Cyber 11

NOVEMBER 2015 VOL. 13 ISS.
11
CYBERTREND.COM
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
DELLS
EVOLUTION
CONTINUES
THROUGH INNOVATION
& ACQUISITIONS, DELL
DELIVERS A ONE-STOP
SHOP FOR ENTERPRISES
Special Section For IT Managers
Special Section For PC Enthusiasts
Volume 13 : Issue 11 : November 2015
10
50
DELL: HARDWARE, SOFTWARE

& EVERYTHING ELSE FOR THE ENTERPRISE
4 NEWS
Business technology news and research
27 IT
IT and data center concerns
10 COVER STORY
How Dell became a one-stop enterprise shop
30 NETWORKING
Wired and wireless networking
14 MOBILITY
Mobile tech for doing business anywhere
34 SECURITY
Solutions and best practices for security
17 COMMUNICATIONS
Communication and collaboration
40 WEB
Trends in doing business on the Internet
20 DATA
Methods for leveraging data and analytics
50 ELECTRONICS
High-end consumer electronics
24 ENERGY
Energy efficiency and the environment
58 TIPS
Advice for mobile professionals
PUTTING DRONES
TO WORK
71 PROCESSOR
Special advertising and content from our
Processor partners
Special Section For IT Managers
81 COMPUTER POWER USER

Special advertising and content from our
Computer Power User partners
Special Section For PC Enthusiasts
CONTACT US
P.O. Box 82545
Lincoln, NE 68501
or
120 W. Harvest Drive
Lincoln, NE 68521
Advertising: (800) 247-4880

Fax: (402) 479-2104
Circulation: (800) 334-7458
Fax: (402) 479-2123
www.cybertrend.com
email: feedback@cybertrend.com
Copyright 2015 by Sandhills Publishing Company. CyberTrend is a registered trademark of Sandhills Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of material appearing in CyberTrend is strictly prohibited without written permission.
Overall IT Spending Drops Across All Industries

Citing the rising value of the U.S. dollar as the main cause, Gartner reports that global IT spending across all industries will decline
3.5% this year. By comparison, overall IT spending rose 1.2% in 2014. Appreciation of the U.S. dollar (mainly against the euro, yen,
and the ruble), along with the relative slowdown of emerging markets (particularly Russia, Brazil, and China), had a double impact on
IT spending in 2015, and explains the downward revision in the forecast, says Anurag Gupta, research vice president with Gartner.
Despite the fact that these declines even affect the banking and securities segment, Gartner says banks in developed markets are likely
to double their IT spending on such things as data solutions in order to address regulation issues, increased growth, and the need to remain competitive. Similarly, significant investments in the health care sector are expected. The following chart shows this years figures
by industry as well as last years growth percentages for comparison.
INDUSTRY
2015 IT SPENDING (In Millions)
Banking & Securities

Communications: Media Services
Education
Government
Health Care Providers
Insurance
Manufacturing & Natural Resources
Retail
Transportation
Utilities
Wholesale Trade
$486,278
$428,675
$64,182
$424,660
$104,982
$182,572
$476,546
$176,916
$129,696
$143,479
$82,011
2015 IT SPENDING GROWTH

-2.4%
-3.6%
-2.5%
-5%
-2.7%
-2.8%
-4.5%
-1.5%
-3.1%
-3.9%
-3.2%
2014 IT SPENDING GROWTH

2.1%
1.5%
1%
-1.2%
2.7%
1.8%
1%
2.5%
1.6%
1.3%
0.69%
Semiconductor Market To See

First Decline Since 2012
Worldwide Information Security

Spending Up In 2015
PC Shipments Slip 7.7%

Worldwide Year-Over-Year
The latest forecast from Gartner on

the worldwide semiconductor market
places revenue at $337.8 billion for the
year, which represents a 0.8% decline
from 2014 and the first year-over-year
drop in three years. According to Andrew
Norwood, research vice president at
Gartner, the outlook for PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other products that
drive the semiconductor market . . . has
been revised downward. Gartner doesnt
expect holiday sales to compensate for the
overall decline, but anticipates a better
2016, with a 1.9% increase in revenue.
Worldwide spending on information

