Tag: Security

BYOA and the Enterprise Application Portal: Create Your Own Internal Company Storefront

by , posted in Network
Joel Stradling
Joel Stradling

Summary Bullets:

  • The concept of ‘consumerization of IT’ is sure to evolve naturally in your organization, as employees want to use applications of their own choosing.
  • Some policy control is essential, and a sanctioned company app store is a good idea.
  • Companies such as Intel give employees an official app store, but users can also freely consume ‘unofficial’ apps from outside this domain.

First, the Chief Information Officer had to deal with the complexities that BYOD brought up; now, there is an increasing momentum to BYOA – in other words ’bring your own application.’  Extending beyond this is the concept of an open storefront for appliances, computing power, storage, OS, databases and so on – in other words, all IT.  Service providers are on board, as evidenced by the launches of several online store initiatives: Interoute launched CloudStore, offering applications, appliances, professional services and more; Belgacom offers Becloud; KPN offers a cloud store; and Orange’s VPN Galerie offers access to many apps developed both by Orange and by independent ISVs.  It is fair to say that the concept is already mature for the SME market place, with Belgacom’s Becloud offerings tailored for the mass SME segment but with more sophistication for larger companies.  Similarly, KPN’s Open Cloud Store gives its reseller partners (ISPs, SIs and other telcos) the opportunity to sell, provision and support cloud services to the diverse Dutch SME market. Continue reading “BYOA and the Enterprise Application Portal: Create Your Own Internal Company Storefront” →

When Worlds Collide: Augmented Reality Meets the Enterprise

by , posted in Communicate
Brad Shimmin
Brad Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

  • Microsoft, Google, Apple, Sony and other manufacturers are actively building wearable computers that will supposedly usher in the next step in human-computer interaction.
  • Ready or not, when these reality augmenting devices will find their way into the enterprise, IT will have to deal not just with new hardware but more importantly with potentially litigious challenges in “human-human interaction.”

Yesterday the rumor mill began citing some rather convincing evidence that Microsoft was readying a new smart watch. That’s right, your shiny new tablet and smartphone are about to become history. The future of the human-computer interface isn’t fingers tapping on glass. As Google’s Sergey Brin showed us at the last Google IO conference, the sky is quite literally the limit when it comes to redefining how we interact with one another through the medium of technology. And they’re not alone. Sony has been working on a wearable computer (the Nextep) for some time now. Samsung and LG have as yet undisclosed projects in the works, and Apple has patented (no surprise there) a wearable computer with a curved screen. Continue reading “When Worlds Collide: Augmented Reality Meets the Enterprise” →

The Bamital Botnet Bust Takes an Interesting Turn

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Secure
Amy Larsen DeCarlo
Amy Larsen DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

  • Microsoft and Symantec disclosed that they have successfully (they believe) shut down the Bamital botnet, which was netting at least $1 million a year for the perpetrators.
  • The companies went beyond the usual legal and technical responses, employing the botnet’s own mechanisms to inform targeted users that their systems had been infected to carry out so-called ‘click fraud.’

Where there is a will, there always seems to be a way when it comes to hackers using new techniques and variations on old methods to breach systems for their own gain.  This is what makes the IT security discipline as relentlessly frustrating as it is endlessly challenging.  No matter how innovative IT security technologies become and practices evolve, determined cybercriminals seem to be finding new ways to penetrate even the best enterprise defenses.  Continue reading “The Bamital Botnet Bust Takes an Interesting Turn” →

SAP Takes on IBM in 2013 with Simplified Enterprise Mobile Solution

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Mobilize
Charlotte Dunlap
Charlotte Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

  • SAP’s rebranded SAP Mobile Platform integrates Sybase SUP, Syclo Agentry, and eventually all of Mobiliser
  • SAP’s go-to-market strategy is based on simplified MEAP, channel support, continued third-party development tool support

Following a whirlwind year in which SAP appeared to spend all its marketing dollars on its SAP HANA database product, SAP’s mobile platform news will be finally coming out of the shadows. Following the acquisition of Syclo early last year, the company has aggressive integration plans in 2013 aimed at simplifying and strengthening its mobile portfolio and insuring it stays on the radar of core competitors including IBM, Antenna, and eventually Oracle.  Continue reading “SAP Takes on IBM in 2013 with Simplified Enterprise Mobile Solution” →

Where Is the Enterprise Campus Network Heading?

by , posted in Network
Mike Spanbauer
Mike Spanbauer

Summary Bullets:

  • Enterprise access networks are still largely wired today, but with wireless stability and performance improvements providing a relatively similar experience, the all-wireless campus access environment may be imminent.
  • How much will the access switch port taper off once 802.11ac begins to ship?

