Able-One Blog

By Eden Watt, VP of Application Innovation, Able-One Systems www.futureday.ca/bio/

Advances in technology have transformed the way businesses operate and the way they interact with customers, prospects, and suppliers. While this has been evident throughout the history of Information Technology, the pace of change and effect on business is growing at an exponential rate.

Software is no longer just a cost centre; it has become a strategic commercial advantage (or disadvantage). In today’s high-tech world, innovation and new business processes can typically only be accomplished with the assistance of new software or by updating, changing or extending existing software.

This means that flexibility with enterprise software can be a major, differentiating factor for organizations that need to rapidly innovate in our increasingly competitive world. 

Four key ‘disruptors’ or game changers are driving the current need to innovate:

• Mobile – consumers now have access at their fingertips all the time.  This is necessitating continuous evolution of employee, customer, partner, and prospect interactions and integration with core systems.
• Social Business – customer interactions are coming from new and emerging channels, many of which businesses can no longer control. To be a leader today, organizations must engage in these new areas.
• Cloud – the ability to deploy everything from hardware\infrastructure to software and services in the virtual world is changing the way IT can deliver and the way users behave.  The considerations and possibilities are endless but how do you decide the most secure, cost-effective, flexible approach for your enterprise systems?
• Big Data – An unprecedented amount of data can be collected today on everything, including customer behaviour, location, travels, and buying habits but how do you sift through it all to introduce more advanced application capabilities that will affect the bottom-line?

With the emergence of these four key disruptive technologies, there are more empowered users with expectations for higher quality customer experience.  Meeting these requirements with the additional situation of a volatile world economy and tighter control over budgets and resources plus ongoing regulatory changes and demands is a significant challenge that IT must face today.

But meeting these challenges can be especially complex for organizations managing traditional business systems that were implemented before these ‘disruptors’ were in play.  Some enterprise systems may even be decades-old and considered legacy but regardless, the day to day business depends on them and they are typically very rich in functionality and not easily replaced.

So the need to adapt traditional systems so that business can react to the advanced needs of today’s technology savvy consumer and leverage current capabilities is at the heart of where Information Technology needs to focus so that IT can lead the business to new frontiers and remain competitive.

In future posts, we will explore these challenges in greater detail and discuss how to overcome them.

Also coming up on November 26^th, we will be hosting the “IT is Business, Business is IT” Event at Entertaining Elements in Kitchener, Ontario. Join guest speakers from Able-One and IBM for appetizers and drinks, and a special presentation where you will learn how your IT drives business agility. To ensure you receive information about this event and how to register, please send an email to events@ableone.com.

by Todd Cox, Chief Technology Officer and Lead IT Architect

Click below to download the Cyber Security Risks Infographic.

by Todd Cox, Chief Technology Officer and Lead IT Architect 

Cloud Storage: Making the choice between Public Cloud and Private Cloud services.

Cloud Storage has increased in popularity with services like Dropbox and Google Drive. These products have made it simple to synchronize files between your phone, desktop, laptop, and tablet. The companies that offer this service have sophisticated redundant data centers where downtime becomes almost nonexistent, providing the ability to get your files anywhere, anytime, from any device.

While this may sound very attractive, there are some drawbacks. One obvious downside is the need for a reliable high-speed Internet connection in order to access your files, assuming they are not being stored locally in addition to the cloud. For this reason, cloud does not compete well with a local file share where access speed and time to open a file are critical. Even opening a simple Word document can be frustrating when downloading from the cloud when you are used to a local file share.   

Certain use cases are certainly more suited towards cloud computing. Many companies are using cloud storage as their preferred backup storage, since it is offsite. Should anything happen to the primary location; users are able to switch over to the cloud location, providing a fantastic option to prevent downtime or data loss.

Another common complaint with cloud computing is that companies are unaware of where their data is physically being stored; this is done by the hosting company to provide extra security. However some companies have restrictions on whether sensitive data can leave the country or even their own premises. Of course, just because data is in the cloud with a reputable hosting provider does not mean there will never be a security breach.  With the media making some of these security breaches very visible (think Amazon), many companies are not willing to take the risk.

With all of this considered, Able-One Systems typically recommends that a business use secure private storage but take advantage of cloud technology such as ownCloud or similar. This product offers all of the benefits of cloud computing while allowing the business the ability to control security and know where their data is being kept.

P.S. If you would like to understand more about cyber security risk and the cloud, sign up to attend one of our upcoming Cyber Risk Management events in the Toronto area. Click here for details.

by Todd Cox, Chief Technology Officer and Lead IT Architect 

To say that cyber crime is no small issue would be an understatement. According to the 2013 Norton Report, the cost of cyber crime hit Canadians to the tune of $3 billion in 2012 - which was double the year before. While that is only a small percentage of the $113 billion global number, it clearly highlights the pervasiveness of this issue.  If you don’t think it will affect you, think again - the numbers show that 42% of adults experienced cyber crime last year alone.

By the end of 2013 it is expected that there will be 1.4 billion smart phones in use world wide. To put this in perspective, that is one smart phone for every five people! In a recent survey, 50% of smart phone users sleep within arm’s reach of their phone, showing that smart phones have truly become an extension of everyday life. What is particularly alarming is that 60% of Canadian users are not aware that security solutions even exist for their mobile devices.

It’s not just phones that pose hazards, social media sites have become a favourite for cyber crime, with almost half of users not signing out after using these sites. Not to mention passwords that are weak & easily guessed, rarely updated, and the same on multiple sites. This means if there is a breach on any site, like the one Adobe recently had (http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/customer-alert.html?promoid=KHQGF) many of an individual's accounts could be in danger – if the same password is used on multiple personal logins, what about on their business accounts? What happens when they are connected to the corporate network when they access these sites? The weakest link in any cyber security risk posture are the individual users.

What does this mean for business? For a start, it is important to understand that the impact and cost of cyber crime is not just a technology discussion, but truly a whole-business conversation:

• What is our current risk & how exposed are we? 

• What policies and procedures do we need to put in place to deal with security, BYOD and business continuity? 

• How well does our current technology protect our corporate assets, maximize our organizational up-time and comply with industry regulations? How can we keep up with rapidly changing security risks with the budget we have?

• Technology is a key component to prevent cybercrime but what happens when there is a breach? Whose liability is it? What provisions should we include in our contracts with service providers?

• What about our residual risk – do we need insurance and how much?

Sources :

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/about/presskits/b-norton-report-2013.en_ca.pdf

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/dashboard/cybercrime-costs-canadians-us-3-billion-last-190238986.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-billion-smartphones-in-the-world-22013-2