IT in Canada January 2014

ALEX WATSON

Security threats in 2014 p.8

AJ BYERS

2014 cloud computing predictions p.10

December 2013/ January 2014 VOLUME 4 NUMBER 5

INSIGHTS FOR TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

Publication Mail Registration Number: 42169527

PREDICTIONS FOR 2014

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   Do your sales reps spend more time looking for special pricing approvals than talking to customers?

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

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Contents

www.itincanadaonline.ca

Vol 4 No 5 December 2013/January 2014

12 Connecting the Olympics

Features 4 Editorial 6 Apps outpacing BYOD A study by CA Technologies has found that app management is more important to executives than BYOD initiatives.

14 Near and far: the future of big data Big data is changing everything about the way we live. We talked to two executives about their predictions for the near - and not so near - future.

14 Cover Story Big data is here and it’s going to change the world Departments 8

Technospective: Security Security threats are going to evolve and escalate in 2014. Websense tells us how to combat them.

7 Technospective: Social Networking We talked to experts to figure out the latest social networking and collaboration trends for 2014.

10 Technospective: Cloud Computing As we get ready to say goodbye to 2013, we’re looking at what

the New Year holds for the cloud.

12 Case Study: Connecting the Olympics A team of Ottawa-based engineers from Avaya are creating the world’s largest guest network for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

18 Book Review Nathalie Richard tells us how to foster leadership.

Online Extras: www.itincanadaonline.ca

7 Social Networking

Missed an issue? Misplaced an article? Visit www.itincanadaonline.ca for a full archive of past IT in Canada Online issues, as well as online extras from our many contributors.

December 2013/January 2014 IT in Canada Online / 3

EDITORIAL INSIGHTS FOR TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

EDITORIAL ACTING EDITORS: AMY ALLEN AND DANIELA FISHER

amy.allen@itincanadaonline.ca daniela.fisher@itincanadaonline.ca

SENIOR STAFF WRITER: RACHEL LEVY SARFIN

Predictions for a changing world

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STAFF WRITERS: AMY ALLEN

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DANIELA FISHER

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2013

has been an important year for IT. Big data has started to gain traction, and more and more enterprises are moving to the cloud. We’ve seen major security breaches, like Edward Snowden’s much-publicized NSA data leaks, and BYOD has been booming.

In this issue, we explore the trends and predictions that industry leaders think we’ll be seeing in the coming year. From changes in mobility and security to the evolution of big data analytics and the cloud, we believe 2014 is going to be an exciting year for IT. Big data is going to transform every sector of society – not only in business, but in science, conservation, the public sector, and in our everyday lives. For example, IBM thinks medical professionals will soon be able to cure our diseases using our own DNA, and that the education system will start to tailor lessons to our children based on their specific, individual needs.

Businesses will increasingly move toward a hybrid cloud model. They will look to public cloud providers for disaster recovery services, and they will increasingly want their data centres to be located in Canada instead of the U.S. Security is no longer just about protecting our desktops from malware; it’s about ensuring that the governments and corporations that store our personal data are held accountable for what they do with it.

Last but not least, we have mobility: people are increasingly bringing their own mobile devices into the workplace, and with this trend comes an increased risk that corporate data will be lost or stolen. In 2014, enterprises will try to find the balance between user experience and data protection.

What are your IT predictions for 2014? Let us know on Twitter @realitincanada, or send us an email at editorial@itincanadaonline.ca.

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TECHNOSPECTIVE

ON MOBILITY

By Daniela Fisher

g n i c a outp

D O BY

rity o i r p obility

IT m p o t as

Trends in mobility for 2014

I

t’s all about the apps, according to a recent global study on what’s most important for enterprise mobility management.

The Vanson Bourne study was commissioned by CA Technologies. It suggests that for a company to successfully deploy its mobile platform, it needs to go beyond BYOD. Instead, businesses must shift the focus to providing services that balance customer, IT and employee needs.

The study surveyed 1,300 senior IT leaders from around the world. It showed that while the benefits of mobility are well understood, there are still concerns. The biggest obstacles to mobility adoption include concerns over security and privacy, multiple platform support, budget constraints and lack of appropriately skilled employees.

The report also showed that on IT priority lists, external customer initiatives like secure app management now outrank internal BYOD projects.

