CONNECTIONS PLUS JULY/AUGUST 2016 by Annex Business Media

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 6

+ the magazine for ict professionals

Data Centre Advances also: IP Traffic Set To Triple

Evolving Standards

Securing The Cloud

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Our End-to-End Expertise • Your End-to-End Solution

F E ATURE

Fe a t u r e s

12 Data Centre Advances Bi-modal IT is becoming the norm.

16 Securing the cloud Enterprise risk management is critical.

Departments

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note

Infrastructure Systems

Networks & The Cloud

Mobility Movements 10

New & Noteworthy 19

The Back Page 22

I n the Ne xt Issue

>> Focus on Mobility member of:

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July/August 2016

Connections+

EDIT O R ’S N O TE

Say goodbye to a ‘no-cloud’ policy here were two interesting reports released in late June pertaining to data centres and cloud, both of which are the main focus topicsof this issue of Connections+. First, Gartner Inc. is predicting that by 2020, a corporate “nocloud” policy will be as rare as a “no-Internet” policy is today. The research firm recently stated the now well-established stance of cloud-first in software design and planning is gradually being augmented or replaced by cloud-only. “More leading-edge IT capabilities will be available only in the cloud, forcing reluctant organizations closer to cloud adoption,” said Yefim Natin, a Gartner vice president. “While some applications and data will remain locked in older technologies, more new solutions will be cloud-based, thus further increasing demand for integration infrastructure.” Most IT organizations, he added, will have to reorganize to reflect the realities of cloud computing. That shift is one reason why market research firm Technavio predicts that the global multi-tenant and wholesale data centre market is expected to record a compound annual growth rate of more than 13% until 2020. “The increased use of data centres at an organization level can be attributed to the proliferation of data generation, which has subsequently increased the need for dedicated services and solutions for building, maintaining and supporting the IT

backbone,” the firm said. “These services include hosting, server consolidation and business continuity services.” A sign of the times, it notes, is a growing demand among small to medium-sized enterprises, which collectivity, according to Science and Economic Development Canada, make up 98.2% of all businesses in this country. SMEs, says Technavio, are among the principle adopters of co-location and managed services worldwide, largely because they have a limited budget and “are always looking for services that can reduce their capital and operational expenditure.” They also may not have a choice. The adoption of cloudbased services and big data analytics is growing rapidly, the firm points out, and in addition expanding digitalization has resulted in a significant increase in the amount of enterprise data that is generated and processed. Naturally, annual data centre IP traffic counts will continue to soar. Cisco Systems Inc. is estimating they will reach 10.4 zettabytes per month by the end of 2019, a marked increase from the 3.4 zettabytes recorded two years ago. According to a recent Cisco white paper, “over the last few years, the telecommunications industry has seen cloud adoption evolve from an emerging technology to an established networking solution that is gaining widespread acceptance and deployment.” C+

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Volume 4, Issue 4 July/August 2016

+ SPOTLIGHT ON A CHANGING MOBILE WORLD

Editor Paul Barker 416-510-6752 pbarker@connectionsplus.ca

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Media Designer

Brantz Myers, B.Sc Math and Computing Science Director of Healthcare Business Development, Cisco Systems Canada Co.

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In f ras t r uct ure S y s t e m s

Steady growth English joins predicted for Leviton as head of Network Solutions structured cabling market eviton Manufacturing of Canada Ltd has announced the appointment of Shari English (pictured) to the position of national director, Network Solutions – Canada, effective April 18th, 2016. English will report to Gaby Massabni, vice president of distribution. As national director she will work closely with the regional directors across Canada to ensure the company’s growth in the network solutions market and further the development of Strategic National Accounts, Leviton said in a release. C+

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W W W

S I E M O N

Connections+

C O M

July/August 2016

L I G H T H O U S E

he global structured cabling market is predicted to experience a steady growth during the forecast period of 2015 to 2021, according to a new report now being distributed by MRRSE, short for Market Research Reports Search Engine Available via www.mrrse.com/structured-cabling-market, its authors note that the rapid growth of the Internet and cloud computing applications has resulted in data centre network bandwidth requirements. “The operators of data centres are continually facing the challenge of meeting the increasing demands for network bandwidth without exorbitantly increasing infrastructure power and cost. This triggers the need of structured cabling globally which is cost effective, has long transmission distance capability and results in consumption of less power. “In addition, different initiatives such as development of green data centres, has been taken by the government in different parts of the world such as Canada, the U.S., U.K., Australia, China and Japan to reduce the power consumption and heat generation in data centres. This, in turn, is expected to increases the deployment and usage of structured cabling components.” Moreover, the ongoing practice to upgrade the prevalent cabling system along with new installation adopted by different application segments across the globe in order to get fast and reliable network connection is also predicted to drive the market of structured cabling globally. Detailed study of the global structured cabling market across different application and solution type segments is highlighted in the report. In addition, various macro and micro economic factors that are expected to have an impact on the growth of structured cabling market globally are also listed in this report. Geographically, the structured cabling market in Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing market with a CAGR of 7.9% during the period of 2015 to 2021. The rapid expansion of production facilities of structured cabling components in this region owing to huge concentration of structured cabling manufacturer and extensive capital investment of different companies, in this emerging technology is expected to induce sharp fall in the prices of structured cabling components. C+

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Infra s t ruct ure Sy stems

Cisco predicts near-tripling of

IP Traffic by 2020

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The digital transformation is happening now for billions of consumers and business users across the globe.

