continue to have access to the software and services that allow them to function optimally for applications such as messaging and collaboration. “If I’ve got a Blackberry Enterprise Server I just need to make sure that it’s something I can bring up at a remote business continuity or disaster recovery site” if needed, Muller says.

The proliferation of mobile devices makes it easier for people to stay connected, “and certainly makes it easier to connect in a business recovery situation,” Muller says. “A wireless PC can do the same thing, but a mobile device is smaller and easier to carry around and it costs less. You can do just about anything on a mobile device that you can do on a PC.”

Social Networks

A Forrester report published in July 2011, entitled “It’s Time to Include Social Technology in Your Crisis Communication Strategy,” notes that while many risk professionals subscribe to automated communication services for reliable mass notification, “the widespread adoption of mobile devices and easy Internet access support the case for using social technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and Skype as critical components of your response plan.”
As companies look for rapid, effective communication approaches with key stakeholders in crisis communications, they should strongly consider leveraging social technologies, the report says.

Another report, “The Do’s and Don’ts of Using Social Media in Business Continuity Management,” released by Gartner in January 2012, notes that social media “holds the promise of transforming enterprise business continuity management, especially crisis/incident management and communications practices.”

Social media is used by more than 80% of the world’s population, Gartner says, and enterprises can’t afford to ignore it as a crisis communications tool. But effective use of a new communications channel requires planning and practice, and attempting to leverage social media for the first time during a crisis can cause more harm than good, the firm says.

Among the key recommended steps are to determine which social platforms are already used by employees, customers and other stakeholders and use those platforms in crisis/incident management efforts; and use social media not only to communicate during a disaster, but to gather information and gain the support of outside resources that can help ensure ongoing business resilience. Business continuity management professionals should immediately begin assessing social media’s opportunities–and risks, the Gartner reports says.

“Social networks are both a blessing and a curse” for business continuity, Dines says. “They have the benefit of being an additional communication channel to get in touch with employees during a [business disruption]. However, they can be a headache for crisis communications and PR as they try to control potential damages to reputation and the propagation of rumors.”

Source:http://www.cio.in/news/4-critical-trends-it-business-continuity-245272012

Keeping up with his promise to promote Information Technology (IT) in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Monday directed his officials to make a long term policy for introduction of IT in education.

Chairing a high-level meeting here, Akhilesh Yadav said that under the Samajwadi Party (SP) government, all out efforts should be made to ensure that a “climate was created in favour of IT, Computer Hardware and Electronics industries”.

The chief minister laid specific stress on establishing IT industry and BPOs in Agra and Lucknow.

Pointing out how this sector had “immense potential and employment opportunities”, the 38-year-old chief minister, himself a marine engineer from Sydney, said that the government should strive to create employment avenues for the rural and urban youth by promoting the IT industry in the state.

In rural areas also, the chief minister said, e-facilities should be introduced on the public-private-partnership (PPP) model and centres of learning created for a wider reach.

Source:http://zeenews.india.com/news/technology/create-it-friendly-climate-in-up-akhilesh-tells-o_766355.html

For far too long, there has been an invisible question mark next to HP’s name. Meg Whitman has successfully erased it.

The company’s decision to combine HP’s PC and printer business means everyone can move on – HP, its customers, its resellers. When, at one point last year, it looked as though the profitable printing and imaging division would be siloed off as HP moved more into software with the purchase of Autonomy, former CEO Leo Apothecker was sending a message to the world. The message was that printing and imaging, while necessary for most companies, is not a strategic IT purchase. No CIO survey I’ve ever seen lists printing and imaging as part of their top priorities, or their priorities in general. To focus on analytics through Autonomy, services through the former EDS unit and hardware through its computing products was in keeping with the zeitgeist. I still think it might have worked, but that’s not the point. What’s important was that HP was making a choice, and ever since Apothecker’s abrupt departure, the company has been left in an uncomfortable limbo.

Whitman has done a 360 on Apothecker’s game plan, but it’s an equally clear choice, and may ultimately make more sense. CIOs and IT managers are not asking for multiple vendor relationships; quite the reverse. As successful as the printing and imaging division might have been on its own, it would have had the effect of suggesting that all those customer relationships were not really valuable to HP’s core mission of inventing valuable solutions to complex business problems.

When CIOs think about the “information” part of their title, they’re probably thinking primarily about what’s resides in data centres and desktops. Yet despite massive digitization of so many processes and files, a lot of corporate information remains on paper, stubbornly refusing to be collected and analyzed in the same way that you might an electronic transaction record. Are you interested in wrestling with big data? Try starting with the bankers boxes that are scattered among dozens of offices in dozens of branch locations. Paper-based data can be just as unstructured in terms of the variety of documents, takes up considerable volume and while it may not be growing at the velocity of e-mail, it shows no signs of slowing down.

Analysts have long suggested that HP’s printing group makes most of its money not through hardware sales but in supplies such as recycling cartridges for toner and ink. But maybe it is data – the information on paper – that has been the biggest contributor to HP’s success in this area, just as the evolution of digital data will determine whether its other divisions flourish or fail. A tier one vendor can’t afford to offer less than everything is customers may want or need, even if CIOs don’t buy everything from the same company. By renewing its commitment to a complete stack of hardware, software and services, HP under Meg Whitman will inspire confidence and trust in the company’s long-term future. It’s like drawing a line in the sand. Or, better yet, putting a promise down on paper.

