IT in Canada May/June 2015

MUHI MAJZOUB

Drop Dropbox It works for your average consumer, but not for enterprises P.8

CRAIG BOWMAN

Preventing your own personal Snowden P.17

May/June 2015 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 3

INSIGHT FOR TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

Publication Mail Registration Number: 42169527

DISPELLING THE MYTHS OF THE HYBRID CLOUD

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Contents

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Vol 6 No 3 May/June 2015

DEPARTMENTS

4 Editorial 6 News

Our roundup of news stories

7 FEATURES

8 Drop Dropbox

Dropbox works for your average consumer, but not for enterprises, says Muhi Majzoub

10 Held for ransom

Attackers are lining their pockets by holding data for ransom, but as Eric Jacksch writes, there is a solution

17 Preventing your own personal Snowden

Craig Bowman take a look at what companies can do to prevent Snowden-esque information leaks

20 Reinventing the channel – Part 3

In the final part of a three-part series, Michelle De Hertogh discusses the shift from pull to push marketing

13

COVER STORY: Hybrid Theory

The hybrid cloud is making waves, and various industries are taking notice. EMC’s Michael Kerr explores the myths surrounding it, and why the IT channel and public sector are getting on board

Online Extras: www.itincanadaonline.ca

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May/June 2015 IT in Canada Online / 3

EDITORIAL INSIGHT FOR TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

EDITORIAL ACTING EDITOR: MARK DAVID

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STAFF WRITER : JEFF MACKEY

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: ERIC JACKSCH, MICHELLE DE HERTOGH, CRAIG BOWMAN, ERIC JACKSCH, MICHELLE DE HERTOGH SALES VP, BUSINESS MEDIA STRATEGY: MARCELLO SUKHDEO

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Clamouring for the cloud The IT industry has been spending a lot of time on Cloud Nine lately. For many, this is a place that we visit in our dreams where all is good, but today, it has become a place where enterprises’ dreams of enhancing collaboration, storage and productivity within the workplace become reality.

One of the great things about the cloud is that provides businesses with choices. Some may opt for the public cloud model, which provides services over a public network, while others might prefer the private cloud, which is designed to serve a single internal network.

But there is also a third option that combines the best of both worlds – the hybrid cloud.

Many industries are beginning to subscribe to the “hybrid theory” proposed by hybrid cloud computing, with prominent examples including the public sector and the IT channel. In our cover story on page 13, EMC Canada’s Michael Kerr explains why these and other industries are giving some heavy consideration to hybrid cloud while debunking some of the myths associated with it.

Speaking of storage, file sharing services like Dropbox are also a hot topic. But despite their convenience and cost effectiveness, they are not built to handle the demands of enterprise users. Muhi Majzoub of OpenText discusses why they should drop Dropbox on page 8.

Malware has long been a thorn in the industry’s side. Hackers always seem to have an ace up their sleeve when it comes to circumventing even the strongest of protection efforts, and they’re turning it into a profitable business model by demanding that their victims pay a ransom to get their service restored. But, as Eric Jacksch writes, companies can beat these malicious malware mavens at their own game. Find out how on page 10.

Edward Snowden made global headlines in June 2013 when he turned the entire NSA on its ear through one of the largest information leaks in history. On page 17, Craig Bowman explains how businesses can prevent a Snowden-like situation from happening in their own environment.

Finally, Michelle De Hertogh returns to the Channel Corner to discuss the shift from push to pull marketing in the final part of her series on re-defining the channel on page 20.

Remember, a cloudy day outside could lead to rain, but a cloudy day in the IT industry could change the face of your business for the better.

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IN THE NEWS

By Jeff Mackey

Can’t scratch the surface in laptop replacement

E

veryone putting out tablets wants their product to have the title of “laptop replacement,” but this has proven to be a difficult benchmark for companies to reach.

The general consensus in the industry, however, is that the Surface Pro 3 is the most popular tablet that can truly lay claim to this title. But while the Pro 3 might be popular, it has suffered from inaccessibility thanks to its $1,049.99 price tag and $129.99 keyboard.

And what is the point of a laptop replacement when it costs the same as a laptop?

Perhaps with this in mind, Microsoft is looking to stretch the popularity of the Surface Pro 3 into a lower price bracket with the release of the Surface 3, which is now available for pre-order (non 4G LTE).

The Surface 3, which will sell for $639, can still run full Windows and Office alongside its tablet optimized app interface. It will also still boast an ergonomic and, quite frankly, brilliant keyboard (optional), pen (now optional) and stand design that has made the product famous.

However, the Surface 3 will be different different in some important ways.

