CTOvision.com » information technology http://ctovision.com News, analysis and context on enterprise technology for the CTO Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:03:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Cyber Power Index http://ctovision.com/2012/01/the-cyber-power-index/ http://ctovision.com/2012/01/the-cyber-power-index/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:42:44 +0000 AlexOlesker http://ctovision.com/?p=15755

The Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton recently released their Cyber Power Index, which compares the G20 countries in their ability to resist cyber attacks while simultaneously leveraging information technology in their economy. The nations are ranked based on 39 indicators combined into 4 weighted attributes: Legal and Regulatory Framework, Economic and Social Context, Technology and Infrastructure, and Industry Application. The Cyber Power Index is in interactive tool so users can custimize the weighing as well as drill down into the details, but the default has all four factors as roughly equal, with slightly less emphasis on Industry Application. With these settings, the index holds a few surprises. The United States is second, behind the United Kingdom, and some of the countries often characterized to be cyber powerhouses like China and Russia did relatively poorly, 13th and 14th place respectively.

The Legal and Regulatory Framework was based on whether laws and policies maximize the value of the Internet and cyberspace, favoring openness, security, and collaboration. Security and openness were not seen as contradictory since some measures work to benefit both. Economic and Social Context measured societies’ capacity to adopt information technology into their lives.  Technology Infrastructure was defined as “core infrastructure; mechanisms and incentives to invest, invent, and innovate; and strategies to improve” in order to develop and maintain cyber power. Lastly, Industry Adoption compared countries abilities to integrate cyber technologies into their core industries such as health, finance, and energy.

Overall, several trends emerged. The countries near the top, the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, and Canada, were developed Western countries with a long history of Internet use. While there were minor differences across factors, these countries were fairly consistent, ranking in the top 7 for all 4 categories. There was also a large discrepancy between the best and worst performers, with Great Britain achieving a total score roughly three times as high as Saudi Arabia. The United States was a close second to the UK in Legal and Regulatory Framework, first in Economic and Social Context, a more distant second behind the UK in Technology Infrastructure Adoption, and third in Industry Application behind Australia and South Korea. Despite concerns over Chinese and Russian cyber attacks, both countries ranked near the bottom in Legal and Regulatory Framework and Technology Infrastructure, implying difficulty developing and implementing security policy. From the results, technical skills, high educational attainment levels, open trade policies, and an innovative business environment were discovered to be the foundation to cyber power and excelling across categories.

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]]> http://ctovision.com/2012/01/the-cyber-power-index/feed/ 0 More DC Area Big Data User Groups http://ctovision.com/2012/01/more-dc-area-big-data-user-groups/ http://ctovision.com/2012/01/more-dc-area-big-data-user-groups/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:27:46 +0000 BobGourley http://ctovision.com/?p=15383

Last week we made mention of the Washington DC Area Hadoop Users Group (HUG).  This is a great group of community minded people who meet to exchange lessons learned and dialog on interested technologies. There are others groups in the DC area that work similar topics and we learned more about them in replies to that post.

The following are two of note plus the description they have on their meetup.com sites:

The Big Data Meetup Group: http://www.meetup.com/bigdatadc/

Come join us for regular technical discussion in the areas of large scale data processing and analytics. We’re open to all topics related to “big data” — distributed algorithms, machine learning, probabilistic data structures, performance and reliability. The focus will be on the practical solutions to real world big data problems rather than just a single processing or storage platform. The format will typically be two presenters with ample time for discussion and questions. Everybody is welcome to come and share their experience or just listen to others share theirs. We will keep the S/N ratio as high as possible and focus on technical discussions rather than marketing hype (or FUD).

The Data Science DC Group: http://www.meetup.com/Data-Science-DC/

Data Science DC is a non-profit professional group that meets monthly to discuss diverse topics in predictive analytics, applied machine learning, statistical modeling, open data, and data visualization. Our members are professionals, students, and others with a deep interest in these fields and related technologies. Meeting topics are varied and range from tutorials on basic concepts and their applications, to success stories from local practitioners, to discussions of tools, new technologies, and best practices. All are welcome — to attend, to meet others, and to present their work!