In a recent conversation with a colleague, we were discussing how quickly (or if) the enterprise access environment will shift from the traditional wired access methods to an all-wireless environment.  While nearly every enterprise has some wireless support today (of the many enterprises to which I have spoken, I cannot name one that does not), very few have committed to solely wireless access for the clients.  Printers, the odd workstation or two, and other peripherals may always demand some wired access, but with the prevalence of the mobile worker and the multitude of devices they tote around, it is very easy to envision the WLAN in any campus being the access method of choice.  In the past year, the market has seen an aggressive maturation of unified access solution messaging, with some extending into the adjacent space of mobile device management (where acquisition and/or consolidation will likely occur in the next 18 months).  Continue reading “Where Is the Enterprise Campus Network Heading?” →

Look for Operators to Lead Cloud Ecosystems

by Jeremiah Caron, posted in IT Leader
Jerry Caron
Jerry Caron

Summary Bullets:

  • Network operators are trusted sources in the consumer world; can this translate into the business world?
  • There is an opportunity for operators to be leaders in the cloud services ecosystem given their technological position.

A recent, exhaustive, global study by Ericsson’s ConsumerLab research group indicates that – perhaps somewhat surprisingly – network operators are tops when it comes to trust.  The context is information privacy and data security, and the issue is what online companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and all the others should be allowed to do with the information shared by the consumer in their application environments. Continue reading “Look for Operators to Lead Cloud Ecosystems” →

Mainstream Enterprises Still Struggling to Catch Up with the MDM/MAM Hype Cycle

by , posted in Mobilize
Paula Musich
Paula Musich

Summary Bullets:

• Despite hype to the contrary, mobile device management and mobile application management is not mainstream

• Innovative vendors are out in front solving problems that most enterprises haven’t begun to even think about

The juxtaposition of this week’s strategic partnership announcement between Boxtone and Good Technology against our mid-October report on enterprise BYOD progress in 2012 serves as a great example of how big the disconnect is between the hype of MDM/MAM and reality of mainstream enterprise adoption of policies governing the use of employee-owned devices at work. The Boxtone/Good agreement calls for the integration of Good’s mobile application and data security functionality found in its Good Dynamics and Good for Enterprise products with BoxTone’s mobile device, analytics, and service management functions. The analytics piece, due in 2013, is especially intriguing. Planned instrumentation will allow enterprise IT to determine the frequency of use for mobile enterprise applications, monitor application performance and utilization, and monitor user behavior to learn whether enterprise mobile applications require end user training or ease of use enhancements. Such analytics will allow enterprises to get more bang for the development buck and insure desired productivity gains are achieved. Continue reading “Mainstream Enterprises Still Struggling to Catch Up with the MDM/MAM Hype Cycle” →

Hyper-Competition Returns to Enterprise Networking

by Jeremiah Caron, posted in IT Leader
J. Caron
J. Caron

Summary Bullets:

  • Huawei’s entrance is making the news, but networking market competition has been increasing across the board from a number of suppliers.
  • Increased enterprise networking competition sharpens the minds of suppliers and certainly benefits buyers.

The past two years have seen a remarkable resurgence in competition within the market for enterprise networking technology.  While there has always been a fairly strong collection of suppliers in this area, the emergence of Cisco as the dominant market-share leader has relegated true competition to those vying for small percentage points gained in geographical, segment or vertical niches.  Now, however, with transitions taking place in terms of multi-gigabit bandwidth demands, wireless integration and data center architecture, all players in the market sense a new opportunity to challenge the incumbent. Continue reading “Hyper-Competition Returns to Enterprise Networking” →

Looking Back on Mobile World Congress

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:        

  • My last blog’s predictions for MWC’s enterprise mobility themes focused on BYOD, the ‘connected life,’ and Nokia as a possible ‘comeback kid.’
  • While these were big themes, there were also many announcements and demos on MDM/security/MAM offerings (especially for Android),as well as recurring discussions on operator monetization and new service opportunities.

Mobile World Congress re-confirmed that enterprise mobility is a very important topic for many constituencies. While many of the themes we predicted were indeed major ones, there were a few others that were notable. Continue reading “Looking Back on Mobile World Congress” →

Make Educating End Users about Policies and Threats Part of Your Defense

by , posted in Secure
P. Musich
P. Musich

Summary Bullets:

  • Educate end users on the reasons behind corporate security policies and the nature of social engineering to help reduce risky behavior.
  • Ensure end users understand corporate policies around the use of personal smartphones and tablets for accessing corporate resources.

With this year’s huge rise in the awareness of advanced persistent threats (APTs), now would be a good time to focus on educating employees not only about corporate policies and government mandates, but also about the growing risk that these APTs pose to the organization.  By educating end users about the reasons behind the policies, as well as the nature of such attacks, security professionals can get better buy-in from those end users, increasing the likelihood of changing risky end user behavior.  Given the focus of these APTs on gaining entry through more sophisticated spear phishing attempts, encouraging a heightened vigilance among end users could be an additional tool in the security practitioner’s toolbox.  With attackers’ proclivity for identifying users within the organization which have the credentials to access systems with sensitive data, and then sending e-mails that appear to be legitimate and contain links to sites with malicious code or attached documents infected with malware, end users become the weak link in the chain of trust.  In addition, the combination of the growing BYOD phenomenon and the upcoming Christmas shopping season makes this an ideal time to remind end users of the dangers of careless Internet usage as well as corporate policies regarding smartphones and tablets.

Continue reading “Make Educating End Users about Policies and Threats Part of Your Defense” →