For starters, the Pro 3 has a 12” screen with 2160 x 1440 resolution, weighs 800g and has between 64GB of storage and 4GB RAM and 512GB of storage and 8Gb of RAM. It can also come with either an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor.

The Surface 3, on the other hand, will have a 10.8” screen with 1920 x 1280 resolution, weighs 622g and has between 64GB of storage and 2GB of RAM or 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. The weaker processor makes the Surface 3 decidedly less powerful than its big brother, but it’s still a bargain relative to other tablets at its new price range.

For photos, the Surface will have front-facing 3.5MP camera and an 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera.

6 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

In comparison, the Pro 3 has 5.0MP front and rear cameras with no auto focus.

Where the Surface 3 really makes its mark, however, is with its optional (and not yet available for pre-order) built in 4G LTE model. Unfortunately Microsoft has been quite light on the details surrounding this particular model.

Where the Surface 3 will make less of a mark, however, is in the smart pen department – which will now have to be bought separately. The Surface Pen was a popular accessory to the Pro 3 for its pressure sensitive writing, simple design, hand rejection technology when writing and One Note button.

Also in the negative column for the Surface 3 is that it will have a maximum of one external display connectors, which is a shame.

That said, the Surface 3 will come with a one-year subscription to Office 365, which is something the Pro 3 doesn’t offer.

“Surface 3 brings what customers love about Surface Pro 3 to more people, delivering the premium design and productivity of Surface in a more affordable device,” said Panos Panay, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Surface in a press release.

“We’ve taken everything we learned making Surface Pro 3 and poured that innovation into this newest Surface. It’s beautiful, versatile, powerful and productive, and our customers are going to love what it lets them do.”

The Surface 3 is available for pre-order now. Starting May 5, it will be available at retailers and resellers of Microsoft tablets.

Microsoft says it will have more to share on the Surface 3 (4G LTE) availability in the coming months.

IN THE NEWS

Samsung tries to stay ahead of the curve

I

n life, perspective is everything. In computer monitors, perspective is the newest trend that has got major corporations all competing to put out curved monitors.

But if the hype is true about the ability of curved monitors to reduce strain on people’s eyes, then this trend might just have some staying power.

Much like the ergonomic office chair before it, people may think that purchasing curved monitors for an office is too expensive and flashy to be a good investment. But if companies continue to expect their employees to work long days starring at their computer screens, you might start seeing these monitors more often.

Not one to miss the boat, Samsung has just announced three new curved monitors: the 31.5 inch SE590C Curved Monitor ($599.99), the 27 inch SE591C Curved Monitor ($399.99) and the 23.6 or 27 inch SE510C Curved

Monitor ($299.99). All three will be available starting in May. Each of the monitors boasts 1920 x 1080 resolution, which admittedly would be resolution overkill in an accounting office. But in a graphic design office, for example, these monitors would be right at home.

Curved monitors claim that they decrease eye fatigue because the edges of them are physically closer to the user’s eyes and match the eye’s natural curve. This means users don’t need to shift focus to see the ends of the screen. So, in addition to being fun toys to play games or watch movies on, they are also designed to make detailed office work or photo editing easier.

“We’ve seen a lot of excitement around curved displays,” said Dave Das, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics America.

“We’re excited to be expanding our curved monitor line to give consumers more options.”

With curvature ranging from 3000R

(SE590C) to 4000R (SE591C and SE510C), all of Samsung’s new curved monitors aim to offer an immersive experience that keep your peripherals working.

The screens also have something called Eye Saver Mode, decreases the monitors’ harmful blue light that can cause eye fatigue, while something called Flicker Free technology simultaneously reduces screen flickering.

The final benefit that these monitors could offer a workplace has to do with their energy consumption.

The SE510C, SE591C and SE590C all include more eco-saving technology than previous Samsung models of this calibre. The screens will reduce their screen brightness for increased energy efficiency and a new automatic setting reduces energy consumption by up to 10 per cent based on the luminescence of the screen’s black sections.

Who knows, maybe this curved trend is actually on point for businesses.

May/June 2015 IT in Canada Online / 7

TECHNOSPECTIVE ENTERPRISE FILE STORAGE

By Mark David

DROP DROPBOX

T

here was once a time when sending large files was a daunting and almost rigorous procedure. Email providers like Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail were often not properly equipped for dealing with this kind of data, nor were the 3½ inch floppy disks of the past. Since then, many advancements have been made in the world of file sharing, but are they really up to par?

