VIRAJ Y MAHESHWARI

Turn out (and on) the lights

SmartThings, an app aimed at iOS 7, connects the rooms, lights and doors of a home to the Internet. The newest version of the app, according to TechCrunch, features an improved onboard experience and gradually introduces users to areas in which the IoT can provide assistance, such as “Home and Family,” “Lights and Appliances” and “Damage and Danger.”

The Internet of Things Power Play

InformationWeek offered some ways in which the IoT will affect energy management. Smart meters will revolutionize the power grid, and smart appliances will introduce usage-based pricing and the capability of homeowners to sell power back into the power grid.

The Internet of Things and Retail

Practical eCommerce identified five ways in which the IoT will benefit retailers. It will affect inventory management, fleet management, maintenance and warranty and real-time promotions. It will also make next-generation vending machines a reality.

Almost endless impact.

Libelium offers a 50-item list of how sensors affect daily life. Some highlights: monitoring of streets to identify open parking spots; monitoring structural integrity of structures; creating urban noise maps; automation of traffic congestion measurements; optimization of trash collection by receptacle monitoring; air pollution measurement; smart roads that issue warnings and forest fire detection.

Using the Internet of Things to Track…Things

Technology Review reports on Iotera, a company that makes tracking tags that can be used to keep an eye on an almost limitless number of objects. Examples include the ability to monitor tools at construction sites, pets, kids, and workers in dangerous locales such as oil rigs. It can work without access to commercial wireless networks or Bluetooth. The batteries can last for as long as five months.

The Internet of Things in Business

Business Insider’s BI Intelligence offers a report on business-to-business uses of the IoT. Examples include intelligent advertising and marketing, and smart water systems.

On the Road with the Internet of Things

ComputerWeekly cites fitness, energy and vehicular transportation as areas in which the IoT will have tremendous impact. But the crux of the story is that security issues associated with the flow of so much information are formidable. The key is tightly controlling the application programming interfaces (APIs) that let the sides in an IoT session exchange data.

A true idea of how deeply the IoT will affect day-to-day living can be garnered at the World Future Society. Environmental impacts will be felt in tracking atmospheric quality, trash cans, illegal logging prevention, the status of waterways and in myriad other ways. The story describes uses in other areas as arcane as monitoring hand-washing stations, clothes dryers, pill bottles and the elderly.

It may not revolutionize how we live, but ioBridge points out that the use of the IoT to control the color of Christmas lights around the world shows the interconnectedness of people as well as the power of the IoT. This is the third year for the CheerLights project. The story says that participants can tweet a color to @CheerLights. The command is processed by ioBridge’s ThingSpeak and distributed via the CheerLights API.

The full potential of the IoT won’t be realized if the devices can’t freely communicate with each other. For that reason, the Linux Foundation has formed The AllSeen Alliance. The alliance will build around AllJoyn, a framework developed by Qualcomm. It allows systems to discover, connect and interact with each other seamlessly. In addition to Qualcomm, founding members are Cisco, D-Link, Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic and Sharp, according to Computerworld.

Users are a company’s biggest asset and, unfortunately, often its greatest risk. Mitigating the risk posed by users is an ongoing challenge. You can limit their access through admin rights, but you can’t always prevent them from opening corrupted emails. You can force them to routinely change their passwords, but can’t prevent them from clicking malicious links.

Chances are good that when a new employee starts at your company, you already have a process in place to train them on the systems the company uses: everything from time entry systems to using the phones to database training. Make security training part of that onboarding process, but don’t let it stop there. During orientation, teach new employees how to check if a link might be malicious, what a corrupted file might look like, how to identify a fake patch they may be asked to download, and then what to do with that information.

Be sure they can identify many of the most common tactics attackers use to trick users into helping them, and then give them a clear path for remediation if they suspect they’ve been sent a phishing email or are being asked to download a faulty patch. Once the initial orientation is completed, continue to contact users on a regular basis about new threats. Set up a monthly email informing users about new attack methods or current phishing techniques so that they know what to look for. Add real-world context and real-time updates.

Many users still think of cyber threats as a Nigerian prince or long-lost Russian uncle offering to give you $10,000,000 if you’ll only share your bank account information with him. While these email chains still exist, they are often caught in spam filters and are no longer the gold standard of phishing. Keep users up to date about real threats – phony links on Facebook, seemingly hilarious YouTube videos sent by friends that turn out to be malicious, and Twitter bots informing you that you’ve absolutely got to check out this scandalous picture someone posted of you on the Internet. Keep users’ idea of cyber threats in the modern day to keep your systems more secure.