Source:http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/why-it-will-cheer-hps-move-to-merge-printing-and-pcs/145106

We can see worldwide — in China, South America, Central Europe, etc., their government supports domestic players and local manufacturing. And that is what we believe the Indian Government should also strive for — if we wish to remove the tag of world’s back office as we are branded today. We have seen that the government is sensitive to the issues of domestic development and security. We would like to see more policy level support to this which will enable domestic players.

We work primarily in the corporate and institutional sectors and we hope to see good demand led by Government spending in IT hardware. The penetration of PCs in India is at around 4 to 5 percent, which is among the lowest in the world. China is much ahead of us as its government supports domestic manufacturers there. There is huge room for growth and we expect the demand increasing if the right measures are enabled by the Government.

We believe that the government should look at the following seriously to support IT manufacturing

The Special Additional Duty (SAD) of 4 percent should be taken off as it favors import of traded goods at cheaper prices and thereby construed as anti-local-manufacturing.
We recommend that MRP-based assessment for IT Products should be withdrawn and assessment be done the actual invoice value.
Enhancement of abatement on IT Products from 20 percent to 40 percent to cover manufacturing cost, taxes and levies.
The government in certain areas has provided structural benefits for industrialization and attracting investment from the industry. We expect the policy of excise duty exemption prevailing in less developed areas to continue for a full term as per of 10 years where we have made huge investments. We also feel that as a progressive step, duties on import/ manufacture of computer goods for supplying to Central/State Governments/Undertakings, Defense and Railways should be abolished.
We expect that the government takes measures in the following areas:

It is recommended that provisions be made under the CENVAT Credit Rules to allow periodic refund of unutilized credit on account of inverted duty structure.
Grant exemption from service tax on the downloading of operating systems on PCs by units located in areas that have been allowed exemption from terminal excise duty.
To clarify whether Packaged Software should be considered as goods or service and if the same is considered as service, directions should be issued to State VAT authorities to exclude levy of VAT on software transaction.
Implementation of GST expeditiously with preferred status for IT products as they are big enablers in providing efficiency and improvement in productivity.

Source:http://informationweek.in/Hardware/12-03-09/We_expect_more_policy_level_support_to_enable_domestic_players_Wipro_Infotech.aspx

Dell’s move in becoming a services-oriented company from a pure-play hardware provider is on track, according to the company’s Aussie managing director.

Dell ANZ managing director, Joe Kremer, refuted claims that the company is still being pigeonholed in the PC sector, announcing that its services, solutions and storage business garnered strong revenue at a briefing on its fourth quarter results today.

He said the Australian and New Zealand region had the fastest growth in services, solutions and storage in terms of pick-up, though he added that the revenue did not reflect this.

“Looking at the Australian-New Zealand business… services, storage, and solutions is growing faster than the rest of the business,” he said.

“This year, the number of services people in Australia exceeds the people who are not services people. I can tell you we’re over the line, based on the number of people.”

Services is not quite in the mid-forties in terms of its share of revenue, he said, but if the company sticks to the same trajectory, “we’re pretty close to crossing over.”

However, he said that Dell’s PC business is strong and that he “wouldn’t hold back” on it to “make something else better”.

Kremer said Dell’s acquisitions over the past five years have boosted its efforts to shift to a services-oriented company.

These acquisitions include Cloud company Boomi, storage solutions company Compellent, and networking company Force10 Networks, as well as backup and replication company AppAssure last week.

Kremer also flagged plans to continue acquisitions in areas that will enable Dell to capture IP and scale.

According to Kremer, Dell will soon be launching its first customer solutions centre or “technical playground” in Australia for testing and development purposes.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/418044/aussie_dell_boss_says_it_business_transition_track/

The anticipated release of the new iPad and growth of Apple in business only confirms that Silicon Valley-based IT solutions provider Milestone Technologies, Inc. (MILESTONE) is positioned to enable clients to succeed. Securely integrating iOS and Mac devices into company IT environments since 2010, MILESTONE’s next move was bringing on Apple’s Director of Worldwide Enterprise Customer Care, Bob Wambaugh, to run MILESTONE’s Apple Business Unit (Apple Practice).

“As MILESTONE’s business continues to grow we see tremendous demand for increasing our ability to provide iPads for business and integration of Apple technologies (both iOS and Mac) into companies’ production IT environment where it can be managed securely with the right level of ongoing support. Bob’s expertise and leadership at Apple with enterprise business customers adds significant experience and industry leadership to our team at MILESTONE,” says Jim Glueck, COO MILESTONE.

Wambaugh’s initial focus at MILESTONE is account planning and taking part in speaking engagements and demonstrations of Apple technologies for the enterprise Fortune 500 companies, covering MILESTONE’s service offerings, which include iOS and Mac integration, deployment, service, support and training. Part of his decision to join the company was that he considers MILESTONE an excellent opportunity to provide business services and support to companies implementing Apple products into their businesses. Dr. Wambaugh will report directly to Jim Glueck, MILESTONE’s Chief Operating Officer.

Originally joining Apple in 1990 as a Field Technical Trainer, Wambaugh held various positions from technical sales to technical support. One of his most memorable positions was as Director of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Relations department where he enjoyed working with developers to create cool applications for the Mac. He jokes that he was in AppleCare before there was AppleCare.

Dr. Wambaugh’s experience also included working in Sun Microsystems’ Consumer Appliance Division where he led a team of developers creating VMs and Java based software for the consumer market.

Dr. Wambaugh brings forward a diverse educational background with a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems, a Masters in Adult and Community Education and an undergraduate degree in Geo Science. He started his career as a middle school science teacher eventually landing at The Pennsylvania State University where he was Director of the Regional Computer Resource Center. “This was one of my fondest memories and I consider it a big accomplishment helping teachers and schools bring technology into their classrooms. I felt I was making a difference,” Wambaugh said.

