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Twitter's latest leap into ecommerce could save you money on holiday shopping. The company announced this week that it started testing Twitter Offers, a new program that brings deals to its U.S. users.
Twitter Offers let businesses turn a Promoted Tweet -- an ad that appear in users' streams -- into a coupon that users save to their credit or debit cards. Twitter's Tarun Jain, group product manager, said that this new feature will help business convert customers.
"We're beginning to test a new way for advertisers to connect with consumers on Twitter and convert them to loyal customers in their stores, on their websites, and in their apps," Jain wrote in a blog post. "This feature, Twitter Offers, enables advertisers to create card-linked promotions and share them directly with Twitter users."
The Twitter Offers program is supported by CardSpring, a payments infrastructure company that it acquired in July. CardSpring lets merchants create cred-card-linked promotions, then connect these promotions with purchases at their store.
Before you save a Twitter Offer, you'll need to register your credit or debit card first by filling out the form below the offer you want to claim. Twitter says it encrypts this information and stores it to make it easier to claim offers in the future. You can remove your credit or debit card information from your account at any time by visiting the Payments and Shipping tab within your settings, the company said.
Click here to view Figure 1.
[Popular social apps may track your every move. Read Location Tracking: 6 Social App Settings To Check.]
After you submit your information, tap the "Add offer to card" button. Twitter will send you an email and notification to confirm the details of your offer.
Applying the offer to your purchase is easy -- you don't need to print out or display any coupons at checkout, just use the credit card you linked to pay. You won't see the discount on your receipt, rather Twitter will credit the savings to your credit card within a few days, and follow up with a notification with the amount you saved, it said.
Twitter said it made Offers integration simple for businesses to use, too. "We make it easy for merchants to get up and running because they can use their existing payment network, there's no change to the consumer purchase process, no employee training, and no new hardware or software to install," Jain said.
Advertisers can track and attribute redemptions directly to their campaigns on Twitter, which will help them measure the ROI from their promotions, even when redemption happens offline, Twitter said.
Offers is launching with just a handful of brands in preparation for holiday shopping, but the company plans to add more partners "in the near future." Twitter did not disclose which brands it has partnered with.
The Twitter Offers program is the company's second foray into ecommerce. In September, it began testing a Buy button, which lets users purchase goods and make donations via Twitter. Like Twitter Offers, the Buy button requires you to enter in your credit card information, which it encrypts and stores.
Twitter has also teamed up with Amazon in the past for programs that include #AmazonWishList, a hashtag users tweet that adds items they see on Twitter to their Amazon wish lists, and #AmazonCart, another hashtag users can tweet to place an item in their cart to purchase later.
Employers see a talent shortage. Job hunters see a broken hiring process. In the rush to complete projects, the industry risks rushing to an IT talent failure. Get the Talent Shortage Debate issue of InformationWeek today.]]>
The Docker Linux container format has a major exposure that could allow malicious code to assume unassigned privileges with the host server and order the extraction of files that are not intended to be accessible to the container's code.
Several generations of the Docker container formatting system are subject to the vulnerability; only the latest version, Docker 1.3.2, is exempt. There's no way to patch the thousands of copies of Docker with release numbers before the 1.3.2 release, according to company representatives -- the only safeguard is to upgrade to the recent release.
The 1.3.2 release can be downloaded here.
The exposure was discovered by security researcher Florian Weimer at Red Hat and confirmed by independent security researcher Tonis Tiigi. Red Hat is deeply committed to Linux users' adoption of Docker and produced Atomic Host, a version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux geared to run containers.
Docker's Erich Windisch issued a security advisory on Nov. 24 about the defect: "The Docker engine, up to and including version 1.3.1, was vulnerable to extracting files to arbitrary paths on the host during 'docker pull' and 'docker load' operations ... This vulnerability could be leveraged to perform remote code execution and privilege escalation." Windisch added that no remediation is available for older versions of Docker.
[Want to learn more about how containers have become important to the Amazon cloud? See Amazon's Container Strategy Examined.]
"While it is in no way an indictment of the Docker project, it does show that early-stage projects are just that -- early and still a little rough around the edges," wrote Ben Kepes, a New Zealand-based consultant on cloud computing at Diversity Ltd. on his Forbes.com blog. He added that news of the exposure is "a cautionary tale for organizations experimenting with early-stage projects."
Click here to view Figure 1.
Docker security has long been a concern for those familiar with the intricacies of running dozens of containers together on a single host. Containers are an effective way to isolate one application from another on a shared host, provided no container contains code that actively tries to trespass across container boundaries. The exposure found in versions of Docker up to 1.3.1 allowed that to happen.
Despite developer enthusiasm for its formatting system, Docker has warned that protections against malware from one container to the next can't be guaranteed and recommended that only containers from a single owner should be run on the same host. VMware representatives, including CTO Ben Fathi, reiterated that warning at VMworld in August, stating again that only containers running inside a virtual machine on a shared host should be considered secure.
The release of 1.3.2 code fixed a second but lesser security hole as well, Windisch's post indicates.
There has been a background debate over whether multiple workloads can run safely on a single host in containers or whether enterprise IT stick should with virtual machines. Containers represent a significant advance in efficiency for multiple workloads because they use a single host's operating system kernel.
A virtual machine is more self-contained. It includes its own operating system but requires more system memory and compute cycles.
For now, virtual machines are winning the security debate on multi-tenant hosts. But developers and IT managers are watching Docker to see if container security improves. Managers at the Joyent cloud say their containers running under the SmartOS version of Solaris create a secure form of multi-tenant container operation. Where dozens of virtual machines can be put on a single host, hundreds of containers can be run on the same server resources.
Malicious software is morphing to be more targeted, stealthy, and destructive. Are you prepared to stop it? Get the Malware Mutation issue of Dark Reading today.]]>
Most Americans don't know that the Internet and the Web are not the same thing.
The Pew Research Center has released results from a survey of 1,066 Internet users that asked 17 questions about the Internet, how it works, and important technology leaders.
The survey found Americans well-informed on some topics but not on others. Most of those surveyed (83%) could identify Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, could tell you that hashtags are associated with Twitter (82%), and could confirm that PDFs can be sent via email (77%).
Most respondents could also tell you that a megabyte is bigger than a kilobyte (74%) and that "URL" stands for uniform resource locator (69%).
[Make sure your holliday gifts don't disappoint. See 8 Tech Turkeys To Avoid As Gifts.]
But beyond that, many people were unaware of things people in the technology industry take for granted. For example, just 61% of respondents understand that net neutrality refers to the equal treatment of digital data, while only 44% of people realize that a privacy policy does not a guarantee a company will keep information private. And only 23% recognize that the Internet is different from the Web.
The survey found that younger Internet users are more knowledgeable in some aspects of technology, like Twitter terminology, but have comparable levels of ignorance about the fact that the Web represents one Internet network among many. It also found that education matters, with college graduates outscoring those with fewer years of education in every area but one -- understanding the difference between the Web and the Internet.
Click here to view Figure 1.
None of this is particularly surprising. In 2009, a Google employee asked a handful of people in New York's Times Square "What is a browser?" Almost no one answered correctly, surely a humbling experience for the Google engineers who were working feverishly to improve Chrome.
Pew's study doesn't attempt to assess the impact of scant technical knowledge. While it may be dispiriting to those who live and breathe technology that large numbers of people appear to lack understanding about important concepts like privacy policies and net neutrality, such gaps exist throughout civic and political life, all the way up to regulators who see the Internet as a series of tubes.
The study also doesn't consider the distinction between historical facts, many of which can be revealed on-demand by using a search engine, and concepts like net neutrality that shape policy decisions and affect people's lives.
The fact that only 21% of people could identify Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg from a photograph may be disappointing to Sandberg herself and to anyone who sees her as a future political candidate, but it's not a particularly meaningful measurement.
Apply now for the 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100, which recognizes the most innovative users of technology to advance a company's business goals. Winners will be recognized at the InformationWeek Conference, April 27-28, 2015, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Application period ends Jan. 16, 2015.]]>
[Will some cool tech toys make the Grumpy IT Guy less grumpy? Look at 10 Smart Tech Toys For Kids.]
Here is the problem. The thing that causes DIS-engagement is saying stupid stuff like, "Build up human capital so that you can ask workers for discretionary effort," and treating common sense as if it's super-complex science beyond the ken of normal people. The smug doubletalk attitude causes enragement, not engagement.
