Volume LVIII, Issue 4

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In This Issue

Verizon’s John Stratton Keynotes at CTIA

Excerpted from CTIA Report

On day two of #SuperMobility, Verizon’s John Stratton spoke about the power of 5G and how wireless connects people, things, and places.

Stratton also spoke with Sensity Systems and the Light Sensory Network CEO Hugh Martin and New Cities Foundation Founder & Chairman John Roussant on the future of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Stratton is Executive Vice President (EVP) and President of Operations, with responsibility for overseeing and growing Verizon’s wireless and wireline operations.

Accounting for $126.1 billion in annual revenue, Verizon’s operating businesses provide a broad array of consumer and enterprise communications products on the most advanced networks in the world.

Before assuming his current position in February 2015, Stratton was EVP and President – Global Enterprise and Consumer Wireline, with responsibility for all wireline operations, network, cloud computing, and cybersecurity platforms.

Before that, he was President of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, which provides solutions for business and government customers… Read More

NetApp Debuts Entry-Level All-Flash Array

Excerpted from InfoStor Report by Pedro Hernandez

Analytics can supercharge an organization’s digital transformation initiatives, but not if it takes forever to glean meaningful business insights from disk-based storage systems.

NetApp today announced a new beginner all-flash array for midsized businesses that helps slash the time it takes to complete analytics workloads, the E2800.

E2800 series arrays, also available in hybrid solid-state drive (SSD) and hard drives, make their debut alongside the latest version of the company’s SANtricity storage software, version 11.30.

The software uses an SSD cache and its own analytics capabilities to provide automated tuning of customers’ analytics workloads and improved visibility into the effect of their applications on their storage infrastructure, claims NetApp.

Another perk is predictably brisk performance.

NetApp continues to expand its data analytics momentum for technologies like Splunk solutions, or technologies like Hadoop and NoSQL by introducing new products and solutions that help enterprises and midsize businesses streamline their IT infrastructure… Read More

The Cloud, the Edge, and the Industrial Internet

Excerpted from DZone Report by Steve Garbrecht

Access the survey results State of Industrial Internet Application Development to learn about latest challenges, trends and opportunities with Industrial IoT, brought to you in partnership with GE Digital.

Much of the industrial world has been unable to capitalize on the digital revolution because data was locked up in disconnected machines or couldn’t be processed economically.

The new world of connected equipment and big data analytics commonly called the Internet of things (IoT) will change all that.

“Workers in the industrial sector have been under-served by computer productivity tools,” said John Magee, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at GE Digital a General Electric Company subsidiary in an interview with the CUBE’s Jeff Frick at GE Digital’s Innovation Day 2016.

“We needed to develop a unique platform for industrial Internet of things solutions.”

GE’s Predix cloud platform is an effort to “work with customers on their own digital industrial transformation,” Magee said… Read More

Report from DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty

Click Here for Video.

Looking ahead to 2017, we’re pleased to announce that the DCIA has been invited to participate as an Allied Association with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and plans to exhibit at CES 2017.

CES 2017 takes place on January 5th through 8th in Las Vegas, NV.

For fifty years, CES has been the proving ground for innovators, unveiling breakthrough technologies and adapting as the definition of technology expands.

Each year, products are introduced that challenge the status quo and raise the bar for future advancements.

CES 2017 will feature more than 3,800 exhibiting companies showcasing innovation across 2.4 million net square feet, representing 24 product categories.

We’re also glad to share some updates on our upcoming Industry of Things World USA (IoTWUSA) event co-sponsored with the weCONECT Group.

The Manufacturing Institute, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Manufacturing Connection, TM Forum, Sandvik Coromat, Alcoa, Evonik, Renault, Halliburton Company, ABB, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Sugar Creek Packing, and Tennant will speak at IoTWUSA 2017 on February 20th through 21st in San Diego, CA, sharing their recipes of how you can monetize IoT in an industrial setting.

In the last few weeks, the IoTWUSA community has grown with confirmed delegations from Bosch, Denso, Osram, Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor Company, Orange, Atlas Systems, UI Labs, Comfort Systems, the QT Company, Microsoft, USG Interiors and many more joining us for the event in February.