Online services like Box, Dropbox and Google Drive entered the scene to help consumers alleviate their file sharing and transferring woes, and have generally proven to be effective in their mandates. Partnerships with IT powerhouses like Microsoft further fueled consumer interest. In addition, the services were offered at little or no cost to users.

Suddenly, transferring high-resolution photos and lengthy audio files was easier and accessible to everyone. However, despite the positives surrounding these services, there were some detractors who believed them to be non-compliant for enterprise use.

Muhi Majzoub, head of engineering for OpenText, is one of those people. He shares his opinions with IT in Canada about why now is the time for enterprises to break up with these consumer-based services, and what the possible alternatives are.

Q: What led to the popularity of these file-sharing services?

Majzoub: There are two major factors. One is the ability for companies to extend certain workloads in file sync-and-share to the cloud in an easy way to on-board users. In two minutes, the user can sign up for an account, activate it, create folders, uploading documents, dragging and dropping files from their C drive or file finder into directories and be on their way to sharing content. The second reason is the fact that these services are cheap, or in some cases free, with up to 10GB of storage space.

8 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

TECHNOSPECTIVE

ENTERPRISE FILE STORAGE

“WE OFFER DATA SOVEREIGNTY AND GUARANTEE TO OUR CUSTOMERS, PROVIDE DATA ZONES AT THE COUNTRY AND REGIONAL LEVELS. WE GUARANTEE IN WRITING THAT THEY WILL OWN THEIR DATA, AND WE WILL WIPE IT CLEAN FROM OUR SERVERS AT ANY TIME IF THEY (NOTIFY) US THAT THEY NO LONGER WISH TO USE THE SERVICE. ”

Muhi Majzoub, head of engineering for OpenText

Q: Why are these services being marketed as enterprise-ready?

MM: This is a very good point. We all know that marketers will often make statements that are not necessarily true. They are marketed as enterprise-ready because they are out to grab market share and trying to register the bigger players. But if you dig deep and look at the solutions available today, I don’t think any of them can truly be considered enterprise-ready for several reasons.

For something to be enterprise-ready, security is key. Many of these vendors have been breached, and users of these services have received emails advising them to reset their passwords. We all know that when you receive an email of this nature, it means your password, email and account information have been compromised.

As enterprises dig deeper into using these services, they find in some cases, they don’t own their data because these services are not true extensions of their enterprise solutions.

For example, I am an employee of OpenText, and I can (register) through my Yahoo email account to create a Box, Dropbox or Google Drive account. I can drag gigabytes of information off my computer and (upload) it to one of these services. If in a year I leave OpenText, the owner of that account remains the user whose email address is linked to it.

OpenText has no legal authority over my Ya-

hoo email account, meaning that the content is no longer controlled by OpenText, and that creates a risk for the enterprise.

The third issue is data sovereignty. You have no control over where these services place their data centres. They will put their data centres where they can operate them in the cheapest way possible to continue to grab market share. If you’re a Canadian customer, you don’t want your data in China or (elsewhere). We all know that offering data sovereignty involves spending and investing millions of dollars into infrastructure and people to be able to create data zones and areas where you can offer much better data sovereignty solutions to your customers.

Q: What does OpenText offer as an

alternative to these consumer-based services?

MM: We have a product called OpenText Core that is enterprise-ready. It was organically grown in the engineering labs of our headquarters in Waterloo, Ont. It was developed on a modern platform from the ground up, has zero footprints to our data centre in costs so we can offer very competitive pricing. We offer data sovereignty and guarantee to our customers, provide data zones at the country and regional levels. We guarantee in writing that they will own their data, and we will wipe it clean from our servers at any time if they (notify) us that they no longer wish to use the service.

We wrap our services in governance and archival solutions, and we are leaders today in governance and compliance through our record management solution. Our work

on this is ongoing, and we will offer it to our customers very quickly. We also wrap industry-specific services around our products so we can target certain verticals in the engineering documents, legal and healthcare spaces. I believe that is what’s needed, in addition to keeping the on-boarding (process) easy.

Q: Will more businesses discontinue

their use of consumer-based file-sharing services in the future?

MM: I think they will move to more reliable services, such as OpenText Core, where they could be given assurance and guarantees that their data will be protected. I think there are benefits in using file sync-andshare workloads, and here is an example.

If I am an enterprise, and I currently have seven companies that are contracted to do work for me in engineering, and I want to secure these shared documents with them that are sitting in a remote location, I don’t want to give them access to my network, VPN access, or an FTP account on my servers to upload and download files. File syncand-share becomes a great extension to my enterprise operation. I can create a hierarchy of folders, upload all the documents I need to share with them.