Note: since these groups are made up of people who are involved out of attraction to ideas, they are by no means mutually exclusive. There is quite a bit of overlap among members.  To decide which ones you will engage with I recommend signing up at each meetup site and then tracking agendas.  Attend the ones you feel an affinity towards. And, since these are community driven/supported groups, if you have ideas for topics to discuss use those groups to spread them around and pull together your own event. If you are running a Big Data related event please let me know and if it is a strategic fit with what our readers are looking for I’d love to help spread the word.  Posts we do here are provided to our blog at CTOvision.com plus several other sites and are then turned around in our weekly Government Big Data Newsletter. So please let us know if there is something we should spread the word on.

]]> http://ctovision.com/2012/01/more-dc-area-big-data-user-groups/feed/ 1 CTOvision Newsletters and Tech Reports http://ctovision.com/2012/01/ctovision-newsletters-and-tech-reports/ http://ctovision.com/2012/01/ctovision-newsletters-and-tech-reports/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:22:09 +0000 BobGourley http://ctovision.com/?p=15366

Our premier publication is our monthly technology review. Every month we send this to over 6000 technology thought leaders. This monthly summarizes reporting from the CTOvision.com blog as well as tech trends from the IT industry. The monthly also provide links to our technology assessments. Other products include our Daily CTOvision.com summary, the Daily Fedcyber.com summary, and the Weekly Government Big Data Newsletter.

We would like to add you to our distros.  To sign up please see:

CTOvision.com Newsletter Distribution Signups: http://j.mp/ctonews

Here is a bit more on our key newsletters:

  • The Monthly CTOvision.com Tech Review provides a recap of the most significant trends sweeping the technology community in the prior month, plus insights into coming events and activities. This is our largest distribution list with over 6000 members. As its name implies, it is published once a month. We also use this list for periodic surveys and conference announcements.
  • The Daily CTOvision.com Update provides a summary of posts we publish on our blog.  If we don’t publish it does not go out, but it is never more than once a day.
]]> http://ctovision.com/2012/01/ctovision-newsletters-and-tech-reports/feed/ 0 When Chuck Norris Gets Cloud-Mobile http://ctovision.com/2011/12/when-chuck-norris-gets-cloud-mobile/ http://ctovision.com/2011/12/when-chuck-norris-gets-cloud-mobile/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:00:05 +0000 AdamElkus http://ctovision.com/?p=15238

At first glance, cloud computing may seem to be distinct from the austere world of special operations forces (SOF). But Special Operations Technology‘s Eric Marks has a very interesting piece on how SOF can use the cloud to gain the tactical advantage.

Some highlights:

  • Cloud to the edge tactical mobile computing, which would feature the re-engineering of mission threads and processes so they could be executed by mobile devices. “This could include controlling a UAV via a smartphone, or having map, radio, and GPS capabilities all in one small pocket-sized device.” Hear that, al-Qaeda? These dudes might be flying a drone with an iPhone! Of course, this makes me feel bad since all I do with my iPhone is browse icanhazcheezburger.com.
  • Mobile analytics could enable big data analysis of semi and unstructured data from sensors throughout the battlespace for rapid analysis of threat information. Given DARPA‘s interest in progressively more advanced sensors–particularly in urban settings–big data is likely to be of interest to tactical military users.
  • Mobile infrastructure in many civilian cloud products emphasizes the ability to make small devices mobile units of infrastructure that could be potentially deployed into austere environments for SOF. “Adding cloud computing functionality to these portable data centers simply means that more consumers can access the cloud resources when they need them, and therefore support more computing needs with fewer physical resource.”
  • Last, but not least, the tactical app store. While you have Angry Birds, SOF could use a set of applications to mission-tailor to wildly differing environments. This is a growth area not just for SOF, but for the whole military.

Marks concludes by pointing out that ad-hoc grids could provide computing power on the go for SOF users.”If a grid of linked computers can discover one another, connect, pool their resources, and allow sharing of computation to address spikes in demand for computational capacity in tactical situations.” Of course, bandwidth requirements, latency, and intermittent connections will pose problems for realizing this vision. But that wouldn’t stop Chuck Norris, and it ultimately isn’t likely to be much of an obstacle for the joint special operations community’s agile technologists.