And finally, are you interested in security of IoT topics or do you know someone who might be?

Then have a look at our event Security of Things World USA taking place this November 3rd through 4th, also in San Diego. Share wisely, and take care.

Maximizing Potential of Industrial Internet

Excerpted from CloudTech Report by Graham Jarvis

Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) often use extremely large files, which make remote working and collaboration difficult to achieve.

Most businesses are able to work remotely with laptops, smartphones and tablet PCs, but the processing power required to create, store and share CAD files over a wide area network is often prohibitive.

Yet with the power of the internet they can work remotely and collaboratively.

The key challenge, because the files they send to their colleagues and CAD partners across the globe are so large, is about how their IT teams mitigate the effects of latency in wide area networks (WAN) to enable them to work uninterrupted by slow network connections.

Strained WAN resources aren’t the only issue that concerns them.

They need to deploy remote access control technology to protect their data as it flows across the internet, and from cloud to cloud, to ensure that only authorized individuals can work on any given CAD or CAE projects… Read More

Cloud Adoption Means Updating Networks

Excerpted from TechTarget Report by Amy DeCarlo

Predictions of rapid-fire growth in the adoption of cloud computing are coming to fruition, with an astonishing number of large- and smaller-scale projects on the docket.

Enterprises are flocking to the medium — not just as a way to cut expenses and help them scale better, but as a means to become more agile and competitive.

The expectation is demand — and cloud traffic — will only continue to soar.

Cisco, for example, said more than four-fifths of all workloads will be processed by cloud data centers by 2019, with global IP cloud data accounting for 83% of all IP traffic.

At this fast and furious pace, there is a real concern that organizations racing toward the adoption of cloud computing aren’t taking a methodical approach to updating their network infrastructures.

Given the tremendous growth in hybrid clouds — where workloads are moved between and among multiple clouds, including on-premises facilities — not having a network optimized to support cloud traffic can be an unfortunate oversight… Read More

Cybersecurity: Trump and Clinton Key Issue

Excerpted from The Hill Report by Alex Manea

Over the past 16 months, we’ve seen the candidates in the 2016 US presidential election discuss, debate, and discourse a wide variety of topics that are important to voters across the country, from immigration reform to health care to foreign policy to the threat of global terrorism.

But there’s yet another issue that affects nearly each and every American, an issue that is critical to the long-term health and welfare of the United States.

America is under cyberattack; this is the harsh reality.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen numerous high-profile hacks on government systems that have directly impacted government organizations, citizens, and in some cases even the presidential candidates themselves.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach exposed the addresses, health and financial history, and other private details of over 21 million people, including every person that was given a government background check for the last 15 years.

We saw hackers use taxpayers’ Social Security Numbers to obtain more than 100,000 E-File PINs directly from the IRS… Read More

CEO Lessons Learned from Cyberattack

Excerpted from Chief Executive Report by Ross Kelly

Last year, Dido Harding found herself having to deal with one of Britain’s worst ever cyberattacks.

And, to make matters worse, the CEO of TalkTalk, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies, was completely in the dark.

Harding had to endure a series of painful television interviews where it quickly became clear that she had no idea who the attacker or attackers were, how many of the company’s 4 million customers had been affected and what kind of security risks they faced.

‘They have been rather unkindly described as the hostage videos,” Dido told Management Today of the media coverage. “I really don’t look my best, and they do look as though I was being held prisoner in a DIY store.”

Harding’s frank admission comes as studies show CEOs aren’t taking cyberattacks seriously enough-and aren’t prepared for the public fallout when they occur.

A recent survey of 1,530 senior executives found that more than 90% could not read a cybersecurity report… Read More

Technology Risk: More than Cybersecurity

Excerpted from Journal of Accountancy Report by Joel Lanz

You can’t blame board members or senior executives for focusing whatever “technology attention” they might have on cybersecurity.

We hear all too often about the everyday threats, risks, losses, and lawsuits resulting from security hacking attempts and breaches.

Media reports and even television shows glamorize the lives of those who perpetrate these computer crimes and those who attempt to stop them.