Many employees here are disenchanted with how the company treats them. They are disenchanted because they feel like a cog in a machine, not like the "most important asset" of the company, despite this HR platitude.
Click here to view Figure 1.
We are now to follow HR's lead on how to manage or browbeat our employees into engagement nirvana.
Except, management by platitude and mandatory meetings is rarely successful. And a manager's actions speak louder than words. If I exhorted my IT team to "be engaged" at the same time as (for example) micro-managing them, I doubt it would do any good.
How about: Stop acting like you're smarter than your employees. Treat them like human beings. Stop managing by platitude.
It is uncomfortable to disagree with HR. Generally, at BigCorp IT, we do not talk about the HR buzzwords-of-the-day because we don't want to demoralize our employees. Is this us being "disengaged?"
Two things:
A message for BigCorp bosses everywhere: you want engagement? You want employees to stop rolling their eyes when you talk? You want voluntary extra effort? Stop treating us like kindergartners and start trusting us. Start being straight with us. Stop telling us part of the story. Start giving us details without super-careful press-release type language. Stop the complicated consultant-speak. Start talking in language that shows that you're not trying to impress anybody.
Most of all, if you want us to feel like we are the most important asset of the company, show us. Don't tell us.
Apply now for the 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100, which recognizes the most innovative users of technology to advance a company's business goals. Winners will be recognized at the InformationWeek Conference, April 27-28, 2015, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Application period ends Jan. 16, 2015.]]>
Click here to view Figure 1.
A few years ago, if you needed an inexpensive gadget to round out your holiday shopping, you'd grab an iPod Nano or some other portable media player. Nowadays, for about the same price, you can get a tablet, laptop, or two-in-one device running Windows 8.1. These new devices have their limitations, but compared to yesteryear, $150 to $200 gets you a lot of computer.
When Black Friday hits this week, some of these new devices will cost less than $100, putting Windows devices in impulse-buy territory for the first time. Even if you miss out on the best deals, several new models are still available for less than $200.
The least expensive of these new Windows machines are pretty utilitarian. They don't have the brightest or crispest screens. Nor do they have the most processing power, the highest resolution webcams, the most onboard storage, or the most RAM, compared with higher-priced laptops and tablets. That's because many of these devices are essentially scraped-together, low-end components that satisfy Windows 8.1's new minimum hardware requirements. Can they run demanding programs such as Adobe After Effects? Technically, yes. But with only 1 GB of RAM and processors designed for energy efficiency and low cost instead of power, these devices aren't ideally suited to the job.
Still, many are an intriguing value, offering impressive power for the money if all you need is Internet access, Skype, Netflix, and a core set of Windows applications. In fact, most include a free one-year subscription to Office 365, or in some cases a standalone copy of Office. This means that if you were already planning to shell out $70 for a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, you can get the software and a new tablet for as little as $30 more. Not bad.
Not crazy about Windows 8.1's tile interface? Windows 10 is just around the corner. By upgrading your new Windows 8.1 device to Windows 10 you won't have to deal with Start menu withdrawal for long. There's even a good chance the upgrade will be free, given that Microsoft wants to move both Windows 7 and 8 users to Windows 10. In the meantime, Windows 8.1 is not as bad as its reputation -- if you take the time to tune your system's settings.
Why the sudden windfall of cheap Windows tablets and laptops? You can thank Apple and Google. iPads and Android devices dominate the tablet market. Google Chromebooks, popular because they offer productivity apps and web browsing on the cheap, are eating into the low-end PC market. Microsoft needs more users, and quickly, if Windows is going to have a chance on mobile devices; and if you need sales in a hurry, aggressive pricing is a good tactic.
To make these new, inexpensive Windows devices happen, Microsoft eliminated or reduced license fees for several consumer versions of Windows 8.1 while also relaxing the operating system's hardware requirements. These moves decreased costs for manufacturers and incentivized them to fill the market with inexpensive Windows tablets, laptops, and two-in-ones.
The strategy seems to be working. In October, as many of these new Windows devices hit the market, Windows 8.1 enjoyed by far its biggest monthly market share gain this year.
It remains to be seen whether the cheaper Windows devices eventually will translate into Windows 10 sales for Microsoft. Neither do we know whether the cheapest of the new devices -- which skimp the most on hardware -- will live up to buyers' expectations. What's certain is that Microsoft's new strategy gives consumers more options than ever, and could help mobile devices running Windows end up under more Christmas trees this year.
Check out our gallery to see 10 of the least expensive tablets and laptops available on Black Friday. All of them run Windows 8.1 except one, the Microsoft Surface 2 tablet. It uses the less-capable Windows RT operating system, but we include it because of its irresistible Black Friday price drop.
One final word: As has become the norm over the last few years, Black Friday for many outlets will start Thursday evening at 8:00 p.m. local time and end when supplies run out. So if you have your heart set on one of these super-affordable Windows 8.1 machines, you'd better head to the store soon after eating your Thanksgiving turkey, much as you might prefer tryptophan-fueled slumber.]]>
T-Mobile bills itself as the "uncarrier," and claims that "other wireless carriers just can't let go of their lame rules."
But according to the Federal Communications Commision, T-Mobile has been unclear about the way it allows its network speed to be measured.
The FCC on Monday said that T-Mobile has agreed to make sure that customers using its network receive accurate disclosures about the way speed testing applications assess its network.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, at the center of the agency's contentious net neutrality rulemaking, characterized the deal as part of the agency's commitment to broadband provider transparency. "Consumers need this information to fully understand what they are getting with their broadband service," he said in a statement.
[Will the FAA require drone operators to be licensed? Read Drones Fitted For Regulatory Collar.]
Since June, T-Mobile has misled consumers by making certain speed tests inaccurate. The carrier provides various data plans that include a set amount of high-speed 4G LTE data. If customers use their allotment of high-speed data, their network speed for the remainder of the billing cycle gets reduced, to 2G speeds -- 128 kbps or 64 kbps, as specified in the service plan.
Yet if customers who have been routed to the slow lane test their network speeds using crowdsourced speed tests such as Ookla or the FCC's own Speed Test app, the tests show results from T-Mobile's fast lane.
Click here to view Figure 1.
Advocacy group Public Knowledge sent a letter to T-Mobile in August stating its intent to file a complaint with the FCC regarding "T-Mobile's decision to exempt speed testing services from its practice of throttling the connections of subscribers who exceed their data cap."
In a letter to Chairman Wheeler, Andrew W. Levin, T-Mobile's SVP of government affairs, explains that the company makes its network appear fast all the time because allowing measurements of its network when customers have exceeded their 4G data allotment could present inaccurate information to those trying to compare network speeds at different mobile carriers and could help its competitors.
"Specifically, including information from data run at intentionally limited speeds would provide an inaccurate picture of network performance -- it would suggest that T-Mobile's network was only capable of running at 2G speeds for those customers at the time the test was conducted, rather than indicating that the user was choosing to rely on unlimited 2G speeds rather than purchasing additional 4G LTE data," Levin wrote.
Levin argues that allowing its speed test results to be dragged down by the inclusion of 2G speeds would punish T-Mobile for offering an alternative to what its competitors do -- cutting off customers who exceed their data allotments or charging them extra.
A company spokesperson was unable to provide information about the number of days during any given billing cycle that the average T-Mobile customer experiences 2G speeds.
As a result of its agreement with the FTC, T-Mobile will notify its customers that it is presenting a selective view of its network speed in its data plan overage messages.
Apply now for the 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100, which recognizes the most innovative users of technology to advance a company's business goals. Winners will be recognized at the InformationWeek Conference, April 27-28, 2015, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Application period ends Jan. 16, 2015.]]>
Apple and Google put forth their best efforts this fall with the iPhone 6 Plus and Nexus 6. These oversized handsets are chock full of features that consumers and mobile professionals alike will enjoy. After spending a month using each phone, I found clear differences in both hardware and software that are worth pointing out. Let's take a deep dive into what sets these two behemoths apart.
The iPhone 6 Plus and Nexus 6 are both large smartphones. The Nexus 6 is slightly wider, but the two are otherwise comparable in terms of height and thickness. Due to their size, they often require both hands to operate comfortably. Apple and Motorola (which made the Nexus 6 for Google) did a great job with materials and the quality of manufacturing. Winner: Tie
The Nexus 6 has a bigger, more pixel-rich screen. While the 6 Plus's screen looks fantastic, the Nexus 6's display is sharper and more colorful. Apple's screen is somewhat brighter. Winner: Nexus 6, by an eyelash.