security in 2015 will reach $75.4 billion, a
4.7% increase over 2014, if Gartners forecast is accurate. Elizabeth Kim, Gartner
research analyst, elaborates: Interest in
security technologies is increasingly driven
by elements of digital business, particularly
cloud, mobile computing and now also
the Internet of Things, as well as by the sophisticated and high-impact nature of advanced targeted attacks. Looking further
out, Gartner expects that 85% of network
sandboxing capabilities will be packaged
with larger platforms by 2018.
PC shipments worldwide totaled 73.7

million units in Q3 2015, marking a 7.7%
decline from the year-ago quarter, according to Gartner. The research firm reports that Microsofts Windows 10 launch
has had little impact on shipments, but
expects that holiday sales will provide a
boost. Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst
with Gartner, says the global market has
seen 10% price increases throughout the
year, contributing to weaker demand in
those regions. In the U.S., she says, there
has been growth in shipments of laptops
and premium ultramobile devices.
November 2015 / www.cybertrend.com
Large Corporations Focusing

More Energy On Innovation
New Verizon Report Illustrates How The Internet Of Things

Produces Positive Results For Businesses
The pressure is intense right now among

large businesses to innovate, according to
The Innovation Game, a recent report
from Capgemini and the Altimeter Group.
Their survey of large corporations found
that 65% of senior executives feel increased
pressure to innovate. And, as the report
points out, the economy remains highly
competitive, with 52% of Fortune 500
companies having merged, been acquired,
or gone bankrupt since 2000. According
to the report, 38% of companies have established innovation centers; 67% of those
have multiple innovation centers, and 61%
have a Silicon Valley presence (the distant
second in terms of locations is London).
Primary focus areas are mobility (63%),
big data and analytics (51%), the Internet
of Things (39%), robotics (13%), virtual
reality (13%), and 3D printing (5%).
Verizon, in its State Of The Market report on the IoT (Internet of Things) in 2015,
seeks to remove any suspicion that IoT is sheer hype. The reports findings are based on
Verizons own usage data and customers, research commissioned from ABI Research,
and third-party research from firms including Gartner and IDC. Based on those findings,
Verizon predicts that by 2025 companies using IoT extensively will be 10% more profitable
than those that dont. The presence of IoT technology in more locations (cars, appliances,
factories, you name it) combined with the data it provides are largely responsible for IoTs
growth. Verizon reports 45% year-over-year growth in its own IoT business (2013 to
2014), and identifies substantial growth in other sectors over the same time period:
Infosys Lauded For Its

Internet Of Things Initiatives
Public-Access Wi-Fi To Be
Mainstream By 2020
North America Leads The Way In

Mobile Internet Usage
In its latest IoT Services Blueprint report, analyst firm HfS evaluated 18 leading
service providers and inducted Infosys
into its Winners Circle, indicating the
company has shown excellence in execution and innovation in IoT. We cited
Infosys for their ability to bring IoT vision
to reality, backed by a strong culture of
engineering services, and a deep understanding of system complexities that must
be addressed to develop IoT services for
the future, says Charles Sutherland, chief
research officer with HfS. The firm also
lauded Infosys for its attention to security.
Public-access Wi-Fi (aka Hotspot 2.0, or

more officially Wi-Fi Certified Passport)
enables widespread roaming for mobile
device users. According to ABI Research,
Hotspot 2.0 will be a mainstream reality
by 2020, with 6 million active hotspots
supporting the technology. ABI reports
that some wireless carriers offer both
Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE (voice over
LTE) calling (or IP phone calling via
LTE), which could prompt a sharp rise in
Hotspot 2.0 usage next year. Hotspot 2.0
offers carriers flexibility, says ABI, which
should lead to innovation and wider usage.
In eMarketers 2015 Global Media

Intelligence Report, the market research
firm says that North American mobile
phone users lead the world in their mobile Web usage. More than 215 million
people, or about 60% of all residents,
are projected to use a phone to access
the Internet this year, and eMarketer
expects that percentage will rise to 70%
within three years. The firm says the
runner up to the North American region
is this regard is Western Europe, which
is catching up but will not pass North
America within the next four years.
204% Manufacturing
128% Finance & Insurance
120% Media & Entertainment
89% Home Monitoring
88% Retail & Hospitality
83% Transportation & Distribution
49% Energy & Utilities
46% Public Sector/Smart Cities
40% Health Care & Pharmaceutical
CyberTrend / November 2015
Gartner Shines Spotlight On

