CONNECTIONS PLUS JAN/FEB 2015

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

+ the magazine for ict professionals

CLOUD SECURITY 101 also: Crystal ball gazing

Cisco GEC 2014

The 5G Voyage

Infrastructure with a Brain

Adaptive Enclosure Heat Containment

Belden/Cormant-CS DCIM and Beyond

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CONTENTS Fe a t u r e s

22 Cloud Security 101 There are some basics to cover

22

28 New Frontier For Video Security is constantly evolving

Departments 28

member of:

12

Editor’s Note

4

Infrastructure Systems

6

Networks & The Cloud

12

Mobile Movements

18

New & Noteworthy

34

The Back Page

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I n the N ext Issue audited by:

www.connectionsplus.ca

>> Tracking The IoT Revolution >> Data Centre Infrastructure Management

Januar y/Februar y 2015

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E D I TO R ’S N OT E

Of security and

washing machines he subject of security takes up 10+ editorial pages in this issue on topics ranging from corporate espionage and the cloud to new frontiers for video surveillance and preparing your network for IP video.

Jody O’Brien, technology solutions specialist at Graybar Canada, calls the latter a natural progression. “Video cameras aren’t being used in the traditional sense anymore,” he points out in our Trending Feature. “For example, industrial accidents require a forensic investigation and the tale of the tape – or the trail of the pixels – is invaluable in not just discovering how an accident happened, but preventing it in the future.”

O’Brien describes it as becoming a “second set of eyes. In that sense, less of a reactive tool and more proactive. Downtime costs money in a factory so if we can increase uptime, it’s a benefit.”

The focus on the enterprise in everything from security measures to the Internet of Things, is something that consulting firm Deloitte Global is not only predicting, but banking on.

According to its 14th edition of Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions released on Jan. 13, the pendulum of technology adoption will begin to swing back to

T

the enterprise market, reversing a decade long trend and for a good reason. It can save money and can make money.

The report notes that being able to turn on a washing machine remotely via an M2M device is not all that intriguing. “The clothes still need to be sorted, carried to the laundry room, pre-treated, placed in the machine and soap added,” its authors write. “In other words, the portion of the task that M2M improves is trivial.

“But the value to the machine manufacturers is enormous, not just for the information about reliability and advance warning of when a failure is about to occur, but for real-time information on which features are actually being used and how. The insights revealed by this stream of data could be worth hundreds of dollars per machine over its live, recouping the cost of making IoT enabledwashing machines 10 times over.”

Deloitte is projecting that this year over 60% of the one billion global wireless IoT devices will be bought, paid for and used by enterprises, “despite media focus on consumers controlling their thermostats, lights and appliances (ranging from washing machines to tea kettles) The IoT-specific hardware is predicted to be worth US$10 billion, but the big story is the enterprise services enabled by the devices: about US$70 billion.”

The TMT Predictions are based on worldwide research supported by interviews and input from clients, the firm’s alumni, its industry analysts, TMT executives and “thousands of Deloitte member firm TMT practitioners across its global network.

“The focus of Predictions varies from year-to-year, but one theme appears constant: the impact of TMT on our behaviour steadily deepens.”

Further information on the latest edition can be found at www2. deloitte.com.

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w w w. c o n n e c t i o n s p l u s . c a

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Volume 2, Issue 1 January/February 2015

the mag azine for ict professionals

Editor Paul Barker 416-510-6752 pbarker@connectionsplus.ca Senior Publisher Maureen Levy 416-510-5111 mlevy@connectionsplus.ca Art Director Mary Peligra

President Alex Papanou Editorial Advisory Board Keith Fortune, CET, Western Regional Manager, Electron Metal AIG Inc. Henry Franc, RCDD/OSP Senior Account Manager, Professional Support at Belden

Production Manager Kim Collins Creative Advertising Services Mike Chimienti Circulation Manager Barbara Adelt 416-442-5600 ext. 3546 badelt@bizinfogroup.ca

Brantz Myers, B.Sc Math and Computing Science Director of Healthcare Business Development - Cisco Systems Canada Co. Peter Sharp, RCDD, AMIEE Senior Telecommunications Consultant • Giffels Associates Limited/IBI Group

Print Production Manager Phyllis Wright

Alex Smith, President • Connectivitywerx

Advertising Sales Maureen Levy 416-510-5111 mlevy@connectionsplus.ca www.connectionsplus.ca

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Connections+ is published by AnnexNewcom LP, a leading Canadian information company with interests in business-tobusiness information services.

Emails published should only be used to contact the company regarding their products. These emails are NOT CASL compliant.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

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I nf r a st r uc t u re S ys t e m s

2015:

Crystal Ball Gazing A seasoned infrastructure veteran provides insight into what he expects will be the biggest enterprise network trends this year.

By Kevin St Cyr

It’s hard to fathom that 2015 is already upon us, but what many people do not realize is that it also signals the midway point of the decade.

That’s right, 2015 will mean that we are going to be as close to 2020 as we are to 2010. We’re closing in on the mid-point of the decade, but are we as an industry any closer to comfortably handling the continuing “data deluge” that I spoke about a year ago?

It really depends. Progress has certainly been made on many fronts, and some organizations are in much better shape than others in addressing bandwidth and network intelligence requirements.

However, I don’t have to tell you that the pace of industry and technology change is unrelenting, and will require a high level of agility and speed just to keep up.

So get ready to kick it up another notch. Here is a summary of what I believe will be some of the key trends influencing enterprise 6

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networks in 2015: 1. The Internet of Things is Upon Us Infrastructure providers play an increasingly critical role in enabling the Internet of Things (IoT). Whether providing wired or wireless connectivity to devices, or software-based solutions coupled with connectivity, providers play an increasingly important role. The IoT is evolving to meet the customers’ needs for better data in real-time.

2. The Importance of Sensor Networks in the Building As buildings become more intelligent, we see the use of sensors coming into play. A sensor-based network, like the kind used with intelligent lighting solutions, is powered through structured cabling and plays an important role in making buildings increasingly intelligent. The sensors collect data that help facilities managers make www.connectionsplus.ca

Infra s t ructure Sy stems

”

Organizations better decisions on space utilization and energy usage, as well as provide a security feature through motion and thermal tracking.

can help ensure success in the year ahead by

6. The Modular Mix Multitenant data centres, or Co-Los, are still the growing force in the market as well as the hyperscale, cloud and service providers of the Internet data centre segment. They are the biggest energy consumers and have the largest appetite for data centre connectivity and monitoring solutions.

With that said, the modular data centre is getting into the mix as a viable solution for increasing data centre capacity. As the data deluge continues, companies can get a modular data centre installed and operational within less than a year. This certainly brings a rapid deployment capability that can be a good solution for companies that may not have realized how quickly they would need to expand when seeing capacity running low.

3. Crowning of Category 6A 2014 saw Category 6A making its way out of proper planning, the data centre and into the building. This trend can be attributed to a few factors: asking the right a. New generations of Wi-Fi access points questions and are requiring more and more bandwidth. This will continue to have a positive effect on getmaking sure to ting consumers to think about going to a higher grade cabling. In 2014, the IEEE approved the stick to a 802.11ac wireless networking standard that provided high-throughput wireless local area roadmap networks. This is one driver that I believe will create an uptick on Category 6 and 6A, also re7. A Better Understanding of DCIM sulting in a significant decline in Category 5E. The market has been slower to implement data cenWe are also witnessing higher education and tre infrastructure management offerings, but we are healthcare organizations requiring high-bandseeing that customers have a better understanding of the value in width and deploying Category 6A per the TIA recommendations. b. Category 6A is also a viable carrier for next generation indoor DCIM to optimize data center performance over time. A DCIM socellular wireless solutions as well as Wi-Fi. Wireless coverage is con- lution enables organizations to monitor power and understand and sidered by many as the next utility within the building and Category plan asset refreshes and placement. I think DCIM software providers 6A can provide the infrastructure for Wi-Fi as well as next generation are trying to help the customer see an ROI sooner than later. Vendors need to engage customers on the front end to understand their probin- building wireless systems. lems and choose a solution that will solve those problems. So when the “go-live” takes place, the user is prepared for what they will see 4. Continued Adoption of Fiber Solutions When it comes to high grade multimode optical fiber, as well as pre- and how to work with it. The go-live needs to be favourable and if terminated offerings, the move towards OM4 has accelerated. OM4 the planning isn’t carefully thought through and executed, the result is being used in 40GbE and 100GbE networks around the world and won’t be optimal. Look for DCIM providers to place more emphasis that is driving users and manufactures to ask for higher grade ca- on striving to make the user experience more beneficial.

One of the points that I made last year is worth repeating – orbling. We are working with industry standards groups on next generation fiber-like the TIA TR-42 group discussing the proposal of a ganizations can help ensure success in the year ahead by proper planning, asking the right questions and making sure to stick to a wide band multimode fiber solution. roadmap. This will go a long way to alleviating the challenges that come with evolving technology and increasing bandwidth needs in 5. The Unleashing of Category 8 You might already know about the 40GbE standard debate that has the foreseeable future. been ongoing since its first concept demonstration in late 2012. In 2015, I think the standard will take a step closer to the light of the market with manufacturers getting ready to either put Category 8 into pre-production or provide a limited availability in anticipation of Kevin St Cyr is senior vice president of a standard, which might be completed in 2015 or early 2016. Preenterprise solutions with CommScope. standardization can be referred to as a manufacturing phase that provides a limited availably of a product to allow for customer trials and sampling – this phase will probably be the first sighting of Category 8 in the market.

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I nf r a st r uc t u re S ys t e m s

STANDARDS

Filling in the Gaps

By Paul Kish

here are some exciting new developments in the world of BASE-T Ethernet and Wireless. What do they have in common? One feeds the other. At the beginning of November, the IEEE 802.3 working group held a Call for Interest (CFI) on the need to develop the next generation BASE-T for Wireless Access Points (WAPs). The main issues that were raised in the Call for Interest were that the next generation “Wave 2” 802.11ac devices will require multi Gigabit Ethernet data rates, and that there is a gap between the 1 Gb/s and the 10 GB/s data rates that are needed to support Wave 2 devices.