[Meanwhile, the pressure's on at Samsung. Read Samsung Galaxy S5 Sales Tank, CEO In Glare.]
The 6 Plus has an 8-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, while the Nexus 6 has a 13-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash. Despite its higher pixel count, the camera on the Nexus 6 doesn't compete well with that of other flagship devices. The iPhone 6 Plus's camera, on the other hand, is one of the best available, boasting incredible clarity and exposure capabilities. Winner: iPhone 6 Plus by a wide margin.
Storage is an interesting story. The iPhone 6 Plus comes in 16-GB, 64-GB, and 128-GB models, while the Nexus 6 comes with either 32 or 64 GB. Google charges $649 for the 32-GB Nexus 6, which is the same price Apple charges for the 16-GB iPhone 6 Plus. Google wants $699 for the 64-GB model, and Apple wants $749 for the 64-GB model. Neither device supports expandable storage, though cloud storage is available to both. Winner: Tie.
Click here to view Figure 1.
Battery life has come a long way. Despite their monstrous screens, both the iPhone 6 Plus and Nexus 6 manage to deliver a full day of usable battery life. That means I was able to consistently use each phone from 8:00 a.m. to midnight with no trouble. That said, the 6 Plus tends to last several hours longer than the Nexus 6, which could make all the difference in the world when you're nowhere near a charger. Winner: iPhone 6 Plus.
Android 5.0 Lollipop and iOS 8 are similar, yet vastly different. Each includes a core set of apps, such as messaging, email, media, productivity, video, and more. Users can manage notifications, reach controls quickly, and manage their apps with various tools. In my experience over the past two months, iOS 8 is much more stable than Android 5.0 Lollipop, though Apple has pushed out several updates to its mobile platform since it was released in late September. Google hasn't yet delivered an initial stability/bug fix update to the Nexus 6.
Click here to view Figure 2.
Android is much more flexible than iOS 8, though, and it offers a much greater degree of customization. Lollipop has a punchy new design that's attractive and modern -- more so than iOS 8. Further, Android integrates with Google's online services seamlessly in a way Apple has yet to be able to replicate with iOS and iCloud. Winner: Nexus 6.
Productivity is essential for mobile professionals. Android and iOS both offer productivity suites that work on their devices as well as online. Creating and editing documents on smartphones is a clunky process no matter which of these platforms you pick, but I think Google and the Nexus 6 have at least a small advantage.
Google Drive, its tool for managing cloud-based documents, works really well both online and on the device. Users must download separate apps to actually interact with those documents, but these apps are light on their feet and don't take up too much room on the Nexus 6. For example, Docs (for editing Google Drive documents) is about 90 MB. In contrast, Pages (for editing documents on iPhones/iPads) weighs in at 346 MB -- that's nearly four times larger, just for the app itself, not to mention the files. It's only fair to point out that Google Drive is available to the iPhone 6 Plus too, but it works more seamlessly on the Nexus 6. Winner: Nexus 6.
If you have to pick one big phone this year, you can't go wrong with either the Apple iPhone 6 Plus or the Google Nexus 6. Each does at least a few things better than its rival, but the choice should ultimately come down to your preference of platform: Are you an Apple person or a Google person?
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Google introduced two new security features this week for Google Apps users to help them monitor their accounts for suspicious activity. The updates -- a Devices and Activity dashboard and a security wizard -- give Google for Work users more transparency into and control over their settings, said Eran Feigenbaum, director of security for Google at Work.
"As an IT manager, we realize you spend a lot of time managing devices, applications, and security settings for everyone at your organization," Feigenbaum said in a blog post. "By making users more aware of their security settings and the activity on their devices, we can work together to stay a step ahead of any bad guys."
Google's new Devices and Activity dashboard, which any Google Apps user can access, displays the devices that have been active on your account in the last 28 days, or ones that are currently signed in. This might include laptops, mobile devices, and tablets, for example.
Click on a device to see your last activity on it, including the last date, time, and location that it connected to Google, as well as details such as the browser used to access your account.
Click here to view Figure 1.
[Take advantage of Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and more. See 10 Great Google Apps Tips.]
If you have apps that automatically sync with Google, you'll also see the last time they synced. If you notice suspicious activity, such as an unfamiliar device or location, click the red Remove button to revoke access.
Google is also launching a security wizard feature for all Google for Work accounts, it said. The security wizard guides users through steps they can take to turn on or adjust security features, such as providing contact information for account recovery, reviewing recent account activity, and managing account permissions
After you review each section, Google will mark it with a green checkmark. The recent activity section, for example, will give you additional information from what the Devices and Activity dashboard shows you, including the number of times a device was signed in and the IP address that accessed your account. You can also access information older than 30 days by clicking the Recent Activity link at the bottom.
Click here to view Figure 2.
Much like the Facebook Apps that you grant access to your account and information, Google's account permissions page is worth a look, too. You'll find a rundown of all the applications that are connected to your Google account, plus details on the information they can access. If you're unfamiliar with any -- or no longer use them -- click the Remove button to revoke access.
Google's Feigenbaum said the security wizard tool prioritizes all admin settings for security features that end users are permitted to turn on. Users can access both it and the Devices and Activity dashboard today.
Employers see a talent shortage. Job hunters see a broken hiring process. In the rush to complete projects, the industry risks rushing to an IT talent failure. Get the Talent Shortage Debate issue of InformationWeek today.]]>
The Open Compute Project has taken strides forward with its Networking Project, including a data center network fabric, installed by Facebook at its newest data center, which will be contributed to the project.
The Altoona, Iowa, data center opened Nov. 14 and is the first Facebook facility to include a 40-Gbps Ethernet network fabric that links every pod, or set of 48 server racks, to every other pod in the data center. The fabric design gets away from the constraint of a server cluster being limited by the lack of bandwidth connecting it to other clusters.
"We challenged ourselves to make the entire data center building one high-performance network, instead of a hierarchically oversubscribed system of clusters," wrote Alexey Andreyev, Facebook network architect, in a blog post on the fabric.
[Take a look inside another Facebook data center. See Facebook's Futuristic Data Center: Inside Tour.]
That means Facebook has found a way to "disaggregate" what had been a few high-performance and vendor proprietary switches managing each cluster's traffic into smaller units spread throughout the data center. "Instead of the large devices and clusters, we broke the network up into small identical units -- server pods -- and created uniform high-performance connectivity between all pods."
And that means Facebook can extend high-performance networking throughout its data centers whenever it chooses. Its more modular networking approach is scalable beyond the limits of its previous cluster management switches.
Click here to view Figure 1.
In addition, Facebook has been enhancing its Wedge top-of-rack switch, whose specifications are part of the Networking Project, noted Najam Ahmad, VP of network engineering at Facebook, in an interview.
"We didn't have a top-of-rack design laid out initially. We spun up the Networking Project (a year ago) without having a design ready to go," he recalled.
Facebook, through the Open Compute Project, is trying to make basic components of data center hardware available through open source designs. "The primary job was to disaggregate the network appliance, most often a proprietary chip, operating system, and hardware built by one vendor," he said.
Among other things, Open Compute advocates are seeking to add a micro-server to a standard switch or other network hardware device through which it may be programmed and managed on a dynamic networking basis. That's a hardware idea that meshes with a software-defined network, with a network controller reaching out to such devices with sets of instructions.
Mellanox and Dell have produced Wedge-specified switches, he noted.
At the end of October, the Open Compute Project announced that it has achieved the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE), an open source and freely available way to boot up network switches, after testing them. There are already ways to boot switches, but they are either proprietary and billed with the purchase of products, or they are a published standard that's still accompanied by a fee.
ONIE, contributed by Cumulus Networks, "is one of the fundamental pieces that we've done and announced," said Ahmad.
Cumulus Networks produced ONIE as an open source boot loader for the switch. It does initial testing of the hardware, then can boot it up for operations with the software assigned to it. "It's like the BIOS on a compute server," noted Ahmad.
Our latest survey shows growing demand, fixed budgets, and good reason why resellers and vendors must fight to remain relevant. One thing's for sure: The data center is poised for a wild ride, and no one wants to be left behind. Get the Research: 2014 State Of The Data Center report today. (Free registration required.)]]>
It turns out her exit from government service was officially a retirement, though she did not head directly for the rocking chair. Instead, she has been building a consulting business: Muse Technologies, which is dedicated to helping other CIOs execute a strategy of IT transformation. She is also a valued thought leader columnist on government IT and CIO strategy for InformationWeek.