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]]> http://ctovision.com/2011/12/when-chuck-norris-gets-cloud-mobile/feed/ 3 Risk Management with Fixmo Sentinel http://ctovision.com/2011/12/risk-management-with-fixmo-sentinel/ http://ctovision.com/2011/12/risk-management-with-fixmo-sentinel/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:26:45 +0000 BryanHalfpap http://ctovision.com/?p=14740

mobile devices

These days we hear a lot of terms thrown about like the “Consumerization of IT” and “Bring your own device” (BYOD), and “Network health”.  This is because corporations are starting to warm up to the idea that maybe if they let you bring in your personal computing devices such as smartphones and tablets, they won’t have to pay to give you one.

The flip-side of letting employees bring their consumer devices into the corporate fold is that there are much fewer mechanisms on these devices to allow them to be administered by a corporate IT policy, which can cause more than a few security and compatibility headaches, not to mention auditing and compliance nightmares. The idea of complete and total control over the corporate IT landscape is dying, and here to replace it is a feeling of unease in corporate IT departments even as executives push for more BYOD models.

Why the unease in IT?  When email isn’t working on your new Android or iPhone, you or your employees will call the IT department. The department, which typically supported a population of devices that were all very similar and very manageable from one point, now moves to support hundreds of different devices across multiple platforms which require different services to be managed. They are not only expected to support the new phones and tablets — they are also expected to ensure the continued security integrity of corporate networks and data while doing so. In an environment with such a rapidly-growing malicious software base and uneducated users, the task quickly becomes daunting.

Enter Fixmo, the creators of the commercial versions of the AutoBerry and AutoBES software. These software packages were designed to automate the secure setup of corporate BlackBerry phones and to ensure their security. This is what Fixmo cut their teeth on before moving into Mobile Device Management software (MDM) and solutions for mobile security.

Mobile Device Management/Mobile Risk Management

Mobile device management and mobile risk management are oriented around reducing and managing risk associated with connecting highly mobile devices which “roam” networks to enterprise technology structures. While the act of connecting them to a network may be simple, ensuring that enterprise policy is translated to these devices appropriately is a challenge. Many consumer devices require software and servers which may not be in use, or which can’t be implemented. Furthermore, policies are difficult to set and more difficult to manage. It is for this reason that many corporations choose to issue devices which they have complete control over (BlackBerries).

Fixmo’s MDM solution, Sentinel, changes this with an approach that provides management and auditing to both phones and framework servers. This approach differs slightly between phones due to differences in the architectures of the phone operating systems it supports, but they all share a few features. The main component of the phone MDM is the agent. The agent monitors changes made to the phone and analyzes activities and installed applications. It relays this information to the Sentinel Server via automatic push or timed updates, and the server stores this information.
The agent can be made to monitor for any type of system event, and is responsible for enforcing policies on the phone and communicating with the server. The Sentinel server can be used to view things such as current phone status (on, off, out of service, last reported in date) and information about the phone such as recent policy violations, installed programs, set policies, group membership, and more. The interface is easy to use (it’s a web application interface) and provides plenty of information with a presentation which doesn’t confuse users.

Perhaps one of the greatest features of the Sentinel agent is in its Android incarnation. One of the great roadblocks to major corporate adoption of Android has been its reliance on Google apps and the Google “cloud”. By using the Sentinel agent on Android, Android phones can be taught to use corporate networks through the Sentinel server. This allows corporate information technology departments to provide their own app store of supported applications or company-specific Android apps. Fixmo will provide app-store services through their App47 product, which is still in development.

Making it Easy All The Way Up

Autoberry and AutoBES are two mature Blackberry management software packages from Fixmo that manage both the phone and the server. Fixmo has taken what they learned with those platforms and taken it to the next level with Sentinel. Good, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and Microsoft exchange are all integrated into the Sentinel management platform, allowing for the management of both devices and their servers. This means compliance with regulations and audits are much easier when using Sentinel, which can generate reports on these servers and their policies.

Users of the management and auditing application can be integrated from active directory or other LDAP software and from BES groups. These users can be given granular privileges over phones, servers, and management and reporting applications depending on their needs.

