January 7, 2013
Volume XLII, Issue 4
Trends to Watch at 2013 CES
Excerpted from Washington Post Report by Hayley Tsukayama
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), when tech companies gather in Las Vegas to show off their biggest, boldest ideas of the year, is set to open this week. The show is a key place to see what smart-phone makers, television companies, and automakers are forecasting for the future of technology. Here are five trends to watch at this year's CES.
Connected cars: Audi, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, and Subaru are among the top automakers making appearances at this year's show.
"Cars are becoming rolling computers," said Tom Coughlin, a consumer electronics consultant and member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It's not simply that cars are becoming more technologically advanced, with richer sensors and better data, he said, but they're also working more closely with existing gadgets that consumers are already carrying. "Cars are a mobile application platform; let's start configuring them in the way I want them to be."
Higher hi-def: There's always a push to make high-definition (HD) screens even better, and this year is no different. Tech trend watchers are expecting to see high-definition televisions get even clearer, sharper and more accessible to the general public. The screen resolution on cell-phones is also expected to get better, particularly as the screens creep up and over the 5-inch range.
Coughlin said he expects screens on laptops, computers, and other devices to continue getting sharper while manufacturers also figure out how to have these screens use less energy overall.
Video-on-demand: Samsung has already made clear that it's planning to do something big in television, which is generally seen as the area of consumer electronics that's most ripe for innovation and disruption. A teaser on Samsung's "Tomorrow" blog hinted at a television with "unprecedented new TV shape and timeless design," the Verge reported.
Whether it's set-top boxes (STBs) or smart TVs that offer more a la carte programming, consumers have made it clear that they want greater control over what they're watching. Large companies such as Google and Microsoft have jumped into the space with their own offerings through Google TV and the Xbox Live service. Consumers should expect to see more on-demand video integration than ever at this year's show.
Gesture control: Technology companies are also looking for more intuitive ways for users to interact with their gadgets, putting aside the remote control in favor of something that won't get lost in the couch cushions — your body.
EyeSight, an Israeli-based company that works on motion control, is particularly interested in bringing down the scale of gesture control.
"These are not shoulder-level hand motions," said EyeSight Marketing Director, Liat Rostock. "It's all down to the wrist level — down to the resolution of the fingertip."
EyeSight is already putting some of its technology in the laptops and televisions of major manufacturers, and saving some money by building their technology directly into the devices rather than adding the features on as accessories.
Competition for digital advertising: While CES is mostly about the gadgets, content is important at the show as well.
One of the companies rumored to be making a big splash at this year's show is Yahoo. The company is reportedly looking to make a name for itself at this year's show under the new leadership of chief executive officer Marissa Mayer.
According to a report from All Things Digital, Mayer is going to work on building up partnerships with companies who may be looking at competitors such as Google, Facebook, and AOL.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 A great way to advance in 2013 is by attending the DCIA's third annual CONTENT IN THE CLOUD (CITC) Conference within the 2013 CES Show taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center this Wednesday January 9th.
Join us for six insightful keynotes and four lively panel discussions highlighting the latest advancements in cloud-based solutions for content distribution.
Insiders will share how changes and progress in the cloud are revolutionizing data storage and delivery.
The effects are being felt across the consumer electronics (CE) industry, and it's only just begun!
Our opening keynote by Microsoft's Dr. Jin Li will answer the question What Is Content in the Cloud, Really? How should cloud computing be defined? What are the key economic considerations and prospects for sustainability of the cloud-enabled delivery phenomenon?
Our first panel with Radio Mitre's Guillermo Chialvo, Arrayent's Shane Dyer, YuMe's Ed Haslam, Endpoint Technologies' Roger Kay, IC4's Theo Lynn, The PADEM Group's Allan McClennan, Phoenix Marketing International's John Schiela, and Trend Micro's Natalie Severino will discuss The Impact on Consumers of Implementing Cloud Computing for Media Access and Storage. How do cloud-based streaming and storage affect users' ability to access entertainment content and to own copies of movies, music, TV shows, games, etc.?
Our next two keynotes by GenosTV's Mike West and Dow Lohnes' Jim Burger will balance Consumer Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content: Ubiquity, Cost, Portability Improvements with Consumer Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content: Privacy, Reliability, Security Issues. What advantages do cloud-based solutions applied to popular entertainment bring to users? How do they compare to older methods of online distribution? What is the role of social networking in this arena? What has been the experience to date concerning confidential data being inadvertently leaked or intentionally hacked? What can users do to mitigate not having access to their applications or accidentally losing their data when they go offline? What happens if a cloud provider goes out of business?