Source:http://www.technology-digital.com/press_releases/hardware/apple-business-unit-director-bob-wambaugh-joins-milestone-technologies-inc

STOURPORT-based children’s charity Mentor Link has recruited three members of staff from the town’s OGL Computer to become mentors for youngsters it helps.

OGL Computer, which provides IT support, software and hardware for business, has supported Mentor Link since the summer and has offered interested members of staff the opportunity to apply to become mentors.

In return OGL will pledge time to members of staff to allow them to mentor during the working day.

Mentor Link trains and provides mentors to support children throughout Worcestershire identified by schools as facing difficulties including family breakdown, low confidence, illness, bereavement and poor behaviour.

The mentor is trained to listen to, support and encourage the young people with the aim of creating a more positive attitude towards themselves and learning.

OGL employees Nick Davies, Sharon Moreno and Kirsty Sheppard are the mentors.

“It is fantastic that OGL have encouraged their staff to volunteer and are allowing them to do so during the working day,” said Claire Quinn, Mentor Link.

“Their staff will be excellent role models for our young people and, I’m sure, get as much out of the experience as the young person they are supporting.”

Mr Davies said: “The training has been very beneficial and has prepared me for any unusual circumstances I may encounter. I am looking forward to putting the training into practice and helping children that are facing difficulties.”

The work of a mentor involves listening to the children and discussing their interests, with Mentor Link seeking to match the interests and common ground between mentors and children, where possible, assisting them with reading, homework, or playing games.

The mentors will visit the children each week within a local school and have a one-to-one confidential meeting away from the classroom environment. A mentor is asked to provide a minimum of 30 minutes a week with a child for a minimum period of six months.

OGL Computer has more than 200 employees and has a second site in Kiddemrinster.

Source:http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/local/9503502.Wyre_Forest_IT_support_firm_s_employees_to_mentor_children/

Apple has never been considered an enterprise technology company, but it owns a significant share of the mobile enterprise market, largely due to the success of the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

And yet, Apple is still often seen as a consumer company that managed to get lucky — a view that misses the big story about Apple’s relationship with the enterprise as well as the current business tech trends it helped launch. More importantly, that view risks underestimating Apple’s contribution to, and effect on, the enterprise in 2012 and beyond.

All of the major trends in IT — cloud computing, mobile solutions and the ongoing consumerization of IT — look good for Apple. It’s more accommodating to the enterprise than it used to be, and its popularity in the mainstream consumer culture should offer advantages in the months ahead.

To understand Apple’s position in 2012 vis-a-vis the enterprise, it’s helpful to first look back at its earlier efforts to meet the needs of business and organizations.

Apple has been working to provide enterprise-grade solutions since before the release of Mac OS X more than a decade ago. It developed both a server operating system (Mac OS X Server) and hardware (Xserve) along with a SAN file system (Xsan) and fiber channel storage solution (Xserve RAID).

As Apple made the transition to Mac OS X, its enterprise approach centered around support for lineup of hardware products — mainly Macs. This helped to ensure that longtime Mac users — notably in education and design/media — had support for large deployments and client management. For businesses based around Apple products, this meant an end-to-end solution was easily available with one-stop shopping: Buy the Macs and Mac servers from Apple, then hire Apple engineers or consultants to help design, build and troubleshoot your infrastructure.

That approach didn’t work out so well in bringing in new converts, however.

Even when Apple offered ways of integrating Macs and its back-end solutions like the Xsan, Mac OS X Server and the Xserve into environments dominated by Windows PCs and related infrastructure, most enterprise IT departments remained uninterested.

Part of that was because Apple didn’t broadly market its enterprise solutions. Apple also seemed determined to flout the traditional IT vendor/customer relationship by not providing road maps of any sort about its plans — an approach that alienated potential business customers. Plus, even when there was enterprise interest in Apple’s server solutions, the fact that companies had to deal with yet another platform, with unique features and functions, made adoption more difficult.

As a whole, this approach may have done more to keep Macs out of some businesses than to encourage widespread adoption. It also had a side effect of creating a vibrant niche of alternative tools for integrating Macs without requiring a major investment in Apple’s server and storage products. And it created a cottage industry of Mac server and network consultants who had worked their way through Apple’s training and certification programs and who could be called on for help.

Apple throws out its enterprise playbook (and cancels some products)
Over the past few years, Apple subtly shifted its enterprise focus away from its own solutions. While still updating and supporting OS X Server and the Xserve, the company began building enterprise integration as a hallmark of OS X and iOS, offering features like Active Directory, Exchange and, more recently, Windows distributed file system support.

This support at the client and device level allowed enterprise customers to integrate Apple’s desktop and mobile products without the need for an investment in back-end Apple solutions. At the same time, a growing market of third-party enterprise integration and management tools began to mature, offering added features and options when it came to supporting hardware like MacBooks and iPhones.

The event that first heralded Apple’s move out of the server closet or data center, even though it wasn’t initially noticed, was the release of iOS 4 in 2010. Launched with the iPhone 4, iOS 4 included a range of mobile device management and security tools that allowed companies to enforce a broad range of device policies, automate the processes of device provisioning and enrollment, and monitor iOS devices in the field.

This was big news for those looking to use iPhones and iPads as business devices. But what made it unique was that the company didn’t offer its own management server or console. Instead, it let third-party vendors provide scalable products that made use of the built-in features, often providing important options such as support for managing other smartphone and device platforms.