The IEEE 802.11ac Wireless Standard was approved in December 2013. Current “Wave 1” devices are using 80 MHz channels and single-user MIMO and have a maximum radio speed of 1.3 Gb/s. To support these devices, the network connection speed needs to be at least 75% of the radio speed, and therefore Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) connections over Category 6 or high end Category 5e cabling are adequate to support Wave 1 devices.

The next generation Wave 2 devices will use 160 MHz channels and more advanced features. It is projected that the Ethernet data rates that are needed to support these devices will approach 2Gb/s within 12 months, and 4Gb/s in the next 24-36 months, and hence the dilemma.

So what is the solution? One solution would be to provide multiple Gigabit Ethernet connections to each WAP and aggregate the bandwidth. This is not very cost effective. A better solution would be to provide a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection over Category 6A cabling. Ultimately, this is the way to go. However, in the meanwhile, the PHY vendors would like to make use of existing “installedbase” cabling at an intermediate data rate of 2.5 Gb/s or 5 Gb/s over Category 5e / Category 6 cabling for certain defined use cases and deployment configurations.

The technology behind 10GBASE-T provides a more efficient use of bandwidth. The drawback is that 10GBASE-T is much more sensitive to external noise such

T Paul Kish is Director, Systems and Standards at Belden. The information presented is the author’s view and is not official standards organization correspondence.

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as alien crosstalk.

What the PHY vendors want to do is use 10GBASE-T technology, including the internal noise cancellation algorithms, and scale back the data rate. The net effect of a lower data rate is that less bandwidth is required. For example Category 6, which is specified to 250 MHz, may be able to support 5 Gb/s under certain conditions, which requires a minimum bandwidth of 200 MHz. This all sounds good; however, the detailed cabling requirements still need to be determined. The Achilles heel when supporting higher data rates for installed base cabling is the alien crosstalk performance, in particular where Category 5e or Category 6 cables are tightly bundled.

These cables are not specifically designed for optimal alien crosstalk performance. This is part of the work that will need to be undertaken in the IEEE 802.3 NGEABT (Next Generation Enterprise Access Base-T) task force.

In conclusion, it is recognized that the need for higher data rates to support Wave 2 IEEE 802.11ac wireless access points is imminent and that the technology is already proven, based on 10GBASE-T. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a standard coming to fruition within the next 18 months, and pre-standard commercial products also available in the same timeframe.

So what does it mean for the industry? It is good news for Category 6 cabling, as an interim solution. It is also good news for Category 6A cabling, in particular for new installations, to support the next generation of Wireless Access Points. The upgrade cycle for WAPs is faster than switches, three years versus seven years. Already, there is High Efficiency WLAN Study Group (HEW SG) within IEEE 802.11 working group that is considering at least one mode of operation capable of supporting at least four times improvement in the average throughput per station. Wireless is leading the way for higher speeds in the LAN, and 10GBASE-T technology, in one form or another, is meeting the need.

C+ www.connectionsplus.ca

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I nf r a st r uc t u re S ys t e m s

The Rise Of The Passive Optical LAN

By A.G. Melson

Passive Optical LAN (POL) is essentially composed of point-to-multipoint fiber conducted through unpowered splitters, and are telecommunications networks that enable enterprises to simultaneously converge multiple services such as data, VOIP, video, building security, management services and wireless devices.

Enterprise networks around the world are becoming progressively choked by the integration of bandwidth-hungry Internet-based applications.

The growing usage of streaming video content, integration of digital voice services into the LAN, video conferencing and other online activities not only contribute to the enterprise bandwidth dilemma, but also can pose significant security issues to conventional copperbased networks.

With dramatically increasing demand for bandwidth among user populations, many enterprises are finding the right data communications offering is the Passive Optical LAN (POL).

Essentially composed of point-to-multipoint fiber conducted through unpowered splitters, POLs are telecommunications networks that enable enterprises to simultaneously converge multiple services such as data, VOIP, video, building security and management services and wireless devices. Also, compared to conventional copper-structured cabling, POLs offer significant “green” incentives, a much smaller cabling footprint, and a future-proof architecture that can grow with bandwidth demand.

Many users of fiber optic cable services in their homes or businesses are, perhaps unknowingly, quite familiar with the basic benefits of the POL. Because these cable TV providers have fiber optic backbones that can travel great distances without a degradation of signal (which occurs with copper-based cable), they can deliver higher bandwidth services such as high-definition TV, high-speed Internet, and digital telephone – individually or bundled.

POL technology (also referred to as a Passive Optical Network, or PON) is similar to a fiber optic cable service architecture routed throughout a building or enterprise campus, rather than a residential neighborhood.

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The single-mode fiber network backbone is connected to splitters, each of which will provide fiber to 32 “customers.” In total, a single POL can be connected to hundreds or even thousands of individual users, providing them with a multitude of enterprise and outside telecommunications applications.

Industry suppliers project that in the not-too-distant future between 10% and 30% of the population of conventional LAN architecture will move toward POL. The typical POL network will serve 200-plus users.

The benefits of POL are many, and should encourage enterprises such as universities, hospitals, corporate campuses, and multidwelling units – any facilities with relatively high-density populations of users – to install or retrofit this architecture. POL over single-mode fiber represents a major bandwidth upgrade for enterprise networks currently operating with 1or 10 GB to the desktop. Also, single-mode fiber reach for POL is in the 10-20 kilometers range, whereas conventional copper architecture is typically limited to a 100-meter channel.

CapEx and OpEx advantages are significant as well. POL is significantly less costly than copper-based LANs. Investments in wiring closets and associated electronics and are eliminated as well as climate control costs. Installation costs are reduced because the fiber cables are less expensive and easier to install. POL flattens the LAN by reducing the number of switches and routers on a network by connecting devices to a single switch rather than separate switches.

Reaching multiple users with each fiber gives POL flexibility not present when compared to copper-based LANs. This architecture also addresses the “green” initiative and saves on costs at the same time. There is no electric power requirement for electronics between the OLT and users. The need for a telecommunications room, or wiring closet, is replaced with zone enclosures, eliminating the need for a closet cooling system while reducing power consumption.

POLs are also considerably more secure than legacy Ethernet networks. They are free from cross talk and interference. Conventional Ethernet LANs emit electromagnetic signals that can be intercepted. POLs, which contain all optical fiber, do not. They are non-flammable and require no EMI or FRI shielding. Plus, the POL supports security mechanisms such as AES (advanced encryption standard) 128-bit encryption. .

Generally speaking, POLs are easier to install because they are simpler consisting mainly of fiber optics passing through splitters that deliver services to the user faceplates (to which their equipment is attached).

Also, pathway space requirements, such as the headspace over drop ceilings, are reduced significantly.

A.G. Melson is the regional sales manager of the southeast U.S. for Optical Cable Corporation (OCC). Further product information is available at info@occfiber.com or www.occfiber.com. www.connectionsplus.ca

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N et w o r ks & T h e C l o u d

Age Of Digitization, Age Of Disruption Cisco’s Soderbery says IT models need to evolve in order to keep pace B y Pa u l B arker

B.C. Hydro’s smart meter deployment is closely tied in to IoT technolgy.

San Jose, Calif. – The overhauling by Cisco Systems Inc. in late January of its cloud infrastructure strategy was part of a three-pronged approach the company is betting its entire existence on – the digitization of everything, simplification of computational processes and development of new IT models.

Speaking to a group of technology editors here in December, Blair Christie, the company’s chief marketing officer, said that there is so much disruption going on right now that the American Enterprise Institute expects 75% of the S&P 500 companies that were on the index three years ago to be replaced by new companies by 2027.

Digitization, said Rob Soderbery, Cisco’s senior vice president of enterprise product and solutions, is changing the world: “It disrupts and creates business value, but IT models need to evolve. Applications require new architectures.” The Jan. 28 announcement included a major expansion of the company’s cloud managed IT offering Meraki. Cisco acquired the San Francisco-based cloud infrastructure 12

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company in 2012 for US$1.2 billion and at the time its products were targeted at the mid-market segment. It is now available for large scale enterprise environments via: • New 802.11ac indoor and outdoor access points with integrated Bluetooth Beacons to enable location-aware applications.

• Non-stop threat identification and accelerated mitigation through integration of Sourcefire technology.

• New “mission-critical switch features” to address what Cisco called evolving customer needs around redundancy, high reliability and campus connectivity.

In order to drive what it called the “the advancement of digital business,” the company also announced the general availability of Cisco One, a portfolio of software that contains IT automation, open APIs for application developments and “flexible” licensing agreements. www.connectionsplus.ca

Ne t wo r ks & The Cloud

“The advent of cloud services has opened up options for organizations in purchasing, consuming and managing IT including networking,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst at ZK Research.

“People require flexible consumption models – enabling services on demand and greater IT services reach. Software is paramount – giving customers the ability to go-to-market faster, make changes quickly and harness the analytics and intelligence from their IT infrastructure.”

In a blog posted on the day Cisco released results Speakers at the conference included Marty Roesch, Cisco’s chief security architect, of a study entitled Attaining IoT Value: How To Move who talked about the industrialization of hacking. “It has turned into a professional From Connecting Things To Capturing Insights, Chris- activity in a lot of ways,” he said. tie wrote that the sheer size, variety and speed of data traof the data that can be captured from connected things and the versing today’s networks are resulting insights that drive business and operational transformaincreasing exponentially. tion,” Christie wrote.

“This highly distributed data The study also contains several examples of “IoT in action” is generated by a wide range of including Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals, cloud and enterprise applicawhich has installed wireless network coverage along 50 kilometions, Web sites, social media, tres of its underground mining tunnels. RFID tags on miners’ hats computers, smartphones, senand vehicles enable location tracking via 3D maps and also realsors, cameras and much more time tracking status. With improved miner safety, production in– all coming in different formats creased by 400%. and protocols.