What she is doing is not unusual. Since federal employees can often retire in their mid-50s (depending on variables like years of government service), they often collect their retirement benefits and pivot quickly into consulting work or sales, trying to win business from former colleagues. For that matter, many CIOs in the private sector also "retire" and go on to other professional activities. Our feature Retired CIOs: 5 Rewarding Second Acts focused on those who have decided to actually retire -- including some who are not necessarily any older than Cureton.
[Laboring online: Tweets Tell Whether You Have A Job.]
Cureton, however, is much too busy to think of herself as retired in any way, shape, or form. "I figured I still had some life in me at 55," she says. "People work much longer than that, so for me, retirement was just a good point of reflection, an opportunity to take more risk and make more significant change."
An opportunity, certainly -- but definitely not an opportunity to relax. "I've been working 120-hour weeks, really." Even as a top executive of a government agency, she used to work with a lot of people who kept 9-to-5 hours. When they weren't on duty, tasks sometimes had to wait until the next day. Now, as she works to establish her own small business, there are no checks on how hard or how long she works. Over one recent weekend, she totaled five hours of sleep.
Having made a name for herself at NASA, Cureton hung up her shingle as an "IT transformation expert," though she concedes that phrase means "everything and nothing." She explains that every good CIO has a change agenda but also many obstacles to achieving it. She created a strategic framework to pursue change "in a more enduring and rapid way," folding strategic planning, enterprise architecture, leadership development, and team building into the package.
In government particularly, Cureton saw an unmet need for a brand of consulting that would be less high-level (and less expensive) than that offered by big consulting firms like McKinsey or Deloitte. Muse offers guidance on megatrends like cloud computing, boiling down what's real and what's not.
One frustration: "A lot of people talk about IT transformation, but they don't necessarily want to be transformed." Although government is the sector Cureton targeted first, she suspects that the bigger long-term possibility may be with businesses looking to transform themselves. "Maybe they're more able to be transformed."
Hard work though it may be, starting Muse was also a lifestyle choice. "I saw this as a chance to do exactly what I want -- do what I love to do, with people I love," Cureton says. Her husband, Douglas, also a retired federal executive, is her chief operating officer.
Building a business is hard work, but one measure of success will be whether she can make it into a going concern, one that will eventually be able to survive without her. In a decade, she will have reached the more traditional age for "real" retirement.
"Ten years sounds about like what it would be," she says. "I definitely have sitting on a beach in mind for about 10 years from now."
Find out how NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory addressed governance, risk, and compliance for its critical public cloud services. Get the new Cloud Governance At NASA issue of InformationWeek Government Tech Digest today (free registration required).]]>
If you're at the beginning of this process, be sure to check out our article 6 Ways to Create an Agile Culture, which outlines the steps we've taken to create an environment ripe for nimble software development.
But employee hiring, training, and integration are just parts of the Agile equation. How you engage with customers and execute on your Agile vision is what really sets you apart. Once you move a customer from a prospect to a signed client, the temptation is to jump right in to what was promised during the sales process. However, move too quickly, and you could be off and running in the wrong direction -- wasting technical resources, spurring unproductive development cycles, and frustrating the customer you worked so hard to land.
As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." In other words, it's all about the preparation -- particularly when it comes to the development of new products and services.
[DevOps and pit crews both rely on speedy teamwork, but that's not the only similarity. Read How DevOps Is Like A Formula 1 Pit Crew]
A study by McKinsey & Co. and the University of Oxford of 5,400 large-scale IT projects (with budgets greater than $15 million) revealed that 56% delivered less value than predicted. We believe it typically boils down to what you do (or don't do) before a strategic IT undertaking that will make or break the results.
When we kick off customer engagements (eNovance is an OpenStack integrator recently acquired by Red Hat), we've found that our contacts often thought the project was a straightforward IT infrastructure development. However, we knew the end result could be so much more -- dramatically changing the customer's business and future development efforts, if done correctly. So we decided to make a fundamental change in how we work with customers out of the gate.
The first step for our new customers is to partake in what we call an Assessment Workshop. Over the course of two days, we bring together all of the key stakeholders -- including those responsible for the customer's network, storage, computing, development, and operations, as well as the people who own the project from a business and technical perspective -- to ensure we have a common understanding of what's involved and where we're headed. The goal is to walk away with the information and buy-in needed to develop a cost-effective cloud architecture that's customized to a tee. To make that happen, we focus on five key activities:
1. Align the vision: An Agile development project built on unrealistic expectations will fail. It's critical to create cooperation among all of the players, with agreement on expected costs, timing, product performance, and functionality. Landing on a common understanding is critical, even if it requires several feedback loops.
2. Build a deep understanding of the technical and business requirements: Technical roadblocks can quickly derail a project, adding months to development time. Remember to identify current customer resources and expertise, as you don't want to reinvent the wheel, but you also don't want to be caught off guard by a lack of tools.
3. Identify and prioritize use cases: This sounds obvious but is often overlooked. All participants should share one to two product use cases
Alexis Monville is Chief Agility Officer of eNovance (now part of Red Hat), a major contributor to the Openstack code and an active player in the open cloud ecosystem. Alexis is charged with creating and nurturing an agile culture that pervades the whole organization.
with the group and then prioritize the top four to five overall on which the development team will focus for the first milestone.
4. Produce a 360-degree project roadmap and schedule: While adaptations during development are inevitable, it's important to start with a roadmap and milestones. This will help team members from the client side stick to their commitments in order to meet our two-week delivery or "sprint" pace.
5. Develop a plan for testing and benchmarking: With all eyes focused on deployment, it can be very tempting to rush product testing, particularly if you're behind schedule. You've put in all of the hard work upfront, so don't hinder the overall success of the project by taking shortcuts at the finish line. Remember: It's much easier to address technical issues in the testing phase rather than in full production.
Regardless of the type of customer, industry, or technology being developed, our workshops have six non-negotiable rules:
The hard work you put in at the beginning of a customer engagement will help you meet customers' needs with minimal cost and time. Picture Abraham Lincoln sharpening the blade. Preparation is everything in Agile development and will help clear a path to a fruitful long-term customer relationship.
Apply now for the 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100, which recognizes the most innovative users of technology to advance a company's business goals. Winners will be recognized at the InformationWeek Conference, April 27-28, 2015, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Application period ends Jan. 16, 2015.
Alexis Monville is Chief Agility Officer of eNovance (now part of Red Hat), a major contributor to the Openstack code and an active player in the open cloud ecosystem. Alexis is charged with creating and nurturing an agile culture that pervades the whole organization.]]>
Tennessee-based Community Health Systems (CHS) disclosed in its Form 8-K SEC filing in August that its computer network had been hacked at least twice in April and June of 2014 through criminal cyber attacks originating from China. All healthcare organizations can learn from one health system's breach.
CHS -- which owns, operates, and leases 206 hospitals across 29 different states -- confirmed that these hacking incidents resulted in the theft of non-medical, patient-identifying information of 4.5 million individuals who had, in the last five years, been referred to or received services from physicians affiliated with CHS. This information included patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers, and social security numbers.
[More lessons learned: Inside A HIPAA Breach.]
Although CHS portrays the attacks as incidents in which hackers used highly sophisticated malware and technology to attack its system -- and were thereby able to bypass its security measures to access the personal data of millions of patients -- sources closer to the investigation have described a different scenario. According to these sources, CHS's system was hacked through a test server that was never intended to be connected to the Internet at all. Because Internet connectivity was not contemplated, the security features that would -- and should -- be deployed in a live production server were not installed on the test server.
Unfortunately, sensitive VPN credentials were stored in the memory of the test server so, when it did become connected to the Internet, hackers were able to access the test server via the Heartbleed bug and obtain those VPN credentials. Hackers then used these credentials to access CHS's system and steal millions of patients' personal information. In a sense, it was as though CHS left the lights on and a note on the door, saying, "Hey, come on in. The key is under the doormat!"
Utterly voidable
In these days of seemingly daily reports of data breaches, the danger lies in the potential for complacency in those charged with overseeing the design, implementation, and maintenance of cyber-security measures to protect data that healthcare companies collect from their patients. In other words, those responsible for corporate leadership and governance in the area of cyber security will become passively resigned to the perceived "inevitability" of a data breach, instead of systematically -- and systemically -- reviewing and transforming the company's cultural approach to cyber security and risk management.
