Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
INSIGHT: Should
you lose sleep over cloud
28 INTERVIEW: Jim 38
Whitehurst on consumers
IT STRAT: Why it’s 45 THE BIG Q
important to take a strategic How to stem social
engulfing internal IT? driving IT agenda approach to social media media leaks? Pg 51
DEMOCRATISATION OF BI
INTELLIGENCE
MULTIPLIED
The spread of BI across
the enterprise is turning
employees into
VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 08
knowledge workers.
Here is an update on
how the revolution
is shaping up
Pg.14
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 1
4 Edu Tech December 2009
CONTENT
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.
com/home.php#/group.
php?gid=195675030582
Twitter:
http://t witter.com/itnext
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/
groups?gid=2261770&trk=myg_
FOR THE L ATEST TECHNOLOGY UPDATES GO TO ITNEXT.IN AUGUST 2010 V O L U M E 0 1 | I S S U E 0 8 ugrp_ovr
Democratisation
of BI
From being a tool for the head honchos, to
providing insight to the line managers,
BI is undergoing a metamorphosis and with
it the way the companies conduct
business is changing as well
Page
14
INSIGHTS BOSS TALK INTERVIEW
24 Is it Rain or a Drizzle?
Will cloud computing decimate internal IT?
Is it worth losing your sleep over its rise?
2 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
MANAGEMENT
Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha
Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta
EDITORIAL
Group Editor: R Giridhar
Page Associate Editor: Shashwat DC
SECURING THE AIRWAVES | A Wi-Fi plan Sr Correspondent: Jatinder Singh
OFFICE ADDRESS
REGULARS
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A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 3
TANU KAUR,
The magazine is impressive, however I think it is too loud in its HR Associate, Gear
overall appeal. Perhaps that is why it has named IT NEXT.
SHWETA SHAW Thanks for throwing light on the
Assistant Manager, TCS SOA in the July issue of IT NEXT.
I am completely agreed with the
I found the green issue of IT NEXT is noteworthy. The information author that the adoption of SOA
ITNEXT<space>
related to desktop virtualisation is appreciable. In today’s scenerio, <your feedback> is going to be really huge amongst
thin clients are also a great solution to the power issue, as they con- and send it to enterprises, in coming years.
sume much lesser power than conventional PCs and are much easier 567678 ANSHU MUNJAL,
to manage as well. Thin clients consume around 15W of power, which *Special rates apply
System Admin, Clarity India
4 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
BOSS TALK | ARUN GUPTA
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
Craft a
multi-faceted
persona
E
ver so often, a debate starts on what
it takes to become a CIO—techni-
cal or business skill, or something
else? The answer is not clear—look
around and you will find CIOs from
different backgrounds who have tasted success.
Let’s first assess what is the role of a CIO. Some
70% of the IT budget comprises sustenance of
technology that runs a business—referred to
as “business as usual (BAU)”, or keeping the
lights on (KTLO). Then, there is the incremental “Tech skills are needed but not to the level
improvement of systems and processes
driven by technology, (customisations, new
of how to configure a router or write a
development, changes to existing packages and code—that’s for the next layer”
reports that keep developers both internal or
outsourced busy. New projects form a critical of services or products, and generate periodic
part of a portfolio, each requiring a business reports for management reviews. He is also
case, budgetary support, change management, expected to be on the top of a situation, in case of
and sustenance upon institutionalisation. exigencies created by the failure of a server, the
Lastly, it’s about thought leadership, alignment network, or even the PC—at a critical moment.
SUGGESTION BOX
and contribution. Think now, what kind of qualifications would
A CIO oversees all of the above—impacting be required to be a successful CIO. Do you need
the front office, sales, marketing and customers, to be a major in technology, or business? Will
while ensuring support for functions such cross-functional experience offer value? What
as finance, accounting, human resources, about soft skills. A dash of people management?
legal and administration. Depending upon Look around you—and you will find successful
an organisation’s business, a process-related IT leaders from all walks of life juggling all of
understanding of manufacturing, distribution the se tasks. Technology skills are essential.
and logistics, supply chain, or loyalty is They are needed, but not to the level of how to
required, too. configure a router or write a code—that’s for the
A jack-of-all-trade’s-CIO is expected to have The book talks next layer, even for vendors to address.
a meaningful discussion with business heads about why On the other hand, business and soft
and CXOs on their functions and understand Mastering the Art skills cannot be substituted. Those need to be
how technology enables those. This helps a and Practice of developed to a level where communication with
CIO identify new capabilities that IT can create Online Learning any CXO is meaningful. If you are challenged in
with the new innovations, that keep pouring and Corporate this faculty, then business IT alignment will be
into the marketplace. Operationally, the CIO is Collaboration is a debated subject. And you may find yourself at
expected to manage the IT team, mentor them, important the receiving end.
keep attrition low, manage operational and WRITER: ROBERT UBELL
PUBLISHER: JOHN WILLY &
capital budgets, review outsourced vendor SONS
The author is Group CTO for K.Rahega Corp
PRICE: INR 1800
performance, negotiate deals for the lowest cost
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 5
UPDATE
I N D U S T R Y
TRENDS
DEALS
PRODUCTS
SERVICES
PEOPLE
MAIN FEATURES
n 1500+ user-installable ap-
plications
n Allows users to access In-
dian content in just one click
n Indic language translitera-
tion to help users write in
mother tongue
MAR 2010
DEC 2009
SEP 2009
20
47.1 picture, e-mail, chat, games and
10
37.0 more. A user can store all these
0 applications which are free and
install in seconds.
SOURCE: TRAI
6 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
STORE IN AN ARTISTIC WAY FOR A SLEEK VIEW COOL YOUR SERVERS
Transcend has launched the 16 GB JetFlash Inspan has launched Mercury GlacialTech launches new series of server
V90C keychain 1660TWG LED Moni- cooler under the Pola-
USB flash tor – the monitor that ris range. The products
drive. This comes with inbuilt are environment
artistic device speakers. It is priced friendly and specifi-
carries lifetime at Rs. 7,499 and car- cally designed for Intel
warranty ries a 3 year warranty LGA771 server CPUs
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 7
UPDATE
52
recommendations for how or make decisions about platforms are different. However, employ-
PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN
security leaders can get out netbooks while 50% ees share links across the platforms and
in front of user-driven IT and involve users in some tablet inside the firewall, so while tighter integra-
manage risks to create new % decisions. And 23% of tion might be ideal, I am not sure there
business value. ORGANISATIONS the largest organisations is any such single vendor, or service, that
While the majority ALLOW USERS TO surveyed have experienced
PROVIDE INPUT
would necessarily address all the specific
of decisions about older DECISIONS a serious breach or incident needs for any single organisation.
technologies such as desktops ABOUT because of a personal device
NETBOOKS
and laptops are still made by on the corporate network. By Jatinder Singh
8 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
UPDATE
US extends
Motorola’s wireless biz its lead as a
top spammer
THE
COMPANIES IT security and control firm
EXPECT TO Sophos has published its latest re-
COMPLETE THE port that identifies the top 12 spam
ACQUISITION relaying countries, covering the
BY THE END OF second quarter of 2010. According
2010. to the report, the USA continues to
be the number one spam polluter,
piping out 15.2% of all global spam
messages, an increase from 13.1%
in the first quarter of 2010.
The UK, a nation that last year
fell out of the spam hall of shame,
- also saw a significant rise in the
proportion of spam it relayed.
M&A | Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) area,” explained Julien Grivolas, The top spam relaying countries
has announced plans to acquire Principal analyst, Ovum. for April to June, 2010, are as
Motorola’s GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, “After its failed attempt to acquire follows—
LTE, and WiMAX wireless assets for Nortel’s CDMA/LTE assets, Motorola
India 7.7%
$1.2 billion. NSN will acquire several was NSN’s last potential target to
S Korea 4.2%
Brazil 5.5%
R&D centres as a part of the deal. achieve this goal. Huawei and ZTE
UK 4.6%
Also, approximately 7,500 Motorola were also in the mix, but would have
employees are expected to be trans- struggled to close such an acquisition USA (15.2%)
ferred to NSN. The companies expect for political reasons,” Grivolas adds.
to complete the acquisition by the Globally, this deal is mostly about
end of 2010, subject to customary scale and reach. The deal also marks
closing conditions including regula- NSN’s entry into the CDMA business, According to the findings, the
tory approval. as well as its comeback in the WiMAX best way for users and administra-
“Having historically been out of infrastructure market. Adding tors to reduce the risk of being
the CDMA business, NSN had a weak Motorola’s wireless RAN assets – compromised is to run anti-spam
position in the US market despite some which represented a turnover of $3.7 and anti-malware protections,
deals in the mobile core segment (such billion in 2009 – will make NSN behave sensibly while online, and
as an IMS deal with Verizon Wireless better positioned to compete against ensure that their systems are up-
for its LTE project) and in the optical Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent. to-date with security patches.