The company’s principal operating assets revolve around gold, “Whether it is in the cloud silver, copper and zinc concentrate and are located in Bulgaria, or at the edge, data genersouthern Armenia, Namibia and northern Canada ated by the Internet of EveryThe city of San Francisco, meanwhile, has installed parking, thing (IOE) must be analyzed garage and roadway sensors for real-time parking analysis. Deto identify actionable insights ployed in upwards of 20,000 parking spaces, parking search time that used to create better out. has been reduced by 43%.

Without this critical step, data At the Global Editor’s Conference, Dave De Yagher, senior remains just data.” operations manager for a smart metering project with B.C. Hydro, The “blind” global survey and Kai Hui, chief technology officer with BitStew Systems based in was conducted to learn more Burnaby, outlined a smart metering project that has morphed into about how organizations are an IoT initiative as a result of hardware and software advances. “harnessing IoT to transform BitStew’s Grid Director is a focal point of a smart meter deploytheir business and what they can do to drive more value.”

The 1,230 survey respondents represented 16 countries including ment launched in 2011 for 1.8 million customers throughout the provCanada and came from seven industries – manufacturing, public ince. It allows utilities to capture a real-time view of their smart grids sector, transportation, retail, oil and gas, utilities, metals and min- and make more informed decisions about usage patterns at any giving. When asked which area (people, process, data or things) they en time through real-time analytics and dynamic event management.

B.C . Hydro manages the deployment through BitStew tools that needed to improve most to make effective use of IoT products and services, 40% indicated data, while process ranked second with 27%. track the electricity grid upgrade via a “real time interactive map” People, the survey noted, placed third (20%) and things finished last that shows open, active and closed smart meter work orders as meters are installed. BitStew software can also flag outages and mewith 13%.

“These leaders understand that connecting “things” is but a ters that have been tampered with.

“Our product is built to solve the issues of operations in the IoT means to an end. The primary value that IoT creates is a direct result

”

According to IDC, 51% of CIOs are concerned that the digital data torrent is coming faster than they can cope.

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Chuck Robbins: Chief information officers are under immense pressure as a result of IoE, IT complexities, technology transitions and CEO expectations.

”

world,” said Hui. “It is pretty simple to operate a network with a few thousands end points, but when you get to the point where B.C Hydro is at, operations is a real challenge because there is a lot of data coming at you.

“You need an application that helps you to look at that data and look at the patterns coming at you and then triage that data automatically so that you have the right information to act on.

We call that Software Defined Operations. It’s all about a platform that sits on the nexus of IT and OT that can deal with the streaming aspect of IoT, but also automate and relieve the pressure on the humans who have to operate that massive network.”

De Yagher estimated that B.C. Hydro stands to save $1.6 billion in operational costs as a result of the upgrade.

“We are looking to migrate over to a fully-compliant IP network of over 2 million network nodes, which is a combination of smart meters and Cisco routers.

“We have 365,000 square miles of coverage. There was not a single service provider that allowed us to inter-connect all these devices. It was quite a significant risk-sharing arrangement between ourself and our technology partners.

The report states that the “unparalleled distribution and variety of devices and data today make data integration a bigger hurdle than ever before.

“Organizations must consider multiple factors, including the physical installation of devices, the best communication standards, how to handle many different types of data and how to integrate IoT

B.C. Hydro stands to save $1.6 billion in operational costs as a result of a smart metering upgrade.

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Rob Soderbery: Digitization disrupts and creates business value, but IT models need to evolve. Applications require new architectures.

data with data from other sources, such as third party data providers from the cloud, as well as internal, historical data stores.”

Christie wrote that private and public sector organizations must master the data and process components of IoE to capture the insights required to drive improved outcomes: “For most organizations, this will require new skills for roles that didn’t exist even a year ago. These competencies must be developed by organizations themselves and by educational institutions cultivating the workforce of the future.

“According to IDC, 51% of CIOs are concerned that the digital data torrent is coming faster than they can cope and 42% don’t feel that they have the talent needed to face this future. Gartner concurs, saying ‘few organizations will escape the need to connect smart objects with corporate systems and applications. Therefore, IT organizations must master new skills, tools and architectures required by the Internet of Things.’’

Even vendors like Cisco that have helped create and nurture IoT are having to adapt and change. On the opening day of the conference, Chuck Robbins, senior vice president of worldwide field operations, conceded that CIOs are under immense pressure as a result of IoE, IT complexities, technology transitions, CEO expectations and the speed at which business models change. He added that Cisco is not immune.

“About 15 months ago I stood on stage at our worldwide sales meeting and said this is just the new normal that we live in,” he told Connections+ in an interview. “We actually used a metaphor involving a roller coaster and said, ‘every week, we are going to ride a new one because just when you think you have figured out where are all the twists and turns are,’ along comes another one.

“Every company feels this way because everything is moving so quickly. When you combine the dynamic macro environment with the expectations of the customers and all these technology transitions that are going on it creates a pretty complex puzzle. Those who figure it out will be the ones who win.” www.connectionsplus.ca

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How secure is your network?

Former CSIS investigator provides reality check at Dell Security event

By Paul Barker

Michel Juneau-Katsuya has seen it all when it comes to incidents of cyber security breaches and corporate espionage. The former senior intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), who started his career as a member of the RCMP, also knows just how smart and or lucky perpetrators can be.

Speaking recently during the Toronto leg of the cross-country Dell Secure Enterprise Roadshow, Juneau-Katsuya talked about once incident that occurred in the late 1990s. An employee of an Ottawa high-tech firm sold information about a “gadget” that had just been developed by the company he worked for to the Vietnamese government for $50,000.

It took exactly one month for Viet Nam to reverse engineer that same gadget and put it on the market at a price far lower than what it should have been – so low, in fact, the company that created it could not compete.

And while the employee, a Vietnamese native, was eventually caught by authorities when a jilted girl friend dropped off damaging documents outlining the heist at CSIS headquarters in Ottawa and then fled in a taxi, in the end he was only fined $25,000 and received a suspended sentence.

The firm estimated that the single theft cost them 10 years worth of research and development at a cost of $40-45 million and potential revenue losses anywhere between $200 million and $1 billion.

“One gadget, one guy, one case,” said Juneau-Katsuya, who was in charge of the Asia-Pacific region with CSIS, an area that stretched from Afghanistan to North Korea where he focused on counter-terrorism and also tracked corporate espionage incidents against Canada.

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Now the CEO of The Northgate Group, an Ottawa-based corporate security intelligence and research firm, he recalled that during the mid-1990s he was seeing more incidents of corporate espionage than had occurred five years before prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Juneau-Katsuya had one of his analysts conduct a study to determine how much Canadian firms were losing annually from data being pilfered in some form or another.

The results revealed the total was anywhere between $10-$12 billion, which compared to the U.S. was five times more.

“It begged the question, why Canada?” he said. “Why were we losing so much? We identified that Canada is a knowledge-based society. We have much more investments in research per ratio than the U.S. We have more investment in R&D than the entire European community and we are at the cutting edge in many fields and many technologies. The country has a lot to offer.”

In the 15+ years since the survey was carried out, said JuneauKatsuya, co-author of Nest of Spies: The Startling Truth About Foreign Agents At Work Within Canada’s Borders, corporate espionage has continued to soar: “Everybody fights for the same market share, everybody fights for the same contract,” he said. “Nobody is a friend anymore. We all compete against one another.

“You have the traditional foes: Russia, China, but also the socalled friends in the game as well – the French, the Germans, the English, the Americans. On top of that we have the emerging countries like India, Brazil and South Africa.”

On the CSIS Web site, agency director Michel Coulombe writes that in recent years there has been an “exponential increase in public awareness of the cyber threat, a realization that if you open even one malicious e-mail hostile actors can steal your most sensitive information – and do so in a blink of an eye and from thousands of kilometres away.

“The sophistication and determination of cyber-spies, some of whom are backed by foreign governments will continue to grow. Individuals, corporations and nations that are unable to defend themselves will suffer economic and other consequences.”

There are, said Juneau-Katsuya, five threat agents organizations need to consider: state-sponsored espionage, company versus company, organized crime, activists and finally employees.

“The weakest link is always the human being,” he said.

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HOW WILL YOU SPEND YOUR LAST 10 YEARS? The average Canadian will spend their last ten years in sickness.

Change your future now.

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Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, says that when you understand what is going to happen in the next five years, you understand that the pace of transformation and technology change has been extremely slow. By 2019, he and the company he heads estimate that there will be 9.1 billion mobile subscriptions, 7.5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions and 580 million mobile PCs, tablets an mobile routers.

Ericsson, Vestberg and the 5G voyage

By Paul Barker

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Stockholm – Hans Vestberg, the president and CEO of Ericsson and founding member of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, is according to an article that ran recently in the British newspaper The Independent, one of the world’s most connected men, but not all of the time.

The author of the piece writes that wherever he is in the world be it North America or Africa, the 48-year-old executive insists that his feet be firmly planted on Stockholm soil by no later than Friday evening at 6 p.m. so that he can be with his wife and two children and at which point, all of his mobile devices are shut off for the weekend.

It is a firm rule the organization’s former chief financial officer says he has imposed since taking over the top job in 2010. Still, even with the rule in place he visits upwards of 50 countries annually and in each, talks about the importance of a concept he first announced nearly four years ago in a You Tube video called the Networked Society, At the 2014 Ericsson Business Innovation Forum for media and www.connectionsplus.ca

M o bile Movemen ts

industry analysts held at the Swedish Museum Of Photography, he talked about the changing technology landscape and how networks will be designed in the future to handle all the data that will be thrown at them.

The event, entitled Tomorrow Transformed, examined the impact ICT is having on every industry and all of society and during his presentation he used slide after slide to prove that point.

“When you understand what is going to happen in the next five years, you understand that the pace of transformation and technology change in the past 20 years has been extremely slow,” said Vestberg, the first non-engineer to run the company. “We are going to have 2 ½ times more people on this earth having access to the Internet within five years.”