SafeZone

Fixmo is rolling out encrypted containers on the iOS and Android platforms which will allow users to work inside of FIPS-compliant environments on mobile devices which may not otherwise meet security requirements. The container, called Safezone, is an encrypted sandbox which has an API with which developers can create proprietary applications which can communicate and operate securely on mobile platforms. The container also has several applications from Fixmo which ship with the product, such as document editing services. This will allow mobile users to work on sensitive data without losing security, and without moving the data beyond the corporate network, since the application communicates via virtual network with devices placed inside of a corporate network.

Solutions currently on the market to perform MDM services are not currently as robust or full-scope as the Fixmo product, largely because they either highly focused or do not address some of the many limitations that the consumerization trend has brought upon corporate IT (namely, the lack of corporate policy enforcement mechanisms). Thus, Fixmo is a good investment for any IT firm looking to control their network and their security.

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]]> http://ctovision.com/2011/12/risk-management-with-fixmo-sentinel/feed/ 2 What You Need to Know About Duqu http://ctovision.com/2011/12/what-you-need-to-know-about-duqu/ http://ctovision.com/2011/12/what-you-need-to-know-about-duqu/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000 BryanHalfpap http://ctovision.com/?p=14145

Duqu is a stealthy computer virus with a hidden agenda...

Everything that you need to know about Duqu:

Duqu was reported to antivirus vendors around the 14th of October, 2011, but it has been in the wild since November of 2010. Since then there have been varients (updated copies with additional features or upgrades to code) released.

It has been billed as the next Stuxnet, the son of Stuxnet, or a Stuxnet clone. In reality, Duqu is actually more like a payload of Stuxnet rather than the entire attack campagin, because it is a backdoor package dropped via other means. The reason why Stuxnet was considered to be so advanced was in large part because of its varied numbers of unpatched exploits that it used to ensure successful infection.

Lets take a look at the similarities:

  • Duqu uses code segments that can be identical to or very close to those used in the Stuxnet payload.
  • Both Stuxnet and Duqu use signed code in order to appear to antivirus, Windows, and users as legitimate code.
  • Registers a remote procedure call server in a very similar fashion to Stuxnet
  • Has the same list of antivirus products, in the same order as Stuxnet except one more product was added.
  • Checks for running processes in a manner similar to Stuxnet
  • Both Stuxnet and Duqu use “import by hash” techniques instead of directly importing function names.

These similarities are code similarities, which means that Stuxnet and Duqu seem to share a common resource base, code base, and methodology in loading and running executables. Essentially we can think of the ways Duqu and Stuxnet install and launch themselves as being similar enough to warrant either worry that it is the same perpetrator of Stuxnet, or that they have access to the source code of the Stuxnet threat.

There are plenty of significant differences, however, namely that Duqu only performs information-gathering techniques. In comparison, Stuxnet destroyed industrial equipment, disabled safety systems, and was overtly malicious. Duqu’s most significant malicious payload is its spying ability.

Duqu infections currently have the following functionalities:

  • View processes, accounts, and domain information
  • View drive names/information
  • Ability to take screenshots
  • View network and network setup
  • Keylogger
  • Window name enumeration
  • Share enumeration
  • File exploration on all drives

Duqu sends this information to a command-and-control server currently located in India, the IP address of which is hard-coded into the Duqu payloads. Interestingly enough, Duqu is also set to destroy itself after 36 days of infection, a probable reason for why it has been able to live so long in the wild without detection.

Targets:

Duqu appears to be mostly targeting some industrial control systems and Certificate authorities, probably for the purposes of gaining information to be used in further exploits. CA compromises are also lucrative because of their use in malware.  Duqu itself is a sterling example of the use of compromised CA information because it uses a stolen certificate to sign itself as legitimate software, fooling the operating system, antivirus, and user alike with the ruse.

Infection Methods:

At first, Duqu was largely reported to have come from the same folks who created Stuxnet.  This simply doesn’t have to be the case.  The techniques could have been copied or even stolen wholesale by the malware authors.  Duqu also behaves differently and uses different infection methods.  Whereas Stuxnet was focused on remote exploitation or spread-exploitation, Duqu’s exploit of choice (MS11-087, which has since been patched) is a trojan-horse method that requires a user to open an infected Microsoft Word document.