Digital Business Initiatives
Big Growth Expected For IoT, Wearables

By 2019, 451 Research predicts there will be 908 million cellular IoT (Internet
of Things) and M2M (machine-to-machine) connections worldwide. Thats about
a fourfold increase from the 252 million connections in 2014. Key growth drivers
include decreasing hardware and bandwidth costs making it possible for essentially
any enterprise to reap the benefits of virtualizing the physical world. In IoTrelated research from the firms Time For Work: Smart Watch App Development
Turns To The Enterprise report, survey results found:
Businesses are overwhelmingly going

digital, but some are embracing technological changes faster than others. Results
from a recent Gartner survey show the gap
is widening between companies that are
involved in digital business initiatives and
those that remain in the planning phase.
For example, organizations with digital
initiatives in place believe those initiatives
are an integral part of their overall business strategy, whereas organizations in the
planning phase see digital and business
strategy as separate. Most agree, however,
that the results of digital initiatives will be
positive; more than 80% expect better results in IT, customer experience, sales, and
productivity. Few anticipate negative results; 7% fear a negative impact on staff,
and 6% fear a negative impact on mergers
and acquisitions.
Ultimately, 451 Research projects wearables have the potential to be one or even
the interface for industrial IoT access.
ABI Says Qi To Retain Its Lead In

Wireless Charging
3D Printer Shipments Rise Due

To Increased Quality & Demand
Tablet Sales Droop As Phablets

Continue Their Momentum
These days more users have smartphones with wireless charging capabilities than they do wireless chargers, mainly
because manufacturers have been adding
the technology to new phones but have
not bundled wireless chargers to make use
of that technology. ABI Research says this
situation will change along with greater
awareness of wireless charging and subsequent demand. There are a few wireless
charging technologies in play right now,
but ABI anticipates the Wireless Power
Consortiums Qi standard will far outpace
competitors through 2020.
Gartner expects global 3D printer shipments will double each year between 2016
and 2019, with 2016 shipments forecast to
reach nearly half a million units, or 103%
more than this years projected 244,533
units. Rapid quality and performance
innovations across all 3D printer technologies are driving both enterprise and
consumer demand, with unit shipment
growth rates for 3D printers increasing
significantly, says Pete Basiliere, Gartner
research vice president. Basiliere adds that
the market is broadening, addressing consumers and enterprises alike.
Phablets, which are essentially large

smartphones, are growing in popularity,
taking an increasing share of the overall
smartphone market and drawing some
heat away from the tablet market, according to ABI Research. That trend, along
with the growing tendency of businesses to
opt for full-sized laptops, hybrid (laptop/
tablet) devices, and other portable PCs capable of running Windows 10, has contributed to the decline in tablet sales. The
research firm says another factor is the
hand-me-down effect, with tablets being
reused rather than replaced.
39% of U.S. IT decision-makers at companies using

or planning to use wearable technologies will deploy
solutions within six months
24% plan to deploy within a year
81% of U.S. IT decision-makers at companies
planning to deploy wearables within six months will
focus on smart watches
STARTUPS
Changing The Way Brands

Connect With Consumers
Smart Thermostat Company Makes A Splash

In Europe, Looks Toward International Growth
Busy? So is
everyone else
these days, and
the plethora of
websites and
social media
services vying
for our attention makes it difficult for companies to
break through to consumers. New Yorkbased startup Pypestream says its platform provides companies with a new way
to get targeted messages directly to their
audience, enabling responsive, efficient
B2C communications, in the words of
Pypestreams CEO Richard Smullen. The
company recently closed a $2 million seed
round of funding, which it plans to use to
increase sales and development.
The smart technology

market is growing rapidly,
with many buyers particularly
smitten with climate control
services. One company that
has done especially well in this
area is Tado, which might not
ring a bell unless you live in
Europe, where the company
competes with the likes of
Googles Nest. In July, Tado
announced it had raised $17.1
million in a funding round
led by Siemens venture capital unit, Stalkraft Ventures, Target Partners, Shortcut
Ventures, and BayBG. There is no doubt that home climate control will be digital
in the future and will deeply integrate with local service providers, says Christian
Deilmann, Tado co-founder and CEO. Tado is dedicated to being the market leader
in this field with the most compatible products, the most intelligent app, and the best
service offerings. Next up for the company: a focus on international expansion.
Startup Has Raised $30M To