At the end of last year, there were 7.1 billion mobile subscriptions, of which 2.9 billion were mobile broadband subscriptions and 300 million mobile PCs, tablets and mobile routers. By 2019, according to Vestberg, there will be 9.1 billion mobile subscriptions, 7.5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions and 580 million mobile PCs, tablets and mobile routers.

Progress, he added, can be seen by the fact it took from 1875 to 1975 to connect 1 billion places and from there it took an additional 25 years to reach the point where 5 billion people were connected.

By 2020, when upwards of 50 billion connected devices could be in existence, the requirements needed by the network will have to be far different than what exists today.

The company is banking on the 5G mobile standard and both Vestberg and Sara Mazur, the company’s head of research, who also spoke at the event, vowed that it will be in operation by 2020.

Mazur summed up the need for 5G in a recent blog soon after speaking at the 2014 edition of the Johannesberg Summit, the annual forum held each year at a castle just north of Stockholm in which telecom experts from a range of organizations discuss trends and the long-term future of the wireless and ICT industry.

“It becomes very obvious in a gathering like that that 5G stretches way beyond just radio technologies,” she wrote. “It’s also about network architecture, old paradigms changing, new spectrum challenges, technological and societal developments and the evolution of the entire communication eco-system where wireless solutions are vital.”

Meanwhile, an Ericsson white paper released in October, stated that the aim is for 5G networks to be highly efficient and faster, as well as being able to support more users, more devices, more services and new use cases without a corresponding impact on cost or carbon footprint.

“Machine-type communication will be one of the bigger changes in 5G networks. Everything will be connected: houseplants, bike helmets, water systems, crops, containers, financial structures and endangered species. By connecting things, we create a snapshot of the world, from the water quality in Northern Europe to the temperature of the ice in Antarctica. But what makes 5G truly interesting is what we do with the information that is available to us and how it can bring benefit to people.”

In December, the GSMA released a new report that outlines its www.connectionsplus.ca

The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has implemented an aggressive initiative designed to make the Swedish capital the “world’s” most innovation-driven economy by 2025. One in five Swedes live here; however, they generate one-third of Sweden’s combine value added.

Organizers say many factors need to interact to realize the vision.

“perspectives” on 5G’s development.

“Already being widely discussed, the arrival of 5G will help deliver a fresh wave of mobile innovation that will further transform the lives of individuals, businesses and societies around the world,” said Anne Bouverot, director general of the association that represents mobile operators and related companies.

“Of course, 5G is still to be standardized by the industry and it has not been fully agreed what 5G will look like or what it will enable.

However, the GSMA is already collaborating with operators, vendors, governments and other industry organizations in ensuring that the 5G standard is both technically and economically viable.”

Johan Wibergh, executive vice president and head of segment networks at Ericsson, said in an interview that while today’s fixed and mobile networks are the most “complex technologies built on this earth, in the coming 10 years or so, they are going to go through a huge transformational change based on cloud technology. Cloudbased technology is going to be on both today’s telecom applications, it is going to be on the operator’s IT systems and also on the type of services that operators are offering consumers like the connected car application for instance.”

He likened it to changing the engine of a 747 jet, while still in the air: “That is the type of thing we are going to do, but not only the engines, but change out all the wiring, all the instruments in the cockpit and change the crew also in the coming years.”

The latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, an update on mobile trends leveraging big data from live networks worldwide, backs up that need for change. The report revealed that proliferation of mobile technology continues at a rapid pace: 90% of the world’s population over six years old is predicted to have a mobile Januar y/Februar y 2015

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the country. phone by 2020.

“I would love to see that same Fastest growth for new mobile spark of innovation that we talked subscriptions was found in India about today in Stockholm showing and China, with 18 million and 12 up in Canada. It doesn’t have to be million net additions, respectively, in a big company.”

Q3 2014.

The city where Lars Magnus ErRima Qureshi, senior vice presiicsson founded a telephone repair dent, chief strategy officer and head shop in 1876 already has one of of M&A at Ericsson, said the fallthe “world’s most developed IT ining cost of handsets, coupled with frastructures with 100% broadband improved usability and increasing coverage, both fixed and mobile,” network coverage, are factors that but apparently that is not enough. are making mobile technology a The Stockholm Chamber of global phenomenon that will soon Commerce has implemented an be available to the vast majority of aggressive initiative designed the world’s population, regardless to make the Swedish capital the of age or location.” “world’s most innovation-driven The report shows that in 2020 the The Volvo Car Showroom in Stockholm contains innovations world will be connected like never the car manufacturer has either already released or is currently economy” by 2025. The city, said Maria Rankka, CEO of the Stockbefore, Qureshi added. working on. holm Chamber of Commerce, is an Smartphone growth continues innovative growth engine. as 65-70% of all phones sold in the third quarter of “Digitization is complimentary to urbaniza2014 were smartphones, compared with 55% in the tion,” she said. “According to McKinsey Global same quarter for 2013.

Institute, there are 600 urban centres in the world • • • that account for 80% of the global GDP. One in During an opening day presentation of the EBIF, five Swedes live here in Stockholm; however they Qureshi said that by 2020 with 9 billion people on generate one-third of Sweden’s combined value the planet, 90% of the world will be covered by moadded. The business climate has grown steadily.” bile broadband networks. She added that “someAccording to a document on Stockholm 2025 one once said that change will never be as slow as from the Chamber of Commerce, laying the best it is today.” possible foundations for innovation requires a A Canadian who oversaw the integration of the broad perspective: “Many factors need to interact CDMA and LTE assets Ericsson purchased from to realize the vision of becoming the most innovaNortel Networks following that company’s collapse in 2009, Qureshi said that the oncoming technology Maria Rankka: A decade will be tion-driven economy by 2025.

“The Stockholm region faces major challenges transformation will have a profound effect on every enough time to implement fixes. in order to become a leading metropolitan region industry in existence today. in the future. Some of the most important issues “No industry is going to escape and every inare to meet the high demand for housing and to dustry will become somehow more efficient, induscreate an efficient infrastructure with sufficient catrialized and digitized,” she told Connections+. “It pacity and a high level of reliability.” represents opportunities for those that embrace it, A decade, said Rankka, will be enough time to but it also represents huge changes and disrupimplement fixes to these and other problems. tions to the established way of working.

“While the quality of life is high, we face chal“Once you embrace change though and once lenges when it comes to housing, infrastructure you are able to reinvent yourself and reinvent your and public transit. More international direct flights company there are so many opportunities. That would also be welcome. said, it’s scary, of course it’s scary, but there are so Rima Qureshi: No industry can “If you want to bring in talent and they can’t many things that can be done.”

Qureshi said that while it is a “shame” that Nor- escape the oncoming IT transfor- rent an apartment that has an effect on innovation, paradoxically enough. Access to capital is tel no longer exists, more ICT jobs need to be de- mation. veloped and more companies created to become part of the network another problem.

“Generally, the VC market in Sweden is large, but early growth ecosystem.

“Whether it be a large player or smaller player, we absolutely stages are totally under capitalized. Companies have to go to Silineed more companies. It is extremely important for the success of con Valley or London to get capital.”

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IDC predicts action-packed year on mobile front In December, analyst firm International Data Corporation Canada (IDC) released its top information and communications technology predictions for 2015. As you will see from the list below, it should be an interesting 12 months: Apple Watch: A Landmark for Wearables: The launch of Apple Watch will invigorate consumer interest in wearables, helping increase overall consumer category shipments approximately 70% YoY to about 1.2 million by the end of 2015.

Over-the-Top Video Blows Past Digital Cable and IPTV: In 2015 Canada will see 9.5 million clients to paid, legal subscription or transactional OTT Video Services that are untied from traditional TV. Chinese Vendors Steal Significant Share in the Canadian Mobile PhoneMarket: Chinese smartphone shipments grew over 50% in 2014, and will see double digit growth again in 2015.

Enterprise Adopters of Mobile Apps Achieve Escape Velocity: Companies that invest heavily in developing internal mobile enterprise applications will edge out competitors by becoming more productive and collaborative.

Ultra-Portability Expands Desktop Market: Small form factor computers make up 15% of the Canadian desktop market. By 2016 this will grow to 28% with CAGR of 17%.

Amazon Sets Up Shop in Canada: AWS will open its first data centre in Canada in the next 12-18 months.

IT Pros Face Transformation, Turmoil and Career Choices: By 2020 IDC Canada expects up to half of IT jobs will look different than they do today.

Security Becomes the Top IT Priority: Over 4 million records of personal information of Canadians will be exposed in 2015.

Canadian Retailers Embrace The Internet of Things (IoT): IDC Canada expects IoT spending to reach close to $25 billion across all industries by the end of 2018.

IoT Catalyze Smart Cities Investments: In 2015 leading Canadian smart cities like Vancouver, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal and Toronto will leverage IoT to catalyze their SmartCity investments.

Mobile Banking Becomes The Dominant Digital Channel for Bank Clients: Mobile banking will fundamentally change how banks interface with their clients. It will also be the growth channel for client interactions. Mobile innovation will become the top digital banking priority in 2015.

Big Data & Analytics will be the Most Important Ingredient to “Get IoT Right”: Growth rate for IoT Analytics will be three times the growth of traditional analytics over the next 3-5 years in Canada. www.connectionsplus.ca

In January, the German company Montblanc became the first luxury brand to combine wearable technology with watchmaking.

Line of Business Will Be Directly Involved in 50% of New IT Investments: The rise of the IT engaged line-of-business executive is driving new influence and spending beyond the IT department within Canadian enterprises.

“2015 is expected to be a pivotal year on a number of fronts in the Canadian ICT sector,” says Tony Olvet, group vice president of research domains at IDC Canada. “Growth in the market will be primarily driven by mobile technologies and applications, including wearables, cloud services, and big data. Built upon these third platform technologies are industry-specific Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, which we will see become more prominent as an emerging trend in the marketplace” he says. “Moreover, an increasingly important element being addressed in the third platform era is security, which will become the top priority for IT in Canada.”