“Today, CIOs are under enormous pressures to address the rapid pace of technology change and evolution. Mobility has dramatically elevated the complexity of 6 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

what is needed both for internal users and customer-facing systems,” explained Ram Varadarajan, GM, New Business Innovation, CA Technologies.

In addition, the study suggested that IT mobility is now about the customer. Whereas a company’s IT used to focus on BYOD and satisfying employees, now IT must meet the demands of customers as well.

“The potential of not complying with key regulations, inadvertent dissemination of corporate information, or negatively impacting brand reputation because of poor customer experience though a mobile application shopping experience, are just a few examples of risks faced by organizations that do not have an enterprise-wide mobility strategy,” explained Varadarajan.

The study’s specific findings suggest that, while the focus for IT has traditionally been on devices, now the opportunity lies in mobile apps. Mobile apps were the number one priority for 63 per cent of respondents, as opposed to 37 per cent for internal BYOD and managing employee devices.

However, the demand for mobile apps also provides opportunities for companies to

drive new business initiatives. The report predicted that over the next three years, IT spending on mobility will increase by as much as 50 per cent.

Going forward, security and privacy will continue to remain a priority for IT departments in securing devices and apps. More than a third of respondents cited security and privacy concerns as their number one challenge in enterprise mobility.

According to the study, successful mobile initiatives can improve time-to-market, revenue and customer satisfaction, as well as employee productivity and lower costs for BYOD programs.It also recommends that in the future, companies take a more holistic approach to enterprise-wide mobility management.

“CA Technologies is in a unique position to address the gaps in holistic enterprisewide mobility management,” said Varadarajan. “The report emphasizes the important investments we are making in mobility and other advanced technologies. It’s clear the existing systems for managing mobility have not been meeting the needs of IT.” The full report is titled “TechInsights Report: Enterprise Mobility – It’s All About the Apps.”

Vanson Bourne conducted the CA Technologiessponsored study of senior IT leaders in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector and telecommunications in 21 countries around the world from May to July 2013.

By Daniela Fisher

TECHNOSPECTIVE

5 predictions

ON SOCIAL NETWORKING

for social media tools in the workplace

detailing, for example, how to install a product or quickly troubleshoot a problem.

2.

Companies want the full package Andrew Dixon, senior VP, Sales and Marketing, Igloo Software

T

he way we work is changing.

Hours are no longer nine to five, we no longer have separate devices for work and for home, and the Internet of Things is ensuring everything and everyone will be connected around the clock. In the workplace, boardrooms and whiteboards are no longer the only spot to collaborate on projects. Nowadays, meetings are held across computer screens instead of breakfast spreads.

IT in Canada sat down recently with Lubor Ptacek, VP, Strategic Marketing, OpenText, and Andrew Dixon, SVP, Sales and Marketing, Igloo Software, to get their predictions on workplace collaboration and social platforms in 2014.

1.

Communication still about face time

As social media continues to develop, people will take advantage of new forms of messaging to enhance their communications.

“I believe there is going to be a shift toward adopting and embracing more visual types of communications, even in the enterprise,” said Ptacek. “We see it in the consumer space, where anything from 6-second videos like Vine to things like Snapchat seem to be very popular. I think that indicates that people do like to communicate visually, so we’ll probably see much greater emphasis on visual collaboration than just the textual one.”

Instead of text-based platforms, people will be able to interact with each other through quick videos and photos – like

Point solutions will disappear in favour of solutions that offer a suite of social tools.

“People don’t want just one tool,” said Dixon. “They want a whole suite of tools to help them engage in social media.”

In addition, no longer will the corporate intranet be a place where documents go to die. What was once a platform for one-way dissemination has received a significant facelift.

“The corporate intranet is undergoing a facelift and being augmented with a whole bunch of new social media tools like wikis, forums and microblogging,” said Dixon.

“Now your Intranet becomes this two-way platform of collaboration and [you can] collaborate with different project teams, so that you can work together to produce content.”

3.

No more blindly jumping on the social bandwagon

Say goodbye to generic marketing platforms. Companies in 2014 will be more cautious in deploying social strategies and focus more on personalized content for specific audiences.

“I think most organizations are really going to stop blindly jumping on the social bandwagon, and instead, they will be asking themselves what their purpose is,” said Ptacek. “If I need to improve the efficiency of my sales force, or if I need to improve the processing of insurance claims, then those kinds of specific applications will be driving it, rather than the deployment of the generic, enterprise-wide social platforms that we’ve seen in the past.”

