Unified communications comes closer with Vo-Fi over 802.11n
By Jay Botelho, TechNewsWorld The following commentary is by Jay Botelho, a product manager with network administration and tools provider WildPackets. This is not an advertisement; Betanews is merely presenting Mr. Botelho's point of view. In case you missed it, seven long years of wrangling have come to an end: 802.11n has now been officially ratified by the IEEE.Super-fast Wi-Fi is here. The 802.11n standard ushers in increased network throughput and range that will change wireless access, services and applications. With this final blessing, any hesitancy that existed within many organizations around 802.11n deployment has been removed.One application of note enabled by 802.11n is Voice over Wireless, also known as "Vo-Fi." Vo-Fi significantly enhances the value of a wireless network by first untethering employees to an even greater degree. In our homes, we take cordless telephones for granted. In the office, we tolerate corded phones and often miss calls as the time spent in our offices decreases with each passing year. 802.11n provides the infrastructure necessary for cordless telephony to every employee, using the same network that we've come to rely on for wireless data. A simple desktop phone replacement is typically all that's required.Vo-Fi also enhances the value of the wireless network by allowing organizations to capitalize the expense of an 11n upgrade by eliminating some billable telephone traffic, both wired and wireless, and carrying it on an 11n wireless network. This is especially true for intra-office or campus traffic, resulting in an immediate and recurring cost savings.Vo-Fi systems have already found wide acceptance in some vertical markets, including manufacturing, medical and retail, where employee mobility is a given. Why are these industries and others turning away from both wired and cellular-based calling and turning toward Vo-Fi? It comes down to performance and cost.Poor indoor cellular coverage creates unacceptable quality for users. This is especially true in the interior spaces of large buildings or in facilities with a substantial amount of electronic interference, like hospitals. Vo-Fi provides the flexibility to tune coverage to ensure that all areas where telephone access is required have exceptional coverage, eliminating dropped calls and guaranteeing excellent call quality.Vo-Fi also eliminates the unnecessary expense of intra-building calls over cellular, which is the common operational model used today to achieve employee mobility. Smartphones that provide both 802.11 and cellular capabilities are becoming much more widely available, making a simple handset upgrade all that is needed to achieve significant cost reductions. There's no reason to think the adoption of Vo-Fi won't continue to increase as ABI Research predicts that by 2014, 90% of smartphones will support 802.11.Beyond the ratification of 802.11n, there are a number of reasons to expect increased adoption of Vo-Fi. Notably, new capabilities and technologies suggest a cellular handoff to Vo-Fi is a reasonable assumption (at what pace is up for debate). According to Burton Group, the market is ripe, as the number of business calls on mobile cellular phones now exceeds that on wired desktop phones. New Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) products and services that combine wired and wireless telecom are rapidly coming to market. So if there are performance and cost advantages to be gained by switching to Vo-Fi, organizations will at least consider a switch.New problems accompany new technologies, and Vo-Fi is no different. The VoIP experience can serve as a good guide to identifying and resolving potential VoFi problems. Both VoIP and Vo-Fi share voice as a key element, which has very unique networking requirements as compared to typical data traffic on the network. Voice traffic is highly susceptible to packet loss, jitter and latency -- resulting in dropped calls, interruptions and other issues. These problems are more pronounced on wireless networks, as they tend to have more latency and interference than a wired network.So how do you determine how well your Vo-Fi is performing? Again, let's look at VoIP metrics as a benchmark for Vo-Fi.Latency is simply a lag and measures of how long it takes a voice packet to reach its destination. The lower the latency, of course, the better the voice quality. Industry guidelines put the highest acceptable latency at 150 milliseconds (ms). Any higher and quality begins to degrade. Halting conversations, echoing and overlapping sounds (noises, words) are caused by high latency.Jitter takes place when packet delivery suffers from variable delay, which affects the quality of conversations. To help compensate for this, jitter buffering is often employed to smooth the variability and allow for reordering voice packets which may arrive out of order, but this adds additional delay to voice reaching the earpiece and needs to be factored into the overall latency budget. Packets delayed too long in the network are not allowed to enter the jitter buffer. Though relatively easy to measure, the effects of jitter are often difficult to assess. Packets delayed more than the buffer delay (100 ms as an example) are typically dropped, resulting in missing syllables and sometimes even missing words in the conversation.Packet loss occurs when there's disruption in the network (e.g., heavy traffic, congestion without adequate quality of service provisions, jitter buffer discards due to excessive latency, etc.). This usually results in dropped conversations, missing sounds, or cutting out in the conversation. As a rule, packet loss in VoIP (and Vo-Fi) should never exceed 1%, which essentially means one voice skip every three minutes. DSP algorithms may compensate for up to 30 ms of missing data; any more than this, and missing audio will be noticeable to listeners.As with VoIP, making Vo-Fi work requires smart management, reducing endpoint delays, prioritizing traffic and monitoring all network traffic to ensure the needs of both voice and data traffic are being adequately met.Vo-Fi is coming. Gigabit speed Wi-Fi enabled by the new 802.11n standard is going to take communications to the next level. It's being rapidly baked, if not already so, into chipsets at unprecedented speeds and will likely outstrip older-generation 802.11 standards. So with this new technology comes opportunities and challenges. Are you prepared to manage your new Vo-Fi environment?This story was originally published on TechNewsWorld.© 2010 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2010 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Continue reading...Data encryption tool maker: Antivirus has become ineffective
Friday, January 22, 2010
By Mark Smail, TechNewsWorld The following commentary is by Mark Smail, the CTO of Onix International, which distributes a data encryption tool called EncryptStick, designed to work with USB thumb drives. This is not an advertisement; Betanews is merely presenting Mr. Smail's point of view. Consumers are growing increasingly comfortable storing sensitive information on their computers, USB flash drives, and external hard drives, as well as using Web-based solutions to automate regular tasks such as shopping for holiday gifts, paying bills, and tracking financial portfolios. The push from vendors encouraging their customers to move toward e-billing has also played a major role in more personal information being stored locally on personal computers.To put the magnitude of this problem into perspective, consider this: Over 600,000 laptop thefts occur annually in the US alone, resulting in an estimated USD$5.4 billion loss of proprietary information, according to the Ponemon Institute. Over 90% of these laptops are never recovered.At the same time, cybercriminals are developing increasingly savvy techniques to access and exploit sensitive information -- such as usernames, passwords and credit card details -- for personal gain.There are two very easy methods available to protect consumers from identity theft at a relatively inexpensive cost. The first is to encrypt any data containing personal information, and