Date With Global Talent Mobility
Recharging Devices With

Sound Waves? Its Happening
Canva Offers A One-Stop Shop

For Easy, Professional Layouts
Move Guides, a startup that offers

cloud-based talent mobility (including
relocation) services, announced it had
closed a Series B funding round in October
to the tune of $15.6 million. As workforce demographics increasingly shift to
a more mobile workforce, this large and
virtually untouched segment of the HR
market is ripe for explosive growth, said
Ravi Viswanathan, general partner at New
Enterprise Associates, which joined Notion
Capital in leading the recent investment.
The company plans to put the money toward continued global expansion.
The first product isnt available quite

yet, but uBeam has a product line in store
that could change the way we recharge
our devicesthat is, wirelessly, but not
just the up-close variety, where a device
rests on a charging pad. The Santa Monica,
Calif.,-based startup has devised a method
for using ultrasound to wirelessly charge
devices within about 15 feet. A phone
charging case is first on the agenda, and the
company plans to add charging for computers, light bulbs, hearing aids, and other
devices afterward. The company has raised
$23 million from investors so far.
Not a designer? Not a problem, according to Canva, an Australian startup

offering Web-based graphic design solutions. Catering to those who lack the time,
resources, or that certain eye for design
necessary to create professional-looking
Web layouts, presentations, marketing
materials, and the like, Canvas solution
taps into a hungry market. Canva recently
announced it had raised $15 million in
a Series A funding round. In its press release, the company says it plans to use
the funding to grow its team, enhance the
product, and expand globally.
Hardware, Software & Everything Else

DELL HAS EVOLVED FROM A PC MANUFACTURER INTO A ONE-STOP SHOP
FOR NEARLY EVERY ENTERPRISE NEED
KEY POINTS
Dell hit the ground running
in the PC market, but quickly
started adding data center and
enterprise solutions to expand
into other markets.
Dell still offers a wide range
of PCs, and with the purchase
of Alienware and Wyse, it now
has a hold in the gaming and
thin client markets as well.
Dells data center offerings
include servers, storage, networking, and managed services.
Dell also offers big data, business intelligence, and mobility
solutions to round out its enterprise offerings.
10
FOR MOST COMPANIES it takes years to

develop an identity and make a splash
in a given market. Dell, however, experienced an accelerated ride. Established
in 1984 with $1,000 by Michael Dell,
then a pre-med freshman in Texas,
the companyinitially called PCs
Limitedhit the ground running with
a dominant focus on customer service
and the growing interest in personal
computers.
While Dells dedication to its customers remains a core focus, the company has transitioned from a PC-first
organization to one that offers a host
of enterprise computing equipment,
consumer electronics and accessories,
as well as big data, cloud computing,
and mobility services and solutions.
Needless to say, Dell has changed quite
a bit over the past few years, but its also
never been a stranger to growth, innovation, and evolution.
Off To A Fast Start

Following its 1984 inception, it didnt
take long for Dell to make its mark on
the PC industry. In fact, within a year,
Dell made its intentions clear with the
release of its first computer, the Turbo
PC, as well as the establishment of its
customer-first policy, whereby it promised risk-free returns and in-home
product assistance.
In 1986, Dell showed off its next
product, which was the fastest-performing PC at the time, and by 1987 the
company opened its first international
subsidiary, located in the U.K. And in
1990, Dell opened a manufacturing center
in Ireland to extend its global reach.
With nearly 80% annual growth, Dell
completed its initial public offering in
1988, after four years of operation. The
companys market capitalization jumped
from the initial $1,000 to $85 million on
the back of $30 million raised when the
company went public. A year later, Dell

would release its first laptop computer,
called the 316LT, and in 1992 Dell made
its debut on the Fortune 500, making
Michael Dell the youngest CEO of a
company to ever earn that distinction.
In short, it took Dell only eight years to
go from $1,000 in a dorm to the Fortune
500 with multiple international facilities,
and growth only continued from there.
of storage products for data centers. By

1999, Del had become the No. 1 manufacturer of PCs in the U.S. and was No.
1 globally in terms of workstation shipments and PCs designed for medium
and large businesses.
continuing to differentiate itself as much

more than a PC manufacturer. But even
today, with its wide range of enterprisefocused solutions, Dell hasnt forgotten
its roots and still offers a large selection
of desktops and laptops.
Strong Business Focus
The Quintessential Business PC
In the early 2000s Dell continued its

