Volume LIV, Issue 11

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In This Issue

Happy Holidays from the Internet of Things

Excerpted from Huffington Post Report by Walter Andri

With the holidays rushing in like an Alberta clipper, many Canadians are finalizing their gift lists and have started their shopping — both in-stores and online.

In fact, according to Visa Canada, three-out-of-four consumers intend to go online for part or all of their shopping.

And now, preference for mobile channels is dramatically rising as a majority of shoppers for consumer tech are likely to do so from a smartphone or tablet.

There’s something else that’s growing rapidly, and that’s the Internet of Things (IoT).

In fact, many of the possible gifts on those lists are actually IoT-driven.

It should be noted that IoT isn’t specifically smartphones, tablets, PCs or even connected cars, although they can all play a role.

IoT is the network of physical “things” into which electronics, sensors, and network connectivity has been embedded enabling data to be collected and exchanged… Read More

Start-Up Leaders Embrace Lobbying as Part of the Job

Excerpted from NY Times Report by Cecilia Kang

Last year, the personal butler service Hello Alfred won a top prize in Silicon Valley created for promising new technology start-ups, putting the company on a path toward millions of dollars in investment. This year, the start-up has received attention of a different sort, for being at the center of a national debate about the rights of the workers hired through its service and others like it.

Unlike start-ups of years past, though, Hello Alfred has not shied from the political stage.

Its leaders have appeared on numerous policy panels and have written op-eds.

They have been invited to a White House summit event on the future of labor.

And Marcela Sapone, the company’s chief executive, has made two trips to Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers, research organizations and the political press to rethink labor laws for the digital age.

“We have old rules about how you act as an employer,” said Ms. Sapone, 29, who started Hello Alfred with a Harvard Business School classmate.

“We are a young company but we also have to make decisions early that are ethical and business-oriented… Read More

DRM for Things – Managing Rights & Permissions for IoT

Excerpted from Capgemini Report

Given the proliferation of interconnected Things on the Internet (aka IoT), it was only a matter of time before the pressing need for robust, pervasive governance became imperative.

How can we manage the rights and permissions needed to do stuff with and / or by things?

The following are some thoughts, based on a previous foray into the topic, and building on my earlier book on the related world of Digital Rights Management (aka DRM).

Does anyone remember DRM – that much maligned tool of real / perceived oppression, (somewhat ineptly deployed by a napsterized music industry)?

It has all but disappeared from the spotlight of public opinion as the content industry continues to evolve and embrace the complex digital realities of today.

But what has that got to do with the IoT, and what triggered the thought in the first place, you might ask.

Well, I recently had opportunity to chat with friend and mentor, Andy Mulholland, ex-global CTO at Capgemini… Read More

Report from DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty

Click Here for Video.

The US Thanksgiving holiday is an appropriate time to express our sincere thanks to DCIA Members, Partners and Sponsors — and DCINFO readers — for your support in 2015.

I urge you, too, to thank the people most important to you and to reflect on your blessings.

It is a privilege to represent the distributed computing industry, a dynamic and innovative group of organizations and people, whose contributions to humanity are many and consistently expanding. We were pleased in 2015 to launch the new DCIA website and reformatted DCINFO, to premiere the DCIA’s Internet of Things (IoT) Marathon webcast at CES, and to support fourteen DCIA member company exhibitors at the NAB Show.

Along with key industry trends in Containerization, Mobile Cloud, Big Data, Social Networking, as well as the IoT, Cybersecurity emerged in 2015 as an area of enormous need and unprecedented opportunity.

Along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Honors Program Cyber Student Volunteer Initiative, we also supported the new Cybersecurity Leadership Council and the US Cyber-Crime Conference.

The DCIA established the new Advancement of Digital Rights Management (ADRM) Working Group focusing on interoperability, integration, and ease-of-use.

We partnered with Mediaplanet on its Future of Business & Tech, first with Cloud Technologies Will Take our Connected Lives to a Whole New Level, and then with 5 Ways the Internet of Things Will Change Your Life This Year, Think before You Click: What to Expect from Big Data and the IoT, and Cloud Power: Is Your Small Business IoT Ready?

We teamed with BroadGroup, first on DataCloud South East Asia and then on DataCloud Europe.

We co-sponsored Cloud Partners 2015, the IoT Show, and the Creative Storage Conference (CSC 2015) .

At the federal government level, our message to US Senate leadership opposing Section 603 of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2016 (S. 1705) helped drive the decision to drop that provision, and the Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (S.754 or CISA).