Then a panel with Octoshape's Scott Brown, Citrix's Chris Fleck, Strategic Blue Services' Rob Kay, Equinix's Jon Lin, KPMG's Mark Lundin, Aspera's Kip Schauer, Iris Media's Dr. Wolf Siegert, and Devoncroft Partners' Joe Zaller will evaluate The Impact on Telecommunications Industries of Cloud Computing. What does cloud computing mean to broadband network operators in terms of managing their intellectual property (IP), allocating network resources, and developing and provisioning new services?
A follow-on keynote by Akamai's Kris Alexander will summarize Telecommunications Industry Benefits & Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content: New Opportunities vs. Infrastructure Challenges. What advantages do broadband network operators gain with cloud-based solutions applied to popular entertainment? How does the on-demand, always-accessible nature of cloud-based entertainment delivery challenge conventional distribution systems?
The next panel with Front Porch Digital's Brian Campanotti, Playcast Media's Guy De Beer, American Standard Television's Ian Donahue, MEDIAmobz's Jay Durgan, Rovi's Gerald Hensley, Wiredrive's Bill Sewell, Gaikai's Robert Stevenson, and Gracenote's Roger Tsai will consider The Impact on Entertainment Industries of Cloud Computing. What do cloud storage and distribution mean to content rights-holders in terms of managing their intellectual property (IP), realizing cost savings, reaching new audiences, analyzing usage, and implementing new business models?
Then a keynote by IBM's Scott Burnett will highlight the top-line Entertainment Industry Benefits & Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content: Flexibility and Reach vs. Disruption and Accountability. What improvements does cloud computing offer the content distribution chain? What issues do rights-holders face in adopting their internal content management processes to cloud-based media storage?
Our final keynote by Huawei's Lucia Gradinariu will outline Consumer Electronics (CE) Manufacturer Benefits and Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content: Expanded Opportunities for New Products and Recurring Revenue Streams; New Challenges Related to Interoperability and Data Security. What unforeseen impacts, both positive and negative, do cloud-based solutions applied to popular entertainment properties bring to CE manufacturers?
And then our closing panel with Altman Vilandrie & Company's Stefan Bewley, Coughlin Associates' Thomas Coughlin, Pioneer Corporation's David Frerichs, Youneeq's Murray Galbraith, Hughes Hubbard & Reed's Wayne Josel, IHS Automotive's Dr. Egil Juliussen, and Navigation Solutions' Linda Senigaglia will explore The Impact on CE Manufacturers of Cloud Computing Deployment. Remotely accessing applications and data has implications for elements that must be integrated into networked end-user devices. What about servers and other edge storage hardware products? What new hurdles must be overcome with these technological solutions?
Learn how the value proposition for CE manufacturers will continue to evolve towards providing cloud-based value-adding services — rather than conventional hardware features.
Some in traditional entertainment industries find this technology overwhelmingly threatening and disruptive — others see enormous new opportunities.
To register for CONTENT IN THE CLOUD at CES, please click here. Share wisely, and take care.
A Store-and-Forget Cloud Archive
Excerpted from TV Technology Report by Al Kovalick
Imagine a program/data archive so durable, you never need worry about the mechanics of archive integrity for 10, 25, or even 50 years. Impossible? Read on.
The heart and soul of a media enterprise is content — sports, news, movies, dramas, events, and much more. Every owner of programming needs to archive the crown jewels. For years these types have been archived on film or video tape. Analog film has excellent archive properties, especially in terms of longevity and resolution. Video tape is problematic due to rapid format changes and playback machine availability.
Today, with file-based being the norm for so many programs, content is often archived on Linear Tape Open (LTO) datatape and other related formats. LTO is a workhorse and deserves credit for performance and being a de facto industry standard. Several vendors recently announced the latest LTO6 drives (2.5 TB native, 160 MBps) that will be available in the next few months.
But all tape/drive formats suffer with obsolescence. For example, no LTO5 drive can read LTO2 tape. Moving up a generation creates orphans, often with valuable content in store. Sure, files can be migrated to the next-generation store, but with cost and complexity.
Amazon Web Services' Glacier archive (and backup) was introduced about five months ago. With Glacier, users can reliably store large or small amounts of data for as little as $120/TB per year, a significant savings compared to on-premises solutions. There are some small download bandwidth charges, too.
Glacier is a cloud service and like other cloud resources, the complexity of managing, upgrading, maintaining, powering, cooling, and more is offloaded to the cloud provider. When a storage resource (drive, array) fails, Amazon deals with data migration to the new store not you. In practice, this can go on for many years, covering several generations of aging storage devices. Nice.