Click here to view Figure 1.
For example, in this case, if cyber security had been ingrained as a paramount priority in the development, maintenance, and security teams at CHS, a "test" server would never have been loaded with valuable VPN credentials without the corresponding cyber-security features to prevent unauthorized access in the event that the server was ever connected to the Internet. If this is in fact how the data breaches occurred, this was an utterly foreseeable occurrence that could have been easily anticipated and guarded against.
What can healthcare learn?
The healthcare industry has developed -- as it must -- policies, procedures, and redundancies to protect patients from mistakes made in a medical treatment context. The same approach should be taken to protect patients' personal identifying information. Healthcare organizations must conduct a thorough review of their cyber-security policies and procedures for their computer network and data systems from their initial development to their implementation, maintenance, and ultimately, retirement. They should then document these policies and procedures and bring in an independent third-party vendor to review them to identify any gaps or vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cyber criminals.
Having documented these cyber-security policies and procedures -- and closed any gaps or vulnerabilities identified by a thorough, independent review -- healthcare organizations should then monitor, on an ongoing basis, compliance by their employees and/or vendors with those documented policies and procedures. Incorporating cyber security as a core value in a healthcare organization's culture is essential to minimizing, if not altogether eliminating, the risk of a data breach that damages not only the healthcare organization, but the patients who have entrusted their personal information to its care.
How cloud, virtualization, mobility, and other network-altering trends impact security -- and the IT pros responsible for infrastructure protection. Get the Network Security Career Guide issue of Network Computing today.]]>
Click here to view Figure 1.
Thinking about buying your loved one of these hot fitness wearables? What you're really saying is, "You've really let yourself go." The not-so-secret truth about these sensor-based devices is that users will soon sense boredom as they log largely the same data and behavior patterns, day after day and week after week. It may take a week or it may take a month, but sooner or later, that fob or wristband is going to end up in a drawer. Not to rain on the wearables parade, but anybody with a tad of self-awareness knows when they've been sitting on their butt too long and when they've been eating too much.
At the other extreme are those (mostly youthful) sports enthusiasts and adventurers. But if you really love them, don't give them one of those sports and action cameras. That's just an invitation to injury. Before you know it they'll take up rock climbing or try a skateboard trick that will send them straight to the hospital.
Wish lists seem to get longer each year, but don't try to save money by buying no-name-brand copies of Bluetooth speakers or low-cost versions of high-demand toys such as drones or robots. What you're really saying is, "I don't care about you enough to buy the best." Then there are the electronics that will end up on a shelf and, later, a table at the next garage sale. Digital picture frames and docking devices are high on this list, obviated by smartphones, tablets, Bluetooth connectivity, and always-changing device-connection and charger standards.
What do some of these gift choices say about you? It could be that you have a callous disregard for other people's feelings, that you're a penny pincher, or that you failed to learn that sometimes it's best to buy fewer-but-better presents. If the high-quality drone or Bluetooth speaker is just too expensive, just say no rather than buying a cheap knockoff that will only disappoint.
Our best advice is to shop local when you can, buy quality, and don't spend too much time online or in malls stockpiling presents. Make do with gadgets that are more than adequate, and donate some of the bucks you save to charity. When you do replace and retire old electronics, sell them online or recycle them if they're no longer worth anything.
Read on for our advice on what presents not to buy, and we'll save your reputation as a sensitive spouse, a wise parent, and a good buddy.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, and do yourself a favor: Spend more time with family and friends than shopping carts this season.]]>
The talk of extinction, in my experience, usually imagines a "death of the dinosaurs"-type ending for internal IT organizations, with a sudden fatal event -- like the assumed, dinosaur-killing meteor -- rather than a gradual, Darwinian-like "survival of the fittest" decline.
Stop looking for the meteor
Yes, IT outsourcing was en vogue during the first decade of the 21st century, but it failed to be a catastrophic, meteor-like event for corporate IT. Outsourcing was merely the first wakeup call for corporate IT groups that failed to deliver against business expectations around cost, quality, and innovation (and many would argue that outsourcing deals have failed to deliver against these, too). It was a symptom, rather than a cause, of IT's potential extinction.
[IT leaders need to overcome the myths that keep hurting IT's reputation. Read 3 Myths That Could Spoil IT's Future]
More recently, cloud computing was touted as the "corporate IT killer." The cloud can hurt as well as help corporate IT organizations, but both private and public (and hybrid) cloud scenarios still play a critical role for internal IT. So far, we've seen that, despite all the scary talk about shadow IT, the cloud has been beneficial to internal IT teams overall. So another meteor scare passes corporate IT by.
Instead, look to the danger within
If one looks at the publicly available statistics related to the corporate IT organization's "market share" of internal IT, it's hard not to see the drop in IT-created infrastructure and services in favor of line-of-business-sourced (shadow IT) cloud services, or the use of personal devices and cloud services.
This decline in market share is often coupled with disenchantment with corporate IT groups that have failed to adapt to the changing expectations of employees and customers.
So the real danger was never the meteor hurtling toward the internal IT organization. Instead it was, and continues to be, IT's inability to change itself as its ecosystem changes around it. In fact, it would probably not be too cheeky to say that IT's inability to see the need for change is an even bigger obstacle than its inability to change -- as it can't get to the latter without the former.
Being 'lucky' hasn't helped
Many corporate IT organizations have somewhat luckily weathered the storm due to the corporate demand for, and dependence on, technology. So while IT has maintained corporate purpose and has delivered against a subset of the total IT needs, it has paid too little attention to the disconnect between internal IT supply and demand, and the corporate IT organization's growing irrelevance.
Returning to my Darwinian idea of "survival of the fittest," this is really about evolution, rather than extinction. Corporate IT organizations should look past the first and scariest word in that phrase, "survival," to see the last word, "fittest." Why? Because the real need is not to focus on the avoidance of extinction but to undergo an evolution that will prevent immediate extinction and ensure long-term survival through "fitness for purpose."
Survival of the fittest-for-purpose
Corporate IT organizations in general are still viewed as the people who slow down business opportunity and change and say "no" far more than "yes."
Too many corporate IT organizations haven't evolved along with their ecosystem and, in my opinion, much of the necessary change starts with an evolution in thinking and purpose. For me, the following points are the required foundation to stop the gradual erosion, and ultimate extinction, of the corporate IT organization as we know it today.
1. Realize that corporate IT no longer has a monopoly over the technology used in the workplace (from personal use to SaaS applications and cloud service providers to outsourced services).
2. Understand that they no longer have the corporate status and power they had in the 1990s, and that they should stop acting like it's still 1999.
3. Consider whether their "no" responses are now heard as "Please find a third party to provide the technology you need."
4. Realize that employee and customer expectations have changed forever. Call it consumerization or something else, but the corporate IT game has to be upped considerably across services and apps, devices, speed of change, support, and business understanding.
5. Flip IT's design and delivery thinking, so that it starts with the customer use case, instead of the technological capability.
Get the latest information to migrate your systems, services, and applications to the next level at Enterprise Connect. Cisco, Microsoft, Avaya, and Oracle will lead the keynote lineup, and thought leaders from enterprises and vendors will cover the full range of platforms, services, and applications that will simplify your migration to next-gen communications and collaboration systems. Register for Enterprise Connect with code DIWKWEB to save $100 off the early-bird rate. It happens in Orlando, Fla., March 16 to 19.]]>
When the Federal Aviation Administration finally proposes rules for commercial drones, the agency is expected to require that drone operators be licensed.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the agency's rulemaking process, The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that the agency's forthcoming proposed rules, anticipated by the end of the year, will require certifications for operators of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
In addition, the rules are said to limit commercial UAS flights to daylight hours, to altitudes below 400 feet, and to an area within the pilot's line of sight. So much for the dream of a drone-based delivery service from Amazon.com. What's more, the rules are said not to address the privacy implications of drones.
Current FAA rules ban commercial drone flights, except for those who have obtained specific exemptions. In June, the agency authorized the first commercial UAS flight over US territory, an AeroVironment Puma AE drone that conducted aerial surveys in Alaska for energy company BP. In September, the FAA granted a waiver allowing six Hollywood production companies to fly drones for aerial cinematography.
[Is the long wait for service people over? Read Comcast App Lets Customers Track Service Techs.]