the second is to utilize password manager tools to store online logins, passwords and banking information.Exposing your dataThere are two common situations in which people expose themselves on a regular basis. The first is using systems that rely on automated antivirus software protection and the second is using public or borrowed PCs to connect to the Internet.Most consumer facing Web sites have now implemented robust security features, such as SSL certificates that display an "https" URL instead of "http," to alert users that their e-commerce pages are secure. However, the proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots and online social networks has created new opportunities for thieves to spread Trojan viruses such as keyloggers, to phish for passwords, and to sniff out packets of sensitive information as they pass through a network.All too often, I hear from consumers who have picked up viruses on their PCs because they relied on their antivirus software to update automatically in the background or they used free shareware antivirus programs to protect themselves. These approaches can provide a false sense of security. Protection can be compromised if their antivirus application runs past the expiration date or stops updating. To remedy this, I recommend that everyone should do manual software updates on a regular basis and thoroughly review any errors they receive while performing this task.The other common complaint I hear from customers is that they picked up a virus on their USB drive while using a public or borrowed PC on a vacation or business trip, which has then infected their personal PC. This can be avoided by encrypting your data on your USB flash drive, as viruses can't penetrate encrypted data.Scary facts about data theft Business travelers lose more than 12,000 laptops per week in US airports alone; 1 laptop is stolen every 53 seconds; Computer viruses cost US businesses $55 billion annually; and 25% of all PC users suffer from data loss each year.Common techniques used by hackers and thieves for data theft include harvesting information from stolen laptops and USB flash drives, and employing keystroke logging and phishing to steal sensitive online passwords.Keystroke-logging -- often used to steal information such as online bank account credentials -- accounts for 76% of all online threats, according to a recently published Symantec Internet Security Threat report. In this instance, hackers use software capable of recording an unsuspecting victim's keystrokes, which can reveal their online passwords and credit card numbers, as well as information being passed by email or recorded into Word documents.Lock down your dataThe great news for consumers is that data encryption software solutions are available to address these important security concerns by enabling the user to lock down sensitive information in secured folders (vaults) on their computers, removable hard drives, and USB memory sticks.These data security products use pairs of complex algorithms, known as "ciphers" in the field of cryptology, capable of quickly encrypting and decrypting just about any type data file, whether it's a document, video or photo. Essentially, these algorithms scramble the data so it would be unintelligible and therefore useless to a hacker or thief. Once encrypted, these files cannot be infected by viruses or opened without knowing the user's personal password.In the event that your laptop or desktop crashes and needs repair, these types of data encryption tools can prevent the people at your local computer repair shop from accessing your personal information, photos, videos, medical and financial records. When you're at the coffee shop using their wireless network to get online, these same tools prevent would-be snoops from gaining access to sensitive files stored on your machine.Hackers are always developing new tools and techniques to crack passwords and exploit vulnerabilities in weaker encryption software. I recommend that people exercise due diligence and investigate the encryption software they are using to ensure it has not been hacked, and that tools aren't readily available through search engines like Google to hack the software they are using.Secure your passwordsThe more advanced encryption software solutions also enable the user to securely log into sensitive Web sites, providing advanced algorithmic protection while sensitive passwords are entered. The data entered into the password managers should be encrypted in case of theft or loss of the PC, laptop or USB flash drive it is stored on.These types of password-protection features are also capable of storing and managing secure passwords so you can maintain unique IDs for each Web site, without having to remember them each time you log on to do online banking, surf the social networks, or check your e-mail.With the increasing instances of physical theft and cybercrime, it's imperative that we all understand the potential threats of data theft in our personal and professional lives. By using simple data encryption and password protection tools, you can ensure that your personal information and online identities remain secure and private.This story was originally published on TechNewsWorld.© 2010 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2010 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Continue reading...Towards a single, reliable system for identity management
Thursday, January 14, 2010
By Thomas J. Smedinghoff, E-Commerce Times In this age of phishing, hacking, identity fraud, and other forms of cybercrime, answering two simple questions -- "Who are you?" and "How can you prove it?" -- is fast becoming a critical requirement for all online business activities.Moreover, solving this "identity management" challenge has become quite complex as the increasing need for cross-organization collaboration, concerns about security, and the problem of user password management suggest that the traditional company-issued username and password approach is no longer adequate. As a consequence, federated identity management, in which a third-party identity provider plays a key role, is rapidly emerging as a preferred approach.The cross-organizational nature of a federated approach to identity management presents numerous technical and procedural challenges that are the subject of ongoing work by many private and government groups, such as the Kantara Initiative, OpenID Foundation, Information Card Foundation, EURIM, SAFE-BioPharma, Certipath, the General Services Administration, OECD, PRIME -- Privacy and Identity Management for Europe, the Federation for Identity and Cross-Credentialing Systems (FiXs), IdenTrust, and others. Yet structuring a federated approach to identity management also raises many new and complex legal issues that few have yet attempted to completely identify or resolve.Recognizing the need to comprehensively address the legal issues raised by identity management, the American Bar Association has established a Federated Identity Management Legal Task Force to undertake such a project. Organized in 2009 following discussions with the Liberty Alliance (which has since become part of the Kantara Initiative), the ABA Legal Task Force is reaching out to all stakeholders, public and private, to become involved in this process.The basic federated identity processTo appreciate the magnitude of the legal issues raised by the deployment and use of federated identity management systems, as well as the challenges of addressing them, it is helpful to begin with a very basic understanding of the process and the roles.All identity management consists of two fundamental processes: 1) identification -- that is, identifying individuals by assigning attributes to them that are relevant for a given purpose -- e.g., name, age, address, account number, credit history, gender, photo, etc.; and 2) authentication -- i.e., later verifying online that someone claiming to be a previously identified person is, in fact, such person.The key difference with a federated model is that at least three roles are involved: 1) subjects -- i.e., the persons being identified; 2) the identity provider, the entity that identifies the subjects