Additionally, Glacier offers a 99.999999999 percent durability guarantee. Durability is a measure of the integrity of your data. What does eleven 9s of durability mean in practice? Although not specifically stated by Amazon, it likely means four to six copies of your data spread across different storage systems and geographical regions. Some consider eleven 9s excessive. However, a "two belts" and "two suspenders" approach makes sense in a world with Hurricane Sandy and its effects occurring more often.
Nothing is perfect and there are two concerns for most users: availability and access delay. Availability (R/W access to your data) is typically 99.99 percent (one hour/year). Don't confuse this with durability. For example, if your Internet access connection to the cloud is down for two hours, your data is not lost, just not available. This is manageable and not that different from many on-premise solutions. Incidentally, using multiple ISPs to access the cloud reduces the chance of connectivity loss.
Also, many cloud vendors permit one and 10 Gbps network connections, so datarate throttling is not strictly a barrier. Also, as an option, some cloud vendors support importing/exporting large amounts of data to their storage using mailed-in portable storage devices: USB/SAS/SATA drives. This is ideal when huge quantities of data are involved.
The second aspect is access delay. Glacier trades off read-access delay to reduce monthly cost. The current spec is three to five hours for file recovery to start. Some may balk at this since an on-premise LTO library has faster access. But Glacier is designed for long-term archive like the physical records stored by Iron Mountain offering 24-hour retrieval. If your workflow can absorb the three- to five-hour delay, then Glacier may apply. The three- to five-hour delay does not reduce the instantaneous retrieval data rate. Once started, file-delivery rates can reach many gigabytes per second.
This new class of archive will likely be implemented by other cloud providers. My intention is not to market Amazon products, but to reference Glacier as a new product class in the arsenal of the cloud. LTO is alive and well and will continue to take the lion's share of on-premise archive. A Glacier-type archive may find a niche in "primary-archive backup" or "delayed-retrieval" archive space.
There is one more objection to a Glacier- like cloud archive: the dependability of the vendor. Do I trust the cloud vendor with my data? Will they go broke and leave me hanging? These are legitimate questions. Trust is something that needs to be earned; it takes time. So, as cloud vendors build trust, our industry will decide what assets and services to offload to them.
We are at about "year six" of the cloud, and still taking toddler steps. Each year all constituents are learning more with service integrity, security and dependability increasing and prices dropping.
So, will you eventually use something like Glacier to store your crown jewels? The clear trends say yes. The question is when and it may be sooner than we think.
The Cloud & Live Streaming Are Big
Excerpted from OnlineVideo Report by Troy Dreier
Where is online video moving in 2013? To the cloud! As if we haven't heard enough about cloud computing in 2012, more and more will be done online.
Capping a successful Streaming Media West Conference in Los Angeles, OnlineVideo contributor Jan Ozer sat down for a red carpet interview to discuss the show's highlights. The cloud was everywhere, he said, and live video streaming was a hot topic.
"The whole live market just seemed to explode this year," Ozer said. "Livestream and Ustream are both big sponsors with big booths, and the traffic interest in all their applications was very significant. Ustream showed this cool new webcam from Logitech which can talk directly to your Wi-Fi hub, bypassing the computer, so it can shoot the picture, encode the video, and send that directly to Ustream. You don't even need a computer. You just need a Wi-Fi hot spot. That's pretty cool."
While HTML5 has long been a seen as the future of online video, Ozer explained that Flash is still the most used format for desktop streaming.
"When you point out simple facts like, 'Hey, only 66 percent of the browsers out there are HTML5-compatible, and then only 80 percent of those play H.264, and Mozilla still hasn't licensed H.264,' people are like, 'What?' They just get really riled about it," Ozer said. "I don't really have a fish to fry. But I want to work on the basis of facts. And the fact is, whether it's MPEG DASH or whether it's HTML5, at this point if it's so good, why aren't CBS and CNN and FOX and ESPN using it?"
For the full video and more on 2012 video trends, please click here.
10 Stats to Change the Way You Look at Video
Excerpted from Ad Age Report by Matt Fiorentino
Online audiences chose to watch video ads at a rate of more than 150 per second in 2012. With billions of video views at stake for brands, and with industry domination going to the most innovative players, the competition for these views is the fiercest it's ever been. The winners see significant gains in video viewership while the losers get lost in the mix.
There are industry trends that can help both groups expand on their success and rebuild from defeat. To this end, we've uncovered some of the most significant online video stats from the year and included them here. They could change the way you think about, plan for, and invest in online video for 2013 and beyond.
