News, analysis and context on enterprise technology for the CTO
Apple just released the details on the iPhone 4S, for those expecting the 5, they were extremely underwhelmed, and Apple's stock has taken a bit of a tumble. The updates were all internal and all on the back-end. This has made quite a few people upset (mostly because they were hoping for the iPhone 5) but the device is in fact a good deal more powerful. If you've read this blog often, you know I'm not a big Apple fan. While they do make solid … [Read more...]
Editor's Note: The highly regarded enterprise IT thought leader Dion Hinchcliffe has produced yet another "must read" piece for enterprise technologists titled "The "Big Five" IT trends of the next half decade: Mobile, social, cloud, consumerization, and big data." This is classic Dion, with compelling logic, great context, and a tremendous graphic that helps put the trends in perspective. I summarize and extract from Dion's piece here: Much has … [Read more...]
There is much commentary right now about Facebook, social networking, and the meaning for the enterprise technologist. All of the tumult over Facebook's new features (frictionless sharing, the timeline, etc) inspired me to dig out an old post I had written for Huffington Post on what I called the "database society:" The dominant metaphor of the Cold War era was cybernetics -- the study of closed, self-regulating systems. At its heart, George Orwell's … [Read more...]
A recent IDG interview of Bob Gourley of Crucial Point and Andrzej Kawalec of HP delved into the problem of the "traditional" method of enterprise security, a paradigm under severe challenge. We can sum up the traditional approach as less a certain tactic, technique, technology, or policy than a way of viewing the world. As Gourley has noted, traditional enterprise security can be characterized with one of these bullets: Primarily exists below … [Read more...]
Facebook is about to eat Twitter for lunch. I’m slowly recognizing that more and more of my activity is migrating from Twitter to Facebook. I’ve also been wondering if Apples upcoming IOS 5 integration with Twitter is a strategic mistake on Apple’s part? What will it take for Facebook to finish Twitter off? Here’s my lists of recommendations of what to do and not do. Give me a separate “subscribed” news feed - I want to be able to toggle … [Read more...]
Let's face it: the social media that many enterprises hail also pose big problems. Employee use of the Internet--particularly social networks--is a big timewaster. A new Nielsen study found that Americans spend 23% of their online time on social networks, with an increasing amount of that browsing time spend spent on mobile apps. Like the sarcastic Captain Renault in Casablanca, we're shocked, shocked that a good deal of this browsing time is likely … [Read more...]
Enterprise security was once based entirely around the personal computer. A computer was the primary venue from which employees communicated, produced and exchanged data, and opened the company to risk. Now the widespread use of mobile computing devices for both work and pleasure has created security problems that we have previously explored. Thus, accepting the "death" of the PC--at least as a unitary device--is an imperative for modern enterprise … [Read more...]
Most of what we see in day-to-day cybersecurity is not cyberwar, or the perennial threat of the 'digital Pearl Harbor.' Crime, espionage, political vandalism, and military "long-range cyber-reconaissance"--rather than kinetic targeting that kills, damages, or disables--are more mundane, day-to-day concerns. National Defense University's Samuel Liles does make a persuasive case that much of cyberwar exists mainly on the "low-intensity warfare" aspect … [Read more...]
Aeryon Systems has recently gotten a good deal of media attention for Libyan rebels' use of 3-pound (backpack, briefcase, or trunk-stored) Scout unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in tactical-level intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) functions. Dependent on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for their ISR needs, the rebels naturally opted to develop their own organic ISR. The question on everyone's minds, undoubtedly, is … [Read more...]
As Katherine Maher pointed out on Twitter, no one gets credit when contingency plans work. And it is truly amazing how much government-citizen information collaboration has evolved--not to mention the growth of data journalism even in the most traditional news outlets. The average citizen had a wealth of accurate (and useful) hurricane information to choose from. There was also plenty of data to be used for those seeking to tinker, and very useful … [Read more...]