What Can We Learn From This?

Don’t trust the initial reports, be wary, but try not to buy into the paranoia because it’s important to have measured and rational reactions to security threats so your customers and users don’t view you as the “boy who cried wolf”.  The sad thing about Duqu is that it would be very hard to detect without antivirus signatures.  With it being signed, silent, patient and auto-deleting, it is a threat that is difficult to detect or defend against unless you have the proper security infrastructure (Intrusion detection system, VLANs, exfil firewalls, Data Loss Prevention, ect…).  Use this as an excuse to justify increased security expenditures if you don’t have things up-to-spec.

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]]> http://ctovision.com/2011/12/what-you-need-to-know-about-duqu/feed/ 3 Bob Gourley’s 2012 Outlook: “Expect Disruptions” http://ctovision.com/2011/11/bob-gourley%e2%80%99s-2012-outlook-%e2%80%9cexpect-disruptions%e2%80%9d/ http://ctovision.com/2011/11/bob-gourley%e2%80%99s-2012-outlook-%e2%80%9cexpect-disruptions%e2%80%9d/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:56:56 +0000 AlexOlesker http://ctovision.com/?p=14532

Bob Gourley was recently interviewed for WashingtonExec’s New Series: WashingtonExec 2012 Prediction Issue: Execs Speak Out. 2012 is fast approaching, and with it comes big changes in the Federal IT industry.  WashingtonExec is giving local executives the opportunity to share their thoughts on where they see the government contracting industry headed.  Leaders of the industry were asked a series of predictions questions focused on challenging issues such as cloud computing, healthcare IT, defense and so forth.

Thoughts from Bob Gourley, founder and CTO of Crucial Point, LLC. You can also check out Gourley’s personal blog here.

“The Washington DC environment for 2012 will show one thing in such high demand the federal government will pay almost any price for it. This capability is needed more than any technology. It is more important than Cloud Computing or Big Data. The capability the government will pay highly for is the ability to wisely choose how to shrink budgets. The government needs individuals and companies with proven past performance in doing more with less.

On the technology front, billions of dollars will still be spent, and  we can expect legacy IT will be with us long into the future. But technology solutions that can show rapid return on investment while decreasing costs for agencies will be highly sought after.

It will be interesting to see which of today’s major integrators will adapt to this new world. Expect disruptions.”

via WashingtonExec, original interview here.

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]]> http://ctovision.com/2011/11/bob-gourley%e2%80%99s-2012-outlook-%e2%80%9cexpect-disruptions%e2%80%9d/feed/ 1 Virtual Reality Past, Present, and Future: Part 1 http://ctovision.com/2011/11/virtual-reality-past-present-and-future-part-1/ http://ctovision.com/2011/11/virtual-reality-past-present-and-future-part-1/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:46:27 +0000 Dillon Behr http://ctovision.com/?p=14408

Photo credit www.howstuffworks.com

Virtual reality (VR) is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds.  This can vary from flight and other vehicle simulators, to video games, to immersion programs for training of military tactics, to medical and therapeutic uses.

The beginnings of virtual reality are nothing like we know them today, but they did start with a visionary.  In the 1960s Ivan Sutherland developed a light pen for interacting with computer displays, known at the Sketchpad, and by the end of the decade the first computer mouse was invented.  These revolutionized the way humans interacted with computers and set the stage for the future.  Following WWII the military became interested in VR technology and began developing it for flight simulators.  They realized the value of being able to train pilots on the ground before subjecting them to the dangers of actual flight.[1]

In the 70’s the entertainment industry began playing with VR and the popular movie Star Wars was born, which was a major advancement in the industry.  Video games were revolutionized by VR in the 80’s and the first data glove, a way to interact with computers through movements of the hand, was born.  This led to the Power Glove, which was made popular through Nintendo games of the day.  Eventually, the military also developed shooting simulators, that would allow soldiers to fire realistic weapons at a computer screen displaying pixelated enemies, without the need for excessive expenditure on live ammunition.[2]

Simulators are still a large part of VR application for the military these days, but they have advanced significantly since the first box with a joystick and a computer display.  Today haptic technology, computers interacting with humans through sense of touch, has helped to make flight simulators replicate the actual feeling of being in a high performance aircraft.  Advances in computing power, displays, and cameras have driven the technology to where training pilots on the ground can very closely resemble flying a plane in real time, in a lifelike scenario.  This technology is also being used for other vehicles, such as Strikers, tanks, and submarines. Though VR simulators are quite expensive to produce initially, the re-use capabilities and the cost saving of not having to keep the much more expensive real equipment around pays off significantly in the long run.