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ccording to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Complete Forecast for 2015 to 2020, global IP traffic will nearly triple at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22% over the next five years. More than one billion new Internet users are expected to join the global Internet community, growing from three billion in 2015 to 4.1 billion by 2020. The global digitization transformation, based on the adoption of personal devices and deployment of machine-to-machine (M2M) connections will have an even greater impact on traffic growth. Over the next five years, global IP networks will support up to 10 billion new devices and connections, increasing from 16.3 billion in 2015 to 26.3 billion by 2020. There are projected to be 3.4 devices and connections per capita by 2020 – up from 2.2 per capita in 2015.

www.connectionsplus.ca

According to Cisco, advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) are continuing to drive IP traffic and tangible growth in the market. Applications such as video surveillance, smart meters, digital health monitors and a host of other M2M services are creating new network requirements and incremental traffic increases. Globally, M2M connections are calculated to grow nearly three-fold from 4.9 billion in 2015 to 12.2 billion by 2020, representing nearly half (46%) of total connected devices. The connected health consumer segment will have the fastest growth (five-fold) of M2M connections from 2015 (144 million) to 2020 (729 million). The connected home segment will have the largest volume of M2M connections over the forecast period with 2.4 billion in 2015, growing to 5.8 billion by 2020 – nearly half of all M2M connections. Video services and content continue to be the dominant leader compared with all other applications. Internet video will account for 79% of global Internet traffic by 2020 – up from 63% in 2015. The world will reach three trillion Internet video minutes per month by 2020, which is five million years of video per month, or about one million video minutes every second. HD and Ultra HD Internet video will make up 82% of Internet video traffic by 2020 – up from 53% in 2015. With the growing dependence on mobile and fixed broadband networks, security concerns are increasingly becoming top of mind for service providers, governments, businesses and consumers. For the first time in this forecast, Cisco collaborated with Arbor Networks to help quantify the current and future threats of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. DDoS incidents can paralyze networks by flooding servers and network

devices with traffic from multiple IP sources. The new DDoS analysis suggests that these types of breaches can represent up to 10% of a country’s total Internet traffic while they are occurring. Over the next five years, DDoS attacks are projected to increase from 6.6 million to 17 million attacks. These initial findings underscore the need for more comprehensive security measures to protect data and reduce network exposure to such risks, Cisco sai. “The digital transformation is happening now for billions of consumers and businesses users across the globe,” said Doug Webster, vice president of service provider marketing at Cisco. C+

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Internet video will account for 79% of global Internet traffic by 2020 – up from 63% in 2015. The world will reach three trillion Internet video minutes per month by 2020.

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July/August 2016

Connections+

Ne two r ks & The C l o u d

IT infrastructure spending for cloud to rise by 15.5% this year: IDC According to the latest forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, total spending on IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switches) for deployment in cloud environments will increase by 15.5% in 2016 to reach US$37.1 billion. This amount excludes double counting between storage and servers. In comparison, spending on enterprise IT infrastructure deployed in traditional, non-cloud, environments will decline by 4.4% in 2016, but will still account for the largest share, 63.4%, of end user spending. Spending on private cloud IT infrastructure will grow by 10.3% year over year to US$13.8 billion with more than 60% of this amount contributed by on-premises private cloud environments. Spending on public cloud IT infrastructure will increase by 18.8% in 2016 to US$23.3 billion. All regions are expected to increase spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2016 with investments in public cloud growing at a faster rate than investments in private cloud IT infrastructure. For cloud environments combined, spending on Ethernet switches will be growing at the highest rate, 39.5%, while spending on server and storage will grow at 11.4% and 14.2%, respectively. For the long-term forecast, IDC expects that spending on IT infrastructure for cloud environments will grow at a 13.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to US$59.5 billion in 2020. This will represent 48.7% of the total spending on enterprise IT infrastructure. Spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure will decline at 1.4% CAGR during the same period. Within the cloud segment, spending on public and private cloud IT infrastructure 8

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July/August 2016

will grow at 18.8% and 10.3% CAGR respectively. In 2020, IDC expects public cloud service providers (CSPs) will spend US$38.4 billion on IT infrastructure for delivering services, while spending on private cloud IT infrastructure will reach US$21.1 billion. “Despite weakness in hyperscale CSP demand for IT infrastructure products in the first quarter, we expect spending on public cloud to increase in the second half of the year,” said Natalya Yezhkova, research director, Storage Systems. “Overall, we will continue to see steady growth in demand for public cloud services and, as a result, underlying spending on IT infrastructure by CSPs. The economic and financial volatility we see in some regions will push demand further as increasing sophistication of public cloud offerings allows organizations to fulfill their needs across a growing variety of IT domains while OPEX-oriented pricing models provide some relief to tightening IT budgets.”