1. To make the Ad Age Viral Video Chart these days, it takes at least 1.5 million views.
When Ad Age and Visible Measures launched the The Ad Age Viral Video Chart nearly four years ago, the average view count needed to make the chart was 220,000 views. Today, that threshold has increased over 600%, reaching 1.5 million views. We've seen it even top 2 million on a regular week. This viewership includes clips related to a campaign across the web, including hundreds of the biggest video sites.
The significance of this trend is massive for the industry. Four years ago, it was much easier for brands to capture audience attention online and generate video viewership. Today, brands have to fight more fiercely than ever to generate views, which means they can't use the same strategies from four years ago. Otherwise, they'll disappear, much like Evian has with its Live Young / Roller Babies campaign.
2. Kony amassed 41 million views in one day.
We all know that Kony was the biggest campaign of the year, but what was so spectacular about Kony from an advertising perspective was the velocity with which it generated video viewership. In a single day, Kony amassed over 41 million video views. It topped 100 million views in six days. The speed and volume of viewership speaks to the potential scale of the online video space and the video campaigns audiences choose to watch. With enough momentum, video campaigns can drive significant viewership in short bursts. Kony's 41 million views in a single day is the quintessential example of big viewership.
3. Samsung's Galaxy S III campaign was bigger than all of Apple's campaigns combined.
Samsung was 2012's most-watched brand by a long shot and Samsung's most-watched campaign, Galaxy S III, was the year's most-watched tech ad as well. But let's put some more perspective to it. Apple launched 13 campaigns in 2012 and generated a total 57.8 million views. Samsung's Galaxy S III generated over 71.8 million views in a single shot. Apple will have to significantly shake up its video strategy in 2013 to keep up with Samsung.
4. In 115 million views for presidential campaign ads, only 4.7 million came from Facebook.
We looked at 350 presidential ad campaigns in late September and found that, in aggregate, they had generated 115 million total views. Over 41 million of those views were paid. 4.7 million views came from Facebook, including referrals to YouTube and views from embedded YouTube players on Facebook. Only 155,000 came from Twitter. These views came from "shares" on Facebook and Twitter.
This is a fascinating metric from a distribution standpoint because there are a number of players in the industry who sell their ability to generate "shares" and rank video performance on "shares." Views from Facebook in this instance show the actual results from shares, a mere 3.8% percentage of overall video performance for presidential ad campaigns. Twitter's video viewership performance from shares is almost non-existent, 0.12% of 115 million views. Yes, shares show evangelism and are a good brand lift proxy, but this data suggests that in terms of affecting overall video campaign performance, shares through Facebook and Twitter don't move the needle.
5. Campaigns that launch before the Super Bowl on the web generate 600% more views.
As part of their strategy to extend the economics of the Super Bowl and increase their return on investment, more and more brands are launching Super Bowl videos before the game. This approach is designed to build excitement and anticipation for their main Super Bowl campaign, and the data shows that it works. We've found that compared to campaigns that wait until the day of the game to release Super Bowl video, the campaigns that "leak" or "preview" campaign footage generate about 600% more views.
6. M&Ms won the Super Bowl with 85% of views driven by their audience.
As more and more campaigns are driven by paid media to increase discoverability online, there are always those rare lightning strikes that keep hope alive for a random campaign to go viral. The M&Ms 2012 Super Bowl campaign, Just My Shell, featuring a "naked" brown M&M, was this year's most-watched Super Bowl campaign. But it didn't do it with paid media.
85% of all views were driven by clips uploaded by audiences, including copies and derivative content, for a total 41+ million views out of 48 million overall. There were over 360 clips uploaded by audiences compared to just 11 by the brand.
7. Gangnam Style powered through 2.6 billion views in 2012 (not a billion).
Gangnam Style shattered all sorts of online video records this year. Not only is it YouTube's most-watched single video of all time, it's also the most-watched True Reach video of all time as well. (True Reach includes clips uploaded by audiences across the web, showing the complete impact a campaign or viral phenomenon has online.) But it isn't relevant just because it broke the records, it's relevant because of how big and how quickly it happened. Gangnam Style has seen over 2.6 billion True Reach views.
The next most-watched video phenomenon online is Justin Bieber's Baby at 1.6 billion True Reach views, creating a billion-view chasm between the number one and two most-watched viral phenomenons of all-time. Gangnam Style is still racking up views at a clip of 15 million daily, so we may see it eclipse 3 billion soon.
Gangnam Style matters from an ad perspective because, like Kony, it shows the potential scale of online video. No, Gangnam Style isn't even close to being an ad campaign, but there is good product placement for Mercedes, which has been seen billions of views, not impressions.
8. Cats are more viral than dogs in video.
When advertisers are deciding which creative direction to take, data can help. One big finding we uncovered this year was that cat videos are significantly more watched than dog videos online. We looked at the 100 most-watched clips for both furry friends and aggregated their performance. Cat videos have generated over 1.6 billion views. Dog videos have only generated 1 billion views.