and makes an assertion regarding their identity to third parties; and 3) the relying parties -- the third parties that rely on those identity assertions for the purpose of granting subjects access to the services or resources they provide. This allows one organization to rely on identity assertions coming from a separate organization.A familiar offline example of the federated model can be seen when a TSA agent at an airport (a relying party) relies on the identity assertion regarding the name of a subject contained in a driver's license issued by a state (an identity provider) to determine whether to allow the subject into the boarding area.The same basic approach can also be used in the online environment. For example, a government agency might rely on an identity assertion made by a subject's bank (which has previously identified that subject as part of its customer screening process), in order to allow the subject online access to an account relating to his pension benefits. The subject might simply sign onto the agency Web site using the user ID and password he uses to access his online bank account. After the bank verifies that the individual's user ID and password are still valid, and provides appropriate information regarding the subject's identity, the agency would then grant him access to his accountAs long as a trusted protocol exists for sharing the identity data between the bank and the agency, an individual can do business with the government agency using the identity credential issued by his bank. The agency avoids the need to set up its own costly identity proofing and authentication processes, and the individual avoids the need to keep track of two passwords.That assumes, of course, that the agency trusts the process used by the bank to identify the customer, that the bank can limit to a reasonable level its liability risk should it make a mistake, and that the individual involved trusts both the bank and the government agency to properly use and protect the personal information initially provided to the bank. These concerns, among others, raise some of the key legal problems that the parties must address.Navigating the legal thicketThe ABA Legal Task Force has undertaken two key projects to address these challenges. The first is to identify the legal issues and risks that must be addressed in a federated identity management system. These legal risks can come from a variety of sources, including statutes and regulations, common law, applicable standards, contractual obligations, and self-imposed obligations. They vary depending on the jurisdictions involved, further complicating the operation of a cross-border identity management system -- but until they are fully known and understood, they cannot be addressed.Many of the legal issues arise when things go wrong, such as incorrect identification, faulty authentication, or misuse of personal data. A variety of legal principles may be involved in each case.For example, if an identity provider makes an incorrect online statement to a relying party about the identity of a subject, applicable law might treat issuing that incorrect identity assertion as a breach of a warranty, as a tort of negligent misrepresentation, or as an unfair business practice. The scope of the identity provider's liability for any damages suffered by the relying party (which may grant access to or enter into an unauthorized transaction with an imposter as a result) may well depend on which jurisdiction's law and which legal theories apply.In other cases, existing laws and regulations impose a variety of obligations on the parties. For example, identity management involves the collection (by an identity provider) and disclosure (to a relying party) of personal information about a subject. Potentially conflicting obligations may arise from the requirements of applicable privacy laws, the needs and wishes of the subject, the assurance level requirements of the identity management system, and the potential uses to which the identity provider and the relying party would like to make of the data.Building a legal frameworkA second key project undertaken by the ABA Legal Task Force will be to consider what legal frameworks might work best for addressing and controlling these legal obligations and risks. This will involve identifying and evaluating structures for contractual relationships among the various roles in an identity system. It will also include analysis of various contractual approaches that define the rights and obligations of each role, recognize the requirements of applicable law, allocate the risks among the roles, and provide an appropriate enforcement mechanism.It is important to recognize, however, that some statutes and regulations impose requirements that cannot be altered by contract. Obligations imposed by some privacy laws, for example, may fall into this category. In those cases, participants must identify, understand, and comply with those obligations.At the end of the day, federated identity management requires not only the deployment and use of appropriate technologies, standards, and policies, but also a clear understanding of the applicable laws and legal issues, and legally binding agreements to define and regulate the rights and obligations of the parties.Thomas J. Smedinghoff is a partner with the law firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon and is co-chair of the American Bar Association Federated Identity Management Legal Task Force.This story was originally published on E-Commerce Times.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Continue reading...A suggestion for the FCC: Less spectrum, not more
Monday, January 11, 2010
By Trey Harvin, TechNewsWorld "Throw more money at it." That's an old suggestion for trying to solve problems big and small, but it's a solution that rarely works, because it doesn't address the root cause of the problem in question. Despite knowing that it's bad advice, the FCC has recently come up with a corollary to it: Throw more spectrum at it.Recently, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined a plan to promote growth in the mobile communications sector, including a proposal to give mobile operators more spectrum. That's bad.Verizon Wireless is so anxious for mobile spectrum that it paid a staggering USD$19.6 billion in an FCC auction for "C-Block" 700 MHz spectrum in 2008.AT&T has been criticized for its network's seeming inability to handle the data traffic already generated by its exclusive iPhone. Apple recently announced that it sold 78% more iPhones in its 2009 fiscal year than in 2008.The iPhone represents just 13.3% of the global smartphone market, and that global smartphone market was only 14.3% of the total mobile phone market in 2Q09, according to Gartner. That means we're only at the start of what will be an ongoing mobile Web revolution as more -- and smarter -- phones come into consumers' hands in the years ahead. Obviously, networks will buckle under the pressure. More spectrum, and more spectrum now, is the answer...or is it?Spectrum is a finite resource. As with all finite resources, the best solution to any given problem may not be the one that throws more at it.The number of people accessing the Web isn't the issue. The content that people are accessing is what is causing network congestion today and potentially will cause bigger network problems in the near future.The iPhone came to market promising the "real Web" on a mobile phone. The problem is that the "real Web" was translated as "the same Web sites you look at on your home or work PC."The iPhone and the army of smartphones that have followed in its wake can render a standard PC Web site. However, that means consumers are getting data-intensive Web sites that will take a long time to download and will likely not meet their on-the-go needs.The mistake is thinking that the "real Web" is a single Web site designed for PCs. Instead, the "real Web" should understand what you need when and where you need it. A consumer on the go is likely not looking for an annual report or a photo-rich overview of a company's history. Yet, many times, that's the "real Web promise" that companies deliver -- and it's a promise that is