We’re especially proud of new partnerships with NewBay Media on next week’s Government Video Expo 2015, with Informa Telecoms & Media on this week’s Cloud Asia Forum, and with we.CONECT Group on four events in 2016.

Share wisely, and take care.

Don’t Miss Government Video Expo 2015

Excerpted from NewBay Media Special Offer

Government Video Expo 2015 begins on Tuesday, December 1st and continues through Thursday, December 3rd in Washington, DC.

Government Video Expo is the East Coast’s largest technology event designed for video, broadcast, and audio-video professionals, featuring a full exhibit floor, numerous training options, free seminars, keynotes, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and the Briefing Zone, a new educational series of panel discussions.

In honor of Thanksgiving Weekend, if you register by midnight tonight December 29th, you can save $175 off the All Access Pass for DC Post|Production Training Sessions or $75 off the one-day pass!

All you need to do is apply code BLKGVE in the Source Code section when registering, and prices will automatically reduce when checking out; or use the code NDSDC10 to access even more VIP savings compliments of the DCIA.

Plus, your conference pass also gets you entry to the National Drone Show, access to the GV Expo Show Floor and all its exhibits and demos, admission to the Video and Distance Learning conference, attendance at the Keynote Presentations and panels, and networking opportunities — bring plenty of business cards… Read More

FiOS TV Starts to Unshackle its DVR

Excerpted from Multichannel News Report by Jeff Baumgartner

Dave Zatz sends word via his ZatzNotFunny blog that Verizon’s FiOS TV is starting to introduce a “DVR Anywhere” feature as part of its IMG software 3.0 upgrade.

According to the release notes floating about, DVR Anywhere will allow FiOS TV subs to access their recordings on Internet-connected mobile devices.

Additionally, the software update enables in-home streaming of the full live TV lineup on the FiOS Mobile app.

Those features put FiOS TV closer in line with options offered by Comcast’s X1 platform, which allows for in-home streaming of the full TV l lineup and, in several markets, access to a Cloud DVR that lets users stream recorded shows in or out of the home, or download the recording to a mobile device for offline viewing. TiVo, of course, offers similar features on its platform.

In Verizon’s case “you’ll seemingly need both FiOS TV set-box and router hardware in the mix… as the Quantum DVR becomes a video gateway,” Zatz noted pointing out that the update allows for FiOS TV subs to stream the entire channel lineup in the home via the mobile app, versus a smaller subset… Read More

FAA Drone Task Force Releases Registration Report

Excerpted from TVTechnology Report by Deborah McAdams

Fill out a web form, get a registration number and mark it on your drone.

This was the verdict of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee, released today.

The Task Force, formed by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation last month, agreed on a simplistic approach in part because that was where the confluence of agreement settled: “Any registration steps more burdensome than these three simple steps may jeopardize the likelihood of widespread adoption and would undermine the overall registration philosophy that enabled the Task Force to come to consensus,” its report said.

The Task Force was charged with three main objectives: identify which drones need to be registered, how to register them and how to prove certification.

Members came together for three days in early November to hammer out the recommendations.

The report noted that three days wasn’t sufficient for the Task Force to drill down into how to set up a drone registry and what impact it would have on hobbyists. Task Force members included Amazon, various pilots groups, robotics makers… Read More

Cyber Breaches Have Hit a Fifth of UK Consumers

Excerpted from Report by Warwick Ashford

One in five UK consumers have had personal details stolen and their bank accounts used to buy goods and services as a result of a cyber security breach, a study has revealed.

As a result, 41% of consumers polled by business advisory firm Deloitte said they often feel they are being targeted by cyber criminals.

Two-fifths of respondents reported that personal data was stolen or deleted after their computers were infected with malware, up from 26% in 2013.

The research also showed that overall consumer awareness of data collection and storage by businesses has risen to 87% in 2015, up from 82% in 2013.

However, 53% do not know the detail of the personal data that has been collected by organizations, up from 37% in 2013. Similarly, just 23% of respondents are confident that companies are transparent when it comes to using personal data, down from 29% in 2014.

Three-quarters of respondents said they would reconsider using a company if it failed to keep their data safe… Read More

Intel Chief: Biggest Cyber-Target Is Infrastructure

Excerpted from Washington Examiner Repor by Rudy Takala

As the counterintelligence executive, William Evanina has led the National Counterintelligence and Security Center since May 2014.

In that position, he oversees counterintelligence and security for the US government and private sector entities targeted by America’s adversaries.

This juncture in history may be one of the most difficult times to do that job.