The proposed rules are not expected to affect hobbyists, who are exempt from FAA regulations but are advised to follow the agency's model aircraft guidelines.
Mark E. McKinnon, a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge, said in a phone interview that what separates hobbyists from commercial drone operators is intent. He said the specific requirements of the UAS pilot certification are not clear from The Wall Street Journal's report, noting that while ground school and airspace knowledge will be important to commercial UAS pilots, knowing how to operate the controls of a private or commercial aircraft won't necessarily be helpful when piloting a drone.
Nonetheless, McKinnon considers the certification requirement sensible.
"Ultimately, having a pilot certification requirement is necessary because that's the way the FAA regulates safety in the national airspace," McKinnon said. "If you're an unsafe flyer, they can pull your certification. They're going to want some way, if someone does something dangerous, to ground that person."
Click here to view Figure 1.
McKinnon sees the rules as helpful to the commercial UAS industry. "The uncertainty has really been a drag on the way people have thought about what they're going to do," he said, though he acknowledged that the burden of compliance -- log keeping, maintenance requirements, and the like -- might prove too difficult for small startups to manage.
McKinnon doubts the FAA will be able to issue its proposal before the end of the year, due to the review time required by Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. After the proposed rules are issued, there will be a comment period. That means final rules won't be issued for another year or two.
Apply now for the 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100, which recognizes the most innovative users of technology to advance a company's business goals. Winners will be recognized at the InformationWeek Conference, April 27-28, 2015, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Application period ends Jan. 16, 2015.]]>
The nonprofit industry alliance DirectTrust hopes its voluntary accreditation and audit program, digital certificates, and relationship with the federal government will encourage more health information service providers (HISPs) to join its expanding program.
As part of healthcare's move to interoperability, starting Jan. 1, 2015, clinicians must use Direct electronic messaging, a process designed to replace faxes, for at least 10% of their referrals. Key to this messaging: directories that list how clinicians, health systems, pharmacies, and others in the healthcare ecosystem contact one another.
"Without the phone number, you can't send" referrals, said Dr. Charles Sawyer, chief health information officer for Geisinger Health System, an integrated health services organization that serves more than 2.6 million residents in 44 counties in central and northeastern Pennsylvania.
[What's the quickest path to interoperability? Read Healthcare Interoperability: Who's The Tortoise?]
But since the federal government did not mandate that HISPs interoperate, some are non-collaborative -- and that's where DirectTrust and its members come in.
Participants include Cerner, Athenahealth, Surescripts, San Diego Health Connect, Optum, Truven Health Analytics, and Siemens Medical Solutions. To date, DirectTrust serves more than 28,000 healthcare organizations and 450,000 individual users.
Surescripts, well known for its e-prescription and clinical messaging services, leveraged its provider knowledge to become a HISP, and it joined DirectTrust to promote adoption of standards and openness, Jeff Miller, general manager and executive vice president of clinical network services, explained in an interview. Surescripts saw an opportunity to broaden its clinical messaging product beyond medications. The company's clinical messaging service now provides hospitals and health systems with Direct authenticated, encrypted messaging, connectivity to the Surescripts network, and HISP capabilities.
Today more than 2,000 provider organizations and 23 health information exchanges (HIEs) and HISPs use Surescripts' service.
"Twenty percent of the US hospitals are connected to our network," said Miller, and the service reaches more than 300,000 clinicians. "Those other networks could be DirectTrust accredited networks or one of the 23 networks we maintain a network to network relationship with. A lot has been done, and a lot has to be done."
Valley Medical Center of Renton, Wash., joined Surescripts' HISP this year. "The ability to communicate easily and efficiently with our care partners ensures that all of our physicians and health care providers will be armed with the right information at the right time to make informed and collaborative care decisions," Robert Molina, MD, chief medical informatics officer, said in a press release.
Clients drive connections, he said, and Surescripts will connect with any HISP without charge, though the company hopes all HISPs eventually will become DirectTrust-accredited.
Dr. Seth Flam, CEO of HealthFusion, told InformationWeek that working with standards-focused associations will advance interoperability. "Surescripts is very committed to interoperability around this direct method of point-to-point email replacement, fax replacement. They have a really open-door, aggressive-in-a-good-way team trying to make all the connections they can."
Dr. David McCallie, senior vice president of medical informatics at Cerner, said Direct was a response to a need for secure email. Standards and interoperability should be the response to putting patients at the center of healthcare. "It really ought to be the patient that's at the center of the data flow. That ought to be sufficient for all the other systems and all the other providers to make it available. Sometimes providers are guilty of hiding behind HIPAA."
The owners of electronic health records aren't necessarily the patients. How much control should they have? Get the new Who Owns Patient Data? issue of InformationWeek Healthcare today.]]>
Following a quiet summer, LinkedIn ramped up activity this fall and rolled out a handful of new features and product redesigns.
Last month, the social network revamped its "Who's Viewed Your Profile" section with enhanced analytics to improve your network, profile, and job opportunities. It also launched new ways to manage your skills, endorsements, and recommendations.
Among those announcements are a handful of other lesser-known changes, including the ability to add certifications to your profile; blogging and Pulse app redesigns; a new tool to develop an infographic based on your work history; and LinkedIn WeChat integration.
Here's the lowdown on what's new.
Click here to view Figure 5.
[Ready to take your LinkedIn success to the next level? Read LinkedIn Tips: 10 Smart New Moves.]
1. LinkedIn Certifications adds credentials to your profile.
LinkedIn added a new section to profiles last week called Certifications, which lets you showcase professional certificates you've earned over the years. The company said that people who include certifications receive six times more views of their profile.
"It's more important than ever to make sure you stand out professionally in today's workforce, and our data suggests that adding certifications to your profile helps you attract opportunity," Dan Shapero, product manager at LinkedIn, said in a blog post. "With Add to Profile, professionals will get recognized and discovered based on the certifications that they've earned and knowledge gained."
Click here to view Figure 1.
You can add certifications to your profile in the Edit Profile view on LinkedIn. Find the option below the "Recommended for you" heading on the right side of the page. LinkedIn will ask for the certification name, certification authority, license number, and certification URL. You can also add dates.
2. LinkedIn redesigns its publishing platform.
LinkedIn launched its Influencers platform in 2012 for big-name businesspeople to share their career insights. It later extended this blogging platform to all users. In October, the company launched its first redesign of the feature.
Click here to view Figure 2.
The updated design lets you upload a cover photo, which the social network says makes readers 14 times more likely to click it. It also features updated formatting tools, such as a more prominent space for your headline, new subhead options, and a quicker way to upload photos and videos. LinkedIn also says that its updated WYSIWYG editor gives users a nearly identical idea of how posts will look when they're published.
3. "Professional Journey" visualizes your work history.
SlideShare, which LinkedIn acquired in 2012 for $119 million, added a feature last month that takes your LinkedIn profile information and turns it into an infographic that you can upload to SlideShare and share with other networks.
"SlideShare's new Professional Journey offers... a dynamic interactive look back at all that you've accomplished -- from your skills to where you were educated, from your years of experience to the types of positions you've held," LinkedIn senior project manager Arpit Dhariwal said in
Next Page
a blog post. "It's a memorable visual you can use as part of your professional branding -- whether you're happy where you are or starting to think about your next move."
Visit the Professional Journey tool to get started. You'll need to grant SlideShare access to your LinkedIn profile. It will then take you through a series of steps to customize your infographic and publish it.
4. LinkedIn updates Pulse app.
LinkedIn debuted its standalone Pulse app a year ago as an option for users to stay current on news from their network and discover content that people shared. In September, LinkedIn redesigned the app with a handful of new features, including enhanced navigation, analytics for the posts you've published, and easier share options.
Click here to view Figure 3.
Pulse is available for download on Android and iOS.
5. LinkedIn adds WeChat integration
LinkedIn added WeChat integration in September, a mobile messaging app especially popular outside the US. People who connect WeChat to LinkedIn can see which of their connections also use the app, the company said.
Click here to view Figure 4.
"With 67% of LinkedIn members located outside of the United States, LinkedIn has become a platform for professionals all over the world to connect and explore business and career opportunities across borders," Henry Li, product lead for LinkedIn China, said in a blog post.
To connect WeChat and LinkedIn, tap "Add Contacts" and then "Mobile & Other Contacts" from within the WeChat app. Then tap "Add LinkedIn Contacts." After you import your LinkedIn contacts, your WeChat friends will be able to access your LinkedIn profile from your WeChat profile, the company said.