Social technologies are being adopted at a rapid pace. Companies anxious to deploy a social strategy both inside and outside their companies would do better to first plan out what they want to achieve with that social strategy.

4.

Social analytics get really, really good Big data and analytics are unlocking so many secrets of the world. In the coming years, analytics will also unlock the science of people’s behavior. Through social analytics, marketers will be able to detect a customer’s patterns of behavior. Companies will have more insight into how people work together.

“You’re going to see social analytics and reporting on people’s social behaviours on a scale that you’ve never seen before,” said Dixon. “We’ve now given a whole bunch of users in companies new tools to help them interact with information and each other.

That will generate a huge amount of data on how people work together and how they work with information.”

5.

IT embraces cloud-based social tools

The new workplace is all about being connected. Employees are increasingly coming into work with more and more expectations of the productivity tools that they’re given.

If those tools don’t meet their expectations, they’ll find more productive tools outside of the company that can run on any device, such as the consumer file-sharing app Dropbox. The rise of bring your own app (BYOA) will see IT departments deploying cloudbased, easy-to-use tools that satisfy their criteria for security and integration, while also running on any browser or device.

December 2013/January 2014 IT in Canada Online / 7

TECHNOSPECTIVE ON SECURITY

SECURITY THREATS

By Amy Allen

to evolve and escalate in

2014

IBM has transformed Watson of Jeopardy! fame into a commercial solution to support customer service engagement

W

ebsense, a company that specializes in security software, recently released its security predictions for 2014 – and Alex Watson, director of security research at Websense, sat down to talk to us about some of those predictions.

The predictions cast a wide net over an array of security issues that companies will be facing in 2014: everything from malware to attacks on the cloud to mining for information on social media sites. We are familiar with attacks such as these, but in many cases, they’ll look different than they did before, because adversaries will start using old tricks in new ways.

8 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

A break from traditional attack methods While attackers have traditionally used indiscriminate tactics – such as malware – to mine for information, Websense believes they will begin to use targeted attacks in the coming year.

“The use of malware is becoming somewhat risky for attackers,” said Watson. “It’s in all likelihood going to be the first point where they’re detected. A lot of the time, attribution for attacks is based on the malware that they use.”

Although the decrease in malware at first sounds like a positive development, the company cautions that targeted attacks can

be more dangerous because they are more difficult to detect.

Moreover, Websense cautions against danger in the cloud. The report suggests that enterprise clouds will be more appealing to attackers than traditional networks in the coming year. Businesses are increasingly placing critical data in the cloud, and this presents a golden opportunity for attackers to mine for information – especially because there are fewer security controls for the cloud than there are on traditional networks.

“Look at businesses, and the type of information they put in the cloud,” said Watson.

“Businesses are putting their most impor-

TECHNO SPECTIVE ON SECURITY

Alex Watson, director of security research at Websense

tant information up there, using thirdparty programs, and they’re doing it for collaboration and the ability to work from anywhere. And in many cases, there isn’t the same level of security controls. From an attacker’s perspective, it’s a goldmine.”

Businesses that wish to avoid exploitation through the cloud should ensure that they have an extra layer of security and that the appropriate controls are in place for those authorized to access data in the cloud.

Data destruction It was also predicted that a major datadestruction attack will occur in 2014, mostly against high-profile, publicly visible companies, at the hands of hacker groups eager to grab public attention.

“Right now, you have politically-motivated groups that are mostly just trying to get their name out there and to create awareness,” Watson said. “They’ve done that by compromising sites like Twitter or hijacking accounts, things like that. I think people are getting increasingly aware [of cyber attacks], and even starting to tune out when those types of attacks happen.”

Watson cited the August 2012 attack on Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, by a group called the Cutting Sword of Justice as one example of a politicallymotivated strike that caused serious damage to a company’s operations.

Although the attack failed to stop oil production, it damaged approximately 30,000 computers and shut the company’s internal network down for a week as it worked to

“BUSINESSES ARE PUTTING THEIR MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION UP THERE, USING THIRD-PARTY PROGRAMS, AND THEY’RE DOING IT FOR COLLABORATION AND THE ABILITY TO WORK FROM ANYWHERE. AND IN MANY CASES, THERE ISN’T THE SAME LEVEL OF SECURITY CONTROLS. FROM AN ATTACKER’S PERSPECTIVE, IT’S A GOLDMINE.” recover from the virus. It remains one of the worst cyber attacks against an enterprise in recent history.