Today’s espionage is largely virtual, and China and Russia are effective in that arena.

The two countries have hacked the State Department, the Defense Department, and the White House in the last year, among other federal agencies.

The most damaging attack was on the Office of Personnel Management, which allowed the China-linked attackers to steal files on more than 21 million people who have applied for security clearances from the US government, including the sensitive SF-86 form that applicants are required to fill out.

As a result, Evanina said he’s concentrating on protecting those whose files were stolen, who are now especially vulnerable… Read More

Why IT Pros Are in Denial of Security Threats

Excerpted from CIO Insight Report by Karen Frenkel

Half of IT security experts in the United States think their organization is an unlikely target for attack, according to a new study.

This largely positive outlook could account for a lack of cyber-preparedness, however, because 61% of respondents also admit that they are not confident their organization can detect advanced threats.

The report, titled “Advanced Threat Detection with Machine-Generated Intelligence,” was put out by the Ponemon Institute.

“This research reveals some major disconnects that IT professionals seem to have between perception and reality.

While even circumstantial evidence points to the increasing volume and severity of cyber-threats, it’s shocking to learn that half of security pros don’t even view themselves as a target,” said Larry Ponemon, founder of Ponemon Institute.

The Institute finds that IT teams are not confident in their ability to detect advanced persistent threats, but Ponemon said they’re not doing much about it.

“It’s clear that new solutions are needed,” he said, including machine-generated intelligence about advanced threats… Read More

State Department Cybersecurity Still Not Up to Par

Excerpted from NBC News Report

The State Department’s independent watchdog says the department is failing to comply with federal cyber security standards, putting sensitive data at risk.

In an audit released Friday, State’s Inspector General says the department lacks an effective cyber risk management program and is not doing everything it should to secure its networks.

The IG credited Secretary of State John Kerry’s department with improving a bad situation.

In each year from 2011 to 2014, the State Department’s poor cybersecurity was identified by the inspector general as a significant deficiency that made the department vulnerable to cyberattacks and threats.

The audit found that the Chief Information Officer didn’t have the authority he needed to enforce effective information security measures.

A State Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Much of the State Department’s unclassified email system is out of commission after “activity of concern” was detected recently… Read More

Cloud Security Risks Still an Issue for CIOs, but Change Is in the Air

Excerpted from TechTarget Report by Karen Goulart

In his previous career as global chief information security officer (CISO) for a Fortune 500 global conglomerate between 2007 and 2012, Richard Dorough would fight going to the cloud “tooth and nail.”

He wasn’t alone then and wouldn’t be today.

Studies and surveys routinely indicate cloud security risks are the biggest barrier to adoption for IT leaders. The CompTIA 3rd Annual Cloud Trends study, published July 2012, showed nearly half (49%) of responding IT executives were cloud-averse because of security.

Today Dorough is a managing director in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) US advisory practice focused on cybersecurity, and his outlook on cld security risks has changed.

Speaking at the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in Cambridge, MA, Dorough said that based on some of the enterprise company breaches he’s seen in his current job, he’s come to believe the data might actually have been safer in the cloud. He doesn’t suggest everyone rush to the cloud, but the option merits serious evaluation.

“You have to ask is there a cost savings around it, is there security around it, is it going to be easy to maintain over timel… Read More

Telefonica & Huawei Team on Enterprise Cloud

Excerpted from Light Reading Report by Iain Morris

Telefonica and Huawei Technologies are becoming the best of pals.

Building on numerous other relationships in network hardware, software, and professional services, the two companies are now teaming up in the data center services market with a global collaboration that aims to persuade enterprises to use Telefonica’s cloud services.

The Chinese vendor will help to deploy an OpenStack-based platform in eight Telefonica data centers, bringing to the party its experience in China’s public cloud market.

Telefonica’s Open Cloud service will be made available initially in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile in the first quarter of 2016, with further markets to follow.

Previously, Huawei and Telefonica signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together on the next generation of mobile networks known as the 5th generation (5G).

Based on the MoU, which was inked in Hong Kong on November 5th, the two companies will undertake joint evaluation and research into the requirements of a 5G network environment… Read More

We Sent Leading Spanish CIOs to Top Cloud Computing Congress

Excerpted from Opinno Report

The multinational company Salesforce placed fifth on the list of the 50 most innovative companies on the planet in 2014.

This classification, produced by our partner MIT Technology Review, announces to the world which companies are doing a good job and explains why.

In the case of Salesforce, the reasons are centered around their cloud computing tools, which will be crucial in helping companies to leverage and exploit the data they generate.