expansion, with increased focus on the
business market. In 2000 and 2001, with
$40 million in sales per day on Dell.com,
Dell remained the No. 1 computer manufacturer worldwide, and its Intel-based
servers were the U.S. business markets
top sellers.
Despite the unavoidable fact that increased demand for mobile devices has
eroded some of the PC market, corpoProduct Innovation
rate demand for traditional desktops
& Online Expansion
and laptops, particularly for more de1993 was a pivotal year for Dell, as it
manding use cases, remains a reality.
launched its Dimension and OptiPlex
For desktops, Dell offers its OptiPlex,
desktop computer lines, opened its
Vostro, Inspiron, XPS, Chromebox, and
first subsidiaries in Japan and
Precision Fixed Workstation
Australia, and became one of
lines, each catering to a difthe top five computer manuferent type of user. Dell says
facturers in the world. And
its Inspiron desktop line is
in 1994 Dell released the onebest-suited for home office use,
two punch of its Latitude
whereas the Precision Fixed
XP laptop, which its the first
Workstations and XPS lines
laptop to use a lithium-ion batare a better fit for professional
tery, and its Dell PowerEdge
creators and those that deline of servers.
mand the highest performance
After expanding its global
possible from their PCs.
operations even deeper into
On the laptop side, there
the Americas, Europe, and
are numerous portable verAsia, Dell also expanded into
sions of the same desktop lines,
the online shopping market
including Vostro, Inspiron,
with the launch of Dell.com in Dell fueled the 2-in-1 craze with its Latitude 13 7000, which operates
XPS, Chromebook, and Dell
1996. Once again, Dell showed as a standard laptop or a tablet. To stand out from the competition, Dell Precision Workstations, in adits penchant for growth by hit- built its 13 7000 Series devices with enterprise security in mind.
dition to the Latitude line of
ting $1 million in sales per day
laptops, which are specifically
on the website after only six
designed for business users.
months. The website went on to become
Blade servers, projectors, and printers But a few of Dells laptops offerings are
a major component in Dells overall sales were next as Dell continued to push
also convertible hybrids that feature a
and customer support approach. The harder into the business technology space. tablet component as well. The XPS 12
company began offering Premier Pages,
In 2007, Dell introduced the Vostro line 2-in-1 laptop, for example, sports a 4K
which were specially designed to give its of desktop computers designed specifi- Ultra HD and works either as an ulcorporate clients private sites for direct cally for small businesses, and by 2009,
trabook or as a standalone tablet.
purchasing and customer service.
Dell ranked first in enterprise customer
Another way that Dell has bolstered
Toward the turn of the century, be- satisfaction with its corporate laptops, its PC offeringsand often branched
tween 1997 and 1999, Dell opened a new
desktops, and x86 servers.
out into new territoryis through commanufacturing center in Texas and new
In 2012, Dell announced that it would
pany acquisitions. For instance, Dell
locations in Brazil, Ireland, and other
start making its enterprise solutions, purchased Alienware in 2006 in order
regions in the U.S., and expanded into software, and services much more of a
to gain more traction in the gaming
China as well. Also during this time pefocus. This would result in the company
market. Through Dell, Alienware offers
riod, Dell launched its PowerVault line
entering into new corporate markets and some of the most powerful desktops and
11
related products
than ever before.
Whether a customer uses Linux or
Windows, or prefers
a physical or virtual approach, Dell
covers all possible
data center bases
with a wide range of
products.
In addition to
traditional PowerEdge rack-based
servers, Dell offers
Dell acquired thin client computer manufacturer Wyse in 2012, and
now offers business mobility-oriented products such as the Wyse Cloud PowerEdge tower
Connect, an enterprise client for portable cloud access.
servers, which are
ideal for smaller office environments,
and PowerEdge cloud servers, which enlaptops around. These PCs are designed
sure cloud-enabled applications always
to handle the most resource-intensive
games and applications, and they are have access to the appropriate resources.
highly customizable so that customers Dell also offers power and cooling solutions to ensure data centers reach all
can choose the best components to
consumption and efficiency goals.
match their needs.
Dell has traditional storage solutions
In order to delve further into a difin multiple configurations, plus flash
ferent market, Dell acquired thin-client
computing company Wyse in 2012. Thin storage and software-defined storage.
clients enable companies to deliver virtual Because those storage solutions must
be protected after deployment, Dell also
desktop experiences to employees, and
offers data protection, backup, and rehelp to create a more centralized comcovery solutions and services. Add to
puting infraastructure thats easier for IT
teams to manage and support. By virtue this the fact that Dell has networking
of their orientation to networks and the solutions specifically designed for data
cloud, thin clients also minimize the centers and office-wide networks alike,
need for large PC towers at every desk, and you have a trifecta of products and
services that serve as the foundation of
meaning that organizations can deliver
the same application and service experi- every data center.
Dells data center portfolio also inences without having to break the PCcludes services that help companies
buying budget.
manage the data center itself. Dells
Enterprise Systems Management soluData Center Products
tion improves IT team productivity and
As evidenced by the companys many
efficiency by providing a centralized
acquisitions over the past seven years
and change, Dells initial focus on the PC management platform for all things IT
throughout the enterprise. Using these
market has since shifted to incorporate
more IT and enterprise products and management solutions, enterprise cusservices. And while the company has tomers can monitor power consumpoffered server and storage solutions for tion, performance, and nearly every
other aspect of the data center. The
years, Dell now offers more data center-
12
solution enables mobile alerts, so the IT