overloading networks and monopolizing spectrum.On-the-go users want, and deserve, fast access to information, but they also want relevant information. Many content providers mistakenly think that made-for-mobile Web sites are simply stripped-down versions of PC sites. These content providers forget that a mobile phone isn't a small computer; it's a completely different beast.Made-for-mobile Web sites can exploit the many things mobile devices can do. For example, it's a camera, it sends text messages and it's location-aware. In short, the best content providers know that a mobile phone is a unique device that can deliver experiences that a PC cannot.If a content owner provides the same content for mobile devices that it does for PCs, it not only causes network congestion, but also gives customers a poor experience, causing negative associations with its brand.The best content providers use device detection, which lets them know when a user is on a mobile phone, cuing them to deliver relevant content. Device detection lets them see what kind of phone is accessing their Web site and to serve content designed to work specifically with that model.Content providers should also actively advertise a unique Web address so that users can go directly to made-for-mobile sites when using a mobile device. Common addresses include sitename.com/mobile, m.sitename.com, and the only ICANN-approved convention, sitename.mobi.Unlike other naming conventions, the .mobi domain gives site owners an entry in the Internet zone files, which is what search engines use to start their crawls. That means mobile Web sites will be more easily found by search engines -- and by mobile phone users.When looking at the spectrum issue as the content issue it really is, it becomes obvious that the call for additional mobile spectrum is the telecommunications equivalent of "throw more money at it." The call needs to be for designing and optimizing content for mobile users, as well as understanding that mobile content doesn't need to be lesser content.Trey Harvin is CEO of Sydney, Australia-based mobile registrar dotMobi.This story was originally published on TechNewsWorld.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Continue reading...The case for the government-based private cloud
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
By Bob Flores, E-Commerce Times [The author of this article is Bob Flores, the former Chief Technology Officer for the US Central Intelligence Agency. Currently he's a private government technology consultant with Applicology Inc., and a member of the board of directors of St. Louis-based cloud computing software maker Appistry.]Hope was a slogan and a sentiment that played a major role in the US presidential election of 2008, and hope continues to be the mindset of technology advocates pushing for cloud computing in the public sector. As a former government employee with a long history in the intelligence field, I can easily see how cloud computing can contribute to the country's security and prosperity.With the support of the current administration, cloud computing's future looks hopeful. In recent months, the Obama administration has made several decisions that indicate an aggressive move toward more effective IT enterprise management applications, including cloud computing.Some milestones: President Barack Obama made cloud computing initiatives a priority in his 2010 budget request, and the Army and Navy have already announced their own cloud initiatives. Obama chose cloud-computing proponent Vivek Kundra as the federal chief information officer in his administration. The Obama administration voiced its desire to adopt other emerging technologies, and has backed that up with budgetary information to support the concept. Obama's mandate to drive down federal IT spending and increase efficiency is made more substantial by the implementation of apps.gov, which functions as an online storefront for approved cloud computing applications.I spent 31 years at the Central Intelligence Agency. While at the CIA, I held various positions in the Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Support, and the National Clandestine Service. I also spent three years as the CIO's chief technology officer, overseeing the agency's technology investments. I know firsthand the difficulty of delivering mission-critical applications via legacy data center architectures while maintaining a highly secure IT enterprise environment.Since the government is dependent upon taxpayer dollars, the defense and intelligence fields must be as frugal as possible when considering infrastructure spending. Computing and organizing large amounts of data on a limited budget is a significant challenge for defense and intelligence agencies.Cloud computing offers a solution to this problem by allowing the government to cut IT expenses while increasing scalability and improving data and applications management. However, the government sales cycles are slow and are resistant to major changes in infrastructure. Cloud computing hopes to break the Federal late adoption model and appears to be making headway, driven by the economic downturn and internal pressure to innovate.As it does for private industry, cloud computing allows the government the use of massive shared storage areas and heavy duty data computing without the big price tag that accompanies traditional IT approaches and maintenance.With a cloud solution, agencies are able to transform networks of commodity-grade servers into an agile cloud environment that can be easily scaled and managed to support sophisticated Web, SOA and analytical applications. They can also use high-performance computing platforms in much more efficient ways.Cloud computing allows the government to access applications through any browser for fast and reliable data. Making sure that these various servers are coordinated is an especially crucial part of the process, and one that is led by companies like Appistry, 3Tera, and Elastra -- which provide the software to ensure that all pieces run together smoothly.To make things even more interesting, these Platform-as-a-Service providers can take a government agency's internal commodity grade computers and create a private cloud that integrates seamlessly with the current IT processes of that agency. This will help save the government time and headaches, and increase efficiency.The cloud computing initiative is an attempt to reduce the costly, out-of-date and inefficient IT services, products and policies that the government currently utilizes. Cloud computing will also help cut down on massive energy costs.According to federal CIO Vivek Kundra, the US government's many data centers have contributed to a doubling in federal energy consumption between 2000 and 2006. The Obama administration has indicated moving toward net neutrality and a wider adoption of cloud computing as ways to limit infrastructure spending.While cloud computing looks promising, it is still young. Critics have been slow to trust the government's information to the cloud. Since cloud computing currently does not have regulated security standards, many government models may stall on changing the current IT landscape.Data security is a critical issue that cloud providers must address it in their products and services. Many providers have already been able to tailor the level of security to meet federal IT enterprise management challenges.Private clouds offer a compelling alternative, because they offer more stringent security, privacy and customization. Those that have significant investments in their current IT structure can save costs by using private clouds to leverage existing structures.This story was originally published on E-Commerce Times.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Continue reading...The mobile shopping Web isn’t evolving in step with consumers’ needs
Monday, December 21, 2009