A few months after the release of iOS 4, Apple stunned longtime enterprise customers by canceling its Xserve line of 1U rack mount servers (the company had previously discontinued its Xserve RAID and shifted its Xsan file system for use on third-party hardware).

Last summer, when Apple released Lion Server, it became clear that the company was transitioning away from providing enterprise solutions to support its products. Although Lion Server includes the enterprise functionality of its predecessor, the management interface clearly shows that Apple sees it as a solution for the small- and midsize business (SMB) market, in combination with the Mac mini server.

At the same time, Lion became the first version of OS X to ship with built-in support for Microsoft’s Distributed file system, a feature of Active Directory and Windows Server that allows administrators to make shared resources available to users based on a logical rather than physical network file structure. The company then added more enterprise-oriented features to iOS 5, which was released last fall.

These events illustrate a new enterprise strategy: Apple wants to make its products enterprise-ready and easy to integrate with existing systems out of the box. By and large, that integration is possible without the need for in-depth training, though Apple still provides a range of training classes and Mac-specific certifications.

Although jarring for customers that have had long-time investments in Apple’s server platform, the approach actually makes sense and offers significant benefits. It streamlines the company’s approach to business. It allows Apple to tailor OS X Server to the needs of the SMBs. It allows third parties to offer additional enterprise integration and management features that surpass what Apple could offer (often at a reduced cost and by tapping into existing enterprise technologies).

All in all, the approach is much more logical and gives IT a great deal of flexibility in how to approach Macs, iPhones and iPads in the workplace.

Apple is still hands-on in the enterprise
With its new approach, Apple isn’t the central enterprise solution for its products; Active Directory and Exchange at a basic level — or third-party client and mobile management suites at a higher level — now fill that role. But that doesn’t mean Apple has taken a hands-off approach to meeting enterprise needs. In some ways, it’s even more involved than it used to be.

Virtually all third-party management solutions for Macs and iOS devices plug into enterprise capabilities that Apple has built into its desktop and mobile OSes. On iPhones and iPads, that includes a set of MDM capabilities, and on Macs, it means Apple’s client management framework. That gives vendors a set of consistent capabilities and helps to ensure that their various solutions affect the Mac and iOS user experiences in the same way.

For the most part, vendors that offer Mac client management or iOS device management implement most of the capabilities that Apple gives them. The differentiation and value-adds that vendors make involve their ability to tap into other enterprise systems, their management interface and organizational tools, their monitoring and reporting capabilities, levels of automation, the ability to manage multiple platforms, and other add-on features. This allows companies working with the same set of options to offer a variety of tools that can be tailored to, or centered around, different needs.

Even with that differentiation, however, all Mac and iOS management solutions offer a consistent set of provisioning options, controls and restrictions. And since all Macs, iPhones, and iPads are made by Apple, there’s a consistent user experience, even in managed environments, across all of the devices.

This is particularly attractive with the iPhone and iPad. It doesn’t bring Apple’s mobile devices to quite the level RIM has traditionally offered with its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), but it comes pretty close. When paired with with any of the major MDM vendors, Apple’s iPhones and iPads represent the most manageable and secure mobile platform other than RIM and BES.

Given RIM’s slide in the mobile market, the generally accepted failure of the PlayBook, and last year’s spate of outages, the iPhone and iPad are worthy contenders for enterprise mobility plans. That employees are often willing to use their own Apple devices in the workplace makes those devices an excellent candidate for BYOD (bring-your-own-device) programs.

Of course, this also sharply contrasts with Android, where there are hundreds of devices by dozens of manufacturers, running a handful of different OS versions — some of which don’t even offer enterprise functionality. The recent Android releases, particularly Ice Cream Sandwich, are moving to resolve the issue with consistent management capabilities. But it will be a while before Android as a whole offers iOS’ level of consistent security and manageability, despite being supported to a degree by mobile management tools.

Building bridges with the enterprise
Although Apple has backed off pushing its own enterprise solutions, it still offers resources and training. One difference, however, is that it is focusing more on enterprise integration.

A great example of this is Apple’s new Mac Integration Basics certification, which provides the core skills needed to connect a Mac to enterprise technologies like Active Directory and Exchange. (It also offers some background information on Mac troubleshooting.) The exam and the study guide are both available for free. On a similar note, Apple now allows certain Microsoft and Cisco certifications to be used as credentials for joining its mobility consultants network as alternatives to Apple’s own certifications.

Although these may seem like minor steps, they show that Apple understands that the success of its products in the enterprise means embracing platforms and standards beyond its own.

Competition in the enterprise
If this year’s Consumer Electronics Show illustrated one thing about Apple’s position in the enterprise, it’s that its two most successful enterprise products — the MacBook Air and the iPad — will soon face stiff competition.

MacBook Air vs. ultrabooks
It’s pretty obvious from a quick glance at Intel’s specs for ultrabooks that the category is designed with one thought in mind: compete directly with the MacBook Air, which has become popular in business because of its small size, light weight and good performance. Of course, the $999 price tag helps, too.

So long as manufacturers keep ultrabook prices at or below par with the MacBook Air — we can expect Intel to keep prodding them to do so — many companies will opt for ultrabooks. That’s especially true for companies that have yet to purchase or support the MacBook Air or other Mac models.

For companies that have already invested in Apple hardware and the back-end technology to manage and support it, there’s no significant reason to change direction just because a Windows alternative arrives. This means potential future Mac sales to those companies and some continued level of Mac support.