Give users a way to react to malicious materials appropriately and then follow through when contacted about it. Users frequently treat IT as a roadblock to productivity, which can be extremely detrimental to corporate security. Don’t be that roadblock, and respond helpfully and in a timely manner when contacted about these issues.

This is not to say that you should threaten to fire your users if they don’t follow your information security policies. Rather, many users often don’t understand the potentially devastating impact of an attack – both on their organization and on themselves. The cost of a data breach can cost the company upwards of several million dollars. Stock prices can take a hit. Stolen IP can result in lost customers and lost opportunities.

In some industries, such as health care, where confidentiality of information is crucial and regulated, lawsuits can be the direct or indirect results of a breach. Companies may even experience money stolen directly from their accounts, affecting their ability to invest in their employees. For some, a single data breach may be enough to put them out of business.

Ensure that users understand the potential consequences by sharing data from surveys or news articles on the impact of breaches. If a user believes that it’s a realistic possibility that a malicious link can take down the company – or eliminate the need for their position – they’ll be much less likely to click that link.

The mandate to pay attention to security can’t just come from IT. It needs to have visible support from high-ranking company executives. Top officials need to not only be talking the talk, but also walking the walk. Users need to see that security isn’t just something for them to pay attention to – it’s a company-wide issue for each and every employee. Users are bombarded constantly with messages from different departments both inside and outside their company, but if they see that high-ranking executives such as the CEO, CFO and others are placing a high value on corporate data security, they will be more likely to prioritize the message.

Social media is a virtual treasure trove of information for an attacker. Using information posted online by users about themselves, attackers can find out information that allows them to guess security question answers – enabling them to get past customer service representatives and reset passwords. Teach users how the things they share on social media can be used to hack them “IRL” (“in real life”). You can even set up a demonstration where you attempt to “steal” a user’s ID using their easily accessible online information. They may be shocked at how easy it is, and that may be enough to galvanize them to change their behavior.

Passwords can be a user’s biggest weakness. After all, there are so many these days; it’s hard to keep track of them all. It’s much easier to just create one password and reuse it across sites and systems. Users know that this is bad behavior, but they do it anyway out of convenience. Further education and engagement can help – perhaps add incentives around password security to motivate better behavior. The real trick is to help employees make it easy to manage their passwords and keep them secure. Suggest tools that users can use to keep track of their passwords, while still using different ones across the many websites they use.

Remember, users are often the weakest link in the security chain. It’s important that you are vigilantly educating your users to remedy the risk that they pose to your organization’s security. But other areas of security should not be neglected in the pursuit of user education.

Remember, attackers are people too and they will go for the path of least resistance. If you leave your machines unpatched, they’ll go that route. If you don’t have anti-malware installed, they might go down that path. And if your users are likely to click a link from a phishing email or download a fake patch, attackers will choose that method.

An attack is often no longer a single instantaneous event, but a long process where the attacker systematically hunts down your systems’ weakness. Don’t leave the front door wide open for them, whether that means educating your users, installing antivirus or aggressively patching machines. Make sure your defense is as in-depth and persistent as the attacks threatening it.

Virtualization offers dramatic savings from server and storage consolidation; it’s a compelling technology that allows technology pros to do the same things better, faster and cheaper, resulting in improvements in performance and management, as well as savings in money and energy.

Virtualization makes it possible to reduce the number of physical servers needed by an average of 15-to-1 and ensures that all servers are running at appropriate load levels.

Systems that would have taken months to deploy in the physical world can be deployed in weeks in a virtualized environment.

The relative ease and affordability virtualization offers when implementing improved disaster recovery (DR) strategies with better recovery times is of particular appeal to IT directors who have been leaving the office every day for years with their fingers crossed, worrying about how long their companies would be down in the event of an emergency.

When the hardware layer is separated and abstracted with virtualization, IT won’t need to deal with all of the details of specific device drivers for one machine or another, or patching from one vendor to another. The hardware layer becomes much further removed and a less significant part of the overall management strategy

Physical servers, by virtue of becoming virtual servers, inherit the high availability with failover redundancy that the virtualization layer provides in a virtualized environment

With virtualization tools like VMware, which made it possible to consolidate the very Wintel platform that opened the Pandora’s box to rapid IT decentralization in the first place, there is no element of the IT environment – including servers, storage, desktop and networks – that cannot be reconfigured in a more effective and efficient form.

The level of centralized control that virtualization makes possible takes systems management to an entirely new level. Today’s IT pros are implementing dynamic data center environments consisting of pools of high-performing computing resources that can be centrally managed, readily automated and efficiently maintained. Security and compliance are built in instead of bolted on, and the upgrade path is evolutionary instead of disruptive.