guru can remotely see whats happening
and respond accordingly.
For organizations that want to outsource some data center responsibilities, Dell offers Data Center Managed
Services. This relieves some of the dayto-day stress on the IT team, giving
them time to focus on other projects.
Dell manages the works, including
servers, storage systems, the network,
and disaster recovery and business continuity programs.
Big Data & Business Intelligence

Its nearly impossible to talk about
large enterprise initiatives nowadays
without touching on big data analytics
and BI (business intelligence). Analytics
is one of the hottest topics in the business world today as companies search
for ways to gain as many insights as
possible from the massive amount
of data they have stored inside and
NOTABLE ACQUISITIONS
In addition to Wyse, Dell has made
numerous other acquisitions in the
past few years to bolster its enterprise offerings, better serve its
business customers, and give them
improved end-to-end IT services
and support. Some notable examples include EqualLogic in 2008
and Perot Systems in 2009. From
2010 to 2012 alone, Dell acquired
KACE, RNA Networks, Force10
Networks, SonicWALL, Quest, and
Credant, among others.
Presently, Dells $67 billion
EMC deal is important not simply
because its the biggest technology
acquisition of all time, but also
because it now gives Dell access to
multiple enterprise-focused solutions, including RSAs SecurID tokens and a large stake in VMware.
outside of their data centers. Dell ad- as Hadoop, to make data is always up- Latitude, Precision, and XPS laptops;
and Wyse Cloud Connect solutions are
dresses this demand, offering the phys- to-date when needed.
Then, when it comes down to the
all portable computing solutions that
ical infrastructure needed to support
big data projects and a series of data analytics process itself, Dells Statistica give mobile workers options as they go
about completing tasks. The Wyse sointegration, management, and analytics predictive analytics software comes
solutions to help customers gain in- into play. Using Statistica, customers lutions, for example, give users access
to the same applications they would
sights in a more effective way. Dell also can not only analyze the data stored
use in the office, no matter where they
supports some of the most popular big in their many databases, but can
data solutions, including Hadoop, and also take advantage of real-time data are located. Dells virtualization soluhas partnered with vendors, including throughout the project to make sure tions work along similar lines, allowing
mobile professionals to access
Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft, to
full-scale enterprise applications
support as many data platforms as
using almost any device.
possible.
As many companies have
The first step in any big data
found, taking advantage of moproject is gathering data together
bile technologies also means
and making sure theres a way to
properly managing and securing
not only sort through it, but also
them. To that end, Dells enmanage it. Thats where Dells
terprise mobility management
data management solutions come
solutions provide companies
into play. Dell has specific soluwith more options than ever to
tions designed to better manage
manage and monitor mobile deinformation from the aforemenvices, whether they are employeetioned platforms and vendors,
owned or company-issued. With
and a solution called Dell Master
these solutions, security teams
Data Management. Combined,
can manage and secure smartthese solutions enable customers
phones and tablets as well as lapto categorize data and store it in
tops and even desktops to create
the locations that make the most
a unified user experience. And
sense, whether thats on-premises
on mobile devices, customers can
or in the cloud, and then have a
build a Dell Mobile Workspace
way to manage it throughout the Built for small and midsize businesses, Dells PowerEdge
that essentially separates peranalytics process.
VRTX product combine servers, storage, and networking
sonal data from corporate data,
In terms of storage, Dell does capabilities in a tower that occupies only 5U in rack space.
opening up new BYOD (bring
offer more traditional storage
your own device) possibilities.
concepts, but also offers realDell also offers a wide range of sotime data integration to make sure they are always acting on the most
customers can take advantage of relevant data available. As with the lutions and services to protect cusstreaming data sources. Regardless of companys data center products, customers data their networks from
the application where data is coming tomers can opt to take advantage of end to end. Customers using Dells
identity and access management solufrom, Dell will seamlessly integrate it Dells years of experience with its BI
tions, for example, can stop threats
into the data platform of the custom- Analytics consulting service.
to the network at the perimeter, proers choice. For example, Dell Boomi
is an integration cloud product that Mobility & Security Solutions
tect data that moves between the cloud
helps customers move data between
Dells approach to mobility is sim- to mobile devices, and control overall
any combination of environments, in- ilar to that of all of its other product access to data. All of these products
cluding on-premises applications and categories, because the company not work together to make sure that your
SaaS (software as a service)-based apps. only provides the physical devices employees can be as productive as
And Dells SharePlex solution makes it youve come to expect from them, but
possible and have access to all of the
so customers can move Oracle storage also the software solutions and services resources they need without putting
solutions into any other platform, such to back them up. Dells Venue tablets; the business itself at risk.
13
The State Of Mobile Security