Other types of simulation that the military is using involve Virtual Humans.  One example is the Mission Rehearsal Exercise System, developed by the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California.  This technology allows military trainees to enter realistic virtual environments with believable characters that they can interact with.  This is designed to teach leadership and decision-making skills to small-unit leaders.  The idea is that by dealing with life-like situations in a safe virtual world, the young soldier will be better prepared for the situation when he faces it in combat.  During times of war, this virtual reality technology can have significant cost saving value from a time, money, personnel, and resource aspect, with the added benefit of being in safe environment.[3]

An example that takes the virtual environment training a step further is the Virtual Squad Training System (VSTS) at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.  The VSTS is a wearable and wireless system that allows soldiers to move unencumbered through a virtual world, such as an urban environment that would take significant space, personnel, and money to run in the real world.  Service-members use a load-bearing vest for the batteries, a head mounted display with motion tracker, a body motion tracker, and a realistic wireless weapon to move around the virtual battlefield.  Usually a series of treadmills will be used to limit the space needed for the environment.[4]

Advances in computer networking have helped to advance the military applications of virtual reality as well.  Large battles can take place in several locations at the same time, meaning service-members can interact with each other in virtual worlds, without having to be in the same location.  Tanks can practice firing upon each other and aircraft can be integrated into the battle as well, potentially all from the safety of a virtual room.  That is a significant savings on fuel costs, not to mention all of the other logistics an exercise of this type might have.[5]

Today we use VR not only for training and safety reasons, but also for complex analysis of battlefield environments.  The Dragon Battlefield Visualization System ‘displays a three-dimensional representation of the battle space, which includes a terrain map, entities representing friendly, enemy, unknown, and neutral units, and symbology representing other features such as obstructions or key points in the plan of operations.’[6]  Commanders and military planners, with technology taken from advances in satellite imagery like Google Earth and SketchUp, can simultaneously view and interact with a 3-D map, looking at a realistic rendition of the battle space from all angles.[7]

An even more advanced version of the Dragon system was completed earlier this year by DARPA.  The Urban Photonic Sandtable Display (UPSD) ‘creates a real-time, color, 360-degree 3D holographic display to assist battle planners. Without having to wear 3D goggles or glasses, a team of planners can view a large-format, interactive 3D display. Presently UPSD is a scalable display platform that can be expanded from a six-inch diagonal size up to a six-foot diagonal, in both monochrome and color formats.’ [8]  Next week I will discuss the future of Virtual Reality and the national security implications of this potentially disruptive technology.


[1] Virtual Reality: History.  (1995)  University of Illinois Retrieved From http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/Cyberia/VETopLevels/VR.History.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Hill, R., Gratch, J., Marsella, S., Rickel, J., Swartout, W., and Traum, D.  (N. Y.) Virtual Humans In The Mission Rehearsal Exercise System.  Retrieved from class documents.

[4]Shinsato, C. (2010) U.S. Army news. Retrieved from http://www.army.mil/article/41203/Virtual_Squad_Training_simulates_patrolling_techniques__tasks/; Strickland, Jonathan.  “How Virtual Reality Military Applications Work”  27 August 2007.  HowStuffWorks.com.   Retrieved from <http://science.howstuffworks.com/virtual-military.htm>  17 October 2011.

[5] Briggs, John C. (1996), The Promise of Virtual Reality., Vol. 30, The Futurist, Retrieved from http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/virtualreality_promise.html

[6] Jim Durbin, Simon Julier, Brad Colbert, John Crowe, Bob Doyle, Rob King, Tony King, Chris Scannell, Zachary Wartell, Terry Welsh, (1998). “Making Information Overload Work: The Dragon software system on a Virtual Reality Responsive Workbench” SPIE AeroSense Conference, Vol. 3393, pp. 96-107.