At Opinno, we share the philosophy of publicizing and promoting the best innovations, and for this reason, we have collaborated with Salesforce to organize the participation of the Spanish delegation at their international congress, Dreamforce.

Over 160,000 people from 78 countries set a new attendance record at the 2015 edition of Dreamforce, which was celebrated recently in San Francisco, CA.

These executives attended the presentation of innovations, speeches and the demonstrations offered by Salesforce. In addition, the members of the Spanish delegation enjoyed a series of extra events that we coordinated… Read More

Verizon’s Intelligent Cloud Control to Connect With AWS, SoftLayer, Azure

Excerpted from Channel Partners Report by Edward Gately

Verizon Enterprise Solutions has a new service designed to help customers migrate workloads to public cloud services based on an enterprise’s performance and resource requirements.

A joint effort with VMTurbo, Verizon Intelligent Cloud Control enables the carrier’s customers to take advantage of software to drive real-time, automatable, price, performance and compliance-based placements, according to the company. It also allows sizing and configuration decisions to deploy and migrate workloads to and among cloud service providers (CSPs).

Victoria Lonker, Verizon’s Director of Enterprise Networking, tells Channel Partners that the service “opens up the opportunity for partners to have even more impactful discussions with customers about how they use the cloud to run their businesses.”

“This understanding deepens the relationship of the Verizon partner as a valued business partner to the customer, who can acquaint the customer with options to optimize their cloud experience,” she said.

“Partners conversant in both networking and cloud technologies stand to win the most here… Read More

NetApp CEO Kurian Talks about New Competitors and More

Excerpted from CRN Report by Joseph Kovar

When NetApp this month reported second fiscal quarter 2016 revenue and earnings drops compared with the same period last year, it was in part proof of the storage vendor’s success in getting customers to transition from its older 7-Mode architecture to its new clustered-storage, all-flash arrays and the cloud.

But while NetApp is ready to leave the painful transition behind, the company continues to face increasing competition from a large crop of nimble startups. Meanwhile, it is navigating an industry seeing massive consolidation, as exemplified by Dell’s planned acquisition of NetApp’s primary — and much larger — rival, EMC.

NetApp CEO George Kurian, who took over the company’s reins just last June, sat down with CRN to talk about what NetApp is doing to live up to its coming role as the industry’s largest independent storage vendor.

Q: Revenue in the second fiscal quarter was down nearly 6 percent, and income for the quarter was down. What happened?

A: Our overall financial results for the second quarter were as expected. We continue to make progress, as we outlined to the market, in transitioning our business from traditional storage to the faster-growing parts of the storage market, such as scale-out, software-defined, flash, converged infrastructure, and hybrid cloud… Read More

Coming Events of Interest

Government Video Expo — December 1st-3rd in Washington, DC. Sponsored by NewBay Media, GVE 2015 will be the East Coast’s largest technology event designed for video, broadcast, and audio-video professionals.

Internet of Things World Forum (IoTWF) — December 6th-8th in Dubai. IoTWF is an exclusive event that brings together the best and brightest thinkers, practitioners, and innovators from business, government, and academia to accelerate the market adoption of the Internet of Things.

CES — January 6th-9th in Las Vegas, NV. The world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. CES has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for more than 40 years.

ADRM Working Group Meeting — January 28th via Global Videoconference. Contact the DCIA for information about joining the group and attending the meeting that will focus on interoperability among DRM platforms and simplifying DRM implementation.

Industry of Things World USA — February 25th-26th in San Diego, CA. A new international information exchange forum featuring four concurrent tracks covering business model generation, technology and infrastructure, data management, and security.

Delivery of Things World — April 25th-26th in Berlin, Germany. DevOps specialists, continuous development strategists, architect newbies, development geeks, and cloud geniuses from across the spectrum of DevOps transformation come together at this stimulating and innovative event.

Cloud and DevOps World Forum 2016 — June 21st-22nd in London, England. Now in its eighth year, C&DWF is firmly established as the leading content-led exhibition for the European Cloud and DevOps community and the premiere meeting place for CIOs.

Security of Things World — June 27th-28th in Berlin, Germany. Topics include securing cyber physical systems for IoT, expanding IT security with intelligence-led ops, business continuity management considerations, data privacy in an interconnected world, and security strategies.

Industry of Things World Europe — September 19th-20th in Berlin, Germany. IoT business models, new IoT markets and strategies, product lifecycle management, next generation data handling and value assessment, IoT organizational impacts, and IoT security issues.

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