With a single click, I can securely add their email addresses, and they now have an encrypted way of accessing this data. I can control all of the access, and with the flip of a switch, I can revoke that access. I make the interaction between my partners and myself easier, but at the same time, I keep my data protected.

May/June 2015 IT in Canada Online / 9

SECURITY SHELF

By Eric Jacksch

HELD FOR RANSOM Cybercriminals have developed an alarming new business model that is working.

Even police forces are falling victim.

10 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

S

ince the 1970s, malware has evolved from a mere annoyance to a criminal industry. Malware developers profit by selling tools to build botnets, steal information, and spy on users. The discovery of CryptoLocker in September 2013 marked a significant evolution in malware tactics; encrypt data and hold it for ransom.

From a malware developer’s perspective, ransomware makes good business sense.

Instead of selling malware to other criminals, and presumably security researchers and undercover police officers, ransomware provides a direct revenue stream that is highly automated. And it works.

According to the Town Crier, police

in Tewksbury, Massachusetts suffered a CryptoLocker infection in December 2014 and, “police systems were down for between four and five days as the department worked with the FBI, Homeland Security, Massachusetts State Police, as well as private firms in an effort to restore their data without paying the ransom.” The police force ultimately paid a $500 ransom to re-gain access to their critical files.

In February 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported that police in Midlothian, a suburb of Chicago, “paid a $500 ransom to an unidentified hacker to regain access to data from a police computer the hacker managed to disable, records show.”

Local news station WCSH-TV reported

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TECHNOSPECTIVE SECURITY SHELF THE CRYPTOLOCKER SOFTWARE THEN ENCRYPTS THE USER’S FILES USING THE PUBLIC KEY. THE PRIVATE KEY REQUIRED TO DECRYPT THE FILES IS NOT STORED ON THE VICTIM’S PC AND CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED BY SEIZING THE CRYPTOLOCKER SERVER OR PAYING THE RANSOM.

that in March 2015 the shared computer system of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and four town police departments in Maine were infected with the megacode virus and the departments reluctantly paid $300 to regain access to their files.

With reports of more than 50,000 infections per month, it is unlikely that police departments were intentionally targeted.

Ransoms of $300 to $500 are similar to those reported by consumers and businesses worldwide. Police departments, despite access to world-class expertise, do not fair better than other victims.

While technical details vary, ransomware usually leverages public key cryptography.

The key required to decrypt the victim’s files is withheld until payment is received.

For example, when a CryptoLocker-infected PC contacts the CryptoLocker server, 12 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

the server generates an RSA key pair and sends the public key to the infected PC. The CryptoLocker software then encrypts the user’s files using the public key. The private key required to decrypt the files is not stored on the victim’s PC and can only be obtained by seizing the CryptoLocker server or paying the ransom.

In theory, nobody should pay a ransom.

Doing so only facilitates the continuing criminal enterprise. In practice, those without proper backups will continue to pay to recover critical business files and priceless family photos. Since criminals can fully automate their operations, they likely will remain profitable even if only a tiny percentage of victims pay.

The widespread existence of ransomware is a wakeup call to those without a solid backup strategy. RAID configurations, net-

work attached storage devices, and SANs provide little protection. The infection of a single PC whose user has write access to a corporate file share can result in all files being encrypted.

In addition to general malware defences and user awareness training, the primary defences against ransomware are backups and storage systems that enforce versioning.

To effectively protect against ransomware and other threats, backups must be offline and inaccessible to the infected computer.

Ransomware may not be detected until after a sizeable volume of data has been encrypted, and that may take a considerable amount of time. Large organizations may need to recover from backups made weeks or even months prior to detection.

File versioning is another useful defence. A secure local server or cloud-based backup system that automatically retains old versions of changed and deleted files helps mitigate ransomware risks. Smaller organizations and individuals who have not invested in offline backup systems might find a cloud-based alternative more cost-effective.

The best response to ransomware is to wipe and reinstall infected systems and recover data from backups. Cybercriminals will likely begin targeting corporations due to their ability to pay larger ransoms. All businesses should assess their vulnerability and ensure that appropriate controls are in place. Ransomware is profitable and will continue to evolve for the foreseeable future.

COVER STORY HYBRID CLOUD

By Mark David

In the automotive world, hybrid vehicles combine elements of gas power and electricity to create a more environmentally-friendly vehicle. The technology industry is no stranger to hybrid products, and the advent of the hybrid cloud has armed enterprises with a system that offers them the best of both cloud worlds.