Employers see a talent shortage. Job hunters see a broken hiring process. In the rush to complete projects, the industry risks rushing to an IT talent failure. Get the Talent Shortage Debate issue of InformationWeek today.]]>
The latest spate of arguments around net neutrality reveals that the blind partisanship and BS bias are escalating. The comic strip site The Oatmeal saying that net neutrality is about "freedom" is just as mindless as the infamous tweet by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) comparing net neutrality to Obamacare.
If we truly want broadband innovation, we need to start digging into the facts and opening ourselves to modern ways of doing things, instead of posturing and trying to squeeze today's Internet into a 1996 regulatory framework by classifying it as a Title II utility service. Let's review three facts:
Fact No. 1: Traffic management is a necessary evil.
Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, made some astute points in a column he wrote recently for InformationWeek, in which he argued that broadband shouldn't be treated like electricity or cable TV. "Some bits, like email bits, can handle high levels of latency," Atkinson wrote, "while others, like video telephony bits, can't." Exactly.
It's just about impossible to let folks be "free" with a non-free resource. Bandwidth costs capital investment money, as any network engineer will tell you. And basic economics tells us that demand for any desirable good or service approaches infinity as its price approaches zero.
[Worrying that technology will bring doom and destruction is nothing new. See 8 Doomsday Predictions From Yesterday And Today.]
If there's no traffic management, then the only way for an operator to keep up with Internet demand is to invest continuously in network equipment and physical plant. And at some point, those investments cease to make economic sense. Besides, being smart about traffic management, either as an enterprise network engineer or as a public network operator, creates a better experience for customers.
But the truth about traffic management is that it's hard and imperfect. And it will always upset someone, because the engineer or operator has to make judgment calls about which traffic streams need managing.
Traffic management isn't the same thing as anti-competitive behavior. Trying to regulate traffic management is like trying to pass a policy that regulates which types of conversations people may have in the workplace, and for how long. If we're trying to prevent (note that I didn't say "regulate") anti-competitive behavior, there are better, more modern ways to influence behavior. Let's start with data.
Fact No. 2: Data is only as accurate as interpretation.
Data influences behavior, but so does the way you present data. Various reports on Netflix download speeds have shown massive fluctuations, leading to an emotional outcry that the network operators must be intentionally throttling Netflix's traffic to force it into paying for speedier interconnects. But base values and long-term trends are where the facts are, and the findings there aren't nearly so upsetting or scandalous.
When your base values are only 1 and 2 Mbit/s, massive percentage changes are inevitable. The Washington Post's Wonkblog reports that Netflix-provided download speeds on Comcast dropped from around 2 Mbit/s to 1.5 Mbit/s between January and March 2013. That's (gasp) a 25% decrease.
But look at the graph below for Netflix-provided ISP download speeds for all of 2013 and 2014 year-to-date. I've highlighted some points on the graph via line thickness and dotted lines. (You can download the numbers for yourself here.)
Click here to view Figure 1.
The diamonds mark the times when Netflix started paying an ISP for enhanced transport. The triangles are when the provider is using Netflix's free Open Connect peering arrangement. Some context questions may pop into your mind:
I have another question for the net neutrality faithful: Why is it OK for Netflix to invest in its own Open Connect peering arrangement (that costs Netflix money but doesn't cost the ISPs) in order to increase performance, but it's not OK for the service providers to ask Netflix to make a different type of investment?
Data is useful and influences behavior. Netflix is right to publish these stats; they keep service providers in line. I guarantee you that it's trotting out this performance data to cable companies and telcos in negotiations. But the data scarcely warrants the type of hysteria that John Oliver, The Oatmeal, and others have generated.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was recently quoted as saying that his company is a supporter of net neutrality. I don't take his assertion literally. I take it as: "We know that lots of people are watching us." The world has changed; it's impossible for a giant telco or cable company to get away with
the shenanigans that they used to get away with when they're always under such intense public scrutiny. It's in their best interests to toe the line.
Fact No. 3: Old practices don't lead to new solutions.
The current telecom regulatory environment is almost 20 years old. When the canonical Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law, Bill Clinton was still in office, Netscape Navigator was just released, Pentium processors ran at 200 MHz, and Apple was a company in crisis.
It was a really long time ago.
Net neutrality supporters are champing at the bit to classify broadband as a "Title II" utility service, bringing the Internet back to a 1996 regulatory environment. Those telecom regulations were created for a very different time. The World Wide Web was still an academic curiosity. There were no social media. Most folks didn't even have email, much less constantly connected, powerful computers in their pockets. There was no open data or big data, and certainly no automated web pages that showed how Internet service providers were affecting download speeds.
Could Title II regulation harm our robust Internet economy? Absolutely. How?
"Right now, a group like ours doesn't have to deal with a lot of regulatory paperwork," says Bradley Cain, president of ERC Broadband, a small, not-for-profit broadband provider in western North Carolina. "It could put some providers out of business."
Cain recalls a time earlier in his career when he was in management at the highly regulated Verizon. "We had to report out on literally dozens of different metrics on a monthly basis," he says. "If we didn't hit certain numbers, we were fined." Verizon could afford those fines, but "a small group trying to be a competitive influence in the marketplace will not be able to survive the reporting, the potential fines, or the pressure."
My InformationWeek colleague Tom Claburn, in his column on net neutrality last week, writes that once the Title II reclassification goes though, he hopes that "such data retention requirements will not come to pass." But onerous data gathering, reporting, and retention requirements are exactly what this type of regulation requires. Regulation is about reporting requirements, trying to avert fines, and needing to hire lawyers and more administrators to deal with it all. Cain isn't optimistic that small providers can afford such regulatory requirements. Aren't those small providers the ones we want to encourage?
Instead of asking service providers to let the Internet be "free" and still somehow make enough money for necessary capital investments, let's look at what's working to prevent anti-competitive behavior, and let's do more of that. Above all, we must make sure that smaller providers don't get plowed over as we try to "level the playing field." The Netflix and Google (with YouTube) technique of publicizing ISP performance is a good start. The FCC should focus more on that type of thing, using modern measurement tools to prove anti-competitive behavior where it exists, instead of overly broad 1990s-style regulations and their onerous reporting requirements that choke small providers and reduce needed competition.
As we pull out of a difficult time in our nation's financial history, government agencies struggle to meet information technology demands. Agencies must focus on the cloud and a strong information governance program to avoid the sort of attention recently focused on the IRS. Get the Time To Reconsider Enterprise Email Strategy report from InformationWeek Government today (free registration required).]]>
Big-data products are generally targeted at large enterprises, and for good reason. They can be enormously expensive to initiate and operate, and therefore out of reach for the average startup or small business.
That's changing, but fledgling firms need to answer some hard questions before embarking on a data-driven strategy. These include: Do I need a big data system? And what insights do I hope to gain from it?
At last week's Techweek conference in Santa Monica, Calif., a two-day event connecting tech entrepreneurs with investors, Sean Anderson, manager of data services at cloud computing company Rackspace, offered some solid advice in his talk, "How Startups Can Leverage Big Data." Anderson's talk covered a wide range of data-related topics, but we've distilled a few takeaway points for companies debating the merits of a big-data initiative.
1. Explore the three Vs, and don't forget C.
Big data is often defined by the three Vs: volume, velocity, and variety. Anderson recommends adding a fourth letter to the formula: C, for complexity.
Volume, of course, refers to the sheer capacity of data. If the volume of information you're putting into your database or data store is breaking the system, it's a good time to explore a big-data technology. The same wisdom applies to the velocity of incoming data, a growing concern in the era of near-real-time analytics. As for variety, your database should allow you to query multiple data types, including unstructured data such as audio, video, and email text.
[It's time to make your gift-giving list. See 10 Smart Tech Toys For Kids.]
"There are plenty of legacy technologies that can scan and analyze text very, very easily," said Anderson. "But as time goes on... the types of file formats and the things we're trying to analyze and process get increasingly more complex."
That's where complexity comes into play.
"The things we're trying to stick into a database are changing," Anderson said. In this age of social engagement and content sharing, "we want to start understanding and getting insights from stuff that's not just text."
Click here to view Figure 1.
2. Volume is overrated.
Startups mustn't assume that big-data technologies are the exclusive domain of enterprises wrestling with petabytes or exabytes of data.