Long-term support for those Macs may be a strategic move beyond simply continued use of prior investments. In offering employees a choice between a Mac and PC or supporting employee-owned Macs as part of a BYOD program, IT can build bridges with workers and executives who want to use them. As employees become more tech-savvy and IT becomes more integrated into the business sphere, building strong relationships between the two will become more important. IT needs to be seen as flexible and adaptive to the needs and requests of users at every level of the corporate food chain.

Of course, ultrabooks are just beginning to hit the market and Apple may have some new features up its sleeves for the MacBook Air over the coming months.

iPad vs. Windows 8
If 2011 illustrated one thing about the tablet market, it was that wresting share from Apple is hard. A year ago, everyone (myself included) expected to see non-Apple tablets make serious dents in both the consumer and business markets. That didn’t happen.

There are plenty of reasons no platform gained anywhere near the iPad’s traction in the overall tech market. But things are pretty clear cut from a business perspective: most tablets, including the Xoom, PlayBook and TouchPad, shipped with software that was still at beta quality and lacking core features; they couldn’t offer a price point significantly better than the iPad; and by and large none offered the device management capabilities that Apple had put together in iOS 4 (the PlayBook probably came closest).

In 2012, the focus on enterprise tablets beyond the iPad is Windows 8. Some observers have already predicted Windows 8 tablets will marginalize the iPad in the workplace. The biggest argument is that Windows 8 devices will be more in line with the comfort zone of IT staffers than Apple’s iOS will.

There are two major snags in this argument. First, the iPad is a known solution. Its capabilities, costs, user reaction, and apps are freely available and have been tested in most enterprises to some extent. More importantly, its security and management capabilities have also been tested, along with mobile management vendors and solutions that already link to existing Active Directory and related infrastructures.

While Windows 8 tablets were on display at CES and Windows 8 previews are available for download, Windows 8 tablets aren’t available for real-world testing by enterprises — and won’t be for several months. Adherence to typical enterprise pilot project, procurement, and deployment methods pushes wide availability of Windows 8 tablets well into next year. More crucially, many businesses don’t adopt new Windows versions when they’re initially released; waiting for an initial service pack release is extremely common. That could delay Windows 8 in any form even further.

There’s still contention over what kinds of Windows apps will even run on tablets. It seems clear that most Windows 8 PCs will have access to both legacy desktop-first apps as well as apps designed for Windows 8’s Metro interface. But ARM-based tablets may not. With the projected pricing of Intel-based tablets pushing beyond competitiveness with the iPad, ARM-based models may be the only economical option. Perhaps, more importantly, there’s the question of how well legacy apps will function in touch-first or touch-only devices.

This is a non-issue with iPad deployments, since pilot projects and testing can be started at any time. It’s also worth noting that deployments can be managed with today’s infrastructure. There’s no need to adjust or upgrade Active Directory, Exchange or similar core technologies, which may be necessary for Windows 8 group policies and client management.

The second flaw in arguing that Windows 8 tablets will automatically beat the iPad ignores a core factor in the consumerization of IT and BYOD programs — the influence and choice of users.

As users have grown more comfortable with technology, they’ve begun to play a more active role in IT decision-making — and they may not want a Windows 8 tablet to replace their iPads. One of the reasons BYOD programs succeed is that they empower users to choose the technologies with which they are most comfortable and productive. Of course, in a BYOD program, IT’s preferences often take a back seat to user choices to some extent. Even in organizations without a BYOD paradigm, users are exerting more and more dominance in their use of technology, at the expense of even informing IT in some cases.

This is a trend that will be very difficult to reverse, particularly as many executives, managers and mobile staff members have already become used to the iPad as an everyday tool. Coupled with that, there has been an embracing of iOS apps and their use in workflows for all manner of tasks that users may not see a value in changing.

In fact, given the growing need in almost every IT department to embrace, support and manage multiple mobile technologies, even the “familiarity with Windows” argument begins to falter. IT professionals have become accustomed to supporting other technologies like iOS and Android.

It’s also important to note that, in addition to having a head start, Apple hasn’t rested on its laurels with the iPad. The iPad 2 offered notable improvements over its predecessor. And iOS 5 offers a better experience than iOS 4 for professional tasks and even some management capabilities. That’s a trend we can expect to continue in iOS 6.

A robust app ecosystem is another iPad advantage, particularly given that Windows 8 apps designed specifically for a tablet interface have yet to emerge. There are thousands of business tools out there already that are designed around the specific interface needs and advantages of the iPad’s form factor, many of which are profession- and industry-specific. That includes a whole range of business intelligence, CRM, ERP and collaboration tools — to say nothing of the potential for VDI solutions.

Whither Apple’s relationship with the enterprise in 2012?
Apple has managed to position itself very well as an enterprise vendor. The company has learned from its past mistakes to avoid proprietary solutions or add too much complexity for IT departments. Apple has also managed to leverage its supply chain and economies of scale so well that it’s difficult for other mobile device manufacturers to compete without notably sacrificing quality. Ultimately, these have in the past been the two biggest barriers to entry for Apple technology in the workplace.

Apple also managed to stake out mobile territory far earlier than many of its competitors by being the first company to successfully take mobile solutions like tablets beyond just a niche market. That head start is a massive advantage and it allows Apple to continue to innovate for business needs and environments while other companies are playing catch-up.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223673/Will_this_be_the_year_of_Apple_in_the_enterprise_?taxonomyId=163&pageNumber=1

Dell is on the prowl for an India acquisition worth up to $1 billion (Rs 5,000 crore), part of a strategy to bolster its information technology services business and compete better against the likes of IBM and Accenture.