Yet, today’s organizations face and must manage technology risks that go beyond cybersecurity and fraud.

Below are some of the more critical “silent killers” of technology risk that organizations must master not only to protect their computing assets, but to remain in business.

Use web or mobile applications as relationship managers.

In the 20th century, relationship managers would meet individually with prospects and even entertain them to explain products or services… Read More

GE: The 124 Year-Old Software Start-Up

Excerpted from NY Times Report by Steve Lohr

It may not qualify as a lightning-bolt eureka moment, but Jeffrey R. Immelt, chief executive of General Electric (GE), recalls the June day in 2009 that got him thinking.

He was speaking with GE scientists about new jet engines they were building, laden with sensors to generate a trove of data from every flight — but to what end?

That data could someday be as valuable as the machinery itself, if not more so. But GE couldn’t make use of it.

“We had to be more capable in software,” Mr. Immelt said he decided. Maybe GE — a maker of power turbines, jet engines, locomotives and medical-imaging equipment — needed to think of its competitors as Amazon and IBM.

Back then, GE was returning to its heavy-industry roots and navigating the global financial crisis, shedding much of its bloated finance arm, GE Capital.

That winnowing went on for years as billions of dollars in assets were sold, passing a milestone this summer when GE Capital was removed from the government’s short list of financial institutions deemed too big to fail… Read More

Building Security for the Future

Excerpted from DJC Oregon Report by Stephanie Basalyga

From building information modeling to project management software, Internet-accessible technology is making work in the building industry more efficient.

But with that convenience comes the real threat of attacks – from simple data breaches to acts of terrorism – on those systems.

The Associated General Contractors of America reports that in 2014 there were 117,000 cyberattacks per day in the US, which represents a 50 percent increase over the previous year.

And cybersecurity experts say they expect those numbers to grow in the future.

But trying to proactively combat the attacks poses a problem for the cybersecurity industry, one that may feel familiar to some in the construction industry:

The industry may not have enough skilled workers, including women and minorities, to keep up.

One answer to cybersecurity’s staffing problems, though, may be as close as a lecture room on the Portland State University campus… Read More

Org Chart & Budget Key to Fed Cybersecurity

Excerpted from FedScoop Report by Shaun Waterman

The key to ensuring the cybersecurity of federal agencies lies not in any gee-whiz technology, but in the arcane details of the org chart and budgeting procedures, a panel of former and serving officials said Thursday.

“Structurally, from a budgeting perspective, we’re not set up for for success in federal cybersecurity,” said Thomas McDermott, the acting deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity policy at the Department of Homeland Security.

“The way the federal budgeting process works, with one-year money, it makes it much harder to spend on long-term upgrading infrastructure, as opposed to continuing to patch old and frankly often indefensible IT systems,” he said.

The panel was part of FedScoop’s Lowering the Cost of Government IT Summit at the Newseum.

McDermott said the challenge was “how to normalize and build in cybersecurity as part of an agency’s normal budgeting process … making it part of the norm and not … off on the margins.”

It’s not just the question of how budgets are planned and spent, added Kiersten Todt, executive director of the President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity: There’s also the vital matter of who’s in charge… Read More

Survey Roundup: IoT Brings New Risk Concerns for Firms

Excerpted from Wall St. Journal Report by Ben DiPietro

A look at some recent surveys and reports dealing with risk and compliance issues.

IoT Blind Spots: A survey by digital security and compliance services firm Tripwire found 30% said their organizations are prepared for the security risks associated with internet of things (IoT) devices, while 34% said they believe their organizations accurately track the number of IoT devices on their networks. The survey of around 220 information security professionals who attended the Black Hat USA conference found 78% said they’re concerned about the weaponization of IoT devices for use in distributed denial-of-service attacks.

“The internet of things presents a clear weak spot for an increasing number of information security organizations,” said Tim Erlin, senior director of IT security and risk strategy for Tripwire. “By ensuring these devices are securely configured, patched for vulnerabilities and being monitored consistently, we will go a long way in limiting the risks introduced.”