75% of organizations are at significant risk: RSA RSA, The Security Division of EMC, has released data demonstrating that organizations that invest in detection and response technologies, rather than perimeter-based solutions, are better poised to defend against cyber incidents. The second annual RSA Cybersecurity Poverty Index, which compiles survey results from 878 respondents across 81 countries and more than 24 industries, attracted more than double the number of respondents as last year, and gave participants the chance to self-assess the maturity of their cybersecurity programs leverag-

ing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) as the measuring stick. The report found that for the second year in a row, 75% of survey respondents have a significant cybersecurity risk exposure. Incident Response (IR) capabilities are particularly underdeveloped. Nearly half of organizations characterized essential IR capabilities as “ad hoc” or “non-existent”, but organizations are more likely to accelerate programs to shore up cybersecurity capabilities once they have experienced a security incident that impacted the business. The survey also showed that most organizations continue to struggle to improve cybersecurity because they don’t understand how cyber risk can impact their operations. There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence that companies tend to delay investments in cybersecurity until they experience the pain first hand. In addition, companies which primarily rely on a perimeter defense philosophy are disadvantaged in finding malicious activity, and risk public exposure of critical business assets. The results of the RSA Cybersecurity Poverty Index solidified this concept, reporting that the organizations that detect and experience frequent security incidents are 65% more likely to have developed or advantaged capabilities. This shows that organizations that regularly deal with security incidents accelerate moves to shore up security programs and end up with more mature capabilities. Organizations must focus on executing preventative strategies and make improving this a priority over other capabilities which are growing in importance such as detection and response, RSA said.C+ www.connectionsplus.ca

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Mob il e Mo v em ent s

IoT to overtake mobile phones by 2018:

Ericsson The latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, , reveals that the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to overtake mobile phones as the largest category of connected device by 2018. Between 2015 and 2021, the number of IoT connected devices is expected to grow 23% annually, of which cellular IoT is forecast to have the highest growth rate. Of the 28 billion total devices that will be connected by 2021, close to 16 billion will be IoT devices. Western Europe will lead the way in adding IoT connections – the number of IoT devices in this market is projected to grow 400% by 2021. This will principally be driven by regulatory requirements, for example for intelligent utility meters, and a growing demand for connected cars including the EU e-call directive to be implemented in 2018. Rima Qureshi, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Ericsson said that IoT is now “accelerating as device costs fall and innovative applications emerge. From 2020, commercial deployment of 5G networks will provide additional capabilities that are critical for IoT, such as network slicing and

the capacity to connect exponentially more devices than is possible today.” Smartphone subscriptions continue to increase and are forecast to surpass those for basic phones in Q3 this year. By 2021, smartphone subscriptions will almost double from 3.4 billion to 6.3 billion. Also revealed in the report, there are now 5 billion mobile subscribers – unique users – in the world today, which is testament to the phenomenal growth of mobile technology in a relatively short period of time. In 2016, a long anticipated milestone is being passed with commercial LTE networks supporting downlink peak data speeds of 1 Gbps. Devices that support 1 Gbps are expected in the second half of 2016, initially in markets such as Japan, U.S., South Korea and China, but rapidly spreading to other regions. Mobile users will enjoy extremely fast time to content thanks to this enhanced technology, which will enable up to two thirds faster download speeds compared with the fastest technology available today. Further highlights from the Ericsson

Mobility Report include: • A global growth story: mobile broadband subscriptions will grow fourfold in the Middle East and Africa between 2015 and 2021; mobile data traffic in India will grow 15 times by 2021; and despite being the most mature market, mobile traffic in North America will grow 50% in 2016 alone. • Data traffic continues unabated growth: global mobile data traffic grew 60% between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016, due to rising numbers of smartphone subscriptions and increasing data consumption per subscriber. By the end of 2021, around 90% of mobile data traffic will be from smartphones. • LTE subscriptions grew at a high rate during Q1 2016: there were 150 million new subscriptions during the quarter - driven by demand for improved user experience and faster networks – reaching a total of 1.2 billion worldwide. LTE peak data speeds of 1 Gbps are anticipated to be commercially available in 2016. C+

Canadian firms ‘confused’ by remote working,

says Citrix Companies in Canada need to go beyond providing remote access to e-mail in order to address the need for greater workplace productivity and meet employee demands for improved work-life balance. According to Enabling the Remote Workforce in Canada, a recent survey of IT decision makers by Citrix Canada, a concerning disparity exists between how companies define a mobility strategy and what tools employees actually need to do their jobs and be productive. More than eight in 10 (84%) IT decision makers report having employees who work

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July/August 2016

remotely. Yet, the same number (83%) admits their companies’ definition of enterprise mobility is giving employees the basic ability of sending and receiving e-mails from a mobile device. Further, two-thirds describe their organizations’ concept of enterprise mobility as providing employees with mobile devices. Michael Murphy, country manager for Citrix Canada, says this misunderstanding is a major barrier in creating a successful workplace mobility strategy: “The biggest problem we’re seeing is companies not creating a mobile environment conducive

to working collaboratively remotely. “Providing mobility means more than simply enabling access to e-mail. It’s about minimizing restrictions so people can do their jobs successfully outside of the office. This includes giving employees secure access to all essential applications and data from anywhere, providing a seamless user experience and allowing for collaboration.” More than two in five IT decision makers (41%) admit to not having a comprehensive enterprise mobility strategy in place for their companies. C+

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COVE R S TO RY

Data Centre Advances In this space, home renovation projects can teach us a great deal.