"The reality is, when [we] talk to enterprise customers -- Fortune 100 customers that are starting their big-data initiatives -- they don't have petabytes of information. Some of them don't have terabytes of information. Some are just trying to get good, reliable insights from gigabytes of information."
Takeaway: Don't use volume as the only factor when deciding if big data technology is right for your company.
3. Big data is hard.
The big data landscape is "changing at a feverish pace," said Anderson. He cited a recent Gartner survey that showed, while 73% of enterprise respondents have invested or plan to invest in big data in the next two years, these investments haven't led to an associated boost in organizations reporting deployed big-data projects. In fact, just 13% of respondents reported having "big data projects deployed to production." That's a notable increase from 8% a year earlier, but it also suggests that much of today's big-data work involves pilot programs, strategy development, and experimental projects, according to Gartner.
Takeaway: It's difficult for the smartest organizations, including startups, to keep up with the latest big-data innovations.
4. If it ain't broke...
Maybe you don't need a big-data initiative at all. If your current database system handles all of your data needs today and in the foreseeable future, why fix what doesn't need fixing?
"We... would be remiss to go to any of you with systems that are functioning properly and tell you to deploy a big-data solution," said Anderson. "It's disruptive to your business, and it may not be the thing that you need."
He added: "There are some great stories out there of companies that spent months evaluating big-data technologies, only to find out that their current technology... does everything they need."
Just 30% of respondents to our new Big Data and Analytics Survey say their companies are very or extremely effective at identifying critical data and analyzing it to make decisions, down from 42% in 2013. What gives? Get the The Trouble With Big Data issue of InformationWeek Tech Digest today. (Free registration required.)]]>
When US Postal Service (USPS) officials received word about a major network intrusion earlier this year, one of its first instructions was to take no immediate action.
In an effort to prevent the intruders from knowing they had been discovered, the postal service's Office of the Inspector General advised the USPS's corporate information security officer Charles McGann not to initiate any mitigation measures. That included such actions as network scanning, reimaging systems, resetting passwords, taking systems offline, or searching for IP addresses.
Instead, for several weeks investigators from the postal service, the US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), and the FBI Service worked quietly to determine the scope and nature of the intrusion before finally shutting it down almost two months later.
[What should you keep to yourself about a hack? Read NOAA Blames China In Hack, Breaks Disclosure Rules.]
Randy Miskanic, VP of the secure digital solutions group at the postal service, outlined details of the high-stakes cat-and-mouse game to a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this week.
"From the technical perspective, experts within the Postal Service and from supporting agencies provided prudent warnings that short-term remediation efforts would be seriously compromised if the threat actor became aware that the intrusion had been discovered," Miskanic said in written testimony.
"If provided advance warning of network actions intended to expel and block the intruder from the Postal Service network, the adversary could take bolder steps to further infiltrate or sabotage systems," he added. The potential of greater damage or sabotage heavily influenced the postal service's decision to delay notification and public disclosure of the breach.
Click here to view Figure 1.
It's unclear if Miskanic's explanation will help assuage criticism that has been directed at the USPS over its handling of a breach that exposed data on some 800,000 employees and 2.9 million customers. But his testimony provides a glimpse into the struggles that organizations face dealing with an intrusion by a sophisticated adversary.
According to Miskanic, the US Postal Service first learned of a potential intrusion on Sept. 11, after being alerted to it by the Inspector General's office.
Over the next several days, members of the investigative team quietly installed monitoring devices and performed forensic imaging on the four servers that were initially believed to be the only affected systems. They later configured and installed what Miskanic described as the "technical architecture and tools" necessary to understand the full scope of the breach.
That effort revealed another 29 servers and three Postal Service user accounts that had been compromised. Because of the broadening scope of the incident, the Postal Service then decided to seek the help of the US Department of Defense's Cyber Crime Center.
It wasn't until October 7, nearly a month after being first alerted to the intrusion, that investigators found signs that a large encrypted data file had been copied from one of the compromised systems and transferred to an external system.
It took another several days for investigators to determine that the file potentially contained personally identifiable information on all postal service employees, as well as recent retirees. Around this time, the postal service finally decided to bring in private sector experts in intrusion detection and remediation to assist in the effort to shut down the breach.
Around mid-October, postal services CIO James Cochrane decided to invoke the Mass Data Compromise Response Plan and set up a formal incident response center for coordinating investigation, mitigation, and incident communication activities. Also in mid-October, the FBI's cyber unit provided a Top Secret briefing to command center leadership, again emphasizing the sophisticated nature of the adversary and the need for operational secrecy, Miskanic said.
The FBI also warned that "implementing mitigation activities or communicating the threat to employees or the public at that point could result in the threat being further embedded into the Postal Service network," he said.
On November 7, Cochrane's organization finally activated a remediation plan, developed in conjunction with US-CERT and private firms, to remove the threat.
The operation required a "network brownout" that limited the US Postal Service' Internet connectivity, virtual private network (VPN) connections, and remote network access, Miskanic said. All email from non-postal accounts was blocked and workstation administrator rights were revoked during the brownout. To mitigate the risk of spear-phishing attacks, all access to personal email accounts such as Gmail and Yahoo was also blocked, and continues to be blocked, according to Miskanic.
"Direct database access is now enabled only to technology support staff, and a number of business applications have been retired," he noted, adding that the safeguards will be periodically reviewed and updated if needed.
Without knowing the exact causes, it is difficult to speculate on why the USPS's initial response was to allow the attack to continue, said John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute. "In order to be prepared to respond rapidly and effectively to an incident, you need to have some processes and controls in place," he said in an email to InformationWeek.
Pescatore also recommended that organizations need to have a baseline, or a known good state that they can revert back to quickly in an emergency. "[It] sounds like some or all of that was missing with USPS, or they were depending on contractor services that couldn't start right away."
Considering how prevalent third-party attacks are, we need to ask hard questions about how partners and suppliers are safeguarding systems and data. In the Partners' Role In Perimeter Security report, we'll discuss concrete strategies such as setting standards that third-party providers must meet to keep getting your business, conducting in-depth risk assessments -- and ensuring that your network has controls in place to protect data in case these defenses fail. (Free registration required.)]]>


text:
Utah Jazz instant analysis: Jazz beaten down by urgent Lakers
Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press
No NBA story has been more publicized this year than the Los Angeles Lakers' surprising struggles after a monstrous offseason. The visiting Utah Jazz, who have had their own struggles on the road, served as a welcome sight for L.A. on Friday, as the Lakers scored an easy 102-84 win.
Entering the game with a 17-25 record (good for 12th in the Western Conference), the Lakers assumed the persona of a driven team with a desperate urgency to get back on track. Conversely, the Jazz, winners of four consecutive games, played the part of a tentative team. The end result was a Los Angeles victory running away.
Lakers Stars Starring: Much of the offseason hype naturally centered on the transactions that brought Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to the bright lights of Los Angeles. Coupled with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, the Lakers were set to sport a lineup of four likely Hall of Famers.
Fast forward to the present, and much of the media's focus up until now has centered on how the stars have not meshed as well as many predicted. On Friday night, however, things clicked.
Bryant decided to become the facilitator for the Lakers, shooting only 10 shots — he averages 22.1 attempts a night — while doling out 14 assists. He also added nine rebounds and three steals to his 14-point game. Time and time again, Bryant was able to make the right pass that helped nip any Utah run in the bud.
Howard was dominant defensively, holding Utah's Al Jefferson to 5-for-14 shooting. Howard snared 13 rebounds and, thanks to a bevy of easy dunks, registered 17 in the scoring column.
Gasol, the subject of many trade rumors, only saw 25 minutes but made the most of them. He was very active offensively, going 7 of 8 from the floor en route to 15 points and seven rebounds.
And lastly, Nash was smooth in putting up 15 points. One of the game's most prolific passers, Nash only had two assists. But on this night, it mattered little.
Odds and ends:
• Utah's veteran point guard duo, Jamaal Tinsley and Earl Watson, were ice cold on offense, combining to go just 4 of 17 from the field.
• Some of the things that have been going so well for the Jazz — assisted baskets and 3-point shooting — were noticeably absent Friday. Utah had just 16 assists (compared to 34 field goals) and connected on just 3 of 14 from downtown.
• The Lakers outrebounded the Jazz 45-30.
David Smith provides instant analysis for Deseret News' Utah Jazz coverage. He works for LDS Philanthropies and also blogs for the Utah Jazz 360 website. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or on Twitter at davidjsmith1232.
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