E

nterprises are learning to embrace the cloud computing phenomenon, as it makes mobile file sharing and storage easier, in addition to its collaborative and productivityenhancing abilities. The hybrid cloud has recently enjoyed a spike in popularity, as it provides users with a good combination of public and private cloud capabilities.

The private sector and IT channel have also taken notice of what the cloud can offer them for the management of their affairs. They are just two examples of the many industries that

have joined the cloud revolution.

As Michael Kerr, director of channels for EMC Canada explains, hybrid cloud adoption provides many benefits. But despite that, there are still some myths about its abilities.

Q: Why has the public sector become more interested in the cloud?

Kerr: The parallels are very clear that computing is shifting, and we ignore it at our peril. Much like the old mainframe days,

whether we liked it or not, the user community moved us into distributed computing for a variety of reasons.

We’re seeing the same shift now. The user community is moving us to a more mobile environment where if they don’t deliver an application in days, rather than months, they will no longer be competitive, and they cannot afford for the traditional IT infrastructure to deliver it for them, and that’s (resulted in) the rise of shadow IT. We see the shift to shadow IT, where the budgets are spent outside of the IT budget, on the rise in Canada.

May/June 2015 IT in Canada Online / 13

COVER STORY HYBRID CLOUD THERE ARE TWO PRESSURES ON IT. THE FIRST IS THERE IS ALWAYS PRESSURE ON IT TO BE VIEWED AS A COST CENTRE, SO IT’S A CASE OF DOING MORE WITH LESS. THE SECOND IS WHEN (EXECUTIVES) DECIDE THAT THEY’RE GOING TO FIND A NEW APPLICATION TO COMPETE WITH A MOBILE APPLICATION FROM OUR NEAREST COMPETITOR, WE GO TO IT AND THEY TRY TO MARSHAL TOGETHER THE RESOURCES AND COME BACK WITH AN ESTIMATE OF TWO MONTHS.

Michael Kerr, director of channels for EMC Canada

Q: What are the five myths of the hybrid cloud?

MK: The first myth is “I already have a private cloud infrastructure; therefore, it’s all you need.” The answer is perhaps not because the definition of a hybrid cloud is elements of the private infrastructure combined with a public infrastructure, and the marrying of the two. It’s always going to be a balance, and depending on your workload, the business or industry you’re in, the percentage of your workload that works in one versus the other will vary.

The second myth is “I can’t put anything

in the cloud because everyone is going to have access to it.” That is also probably not true in the sense that there are some very secure public environments out there where you need an encryption key, and all the cloud service is storing is encrypted data.

They themselves can’t see the data. We have a product called Mozy that simply stores encrypted backup information; the key is owned by the end user. The facility that it’s stored on is a very high-security data centre floor, and (the data) is stored on the public cloud. Regardless of what level you’re on in the Mozy group, the data cannot be unencrypted.

The third myth is “Can you store everything in the public cloud?” This is not true either. Different computing environments will handle different workloads and characteristics of business problem-solving. Even today, there are still mainframes in many of our large enterprise accounts, and for a good reason. There are still a number of legacy

applications or very large workloads that require that type of environment.

The fourth myth is “If I move everything to the cloud, I lose control of all the data.”

The answer is that’s entirely up to the parameters you set. If left to its own devices, it could be true, in the sense that if you let the cloud provider manage it all for you. But with due diligence and proper mechanisms surrounding that, you can either isolate your data into an environment that’s entirely under your control, much like the parallels of colocation, where people would store their particular environments and unlock caged environments. Or, you could elect to put it into a shared environment on a consolidated compute system, so you have the choice within the cloud.

The last myth is “That may work for insurance or banking, but it may not work for manufacturing or healthcare because the data is too secure.” There’s no question that you have to be awfully observant and considerate of the data that you’re putting in the cloud, but there’s always going to be some data that lends itself to its non-criticality. The parallel I draw there is how many companies today still maintain a payroll division, where you have people generating paychecks? That whole industry is successfully outsourced so that you have outsourced payroll which, at one time, we would have considered as the most confidential information, and they do a very good job. The same thing is true of the hybrid cloud; it’s going to find a place.

Over time, we believe all industries will be affected.

Q: Why is it important for IT depart-

ments within the private sector to have a proper hybrid cloud strategy in place?

MK: The departments are now exercising control over their budgets, and what we see 14 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

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COVER STORY HYBRID CLOUD THE FIRST STEP IS THAT THEY WILL HELP OUR CLIENTS UNDERSTAND THEIR CURRENT ENVIRONMENTS SO THAT THEY CAN DETERMINE WHAT APPLICATIONS OR WORKLOADS WORK BEST IN THE CLOUD ENVIRONMENT.

