Challenging times

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

A few months ago, we asked IT Pro readers to tell us about the challenges they face. We asked, you answered. And, while some of the results weren’t surprising, they do point to worrying trends that the industry at large needs to address.

The majority of you (95 per cent) feel a bit lost when it comes to new technologies, due largely to complexity and confusion.

Even when you do feel able to harness the latest innovations, many of the systems and tools used today need a greater level of support, according to 74 per cent of respondents.

That support might be hard to find, however, with two-thirds of you saying IT budgets have been slashed in the last 12 months, which will have a knock-on effect on your team’s ability to support users and systems.

Despite budget cuts, security remains the main priority for 97 per cent of respondents, with systems reliability and resilience coming a very close second (96 per cent).

Interestingly, there is still a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) when it comes to cloud computing. Indeed, 99 per cent of those surveyed (by IT Pro in partnership with Lifeline IT) said they feel the risks still outweigh the benefits at present.

IT Pro’s sister title Cloud Pro may be able to help. Head there for all the latest information, research and insight to help businesses make sense of the cloud.

RIM security: from napkins to handsets and beyond

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

RIM made the headlines again this week thanks to three little words: the Middle East.

In an interview with the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, co-chief executive and founder Mike Lazaridis looked more than a little uncomfortable when asked to provide reassurance to users there that everything was OK.

Presumably feeling under attack, Lazardis terminated the interview, declaring that Cellan-Jones’ question was unfair.

Take a look at the exchange for yourself here.

I spoke to Scott Totzke, RIM’s global vice president of security earlier today and he seemed a little more relaxed.

He said the broad question of governments needing to manage communications is a reality everywhere and that RIM is often thrown into the spotlight because people make assumptions.

“One of the big misconceptions we see consistently with BlackBerry is all about proprietary technology. One of the tenets of security is openness,” he said. “We didn’t invent Java or JDS…”

He added: “I really think big a challenge [in the future] will be around apps and understanding the trade offs not so much with security but privacy elements. Informed consent on your BlackBerry. It’s a concern for users as general.”

“What is the app using that data for? We aim to provide our users with transparency. And [they] then choose whether to allow that app.”

Totzke and his team look at security across the entire RIM portfolio, from device to software to processes and everything in between. It’s from the ground up, according to Totzke, including focusing on small ideas that can start from a drawing on the back of a napkin.

“We are involved in every step and aspect including the manufacturing process and repair process. We have a very comprehensive view,” he said.

“Our philosophy is that security can’t be an afterthought. It’s something we have to fundamentally bake into all of our processes. History has shown that’s not ever an effective way to deal with a problem.”

RIM is a big company. It’s also successful. That makes it an easy target – for both speculation and attention from the bad guys.

Words almost fail me in justifying the kind of reaction Lazaridis displayed – it leaves users in the dark and wondering whether they have something to worry about.

For now, let’s just assume he was having a bad day. Most likely if he could have his time again, that interview would have turned out very differently. There’s probably some extra media training budget being looked at right now.

The interview is now out in the ether for all to see. The internet means it can’t unhappen. We all make mistakes. Though Totzke is hoping RIM’s mistakes won’t be security flavoured ones going forward.

When asked to detail one thing he’d like to happen over the next 12 months and one thing he’d rather avoid, his focus was clear.

He said he’d like to see the company building on its rich security heritage for both BlackBerry smartphones and the imminent BlackBerry PlayBook. But “not talking about security failures associated with either one of those products.”

Totzke said that “there’s always room for improvement” when it comes to security and that he’d like to see more “co-opetition” (co-operation with the competition) in the industry.

He added that RIM is always keen to hear what security researchers have to say so it can use that information to evolve its platforms. RIM “is not interested in litigation” according to Totzke. It’s a “responsible way for a vendor to engage,” he added, saying it’s important to “embrace research.”

The iPhone 4 cometh

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

The excitement has been growing since Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, announced the arrival of the next-generation iPhone at the company’s worldwide developer conference (WWDC).

Last week, the shiny iPhone 4 finally arrived. Many queued and got their hands on the device, others pre-ordered and some tried both tactics but still walked away empty handed.

Thankfully, IT PRO and sister title Know Your Mobile managed to get our hands on one. We’ve already posted a first look review of the device and will be bringing you our full review shortly, but in the meantime, here’s a hands-on video to show you what the iPhone 4 looks like and demonstrate some of the main features of note.

Google blocked in many countries

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

It’s not just China that poses problems for Google’s services, according to a story over on sister site PC Pro.

Rachel Whetstone, Google’s vice president of global communications and public affairs has claimed in a blog post that while it offers search and other service functionality in some 100 countries, 25 of them are further restricted in some form.

Google has also pointed towards stats from the Open Net initiative to highlight the growing issue of web censorhip. The body reckons that just four countries chose to censor the web in some form back on 2002 – a figure that has since grown to 40.

Conservative website not winning web race

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

The looming election is generally being dubbed a digital election, thanks to all parties trying to use technology to their advantage, and the fact that the modern generation of Twitterers and Facebook addicts will perhaps be voting for the first time ever this May.

It must come as bad news for the Conservative Party then, that they’re losing the race. Just one of the races, that is, but quite an important one nonetheless. In a recent study of the three main parties’ websites, the Tories were crowned with the unfortunate title of wost performing. Pages were much slower to load than those of its political rivals.

That said, it was also the only site out of the three main parties’ websites to be up for the whole month of the study, while the Labour and Lib Dem sites both suffered some downtime.

Whether the slowness has anythig to do with more users looking at the website during this time or just bad tech decisions somewhere along the line remain unanswered as yet, but all will be revealed on 6 May.