Social marketing is a hot term right now, defined by Forrester as “the use of social tactics, media, tools and technologies across all components of the marketing mix: product, price, promotion, and placement.” Social marketing includes a wide variety of activities happening in social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as in online communities. Online communities are hubs where people with shared interests can communicate, get support and build relationships; they can be a company’s entire website or a specific section of the site.

Online communities take social networking beyond Twitter and Facebook and into an owned property that allows companies to connect with customers on a more individual level. In an online community, a company can control the customer experience in a whole new way. It can connect its customers to its employees and other customers, as well as provide them with content and support. And through the use of common social media applications such as wikis, forums, media galleries and more, businesses can create communities that help customers share and access information easily.

The culmination of all of these activities helps a company foster stronger customer relationships, augment awareness of the brand, build brand loyalty and increase sales efforts.

Social networks and online communities are full of valuable insights and information that can help brands learn about their customers. Companies can also leverage social applications, such as polls, Q&A discussions, reviews, forums and comments within their online communities to gather additional information and spot trends. For example, when they know what their customers care about and what to ask them about, businesses can create surveys or polls and use the resulting feedback to shape new product ideas or enhancements. 

As previously introduced, customers are vital to the innovation process. It is important for companies to stay on top of their customers’ needs and wants, and much of that information can be gathered from social networks and online communities. For example, a company can use its online community as a platform to gather feedback on its products and services to improve upon them or create new ones. It can also run ideas by its community to determine what resonates with its customers. For example, customers can submit ideas within the online community and get other members to vote and comment on them. In order to encourage participation, companies can announce the most popular ideas at their conferences, or provide gifts, like free access to one of their services, to active contributors.

Many customers view service and support as top priorities in their evaluations of a company. Online communities allow customers access to the people, information and advice they need to feel supported. For example, customers can post questions within the community and get answers from company employees or other customers. This results in customers sharing resources and advice with each other, plus a better customer experience.

Online communities can act as platforms to connect people with shared interests, hobbies or professions. An online community provides a place to ask questions, share ideas, get advice and connect with compatible people. This provides a company with the opportunity to unite industry experts, employees and customers, and provide an engaging customer experience. For example, a company that provides golf apparel can use its online community to connect its customers with other golf lovers to discuss the game, apparel, gear and company itself.

Online communities provide customers with a place to discuss and showcase their skills, tips and advice with other community members on both personal and professional topics. This is because people are more eager to share their knowledge and experiences with others who are in the same professional field or have similar interests. A company can think of its online community as a resource for its customers to gather information that is not readily accessible through brief online searches. For example, an online community can serve as a support system and resource center for customers to help each other set and achieve goals within their personal professions or hobbies.

Online communities can be resources for prospective customers to learn about companies and their products. It is important to have documentation, reviews, ratings and other information readily accessible in the online community. For example, prospective customers can search online communities to evaluate products, discuss recommendations with peers, read case studies and ask questions.

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One of the most well-known certifications in the computer industry is the A+ certification from CompTIA, a computer IT industry association that is vendor neutral. This certification is the entry-level certification for anyone working on computers; it covers both hardware and software. This certification is one of the oldest IT certifications, originally appearing in 1993, and has been updated four times since then as the IT industry has changed. As there will always be a need for people to fix computers, there will always be people who are A+ certified. Many vendors (such as Dell and Lenovo) require their technicians to have this certification to work with them.

For information on this certification, please refer to http://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/a.aspx

CompTIA has two security-related certifications. The entry level one is Security+, and covers the basics, including system (host, application, and data) and network security issues, basic cryptography, and the role of assessments and audits. The CASP exam builds on Security+ (though it does not require Security+ certification), extending security issues throughout the enterprise, and adding risk management and the integration of security into the intersection of computing, business communications, and business needs. Security is one of the biggest needs in IT today and with greater integration between organizations and with the Internet, security is becoming an even greater concern. When cloud computing is added to a company, most organizations are even more concerned with security. Even if a business outsources most of its IT functions to a cloud service provider, most will still be concerned with security, and thus this field is only expected to grow over time.

For information on the Security+ certification, please refer tohttp://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/security.aspx, while information on the CASP is available at: http://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/casp.aspx.

The CISSP certification is also security related, and is probably the most widely known and coveted security-related certification. It is created by the non-profit, vendor-neutral International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2 organization. The group was founded in 1988 and released the CISSP in 1994. Many organizations and governments require staff with this certification, making it all the more sought after and valuable. Unlike many other certifications, it requires a minimum of five years of direct, full-time professional security experience that can be proven and must be attested to by an existing (ISC)2 certified professional in at least two of the 10 areas covered by the exam, agreement to a specific code of ethics, and passing an exam. The 10 areas are:

For information on this certification, please refer to https://www.isc2.org/CISSP/Default.aspx.