This is why we’re seeing a rise (in interest), and that’s why everyone should be considering the cloud. The key here is the word “hybrid.” You don’t want to do it in isolation; you still want to be able to embrace it and look at it as a collective, not as isolated pieces.

Q: How can the channel address con-

cerns about hybrid cloud technology?

MK: Most of our value-added resellers cut

is some of the IT departments are seeing their budgets getting reduced.

There are two pressures on IT. The first is there is always pressure on IT to be viewed as a cost centre, so it’s a case of doing more with less. The second is when (executives) decide that they’re going to find a new application to compete with a mobile application from our nearest competitor, we go to IT and they try to marshal together the resources and come back with an estimate of two months.

The (executives) say that’s too late, so they go online and find the answer to the problem within five minutes. With a credit card or PO, the next day, (the application) is up and running and can at least address their immediate business needs. That describes the scenario that’s happening every day, everywhere. And unless the IT departments within our business transform themselves so they can produce a well-run, GUI-like interface to computing for their whole company, they will become less relevant because the end users are not waiting.

16 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

Q: What are the benefits of a hybrid cloud infrastructure?

MK: The benefits are that you can take advantage of technologies that you may otherwise need to overinvest in. For example, if I have a large storage locker, rather than building an addition to my house and adding on multiple sheds for things I may need in the future, the same holds true for a storage locker. I can more material that’s not relevant, or perhaps not needed at the moment into a storage locker, preventing me from building one.

That analogy is true in the cloud environment. There may already be environments that are secure and are ready-made to store and use information in that environment, rather than building it further. If I have a data centre that’s reached its capacity, rather than going out and putting the budget together to add new floor space, it may be more efficient to utilize something that’s offsite and in a cloud environment instead of standing up everything myself.

their teeth on helping our clients move to the distributed environment. They started off by selling PCs, but over time, they became the integrators of the technology.

We’re seeing the same transition today with our VARs. They’re changing their business models and are becoming cloud advisory.

The first step is that they will help our clients understand their current environments so that they can determine what applications or workloads work best in the cloud environment. They will then assist our clients and advise them on the right clouds to choose because they’re not equal and cloud is not cloud. It’s not a panacea for all; cloud environments are different, as we know.

They (the VARs) then act as an integrator of offerings rather than technologies, and this is where we see our partners transforming to, with our help.

Q: What does the future hold for the hybrid cloud environment?

MK: I think it’s going to continue to evolve.

It’s in the first quadrant of its evolution, and more recently, we’re starting to see it take hold of the psyche of our customers. Five years ago, when you would hold a cloud discussion, people were not very interested, and would continue on with their work.

When you talk about cloud today, it’s not as quickly dismissed. The challenge now is figuring out how to make it work in their business. I think it’s here to stay until the next evolution of computing comes into play, but I don’t see it as any kind of passing fad. I think it’s going to be engrained in the operational environments of our customers for quite a while to come.

NETWORK SPOTLIGHT LEAK PREVENTION

By Craig Bowman

Preventing your own personal

SNOWDEN P

eople like Edward Snowden are not just a government problem; they are a problem that every government, company, employee and computer user on the planet faces.

Information is valuable and therefore needs to be protected in ways that treat it more securely than we treat our money. When someone steals our wallet, we lose some cash and then we call our credit card com-

panies to ensure we get new cards. When an “Edward Snowden” steals our information, we can lose our entire life savings with no way of getting it back.

The simple fact is that we can’t prevent the next Snowden; just like we can’t stop the next terrorist attack. As Tom Fingar wrote in his book Reducing Uncertainty, we can only mitigate the risk or bring into clarity the likelihood of a future event. It is simply impossible to guarantee information security because we are unable to “fix stupid.” This is not to say that the men and women of governments are stupid; in fact there can be nothing further than the truth. “Fixing stupid” means that we have to change the way we all think in an era May/June 2015 IT in Canada Online / 17

NETWORK SPOTLIGHT LEAK PREVENTION SECURITY “GUARDS” BETWEEN DOMAINS MUST PROTECT THE POLICY INTEGRITY OF DOCUMENTS PASSING BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTS. CONTINUOUS MONITORING MUST BE PUT IN PLACE TO MAKE SURE THAT THE POLICIES WE HAVE SET IN PLACE ARE BEING FOLLOWED.

01

WE HAVE TO START WITH A SMART EMPLOYEE

We will start with the premise that we have a good “human computer.” This means that training is absolutely critical. I will cover this in detail later.

EMPLOYEES COLLECT INFORMATION

where trusted advisors decide to go rogue without he fear of being caught.