Cats win on a daily basis as well, with the top 100 videos generating about 1 million views per day. The top 100 dog videos produce 700,000 views on average. So, for the advertiser trying to choose between cats and dogs, audiences watch cats videos more often online.
9. Paid apps generate nearly 500,000 more views than free apps.
Back in April, we looked at the video performance of the top ten paid game apps and the top ten free game apps in Apple's App Store. The hypothesis was that people did video research before buying a paid app to see what the actual app experience would be like. For free apps, it costs users nothing to download, so there's no risk, which means there isn't much reason to conduct research.
Our research uncovered that the average view count for the top 10 apps was 550,000 million views*. Free apps, on the other hand, averaged only 60,000 views.
So, if you're a brand considering creating a paid app, be sure to include video to help users get a better feel for the user experience. They'll be looking for it.
10. Audiences chose to watch ads 4.6 billion times in 2012.
While the year isn't technically finished yet, we wanted to provide a glimpse into the overall trend of audiences choosing to watch online video advertisements. In 2011, audiences chose to watch ads 2.7 billion times. To date in 2012, audiences have chosen to watch video ads 4.6 billion times, about 13.2 million times every day, and over 150 times per second.
Remember, this is 4.6 billion times that people actively chose to watch video advertising. These are not impressions, so the experience is entirely different.
With 4.6 billion video views this year, online video advertising has seen over 10 billion views since 2009. And with more budget being allocated to the space from both a creative and media buying perspective, we're likely to see that number increase even more in 2013.
*We took out Angry Birds space because it skewed the results.
Striking Example of the Power & Peril of Data
Excerpted from Chief Marketing Technologist Report by Scott Brinker
Here's a parting story from 2012 that I think sets the stage for a major theme of 2013: data has power.
Last week a newspaper in New York published an interactive map of gun permit owners in Westchester and Rockland counties. It made it effortless for anyone to see who has a gun permit in their neighborhood, with names and addresses.
While this is not the first time such information has been put online, this particular incarnation was a perfect storm with an easy interface (thank you, Google Maps), distribution with an emotional accompanying story, and a viral wildfire in social media at the exact moment when advocates on both sides of the gun control debate are on high alert.
Controversy promptly ensued, from CNN to TechCrunch. An angry blogger in turn posted the names and home addresses — and in some cases phone numbers, Facebook pages, and other personal details — of every staff member on the paper he could find.
For the purposes of this post, let's set aside the rabid brawl over gun control. This is a blog about marketing and technology, not politics or public policy. The facet of this story that I want to call attention to is the incredible impact that this data had when presented with a highly usable visualization in a highly relevant context.
See, the data about gun permit owners was already — technically — public information. But aggregating that information and putting it into a compelling visualization — and associating that with crimes committed with guns — made a powerful story. It also enraged many people who considered it a "violation of their privacy."
Yet how could it have been a violation of privacy if the information was already a matter of public record?
The reality was that the barriers to acquiring that information before — filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with different local bureaucracies — were high enough to dissuade, well, pretty much everyone.
Getting that data, processing it, and then turning it into something useful was either too much work or something that no one had really imagined doing before. So while technically it was public information, for all practical purposes, it might as well have been private. (Those of you with reams of data buried in silos throughout your organization can surely relate.)
Taking that "public" data hidden in the bowels of government and making it readily viewed by anyone with an Internet connection therefore felt like a huge change to the status quo.
In the same vein, I'm not sure how many of the names and addresses of the newspaper's staff were in the public domain already, but I suspect that most of that information was already out there — as that's how that angry blogger found it.
But by putting that information in the context of this story, he clearly was encouraging people to inundate them with, um, opinionated feedback — en masse.
I'm not morally equating these two moves. My point is that the collection, organization, and sharing of previously obscure data on both sides had a powerful effect.
Circling back to the realm of marketing technology, I think there are two important takeaways for marketers:
First, the difference between data and applied data is huge.
Marketers collect a ton of data these days, and they have access to even more through a myriad social networks, audience data exchanges, the public domain, etc. The challenge is now how to effectively apply that data to making a positive impact on customers and business management.
This isn't just about "big data" either. Note that the datasets used in this story — the gun permits and the newspaper's staff — were both small. But the right data, in the right context, presented in the right application can be incredibly persuasive.
Second, the more data is applied, the more people will care about privacy.
Most people haven't paid any attention to privacy policies and terms of service. But that is likely to change as data is increasingly turned into applied data. Even if your use of data is modest and respectful, more and more stories of data abuse will certainly raise concerns.