n the past, when people built family homes, two bedrooms and a bathroom were the norm and the kitchen was kept separate from the living area. But fast-forward a century later: many families demand not just more space, but a more open concept. Their houses were designed for a particular purpose, but their needs now require major architectural changes. The solution is that many homeowners will undertake a full-scale renovation project, aiming to ensure their homes meet their needs. However, the result is often a painful and expensive project that takes months to complete. Sound like any IT projects you’ve seen lately? For Canadian organizations, it has been crucial to ensure their IT is agile and able to keep up with the demands of their businesses, especially if they are running their IT operations on legacy infrastructure. However, this can be difficult. In a recent Financial Post article, IDC Canada analyst David Senf pointed out that with more connected devices, mobile users, and higher volumes of data, organizations will increasingly face mounting pressures on their data centres – and they will need to ensure their infrastructure can keep up. It is clear the demands of different workloads in the data centre

Connections+

July/August 2016

By Charlie Atkinson

are evolving to a point where bi-modal IT is becoming the norm: One environment is designed to manage traditional IT “runthe-business” applications like ERP. A second supports the new generation of “third platform” apps (cloud-native, mobile, social, and Internet of Things) that create new user experiences and revenue opportunities for the business. Both modes have a need for persistent storage, but the application hooks into storage are dramatically different. Composable infrastructure, also known as “infrastructureas-code,” is a new architectural approach that enables greater flexibility to meet the ever-changing demands of both traditional and emerging workloads. The concept is simple: physical, virtual, and containerized apps can be mapped instantly and dynamically to the right resources – including the right class of storage – to meet any service level, capacity, or cost point requirements. This is the logical next step that goes beyond many hyper-converged discussions, and while the concept is simple, engineering for simplicity across compute, networking, and storage for multi-tenant workloads takes a lot of innovation. www.connectionsplus.ca

COVER STORY

In your data centre, different workloads have different storage needs. Some workloads, like Hadoop or object storage, were built for direct attached storage (DAS). Other workloads, like virtual desktop infrastructure(VDI), benefit from low-cost, software-defined storage that delivers predictable scaling across shared capacity. Mission-critical workloads, like Oracle databases or ERP deployments, might require extremely low-latency, highly resilient, Tier-1 flash storage to meet business objectives. The average enterprise data centre runs the gamut from DAS to softwaredefined storage (SDS) to external flash, and traditionally this has required separate, siloed approaches to deployment in which each application stack has its own set of resources and management tools. For many organizations, their information lives in as many as six or more separate storage architectures on their data centre floor. A truly composable infrastructure gives you the ability to programmatically deploy the right set of compute, fabric, and storage resources for each workload as part of a single, consolidated management approach.

Creating The Utility Data Centre Think about plugging in a lamp. The power from the outlet was generated by some combination of wind, solar, hydroelectric, etc. You don’t really think about this, you just want the lamp to work when you flip the switch. The same is true for your application owners, and even more so for application developers. The unified API of a composable infrastructure is the equivalent of your wall outlet. You use the API to ask for the resources you need for your workload. Behind that API is a software-defined intelligence layer that looks at your request and determines how to fulfill it. Through the use of intelligent templates, storage administrators can define attributes like service levels, drive types, data compaction technologies, and more. When you “plug in” an application and ask for a “gold,” “silver,” or “bronze” quality of service, the resource pool delivers the right type of storage to meet the needs of your workload – no matter what. When it’s no longer needed, you just turn off the light and resources go back into the pool. www.connectionsplus.ca

In the end, an application owner doesn’t really need to know which storage pool he’s accessing – he just needs storage that meets the required service level when he flips the switch.

Picking The Right General Contractor In the ‘composable’ world, many vendors present a biased approach to storage because they don’t have all the pieces. Some push you towards a certain class of storage because that’s what they sell, but it won’t really meet all your needs. Others might support more storage options, but require additional management layers, turning provisioning into a multi-step process with pre-provisioning that adds complexity. What you’re really looking for in a composable solution is the ability to automate everything in a single task – from requesting service to mapping the compute node to actually provisioning that capacity on a storage array – all through a single line of code and without any operator intervention. There’s a difference between adding management layers to hide complexity vs. engineering for simplicity from the ground up. If your goal is to reduce complexity, you should be looking for a solution where simplicity is engineered into the DNA, not bolted on after-the-fact. The best way to accomplish this is a unified approach to storage and automation that is designed to work together from the start. As with any home renovation project, homeowners need to look beyond five layers of wallpaper, salmon-coloured curtains, and a 30-year-old carpet to visualize new living spaces for their families. For the data centre, businesses need to architect for simplicity at data centre-scale across both traditional and third-platform applications. They also need to leverage key principles of DevOps culture and ensure the data centre is always able to meet new application developer needs. In both situations, the end result is worth it. By undertaking a major house renovation project, families can develop the home they have always wanted – and for the data centre, composability can deliver great value, while making a fundamental difference for your business. C+

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For many organizations, their information lives in as many as six or more separate storage architectures on their data center floor. A truly composable infrastructure gives you the ability to programmatically deploy the right set of compute, fabric, and storage resources for each workload as part of a single, consolidated management approach.

” Charlie Atkinson is vice president enterprise group and managing director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Canada. July/August 2016

Connections+

COVE R S TO RY

The Evolution of the Data Centre Standard By Henry Franc

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Compliance to the standard (or any standard) for its own sake is meaningless or misguided at best.