Reducing risk starts with smart employees Employees are the most expensive computer in which a company invests. If you think about it, the purpose of any white-collar employee is to collect, collaborate, create, and sometimes publish new ideas. A graphic artist takes customer requirements and outputs a new design. A stockbroker researches financials, makes assessments, and gives advice; and so on, and so on.

This means that any security protection we place around employees must have minimal impact on the business process flow.

Failure to find that balance will quietly destroy the productivity of an organization and cause our human assets to spend an excessive amount of time finding ways to work around these protections.

In order to understand what an organization must do to find that balance, we must break down each element of an employee’s “processing power” into smaller chunks and analyze how information is moving through our organization. An easy way to do this is to look at the individual functions of the employees and map technological tools to those functions. We will examine how information flows between these functions later on to ensure we don’t miss a place where hackers can penetrate through the cracks.

18 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

02

This starts with “discovery,” which means, for most employees, conducting some sort of search. Searching files requires documents to be indexed for the search engines to work. To ensure searches can “discover” the files, these indexes often cannot be encrypted.

EMPLOYEES COLLABORATE ON INFORMATION

03

Employees collaborate through shared documents, email, telephone, videoconferencing, online tools, cloud storage, near-field communication, and other mobile apps. In many cases, the ad-hoc forms of collaboration cannot be encrypted since they’re done on the fly and are not usually tagged.

EMPLOYEES CREATE INFORMATION

04

Tagging information must be easy so that employees can do it without cutting corners, “faking the fields,” or under-classifying their tags. Training is a key element here as well.

EMPLOYEES PUBLISH INFORMATION

05 06

Data-at-rest encryption, including document-based-encryption, must be transparent or easy to use. All documents that are normally distributed (including printed documents) must be seen as a weak link for security.

ORGANIZATIONS DISSEMINATE INFORMATION TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, CUSTOMERS, COUNTRIES, ETC.

The moment information is sent outside an organization, the game changes.

Separation of roles/access by administrators, DB operators, encryption key owners, and content owners is paramount. Review and release process must be standardized based on tags/policies and proper training of those procedures is paramount.

Security “guards” between domains must protect the policy integrity of documents passing between environments. Continuous monitoring must be put in place to make sure that the policies we have set in place are being followed.

If you look at this list, it may seem daunt-

ing; especially when you take into account we haven’t even discussed network security, Wi-Fi security, or mobile security. This is only a list of the business processes that need protecting.

Craig Bowman is the director of defence and national security solutions for Adobe.

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Product

 1x – $1,200  3x – $1,100  6x – $1,000

Showcase

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Closing date:

Space

Material

Spring

Mar 11

Mar 18

Summer

May 6

May 13

Fall

Aug 12

Aug 19

Winter

Oct 7

Oct 14

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con ulputatum vullaoreet lum SRos nulla feuip et nullaore min henit ulla feugiatet dolenis erat, conse vendiam dipit, quatinim incipit ea consecte faciliq uamcorperit wisl ilis adionummy nibh exeriur eriusci llaore magna ad tetummodiam venis nullan exer sustin vero od miniamcor susto odolore tet diam aliquat lor sum vullaore feugait prate elit at. Ed molortincil dolore tincipit luptat adipsuscilis aliquip eraestrud er sum in ullaoreet lore vendit exer se doloreet, quipisi.

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32 / CRN Canada December 2010

Specifications: Headline: cannot exceed 40 characters Copy: Cannot exceed 150 words. Advertiser are responsible for writing copy, IT in Canada reserves the right to edit copy.

Illustrations: Advertisers must submit high resolution electronic files.

For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Marcello Sukhdeo VP Business Media Strategy 905-727-4091, x224 marcello.sukhdeo@iticonline.ca

CHANNEL CORNER

By Michelle De Hertogh

RE-DEFINING THE CHANNEL: Shifting from push to pull marketing This article is the third and final installment of a series that address the changing partner landscape and what partner marketing must do to keep up. In the first article, we looked at how customers, who require end-to-end custom solutions, are changing the way they engage with partners.

T

he second article covered how changes in customer demand are forcing partner types to evolve and step outside of their traditional business models, doing things that were once unthinkable. Systems integrators are reselling technologies while VARs are becoming cloud service providers.

As partner models begin to morph, so must their marketing disciplines. Traditional partner marketing programs follow a “push” approach where technology companies provide their partners with collaterals to sell their products.

This approach includes direct mail, advertising, brochures and various “leave-behinds.”

Unfortunately, it’s not so simple anymore.