“The prediction we made about major data-destruction is based around these politically-motivated groups that are trying to make a statement, to remain in the public eye,” Watson continued. “That it absolutely is possible to destroy data, and it definitely grabs public attention when it does.”

“LinkedIn and things like that are a goldmine of information for attackers to learn about inherent trust relationships between businesses,” said Watson. “What they’re taking advantage of in those types of attacks is people, so I recommend security awareness programs that train [employees] to think twice before opening an executable that comes in an email.”

The more things change...

The report – and Watson’s recommendations – highlight the fact that traditional security software is no longer enough to protect data from adversaries. It still has its place in enterprise security, of course, but executives must build a more complete, end-to-end solution that defends every gateway an attacker could use to access company information.

And as always, software is never the only answer. Employee training is imperative when it comes to protecting data – especially at a time when adversaries are so quick to find new exploits, and when BYOD and other technological advancements have opened up new avenues of attack.

“Companies need to evolve how they look at security,” Watson said. “It’s not boundary protection anymore. Instead of this big focus on protecting infrastructure and creating a wall that no one can get through, the important thing is to identify where data is in the network and place protection mechanisms to keep that from being stolen.”

Java has always been an easily-exploitable application. This trend will continue in 2014, as organizations neglect to patch or update their software despite reports of numerous successful exploitations in 2013.

Flash and other web-kits that, like Java, are popular and infrequently updated will be another source of grief for businesses, as adversaries will look to them for easy exploitation in 2014.

Websense encourages companies to either patch their applications or simply uninstall Java when it’s not in use.

Switching gears on social media The predictions report also touched on the increased use of social media in attacks, although Websense notes that adversaries will turn their focus to LinkedIn rather than Facebook and Twitter in 2014.

With LinkedIn, adversaries can glean information about businesses and establish a direct channel for the delivery of malware.

They can create counterfeit accounts that look real and lure professionals into clicking through to malicious websites.

What’s a company to do?

Amy Allen is a staff writer with IT in Canada.

December 2013/January 2014 IT in Canada Online / 9

TECHNOSPECTIVE ON CLOUD COMPUTING

By Daniela Fisher

CLOUD PREDICTIONS FOR 2014: adopting the hybrid cloud

A

s we get ready to say goodbye to 2013, we’re taking a look at what the new year holds for cloud computing. IT in Canada recently talked with industry leaders Eric Gales, country manager, VMware Canada, and AJ Byers, president, Rogers Data Centres. They outlined a number of cloud computingpredictions for 2014.

The cloud goes local “I’d say the biggest trend we’re seeing is that the hybrid cloud environment is becoming the most popular environment for most businesses, as they transition into the cloud,”said Byers. “Due to the large number

The hybrid cloud will rule all others We’ll continue to see adoption of the hybrid cloud in the new year. While 2013 was supposed to be the banner year of the hybrid cloud, we’ll see more businesses actually adopting the technology in the months to come. For businesses looking to nail down the right combination of cloud solutions, hybrid will be a popular option in 2014.

10 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

of security concerns that have faced data over the last 12 to 18 months, we’re seeing a shift to more private cloud computing and more of a real hybrid environment.”

Also in 2014, businesses will need to address the implications that come with the hybrid cloud. We’ll see more discussions aroundwhat technology to use, how to secure enterprise environments, and how CIOs can create a cloud environment that accommodates different devices and is still secure.

“I think we’re certainly seeing a sort of tension in the continuation of the consumerization of IT, where end users want to be able to use the device of their choice and to float between their devices,” said Gales.

“Cloud computing gives you the capability to make that happen. But from an enterprise perspective, how you actually assemble that has to be very thoughtful in order to continue to maintain the levels of controls you need, particularly around security and privacy. Hybrid cloud computing is a way of making that capability available to users.

They can use the devices they want to use, and float between.”

Eric Gales, country manager for VMware Canada

Another big trend in cloud computing that we’ll be seeing more of in 2014 is preference for alocal cloud. Companies increasingly Continued on page 17

“TO WHAT EXTENT CAN WE LEVERAGE THESE TECHNOLOGIES TO REALLY DRIVE AGILITY AND REDUCE COSTS WITHOUT COMPROMISING SECURITY, PRIVACY AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS AND WITHOUT LOCKING OURSELVES IN TO A NEW SILOED PARADIGM.”