Get Smart: Increased use of artificial intelligence could mitigate some pressure on financial institutions facing regulatory oversight of their know-your-customer and anti-money laundering programs, according to a report by technology analyst firm Celent and risk and compliance technology company NextAngles… Read More

Small Cloud Firm Helps Others Work with Giants

Excerpted from NY Times Report by Robert Cyran

Apollo Global Management and Searchlight Capital are making a $4.3 billion bet on capitulation.

Apollo, the private-equity company run by Leon Black, is leading a deal to take Rackspace, a cloud computing company, private after it struggled to compete with Amazon, Microsoft, and other technology giants.

If Rackspace’s strategic shift to sell services on these platforms succeeds, Apollo will have a nice payday.

About 70 percent of Rackspace’s revenue comes from managing server farms for individual companies.

That is a stable but relatively low-growth business.

The excitement has come from its public cloud operations, where it competes against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure, selling on-demand computing and services.

The problem is this is a business of scale.

Bigger companies can negotiate to buy servers and power for less, and deploy gear more effectively… Read More

Read between the Lines of CSAs

Excerpted from SearchCloudComputing Report by Paul Korzeniowski

Cloud security assessments (CSAs) and certifications are designed to help businesses understand what steps a provider takes to protect confidential information.

But while security certifications may provide users with some level of comfort, they’re not always enough to guarantee that their information will be safe.

Data security continues to be a major bugaboo with public cloud. “After price, what level of security a provider offers is one of the first questions a business asks when examining a public cloud service,” said Dan Blum, Managing Partner and Principal Consultant at Security Architects LLC, a consulting firm based in Washington, DC.

Organizations often feel uncomfortable moving sensitive information from their own data center to that of a third-party provider.

To assuage that feeling, businesses like to confirm that a provider has completed certain cloud security assessments, or holds certifications.

Those cloud security certifications often consist of two elements… Read More

Is Energy Industry Ready for Open Source?

Excerpted from Houston Chronicle Report by David Hunn

Is the oil and gas industry ready to enter the open source world?

Landmark, a technology unit of the energy services company Halliburton, is betting that it is, unveiling a cloud-computing platform last week that will allow companies to collaborate on developing software to process the massive volumes of data they collect on everything from geology to seismology to chemistry to drilling to flows of oil and gas.

The idea is that easy and open access to the code on which the platform is based will lead to faster and better analysis of the data and ultimately to innovations that allow the industry to extract more oil and gas at lower costs.

“If you don’t innovate, you’ll be gone in 10 years,” said Michael Jones, Senior Director of Strategy at Landmark. “This isn’t business as usual for us.”

The initiative is following a model used for years by tech giants such as Amazon and Google, as well as automakers, software companies and business services firms.

Instead of protecting the code that runs the software, the model, called open source, opens the code to developers… Read More

Coming Events of Interest

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.

EuroCloud Forum — October 5th-6th in Bucharest, Romania. The seventh annual EuroCloud Congress will be held for the first time in Romania. With the theme “Creating New Frontiers in European Cloud,” it will be the sector’s largest forum on the future of cloud in Europe.

Internet & Mobile World 2016 — October 5th-6th in Bucharest, Romania. The largest business-to-business (B2B) expo-conference for information technology (IT) and digital solutions in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE).

Security of Things World USA — November 3rd-4th in San Diego, CA. SoTWUSA has been designed to help you find pragmatic solutions to the most common security threats facing the IoT.

Rethink! Cloudonomic Minds — November 21st-22nd in London, England. R!CM will cover how IoT is impacting cloud strategies and how to take advantage of these two key technology trends.

Government Video Expo — December 6th-8th in Washington, DC. GVE is the East Coast’s largest technology event for broadcast and video professionals, featuring a full exhibit floor, numerous training options, free seminars, keynotes, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and more.

CES 2017 — January 5th-8th in Las Vegas, NV. More than 3,800 exhibiting companies showcasing innovation across 2.4 million net square feet, representing 24 product categories.

Industry of Things World USA — February 20th-21st in San Diego, CA. Global leaders will gather to focus on monetization of the Internet of Things (IoT) in an industrial setting.

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