Projects have existed for as long as humankind has been on earth in one form or another. Project management as a distinct discipline came into being in the 1950s. The need to manage projects effectively, while spotting issues, resource constraints, and other problems, early on created the need for project managers, and thus a certification around project management was born. While project management is not necessarily related to IT projects, it can be (as well as any other type of project) and thus is included here; ITIL (discussed next) is often closely related in the IT arena. As with CompTIA's other certifications, Project+ is a vendor-neutral, entry-level certification that certifies that an individual can create and manage a project, from inception to closure, including completing projects on time and on budget. No specific work experience or other prerequisites apply.

PMI's PMP, on the other hand, is much more demanding and recognized. PMI was founded in 1969 and created the PMP certification in 1984. More than 350,000 people have the certification today. Similarly to the CISSP, to get this certification, you must have 35 hours of project management education and documented proof of a high school diploma (or equivalent), with five years of experience, including a minimum of 7,500 hours running projects, or a bachelor's degree with three years of experience, including a minimum of 4,500 hours running projects. After you pass a certification exam, you become PMP certified; to maintain the certification, you must earn 60 professional development credits every three years as well.

For information on Project+ certification, please refer tohttp://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/project.aspx, while PMP information is available at http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-PMP.aspx.

ITIL was created by, and is a trademark of, England's government, started in the 1980s to standardize IT management. It is a set of best practices for aligning the services IT provides with the needs of the organization. It is broad based, covering everything from availability and capacity management to change and incident management, in addition to application and IT operations management. It is known as the IT infrastructure library because it is composed of a set of books (the number of which has varied from five to 30 over the years). Over the last 30 years, it has become the most widely used framework for IT management in the world. While the UK government owns the standards, they have authorized partners that do education and training as well as certification. They have defined the certification tiers, but leave it to the accredited partners to develop the training and certification around that framework.

For information on ITIL in general, please refer to http://www.itil-officialsite.com/. Exams for certification are run by ITIL-certified examination institutes as previously mentioned; for a list of them, please refer tohttp://www.itil-officialsite.com/ExaminationInstitutes/ExamInstitutes.aspx.

Six Sigma was created by Motorola in 1985 (and is a registered trademark) to create a structured approach to process improvement by reducing the defect rate and minimizing variability in manufactured products. It encompasses a range of techniques for quality management and defines various levels of experts in the processes to implement them. These experts are named similarly to karate (green belt, black belt, etc.). It was named six sigma because it was based on a desired manufacturing defect rate of 0.00034, or 3.4 defects per million items produced, and though the concept has spread to many areas far from manufacturing over the years, the name has remained the same. There is no standard certification body (similar to ITIL) that defines exactly what is required to be certified at any specific level, and thus training and certification can vary widely, from for-profit organizations to non-profit organizations to universities. It is very important to find a well-known provider for the certification to carry much weight in the job market.

Motorola, as the founder of the concept, has training and certification available; seehttp://www.motorolasolutions.com/US-EN/Training+Home/Lean+Six+Sigma for information on the training they offer and http://www.motorolasolutions.com/US-EN/Training+Home/Certification+Program/How+to+Get+Certified for information on their certification process.

Another widely accepted program is run by the non-profit group ASQ (the American Society for Quality, now known by the acronym only, as they are a worldwide organization). They offer certifications in many areas related to various aspects of quality, including six sigma. Their certification program is CSSBB (Certified Six Sigma Black Belt) for the black belt level; they also offer a green belt level (the CSSGB). They require documentation of completing at least one six sigma project in addition to passing an exam and then maintaining the certification by either getting at least 18 credits over a three-year period (attainable via activities such as attending conferences, taking classes, or teaching the skills to others) or by retaking the exam if the credits were not earned in the mandated time frame. For information on ASQ's CSSBB certification, please refer to http://prdweb.asq.org/certification/control/index.

One could argue, and probably properly, that Windows should be listed over Linux as an operating system to know from a job perspective. It does have a long history, but it changes every few years - and Microsoft is trying to speed the pace up even more to roughly an annual update. There is great potential in earning the Microsoft MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) or higher-level certifications, but they change frequently and thus need a lot of maintenance to keep current. In addition, organizations often have many versions deployed, making the process and needed certifications even more complex. As Microsoft changes to a services company with an emphasis on cloud computing, knowing which certifications will be valuable in the coming years is difficult.