” he only constant is change when it comes to data centres. Providers, consultants and end-users have to cooperate and align their goals, making the best use of guidelines within data centre standards while respecting the needs of the project. In my last column, we discussed ANSI/TIA-942-B (the revision of the TIA-942-A data centre standard), which had been balloted and was about to be reviewed at the June TIA sub-committee meeting. At the time of writing this column (late June 2016), the TIA sub-committee responsible for ANSI/TIA-942-B is in the process of resolving the hundreds of technical comments to the first draft of the B version of the document. So far, the committee has resolved about two-thirds of these comments. In the coming weeks, we will attempt to resolve the remaining comments with a goal of releasing the next draft for ballot and comment prior to our October meetings. The comments and proposed changes covered a wide range

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July/August 2016

of topics, from topology to physical requirements, media and systems, as well as the architectural, mechanical and electrical needs of data centres. It’s important to understand the new technology advances that impact the development of the standard – as well as the difference between normative and informative guidance when it comes to using the document.

ANSI/TIA-942-B: Two New Media Types Two new media types were approved by TIA in the June meetings: Category 8 and wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF). Category 8 is a balanced twisted-pair cabling system that is designed for higher-speed applications like 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T. Cabling system performance is specified around a 2.0 GHz, 30m and 2-connector channel, with a maximum permanent link of 24m. I suspect that we will see applications for Category 8 as “XoR” solutions – Top of Rack (ToR), Middle of Row (MoR) or www.connectionsplus.ca

COVER F E STORY ATURE

End of Row (EoR), where it could replace direct-attached cabling with direct-connected devices. Wideband multimode fiber has been in development for a number of years, and the specifications have been published; however, the industry has not yet decided on an official name or OMx designator. You may have heard discussions about OM5 or OW4; both names have been suggested, but we’ll have to wait for IEC to come up with the official designator. The reason it’s called “wideband multimode fiber” is due to the way the fiber is optimized for increased bandwidth by using multiple wavelengths in the lower end of the spectrum (850nm, 880nm, 910nm and 940nm). This allows for VCSEL-based SWDM (short wavelength-division multiplexing), permitting a migration beyond 10, 25 or 40 Gbps over a single duplex fiber optic channel using multimode fiber. SWDM4 has been demonstrated using a 100m channel to support 100 Gbps speeds. Experimental data has been shared with IEEE over longer channels; further study and development will occur over time, and the technology shows promise. The SWDM Alliance continues to work on developing and promoting the use of SWDM to provide “cost-effective data centre interconnections over duplex multimode fiber at rates at above 40 Gbps.” In theory, this could allow for 100G-SR, 400G-SR4 or even 1500G-SR16 and beyond. WBMMF will provide backward compatibility for legacy applications with OM4. Whether this will continue as proprietary applications or more widespread (and potentially standards-driven) usage will evolve in the coming months. Gone are the days when generational changes happened in five- to 10year increments from an application space; instead, we are seeing an increasing pace and scope of change in the marketplace.

Normative Vs. Informative Guidance This leads us to the discussion of normative (prescriptive) vs. informative guidance. Given the pace and nature of change in our industry, I’m not surprised to see the demand on behalf of – and sometimes perceived resistance from – the standardssetting bodies. The planned lifecycle of a TIA standards www.connectionsplus.ca

document is five years. In that timeframe, a lot of things can change in terms of the push of technology capabilities and the pull of business requirements. This, coupled with the broad audience of the data centre standard, has resulted in much more “descriptive” instead of “prescriptive” guidance. The current draft document has almost 600 instances of text describing guidance – and that’s leaving out all the tables, diagrams and other references. Only about 20% of that guidance is prescriptive or normative (using the words “shall” or “must”); almost 80% of the guidance is informative (using the words “should” or “consider”). This leads to a number of questions and ambiguity in practice (whether intentional or perceived). In my opinion, these questions are the real value of the document; in essence, have you thought about this (whatever “this” is) in relation to your business needs? Due to the popularity and widespread use of the standard, TIA often forwards questions to me (as chair) and the leadership team, including the vice chair and editor. A common question thread: “In section X, the standard recommends/ requires Y, but in our case, ___________. Is this acceptable?” If there is a quantitative issue that can be addressed through clarification of the normative references, we do so. When it comes to informative references, we can explain the reasoning behind the guidance. We cannot (and will not) provide any judgement. TIA cannot certify, warranty, verify compliance or provide exception to any of the standards it develops. It is up to the market to provide that assurance to the enterprise, whether the approval comes from external third parties or an internal governance process. I’m reminded of a Yogi Berra quote: “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there.” The standards are written by consensus for a composite world or idea(l); all of our interpretations of that standard, in the quantitative sense, will be different because our needs are different. Compliance to the standard (or any standard) for its own sake is meaningless or misguided at best, and harmful at worst if it doesn’t meet business needs. Compliance

and suitability to the need is the true end, and the standard(s) is a very critical and useful tool to achieve that end. As an example, let’s look at data centres in the Netherlands (which literally translates to “lower countries”); according to Wikipedia, only about 50% of its landmass is 1m above sea level. This is problematic from a data centre site-selection standpoint due to the everpresent risk of flooding. But there are data centres in the Netherlands because they need to be there. Due to their unique geographic situation, I’m confident that there are subject-matter experts available to address that risk quite effectively. I would suggest that it’s more important to certify that subject-matter expertise, protection and contingency plans than to comply with the standards recommendations for site selection in regard to floodplains.