By Matthew Poepsel, E-Commerce Times The year 2009 is expected to be the first when mobile phones start gaining real traction in holiday shopping. Nearly one in five consumers will use a mobile device to assist in their holiday shopping this year, according to Deloitte's most recent Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends. Shoppers will use their mobile devices to find store locations, research prices, find product information, get coupons, read reviews and more. An estimated one in four consumers will even make a holiday purchase with their phone, representing a sizable chunk of potential sales.It's little wonder then that retailers are showing more interest than ever before in the mobile Web. Recent Nielsen data shows that the mobile Web audience in the US grew a whopping 34 percent between July 2008 and July 2009, in spite of the economic climate and otherwise bleak consumer spending. Ironically, the down economy may be a key factor luring consumers to the mobile Web this holiday season, as they use their mobile phones to compare prices and find the best bargains, even in real-time as they peruse malls and stores.Despite early glimmers of a recovery, the current reality for retailers is that consumer spending and purchase patterns are not expected to return to pre-recession levels any time soon. This holiday season, retailers must therefore seize all opportunities to strengthen brand and customer loyalty across all channels, which will help drive revenues. As customer preference sways increasingly to the mobile Web, retailers must ensure high-quality, satisfying mobile Web experiences.Throughout 2009, several leading retailers demonstrated the trend for online sales to remain strong in spite of overall sales declines. For example, Macy's reported a 15% increase in online sales for the month of September, compared with a 2.4% decline in total revenue. In addition, in the second quarter of 2009, Gap's online sales climbed 17%, compared with a 7.3% drop in total. Urban Outfitters' Web sales also jumped 17% in the second quarter, outpacing an overall 1% advance.Lastly and most recently, research firms ComScore and Coremetrics reported that Internet spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday rose 11% and 16%, respectively, from a year ago. In contrast, overall retail sales for the Nov. 26 though 29 period increased only 0.5% from the year prior, according to the National Retail Federation.Understanding the critical role the Web can play in compensating for slower store sales, many of the well-established retail brands have taken proactive steps to ensure terrific Web performance, particularly in the area of speed, which helps reduce abandoned carts and drives conversions and revenues. It seems retailers have made significant improvements, as data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday shows that most of their Web sites and applications maintained a sub-two-second response time, even while supporting some of the heaviest traffic loads of the year.Speed is absolutely essential to the online experience, as validated by recent Forrester Consulting data which shows two seconds or less (down from four seconds just a few years ago) to be the new threshold customers are willing to wait before growing frustrated, abandoning a site and going to a competitor.While the traditional Web seems to be delivering, the mobile Web is not stacking up, with additional data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday showing page load speeds for mobile retail sites ranging from 2.18 seconds at best to almost six seconds at worst, with 3.7 seconds the average -- far above Forrester Consulting's two-second threshold. Furthermore, the on-the-go nature of mobile devices tends to place an even higher premium on speed and convenience, thus making retailers even more susceptible to heavy fallout from poor performance, including disgruntled customers, lost revenues and damaged brand.At the same time, another trend is emerging in the form of increasing ubiquity between desktop PCs and mobile devices. In a recent report entitled "Mobile Devices on a Path to Eclipse PCs," IDC claims that in 2010, mobile devices will no longer be seen as subservient to PCs, but rather primary client platforms that may eclipse PCs in several areas -- or at least come very close. Indeed, high-end handsets like the iPhone are actually richer in features than many computers in use today, and when combined with the power of 3G networks, they stoke customer expectations for mobile Web experiences that match the excellence of a PC.However, to date, mobile Web customer experiences are just not matching expectations, and while mobile users may be willing to accept a little bit of a less-rich environment, they still expect their experiences to be as fast as, if not faster than, what they're used to on the traditional Web. The bottom-line impact of poor mobile Web performance can be seen in a recent Forrester survey, which found that only 14% of US Web buyers who own an Internet-enabled mobile device have used it to make purchases, and almost half of the survey respondents who hadn't yet used the mobile Web to make purchases said they would do so if it offered a faster experience.Retailers that fail to take a holistic approach and deliver superior Web experiences across all channels, including mobile, are jeopardizing investments in mobile Web initiatives while leaving a potentially lucrative (and rapidly growing!) customer segment behind. The key to ensuring superior mobile Web experiences lies in leveraging proven Web performance management tools and techniques from the PC Web world, which allow retailers to: quickly gain and leverage a true view of performance as experienced by all critical mobile user segments throughout the world in order to pre-emptively identify and resolve problems, ideally before customers are even aware a problem exists; proactively test and measure performance across the full mobile Web application delivery chain (for example, third-party services, ISPs, carriers, content delivery networks, browsers and devices), helping to optimize a wide range of performance-impacting variables that ultimately shape customer experiences; and, gain a unified view of overall Web performance -- both mobile and PC-based. By monitoring and managing performance in a side-by-side fashion, retailers can achieve a "One Web" approach that guarantees Web performance, regardless of customers' mode of access.Retailers wishing to stand out from the crowd and convert browsers to buyers on the mobile Web must ensure that customers experience performance similar to a desktop PC, which means placing mobile Web performance management squarely at the top of their to-do lists.Fortunately, today's Web performance management tools can be easily extended to the mobile Web and are easier and faster to use, as well as more cost-effective and accessible than ever before. Retailers that use these solutions will be in a stronger position to reap the full benefits of the fast-growing mobile channel and maximize their overall Web presence, throughout the holidays and beyond.This story was originally published on E-Commerce Times.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Continue reading...Add-ons make Google Chrome for Linux beta competitive against Firefox
Friday, December 18, 2009