Linux comes in many flavors (known as distributions), and is often updated as well, but the basics that the certifications mentioned here discuss evolve more slowly and are more generally applicable across distributions and versions within a distribution. The basic syntax is often used in other operating systems as well, such as VMware, so having at least some knowledge of Linux commands will provide an advantage when working in those other environments.

CompTIA offers Linux+ in association with LPI (the Linux Professional Institute) and in fact, passing the Linux+ exams (there are two, covering different Linux topics) can gain the candidate LPIC-1 (entry level LPI certification), as well. It is vendor neutral and covers the basics that any junior-level Linux administrator should have. Information on Linux+ is available by referring tohttp://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/linux.aspx.

Red Hat offers the RHCE certification for more senior Linux administrators; earning this requires that the candidate already possess the RHCSA (Red Hat Certified System Administrator) credential and recertify every three years. Red Hat exams are performance based, meaning that a candidate is given a live system and graded on the ability to accomplish the tasks in the exam rather than simply answer multiple-choice questions. Red Hat offers many other certifications on specific capabilities or configurations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well. Information on the RHCE is available athttp://www.redhat.com/training/certifications/rhce/.

Other Linux vendors have similar certification programs; Red Hat is listed here as the largest Linux vendor in the corporate arena.

Networking in general, and Cisco in particular, is something that will be around forever and become even more important as more and more data is moved into the cloud and more and more devices require connectivity, whether in wired or wireless forms. This is one skill that will not be replaced by the move to the cloud and every company will need someone with some networking skills. To meet this demand, Cisco has always offered the CCNA as an entry-level networking certification, designed as a network admin in a small business or as a junior admin in a larger one. As more people need an ever more basic level of network knowledge, Cisco has introduced the CCENT (Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician) to provide entry-level knowledge on networking concepts, routing and switching, security, and wireless connectivity. It is designed as a stepping-stone to CCNA.

The CCNA has been redesigned as well, providing certification in various areas of networking, including routing and switching (the previous CCNA topic), security, video, voice, and wireless, as well as more advanced areas such as data center and service provider operations. For those looking for more advanced certifications, Cisco offers the CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) in the same areas as the new CCNA, and many of the same areas in their premiere certification, the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert). For information on the CCENT, please refer to http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/certifications/entry/ccent/index.html; information on the CCNA for routing and switching (as well as links to other CCNA certifications) is available athttp://www.cisco.com/web/learning/certifications/associate/ccna/index.html.

Java is a very popular programming language - one of the most popular in the world, in fact. It is cross platform and runs on everything from mobile phones, to car and airplane entertainment systems, to PCs and Macs. It is used in writing many applications we often use and on websites and is the foundation of applications on Android devices. It has been around since 1995. There are almost one billion downloads of the platform every year and over three billion mobile phones alone run Java. To prove your skills with Java, Oracle (which got the rights to Java when it purchased Sun Microsystems, the original creator of the language) has a training and certification organization. For information on this certification, please refer tohttp://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=458&get_params=p_track_id:JSE7Prog.

You may be wondering, "What is Cognos? I've never heard of it before." Cognos is set of Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) tools from IBM. IBM purchased Cognos, Inc. and its products in 2008, but Cognos has been around since the late 1960s. As businesses generate more and more data, the need to analyze that data becomes ever more important. Cognos is not the only tool available; Microsoft, Oracle (Hyperion line), and SAP are also big vendors, as is SAS.

If you're interested in analysis of all of this information, look into the offerings of each company and specialize in one or more. Cognos is listed here as it has been around a very long time and is owned and promoted by IBM. Certification in the BI arena alone involves four exams, three core exams and an elective depending on a specific area of interest, such as an administrator or one of several types of developers. For information on this certification, please refer to http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/certs/47000802.shtml.

As just discussed in the Cognos certification, Big Data — the gathering and analysis of vast quantities of information — is a huge growth area. As an example, according to the Wikipedia article on Big Data, the world's total storage capacity has doubled every 40 months or so since the 1980s, to the point that by 2012, every single day, 2.5 quintillion (2.5 x 1018) bytes of data are generated. Big Data's challenges include not only how to store that much information, but how to analyze, visualize and search it. Sample use cases of Big Data producers and the associated needs to use it are for live traffic information and search engine use.

EMC has created technologies to store vast quantities of data for decades; it is now looking to analyze the information and provide the tools and skills to do so. It has created the EMCDSA certification as a way to prove that you have the skills and mindset to do this kind of work. For information on this certification, please refer to https://education.emc.com/guest/campaign/data_science.aspx.

By: Viraj Maheshwari
http://www.virdhara.com