20 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

In this new era of partner marketing, three significant changes are occurring: content and thought leadership are now critical to connect with customers who are better informed and seeking outcomes and impacts to their business challenges; sales and marketing are engaging with customers to “listen” and “respond” to their challenges. This change in engagement creates a “pull” approach where customers are drawing partners in as trusted consultants; and products or offerings are being built “with” the customer to precisely address their challenges. These offerings are later spun off to sell to new customers within the same industry.

Content is king As our tech customers have become savvier and better engaged than ever before, slick sales brochures and direct mail pieces are seen as one-sided “leave-behinds” that everyone will, frankly, leave behind. Tech customers search social communities for thought leadership; examples of success and insights that will help them solve their business issues. Their sources include white papers, blogs, Twitter chats, webinars, infographics and articles in trade journals, which appear more objective.

Customer success stories and testimonials are especially important as a way for customers to share their challenges and

  

TECHNOSPECTIVE

Do your sales reps spend more time looking for special pricing approvals than talking to customers?

Is your purchasing team struggling to keep up with requests to validate pricing and discounts?

 Is your sales team aware of all your customers’ upcoming maintenance, support and warranty renewals?

Are your client entitlements lapsing, leaving your customers exposed and your accounts vulnerable to your competitors?

We Can Help                  

May/June 2015 IT in Canada Online / 21 

CHANNEL CORNER outcomes. The content has to be solutions focused, extending the traditional platform of speeds and feeds and arguments over who is bigger and faster. Customers are interested in who is better situated to devise a unique solution to their problem at hand. Ultimately, this content should establish credibility and thought leadership around the issues that matter the most to the customer.

New sales and marketing tango The credibility and thought leadership derived from this content is best delivered by a combination of sales and marketing professionals. In the first article of this series, I discussed how marketing is now joining sales at the table.

Before this change, marketing served sales with materials and lead generation. Now marketing assists sales by joining and even leading discussions with customers about solutions. Marketing also plays the role of maintaining the thought leadership conversations over social media.

By having marketing at the table, you’ll also introduce a new way of engaging with the customer. The conversation should be open-ended and objective in how it addresses the customer’s problem.

Customers are more focused on overall outcome and impact of their buying decisions. In turn, marketing must lead the conversation about the customer’s business issues and how they will be solved. Marketing

must play the role of an active listener during the sales process, instead of the traditional model of selling and talking at the customer.

The conversation is less about the actual technology, but more about the customer’s business needs. It’s solution selling, which has been around for a long time. However, now partner marketing leads it. This way of addressing the customer will require a change in sales training. I see the potential for sales and marketing to be trained together moving forward.

Developing new solutions with the partner and customer By working with the partner and customer on a solution to their problem, you’ll discover that you’re building something new that can be offered to another customer in a similar market or with a similar problem.

NOW MARKETING ASSISTS SALES BY JOINING AND EVEN LEADING DISCUSSIONS WITH CUSTOMERS ABOUT SOLUTIONS. MARKETING ALSO PLAYS THE ROLE OF MAINTAINING THE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONVERSATIONS OVER SOCIAL MEDIA.

For example, if you’re working with an automobile manufacturer on an analytics project that examines driver needs and new designs, that same offering can be later introduced to another automobile manufacturer. This change represents the new “pull” in partner marketing, where customers are pulling the partner and technology provider into their problem and solution, instead of having a product “pushed” on them.

The new solution you’ll create together carries more credibility because it was built from the ground up with someone in the automotive industry. The solution addresses a real problem from executives in that industry and contains insights from their peers. While this approach is not a formal replacement to research and development, it does carry a significant amount of weight as a solution that has been developed, tested and implemented in a real world setting.

Better yet, once that solution is successfully deployed, there’s an opportunity to begin developing marketing content that promotes the customer’s success. Together, you begin to build out the social discussion that validates your company as a thought leader.

So the offering you develop with your partner and customer becomes a repeatable solution for sales opportunities. Your customer then assists you in your new marketing approach that introduces you to other leads.

New partner marketing gaining speed This new approach to partner marketing is rapidly gaining traction with partners and technology providers. I’ve heard from several sales organizations that it’s accounting for 30 per cent of their business now, with the expectation that it will be 50 per cent or more in two years.

I hear more and more from sales leaders that this is the direction that partner marketing has to go. It’s a pull, not a push. And we’re all about to be pulled into a whole new world of how we sell outcomes and impacts and engage with our customers.

Michelle De Hertogh is the senior director of Global Alliances and Service Provider Marketing for EMC.

22 / IT in Canada Online May/June 2015

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