The world’s third-largest computer maker wants to buy a mid-sized Indian tech firm with “several thousands of staff” and revenues of $500 million to $1 billion or even more, Suresh Vaswani, chairman of the company’s Indian operations and executive vicepresident of the Dell’s global application and BPO business, told ET.

He declined to say which companies Dell, which has cash of about $16 billion, is interested in, but bankers identified Hexaware Technologies and NIIT Technologies, each with revenues of around $300 million, as potential targets. Both companies have been denying plans to sell. Vaswani, a Wipro veteran who joined Dell last year to help the company grow its services business, said mid-sized firms with a majority of staff in India and with expertise in areas such as banking or healthcare will make good targets.

“The services acquisition can be Perot Systems-like but with more India leverage and in the tier-II space. They may be $700 million or $800 million (by revenue) in one vertical and may even be ahead of tier-I companies in that space. We don’t have to look at one; we could look at two,” he said.

Dell acquired Perot Systems for $3.9 billion in 2009, marking its entry into the services space. The acquisitions also gave it significant offshore delivery capabilities and strength in the healthcare services business.

Experts familiar with Dell’s strategy said the company plans to leverage acquisitions to more than double, or even treble, its current IT services revenues of $8 billion in 3-4 years. Dell has said it wants to increase revenues from IT services to $11 billion in three years, but this does not account for business from any potential acquisitions. IT services contribute less than 15% to Dell’s total income.

From around 28,000 staff in India, Dell plans to ramp up to a level where it can compete more effectively against IBM, which has over 1,00,000 employees in the country. This can only be achieved through an acquisition; competing with traditional campus recruiters such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro to hire hundreds of software engineers will be difficult.

Once the world’s largest PC maker, Dell has lost more than a quarter of its share in the commoditised computer market to aggressive Asian rivals such as Lenovo. Now, the company wants a bigger share of the high-margin IT services pie to improve profitability by bundling computer hardware with outsourcing contracts.

IBM had a head start in IT services when in 2005 it sold its PC business to Lenovo to focus on the rapidly-growing areas of software and services. IBM now gets over half of its $100 billion revenues from services.

“These companies are looking at a trillion-dollar market which is only growing. Dell has been an acquisitive company especially in the services space. A mid-sized acquisition will definitely add value for them and help them respond to clients faster,” said Viral Thakker, a partner at KPMG.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/dell-readies-rs-5000-crore-war-chest-for-india-buyout-to-boost-it-business/articleshow/11691859.cms

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün met with leading computer manufacturers, GSM operators and software writers during the course of the week at the headquarters of the Zaman daily in İstanbul, where they discussed the future of the information technology (IT) sector and signed a deal that stipulates major government incentives to increase share of domestic companies in the sector.
With this agreement, the domestic IT sector will become one of the two industries that receive the bulk of government incentives, along with the domestic automotive sector. The deal will pave the way for Turkey to become a leading player in the global IT market over the next 10 years, reduce Turkey’s dependency on foreign technology and help to reduce the current account deficit (CAD).

The minister explained the steps which will be taken to achieve the target, which include a consideration of how the number of patents and entrepreneurs in Turkey reflects the effectiveness of university’s and the introduction of incentives to encourage cooperation between the IT sector and universities. Technology parks will be developed, providing industry hubs that all firms can benefit from and the government will support IT companies by initiating projects that will increase demand for information technology products. Also, international firms will be encouraged, through incentive packages, to move their production and research facilities to Turkey.

Speaking to participants, Ergün mentioned the positive transformation that the economy has gone through over the past 10 years and underlined that the country is on the verge of yet another transformation, which will require the development of advanced technology in order to bring the production capabilities of Turkish companies into line with the competitive global market. He said the IT sector, in conjunction with the electronics sector, will play a key role in development of technology, making the production of extremely high-tech equipment possible. “We must take advantage of Turkey’s young population when looking at ways to advance the fields of IT and electronics,” he added.

Teknosa General Manager Mehmet Nane reminded participants of the success of countries such as China and India, who began to shape their IT sectors in innovative ways 25 years ago. He said, “While taking into consideration the opinions of the main players in the sector, a long term, strategic plan must be established. It is hard to develop hardware and create a brand; therefore we must make the most of the skills of younger generations and focus on the development of software.”

Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV) President Faruk Eczacıbaşı admitted Turkey began taking an interest in the IT sector fairly late, but said the transformation is inevitable as it is clear the successful countries are those which began implementing their strategies in these sectors in the early ’80s. He emphasized the Movement to Increase Opportunities and Technology (FATİH) project, which plans to improve standards and quality in education through the implementation of smart classrooms, smart boards and computers in schools across the country, emphasizing its anticipated contribution to the development of the service sector. “The FATİH project will enable the country’s youth to contribute to the economy as producers in 15 years time,” he added. He also suggested more projects like FATİH should be established with the support of the domestic IT sector, while the government should source software and hardware from suppliers. He highlighted the importance of creating a fast and effective chain of production, allowing companies to bring products to the market as soon as possible.

Casper CEO Altan Aras Fakılı highlighted that the company has been operating within the IT sector for 20 years, recently becoming the leading producer of local brands in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Fakılı said, “We have a 16 percent share of computer sales in the Turkish market, with a production capacity of a million computers overall.”He added, “We are lucky to lead the market in Turkey, because local brands don’t have the largest share in countries like China and Brazil.”

Exper Computers board of directors member Nazım Özdemir called for a strategy to develop Turkey into a base for technological products. He said, “We didn’t have mass production before because there were no projects that would support it. Exper, along with Casper, ranks among the top 20 brands in the world. This was achieved only through the effort of those involved in the businesses. We plan to work closely with Casper to play an effective role in the project.”