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CASE STUDY

Connecting the Olympics A team of Ottawa-based engineers from Avaya are creating the world’s largest guest network.

This article originally appeared on WRLWND.com and is reprinted with permission.

A

t the Olympics there’s no room for error. And that’s not only true of the athletes.

Dean Frohwerk, leader of Avaya’s Worldwide Solution Engineering group, and his team in Ottawa, Ont. are responsible for making sure the upcoming 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, are the most connected ever, which means they’re responsible for creating and maintaining the largest guest network in the world.

“We don’t use bleeding edge technology in the Olympics,” explained Frohwerk.

That’s not to say Frohwerk and his team don’t use innovative technology; it just speaks to the pressure involved in delivering networking to such a high-profile event.

“When the world’s watching you don’t have time to experiment and reset a start date by a month. The world knows when the torch gets lit.”

The torch for next year’s Olympic games in Sochi has already been lit and is now on its way around the country; in other words, the countdown is officially on, and Frohwerk’s team is making their final preparations.

The team has worked on some of Avaya’s largest and most critical deployments and this isn’t their first Olympic games either.

They were also responsible for the net12 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

By Christopher Rogers

CASE STUDY

Dean Frohwerk, Avaya

WHEREAS THE VANCOUVER GAMES HAD THE LUXURY OF SOME EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE TO BUILD ON TOP OF, INCLUDING ARENAS AND STADIUMS, SOCHI’S NETWORK WAS BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP. THE SCALE OF THE TASK MEANT FROHWERK AND HIS TEAM NEEDED TO TRANSITION FROM THE VANCOUVER GAMES ALMOST IMMEDIATELY TO THE SOCHI DEPLOYMENT.

working at the Vancouver games in 2010.

The team handles the entire infrastructure and all the tools that are placed on top of that, like unified communications, voice and collaboration.

Only four years removed from those games, Vancouver is still fresh in the minds of most Canadians, but Frohwerk explained that Sochi will be vastly different both in terms of scale and technology.

Whereas the Vancouver games had the luxury of some existing infrastructure to build on top of, including arenas and stadiums, Sochi’s network was built from the ground up. The scale of the task meant Frohwerk and his team needed to transition from the Vancouver games almost immediately to the Sochi deployment.

On the technology side, the games are being tagged “the BYOD games” (bring your own device) and there is a heavy emphasis being placed on wireless technology.

In Vancouver, the journalists and users relied heavily on wired technology — using physical Ethernet cables to plug in their < An official torch from the Sochi relay visits the Avaya headquarters in Markham, Ont. Left to right: Ross Pellizzari, president, Avaya Canada; Rob Daleman, national marketing manager, Avaya Canada; Amir Hameed, senior director, Americas Technical Sales.

devices. The wired devices outnumbered the wireless devices by a factor of approximately four to one. It’s expected to be the opposite in Sochi.

“We don’t control the devices, we don’t control the [operating systems], but we need to be able to react when they show up,” he said. “It really is the world’s largest guest network.”

The network will be made freely available to the Olympic community, including athletes and their families, coaches, broadcasters, journalists, volunteers and IOC dignitaries, among others. Frohwerk is preparing for a minimum of 30,000 users.

With loads and scale of that size, extensive testing is done on the infrastructure and network before the users start to log on. The team uses a lab at Avaya’s headquarters in Santa Clara to test the solution.

“We have test events that we do for every sporting location,” Frohwerk said. “Like the athletes, we have to test the field of play.”

As the eyes of the world turn to Sochi in February 2014, the network will be put to its biggest test yet.

Christopher Rogers is Editor of WRLWND.com, a website dedicated to celebrating innovation in technology. To read more reviews and other feature articles visit http://wrlwnd.com.

December 2013/January 2014 IT in Canada Online / 13

TECHNOSPECTIVE ON BIG DATA

By Amy Allen

NEAR AND FAR: THE FUTURE OF BIG DATA

There’s no doubt about it: big data is here, and it’s going to change the world. IT in Canada sat down to talk with industry leaders at IBM and Talend about this phenomenon. Yves De Montcheuil, VP, Marketing at Talend, talked about the short-term trends the industry is seeing. Warren Tomlin, Practice Leader, Canada, IBM, looked further down the road and discussed the five changes IBM predicts will be occurring in the next five years: classrooms tailored to students’ needs; a shift to local retailing; doctors using our own DNA to cure us; a sentry for our digital lives; and the rise of smarter cities.