NEWS @
BLOG
ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE IS SEXY AGAIN
WITH PROHIBITIVE PRICING, long product cycles and user interfaces only a mother could love, the enter-
prise offerings of Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and other big vendors, are about as appealing as Steve Ballmer in a
bikini | Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box.net in his blog post at <http://www.TechCrunch.com>
The guest post further quotes him as saying that the latest crop of enterprise
ILLUSTRATI ON: ANOOP PC
10 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
MONEY WISE
OPINION CHINAR DESHPANDE
CEO, Creative IT India
B
IT function in order to judge the
usiness environment is impact of IT on all four dimensions of
becoming so competitive, organisational improvement—viz.
and market dynamics are a. Financial growth
changing so fast, that it has b. Customer satisfaction
become imperative for an c. Internal process improvements
organisation to be flexible and incor- d. Learning of the organisation
porate easy-to-change process architec- Aspiring to be a game changer for
ture. It’s possible to adopt fluidity, only the business: IT function is no longer
if organisations have strong technology a support function, but a business
backbones supporting business opera- enabler. But, one cannot stop at this.
tions. As technology becomes the core To be a successful IT leader, it’s
business driver, IT leadership has to important to identify opportunities
evolve to suit demands of the business where technology can introduce a new
and stakeholders’ expectations. business model and offer a competitive
Traditionally, IT functions of an end- edge to the firm.
user organisation are divided into two Any technology initiative that
pillars of IT delivery; infrastructure and
business applications. This leads to a
“It is critical for an IT empowers your organisation to create
markets, addresses customers differently,
situation wherein a IT personnel with leader to become part or opens up new avenues of revenues and/
high-growth potential ends up focusing
on either infrastructure, or business. By
of the mainstream or profit-making, would automatically
put you in the leadership role.
the time, he/she reaches the number two business to be Developing a friendly ecosystem:
spot in the IT function, all versatility is
lost. And an individual settles into a role
recognized as the Leadership in any field needs support of
friends, followers and alliances. Hence,
of a senior-most subject matter expert. key influencer in the it is critical to establish a professional (or
It is therefore imperative for senior IT
managers, aspiring to be the next CIOs,
business” personal) relationship with IT vendors,
implementation partners, consulting
to stop being specialists, and be sensitive companies and technology companies.
to the business. The journey to the top business performance, challenges in day- A senior IT professional has to get
can start by taking a few measures: to-day operations, and external factors as close to the business as possible and
Becoming one with business: It is influencing the company’s progress establish a connect between technology
critical for an IT leader to become a nBecome aware of business targets set and business. One has to show
part of the mainstream business, to be for key people in departments sensitivity towards the fact that money
recognised as a key influence. When nIn short, speak the same language as is spent on each IT project. Hence, treat
you understand challenges of business your internal customer it as an investment and show tangible
teams, you are able to relate to their true Measuring business benefits of IT: returns that catch the fancy of business
PHOTO GRAPHY: MEXY ZAVIE R
needs for solutions. Any technology initiative has to have leaders. Ensure that you build a support
In order to achieve this one has to: business needs. Its implementation system that facilitates your career, both
n Establish a rapport with key business success has to be measurable in the internally as well as externally. Finally,
users across departments form of tangible business benefits. make a business impact through
nUnderstand business processes In order to adopt this practice one can technology-driven innovation—and the
n Participate in informal chats on follow a few steps such as: crown is yours.
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 11
TECH TALK
SRINIVAS ANAPU,
OPINION VP (Enterprise Information Systems)
Mahindra Satyam
governance
countries and are listed on different
stock exchanges. To support IT compli-
ance, standards like COSO and COBIT
are available to drive companies in the
R
right direction.
esearch conducted by MIT While it may sound expensive, you
has found that companies can reduce the IT compliance cost by
with better than average encapsulating the compliance processes
IT governance earn at into an automated system.
least 20% higher return Besides, create a structured,
on assets than organisations with controlled software development
weaker governance. processes and apply best-practice
Government regulations require methodologies. Finally, ensure that you
companies to assess IT risks impacting develop specific compliance reports
financial disclosure at stages of a and templates.
company’s lifespan, and to maintain the While the IT compliance framework
effectiveness of the control environment is complex in nature, there are
when information systems are changed, fundamentally two types of controls
updated, or expanded. that this framework encapsulates. They
In other words, IT compliance is a are the IT general controls and the IT
continuous process—compliance cost application controls.
cannot be looked at as a onetime cost. The IT general controls should
IT governance is a framework which reduce the risk of systems failure and
ensures that technology decisions are “When aligned with unauthorised access to programs and data,
made in support of business goals
and objectives. strategic IT goals thereby assuring the system’s integrity
after operations such as acquisition,
It provides the critical checks and and investments, implementation, configuration and
balances to better manage and mitigate
risk, standardise practices, streamline IT compliance maintenance of operating systems,
database management systems,
procedures, and strengthen returns transforms from a middleware, communication software
on assets.
Companies should look at IT cost driver to a value and utilities that run the system and allow
financial applications to function.
compliance initiatives not like a duty driver” The IT applications controls aim to
to accomplish, but like an opportunity verify the correct functioning of the
to exploit—to improve awareness of financial applications and of each of
accounting information systems, to mapping all operations comprising the the other process software producing
reduce IT risks, to enhance value of processes related to financial data. This accounting entries. These controls
financial information, and to gain the should be documented too. assure completeness, accuracy,
trust of investors and financial markets. Design a control against each of authorisation and affordable disclosure
Companies should transform IT the existing risks and threats for for each financial transaction.
compliance from a cost driver to a data integrity. Evaluate each of these Finally we all have to understand
value driver—aligning IT compliance controls and verify if they are able that while the CIO is the sponsor and
initiatives with their strategic IT goals to remediate the systems failure, completely accountable for the data
and investments. unauthorised accesses or human governance in an organisation, the
The roadmap for a well-conceived mistakes in accounting. responsibility lies with the respective
IT compliance framework starts with Finally document and report all the process owners and everyone directly
defining the scope of IT compliance and IT compliance activities so that this related to data governance.
12 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
DEMOCRA T
14 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | COVER STORY
A TISATION
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 15
COVER STORY | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
empowering his workforce and making market trends. With the MF Connect 450 branches across the length and
strategic information readily available. (the handheld device) in their hands, breadth of India. The credit for success
Over the next few years, MMFSL each agent was a decision maker. And according to Shanmugham lies as much
agents in far-flung areas across the nation with this decentralisation of information, with technology as it does for people.
were empowered with a hand-held intelligence was effectively multiplied. “One of the distinguishing factors,
device that not only helped them record The result: In a decade, MMFSL was that we were able to empower
financial transaction, but also gave them has grown to be one of the largest our agents through the right tools and
insights on customer behaviour and rural NBFC in India, having over technology. This helped us to be agile
and realign ourselves to the shifting
market dynamics,” he states confidently.
The reason behind MMFSL’s
TOP 5 METHODS OF MONITORING PERFORMANCE success is not all that hard to guess. In
BI is still fairly in the infancy as far as performace monitoring is concerned today’s dynamic environment, the only
as only 10% of respondents were using it companies that will succed is the ones
that will be most agile and responsive to
Spreadsheets
ERP Reports/
MS Excel and
Dashboards
30
respondents) Like it is often said that the proof of
the pudding is eating it, the success of
Applications
25
BI can too be measured in two simple
ways, how much revenue was added or
20
how much revenue was saved.
BI is particularly effective in these
15
times, where the problem is not the
BI
(Base 207
approach to business performance,
respondents)
People who need information do
25
difficult to understand
not have access
Other
20 Traditional BI
Previously, BI was touted as a magic
15 wand–it could change business for-
tunes. Coming at a premium, these
10 standalone solutions–namely Cognos,
Hyperion, etc.–promised the moon;
5 agility, productivity and profitability.
Though, many did deliver, the crux lay
23.4% 21.1% 13.2% 11.6% 11.2% 19.2%
0 in how the application was integrated
16 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | COVER STORY
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 17
COVER STORY | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
not only took a lot of time, but also too complex and inadequate to meet for faster implementation of key
money. Result; people were never their needs effectively. initiatives and are leaning towards
satisfied with the output, as it was not Maneesh Sharma, Head-Business preconfigure vertical solutions. Apart
commensurate to efforts. User & Platform, SAP India, reaffirms from this, lack of standard business
But, with enterprise vendors his faith in verticalised solution. definitions is continuing to inhibit
offering an integrated suite with BI “The reason behind the evolution business transformation. Customers
capabilities that was specifically of verticalised BI solutions is the want to spend time in bringing out
aligned on a vertical basis, companies specific requirement in any industry. the potential from the information
were able to adopt BI into their Each industry vertical has an unique available within the transactional and
operations without quickly and speciality segment, with specific BI non-transactional systems; rather
without hassle. Also the fact that needs and pain points–unique data than spend time defining the basic
now BI had specific features based on structures, process patterns and framework for the applicable BI”
a space that a company operated in standards, job roles with industry-
greatly aided the adoption. specific responsibilities and KPI’s. Challenges remain
Companies are moving beyond the A business intelligence solution Even as BI adoption continues to grow, there
traditional reporting and analysis focused on vertical needs shorten the are two challenges that continue to haunt
tools. They are increasingly banking execution cycle and adds business decision revolving BI–data quality and cost
on capabilities that could assist them value for the customer.” of solution. Take for instance the example
with targeted data mining, dash- Concurs Nitin Singhal, Country of Bank of India, one of the premier banks
boarding, collaboration, statistical Manager, Information Management- in India. It has completed its first phase of
analysis and dimensional analysis. Software Group, IBM India (South modernisation. Now, its looking at imple-
Moreover, there has been a growing Asia). “As industry adoption of IT menting BI within enterprise. But, because
uptake of customised analytical and matures and competitive differentiation of its past legacy, it has huge amount of
intelligence tools. Some enterprises of IT reduces between similar records that are stored in silos and in an
have felt that standardised models are organisations, companies are looking unstructured manner, getting them in a
18 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | COVER STORY
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 19
COVER STORY | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
INTERVIEW
How has the shift in BI been from a tool of to heavy M&A activity and a stricter regulatory
revenue growth to that of productivity gain? environment, all branches, subsidiaries and
We have saved average daily time for our cus- sister concerns of these organisations have to
tomers by over 20 minutes in productivity on have some common financial binding. And that
reports for a normal user and over 90 minutes is where BI is capturing the screen space.
for a power user. Besides productivity gains, The big question is which industry can
they got excellent insight on their own data and be verticalised. Those industries that are
different perspectives to analyse the same with regulated and follow some standard procedures
actionable information. are easier to verticalise. Going by that, BFSI,
pharmaceuticals and telcos obviously look
like hot segments. However, others like retail,
How do you view the evolution and manufacturing, broking are not being left out.
efficacy of verticalised BI solutions? Economics is another key factor. Not
There are two types of verticalizations that are all solutions can be viable from a cost
happening in the BI space. One is in terms of perspective. There is a cost challenge attached
function, like balance sheet consolidation, and to verticalisation. New fields, new reports, new
the other by industry segments like healthcare laws, all need constant up-gradation and we have
and logistics. to understand how it can be technically deployed.
We could sense the requirements for balance
sheet consolidation from our customers for
quick closure of books through an error-free What are the steps that an IT manager
analytics. So, financial consolidation is an area needs to undertake before selecting a
that is seeing a lot of knitted BI solutions. Due BI solution?
20 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
COVER STORY
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 21
INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING
CLO U
As cloud computing continues to
roll over the landscape, many enter-
prise IT organisations still struggle
to resolve questions about its secu-
rity, reliability and resiliency. These
questions come up regardless of
whether companies are considering
a public or private cloud. Enterprise
IT leaders are examining the risks,
benefits and issues of this approach,
but many feel their judgment is still
too cloudy to make the leap. Discus-
sions at the industry group SHARE,
IT professionals voice concerns about
performance, availability, security,
resiliency and usage accounting.