By Jack M. Germain, LinuxInsider Google finally released a beta version of its Chrome Web browser for Linux on December 8, slightly more than one year after releasing its Chrome browser for Windows. The wait was worth it, especially given the more than 300 extensions already available to customize the new browser.Because Linux distributions are numerous, Google ported the Chrome code to a select handful of the most popular distros. Chrome for Linux is so far only available for the Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSuse distros.Similar to Google Chrome for Windows and Mac (also just released), Google focused on speed, stability and security in building the Linux version. However, Google also wanted a high-performance browser that integrated well with the Linux ecosystem, according to Brian Rakowski, product manager."This includes tight integration with native GTK themes, updates that are managed by the standard system package manager and many other features that fit in natively with the operating system where possible," Rakowski said.In developing the Linux version of the Google Chrome browser, company officials decided not to keep the project exclusively in-house. Instead, it sought help from the open source community that was already well-versed in the Chromium Project, said Rakowski. More than 50 open source contributors that worked on Chromium were helpful in delivering the Linux version of Google Chrome, he added.Chromium is an open source browser project with a goal of building a safer, faster and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the Web. Like the Windows version, Google's Chrome browser for Linux is fast, secure, stable, simple, extensible, and embraces open standards like HTML5, according to software engineers Dan Kegel and Evan Martin."Google Chrome works well with both Gnome and KDE and is updated via the normal system package manager. It has also been developed as a true open source project, using public mailing lists, IRC channels, bug tracker, code repository, and continuous build and test farm -- following in large part the trail blazed by Mozilla," they wrote.Where they noticed problems in system libraries, the Chrome developers pushed fixes upstream and filed bug reports. This open approach to development seems to be working, noted Kegel and Martin.Google Chrome Beta for Linux has much of the look and feel of the established Windows version. However, under the hood are telltale signs that the code is carefully tuned to integrate with the Linux architecture.I use Chrome for Windows on several of my PCs. Thus, my first exposure to the Linux version of the Chrome Beta on my Ubuntu desktop and Ubuntu-based netbook was a simple venture into familiar territory. The user interface is largely the same.Installation, as expected, was fast and sure. Browser settings and bookmarks were imported from my Firefox browser painlessly.I thought I had lucked out in being able to port the Google Chrome Beta over to my two computers that run the Puppy Linux distribution. One of the Puppy community members recompiled the binary code to convert the .Deb package of Google Chrome into a .Pet package for Puppy Linux. However, a key library was missing, causing Google Chrome to flash on the screen and then disappear.Speedy, tabbed browsers are becoming the standard today. So a new browser candidate needs some extra oomph to give users enough reasons to switch from their current browser of choice. Google accomplishes this with its gallery of extensions.The vast array of extensions available in the Firefox and the Seamonkey browsers push their usefulness high up on the browser list. Google Chrome jumps to the top of that list with its more than 300 browser extensions developed specifically for Chrome.I found Chrome versions of many of my favorite Firefox add-ons. This makes it much easier to switch my work routine from one browser to the other without missing anything.When Google first launched the Windows Chrome version in September 2008, the plan was to make it easy to customize the browser with extensions. Google also wanted to make extensions easy to create and maintain, while also preserving Google Chrome's speed and stability, noted Rakowski.Mostly, Google met that goal. Each extension runs in its own process to avoid crashing or significantly slowing down the browser.Google Chrome beta for Linux has a lot of nice features. It did not take me long to find my favorites.For instance, the pin tab feature locks a Web site in place with a right click. It reduces the size of the tab for the pinned URLs so they are quickly found among a growing list of opened browser tabs.Another gem is the ability to preselect URLs to open when the browser loads. Sure, a few other browsers have a similar feature, called a "personal tool bar." But Chrome lets me do it with a right click of the mouse.I also like the ability to use the system title bar and borders within the browser by right clicking on tab bar.This story was originally published on LinuxInsider.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Continue reading...Consider this: Apple, the television network
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
By Andrea Belz, E-Commerce Times The proposed USD$30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal deal has entered the labyrinthine process of winning Congressional approval from the antitrust gurus and the Federal Communications Commission. Small cable operators, which apparently still exist, fear that they will be driven out of business by the sprawling new company that would combine NBC's programming with Comcast's vast network of 24 million subscribers.Those of us who remember the Frankenstein that was AOL Time Warner may shudder as we hear these words again: "It's great to own content and distribution!"Meanwhile, cable operators should be more concerned about recent rumors that Apple is seeking to distribute television content via subscriptions to its hyper-successful iTunes Store. Apple tried to penetrate this market once before with one of its few relative flops, AppleTV.However, Apple's team knows that digital distribution is not going away and has decided to attack this market from another angle: leveraging the phenomenally successful iTunes Store that already reportedly has 100 million customers.Suddenly, it seems that Apple would make a formidable de facto cable television network. The company is poised to unleash the same business model earthquake in television that it did in music. After all, Apple transformed the music industry by providing only distribution, not content, eliminating the record labels' traditional role as publishers. Will Apple reinvent the role of television studios as well? What does this mean for the Comcast-NBC deal?Frankly, anyone distributing content will have to contend with Apple. The iTunes Store currently has a limited selection of movies, but it is bound to grow, putting Netflix squarely in Apple's sights. Perhaps the company will reinvigorate the original AppleTV to create a better set-top unit that delivers content from the iTunes Store to a home theater for people with screens that are not their computers.The iPhone is not a cellphone, nor a smartphone, but an entertainment concierge. Currently, the iTunes Store model provides a license in perpetuity and doesn't provide a short license term for rental, but that is easily solved and could be handled for single transactions, or bundled together in a subscription model.Imagine sitting on the subway and deciding to rent a movie, then getting home and downloading it to your 60-inch plasma screen. Video-on-demand from cable companies has already conditioned users to "self-destruct" license agreements with 24-hour rentals, so the market is ready for the iPhone as a general rental agent.Apple could then return to its music roots and reinvent the music distribution model yet again. Perhaps you are planning a wedding and want four hours of 1980s music for your college friends' dancing pleasure, but you don't really want to pay 99 cents for each of Billy Idol's hits. You could create a 300-song playlist and "rent" it for a night, then have the license expire. Your deal might even include downloads for your friends, making you part of Apple's happy distribution ecosystem.The iTunes Store is bound to evolve further, providing more options for both content and license terms.The real battle will not be about market share but about business models: Will Google's model of paid advertising trump Apple's subscriptions? Its cute "don't be evil" consumer presence notwithstanding, Google operates fundamentally on a business-to-business model of providing market analysis to vendors seeking to reach consumers; despite its remarkable record of developing over 100 new products, over 90% of its revenue is derived from one advertising product.On the other hand, Apple has been slowly executing its strategy of vertical integration by owning distribution capabilities (via iTunes), as well as the hardware and software required for downloads. Both Google and Apple remain agnostic to content origin, sticking to the classic "gold rush" strategy -- the real winners are those who provide the picks and shovels. The Comcast-NBC deal is still mining for gold by placing a premium on content generation.Smart management teams will offer multiple business