“2014 was indeed the year of the breach,” added David Senf, vice president, infrastructure solutions. “As Canada gets set to add mandatory breach notification in 2015 through the Digital Privacy Act, CEOs will open up to IT requests for additional security budget and leadership. The disparity in security practices and prowess between heavily regulated industries such as finance and health, versus business services and manufacturing, should narrow somewhat, and consumers will need to learn more “how to” security basics and training.”

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Cloud Security 101 There are some basics to cover when selecting a cloud provider and they all revolve around doing your homework.

For example, if you do not demonstrate having done due diligence and if there is a breach, insurers may not pay out.

B y Ly n n G r e i n e r

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oving to the cloud may solve a lot of problems for businesses, but it adds some complexity as well. Sure, it provides virtually limitless capacity, and reduces the need for internal capacity, but it also requires attention to a lot of unexpected details.

One area that may be inadvertently neglected is security.

Securing your own data centre is challenging enough, but at least there you have absolute control, for better or for worse. Once you move to the cloud, that may not be the case. “You potentially could give the keys to the kingdom away,� says Alexander Rau, national information security strategist at Symantec Canada.

Why? Because, he explains, protecting an organization’s data comes down to people, process, and programs. All three become more difficult to control once you have handed the data to a third party. You have to rely on their documentation and descriptions of their controls, rather than on known internal processes. If those

M

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COVER STORY

”

Imagine if you had an air traffic controller sitting in every plane and all the planes are communicating with each other. That’s today’s network.

controls are not up to scratch, you could be worse off.

However, he went on, if your internal resources are sufficiently strained that they can’t cope, a well-chosen cloud provider might be able to take up the slack.

There are, of course, several kinds of clouds, and thus several types of cloud providers (see sidebar), and the services offered range from merely supplying infrastructure right up to providing everything you need to run a major application. Each flavour comes with different security baggage.

Matt Anthony, vice president, security remediation services at the Herjavec Group, points out that while not every cloud provider has an equivalent track record in the security realm, customers should be able to receive some degree of assurance that they will get better scalability, mature processes, and state of the art backup. But they still need to understand exactly what the provider is offering, and how it compares to their corporate requirements.

Those requirements are the key. John Weigelt, national technology officer at Microsoft Canada, says that the first thing any company considering a move to the cloud should do is look at its information assets and figure out how sensitive each component of the data is.

“Focus on the data itself, no matter where it resides,” he says. If it leaks, will the data cause no impact to the business, be merely an embarrassment, or potentially put the company out of business?

Even getting a handle on that much can be a challenge for many organizations, yet it is a critical factor in the decision of whether or not to put that data into the cloud, and what safeguards to apply to it once it’s there.

Sandy Bird, chief technology officer of IBM Corp.’s security systems division, agrees. “You don’t see many customers putting the crown jewels in the cloud yet,” he says. Then again, he went on, “some people don’t know what their crown jewels are.” And they have to figure it out, or risk ending up on the front page – in a bad way.

Yet in many ways, the disciplines of cloud security are no different to those practiced in the data centre, says Anthony. “Information security is not geo-specific,” he notes. “The processes don’t change because you are in the cloud, but there are things you need to do – for most people, the same things you would do if you were evaluating your own data centre.” Those things include ensuring the proper access controls are in place, and performing security audits, as well as ensuring the applications have adequate security. According

”

Flavours of Cloud Within the world of cloud, you have three major deployment models: private, public, and hybrid clouds. A private cloud is run solely for one organization. It may run in the company’s own data centre or at an external facility, and be managed by the organization’s staff or hosted by a third party, but in any case, the organization is responsible for everything about it, including security.

A public cloud is a shared facility, such as Amazon AWS, run by the provider in its own data centre for multiple customers, and accessed over the Internet. The customer has no control over public cloud infrastructure.

A hybrid cloud consists of some combination of the two, interconnected so they can swap information.

All cloud services are not created equal either. There are three primary types, and choosing the right one for your business is critical.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas) is the most basic level. All it provides is the data centre infrastructure and the hardware: servers (physical and virtual), storage, and networking. You provide operating systems and software, and you run the ship, so security, aside from that in the physical data centre, is your problem. Amazon’s EC2 is one example.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) occupies the middle ground. It supplies the physical environment, as in IaaS, but also layers on operating systems and software such as programming environments, databases, and Web servers so users can develop their own solutions. You manage and secure your applications and data. Microsoft Azure and Force.com both supply PaaS. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) takes care of everything: hardware, software, networking, the works. All you need to do is log in (usually via a Web browser) and use the software. There’s very little control over the setup. Salesforce.com, Cisco WebEx, and Citrix GoToMeeting are three of the many commercial SaaS offerings.

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”

country, but its backup and disaster recovery to a report released in January by cloud security facilities as well. experts Netskope, a terrifying 88% of apps it saw Imagine if you There can also be security implications for in use were not enterprise-ready. in-house application developers. Apps in the However, with the cloud, or more correctly, the had an air traffic cloud need to be architected for security from public cloud (a private cloud may be in your own controller sitting the ground up. “Legacy programmers exist in data centre), physical security isn’t as much of an issue for customers, once they have done their in every plane and a world where they don’t have to worry about outside security,” says Lewis. In fact, he notes, due diligence -- the provider’s data centre should all the planes are “sometimes they have to work around security be thoroughly locked down, and its physical security is not the customer’s ongoing responsibility. communicating with to make their applications work.” That’s unacceptable in a cloud environment.

Practically everyone lives in a hybrid envieach other. That’s There are some basics to cover when seronment, says Paul Lewis, CTO at Hitachi Data lecting a cloud provider, Rau says, and they Systems Canada. Some legacy apps may not today’s network. all revolve around doing your homework. If you be suitable for a move to the cloud, while newdo not demonstrate having conducted due dilier workloads may be a good fit to move in their gence and if there is a breach, insurers may not entirety, and yet others may run in the corporate pay out. data centre, but access cloud-based data. Each He recommends looking for PCI 3.0 certification, which places has its own security requirements.

For example, some businesses have applications that need to more emphasis on third parties and cloud security, as well as other comply with regulations such as PCI, or PIPEDA, or may have data security certifications such as ISO 27001, EU 95/46 EC, PCI-DSS, ISO sovereignty restrictions. Since the whole point of the public cloud 27002, BS7799, ASIO-4, FIPS Moderate, BS10012, SSAE-16/SOC2. is that you don’t need to know, or care, where the data physically Staff should have credentials such as the Cloud Security Alliance’s resides, any curbs on location could make it difficult to even find a (https://ccsk.cloudsecurityalliance.org/) Certificate of Cloud Security suitable cloud provider that not only keeps its main storage in the Knowledge (CCSK).

”

So you say you don’t use the cloud? Think again.

Companies and individuals alike use cloud services without realizing it, and those services are not always secured in a business-grade manner. Don’t believe it? Check out this list.

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com/) has both consumer and business versions of its cloud storage service, as does Box (www. box.com/home/). A lot of people and companies opt for the free versions of these services, but they don’t offer the kind of security needed for corporate data. They are not manageable, they may not be encrypted, and their authentication is not tied to company directories, a combination that makes them, and the data they store, vulnerable to the bad guys.

Evernote (https://evernote.com/), which provides workspaces that can be used across virtually every platform, comes in three flavours: Free, Premium, and Business. Guess which one most people use.

OneDrive (https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-ca/) is Microsoft’s cloud storage service, tied to Office 365, Windows 8.x, Windows 10, Windows Phone, and pretty much everything else Microsoft does these days. Currently, there are two flavours: a free one for consumers, and a paid business version; since many users span both business and personal use, the free version tends to get used more than it should (are you sensing a trend here?).

Google Drive (www.google.com/drive/) is Google’s free file storage service. It lets you synch files among all your devices.

Better (or worse) yet, it allows you to scan paper documents to the cloud and share them. But, being a consumer service, it is not manageable, although for a price, Google Drive for Work offers business-friendly features.

Apple users, in the main, have iTunes accounts, and back up their phones to Apple’s service. Guess where the files live.

That’s right – the cloud. Specifically, iCloud.

Google Apps for Work (www.google.com/work/apps/business/), including Gmail, are used by many small -- and some very large businesses. The paid business versions do offer security, up to the FISMA-Moderate level (the standard for U.S. federal government email); with the free versions of the various components, you get much less protection.

Also consider SnapChat, Instagram, and Pinterest, not to mention Facebook and Twitter. They all use the cloud for storage of the vast amounts of data collected.

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In the Networked Society, connectivity will be the starting point for new ways of innovating, collaborating and socializing. It’s about creating freedom, empowerment and opportunity, transforming industries and society while helping find solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our planet. ericsson.com

Ericsson is a trade-mark of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Ericsson Canada Inc. is a licensed user.

Your Guide in the Networked Society

COV E R S T ORY

Ask the potential provider for audit reports, risk assessments, penetration testing reports, consulting reports, all of which should demonstrate that a third party has evaluated the data centre’s security. Look at backup strategies and disaster recovery protocols (including where backups and DR sites are located). Ask how the provider ensures you’ll have access to your data if the data centre goes down.

All of this, says Rau, should be confirmed through evidence.

After that, decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks. And, Rau says, although cloud providers may have more staff and resources, be aware that no-one can give a 100% security guarantee. If they try to, look askance.

Contractual issues are also important, Weigelt says.

As well as collecting the audit reports, information on certifications, and other stats, pay close attention to the terms of the contract. Look at service level agreements and uptime. Ensure there are no clauses that alter your ownership of your data, that no secondary use of your data by the provider, or anyone else, is allowed, and no indexing or scanning may be performed, except by you.

And focus on the data. Encrypt where appropriate, and look at your own compliance environment. Remember, there could be a risk in not doing anything.

“PCI doesn’t care (where the data resides),” says Bird.

“It just needs regulations adhered to.” He recommends carefully managing who has access to the data, by federation of access controls with internal authentication systems. Other security technology used internally may also be extensible to the cloud, such as mechanisms for masking sensitive database fields.