Cloud computing is a way of
delivering IT services and resources
PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN
24 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
CLOUD COMPUTING | INSIGHT
O UD? YES
WITH RIDERS
INVOLVED There are clear benefits to using the cloud
model to facilitate the rapid availability of IT
resources, but it’s not for every enterprise
BY R AY M O N D J. SUN
go through the hassles of procuring and Underlying the cloud computing vides a private cloud specifically for one
implementing hardware and software model is the notion of automation, which company. Examples of a public cloud
to use IT resources. enables self-service provisioning, high include Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute
The benefits of cloud computing scalability, elasticity and ease of “return” Cloud), Google AppEngine, IBM’s Blue
for enterprise IT are pretty when no longer needed. This model has Cloud and Microsoft Azure. A public
straightforward and well-documented. been associated with virtualisation, cloud allows customers to create their
One of many benefits is that the cloud since virtualisation is typically required own images, and they pay only for their
greatly reduces the time to market for to dynamically provision IT services or hourly use, including data storage and
developing new software applications. resources. However, cloud computing transfers. While a public cloud offers
That results from the significant adds the capabilities of user self-service the ultimate in convenience, a private
reduction in IT resource acquisition request of services and automatic cloud seems to provide better control
time—in many cases, from weeks to fulfillment based on those requests. and assurance of security and privacy.
minutes. In addition, if enterprise IT Potential uses range from short-term Regardless of which approach an
organisations are using a public cloud development, or test projects, to dynamic IT organisation takes, enterprises
approach, they have to pay only for incremental capacity for mission-critical, t h at de p l oy m i s s i o n- c r i t i c a l
what they use, without committing customer-facing web sites. applications want assurances of
to a long-term relationship. When a reasonable system responsiveness
project is completed, the IT resources Public or Private? through service-level agreements.
PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN
are returned to the pool for reuse or The two primary types of cloud deploy- They also want protection through
reallocation. That means companies ment have been called “public” and “pri- data isolation in a multi-tenant
don’t have to make capital expenditures vate.” A public cloud refers to shared environment, fail over protection
to purchase their own IT resources, IT services or resources (a multi-tenant to minimise service outages and
which would have to be repurposed environment) obtained from a third- predictable recharge rates. Portability is
once the initial project was completed party service provider, while a private also an issue. For example, public cloud
in order to continue justifying that cloud is usually owned and managed in- users want to know if they can easily
capital expenditure. house. In some cases, a third party pro- change providers.
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 25
INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING
What about software licences? Can The public cloud offers pay per use, the private cloud is to provide test
they be moved from one cloud provider which can provide low-cost options and development environments for
to another? for short-term projects. Still, for long- enterprise applications.
Another area of concern: When term use, enterprise IT organisations Developers are able to request resources
an enterprise IT organisation is done may be better off making a capital and almost immediately get access to an
with its public cloud environment, investment to purchase additional environment on which to build and test
what assurance does it have that all hardware and software. their applications. When the development
the private data that was used has Enterprises need to conduct a break- is complete, the resources can be returned
been removed? even analysis to determine whether a for use by others.
Data privacy is a critical concern public or private cloud would be more While cloud computing insulates
that requires tight standards. since IT cost-effective for them. The public cloud the IT user from the management of
organisations pay only for what they use. offers benefits for application development the infrastructure, someone still has
There aren’t any facility or energy costs. resulting from rapid acquisition time and to manage the IT resources. Private
But that still leaves concerns about reduced capital expenditures. clouds clearly have a major impact on IT
public cloud security, resilience and But for high-availability, data security departments, since these organisations
service. The public cloud does offer and privacy reasons, enterprise IT will need to provide clouds with
security, but it’s still not clear to many organisations remain skeptical about additional capabilities to handle
enterprise IT organisations whether turning to the public cloud for mission- dynamic provisioning and automated
the level of security offered will meet critical applications, and for sensitive or request processes.
the needs of corporations that are confidential data. Those requests for service will be
handled automatically without the
IT organisation’s intervention. Thus,
26 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
4 Edu Tech December 2009
INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING
IS IT
RAIN OR A
DRIZZLE?
Will cloud computing decimate internal IT?
Is it worth losing your sleep over its rise?
BY P R AT I M A H A R I G U N A N I
The thing about underdogs is, well, they seemingly petite things. Anyone who does
are still dogs, and everyone likes them to win. so has yet not been bitten by a mosquito.
From the pages of The Godfather to the There’s more than just a mosquito
blind alleys of politics; from the vuvuzela- somewhere disturbing the sleep
I LLUSTRATIO N: SANTO SH KUSHWAHA
28 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
CLOUD COMPUTING | INSIGHT
insomnia has become more than Now on that, Carr’s theories have the industry is driven by supply and
Enrique’s copyright. some intellectual company. Another demand as it should be in a free market.
And why not? maverick thinker, who has been vocal But, as Massa would underline here,
Hardly a few budgets old, the ‘cloud’ against the likes of Google, takes the while it is true the cost of bandwidth and
phenomenon has made more noise and same drift when it comes to cloud storage is dropping, the resources required
more impact than any other new kid computing power as a nemesis, albeit to handle the amount of data we’re talking
who ever arrived. What is more, this in his own ways and arguments. about is still a huge barrier to entry of all but
kid has all the power and prognosis to “Of course, to a guy like me, that just those with the deepest of pockets.
elbow out the boys who have always run means an opportunity to start another “There is no question that in the
the show, so far. niche service.” He quips first. coming months there are going to be
So far! Now that’s the operative word. But ask Bob Massa, and there is more mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and
The argument that cloud’s advent can
hurt or challenge the very existence of
internal IT departments has naturally
started ‘hurting some brains.’ HARDLY A FEW BUDGETS OLD,
It’s not just applications any more.
The wave is touching networks, server
‘CLOUD’ HAS MADE MORE NOISE AND
provisioning, infrastructure monitoring IMPACT THAN ANY OTHER NEW KID
and management, and what not. The
interesting part is that there is no sign THAT EVER ARRIVED
of it sucking back.
The way it has arrived and
announced itself – cloud computing, to the argument, as you discover. buyouts.” In his incisive glance into the
certainly signifies a fundamental shift Massa is a mind and a voice that will future, Bob Massa, opens another volley
in the role of IT in the way it removes go into the annals of history for more of questions.
from IT much of its mundane chores. than his coup d’etat of suing Google “What effect is cloud computing
Ok! But why the heck were we talking some years back. His polemic, bold and going to have on privacy, intellectual
about insomnia? candid wisdom continues to challenge property rights, open source
Here’s why. perceptions again, when the word agreements, software licensing, and
The worry mercury was initiated ‘cloud’ pops up. so on?”
dramatically by Nicholas Carr, who “As for Mr. Carr, as much as I like to There could be more to be alarmed
augured the rise of utility computing in think of myself as an optimist, I’m afraid about if what he prognosticates
his second book, ‘The Big Switch.’ I tend to agree with his rather dark comes true.
His argument that stirred many a vision of IT and how it is going to affect With everything on the cloud, there
media pages, is, “IT would abandon business,” he opines. is no guarantee that your competitor
running their own IT infrastructures.” “Once computing becomes a utility won’t have your source code in his
What does that mean? and the collective sum of ‘data’ is stored back pocket tomorrow. There may be
Simple—one may no longer need the within the cloud and becomes available many a cost associated with all that
IT firemen or plumbers to keep things to all but controlled by a few, then I can cheap bandwidth, storage and access
up and running because someone certainly see where Carr may have a very to everything.
‘on-call’ is going to do to it much easily, valid point. I know from experience that “Where’s your competitive advantage
much cheaper and much faster. IT aka technological advances run far ahead of when ‘everyone’ has access to the same
your pizza delivery boy, could capsize the ability of any country’s legal system everything too?” He serves you a ‘too big
the traditional hulks, if the hypothesis to keep up,” explains Massa. to chew’ question here.
is interpreted right. Now that raises the quintessential
question again. Scared yet?
Teddy bear or bug bear? Can cloud computing have enough As is clear by now, cloud computing is
So, while almost every vendor and potential (or promise) to sideline influencing a lot of intelligent debate.
lighthouse customer is giving it the erstwhile IT functions handled At the same time, it has also started
bear hug, is cloud computing strong internally? When and where will impacting IT budgets and decisions in
enough to arrogate the power and internal IT be indispensable, cloud or a significant way. Yet, is there a negative
functions of traditional IT? Does it no cloud? fine-print in this ballyhoo? How should
not raise worries on new redundancy At the moment, there are several internal IT engines of an enterprise
spots, and thus a threat to internal companies jumping into the cloud game interpret it? Cause for worry for IT
IT teams? and there is choice and competition as managers already?
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 29
INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING
80
Bhavin Patel, Head IT, Fortis organisations that are actively engaging
Emergency Services feels that cloud will external cloud services are using them
certainly have a big edge for smaller firms. for non-business critical applications,
“You have to understand that they particularly as a means to better
clearly lack the basic expertise of
handling all the processes related to IT,
for instance, administrative services.
accommodate workloads that are highly
variable in nature.
For instance, a suitable area is R&D
%
Even today, over 80% of Indian SME testing, where needs are periodic and
firms do not have any IT department dedicated infrastructure often sits idle
and that’s a large number.” a significant majority of the time, while of Indian SME
What, however, does matter for continuing to require the same level of
any organisation is to plan things in upkeep and administration as more fully firms do not
advance and have a clear roadmap of utilised infrastructure. Smaller companies have any IT
the core requirement and scalability, are looking to external cloud providers for
he advises. “Since it’s just the starting such services, while many larger companies
department
phase of commercial deployment of are using R&D as a pilot for testing internal in India
cloud computing, we need to explore private cloud approaches.
many options to get the picture right.”
Before you pack up towards service-oriented practices,
Over-stated threat If data and trends from the likes of plus much greater leverage for
It could yet be too insignificant or too Gartner show it right, cloud comput- smaller organisations seeking access
early a threat to worry about. ing is slated to grab more adoption to the same enabling technologies
The advent of cloud computing horsepower ahead. Amongst the latest that could otherwise only be reached
represents neither threat nor boon reports, worldwide software as a service by larger organisations.”
to IT as a whole – it is merely a (SaaS) revenue within the enterprise Agreed. Writing an obit could
natural evolutionary step in application software market is fore- be blowing the argument out of
the IT industry, argues a cast to surpass $8.5 billion in 2010, up proportions, especially when IT men
research eye. 14.1% from 2009 revenue of $7.5 billion, have a logical defence.