models, allowing consumers to decide which one is more suitable. Consider the model promoted by music service Pandora: Its hybrid service offers free music for those who tolerate advertisements, and paid subscriptions for those who don't.Cable companies introduced us to this opportunity 30 years ago; today, the universe of entertainment delivery allows us to decide piecemeal from whom we are willing to tolerate ads. Perhaps we use an advertising-based television comedy service but will pay a subscription for indie music.One interesting twist with limited momentum is that of PopCuts. Its pyramid spin gives a cut to customers who refer their friends to purchase the same songs. This method creatively monetizes relationships but remains content-independent.PopCuts' Web site suggests that high rollers generate about $10 to $15 -- not enough to change someone's lifestyle, but enough to lend some credence to the model. Perhaps this will grow through other venues, although the universe of viable social networking sites seems to change with the seasons.In any case, this suggests that people are still actively experimenting with novel business models. Expect to see the movie and television industries follow music's lead (so to speak).The Comcast-NBC deal is a vestige of the past. Look for the Apple iTunes Store to chew through every industry providing content of any kind.This story was originally published on E-Commerce Times.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Continue reading...The case in favor of the open source enterprise database
Monday, December 14, 2009
By Ed Boyajian and Larry Alston, LinuxInsider Linux and open source middleware JBoss has made its mark in the enterprise, and it is just a matter of time before open source becomes mainstream in other functional parts of the IT infrastructure as well. Where exactly that will happen, however, is the interesting question.With most companies spending 10 to 20 percent of their revenue on enterprise software, many IT managers would love to see more enterprise-class open source options. However, IT architects and project managers of IT tend to be cautious -- the back office has a low tolerance for risk, which makes it difficult for projects to gain entry into that exclusive back office.To consider the future of open source in the enterprise, one must consider the past and what it took to make Linux a success. Linux market share continues to grow, and it is considered safe and reliable by even the most risk-averse, but it did not get there via the route traveled by commercially licensed products. The same can be said for JBoss.In our capitalist society, it has traditionally been financial opportunity that has spurred the development of a product; logic might dictate that the most expensive component would be the first to see competition from an open source product with a lower cost of entry. Open source is different, however, because those that make it happen are not the ones that make an immediate profit from the project. Certainly that is true of Linux, and therefore cost will not necessarily determine the next component to see a viable open source alternative.While many people will say that cost savings due to the lack of licensing fees is the primary reason for deploying Linux, that is not the reason why the original developers created Linux or why Linux earned its way out of the early-adopters arena and into mainstream usage. For that, there were two key drivers: Unity against vendor lock-in. Frustration with the dominance of Windows and the costs and limitation associated with it motivated and continues to motivate many developers to contribute their time and energy to make Linux what it is today. A large, diverse and thriving community. It requires a massive number of person-hours to produce a product as large and as complex as an operating system, and without a large community, Linux never would have been viable. More importantly, Linux never would have been perceived as a safe, vendor-independent choice if there were not a large number of diverse developers willing to vouch for its stability and functionality.The same will be true of the next component in the enterprise to have a viable open source option. When looking at the myriad of software in a typical enterprise -- front office, back office and middleware -- there are many expensive components, and there is pull from the market for open source alternatives. However, that is not likely going to be an accurate predictor of which will be available next. For that, let's look at where there is threat of vendor lock-in and an established community.If one were to guess on the next part of the enterprise that will be embraced by open source, the database would be a good bet. Consider the first of the two drivers that made Linux a success: Oracle is the perceived gorilla in the market, and with Oracle's acquisition of MySQL (through Oracle's pending acquisition of Sun Microsystems), its dominance is even more threatening to developers.Secondly, consider the community behind Postgres. Postgres (also known as "PostgreSQL") is a full-feature, enterprise-class database that is giving Oracle a run for its money. With over 200 developers contributing to the code base and over 20,000 downloads per week, it qualifies as a very large and diverse community. With databases being a part of almost every application and infrastructure architecture, the community will continue to grow.One might argue that MySQL (ignoring the pending acquisition for a moment) is already mainstream, that the database has been commoditized, and there is a viable open source alternative to the dominant vendor. Not so. MySQL never challenged a major enterprise DBMS -- nor did it try to. The success of MySQL stems from the fact that it filled a market need that was largely being ignored by commercial vendors.The low-end, low-cost database market had no incumbent, and MySQL quickly filled the void giving developers a quick and easy tool for quickly creating Web-based applications that were easy to deploy and to administer. MySQL is developer-friendly and is geared for programmers who typically build client-rich applications using Ajax, PHP, or Perl.Unlike corporate developers, these programmers are not interested in enterprise features like scalability, concurrency, manageability or full SQL compliance. Developers that needed a full-featured, scalable DBMS still turned to the proprietary vendor solutions -- most likely the big three: Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft.With Oracle dominating the commercial DBMS market, there is ample motivation for a community to create a challenger. Postgres has the breadth and depth of features to rival Oracle, and with commercial vendors (including EnterpriseDB) offering services, support, and the all-important one throat to choke, the database market is poised to be commoditized.Another indication that the database market is ripe for commoditization is that specialized, open source database management systems are appearing on the horizon to address niche markets. Derby (pure Java) and Hadoop (for data-intensive, distributed apps), for example, are gaining traction for unique applications.With a viable product available, a thriving community in place, and a market ready for commoditization, it is a safe bet that the database will be the next component in the enterprise to embrace open source, and it will likely see the success shared by Linux and JBoss. This is good news for all enterprise architects and project managers who have applications to build and a budget to balance.This story was originally published on LinuxInsider.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Continue reading...Four obstacles to IT’s embrace of the cloud
Friday, December 11, 2009