Talend: Yves de Montcheuil, VP, Marketing

Many predictions from last year said that big data would become mainstream in 2013. Do you think those predictions came true?

To a degree, yes. In 2012, we saw a lot of proof of concept, testing the waters of big data. In 2013, a significant number of projects actually went live with big data. We are past the early adopters. We are probably in the early majority of the adoption phase.

What are some big data trends we’re going to be seeing in 2014?

14 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

One of the big trends we’ll be seeing in big data in 2014 is the advance of the big data computing platform. More and more, what businesses need is immediate access to insights from big data. That means interactive querying, interactive processing, and the need for a platform that is suitable to deliver this real-time, operational type of use for big data.

Another one is the link between big data and the cloud. The cloud is a big data deployment option, but it will also become a new source of data. As organizations expand the use of big data beyond their on-premises systems, they’re going to find a lot of very interesting data in the cloud that they can leverage for their big data projects.

The last one, which is another extremely important contributor to big data, is the Internet of Things – the industrial Internet, if you want to put it that way. This is a time where more and more objects are connected, and this trend is going to amplify. The cost of sensors is going down; pretty soon you’re going to be able to get sensors that are connected to the Internet for probably less than Continued on page 16

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4fmv.ca

The right candidates.

The right opportunities.

TECHNOSPECTIVE ON BIG DATA Continued from page 14

a dollar apiece. And that means more and more objects providing more and more data points that need to be harvested.

Would you say that most businesses are prepared for these changes?

Most are not prepared. Some forwardthinking organizations are prepared, or are at least doing what they need to do to be ready, but clearly there is still a long way to go. The Internet of Things is going to create some very interesting challenges in terms of storage capacity, real-time streaming, and tapping of the data.

IBM: Warren Tomlin, Practice Leader, Canada

How is big data going to change the way we live in the next five years?

I think the trend we see most powerfully is how big data in the cloud can be leveraged using analytics and cognitive computing. We [IBM] see a medical trend, a city-level trend, an education trend, a guardian angel trend, and a retail trend.

What do you see in the medical field?

Very few clinicians have access to the tools to crunch data, and frankly, there’s more big data than we can use. So how do we use cognitive computing and behavioural computing to crunch the data and look for trends, behaviours, and insights, without putting that burden onto the clinician or the researcher? We can then tailor the drug therapy or the drug treatment to individual patients at the DNA level.

And what about education?

Where I think the medical field would use just massive amounts of big data and collaboration, I think the classroom would 16 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

use longitudinal data. From kindergarten through to graduation, we would take many data sets that students [provide] – everything from attendance records, aptitude tests, and other test results – and start to tailor their education based on these longitudinal events, over these many years, to very specific lesson plans for the student.

The trend we’re predicting is how it could work; how it will be implemented will probably vary from city to city, state to state, country to country. With the proper provisions for privacy and security, I think [the security issues] could be overcome, especially if the benefit is so important.

interact with. For example, we’re working in Brazil, where citizens can report areas that are inaccessible for people with disabilities. And I think we’re seeing that data in the cloud and analytics make it easier to live in cities, and also that the city will be able to recommend to you, “Hey, here’s an event coming up that you may have an interest in.” It lets citizens connect with governments, and governments are able to connect more with citizens.

You mentioned retail?

We’re getting to a point where so much of our lives is digital. We think there will be an online guardian that has a 365-degree view of [online] events and transactions. It will be persistent, so it will always monitor all our accounts and all our behaviours – it’s looking for intrusion, looking for deviance from our normal behaviour. We see a time in the next five years where we’ll be able to have preferences, and the guardian angel will come back and say, “Is this what you intended? Is this your behaviour?” If yes, no problem; if no, then action is taken. It’s a very persistent way of protecting your online identity.

The idea there is the return to shopping local. How do top performing retailers over the next five years leverage technology in-store and at a local level to create an unparalleled user experience? Our belief is that advanced technologies like augmented reality, real-time reviews, and third-party reviews will give us an unparalleled experience in the retail outlet that is quite different than online.