As with any according to Gartner. “In my opinion what is critical
change, there will be Enterprises are loving the is security—prevention of data and
information leakage. Everything what
your company is doing, all that data
ACCORDING TO EXPERTS resides with the other party. IT team
is more relevant if one is relying on an
THE ADVENT OF CLOUD COMPUTING internal cloud,” Patel points out.
30 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
4 Edu Tech December 2009
INSIGHT | DATA DEDUPLICATION
doing
more
with less
In the age of shrinking IT budgets, and rising data volumes, finding an ideal
way to manage data in an organisation is seen as a challenging task for many IT
managers. Data redundancy makes it worse. While the issues related to storage
efficiencies are continuously discussed and debated, not much attention is paid
to address the issues surrounding to data redundancy.
32 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
DATA DEDUPLICATION | INSIGHT
Driven by the rising use of rich enterprise storage and backup systems,
media and e-mail applications and the same file may get copied in 10
given that policies favour storage at locations, occupying a 10MB space, a
more than one place, unstructured redundancy that is of no use.
data in organisations is witnessing an Now by allowing the run of
astounding growth today. According deduplication process, the duplicate
to a recent report released by IDC, data is deleted, leaving only one copy
unstructured data in traditional data of the data to be stored, leaving more
centres will eclipse the growth of storage space more for you. It essentially
transaction-based data that has so far does three things-redundancy
accounted for the bulk of enterprise identification, fingerprinting and
storage needs. The report further redundancy elimination.
projects that the transactional data will “Data de-duplication helps IT
see a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 21.8%, while unstructured
“YOUR DATA IS OF NO managers to utilise disk archiving
platforms, which means increased
data will grow at 61.7% at data centres. USE, IF ITS QUALITY storage capacity at any given time,”
Moreover, the critical data is estimated IS HAMPERED. says Gaurav Kohli, Consultant, Xebia
to see 52% growth annually.
This situation has eventually
DATA QUALITY IS A IT Services.
For optimum usage, De-duplication
asked for an increased effort from IT PROCESS RATHER hash calculations are created on the
departments of the organisation to THAN AN EVENT” target device as the data enters the
minimise the total amount of storage —Ashit Panjwani, Executive device, in real time. If the device spots
and network bandwidth required, Director- Sales, Marketing and a block that it already stored on the
and to improve availability and lower Alliances, SAS India system it does not store the new block
the total cost of ownership (TCO) in and instead just references to the
terms of hardware, administration, and existing block.
environmental costs. "Regardless of the operating system,
And that’s where tools like data applications, or the file system, all
de-duplication comes to the rescue. data is written to storage by using
61.7%
Often referred to as a cost-effective data reference pointers. After that,
information management tool, the the catalogue and indices of all data
technology helps enterprises to address objects are maintained using hash
the pressing IT challenges related to and a comparison between the two
effective usage of storage. data objects is made.” explains Suresh
Kakkar, Practice Manager, Wipro.
Smart storage CAGR is the growth
“Moreover, if you are still using
In simple terms, data de-dupli- tape as an alternate backup medium,
cation, also called intelligent com- of unstructured data in the technology will help you to make
pression, refers to the elimination of data centres smaller backup windows, which
redundant data. It plays a role of a cat- Source: IDC means relatively lesser tapes. This
alyst in controlling storage costs and not only saves costs, but also eases
helping enterprises to simplify opera- manageability,” Kohli notes.
tions and better manage workloads at
Quality of data
80%
remote offices, virtual machines, and
Up to
data centres. By elminating the need Apart from storage costs, duplication of
for additional hardware, it brings with data also causes issues such as higher
it economic benefits as well. bandwidth requirement for data recov-
Let's understand how de-dup can solve ery (DR) implementation and delayed
the puzzle of umpteen amount of growing backups. It also impacts manageability
data that gets stored in an organisation. of data.
Consider this: a marketing manager of the data within “Management of data is perhaps
sends out a 1MB presentation to each an organisation is the most intimidating challenge that
member of his sales team, thereby unstructured IT organisations face. They must
making the same presentation available keep important information available
Source: Global Data Deduplication
to 5-10 different mailboxes. Now, on the Market 2009-2013 and protected, even as the amount of
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 33
INSIGHT | DATA DEDUPLICATION
34 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
DATA DEDUPLICATION | INSIGHT
BENEFITS
n educes administrative costs and
R
lower disk costs
n Provides backup optimisation
n
OUTCOME
Improves the percentage of
n elps to achieve green efficiencies
H
by reducing power, space and cooling data being backed up
needs n Storage that could be
n I mproves RTO and reliability, hence redeployed for backup de-
optimise for recovery duplication
and the IT managers need to generate Before implementing, however, should watch out for.
intelligent strategies for maintaining one should try to measure the overall It is important to note that de-dupli-
its productivity in a consistent manner. requirement. For example, one could cation, as it changes the data layout on
Over 70% of data is still unstructured estimate the percentage of data being the disk, can affect the performance of
and data duplication is a major concern backed up currently and the savings sequential read applications.
area for organisations.” that would be achieved if 50% of tapes Another critical factor is to identify
were eliminated. the location where the software
Strategy De-duplication Today, there are solutions offering a agent need to put the controls which
For any IT manager who want to carry combination of both source and target deduplicate the process? While in few
out data de-duplication, the first step de-duplication to achieve even greater cases, it is advisable to put the agents
is to be aware of what exactly can a de- storage savings and ROI. at the source, thereby allowing each
duplication solution do for the organi- For instance, a scalable data reduction and every server to take the backup,
sation? The next step is to identify what (SDR) based de-duplication solution many other instances demand real
the solution can do beyond just elimi- would offer fast and efficient data backup appliance.
nating the redundant data? And finally, snapshot capabilities. The snapshots The methods can be workout depending
what can be the additional benefits can later be used to access information upon the IT policies and server inside the
that might bring the strategic value for that may have been inadvertently business entity. While many vendors like
the organisation? deleted from an active volume. These CA offer backup solution that work in both
So the strategic value lies in snapshots can be used for versioning, the locations, many others are incapable to
understanding the other benefits being for compliance purposes (to prove provide such solutions.Also, selecting the
accrued. This includes benefits such the state of data at a specific point in way that a deduplication apliance appear
as bandwidth savings, faster backups, time), and as a fast and efficient data to the backup software application is
backup consolidation, and easier restoration mechanism for recovering very critical.
disaster recovery, depending on where any inadvertently deleted information. The selection should be hence
and how it is used. The heavier-duty solutions can based on the backup software which
“By looking at all the ways and de-duplicate data globally and at the an organisation is already having.
areas where one can benefit from source for fast, secure backup and Nevertheless, make sure to look for
de-duplication, IT managers can take recovery across the enterprise including vendors who have specialised skills
the right decision on where to begin remote environments. to understand your business and its
using this powerful technology,” says Having said that, there are also a few specialised storage requirements in the
Mhaskar of Symantec India. downsides to de-duplication that one long run.
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 35
INSIGHT | VIRTUALISATION
36 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
VIRTUALISATION | INSIGHT
VMs
the posted limits due to hardware constraints. VMware included a handy memory innovation
However, VMware states that the latest version in vSphere 4.1 called “memory compression.”
of vCenter can handle 3,000 VMs in a cluster and up to 1,000 IT managers should become familiar with
and up to 1,000 hosts per vCenter server. hosts per the feature as it is enabled by default. In my
Both of these large numbers are a threefold vCenter server tests, I saw improvements in virtual machine
increase over the stated capacity of VMware can be handled performance after I artificially constrained the
vSphere 4.0. Aside from the sizable scale increase by the latest amount of physical host memory. As my virtual
enabled in this version of vSphere 4.1, the main version of v machine systems started to access memory
advances in the platform are evolutionary Center to handle test workloads, my EXS 4.1 system
extensions of capabilities that improve how the started to compress virtual memory pages and
platform handles VM resource contention. stored them in a compressed memory cache.
During tests, I used the new I/O controls in Since accessing this memory is significantly
networking and storage to govern resource use. faster than swapping memory pages to disk,
IT managers who are already accustomed the virtual machines ran much faster with this
to using resource controls in VM CPU feature than they did when it was disabled and
settings will have a leg up when it comes to the same workloads were started. IT managers
using I/O controls in both network and storage should expect to devote at least several weeks
areas. Even with the CPU control heritage, my of expert analysis to determine the most
use of network and storage control features effective memory compression configuration
revealed a fair number of “version 1” limitations. for each workload.
Network I/O control prioritises network traffic VMware did some housekeeping in the
by type when using network resource pools incremental release of vSphere. The vSphere
and the native VMware vNetwork Distributed client is still available in the vCenter 4.1
Switch. Network I/O control works only with installation bits, but it is no longer included
the 4.1 version of the vNetwork Distributed in the ESX and ESXi code. There also were
Switch—not with the Cisco Nexus V1000 or some minor changes made to various interface
the standard switch from VMware. screens, but there was nothing that would puzzle
an experienced IT administrator.
Implementation is simple Find similar stories
online on the
While it takes advanced network expertise to website
www.itnext.in/ Cameron Sturdevant is technical director for eweek labs,
design and tune the policy that runs network I/O Insight and can be reached at csturdevant@eweek.com. ©eWeek
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 37
INTERVIEW | JIM WHITEHURST
38 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
JIM WHITEHURST | INTERVIEW
“CONSUMERS
WILL DRIVE THE
TECH AGENDA”
Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO, Red Hat, in a conversation
with Geetaj Channana, says that technology vendors must listen to
customers and not only sell products
Have the platform Yes, because I do not think cloud 1. They want to pay for what
wars, like the ones is a product that a vendor brings they use, and when they use it –
between Windows and to the table. My view of cloud, they don’t like the model where
Linux, turned into service the way customers say cloud, they buy all the software, and the
oriented wars? and what they really mean, is hardware, and take risks.