Ergün said that the main goal of the FATİH project is not to hand out tablet PC’s to students, explaining, “while such a market is being created, the point is to make sure it contributes to improvements in the sector and transformation of the education system, as well as playing a leverage role.” The minister added: “It is crucial to be part of the global industry, not just as consumers, but also producers. We hope our younger generations will catch up with the advantages the sector can bring.”

Source:http://www.todayszaman.com/news-269878-it-sector-to-receive-major-government-incentives.html

The small-business help desk is going corporate, with initiatives from companies like Apple Inc. bringing new competition to independent consultants who typically handle the IT needs of U.S. start-ups and small companies.

The move comes as the use of external IT support among small businesses is exploding. Information-technology services can include setting up new computers, upgrading software, protecting against malware and troubleshooting.

U.S. businesses with less than 500 employees spent roughly $23.5 billion on IT services last year, and are projected to spend $27.2 billion on IT services by 2015, according to estimates by research firm IDC.

Best Buy Co. sees “significant, untapped potential” in small business IT, a company spokeswoman said. The national retail chain in December bought Mindshift Technologies Inc., a Waltham, Mass., provider of IT services to more than 5,400 small and midsize businesses nationwide.

Apple in June formed a partnership with OnForce Services Inc., an eight-year-old IT services network based in Lexington, Mass., to provide small businesses with IT help on their own premises.

“Everyone’s talking small business right now. There’s a huge opportunity,” says Peter Cannone, chief executive of OnForce.

Apple stores already feature a “Genius Bar,” where customers have their products serviced. A year ago Apple introduced “JointVenture,” a program providing small businesses with limited tech support offered by Apple employees in Apple stores and over the phone. That program starts at $499 a year for those who buy a new Mac.

But in-store support isn’t ideal for many business owners who may need to carry multiple computers or devices from their office into an Apple store.

While many small businesses and start-ups are still reluctant to hire new employees, spending on technology and IT services is seen generally as smart if it can help a company operate more efficiently, or make it possible for an owner who travels to manage his or her business from a remote location.

“I don’t have an IT department,” says Kevin Kay, owner of an Easley, S.C., health-care company with just 53 employees. “It’s not a luxury I can afford.”

Mr. Kay, who says he has been cautious in his overall spending in recent years due to the economy, sought Apple’s help in updating and transferring accounting software to three new iMac computers from older personal computers earlier this month.

Apple referred him to OnForce, which then dispatched a technician from its roster of more than 100,000 partners—independent IT-service providers nationwide who pay OnForce a referral fee of 10% of sales—to Mr. Kay’s business. Mr. Kay paid the technician $1,050, or $150 an hour, for seven hours of labor, an amount he describes as “costly but necessary.” That’s on top of the $5,600 he shelled out for computers, iPads, software and data backup.

Thanks to the advent of cloud computing, the options now available to small businesses go well beyond what was typical for a help desk just a few years ago. They include analytics, software customization, disaster recovery and video conferencing, for instance. Such options and others only recently became feasible to dispense on a widespread scale—and at prices the average small business can afford.

Spending on IT services by U.S. companies of all sizes has been growing at a rate of about 3.2% annually over the past five years, and reached $304 billion last year. That total is about 55% more than their spending on computer hardware and software sales combined, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

About 71% of small and midsize U.S. companies said they planned to increase their IT budgets by an average of 5.2% over the next 12 months, according to a July survey of 602 companies with less than 500 employees by the Computing Technology Industry Association, a trade group.

The small-business IT market is alluring to many in part because no single player dominates it, even though some large corporations have been in the space for longer than Apple and Best Buy, including International Business Machines Corp., Staples Inc. and AT&T Inc.

PlumChoice Inc., a midsize IT-services firm in Billerica, Mass., has signed partnerships with five large corporations in recent years to provide help-desk support to those outfits’ small-business customers. “When things don’t work, you can’t even run your business in many cases,” says Ted Werth, its founder.

There are roughly 300,000 independent IT consultants, and another 114,000 small IT companies, according to the trade group. Some independent consultants believe they can thrive despite potentially increased competition for mom-and-pop shops and other small-business clients.

“A college kid offers better pricing than I do but I’m able to give my clients the answers they need in ways they can understand,” says Allan Sabo, an IT consultant in Flushing, N.Y., who charges $100 an hour, or $500 a month, for service for clients who have one server and as many as five workstations.

Small-business owners “want to work with local people,” says Jason Comstock, an independent consultant in Marysville, Ohio, who says he visits his clients on site at least once a month even though he can assist them remotely with many IT issues. “They want to know who you are, where you go to church, are you a member of the local chamber of commerce, all those things. They’re really about the relationship.”

Best Buy so far isn’t planning to carve out dedicated space in its stores for Mindshift, as it currently does for Geek Squad, its tech-support service for consumers.

Rather, Mindshift will serve the businesses in most cases via remote access to a customer’s computer or over the phone.

“We can do 99% of the work remotely,” says Paul Chisholm, Mindshift CEO. “More and more customers want to go to the cloud, and the independents and small regional providers don’t have the financial capital and expertise to develop scalable cloud offerings.”

Keeping a team of IT professionals can be too costly for a start-up.

“The minute you bring them in, unless you spend a tremendous amount on training and keeping them up to date, their skills deteriorate,” says Rick Rodgers, co-founder of Tesaro Inc.