The retail industry is under such fundamental transformation that not leveraging mobile, social, and other technologies will be opportunities squandered over the next five years. Savvy retailers that work both the physical store and the online together will be more successful than pure digital. They’ll bridge the experience locally and online.

How about cities?

This is really building on some of the trends that we’re seeing globally around open government and digital government, where governments are starting to expose – in a good way – their public data for citizens to

The fifth prediction is “A digital guardian will protect you online.” That’s really interesting – can you explain it in further detail?

What will IBM be doing in the big data sphere in the coming years?

One of the common threads related to big data is around how the computer will be more cognitive. We can’t program enough machines to handle all the data. We have more data than we can possibly use. So how does the machine learn? How can we get the machine to learn what’s important in big data, and what’s not, and look for correlations and patterns that would otherwise take forever to find?

TECHNOSPECTIVE

AJ Byers, president of Rogers Data Centres

Continued from page 10

want their cloud infrastructure to be located in Canada instead of the U.S. “The cloud is supposed to be ambiguous and out in the ether, but in reality companies who are moving to the cloud are asking for their server and their data infrastructure to remain local,” said Byers. “They’re looking for cloud providers to actually have local environments. So when we’re in Alberta, companies are looking for a local cloud in Alberta, or when we’re in Ontario they want a local cloud in Ontario.”

The same holds true for data centres; businesses want their data centre provider to be local: “We’re seeing a lot of people saying we want our data to remain in Canada due to the recent items around the NSA,” explained Byers.“I think we’re going to see in-country data requests as it applies to cloud computing as well. We’re going to see a greater look at security in the cloud, people are going to be far more rigid about the security models and where their data resides.”

Data gets an encryption treatment One of the main concerns with the cloud is an apparent lack of security. That will change in 2014, with more data being encrypted in the cloud. Cloud environments will require authentications and security measures similar to those in the credit card industry, to ensure that data is protected in the cloud.

“I would say very little data that sits in the cloud is encrypted today,” said Byers. “More and more data will become encrypted in the cloud through 2014. Managing access

ON CLOUD COMPUTING

“WE’RE SEEING A LOT OF PEOPLE SAYING WE WANT OUR DATA TO REMAIN IN CANADA DUE TO THE RECENT ITEMS AROUND THE NSA, I THINK WE’RE GOING TO SEE IN-COUNTRY DATA REQUESTS AS IT APPLIES TO CLOUD COMPUTING AS WELL. WE’RE GOING TO SEE A GREATER LOOK AT SECURITY IN THE CLOUD, PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE FAR MORE RIGID ABOUT THE SECURITY MODELS AND WHERE THEIR DATA RESIDES.” into cloud environments into cloud environments will become more rigid. You’ll start seeing all access in the cloud environments tie to standards that are kind of closer to the payment card industry with dual authentication and a number of other security and encryption concerns.”

Disaster service recovery in the cloud We’re going to start seeing more technologies that allow companies to do disaster recovery right into the cloud.

“If they have a virtualized server environment in their office today, we’ll see deployments of technology where, with a click of the button, that server, in the event of a disaster, can be up and running in the cloud,” said Byers. “I’d say that’s becoming far more prevalent in cloud providers today. I’d say that’s the biggest one. The disaster recovery element or the disaster recovery benefits that the cloud can provide for in-house virtualized environments is phenomenal.”

And in many cases, it will introduce capabilities that companies could otherwise not afford or could not deploy in a timely manner. By doing disaster recovery in the cloud, enterprises can avoid a lot of cost.

“We’re seeing the rise of more granular services available in the cloud that enterprises can plug in to,” said Gales. “For enterprises, instead of having to standup their own disaster recovery site and manage a second site, they can basically take that service from a public cloud provider.”

Long-term look: cloud-based applications win out In terms of long term trends, in the future

most applications will be available in the cloud. 2014 will see more cloud-based application purchases.

“I would say all applications that people are buying today are certainly moving to the cloud,” said Byers.“We’re going to see a greater view on that, where probably a year ago 50 or 60 per cent of the applications out there were available in a cloud-based scenario – we’re going to see that increase to 70 or 80 per cent of the time, that application will be available in the cloud.”