I think that platform wars are a modern layered architecture, 2. They want a layered modular
moving more towards a stack war. where you have a choice of architecture which allows them to
People are now looking for holis- those various layers and appli- move their applications and run it
tic environments to build and run cation development capabilities where it is best.
applications. For most companies that delivers rich quick appli- 3. Richer, better and faster
it is not about choosing between cation development. By defini- application development experience.
Unix or Linux, or Windows — it’s tion, you cannot have cloud in a People hear the hype and they
all about the platform on which box. So, I do think there is a bit think that it is cloud – which
developers will be developing of an over-simplification. does not necessarily mean
— that’s changing. With Red cloud. And cloud done wrong
Hat we have always been oper- Is there a disconnect actually makes these problems
ating system centric, but now between what people are worse. I think that is where the
we have to think about rea- asking for and what is disconnect is, because when
sonable well-integrated infra- being delivered? people say ‘cloud’ we literally
PHOTO GRAPHY: JI TE N GANDHI
structure components. Absolutely. Most IT heads are not take it as an off-premise solution
ready to move their applications to run functionality. I think that’s
Would you agree that outside of their data centre. There a mistake, and is not really what
vendors like you, Microsoft, is so much hype around cloud; the customer is asking for.
Amazon and Google, are people are saying different things.
trying to oversimplify the But, when I go to IT heads, I hear You have said in your past
cloud in some manner? three things – interviews that PCs would die
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 39
INTERVIEW | JIM WHITEHURST
40 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
JIM WHITEHURST | INTERVIEW
miracle light shining on top of that hill, – this is why there is going to be a valley prise Linux (REL) and they support
it would make life so much easier. of discontent. REL on Windows. It’s an interesting
set of relationships, and it is really
But are people really doing that; You entered pretty late into important. The key to the next genera-
shoving the old things out of the virtualisation space. How do tion data centres is that they have to
window and investing in the cloud; you see yourself placed in the be layered. So, we are adamant that we
or are they just talking about it? market within the next three to will neither lock layers, nor provide
Oh, they are just talking about it. There five years? the alternatives that our customers
are a lot of companies that are investing We see ourselves as one of the major want at each layer. We have something
in development and testing on Ama- players. This is because going for- called ‘cloud foundation’ for that.
zon EC2 cloud, or the IBM cloud. But, ward, architecturally, virtualisation It is important for us because we
these are all development and tests, lots will be a part of the operating system. cannot come out with a cloud in a box.
of playing around. We also have some This is similar to the way 25 years ago Thus, it is about giving your customers
companies pooling in and trying to set you used to buy the TCP/IP stack for choice, at the hypervisor level, at the
up private clouds, but I would say that networking. Virtualisation is now a operating system level, at the messaging
these things are in the advanced R&D feature in the operating system, it is layer, application layer, all the way up
stage now. And, most of it is because the not a standalone layer. the stack. We call it cloud foundation
CIO’s boss, the CEO, or the CFO, is ask- VMware was the first to find the because it is foundational elements
ing them about it. market as a standalone hypervisor, that you can take and set up together.
but there are so many architectural They would help you build and manage
Whenever I talk to the IT heads they constraints to that. I think our model cloud. That does not mean that it all
are sick of listening to the cloud! is superior. We made the switch in has to be on the cloud – it could be on
This is because it is so far away from November 2009, before that we were ESX or on Windows. Quite frankly, you
really being able to deliver on the offering our version of Xen. And it cannot run ESX without buying their
components and the pain points like was painful for us to explain to our management suite. You are tied to the
flexible modular architecture, newer, large base of customers why we were layer and stack together. The problem is
faster ways to develop functionality making the change. But, it is really that as soon as you tie them together, it
and paying on what you use and when the next generation of virtualisation is very difficult to move things around
you use it. that is built into the operating system. because you have to hardcode the links.
We think that it is the cloud – but You can get the benefit of reusing the On the other hand, if you have a nice
what is really happening is that the code and security. clean layered model, you do not face
technology industry does not listen Secondly, you get the power of these problems.
to the customer – we just take the open source and Linux for hardware However, this creates a problem for
technology that we have, and shove it management. This is what we vendors, as it is difficult to make money
down the customer’s throat. So, cloud, announced with KVM. In the Fall in these models because they are unable
from an IT industry perspective has when Red Hat 6 comes out, it will to lock-in their customers. A lot of these
turned out to be a hammer, while blow away ESX, whether it is in terms spaghetti architectures keep the cash
everything else is the nail, when of performance, the number of cores registers ringing.
actually, there are screws out there. We supported, server density and other
in the IT industry need a different tool. things. And I wish I could take credit for Finally, how do you see Red
That’s what I say in Red Hat’s that, but that credit goes to Intel. Hat evolving over the next five
marketing too, if you want to pay by In five years, our virtualisation years?
the drink, we do that already with share will be roughly the same as our We are focused on defining the 21st cen-
our subscription model; you want a operating systems share. It will be tury enterprise architecture. We may
layered modular architecture, we do difficult to say the same for VMware not deliver that architecture; but we
that already. though, when Microsoft and Red Hat will deliver com[ponents of it, if not the
What we have to be careful about is both integrate virtualisation, in our whole. We are working hard to ensure
what we understand from customers on underlying operating system. that this architecture is defined by open
what they think the cloud is, and so we layers that give, customers a choice at
are delivering off-premise computing. This is a very interesting each and every layer.
Off premise could be an option in the relationship that you share with This is a hypervisor that is open
long term, but what customers are VMware – you compete with them, and inclusive, an operating system
demanding now is a solution. yet you support the same too. that can run on any hypervisor, and
This is where the disconnect is, and this Yes, it’s the same with Microsoft. We application server that can run on any
is where I refer to the Gartner hype cycle support HyperV on Red Hat Enter- operating system.
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 41
INSIGHT | Wi- fi
SECURING the
AIRWAVES A Wi-Fi plan should be robust enough to address
security concerns and clean enough to keep
legal risks at bay
BY B E R J ES E R I C S H R O F F
42 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
Wi- fi | INSIGHT
Aren’t we all at some stage dis- tors), and the security levels of Wi-Fi advisable to rename the default
gusted to see the mesh of those wires such as authentication or encryption administrator user name. Disabling
connected to our computers? Don’t are all very important prior to even pro- the SSID broadcast i.e. your network’s
we wish we could make it clutter- curing the infrastructure. ‘name’ is a good idea and mitigates the
free by getting rid of at least some of Aspects such as thickness and risk of an attack.
the wires? Don’t we wish we could material of the outer walls and ceilings, Restricting access through MAC
connect to the Internet or access the and those of the different cabins inside address filtering will not deter a hard-
printer without those wires, securely? also play an important part in the core hacker, as MAC address spoofing is
Well, Wi-Fi lets users access the planning process. not that great a deal, but a combination
Internet and other network resources, of disabling the SSID broadcast and
without the hassles of plugging in Why is all this so restricting access through MAC address
the Ethernet cable. It offers them important? filtering, will deter most novice hackers or
convenience of moving their machines Well, let’s say that you have installed script kiddies from compromising your
around the office, without losing an access point near a window, or Wi-Fi facility. Although it’s not always
connection to the Internet or other maybe close by, which causes the sig- possible to do so, especially in large
network resources. nal to leak outside the office. A person organisations, it’s a good idea to switch
Installing a Wi-Fi LAN in the office with a laptop in the opposite building off a Wi-Fi network when not in use.
initially helps you set up the network or maybe even a floor above or below Personally, I am very uncomfortable
for a fraction of the cost, especially if your office is able to access the Inter- with DHCP and prefer using static IP
your office does not have structured
cabling. Wireless access to the Internet
at airports, restaurants and coffee shops
is all courtesy Wi-Fi.
STRONG PASSWORDS RESIST BEING
However, like most good things COMPROMISED THROUGH BRUTE
FORCE ATTACKS. DISABLING SSID
in life, Wi-Fi comes with its share of
drawbacks. These negatives appear
in the form of security risks, which
can be of various types. These could
BROADCAST FURTHER MITIGATES
compromise your confidential data,
lead to theft of bandwidth resources,
RISKS
amount to a legal action against your
organisation and in some extreme cases net using your facility. He is now going addresses, as this definitely helps as an
even land you behind bars! to ‘steal’ your bandwidth resource to added layer of security, in spite of its
Considering all these risks, is access the Internet. slight inconvenience. Ensure that your
the convenience of Wi-Fi worth it? Not much harm done here, but what router’s firewall is not disabled while on
Alternatively, can we protect ourselves if this person now uses your Internet the other hand, firewall on all desktops
and the organisation against these risks, facility through Wi-Fi, to hack into and laptops is enabled.
and at the same time take advantage of another organisation? How would you Encryption scrambles messages
the benefits Wi-Fi has to offer? ever be able to trace this person? Like sent over the air. Deploying encryption
While there cannot be complete it or not, legally, it’s your organisation technologies such as WPA2 with EAP
security, there are ways to mitigate, that is going to get penalised. Of course, authentication, TKIP/RC4 or AES-
and to an extent, circumvent some this intruder can also hack into your CCMP encryption technology, is a must
of these risks. So how should own network, thus compromising your for large organisations and depending
an organisation go about taking organisation’s confidential data. And on the nature of the business, this is
advantage of the technology and at the once again, how are you ever going to applicable to SMBs too. WEP encryption
same time, protect itself from the risks be able to trace him or her? is outdated and should be avoided at
identified above? all costs, as it can be compromised in a
Securing the matter of minutes. Also, there is nothing
IMAGI NG: SANTO SH KUSH WAHA
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 43
INSIGHT | Wi- fi
2
Prepare a detailed plan for Wi-Fi
installation
5
Disable SSID broadcast and restrict
access through MAC filtering
REMEMBER
POINTS TO
and the default administrator user- devices, including laptops
name is changed
6 Educate your users for safe usage of
3 Deploy encryption technologies such Wi-Fi
as WPA2 with EAP authentication,
TKIP/RC4 or AES-CCMP, but avoid 7 Conduct periodic IT audits
OF WI-FI WILL HELP CONTROL the cheapest and best alternative. Also,
software to ensure that at any given point
COSTS FOR DEPLOYMENT OF in time, only one network connection can
44 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
15MINUTE
TRAINING
EDUCATION
WORKPLACE
COPING
WITH
CTS
IT Strat Social only? No More THIS PAGE
MANAGER
BY P R AV I N SAVA N T
E
veryone seems to agree and
predict that social media
is the next thing to watch
out for. The numbers and
analysis seem to agree as
well. Some findings suggest that social
media is growing by 100% in India, and
that the country is the fastest growing
country on LinkedIn.