More people will care about exactly what data you collect from them and why. While you can deliver some amazing new features to customers using data well, keep in mind that one person's feature might be another person's fear. (Take the Instagram brouhaha from a couple of weeks ago as another example.)
As the superhero motto goes, with great power comes great responsibility.
The Cloud Will Make BYOD a Non-Issue
Excerpted from Network World Report by Jon Gold
To hear Accenture Mobile executive Joel Osman tell it, consumerization has been the most visible sign of a seismic change in how the business world views technology.
"I like to categorize consumerization as 'somehow, tech became cool,'" Osman says. "If you can imagine, not that many years ago, it was almost a badge of honor in the business world - 'I'm not very technical' - and business users really avoided technology as something to be shunned or that IT would thrust upon them."
That was fine with IT departments, he says, because it more or less gave them free rein - after all, technology wasn't cool, so nobody else wanted to get involved.
"Somehow, we flipped that. Tech has become cool. And consumerization is a big part of that, in that you've got business executives with their tablets, with their smart-phones now espousing how technically savvy they are," Osman says.
The result in the ranks of IT? Panic and devastation, combined with a rapid search for a product - any product - to help address the issue.
"All the clients I talk to seem to think everyone else is doing it, and that somehow they're behind. In actuality, no one's really doing it, and the ones who are are doing it to varying degrees," Osman says.
Siemens Mobility Portfolio Vice President Randy Roberts concurs.
"IT folks are scared to death because they're realizing now that BYOD is happening on their networks, there are devices hitting their networks they're not aware of. And they don't know what kind of devices they are, they don't know who these people are, what applications they have or what content they're getting access to," he says.
A big part of the response to consumerization in 2013 will be shaped by cloud technology and user frustration, according to Forrester Research Senior Vice President and distinguished analyst Ted Schadler.
"The big thing that's going to be a problem that I think we'll start to really see in 2013, and it's related to mobile device management and control, is usability. So when you put in a mobile device management solution that forces your employees to use a clunky, slow mailbox, or log in every time, or have a poor user experience, they'll just ignore it," he says.
Moreover, Schadler adds, the entire concept of MDM is essentially a temporary one, as cloud technology erodes the divisions between mobile and non-mobile devices.
"There's going to be a big requirement to re-think the architecture. This is why the MDM thing is a stopgap, really. Nobody worries about security at Salesforce.com. So if I can rely on that service provider to protect my data, then I don't need to put a 'kludge' stopgap in place," he says.
And since that service is available across many platforms, it's a lot more easily accessible from whatever hardware is available. This "multi-device" phenomenon, according to Schadler, is illustrated in a survey from Forrester of roughly 10,000 global information workers.
Another thing that will likely drive mobile services toward the cloud is the frustration of trying to provision them in the traditional way.
"You've got to tunnel through the firewall, you've got to federate, you've got to give permission on a case-by-case basis, it's horrible," Schadler says.
"You don't have to have an on-prem box behind the firewall to do this anymore. All this stuff now can be managed in the cloud if you want to do that," agrees Roberts.
So what's to be done? To start with, Roberts says, companies need to have a clear plan in place before they start making difficult decisions about MDM systems or BYOD policies.
"You really need to define what you're trying to get done," he says.
A recent blog post from Red Hat's cloud computing team says much the same thing, urging an "acceptance" of the inevitability of BYOD.
"In most cases, BYOD is going to require IT departments to do some combination of rolling out new products, educating users and adopting new processes. At the very least, they need to understand potential exposures and come up with a plan for dealing with them. But just saying "no" isn't a realistic option for the large majority of organizations. And that means acceptance is the only reasonable path forward," they write.
Importantly, making those plans will likely have to involve IT working closely with other departments.
"It's not a decision that IT can just circle the wagons and figure out," Accenture's Osman says. "Your buying behavior for personal technology is very different from IT's buying behavior for corporate technology."
IT Hiring Market Heats Up for 2013
Excerpted from Baseline Report by Dennis McCafferty
IT professionals may find themselves sitting in the driver's seat when it comes to the job market. The vast majority of hiring managers say they expect to increase tech staffing over the next six months, with many indicating that the increase in available positions will be "substantial," according to a recent survey report from Dice.
That said, it's taking longer to fill jobs, due to continued challenges in finding the right candidates. Maybe that's why those receiving offers are leveraging their opportunity, often asking for more money and/or counter-offering the initial proposal.
Overall, Dice reports that IT workers should interpret the results with what it calls "tempered optimism."