“Over the course of the next five years, I think we’ll increasinglysee an abstraction of applications away from device dependency,” said Gales. “Increasingly, more capabilities in enterprise will be centred around provisioning applications and data around either private or public clouds - most commonly, a hybrid cloud situation - so that users can access their applications and data from any device.”

Also, internally, companies will see a migration from the traditional way of servicing IT to more of IT as a service (ITaaS) within an organization. Companies will be taking a more holistic view to how they can take advantage of cloud computing to meet their respective business needs.

“To what extent can we leverage these technologies to really drive agility and reduce costs without compromising security, privacy and regulatory requirements and without locking ourselves in to a new siloed paradigm,” said Gales.“My view is that as we look forward, we’re seeing many more CIOs take a much more holistic view to where can cloud computing fit in and how to embrace this full continuum, but in a way that doesn’t compromise those things that are very important.”

December 2013/January 2014 IT in Canada Online / 17

BOOK REVIEW

By Nathalie Richard

Fostering Great Leadership As part of my work, I am often asked about what makes a company successful.

Although there are many factors, one consistently tops all others.

This article originally appeared in the December 2012/January 2013 issue of Biotechnology Focus and has been reprinted with permission from the author.

Good to Great Jim Collins

L

eadership. Jim Collins highlights in his book, Good to Great, that great companies are often driven

by Level 5 Leaders—leaders that not only succeed through skill and competence, but that also exhibit a blend of personal humility and professional will.

I have seen the impact of Level 5 Leaders in transforming good companies into outstanding ones. I thought that I would take this opportunity to reflect upon what it takes to become a Level 5 Leader and how we can foster their development. There are no right answers; rather, my reflections are meant to start a conversation as we look at leadership through the different lenses of our experiences and perceptions.

I recall someone once defining leadership as “lead-our-ship.” It is a definition that I appreciate as it captures the very essence of a true leader: the desire to tackle complex challenges, to build, create and contribute to an organization’s success by enabling 18 / IT in Canada Online December 2013/January 2014

individuals with different perspectives and experiences to move toward common goals.

Yet the development of strong leadership competencies begins with a passion for your field. As I look back at my transition from health care to finance and my ongoing professional development, one factor has consistently held true. I have always worked in a space for which I have a great passion. It is what Keith Farrazzi calls the “Blue Flame”, the intersection of your passion and your abilities. Passion and skills alone, however, are not sufficient. Level 5 Leaders must also possess a great deal of ambition directed toward challenging the status quo and building long-term successful organizations.

We often associate today’s leadership with larger than life personalities, and as result, we struggle to recognize our everyday Level 5 Leaders. Yet we have no shortage of them.

The problem lies in our belief that leadership equates with high profile leaders. As Jim Collins remarks, Level 5 Leaders are a far cry from the “egocentric celebrit[ies].”

Though highly driven individuals, Level 5 Leaders channel their ambitions through personal will and humility, choosing to highlight everyday leadership rather than cultivate celebrity status.

Another key challenge is for individuals to self-identify as potential leaders. In order to capture the benefits of their hard-earned efforts, future leaders need to understand and believe in their own successes. These successes start early on with small leadership opportunities where one can learn to motivate and guide others, and progress to more complex challenges which impact broader organizational dynamics. The role

that is played by colleagues and mentors in allowing individuals to identify leadership skills and opportunities are crucial to the development of a future leadership base.

According to Judith Elder, the former general manager of Microsoft Canada’s Consumer Products Division, organizational leadership not only requires a desire to lead complex organizations, but also that others be ambitious for you. The people that work with you and for you must believe in your ability to help them achieve their goals and those of the organization.

I am extremely lucky in my life to have parents, colleagues and mentors that support my personal ambitions and encourage me to keep pushing the boundaries of what I can accomplish. They are my guides and my cheerleaders; they have provided me with the opportunities to lead and the support to pursue my journey. I plan on passing along the lessons that I learn to my own mentees so that they too can develop their true leadership potential.

In closing, successful companies exhibit many attributes. The one common factor is great leadership. Becoming a Level 5 Leader starts with a passion for your field. It then requires the alignment of both personal and professional desires to continuously challenge the status quo, seek out leadership opportunities and build sustainable organizational successes. Nevertheless, personal ambition must be reinforced by the celebration of everyday leadership and the support of your ambitions by those close to you. Fostering the development of more Level 5 Leaders will help us transform more organizations from Good to Great.

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