What Is Right for You? What is the right data centre solution for you? The right site? The right media mix? I’m not ashamed to say: “I don’t know.” Nor, to be honest, should we ever tell you what to do, despite whatever information we may share. Our role as industry experts is to help you explore your options. As part of the solutions community, our role (whether manufacturer, engineer or integrator) is to help you discover the possibilities. Use the standards, expertise, experience and opinions of those you trust as advisors to find the best solution for your own unique needs. Together we can explore the goals, costs, benefits, features, risks and securities available to you. There may be similar models and approaches, but only you can understand best what your business needs are; on behalf of the industry, we’ll be glad to help you achieve those goals. C+ Henry Franc is a solutions specialist at Belden and an active standards development participant.

The information presented is the author’s view, not official standards organization correspondence. July/August 2016

Connections+

TREND I N G

Security

& The Cloud

In this space, adopting new approaches is paramount. By Paul Barker

aus Phaltankar, president of Virtustream Security Solutions, understands the dilemma many organizations face when it comes to security and cloud computing. It is a new technology paradigm and as such, it involves every decision-maker in the organization realizing that new approaches need to be adopted. The former CEO of Viewtrust, a security firm purchased by Virtustream, now an EMC Federation company, in 2014, admitted in a recent interview that security is a nebulous term because it means so many things to so many people. “I teach a security course at the University of Miami and one question I frequently ask my students is how do you get ahead of cyber risk problems, especially now with your assets being distributed in the cloud, non-cloud and hybrid environment? You really have to have that holistic view of all your assets and break down the enterprise silos that exist.” That is where something called enterprise risk management comes into play. In a blog posted on Wired Innovation last year, Phaltankar wrote that to attain a proactive stance on security,

Connections+

July/August 2016

compliance and governance for cloud and non-cloud resources, enterprises are starting to look for a new approach. He added that by adopting a holistic approach to risk management, “enterprises are empowered to identify and remediate their most critical vulnerabilities before they are exploited. (It) protects themselves from much of the exposure that arises due to an IT landscape in which the only constant is change, the internal environment is an unending flux with machines being provisioned, software being deployed and patches being applied continuously and external threat vectors are always evolving.” For Chris Palmer, a solution architect in PCL Construction’s business technology department, exacting a level of trust in the cloud provider and the platform, whoever that may be, is critical. “Our construction sites rely on technology for their day-to-day operations,” he says. “And we have to keep it running at all times.” Palmer, who recently oversaw the company’s switch to Microsoft Azure Backup in order to improve the protection of jobsite data such as blueprints, schedules, quotes, contracts and timesheets, says during the negotiation period, “security came up quite a www.connectionsplus.ca

T R E NDI NG

bit in discussions” and also during the implementation stage. Moving to cloud services and all the benefits that they bring all along with it, he says, does require the end user organization opting in to go that route in order to exact a level of trust in the provider and the platform. Questions do need to be asked such as when a supplier espouses just how transparent they are is that in fact reality? “Like most large companies, PCL has its own data centre and we have an operations and facility teams that manage that, we are aggressively moving most of those services out and reducing the overall footprint,” he says. “Ultimately, it comes down to trust. At some point, you have to have heard enough and talked enough and had conversations with the right people to eventually build up a trust that says, ‘I believe what they are offering is equivalent or in our case, it is better than what we can do on premise. Let’s take advantage of the security built into the platform, knowing that they are doing things that we can’t or certainly can’t for the same price point.” It is not only the vendor that needs to be on top of their game when it comes to a cloud implementation. End users themselves must play a role and according to a recent study from Softchoice, an IT solutions and managed service provider, it appears many need to change how they operate. The study, (Still) Careless Users in the Cloud, found one in five employees keep passwords in plain sight, such as on PostIt notes, and one in three cloud app users have downloaded an app without letting their IT department know. Based on a similar study Softchoice conducted in 2014, the updated study found employees’ bad cloud app habits have gone unchanged over the past two years. This kind of behaviour can be attributed to the lack of cybersecurity training provided to employees on corporate policy and the safe and effective use of cloud applications, Softchoice said. “Most businesses have a stronger understanding of the cloud than they did two years ago, yet, barely anything has improved when it comes to better user behavior,” says David MacDonald, Softchoice’s www.connectionsplus.ca

”

I teach a security course at the University of Miami and one question I frequently ask my students is how do you get ahead of cyber risk problems, especially now with your assets being distributed in the cloud, non-cloud and hybrid environment? You really have to have that holistic view of all your assets and break down the enterprise silos that exist.

president and CEO. “Risky behavior and data vulnerabilities are almost guaranteed to persist if organizations don’t provide training and direction on cybersecurity best practices for the apps, platforms and IT tools employees use on a daily basis.” (Still) Careless Users in the Cloud surveyed 1,500 North American full-time employees to understand employee tech behavior, and how having access to cloudbased applications has affected their behaviour. User habits will need to change for there will be no turning back when it comes to the cloud. Jean Cheng, solutions executive for Microsoft Canada’s public sector cloud programs, says that cloud represents the “industrial scale automation of all the work that IT departments used to do more or less manually in the past. “We are on the cusp of this new paradigm. The old model doesn’t scale and it is built on the old paradigm of a fortress. In the Middle Ages, they built these large castles with moats and turrets and thick walls. Imagine the impact of flight during that time. It would make the walls completely useless. That is what is happening today and I say