Says Alice Hill, Managing Director of Dice: "There will be good job opportunities and there will be hiring. But we're expecting steady, modest growth — not a snowball gaining speed into an avalanche." More than 1,000 HR managers, recruiters, consultants and staffing company representatives took part in the research.
"Major Shift" for Enterprise Security Practices
Excerpted from Network World Report by Ellen Messmer
Gartner Thursday held forth on what it expects to be the top security trends for 2013, citing the rise of cloud computing, social media, and employees bringing their own devices to work (BYOD) as among the forces likely to produce radical changes in how enterprises manage IT security. The market research firm also says the "major shift" expected in IT security in 2013 will shake up established IT security vendors as newer players in cloud and mobile challenge them.
Earl Perkins, Gartner Research Vice President, said during a webinar with clients that the forces cited above, as well as an "information explosion" in the enterprise, are putting enormous pressure on enterprise IT professionals and vendors by "making some of the existing IT infrastructures obsolete." He added: "Will the major providers of security technology be the same ones in three to five years? The answer is probably not."
Perkins said Gartner analysts believe the vendors, service providers, and value-added resellers (VARs) of today are starting to feel the volatility of market changes wrought by the rise of cloud-computing services and new practices such as enterprises adopting smart-phones and other mobile devices, and allowing employees to use their own at work. A large IT security firm such as Symantec, although certainly "aware and making changes" due to the growing importance of cloud and mobile, said Perkins, is nonetheless under pressure from many smaller companies that are "nimble" in introducing new technologies.
Mobile and BYOD "challenge the fundamental principles by which we deliver applications," to users and protect user data, said Perkins. It means "consumer identities" will need to be tied to "corporate identities" in terms of authentication, authorization, and other identity access and management functions. There will be pressure to "manage diversity" in this, he added. And when it comes to access to cloud-based services, the goal will be to find ways for introducing cloud-based access and authentication so users will "enjoy" these services "adequately and securely" in what may be a hybrid-cloud environment with the enterprise network.
Gartner thinks these forces in motion in 2013 mean the time has come to embrace new ideas about security policy. And Perkins said one such idea is that of "people-centric security" that Gartner says holds each person more responsible for security but in which enterprise IT security staff and the business managers "will respond quickly" if people who are trusted appear to have "abrogated" their responsibilities for data security or unduly challenge requirements put upon them.
It will involve monitoring and educating end-users, Gartner points out. And if this trust-based approach is adopted, it will need to be enforced. That means "swift punishment for people who violate that trust," especially when it comes to mobile BYOD, not with just one "big stick" approach but with "sticks of various sizes" commensurate with risk, Perkins added.
Perkins also said the time has also come to acknowledge there's no such thing as "perfect protection" and that the expense of providing security has to be more commensurate with business risk. That means the dialog between IT and the business user about what security is and what "appropriate risk" levels are has to be undertaken in earnest in 2013. Business people are not really interested in operational metrics of IT, such as how effective patching is, Perkins noted. Their idea of metrics involves factors such as effective, secure collaboration with supply-chain partners and the focus should be to those ends.
To Cloud or Not to Cloud? No Longer a Question
Excerpted from Mondaq Report by Geoff Briggs
Technology decision makers, notably CFOs and CIOs, are facing the reality that their organization's computing technology and data will at some point be "in the cloud".
Several studies make the compelling case for cloud computing, including potential lower computing costs and increased flexibility or scalability in requirements. With the cloud market likely to grow from $40.7B in 2011 to $241B in 2020 (Forrester), businesses are grappling with the decision of what to move to the cloud, when to move it, and how to transition from an on-premises computing environment to a cloud computing technology environment.
The most cited benefit is the agility that it provides; businesses are not saddled with technology infrastructure and businesses can react more quickly to change technology. Also, cloud computing is an operating expense; you pay for it as it is consumed. You do not need significant capital investment in computing resources in a cloud environment.
However, concerns do remain regarding cloud computing for CFOs and CIOs: the security of data, the location of data, back up mechanisms should it all go wrong and the guarantees can the cloud service provider provide.
For CIOs and CFOs, alignment through the cloud decision can help them decide where cloud is appropriate for their organization. The basic message is to become comfortable with the cloud computing concept, after all we all have a hotmail, Gmail or other personal email account which is essentially stored in the cloud, so it's not a new thing.
The approach to determining whether cloud is appropriate involves assessing technology in the context of business purpose and risks. For companies that do wish to enter the cloud they should start small and sample with lesser risk technologies and related influences on the business. Following the pilot approach and with greater comfort in the cloud, continue to shift the computing environment to cloud by using an appropriate assessment-based road map.