The two-year-old biopharmaceutical company, based in Waltham, Mass., paid Mindshift about $40,000 for all of its 2011 IT needs.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577183052169000964.html

Energy Star has recognized UNO Information Services as one of the top five universities in the country for their contributions and progress in the government sponsored program’s Low Carbon IT Power Campaign. The recognition brings to the forefront the efforts made by the Information Services team lead by Technical Service Manager Andrew Buker and Desktop Manager Seth Korber in the department’s efforts to save both money and resources.
“We are using less electricity, buying less hardware, and enabling our existing hardware to be used longer. All of which saves money, reduces our carbon footprint, and avoids further pollution by decreasing our demand for fossil fuels and electronics manufacturing,” said Korber by email. The recognition came as a result of Information Services’ efforts to make UNO a more environmentally conscious campus through desktop and server virtualization and PC Power management. These efforts are estimated to have saved UNO $50,000 in power costs and $1 million in combine utility and hardware cost said Korber. “Server virtualization allows one physical server to run many ‘virtual servers’ that would typically each be on their own. This allows for dramatic reductions in the usage of space, energy and management time,” said Korber. This is due to reductions in power usage by the servers as well as a reduction in the energy used to keep that many servers cool enough to operate.
Server virtualization allows UNO to run more than 200 virtual servers on only three physical units with one backup. Korber also estimates that as the universities computing needs grow up to 350 virtual servers will be able to run on the four existing servers before more are needed. In addition to server virtualization, desktops have also been virtualized. This saves the university money by “allowing us to use the desktops for seven to ten years rather than the typical three to five for a standard desktop,” said Korber. The initial server virtualization was funded by two one-time finding requests from the Office of Business & Finance and Information services now accrues money for maintenance. The move towards virtual desktops was funded by President Miliken’s office and the project is being moved towards sustainability so that it too can accrue monies towards maintaining the program. In addition to the power conservation projects with campus computing other efforts by the team have included “zero client” computers that use 80 percent less power than average in MBSC Food Court and the Math Lab. MBSC & DSC IS computer labs have been using a mix of 30 percent post-consumer recycled paper and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified paper for printing and the encouraged use of duplex (double sided) printing to save paper.Students will continue to see Information Service make every effort to keep UNO at the forefront of green technology use.
“This includes distance and hybrid education, and online class offerings growing, desktop virtualization, and PC power management continuing to expand across campus, easier accessibility to websites and digital services from mobile and tablet devices decreasing the need to print documents, and duplex printing becoming the default printing option in MBSC & DSC labs” said Korber.

Source:http://www.unogateway.com/news/uno-a-top-school-for-it-sustainability-1.2742607#.TxaTuqXrqgQ

Forecast by Gartner a research firm that said the IT Sector would see an increase on global IT spending in 2012 by 4.6 percent has reviewed the forecast analysis and announced on Thursday that the percentage predicted would dip down to 3.6 percent from the expected 4.6 percent but as a matter of fact the brighter side is that there would still be 3.6 percent growth on global IT spending compared to last year.

The fall in this percentage is because of the decline in economic growth around the word, the euro debt crisis and ongoing impact of the Thailand floods which has lead to limiting the production of hard disk drives (HDD) which in turn has resulted in a sluggish economic growth that lead to down gradation of Gartner’s forecasts for worldwide IT spending this year.

“Thailand has been a major hub for hard-drive manufacturing, both for finished goods and components,” Mr. Gordon said. “We estimate the supply of hard drives will be reduced by as much as 25 percent (and possibly more) during the next six to nine months. Rebuilding the destroyed manufacturing facilities will also take time and the effects of this will continue to ripple throughout 2012 and very likely into 2013.” As reported by efytimes.com

The Thailand floods, that devastate one-third of the country under water would have major impact on the computing hardware sector as they would be experiencing the most significant slowdown because the country would limit its HDD production and supply to the vendors during the first six months of 2012, adding to it is also uncertainty and political issues going on in western Europe.

This scenario is advantageous for tablet manufacturers as they stand a fair chance to increase their production since they use flash drive unlike the Computers that use HDDs and hence the reduced production in HDDs would badly hit the computer manufacturers.

Bangalore: Forecast by Gartner a research firm that said the IT Sector would see an increase on global IT spending in 2012 by 4.6 percent has reviewed the forecast analysis and announced on Thursday that the percentage predicted would dip down to 3.6 percent from the expected 4.6 percent but as a matter of fact the brighter side is that there would still be 3.6 percent growth on global IT spending compared to last year.

The fall in this percentage is because of the decline in economic growth around the word, the euro debt crisis and ongoing impact of the Thailand floods which has lead to limiting the production of hard disk drives (HDD) which in turn has resulted in a sluggish economic growth that lead to down gradation of Gartner’s forecasts for worldwide IT spending this year.

“Thailand has been a major hub for hard-drive manufacturing, both for finished goods and components,” Mr. Gordon said. “We estimate the supply of hard drives will be reduced by as much as 25 percent (and possibly more) during the next six to nine months. Rebuilding the destroyed manufacturing facilities will also take time and the effects of this will continue to ripple throughout 2012 and very likely into 2013.” As reported by efytimes.com

The Thailand floods, that devastated one-third of the country under water would have major impact on the computing hardware sector as they would be experiencing the most significant slowdown because the country would limit its HDD production and supply to the vendors during the first six months of 2012, adding to it is also uncertainty and political issues going on in western Europe.

his scenario is advantageous for tablet manufacturers as they stand a fair chance to increase their production since they use flash drive unlike the Computers that use HDDs and hence the reduced production in HDDs would badly hit the computer manufacturers.

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Gartner_Cuts_IT_Spending_Growth_Forecast-nid-102522-cid-7.html