”

this completely respectfully. It’s the dawn of a new era. The old fortress and castle model is showing its age. It is no longer efficient in the modern era.” As for the security side of the equation, Cheng points out that there are audit and traceability within a cloud that a traditional moat and castle infrastructure does not have. It becomes an even more secure extension of your environment. “The design of a cloud is akin to a model city. You do have a perimeter, but the perimeter is designed with the assumption that traffic comes in and traffic comes out. But once you are in, you are not going to have access to everything. There are multiple layers of security and well-designed demarcation points throughout that model. “Ultimately, it is a model that assumes breach. It is a risk-based model as opposed to ‘keep you outside of the walls’ model. When you assume breach, the most vulnerable element in your system, is actually the human element. You design the system so that no individual person could possibly walk off with 10 TB of data.” There are other security models in development including Watson, IBM Corp.’s July/August 2016

Connections+

TREND I N G

cognitive technology. In May, the company announced Watson for Cyber Security, a new cloud-based version of the company’s cognitive technology trained on the language of security as part of a year-long research project. IBM also said it plans to collaborate with eight universities including three from Canada to “greatly expand the collection of security data IBM has trained the cognitive system with. “Training Watson for Cyber Security is a critical step in the advancement of cognitive security,” the firm said in a release. “Watson is learning the nuances of security research findings and discovering patterns and evidence of hidden cyber attacks and threats that could otherwise be missed. IBM is working with leading universities and their students to further train Watson on the language of cybersecurity, including: the University of New Brunswick; the University of Ottawa, the University of Waterloo, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Pennsylvania State University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New York University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Students will help train it on the language of cybersecurity, initially working to help build Watson’s corpus of knowledge by annotating and feeding the system security reports and data. Patrick Vandenberg, program director with IBM Security Marketing in Ottawa, says the new Watson “brain” will fit and reside in the cloud and that to date, 15,000 security documents have been

fed into it. The goal is to eventually feed it 15,000 a month. “All the software we have today is programmed, it’s fixed, when it’s released it is static on that day,” says Vandenberg. “What we are trying to do with Watson is develop something that is able to learn and adapt. We have not announced an offering. What we have announced is a journey where we have been investing for months already to teach this instance of Watson. “It’s a bit of a rollover-crawl-walk-run type of journey in that we are feeding it annotative research papers. Over time, Watson will get to a certain point where we will not need to feed it or teach it anything further. It will be able to do that on its own because it has achieved a certain level.” Vandenberg adds that while IT transformations do present complications and new risks from a security perspective, cloud and mobile actually present an opportunity for security professionals. “As you are moving to these new platforms, you actually have an opportunity to gain a better level of control,” he says. “The attackers are getting better and better at hiding. What we have today in security is a wealth of structured data to provide analytics to co-relate these things and identify whether attacks are happening.” The overall intent of this initiative, he says, is understand what the attacker is trying to accomplish before an incident, and not after it occurs. C+

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New & Noteworthy

3 4 1. PLATINUM TOOLS

2. THE STARLOCK

3. LEGRAND

4. NaviTEK NT

Platinum Tools recently announced that the Net Chaser Ethernet Speed Certifier and Network Tester is now shipping. According to the company, it certifies the data-carrying capabilities of Ethernet network cables up to 1 Gb/s by testing for noise in the network, detecting faults in the cable wiring, and ensuring that cables are able to support the speed capabilities of active equipment. All the information is collected, stored, and ready for reporting Ethernet speed certification (Speed Certification to IEEE standards 802.3ab; Cable testing to TIA568A/B). To certify Ethernet speed performance of cable runs, the Net Chaser conducts Bit Error Rate (BER) tests by sending data packets down specified cable runs at defined data rates to check for errors at the maximum throughput of the link. www.platinumtools.com

The Starlock oscillating tool interface system from Bosch is built around a three-dimensional interface created for high torque transfer and superior performance in the most challenging applications, the company says. Recently released were two models. The GOP40-30 oscillating multi-tool is the heavy-duty option in the Bosch line up. It features all of the advantages of the Starlock interface system including snap-in toolless accessory attachment and no-touch blade change with auto-ejection that allows changeout in as little as three seconds, the company says. The GOP55-36 is the top-end, industrial-grade tool in the Bosch oscillating tool line. With a 5.5 amp rating, reinforced metal gearing and a large 3.6-degree oscillating arc, this is the most powerful tool in the Bosch Starlock tool line. It accepts all Starlock-family accessory ranges: standard Starlock, StarlockPLUS and StarlockMAX extreme-duty blades. www.boschtools.com

Legrand has introduced outdoor charging stations for mobile devices, the first in a series of permanent outdoor power offerings that combine charging outlets with lighting elements to support the growing demand for mobile connectivity in outdoor spaces. “Facilities are beginning to focus on designing more productive outdoor spaces. From corporate facilities to higher education institutions, facility managers are being asked to identify ways to encourage collaboration and social engagement outdoors,” said Sabrina Eckert, Legrand product manager. The Outdoor Power Charging Stations are composed of two charging station models, which are available in three standard finishes – black, bronze, and silver, along with custom colours. Each station includes a combination of two or three gangs of power devices, including USB charging and can also be used for A/V or communications connectivity if desired. All charging stations are NEMA 3R-rated for use in outdoor spaces. www.legrand.ca