And, he adds, “You can’t get rid of your security professionals.” Their jobs may change, but they are still required, to, for example, keep the portions of the cloud instances under company control updated and secure.

Companies who do not pay attention to this may end up with compromised cloud instances that may put their data at risk, or be used by hackers in attacks on other customers or sites.

“Consider the cloud as an extension of your overall information security program,” Anthony advises. “Don’t rush your evaluation.”

And what happens if something goes wrong? That’s where doing your homework properly comes in – even if your cloud provider messes up, not you, you are still not necessarily off the hook.

“It comes down to who’s liable,” says Bird. “It comes back to the enterprise that owns the data.”

C+ Lynn Greiner is a freelance writer based in Newmarket, Ont. She can be reached at lynn@itwriter.com.

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Data loss and downtime rampant in Canada, EMC study finds EMC Corp. recently announced the findings of a new global data protection study that reveals that data loss and downtime cost enterprises $1.7 trillion globally and $16.8 billion in Canada in the last 12 months.

According to the company, data loss is up by 400% since 2012 while, surprisingly, just over half of Canadian organizations are still not fully confident in their ability to recover after a disruption.

EMC Global Data Protection Index, conducted by Vanson Bourne, surveyed 3,300 IT decision makers from mid-size to enterprise-class businesses across 24 countries.

It found that while the number of data loss incidents is decreasing overall, the volume of data lost during an incident is growing exponentially in Canada.

The study revealed that: • 72% of enterprises surveyed experienced data loss or downtime in the last 12 months • The average business experienced more than five working days (42 hours) of unexpected downtime in the last 12 months • Other commercial consequences of disruptions were loss of employee productivity (48%) and delays to product development (32%) Business trends, such as big data, mobile and hybrid cloud create new challenges for data protection in Canada due to the fact: • 55% of businesses lack a disaster recovery plan for any of these environments and just 1% have a plan for all three • 54% rated big data, mobile and hybrid cloud as ‘difficult’ to protect.

With 29% of all primary data located in some form of cloud storage, this could result in substantial loss, EMC said.

“This research highlights the enormous monetary impact of unplanned downtime and data loss to businesses everywhere,” said Michael Sharun, president of EMC Canada. “With 62% of IT decision-makers interviewed feeling challenged to protect hybrid cloud, big data and mobile, it’s understandable that almost all of them lack the confidence that data protection will be able to meet future business challenges.

“We hope the global data protection index will prompt IT leaders to pause and reevaluate whether their current data protection solutions are in alignment with today’s business requirements as well as their long term goals.”

Sharun told Connections+ in an interview he was surprised at how low Canada was in the overall standings.

As an example, on average Canadians are losing twice as much data 7.5 TB of data whereby worldwide it was only 3.4 TB. Asked whether the findings will be a wake-up call for Canadian organizations, he said they will be up to a point, “but I am not sure where that wake-up call is going to go. Is it going to be more focused on what you are doing internally or is the wake-up call going to be, we just need to get rid of backup and recovery and data protection all together and move to a service.

“It is going to make people decide, which way they are going to go a lot quicker and what they are going to do.”

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Capturing of details in extreme environments 24/7 Punishing winds, relentless rain, huge temperature fluctuations, clouds of dust or high-impacts. No matter how tough conditions get, with MIC IP 7000 HD cameras your surveillance operation always goes on.

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TR E N D I NG

New frontiers for

Top photo courtesy of Bosch Security Systems Inc. and photo below courtesy of Genetec Inc.

Video Surveillance The advanced analytics now coming into play is giving what the industry calls ‘the edge’

By Ian Har vey

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www.connectionsplus.ca

TRENDI NG

hat eye in the sky doesn’t just see everything; it sees so much more beyond a mere reflection.

Combine superb digital sensors and lenses, heat spectrum vision, fast bandwidth, abundant cloud storage and intelligent software and that picture is now worth much more than the traditional one thousand words.

It can ascertain your gender and age and it could even recognize you and predict your behaviour and, more lucratively, what you might be interested in buying.

This is all possible, of course, because of digital evolution. Internet Protocol (IP) creates digital devices and gives two way communication and control over almost anything from anywhere, including cameras, motion sensors and door locks.

Security has evolved from the night watchman with a flashlight to a complex digital network where protecting assets is just one of many tasks. It’s also a bit of a problem because we want to believe the Hollywood version of video technology where anything is possible. Need to zoom in on that grainy image? No worries, a click of the mouse and a tap of the key and presto, a headshot suitable for framing.

Back in the real world the real life IP security folks are cringing.

“We can do some stuff to some extent but those TV shows out there like CSI really set the user expectations high,” says Jody O’Brien, technology solutions specialist at Graybar Canada in Halifax. “We’re quite not there yet. There’s still some education to do.”

Sean Murphy, regional marketing manager at Bosch Security Systems, Inc. based in Lancaster, Penn., agrees.

“Customers are constantly asking for more capability but they want to spend less doing it,” he says, noting though no matter how much intelligence the machines acquire, it’s always going to come down to one crucial and indispensible factor, the human brains

T

www.connectionsplus.ca

monitoring everything and making those key decisions.

Still, video surveillance is critical to both private business and the public good: In England a network of video cameras led to the arrests of the 7/7 London bombers, while the FBI used facial recognition software to track and ultimately pinpoint the Boston Marathon suspects in 2012.

Digital has replaced those old analogue blurry images and today’s cameras not only have bigger and more light sensitive sensors, meaning better resolution and low light capability, they also offer heat spectrum capture, operating in complete darkness to track heat patterns from intruders or heat maps to show where customers linger while shopping and what they focus on.

And it’s all available on any secure screen anywhere, anytime.

Right down to a mobile or tablet because these high definition images are streamed to the Cloud to be archived, accessed and analyzed. Systems are a lot smarter with the advent of facial recognition software which drive not just security protection, but offer marketers greater insights to drive sales.

The advanced analytics now coming into play is giving what the industry calls “the edge” -- the front line of surveillance such as the cameras -- to add value beyond simply capturing and image, Murphy says.

“A construction site, for example, is an ever changing environment so you can set the camera to say, ‘don’t look at this area where a tree is moving in the wind, it’s not as important as this area here, the gate,’ for example. You can assign locations a higher priority, you can count the number of people coming in and out and if there’s a high number of people at an odd time or at a time when no one should be coming and going, let me know.”

While there are differing levels of complexity for different software interfaces, he says, it’s coming down to being able to simply go to the IP address of the camera on a Web page and then configure it quickly with a simple interface which doesn’t require a computer science degree to figure out.

“You can set up a PTZ (pan, tilt and zoom) camera to literally do tours of the location just like someone would walk around checking doors,” says Murphy. “It’s a really interesting time for the security

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industry. The processors and sensors, the eyes and minds of the cameras and recorders, are getting to a price point and power point where you can do really amazing things.”

Among the new frontiers for video surveillance is data collection that can be archived in the Cloud and then mined for insight on demand as part of the Big Data revolution. Software sorts gender, projects age and can even dwell on behaviours, how we shop what we look at, which merchandise displays in stores get attention, what parts of the mall get more foot traffic at what times and, they’re even being configured to tweet out where there are open parking spots at busy malls.

More data means more demand for storage and that’s bringing IT companies into the business in a big way.

“What’s also interesting about all this data is the amount of time people are retaining it and that’s changing things too,” says Andrew Elvish, vice president of marketing and product management at Genetec, a Montreal based IP security management company which operates in 80+ countries. “Some of it is being driven by legislation especially in the U.S. Think about being mandated to store all the data from a small city like Thunder Bay for six months instead of three months, that’s twice the storage.”

Most businesses and municipalities are not set up to build server farms or to handle such copious amounts of data. Which is why contracting to third parties like Microsoft’s Azure cloud services starts to make more sense because it can be encrypted at source and tagged for searchability before archiving. Elvish says part of that is ensuring the right data is archived: “A lot of data isn’t relevant so why are we pushing it into storage?”

Against this is the next frontier of video, 4K, notes Elvish. Simply described 4K mean four times the amount of data. High Definition video as we know on our home televisions is 1080p, also known as 1K. By contrast, 4K is 4,096p, with sharper screen resolution. Still there are many issues before 4K becomes standard, and cost is a major factor.

Murphy says 4K is useful to capture large scenes such as parking lots or stadium crowd. With the vastly superior resolution, software can digitally zoom in on license plates or on faces in a crowd and analyze them against a database for stolen vehicles, parking lot control, wanted suspects or just plain marketing data.

As security systems become more network focused and storage and bandwidth issues are addressed, the next challenge is security of the data itself both from a privacy point of view and as

”

a competitive edge.

Compressing all that data also becomes a challenge. The current standard – called a codec – is H.264 standard with a newer H.265 coming into play.

But as O’Brien notes, by and large “it’s a standard developed by Hollywood, for Hollywood.”

For surveillance video, stopping a video on playback means you can just as easily end up between frames and get a blurry image. Some security equipment manufacturers are now developing their own algorithms to compress pixels within a video where there’s no motion and further reduce the stress on bandwidth.

Cameras are popping up in more and more settings.

“For instance, we had a system set up monitoring a machine because you just can’t have someone watching a machine all day because not only is it boring, they may never catch what goes wrong,” he says.

“With digital video you can do a forensic investigation and go back to see what went wrong and why. In once case our customer saved hours of time by going back in the process to see where things started to go wrong on an assembly line.”

The integration of IP technology into the workplace is a natural progression, says O’Brien. Graybar is a classic example of that evolution. It was founded originally in 1869 in Cleveland, Ohio as a telegraph supply company which evolved into an electrical wholesaler and more recently adding and communications and data products including IP networks video systems and security devices as security became more than just about theft or damage.

“Video cameras aren’t being used in the traditional sense anymore,” he adds. For example, industrial accidents require a forensic investigation and the tale of the tape -- or the trail of the pixels -- is invaluable in not just discovering how an accident happened but preventing it in the future.