Social media is definitely a buzz
word today, and every now and then,
one comes across a reference or an
article on it in business magazines and
IT journals.
SOCIAL ONLY?
youngsters. Be it Orkut or Facebook,
social media was first embraced by
individuals who recognised its power
as a platform to connect and reconnect
NO MORE
with their friends and families. Later
benefits included knowledge sharing,
recruitment referrals and of course, fun
I LLUSTRATIO N: ANO OP PC
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 45
15-MINUTE MANAGER
46 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
n What is the impact for my alliance connections are thirty-four times which helped in the formulation of
partners, distributors and suppliers? more likely to be approached with a the strategy.
n How does this change the job opportunity than people with less Facebook: Facebook has over 500
technology landscape? than five. million users, out of which about 9
The idea is to first decide the needs n There are also about 130,000 million people are in India, as of June
and the corresponding approach and recruiters listed. 2010, and that number continues
then look around for the platform n Importantly, LinkedIn has over 6 to grow steadily. It is the third-most
that is best suited. You probably million members in India. trafficked website in the world (behind
cannot have a Twitter strategy or a n One new member was reportedly Google and Yahoo) and the most
Facebook strategy. added every 7 seconds in India over the trafficked social media site in the world.
past few months. As early as July 2007, Facebook started
Taking a closer look Here are some of the ways in calling itself one of the leading people
Each social media needs to be leveraged which LinkedIn can be used at your and social search engines on the web,
differently, based on its specialties. organisation: though some disagree with that.
LinkedIn: Most of us know that n Check references for potential Here are some business goals for
LinkedIn is an online network useful hires. using Facebook:
for sharing our professional updates n Get advice using LinkedIn n Reach to people who are searching
with people with whom we like to be Answers. for your products or services.
linked. Additionally: n Do research and get to know a n Connect and engage with current
n Most of the Fortune 500 companies company. and potential customers.
are represented at LinkedIn and many n Discuss a topic on a forum and get n Create a community around your
of them are represented by director- feedback. business.
level and above employees. Recently, as part of an evaluation n Promote content that your
n More than 70 million experienced around feasibility to have employee- organisation creates, including
professionals from around the world owned assets, I started a discussion webinars, blog articles, or other
representing 130 industries are on at the CIO Club group forum. Within resources.
LinkedIn. a short period of time, there were a Some of the good examples of
n People with more than twenty number of comments and feedback, Facebook are: Amul Butter’s Facebook
What about
Do we allow the privacy of Do we encourage
all sites to be What guidelines content? greater usage of
accessed by all are to be given internal sources like
employees? on publishing the intranet or allow Do we only
corporate content creation of sub-sites focus on
and even personal at popular forums? customer
views and personal
feedback or
information?
complaints?
Do we have the
right to monitor Do we engage
How much do we
and the means someone else to
invest in terms of
to measure its do it for us?
Should we explore time or money in
impact?
and rather focus this area?
on CSR initiatives
at these sites?
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 47
15-MINUTE MANAGER
GOLFING
Without an iota of doubt, golf is one of the most popular sports on the planet, espe-
Likewise, Vodafone zoo zoo is a good
example of usage of this platform which
over 6 lakh people claim to like.
cially with the rich and famous. In fact, it is often said that some of the biggest deals
Twitter: While Twitter gives us a
are not worked out in boardrooms, but on the golf course. So, before you pick up the
space to express “what are you doing
club to swing in the tee, here is a basic guide on what you need to know:
right now” in a quick 140 words, it has
some far-reaching impacts, which have
been used well by some organisations
and some business leaders in India.
Anand Mahindra is one of those few
who have been on Twitter and it’s been
simply amazing to observe the impact.
He has more than 86,000 followers.
Dell has found a way to use Twitter
to generate sales and says it surpassed
$3 million in sales attributed to Twitter.
Dell has now taken its Twitter campaign
to a new level by offering discounts
exclusively to people who follow @
DellOutlet.
Start with the gear: The biggest issue for a beginner is to decide on Summing it up
1 which club to use for which shot. The best thing to do when you are start- Social media offers structured ways to
ing out is to stick to just a few clubs, using only those. After you practice a little, track the relevant feedbacks and inputs
you will get the feel of what is required, understanding the differences between for your organisation, and the benefits
each club. this brings to the business can be critical
and valuable.
Gripping it right: How to grip the club is another bewildering thing for
2 most beginners. Well, here is one. Both your hands should work like a
However, it is important to note that lever-
aging the social media is a continuous and
single unit, each palm facing the other, as if joining your hands to pray. In order
gradual process. It is easy to start, but it
to check this out, get into the starting position, standing with your feet apart with
takes quite an effort to sustain the drive
your knees slightly bent, and then just bend your wrists and lift the club-head up.
and consequently the interest of an inter-
If you find that you can swing the shaft up straight, to the middle of your head,
active audience. It is therefore necessary
without the angle of the face changing, that means you have a good grip.
to keep the following considerations in
Pre-shot routine: Before every shot, most, if not all golfers, have a view when building a social media pres-
3 specific routine for getting ready. They may move a certain way, practice ence:
visualization of a successful shot, or concentrate on something motivating. This n It requires a long-term strategic
would be defined as a pre-shot routine. Every player has a unique prep ritual. thought process
n It’s not about getting lost in a sea
Tips for putting: Putting is probably one of the most important skills you
4 will need to develop. You need to master the pace, first of all. You can do
of Internet, but more about addressing a
focused, targeted audience that matters
this by practicing acquiring a smooth rhythm of putting. There are no particular
n The objective should be clear
rules about addressing the ball; just keep practicing until you get a reliable and
and the benefits need to be visualised
smooth stroke.
in advance, so that the activities are
Matchplay: This term refers to the original way that golf was played - aligned to the goals
5 hole-to-hole. Whoever scores lowest on the first hole is the winner of that n It’s not technology, but a business
PHOTO GRAPHY: PHOTO S.C OM
hole, and then goes “one up”. Then, the winner on the second hole goes “two up”. initiative
This score pattern continues for each hole thereafter. If you lose a hole, then you As for the outcome, it may be complex
go “down one”. If a hole is tied, you then “halve” the hole. The final outcome is de- enough for even Paul the octopus to
cided by how many holes you are either up or down by, compared to the number predict!
of holes left. For example, if you are 4 up with only 4 holes left in the game, you
are the winner of the match. The author is CTO, Lowe Lintas (IPG)
48 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
MANAGE IT n Life cycle management
n Redeployment and disposal
SWEAT YOUR
management
IT asset management practices are
IT ASSETS
process-driven and matured through
iterative and continual improvement
process. Asset management data is
very important and is required in an
organisation at various levels such as
An asset management system will end users, budget managers, IT service
I
follow best business practices. A good
T asset management is very organisation. Once the procurement IT asset management system must have
important for any organisation. process starts, it ends with the asset’s linkage with helpdesk management. It will
It refers not only to managing complete life cycle management. Here, be even better if it is also integrated with HR,
the IT assets but also amounts to assets are not only hardware but procurement and finance systems.
their effective utilisation, optimi- also include software in the business One way of adopting best business
ILLUSTRATI ON: ANOOP PC
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 49
15-MINUTE MANAGER
ASSET MANAGEMENT
OBJECTIVES
The basic objectives of IT asset man-
TRAINING
agement primarily include the following:
l Fulfilment of business needs
l Standardization of IT assets and risk
CALENDAR reduction
l Complete control over asset inventory
and transparency of asset data
Career booster l Optimum utilization of IT assets
courses for you l Virtualization of IT assets
l Uncover savings through upgrade/re-
deployment and support for strategic
decision making
l For good IT governance and to ensure
compliance
Program Venue Dates l Enhance performance of assets and
the life cycle management
50 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
SOCIAL NETWORKING
HOW TO
STEM SOCIAL
THE MEDIA
LEAKS?
BIG EXPERT PANEL
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 51
THE BIG Q
FIRST ANSWER
To start off, there are two aspects to Harsha’s dilemma, one pertains to
ethics and other to the business angle. First up, from a legal and ethi-
cal perspective, one should not mix personal, professional and social
activities. In this case, it is the clash between personal–vs-organisa-
tion entirely, that means if it is the security breach for customer, the
organisation can be closed down.
Now from a business perspective, even if Harsha doesn’t want
to raise an alarm, someone else may do it. So, she can alert the
authorities, without really revealing her identity. Looking at the
situation, impact and risks associated, it can be handled sensibly.
Usually, these kinds of issues occur at the workplace out of sheer
ignorance on part of the employees. People do not necessarily
RATNAKAR understand the true implications of their actions. Hence, it is
NEMANI incumbent upon the organisation to educate its workforce on what
is acceptable and what is not. It also needs to clearly spell out the
CIO and Head of IT consequences of such acts. For instance, in this particular case, Vikas could be counselled
Projects Wing, VST
Industries Ltd and, if need be, helped to find another job, etc. The action taken by the organisation is
completely dependent on the motives of the perpetrator, if it is found that the act was
About me: A finance a deliberate one, the punishment will be dour and if on the contrary, it was done out of
executive by choice
and an IT executive by ignorance, it could be light.
chance, he is an industry Interestingly, such issues are quite common in IT /BFSI sector where spouse or
veteran with over 18
years of experience in roomates work together. Harsha should not ponder too much over the issue, and bring it
the current organisation. to the notice of the management. Else, she could be aiding in compromising the security.
A recipient of multiple
awards, he is renowned
for his ability of bringing SECOND ANSWER
in business insights on
technology issues There are quite a few steps that can be taken by the Information Security team to counter
the threats posed by social media sites. Here is what they can do:
1. Immediately cut off Vikas’s Internet access at office
2. Check background from HR, both discrete and otherwise, to ensure that he is not
working for competition
3. Filter all data pertaining to the ongoing project through the proxy
4. Issue a circular to all from Head HR about gravity of exchanging data on public
domain
5. Separate the public domain collaboration from the internal collaboration unit
6. Conduct classes on security related issues for all employees
7. Counsel Vikas privately, informing him that such activities are not entertained
One thing is certain here, she should not be really worried about her image with the
colleagues, as she is bound to be at loggerheads with employees on one issue or another.
And that will be her mark of success as an IS professional.