The move towards cloud computing provides the CFO with an opportunity to make a real impact when driving decisions through the lens of the four faces — strategist, catalyst, steward and operator. It allows the CFO to embrace cloud computing, catalyzing behaviors across the organization and executing strategic and financial objectives, while diligently creating a risk intelligent culture.
Catalyst: Cloud computing may shift behaviors to allow users to choose technology features that provide the most impact to the business. Established CRM tools found in the cloud can foster more collaborative working and provide real time customer data, helping to deliver better customer relationships and increased revenue.
Strategist: Cloud computing may allow the shift to increased data analytics and business value generation, as the additional processing power and capacity available in the cloud can offer a lower cost way of delivering real-time decision making.
Operator: Cloud computing may help enable the finance organization's ability to partner with the business and smoothen technology investment and cash flow, as financial insight for the business can be provided in a more scalable and financially beneficial way.
Steward: Cloud computing may give rise to additional data and transmission concerns. However, cloud encourages a more sensible approach to thinking about risk, examining the value of (and appropriate protection for) specific classes of data, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all physical security approach.
For many organizations, technology does not keep up with the rate of change in business, which often results in and 'end justifies the means' culture. Rather, with the CFOs and CIOs evaluation of governance and how the availability of cloud technology can impact their organization, they can help their organizations see through the clouds.
4 Cloud Computing Resolutions for 2013
Excerpted from InfoWorld Report y David Linthicum
It's 2013. Cloud computing is another year older. As adopters, we're making fewer mistakes, but I suspect we'll repeat many of the same errors from 2012.
Now is the time to work on cloud computing improvements, to set reasonable goals — and to make sure we live up to them. To that end, here are four cloud computing resolutions for 2013 I suggest we all adopt:
1. I resolve not to "cloud-wash." 2012 was another year of cloud everything. Virtually all products had some cloud spin, no matter what it was or the type of problem it solved. The truth is that cloud computing should be a specific type of technology that includes attributes such as on-demand, self-provisioned, elastic, and metered by use. By calling everything "cloud," the vendors look silly — and they sow confusion.
2. I resolve not to use cloud computing for everything. Many IT pros try to put cloud computing square pegs into enterprise round holes. Cloud computing is not a fit in all instances, considering the cost and complexity it can bring. Do your homework — this means understanding the needs of the business and the problem you're looking to solve. Moreover, make sure there's a clear business case for the cloud.
3. I resolve to always consider management, performance, and service governance. IT pros and providers who stand up systems that use cloud computing often forget about the fact that you have to operate the thing. Management is required to monitor the cloud-based system and keep things working, as well as deal with performance issues during operations. Finally, service governance is required to deal with the APIs that are externalized or consumed. If you don't address these issues, your cloud is doomed — it's that simple.
4. I resolve not to question cloud security before I understand the technology. In many instances, enterprise IT pushes back on cloud computing because it isn't considered secure. The truth is that data and systems residing in public or private clouds are as secure as you make them. Typically, cloud-based systems can be more secure than existing internal systems if you do the upfront work required. Proclaiming a product's security (or lack thereof) before understanding exactly what it entails is at best counterproductive — and often just plain wrong.
If you make and meet these four resolutions, your life will be much less complicated this year. Have a great 2013!
Coming Events of Interest
2013 International CES - January 8th-11th in Las Vegas, NV. With more than four decades of success, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive. The International CES is owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $195 billion US consumer electronics industry.
CONTENT IN THE CLOUD at CES - January 9th in Las Vegas, NV. Gain a deeper understanding of the impact of cloud-delivered content on specific segments and industries, including consumers, telecom, media, and CE manufacturers.
2013 Symposium on Cloud and Services Computing - March 14th-15th in Tainan, Taiwan. The goal of SCC 2013 is to bring together, researchers, developers, government sectors, and industrial vendors that are interested in cloud and services computing.
NAB Show 2013 - April 4th-11th in Las Vegas, NV. Every industry employs audio and video to communicate, educate and entertain. They all come together at NAB Show for creative inspiration and next-generation technologies to help breathe new life into their content. NAB Show is a must-attend event if you want to future-proof your career and your business.
CLOUD COMPUTING CONFERENCE at NAB - April 8th-9th in Las Vegas, NV.The New ways cloud-based solutions have accomplished better reliability and security for content distribution. From collaboration and post-production to storage, delivery, and analytics, decision makers responsible for accomplishing their content-related missions will find this a must-attend event.
CLOUD COMPUTING EAST 2013 - May 20th-21st in Boston, MA. CCE:2013 will focus on three major sectors, GOVERNMENT, HEALTHCARE, and FINANCIAL SERVICES, whose use of cloud-based technologies is revolutionizing business processes, increasing efficiency and streamlining costs.
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