“It really becomes a second set of eyes,” he says. “In that sense, less of a reactive tool and more proactive. Downtime costs money in a factory so if we can increase uptime it’s a benefit.”

Technology is advancing at a blistering pace, he notes, adding that the advent of 4K will tax existing infrastructure but it will also likely push more processing of the video stream signal at the camera itself, taking pressure off the network.

“These cameras will be mini computers,” he says.

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In England a network of video cameras led to the arrests of the 7/7 London bombers, while the FBI used facial recognition software to track and ultimately pinpoint the Boston Marathon suspects in 2012.

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”

Ian Harvey is a Toronto-based freelance writer and can be reached at iharvey@rogers.com. www.connectionsplus.ca

TRENDI NG

An IP Security Q&A Anixter’s Matt Powers says standards such as ONVIF paramount Connections+: First of all Matt, what are the biggest challenges that organizations face when it comes to establishing a fully functioning and modern physical security system?

Powers: Organizations are faced with a number of challenges as they move to modern security systems. What I hear about the most relates to migration strategies, interoperability and technology selection.

Technology migration is a major challenge for organizations that want to protect some, if not all, of their existing legacy physical security investment. In this case, these organizations have to determine from the numerous options available in the market, which technology migration strategy will be the best fit to lead them to their desired modern physical security system. Another challenge is interoperability. Most modern physical security systems today are deployed using best-ofbreed manufacturers, which includes systems that are built using open platforms that give organizations increased flexibility and capabilities.

However, interoperability can be challenging to manage because most interoperability today is not standards based. Instead, it is driven mainly by manufacturer partnerships that leverage Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to build third-party ecosystems.

This method can cause uncertainty for organizations that are investing in technology and could potentially lead to a dead-end solution. In the end, interoperability for the physical security industry is headed in the right direction with the development of true open-architecture standards from organizations such as ONVIF, an open industry forum for the development of a global standard for the interface of network-based physical security products.

Connections+: IP convergence is the key piece of the puzzle and Anixter has stated that the most cost-effective approach is to integrate network video solutions into existing legacy analog platforms. What needs to happen to make sure that indeed occurs successfully?

Powers: From a technology perspective, end-users need to work with their integration partners to perform a complete assessment of the existing physical security environment. This assessment should include a thorough review of all existing technologies, infrastructures and applications. After the completed technology assessment, there is a clearer picture of the current state of technology. End-users and their integration partners then should decide on the desired future state that meets the end-user’s application needs. Now that we know the current state and desired future state of the physical security system, the end-user and integrator can begin to bridge the technology gap and provide a scalable migration strategy from an analog to a network video security solution. When selecting the technologies, the end-user and integrator should select products that support open standards such as ONVIF. Even if the system is not deployed using ONVIF as the interface today, the flexibility is there for use in the future. .

Connections+: With thousands of products available, is it safe to say that both an installer and end-user can be forgiven if they are experiencing some type of information overload? www.connectionsplus.ca

Powers: Absolutely, even industry experts have had a difficult time keeping up with the rapid evolution of technologies. However that evolution is slowing down as manufacturers have started to shift focus to product quality and performance. For example, over the years it’s been a race to see who can develop the highest resolution camera; now the focus has shifted to image quality that uses resolutions that are already available.

Connections+: What advice would you have for them?

Powers: Now is the time to focus on learning more about technologies and how to best leverage physical security subsystems as business services versus just stand-alone security platforms. There is a need to gain an understanding of the breath of features a particular product has and how those features could solve specific application challenges. It happens all the time where customers buy feature-rich network cameras only to use them as they would use an analog camera.

Also, one of the best vehicles to learn more about emerging technologies is the integrator’s distribution partner. Anixter and Tri-Ed host hundreds of seminars on a wide array of products and solutions at their facilities, at training events throughout North America, and via the Web. Installers and end-users can spend time participating with and learning from physical security industry organizations that focus on technology best practices, education, advocacy, and leadership within the physical security industry, such as the Canadian Security Association (CANASA), Security Industry Association (SIA) and ASIS International.

Connections+: Finally, standards are obviously paramount. What new developments are we likely to see in 2015 and beyond when it comes to IP security?

Powers: I would say there are three key standards developments to monitor in 2015. Firstly the expansion of ONVIF profiles, ONVIF’s partnership with the Security Industry Association (SIA) and IEEE’s 802.3 four-pair Power over Ethernet (PoE) study groups.

Throughout 2015, we’ll continue to see ONVIF expand its suite of profiles that currently includes specifications for network-based video (Profile S), network-based access control (Profile C) and edge storage and retrieval (Profile G). On the horizon, ONVIF is developing a new specification, Profile Q, which will provide out-of-the-box functionality and easier and more secure configuration.

Lastly, I suggest keeping an eye on IEEE standard development.

IEEE recently announced an 802.3 four-pair Power over Ethernet (PoE) Study Group. This group will consider the capability of a four-pair cabling solution to enhance energy efficiency and provide more than 25.5 watts of power, which is the current limit of the IEEE 802.3at standard.

PoE has quickly become the preferred method of power for networkbased physical security devices.

Matt Powers is the vice president of global technology marketing at Anixter and has 14+ years of sales, management and technical experience in the physical security industry. He can be reached at matt.powers@anixter.com.

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Is your network ready for

IP video?

Bringing your camera and enterprise networks together pays dividends – as long you’ve got bandwidth and power requirements balanced.

By Robert Moore

n technology, we are sometimes a slave to, and sometimes a beneficiary of, Moore’s Law — the trend for the computing power of devices to double every 18 months.

This was an observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, and it’s held true to form for almost 50 years now. It means different things to different industries. For most end-user verticals, it means having to upgrade computer hardware frequently to keep up with the demands of software which is, of course, written for the latest hardware. But it also means that new processing power brings new capabilities, and in the field of video surveillance, the benefits have been significant.

Until the Internet Protocol (IP) revolution, video surveillance lived in a mostly analogue world: Individual cameras ran coaxial cable back to a monitoring bay, or simply kept a tape-based recording medium onboard. There were many potential points of failure. The resolution wasn’t high enough; the lighting wasn’t good enough; and was there actually tape in the machine to begin with?

While digital cameras are able to fix the resolution and lighting issues and control storage demands, their true value isn’t realized

I

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until they are incorporated into the IP-based enterprise network, where video becomes a computing workload. The vastly expanding field of computing applications now has a huge impact on the possibilities for video cameras, not just a peripheral one like in the old days.

There’s a particular upside for organizations that have multiple locations and want to centralize their surveillance and security operations over wide area networks (WANs).

But reaping those advantages means bring the video camera infrastructure onto the enterprise IP network, and there are some considerations for making sure the two will work together.

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth For the sake of illustration, let’s follow Pat, a hypothetical network architect, who’s been sent from head office to bring a branch office up to speed on the organization-wide video surveillance infrastructure upgrade. Pat’s first challenge: Does the branch office network have the bandwidth to support the 20 onsite cameras—and the demands of its six satellite branches? www.connectionsplus.ca

TRENDI NG

On-premise (LAN) connectivity is rarely a problem in terms of bandwidth, given that gigabyte, 10GbE and 40GbE switches are becoming the norm, not the exception and 100GbE is coming to a network near you any day now. Chances are, the branch office has plenty of bandwidth. But issues can arise with the satellite offices, whose connectivity to the branch office LAN may not be so generous.

And applications running on the network can also cause wrinkles. It’s popular, for cost and management savings, to run satellite offices on the branch’s voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, so users in the same unit can connect with three-digit extensions rather than making phone calls over the public network, and can save money by not burning up the long-distance lines from office to office. Just like video has become a compute workload, so has voice – and for most organizations, voice is mission-critical during business hours. How does Pat keep video and voice traffic from colliding on the network to make sure each get the necessary quality of service (QoS)?

Let’s get physical Data connectivity is not the only consideration. The physical connections that bring camera and network data together are also critical. As a rule of thumb, use a hard-wired connection over a wireless one whenever possible; it’s more reliable and more secure.

But it’s also one of those situations where the old adage applies: If there’s a problem, it’s usually a hardware problem. The highest quality cabling and connectors – and attention to detail in the installation—make a world of difference. Category 5e Ethernet cable is theoretically capable of carrying traffic at 1Gbps, but that’s only under ideal conditions. In a real-world situation, its capacity is considerably smaller. Category 6 cable can handle up to 10Gbps.

And either one’s effectiveness can be undone with poor attention to detail. If a camera is dropping packets, dropping off the network or not responding to pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) directions, the problem is often as simple as a poorly crimped Ethernet connector – one of the leading causes of erratic camera behavior.

There are other limitations to a hard-wired Ethernet connection, but most can be overcome. For example, there’s that pesky 100-metre effectiveness limit, which can be overcome with repeaters. But the benefits far outweigh the limitations.

Many networked cameras are now Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) enabled; they can be powered directly from the network switch if there’s no accessible power in the camera location.

Once again, a formula must be applied and a calculation made: How much power does the camera draw? How many cameras can one switch power? Do you need more switches, or can you manipulate frame rate or times of operation to power the same number of cameras off of the existing switch infrastructure? The repeaters might also be able to add another 50 watts to the equation.

Securing the network The wireless access points that connect these remote cameras to the network offer an additional vector of exposure to intruders, and there’s more at stake than just the video content. These cameras are now connected to the enterprise network, not just a video netwww.connectionsplus.ca

work. That means that enterprise data and applications are also vulnerable to attack.

The only absolutely secure device is one that isn’t connected to a network. All the same, billions upon billions of online banking transactions take place in North America securely, and the tools that banks use are available to any enterprise. Using 128-bit secure socket layer (SSL) encryption ensures video data can’t be intercepted in transit or tampered with at rest on storage servers.

Siloing off various video and VoIP applications into vLANs, as described above, doesn’t just have QoS advantages; it also offers another layer of insulation between these more vulnerable applications and mission-critical applications. Other security technologies with video applications include 802.1x, which scans for MAC addresses, IP addresses and device description to ensure a hardwired camera hasn’t been physically tampered with—for example, by inserting a device into the loop to intercept video traffic and access the network.