[7] Strickland, Jonathan.  “How Virtual Reality Military Applications Work”  27 August 2007.  HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from <http://science.howstuffworks.com/virtual-military.htm>  17 October 2011.

[8]http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/2011/03/24_DARPA_Successfully_Completes_3D_Holographic_Display_Technology_Demonstration_Program.aspx

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]]> http://ctovision.com/2011/11/virtual-reality-past-present-and-future-part-1/feed/ 5 Top Five Nominees For The Government Big Data Solutions Award http://ctovision.com/2011/11/top-five-nominees-for-the-government-big-data-solutions-award/ http://ctovision.com/2011/11/top-five-nominees-for-the-government-big-data-solutions-award/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:47:58 +0000 BobGourley http://ctovision.com/?p=14311

Governments (local, State, Federal, International) need more agility. This is especially true in the domain of Information Technology. Information technology is one of the fastest moving industries, but the government is slow at adopting and procuring new technology, including the technology that would make it more agile and adaptive.

There are things we can do to accelerate innovation in governments. One key method is to recognize success and help highlight lessons learned relevant to replicating success. In an attempt to help do this,  CTOlabs established the Government Big Data Solutions Award.  The winner will be announced at Hadoop World 2011. The award and briefing prior to the award will help inform the Big Data community about government missions, challenges, and successes and to show the public sector Big Data possibilities and use cases, encouraging understanding and interaction between communities.

Many critical federal missions can benefit from Big Data technologies. Examples include detecting financial fraud, cybersecurity, geospatial and location-based data search, real-time search and recommendation engines, and research in fields such as bioinformatics. These problems require scalable solutions for vast amounts of complex information delivered despite constrained budgets. Federal integrators, the DoD and Intelligence Community, the national labs, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration are most active with both Big Data problems and solutions, which are already making a difference. The Government Big Data Award aims to highlight this work and it’s effects.

The judges for the award are experienced innovators in Big Data, IT, and government. They are Doug Cutting, open source search technology inventor and advocate, Chris Dorobek of Dorobekinsider.com, Ed Grandstand of the QinetiQ Strategic Solution Center, Ryan LaSalle of Accenture Technology Labs, and experienced Federal CIO Alan Wade.

This year’s top nominees for the Government Big Data Solutions Award are:

  • USA Search: Best in class hosted search services over more than 500 gov sites. Great use of the Cloudera Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH).
  • GCE Federal: Cloud-based financial management solutions. Apache Hadoop, Hbase, Lucene for Dept of Labor.
  • PNNL Bioinformatics: Leading researcher Dr. Taylor of PNNL is advancing understanding of health, biology, genetics and computing using Apache Hadoop/MapReduce/HBase.
  • SherpaSurfing: Use of CDH as a cybersecurity solution. Ingest packet capture in any format, analyze trends, find malware, alert.
  • US Department of State: Bureau of Consular Affairs. Large data with important applications for citizen service and national security.
The winner will be announced at Hadoop World, 8-9 November in NYC at a presentation given by Bob Gourley. All the top nominees and the winner will also be written up on CTOlabs.com and CTOvision.com.
]]> http://ctovision.com/2011/11/top-five-nominees-for-the-government-big-data-solutions-award/feed/ 7 Signing up for our Newsletters and Tech Reports http://ctovision.com/2011/11/signing-up-for-our-newsletters-and-tech-reports/ http://ctovision.com/2011/11/signing-up-for-our-newsletters-and-tech-reports/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:13:03 +0000 BobGourley http://ctovision.com/?p=14262

Our premier publication is our monthly technology review. Every month we send this to over 6000 technology thought leaders. This monthly summarizes reporting from the CTOvision.com blog as well as tech trends from the IT industry. The monthly also provide links to our technology assessments. Other products include our Daily CTOvision.com summary, the Daily Fedcyber.com summary, and the Weekly Government Big Data Newsletter.

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  • The Monthly CTOvision.com Tech Review provides a recap of the most significant trends sweeping the technology community in the prior month, plus insights into coming events and activities. This is our largest distribution list with over 6000 members. As its name implies, it is published once a month. We also use this list for periodic surveys and conference announcements.
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