52 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
THE BIG Q
FIRST ANSWER
As a corporate policy, we do not allow social networking sites on the
corporate network. This is a given policy in most corporate offices
where IS policies are in place and where customer information is
vital. Presently, the defamation and libel laws in the country are
not very stringent, but going forward I am sure the so called “dis-
claimer” clause we put everywhere will not be of any consequence.
In the present case, I think Harsha should post a newsletter bring-
ing out clearly the security loopholes in social networking sites and
how the vital information can be compromised by using the site for
official, or semi-official, work. If indeed the information leak seems
to be unintentional, she would be best advised to bring it to the notice
of the senior team members and also counsel Vikas in person about
what could be the possible consequences of the indiscrete postings. B MURALI
IS policies work best when the employees are well-informed about NAIR
them, otherwise, these issues keep cropping up.
CTO, Laxmi Vilas Bank
SECOND ANSWER
About me: A multi-
Harsha and the team should also put in place an Information Security Policy duly faceted banking
approved by the top management/board and implement the same across the manage- veteran, he is renowned
in the tech circles for
ment. This is a tough job since it will require a number of sessions for creating aware- his business acumen
ness, conditioning and bringing in certain inevitable changes in the work culture and and ability to resolve
technology issues
practices. But the matter requires firm handling and in spite of initial resistance, when in a short span of
the objective is well understood, the resistance will give way to acceptance. Like much time. Currently he
is overlooking the
else in life, prevention is always better cure, but in case of security prevention , its more complete technology
critical than cure. And not only should such a policy be framed, it should be prominently roadmap at LVB and prior
to that he was associated
displayed at all vital locations, so that the same is reinforced time and again. with Union Bank of India
NEXT
SOCIA
L Top Security Concerns of using Social Media Network by Organisations
MEDIA
Most social network users fail to perform basic security measures on a regular basis
47% 55%
26%
20% a tion
orm
Inf
l
tia
s
on
en
cti
ck
fed
nfe
ft
a
Att
the
co n
eI
Phishing
Identity
Sharing
Malwar
SOURCE: AVG
AND CMO
COUNCIL
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 53
THE BIG Q
SECOND ANSWER
ALOK She should immediately formulate and circulate a “Social Media
KUMAR Policy” which should be applicable to all employees. Now a days, all
large companies understand the power and threat of the social media
Head, Sears IT and have come out with such policies to which each employee is bound. In such a policy there
Management Services
(India) are clear do’s & dont’s mentioned making easy for an employee to restrict his blogging &
messaging on things which are neutral or not part of the policy. Training and awareness
About me: Is a tech are also important, so training sessions and consequences in case of a breach should be
evangelist, who has a
distinguished career clearly spelt out. Security policy and social media policy in general should be hyped up
spanning multiple through sessions, posters, screen savers and like.
companies, like
Hutchinson and Reliance
Infosolutions
NOTES
NOTES
Social Networking, The “Third Place,” And The Evolution Of Communication: http://jobfunctions.
MORE RESOURCES bnet.com/abstract.aspx?kw=social+media&docid=328488
Social Media: Risk and Policies: http://www.socialfish.org/whitepaper#policies
54 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
4 Edu Tech December 2009
CUBE CHAT | BHOODEV TYAGI
TAKING UP
CHALLENGES
“I aspire to raise the standard of my
work,” says Bhoodev Tyagi, Leader–IT,
Dun & Bradstreet, India
BY JATIN D E R S I N G H
C
hallenges make you discover things The process is based on virtualisation and
about yourself that you never really maneges to reduce hardware and operating
knew. They’re what makes the costs—including energy costs.
instrument stretch—what makes “The project helps reduce the time taken to
you go beyond the norm.” This provision new servers,” he explains further.
statement made by Cicely Tyson, a successful The mark of a true leader, Tyagi pays a great
stage actress of 19th century, seems to go with the deal of attention on learning and teamwork. He
work philosophy of Bhoodev Tyagi, Leader–IT, is dedicated and passionate about any project
Dun & Bradstreet, India. that he is involved in. For him, the definition
An admirer of M.S. Dhoni for his leadership of a successful IT manager lies in the way he
skills, Tyagi believes that no problem ever comes collaborates with a client or stakeholders in
without a solution. And, one just needs to think order to understand them properly.
MY SUCESS differently to overcome it. “This belief helps If knowledge is a critical to achieving goals, it’s
MANTRA me to achieve my goals as an IT leader in my the vision of the future and the ability to create
Work hard, keep a organisation,” he explains. a good working team that, he believes, make a
positive attitude, Presently, he is handling the critical project project successful.
and concentrate on of server consolidation in a live environment to “Nowadays, IT is dynamic. Therefore, an
your goal achieve a zero downtime for his organisation. IT manager should be able to keep pace with
56 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
W
CUBE CHAT
FACT FILE
NAME
BHOODEV T YAGI
CURRENT DESIGN AT I O N
LEADER–IT FOR D U N &
BRADSTREET, IND I A
CURRENT ROLE
RESPONSIBLE FO R T H E
MANAGEMENT OF T H E
DATA CENTRE, US E R
SL A COMMITMEN TS ,
PERFORMANCE,
AVAIL ABILIT Y,
RESPONSE TIME A N D
PROBLEM RESOLU T I O N .
RESPONSIBLE FO R
EFFECTIVE RESO U R C E
MANAGEMENT, AN D
SYSTEM AND RES O U R C E -
PL ANNING BASED O N
BUSINESS FOREC AST
EXPERTISE
SOFT WARE DEVELO P M E N T
STRATEGIC PL AN N I N G
2001-2002
technological advancements. One should spend quality time with his family. He
TEAM LEADER
be able to deliver innovative and timely is very particular about balancing his NIVA ONLINE, MU M BA I ,
solutions,” he stresses. personal and professional lives. “I always INDIA
“An IT manager should be capable try to live life to the fullest. Spending time
2000 -2001
enough to understand the pain of his with the family, listening to old Hindi
PROGRAMMER-CU M -
clients and learn how IT can help solve the film songs and watching cricket are some ANALYST
problem,” he adds. of my favourite pastimes,” he reveals. GEBBS SOFT WAR E
Tyagi is a strong believer in God. His There is a scripture in the Bible that says INTERNATIONAL , N J , U SA
faith is unshakeble, despite the fact that without a vision, people perish. Without
1999 -2000
the man has faced several hiccups during something to live for, we die, before we
CONSULTANT
various stages of his life. begin to live truly. So, does this IT manager DUN & BRADSTRE E T,
PHOTO GRAPHY: JI TE N GANDHI
“Every morning I thank God for the life aspire for a new (and bigger) role—perhaps MUMBAI, INDIA
that he has given me. Many a times I have that of a CIO?
been desperate, but I have always managed “My ambition is that I will continue to 1993 -1999
PROGRAMMER-CU M -
to keep a situation under control. And, I’ve raise the standard of the work that I do. I am
ANALYST
let a bad time pass,” he says. always ready to take on new challenges and CAPITAL MARKET
Despite the hard work at office and his responsibilities. But, I’m not after any tag, PUBLISHERS IND I A ,
commitment to work, he never forgets to even that of a CIO,” Tyagi concludes. MUMBAI
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 57
UPDATE
based solutions is expected in the coming years. The company has also introduced
a new base station as a part of its TD-LTE offering. RBS 6000, the TD-LTE base PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
station, offers an integrated solution with minimal dimensions and low-energy Interface: USB 3.0
consumption, fit for every implementation. “The demonstration reflects not Special Feature: one-touch auto backup button,
only Ericsson’s undisputed technology leadership in the LTE domain, but our AES encryption
unwavering commitment to the development of TD-LTE in the world,” said Mats Data Transfer Rates: Transfer rates reaching up
H. Olsson, President, Ericsson (China & North East Asia). The solutio has the to 140 MB/s
58 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
UPDATE
VMware intros
ZyXEL economical
launches Solutions
N Gigabit VMware, the global player
in virtualisation solutions right
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 59
UPDATE
HOT
DELL STUDIO
ONE 1909
19 inch touch-screen monitor,
Core2 Duo Processor,
Nvidia GeForce 9400
PRICE:
R S 34,000
P3110 3G READY
LIFEBOOK
SAMSUNG C9000 Ultra-low-voltage processor, 3G
Collector’s edition, swiss ready, size 11.6 inch, weighs 1.6
durability, improved mechanical kg, perfect for video conferencing
grounding, HDMI 1.3 Video and and Internet telephony (VoIP)
Audio digital output PRICE:
RS 63,500
PRICE: NEW
US$5,999 AND ABOVE
ZENITH XTREME
TOURBILLION ZEROG
Watch that can operate in Zero
gravity, mounted with a free
moving gyroscope, water proof
up to 1,000 ft.
PANASONIC
HD 3D CAM PRICE: US$ 500,000
3D camera, convenient
replacement for their 2 camera
and mirror, can record 3D HD
content on 2X32 GB SD cards
PRICE: US$21,000
60 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
UPDATE
PUBLISHER : STERLING
PRICE : RS 499
the Blackberry?
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 61
SUBHOJIT PAUL
MY LOG Chief Photographer,
9.9 Mediaworx
Saying it in
1000 Words
You have to be sure of what
you are doing in that moment
M
when you click
.CO
OS
OT
PH
:
ON
TI
RA
ILLUST
Honestly speaking, I had never planned on thought comes after a picture has been
becoming a photographer. It just happened. clicked (perhaps through the simpler
It began as an infatuation of a 12-year-old, auto mode). If this trend continues, soon
and inadvertently grew into a passion. And there will be newspapers and magazines 3 ESSENTIAL
the love affair is on. The relationship, how- carrying photo credits for the camera READS
ever, began after school, when yours truly company, and not the person clicking it. INSIGHT | VIRTUALISATION VIRTUALISATION | INSIGHT
LEADS
adapter shares is simply a matter of walking
through a couple of configuration screens that are
easily accessed from the vSphere client. I was able
to assign a low, medium, normal, high or custom
setting that designated the number of network on
an iSCSI-connected storage array. It also works on
Fibre Channel-connected storage, but not on NFS
THE PACK
or Raw Device Mapping storage.
Back then, Agfa, Nova and ILFORD, lens–I began to shoot musicians and
substantial increase in the number of VMs per were running.