If it doesn’t add up, 802.1x technology shuts down the connection. And IP filtering can restrict what computers on the network can access the video feed, even narrowing it to a single computer.

Keeping it in storage So Pat’s IP-based video network is up and running. Video can produce huge volumes of data, and it has to live somewhere, especially if it’s going to be used for future applications like analytics or heatmapping. It’s time for more calculations.

In order to calculate storage capacity, factor in the number of cameras, their various frame rates, resolutions, and compression qualities, and the corporate data retention policy—how long does this video data have to be kept?

You might find the calculation will affect how you tweak those camera settings; maybe that storeroom camera doesn’t have to be 1080p resolution, and only has to operate particular hours of the day.

Fortunately, virtualization technology is the foundation of software-defined storage, which allows the centralization of video data storage on commodity x86 hardware based on Ethernet, rather than expensive, Fibre Channel-based storage area networks.

The video-ready network As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when determining the video-readiness of your enterprise network. Fortunately, it’s not guesswork. Most of your network considerations are subject to quite simple mathematical calculations, and there are plenty of online tools to plug the numbers into Take a patient, methodical approach to planning and implementing your video network and evaluating its impact on your corporate network, and you won’t end up throwing more money after it to fix problems that could have been avoided in the first place.

Robert Moore is the business manager for Axis Communications Inc. in Canada. His Twitter address is @AxisCanadaBob. Januar y/Februar y 2015

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New & Noteworthy

4

1

3 2

1. GREENLEE

2. SNAKE TRAY

3. DELL

4. DISTECH CONTROLS

Greenlee, a Textron company, recently released the DataScout 10G rugged touch screen tablet developed for service provider, utility, smart grid, mobility and enterprise network testing technicians. The network analyzer has an all-in-one rugged design that eliminates the need to carry or lose bulky modules. It also replaces up to eight handheld devices and a separate laptop that a technician would have to use in the field, the company says. The touch screen tablet design allows for both portrait and landscape modes. www.greenlee.com

Snake Tray has created a patented table tray to convey, aim and isolate RF cables along with traditional security and signal cables in one system for transit and rail tunnels.

The tray can accommodate multiple tiers of cable pathways along with a special separated pathway that isolates and aims the RF cable for optimal signal strength. Made of stainless steel to weather all environmental conditions, the trays are designed to be quickly installed. www.snaketray.com

Dell has released the newest version of its Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance, which includes new and enhanced functionality to further transform how organizations discover, configure, secure and manage computers and devices in multi-platform environments. Version 6.3 features systems management support of Chromebook, with seamless integration of inventory integrated directly into the K1000’s asset management, reporting and service desk capabilities. It also gives IT greater insight and control with new agentless inventory of Windows servers and PCs. www.dell.com

Montreal-based Distech Controls has announced the launch of its ECLYPSE Connected IP and Wi-Fi product series and the ENVYSION responsive Web-based design and visualization interface. Both are designed for the Internet of Things building, the company says.

ECLYPSE provides BACnet/IP, wired and wireless IP connectivity permitting integration with building management systems and convergence with IT networks.

ENVYSION enhances mobility with its HTML 5 interface and delivers “the art and science of actionable visual knowledge.” www.distech-controls.com

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www.connectionsplus.ca

ROLS

ontrols of its d Wi-Fi VYSION ign Both et of ny says. /IP, ectivity

ems and rks. lity with elivers onable

m

New & Noteworthy

5 8

6

7

5. HARTING

6. ELMA

7. LEGRAND

8. KLEIN TOOLS

Harting’s new Han High Temp connectors are designed to circumvent the limitations of deploying connectors in hot manufacturing applications such as mold machines and casting equipment. Conventional connectors need to be located well away from high temp areas of the machinery, requiring additional cable. The Han High Temp can be located right at the machine, thus saving on cabling and potentially simplifying machine design and wiring. The connector can be mated and unmated at temperatures up to 200C. www.harting.ca

The COM Express-based platform from Elma Electronics Inc. brings IP-based data, voice and video networking to mobile vehicular environments. The computer includes a Cisco-certified routing engine complete with a suite of mobile routing protocols essential for network attached equipment on the move. The system uses Type 6 COM Express XMC/PMC and miniPCle modules to keep initial engineering costs low as well as protect future computing upgrades, the company says. SSD storage is expandable to 64 GB to meet system requirements. www.elma.com

Legrand has expanded its line of Plugmold Multioutlet Systems to offer more USB charging capability.

New units include all-USB options, a unit with alternating USB ports and power receptacles, and one with a single dual USB module and receptacles. The systems meet the growing demand for device charging in airport departure areas, waiting rooms, homes and even bars – anywhere where people need to charge mobile devices. All feature dual-port charging modules that share 2.4 amps of charging capacity. www.legrand.ca

Klein Tools’ Chicago Grip – Coated Guy Wire (1685-5C) features a sawtooth jaw profile that will not slip when used on coated or galvanized guy strand. The longer jaw also increases the surface area in contact with the cable, which minimizes cable damage. Over time, the coating or galvanization can cause build-up on a typical grip jaw causing it to slip. The sawtooth jaw profile on the wire grip prevents that build-up from happening, which reduces the risk of slippage. www.kleintools.com

www.connectionsplus.ca

Januar y/Februar y 2015

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L it e rat u re R eviews

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Graybar Canada’s Audio-Visual Solutions Looking for a complete audio-visual solution from cable to camera? Browse the Audio-Visual Solutions Brochure to have a glance at the first-class manufacturers and product categories carried at Graybar Canada. The Technology Solutions Specialists at Graybar Canada can assist you in determining the solution that will achieve your desired results.

Visit graybarcanada.com/audio-visual and contact your local branch today.

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+ the magazine for ict professionals

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OCC’s Cat6A field terminable plug is simple to terminate without specialized tooling. Terminate by simply inserting the conductors into wire manager, squeezing, and inserting into the plug.

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Connections+ 2015 MEDIA KIT The magazine for ICT professionals, Connections+ readership targets individuals who purchase, design, specify, install, maintain and test structured cabling, networking and telecom products as well as facilities management specialists and senior IT executives who are responsible for overseeing the implementation and installation of these initiatives.

For more information contact Maureen Levy – 416-510-5111 or mlevy@connectionsplus.ca

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Januar y/Februar y 2015

Connections+

37

TH E B ACK PAG E

The perils of

appification

By Dave Webb

e got trouble/Right here in River City/That starts with a “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for “Apps” …

Wow. That went badly. Musical theatre is apparently not my forte. However, there is a point buried in that mess, and since I’m paid by the word, I’m leaving it in.

Full disclosure, first. I am something of a lapsed Luddite, but like most who have let the faith slide, there is still more than a grain of it in me. I once swore I’d never carry a cell phone, which, at the time, made me a bit of an imposter, since I was a practicing technology journalist at the time. After my ex and I split up, I had no need for a landline, so I tried the phoneless life for a while. Eventually, a friend who was working in public relations at one of the carriers convinced me of the merits of a mobile, chief among them revenue for his employer. Thus equipped, I saw no reason to upgrade to a feature phone, a seduction I succumbed to within a year or so. After my numerous telephonic acts of apostasy, my vow never to own a smart phone rang rather hollow. I’m now waiting out my contract to upgrade to a new one.

Somewhere in the intervening years, another friend in the PR game called to pick my brain on behalf of a client. What did I think of this burgeoning ecosystem of applications? How significant would it be? I poo-pooed. Users don’t want to be downloading functionality; they want it installed on their phones.

Angry Birds hadn’t happened yet. Suffice it to say, I stand before you a humbled “expert.”

Yeah, this whole “app” thing would never take off.

That’s why we only have three gazillion available for download on the various platforms. Apps are easy to write (easier on some SDKs than others, but much easier than most client-server applications).

And the temptation to bring them into your work life, given the convenience and personalization they offer, is near irresistible.

And that’s where, on the enterprise side, that trouble with a capital T rears its ugly head. Each of the major platforms has advantages and disadvantages, and a whole lot of security implications to boot.

John Gage was the fifth employee of Sun Microsystems Inc. He coined the phrase, “The network is the computer,” one that has been co-opted by just

W

38

Connections+

Januar y/Februar y 2015

about every vendor since. But perhaps no one has coopted the concept more than Google Inc. Give them a platform for all their office productivity functionality, available on the Web, for nothing, and watch how they flock to your paid offerings. Then integrate mobile offerings into the mix, and …

Aye, there’s the rub. As an open platform, Google’s Android operating system has a few challenges. First of all, anyone with some programming smarts can pull together an Android app, and they’re widely available outside the approval policing of Google’s Android Play regime. Second, the OS itself is open to interpretation.

Every Android smart phone manufacturer runs a customized version of the OS, perhaps several on different phones or tablets, and based on any number of the OS kernels that Google has released. This spells security and interoperability issues.

Then there are our friends at Apple Inc. They may not have invented the smart phone, but you wouldn’t know it to ask the rabid consumer base. Its myriad apps are well-policed by the Apple Store, but again, there are issues. Its very popularity attracts malware authors (as does Android’s). Most of its apps are trivial (op. cit. Android).Then there’s Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone. (More disclosure: It’s my OS of choice.) Microsoft’s three-screen ethos – computer, phone and TV – has potential, especially given Microsoft’s dominance in office productivity software, but the message just isn’t getting traction.

What’s the solution, from an enterprise perspective? Unfortunately, we drove past it. Research In Motion – now BlackBerry – got it right for the enterprise in the first place, but took an eye off the ball.

Where do we go? It’s not just enough to open up BlackBerry’s superior backend management to other platforms. Developers have to get serious. Stop thinking of these as “apps” and start thinking of them as “applications” again. No enterprise needs a security-riddled, inconsistent, incompatible 99-cent app for its users. There is an actual development cost to enterprise-grade mobile applications, and the pricing should reflect it.

C+ Dave Webb is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

He can be reached at dave@dweebmedia.ca. www.connectionsplus.ca

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