NaviTEK NT network testers from IDEAL Networks are designed to help technicians work more productively as the result of a new suite of testing and troubleshooting functionalities. Simple to set-up and use, the testers can quickly pinpoint and solve issues in both copper and fiber optic cabling, the company says. Assisting the technician is a large built-in screen that displays useful information including test summaries and at-aglance network snapshots. The NaviTEK NT measures 6.9” x 3.1” x 1.6” and can fit into tight spaces where network cabling is often located. Previously, laptops and other types of bulky computer systems were used to troubleshoot networks, yet both take up valuable working space in already cramped connection points. Laptops also create the need for extra cables which contribute to an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous workplace. Not so with the NaviTEK NT, the company says. www.idealnetworks.net

www.connectionsplus.ca

July/August 2016

Connections+

Lite rat u re Re views

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Connections+ 2016 MEDIA KIT Connections+ The magazine ICT professionals, 2016 MEDIAforKIT Connections+ targets The magazinereadership for ICT professionals, individuals whoreadership purchase, design, Connections+ targets specify, install, and test individuals whomaintain purchase, design, structured cabling, networking and specify, install, maintain and test telecom products as networking well as facilities structured cabling, and management specialists senior telecom products as welland as facilities IT executives who are responsible for management specialists and senior overseeing thewho implementation andfor IT executives are responsible installation initiatives. and overseeing of thethese implementation For more information contact installation of these initiatives. Maureen Levy – 416-510-5111 or For more information contact mlevy@connectionsplus.ca Maureen Levy – 416-510-5111 or mlevy@connectionsplus.ca www.connectionsplus.ca

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Connections+

T HE B ACK PAG E

‘I am addicted to

CHANGE’ Part 2

By Paul Lewis

n my last column, I wrote about the fact that digital transformation, or technology becoming the business, is elevating and evolving the role of the CIO, which may also include the role of the chief digital officer or CDO. I also stated that the CIO priority of cost efficiency has migrated to organization growth, creating a new set of CIO concerns that includes: • Economic Transparency: Articulating the cost of IT as a factor of how the organization earns revenue and reinvests profits. No longer will a single large pool of IT dollars be distributed inequitably throughout the organization. A per Line of Business bottom-up budget process that aligns financial KPI’s directly to business models will be managed by financial analysts who report directly to the CIO. The big IT budget “bucket” will be replaced with IT costs articulated as $ per widget produced for LOB 1 and $ for each order received for LOB 2. • Creating New Business Value: Measuring technology in terms of system uptime and project delivery success will be replaced with KPI’s and bonuses calculated based on the incremental value that projects have to the growth of the organization. Percentage of projects delivered on-time/on-budget will be replaced with net incremental increase to revenue or margins. All projects will be prioritized on the business value that they will create. Below are a number of other concerns: • Diversifying skillsets: Organizational changes must be implemented to up-skill, re-skill, and add new skills to the team in order to create digital solutions. • Rationalization, Simplification and Modernization: Re-evaluating the level of importance, risk, and maturity of IT assets is a fundamental requirement to make room to innovate. It’s quite likely that a subset of applications can drive the same business value as the current application portfolio if a more agile architecture and set of tools is deployed • Reputational Risk: CIO’s need to eliminate the potential of becoming cyber news-fodder, plus the additional responsibility for creating news innovation beyond customer and investor expectations. Digital transformation, or technology be-

Connections+

July/August 2016

coming the business, is enabled by IT programs that are initiated and managed by a data-driven CIO or CDO. Governed programs responsible for managing, mobilizing and enriching data across people, process and technology will kickstart digital innovation: • Data Management: Data lifecycle management, from its initial creation and storage to its eventual deletion or archival, is the foundation for a policy based approach to understanding the right data to source and to keep. Stewardship of data via governance and information security programs are required to determine data’s value and protect its use for creating new business offerings and client experiences. Example: The ability to source, store and secure video surveillance and location information about airport passengers enables the digital transformation for air transportation • Data Mobility: Mobility of data from places: Abstracting/virtualizing data from applications and devices to increase the value of data and make it available for other business purposes. Most data was architected as part of the originating application and closely coupled to the version of the application. Abstracting the data from the application elevates its value and potential use • Mobility of data to places: Consolidation and enhancement of data to use across platforms requires integration work. This will make data sharable across people and places • Making data mobile for places: Make data available in a secure manner to generate new value. This will require new application development, compliance, analytics, and data brokering solutions to be integrated into the organization. It is a race against time and the competition for making technology become the business. It’s an organizational journey that requires strong leadership. Enabling digital transformation requires a datadriven CIO combined with the CDO’s innovative spirit and desire to dramatically improve the customer experience. C+ Paul Lewis is the chief technology officer with Hitachi Canada. His Twitter handle is @PaulLewisHDS www.connectionsplus.ca

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A great integrated audio-visual solution is customized for the environment, looks good, and works seamlessly for the end user.

Graybar Canada is a national distributor, carrying an extensive list of first class manufacturers. We can work to complete your full Audio-Visual solution with our wide range of audio-visual product such as: > Cable and Cable Assemblies > Connectivity > Audio > Video

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