By Mary Kay Roberto, E-Commerce Times For years, IT departments have had full control over their own infrastructure -- for better and worse -- and are naturally uncomfortable with anything that prevents them from being the sole resource for their own infrastructure. They have been trained to maintain tight control because of the complexity of their own environment -- a positive trait that has helped to assure timely and accurate delivery, but limits their ability to accept change.It should come as no surprise, then, that IT often views data leaving its network as a negative rather than a positive. However, Software as a Service cost-savings and the ability to help companies foster innovation within their own infrastructure is too strong a value proposition for most enterprises to ignore. Although management may be pushing cloud initiatives on reticent IT staff, many chief information security officers (CISOs) and chief technology officers (CTOs) are wary of the hype and have nagging fears about the loss of infrastructure control, loss of ownership of data, vendor lock-in and data security.These fears are largely rooted in false perceptions about loss of control and security -- and in false beliefs in the flexibility and strength of on-premise solutions. The key to avoiding these potential pitfalls is to thoroughly evaluate your SaaS partner. Like any other industry that achieved popularity quickly, there are many companies that are slapping "cloud computing" stickers on their products and positioning them as brand new.Enterprises need to delve into the details of their partners' operations, software and license agreements to ensure they are aligning themselves with a company taking advantage of modern technology and protocols, so none of their fears come to pass.1. Loss of infrastructure controlThis is a problem perpetuated by managed service providers during the 1990s, when businesses would move from on-premise solutions to managed services. Back then, some managed service providers could not provide an environment in which they could deliver timely or reactive support or functionality, thus frustrating the end-users.The sophistication of technology today has allowed the industry to move away from this unwanted scenario and provide the best of both worlds: The administrator retains the granularity and control that is provided by an on-premise solution while still getting timely support.That said, all vendor infrastructures are not equal. Enterprises should fully understand the infrastructure of a vendor's SaaS-based solution and ensure there are no single points of failure, such as those found in the recent T-Mobile data fiasco.A key attribute enterprises can look for in cloud partners is whether or not they use a grid computing system and, if so, how they define "grid computing." Grid computing is a proven method for achieving 99.999 percent reliability. That's because in the event of an outage or corruption, these networks are able to shift data burdens to alternate locations or across shared multiple locations rather than creating single points of failure.Instead of causing an informational bottleneck, data is simply accessed from another part of the grid until the problem is fixed. Rich SaaS implementations are every bit as powerful as on-premise solutions and allow the administrator to maintain control of the application without dealing with the environmental requirements.2. Loss of ownership of dataThis ties into the first fear because it deals with IT being uncomfortable with data that is not on its own infrastructure. This fear is a valid concern, as data is generally processed or held offsite by cloud vendors; however, on-premise providers often lock customers into solutions by making any migration or upgrade path both cost-prohibitive and technically undoable.Enterprises need to ensure that data ownership is addressed in detail in the cloud licensing agreement or terms and conditions. Reputable SaaS vendors will ensure that companies always own their data, that it is not provided to anyone else or used for the benefit of the service provider, and that companies are able to easily access their information whenever they need it and get it back, however large the volume, should the partnership not work out.Systems based on modern technology provide enterprises with a robust administration console that allows you to set all data policies, review access information, control data users and freely interact with data. If a SaaS company cannot guarantee these types of capabilities, enterprises should be wary of partnering with them. Also, enterprises should research the company's partners, press clippings and case studies to get an idea of what industries its solutions are best suited for and how it works with clients.3. Vendor lock-inSaaS solutions can lock customers into their products by using proprietary formats for encryption and data storage that make future migration difficult. But guess what? So do on-premise vendors.This is a long-standing IT problem that goes back well before the cloud. The reality is that cloud vendors make access to data easier and allow customers to export data as is, and when required.4: Data securityData security is an excuse that has underpinned the cloud skeptic's position since the introduction of cloud computing or SaaS solutions. Issues such as the potential for multitenant systems to cross-contaminate data and allow a breach have made the rounds -- but have no grounds in reality.This mindset does not take into account that a cloud vendor is a security provider. Cloud vendors can build security and resilience into their solutions from the ground up and are able to provide massively more security and resilience to their customers than would ever be possible with an on-premise solution.Encryption and data loss prevention capabilities are a given for SaaS vendors, but there are a few additional areas companies can look into to ensure their potential partners are secure: the security policies for data in flight, in use and at rest; the physical security practices the company employs for its servers; and, the process by which data is shared with separate clients (to learn more about cross-contamination possibilities).In reality, it is the CTOs and CISOs that are generally pushing for the adoption of cloud-based solutions because they are technical users and decision makers who understand the concepts and architecture of the cloud. As with any technology with a ton of hype, sometimes they are not able to filter through the rhetoric generated by skeptics and those afraid to make a change to the status quo.Methodical evaluations of SaaS vendors can go a long way toward alleviating these fears and ensuring their cloud computing projects are successful.These four fears often overshadow the one true SaaS benefit for CISOs and CTOs: namely, transforming the IT department from a help desk to a competitive differentiator.This story was originally published on E-Commerce Times.© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved. Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Continue reading...Featured News 
One of the aspects of Microsoft that should come as no surprise is that the company plans ahead not just next year’s product launches, but decades in advance, in terms of the evolution of its technology. Not limited to its own software, this strategy is an integral part of how the company is tackling problems faced by education systems world... (read more)
Firefox 4.0, the next major release of Mozilla’s open source browser, will bring to the table a major overhaul of its graphical user interface, one that would put the UI in line the Windows 7 Ribbon/Fluent style. Mozilla has already made public details on the revamping of the Firefox User interface for version 4.0, and various concepts and sketches ha... (read more)
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, Microsoft is helping Windows 7 customers celebrate love right on their desktops. In this regard, the Redmond company has made available for download a new desktop theme designed to integrate seamlessly into the desktop of their Windows 7-power computers. The Lacy Hearts is, as the software giant has put i... (read more)
The latest development milestone of Office 2010 has made it into the wild, even though Microsoft never intended to have the general public get their hands on the release. Earlier this week, the Redmond company revealed that the next iteration of the Office System reached a key milestone in the evolution to RTM, namely the Rel... (read more)
Monday, February 1, 2010
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