VMs
the posted limits due to hardware constraints. VMware included a handy memory innovation
However, VMware states that the latest version in vSphere 4.1 called “memory compression.”
network control features of vSphere of vCenter can handle 3,000 VMs in a cluster and up to 1,000 IT managers should become familiar with
4.1 lead to improved host utilisation and and up to 1,000 hosts per vCenter server. hosts per the feature as it is enabled by default. In my
Both of these large numbers are a threefold vCenter server tests, I saw improvements in virtual machine
REVIEW automated scale from the VM systems. increase over the stated capacity of VMware can be handled performance after I artificially constrained the
vSphere 4.0. Aside from the sizable scale increase by the latest amount of physical host memory. As my virtual
BY CAMERON STURDEVANT enabled in this version of vSphere 4.1, the main version of v machine systems started to access memory
were the preferred monochrome films. models for magazines. The intent was to
advances in the platform are evolutionary Center to handle test workloads, my EXS 4.1 system
extensions of capabilities that improve how the started to compress virtual memory pages and
platform handles VM resource contention. stored them in a compressed memory cache.
During tests, I used the new I/O controls in Since accessing this memory is significantly
VMware vSphere 4.1 continues to lead the networking and storage to govern resource use. faster than swapping memory pages to disk,
enterprise virtual machine platform pack. New IT managers who are already accustomed the virtual machines ran much faster with this
memory management, storage and network con- to using resource controls in VM CPU feature than they did when it was disabled and
trol features enable resource pool creation that settings will have a leg up when it comes to the same workloads were started. IT managers
improves scale while reducing performance using I/O controls in both network and storage should expect to devote at least several weeks
drags. Virtual machine management gains areas. Even with the CPU control heritage, my of expert analysis to determine the most
increased importance in the vSphere 4.1 plat- use of network and storage control features effective memory compression configuration
Around 40 per cent of the process capture motion. Like a chapter of a story.
form, and IT managers should plan to have their revealed a fair number of “version 1” limitations. for each workload.
virtualisation experts devote themselves full Network I/O control prioritises network traffic VMware did some housekeeping in the
time to studying these new features to ensure by type when using network resource pools incremental release of vSphere. The vSphere
that they lead to improved host utilisation and and the native VMware vNetwork Distributed client is still available in the vCenter 4.1
automated scale from the VM systems. Switch. Network I/O control works only with installation bits, but it is no longer included
During tests at eWEEK Labs, I learned that the 4.1 version of the vNetwork Distributed in the ESX and ESXi code. There also were
vCenter 4.1—the command and control module of the Switch—not with the Cisco Nexus V1000 or some minor changes made to various interface
VMware virtual infrastructure world—is now 64-bit the standard switch from VMware. screens, but there was nothing that would puzzle
only. As part of the move to vSphere 4.1, IT managers an experienced IT administrator.
should build in extra planning and migration time to Implementation is simple Find similar stories
online on the
was about clicking the picture, the rest As a photojournalist I have been fortunate
A vNetwork Distributed Switch can now assign priority to a variety of move any vCenter 4.0 or older servers to systems that While it takes advanced network expertise to website
www.itnext.in/ Cameron Sturdevant is technical director for eweek labs,
traffic types. are running a 64-bit operating system. design and tune the policy that runs network I/O Insight and can be reached at csturdevant@eweek.com. ©eWeek
36 IT NEXT | A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 37
took place in the darkroom in trying to to meet people from different walks of Building automation system
life. Celebrities, artists, students, actors, conserves energy and saves much
develop and print a picture. Photography
money in the bargain Pg 34
was more about the process back then. leaders, professors, business heads, IT
Geometry, textures, patterns, hues and managers, models and designers. And INSIGHT | Wi- fi
flora were few of my favourite subjects. I have discovered that a simple picture
the wires? Don’t we wish we could material of the outer walls and ceilings, Restricting access through MAC
connect to the Internet or access the and those of the different cabins inside address filtering will not deter a hard-
printer without those wires, securely? also play an important part in the core hacker, as MAC address spoofing is
Well, Wi-Fi lets users access the planning process. not that great a deal, but a combination
Internet and other network resources, of disabling the SSID broadcast and
without the hassles of plugging in Why is all this so restricting access through MAC address
the Ethernet cable. It offers them important? filtering, will deter most novice hackers or
convenience of moving their machines Well, let’s say that you have installed script kiddies from compromising your
around the office, without losing an access point near a window, or Wi-Fi facility. Although it’s not always
connection to the Internet or other maybe close by, which causes the sig- possible to do so, especially in large
network resources. nal to leak outside the office. A person organisations, it’s a good idea to switch
After a shoot, the long wait for the final is sometimes the hardest to shoot. Or
Installing a Wi-Fi LAN in the office with a laptop in the opposite building off a Wi-Fi network when not in use.
initially helps you set up the network or maybe even a floor above or below Personally, I am very uncomfortable
for a fraction of the cost, especially if your office is able to access the Inter- with DHCP and prefer using static IP
your office does not have structured
cabling. Wireless access to the Internet
at airports, restaurants and coffee shops
is all courtesy Wi-Fi.
STRONG PASSWORDS RESIST BEING
However, like most good things COMPROMISED THROUGH BRUTE
FORCE ATTACKS. DISABLING SSID
in life, Wi-Fi comes with its share of
drawbacks. These negatives appear
SECURING the
and the organisation against these risks, facility through Wi-Fi, to hack into and laptops is enabled.
films and printing them was like giving challenging than shooting a supermodel.
and at the same time take advantage of another organisation? How would you Encryption scrambles messages
the benefits Wi-Fi has to offer? ever be able to trace this person? Like sent over the air. Deploying encryption
While there cannot be complete it or not, legally, it’s your organisation technologies such as WPA2 with EAP
security, there are ways to mitigate, that is going to get penalised. Of course, authentication, TKIP/RC4 or AES-
AIRWAVES
and to an extent, circumvent some this intruder can also hack into your CCMP encryption technology, is a must
of these risks. So how should own network, thus compromising your for large organisations and depending
an organisation go about taking organisation’s confidential data. And on the nature of the business, this is
advantage of the technology and at the once again, how are you ever going to applicable to SMBs too. WEP encryption
same time, protect itself from the risks be able to trace him or her? is outdated and should be avoided at
identified above? all costs, as it can be compromised in a
Securing the
birth (if I can use that term). Today, the Shooting IT managers is really unique, as
matter of minutes. Also, there is nothing
A Wi-Fi plan should be robust enough to address
I MAGI NG : SA N TO SH KUSH WA H A
something in the blood that makes the etc., involved in a shoot. Not to forget that
So far! Now that’s the operative word. But ask Bob Massa, and there is more mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and
The argument that cloud’s advent can
hurt or challenge the very existence of
internal IT departments has naturally
started ‘hurting some brains.’ HARDLY A FEW BUDGETS OLD,
It’s not just applications any more.
The wave is touching networks, server
‘CLOUD’ HAS MADE MORE NOISE AND
provisioning, infrastructure monitoring IMPACT THAN ANY OTHER NEW KID
THAT EVER ARRIVED
IS IT
and management, and what not. The
interesting part is that there is no sign
RAIN
of it sucking back.
OR A from IT much of its mundane chores. than his coup d’etat of suing Google “What effect is cloud computing
DRIZZLE?
Ok! But why the heck were we talking some years back. His polemic, bold and going to have on privacy, intellectual
about insomnia? candid wisdom continues to challenge property rights, open source
Here’s why. perceptions again, when the word agreements, software licensing, and
The worry mercury was initiated ‘cloud’ pops up. so on?”
dramatically by Nicholas Carr, who “As for Mr. Carr, as much as I like to There could be more to be alarmed
Is it worth losing your sleep over its rise? running their own IT infrastructures.”
What does that mean?
“Once computing becomes a utility
and the collective sum of ‘data’ is stored
won’t have your source code in his
back pocket tomorrow. There may be
Simple—one may no longer need the within the cloud and becomes available many a cost associated with all that
BY PRATIMA HARIGUNANI
IT firemen or plumbers to keep things to all but controlled by a few, then I can cheap bandwidth, storage and access
up and running because someone certainly see where Carr may have a very to everything.
‘on-call’ is going to do to it much easily, valid point. I know from experience that “Where’s your competitive advantage
much cheaper and much faster. IT aka technological advances run far ahead of when ‘everyone’ has access to the same
entailed that a photographer would give you are doing in that moment when you
your pizza delivery boy, could capsize the ability of any country’s legal system everything too?” He serves you a ‘too big
The thing about underdogs is, well, they seemingly petite things. Anyone who does the traditional hulks, if the hypothesis to keep up,” explains Massa. to chew’ question here.
are still dogs, and everyone likes them to win. so has yet not been bitten by a mosquito. is interpreted right. Now that raises the quintessential
From the pages of The Godfather to the There’s more than just a mosquito question again. Scared yet?
blind alleys of politics; from the vuvuzela- somewhere disturbing the sleep Teddy bear or bug bear? Can cloud computing have enough As is clear by now, cloud computing is
I L LUSTR AT I O N : SA N TO SH KU SH WA H A
drowned battles to a corporate tug-of-war; of some men nowadays. And this So, while almost every vendor and potential (or promise) to sideline influencing a lot of intelligent debate.
you will find them everywhere. is a breed of men who won’t let an lighthouse customer is giving it the erstwhile IT functions handled At the same time, it has also started
Crawling upwards silently, tip-toeing underdog shadow their power, or bear hug, is cloud computing strong internally? When and where will impacting IT budgets and decisions in
in the stranglehold of their prey, and shall we say, ‘cloud’ their power? enough to arrogate the power and internal IT be indispensable, cloud or a significant way. Yet, is there a negative
shadowing its might while it snoozes Ever since, the ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’ functions of traditional IT? Does it no cloud? fine-print in this ballyhoo? How should
unaware; the underdog usurps it all. author Nicholas Carr, made another not raise worries on new redundancy At the moment, there are several internal IT engines of an enterprise
considerable thought to the “frame” before click! Obviously, the art needs constant
May be that’s why the wise men know new, big stir that needs absolutely no spots, and thus a threat to internal companies jumping into the cloud game interpret it? Cause for worry for IT
that one should never underestimate small, introduction in CIO bastions today; IT teams? and there is choice and competition as managers already?
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shooting. Now, with the process becoming innovation to simplify the meaning of Peer coaching can help an aspiring
simpler and, to some extent, cheaper, the thousand words with a single click. leader to grow in stature Pg 51
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