RANSOMWARE, PREINSTALLED MALWARE & APPLICATION BUGS
IT USED TO BE that desktops were the main

targets of viruses and malware, and while
thats still somewhat the case, hackers have
become much more sophisticated to the
point that they now go after Web-based
applications and services, internal corporate networks, and other targets. However,
the proliferation of mobile devices is now
forcing at least some hackers to turn their
attention to smartphones and tablets as
targets for malware, and they are developing new viruses and schemes targeted
specifically at mobile users. Here are some
of the biggest threats facing mobile devices
today and why its important for enterprise
to be aware of them.
Android Is Still The No. 1 Target

According to reports from both G
DATA Software and Verizon, the Android
operating system was and remains
the biggest target for mobile malware.
In fact, in Verizons 2015 Data Breach
14
Investigations Report, the company

found that 96% of all mobile malware was
targeted at Android devices and that most
of the malicious activity discovered on
iOS devices consisted of failed Android
exploits. If youve followed the mobile device market closely for the past few years,
this news may not surprise you, mostly due
to the fact that the Android is a relatively
open OS and the Google Play app store
doesnt have as stringent of an app approval process as Apples App Store.
G DATAs Mobile Malware Report
for Q2 2015 also doesnt paint a pretty
picture for Android-based threats. The
study states that in that quarter, G DATA
security experts discovered 560,671 new
malware samples, which represents a 27%
increase over the previous quarter. And in
the first half of 2015 alone, G DATA found
over 1 million new malware files, which
constituted an increase of 25% over the
second half of 2015. By the end of the year,
G DATA expects to have found over 2 million new malware samples.

Considering the fact that Android currently holds a 64% global market share
in the smartphone and tablet markets, it
makes sense that hackers are throwing everything they have at the platform, developing more advanced malware. In fact,
the G DATA report notes that a company
called Hacking Team, which is responsible
for providing malware for government
and intelligence agencies, was recently
hacked and the companys source code is
now widely available on the Internet. This
means that not only will there be more
malware applications than ever before, but
they will also be much more sophisticated
and much harder to track.
Ransomware Is On The Rise

One specific type of malware that has
grown considerably over the past few years
is ransomware. Practically an industry in
its own right, ransomware is a type of malware that infects a victims device, takes it
over, and then holds it at ransom until the
victim pays a fee to regain access. In some
cases, hackers will take over the entire
system and hold it hostage, and in other
cases the hacker will steal private information from the device or plant potentially
the contact information inside, their devices were essentially locked and they
were charged a fee to regain access.
Although WhatsApp moved relatively
quickly to patch the exploit, the malware
still had the potential to impact any of
the 200 million users that accessed the
Web version of its service. Unfortunately,
ACCORDING TO VERIZON, MOBILE MALWARE

IS RELATIVELY SHORT-LIVED, WITH 95%
FADING FROM VIEW WITHIN A MONTH.
criminal information on the device and
threaten to release it if the victim doesnt
pay the fee.
Experts had expected ransomware incidents would increase over the
years, but not as quickly as they have.
According to Intel Securitys August
2015 McAfee Labs Threat Report,
the detection of new ransomware samples grew by 58% from Q1 2015 to Q2
2015. The report points out that mobile malware in general has become a
full-fledged industry with suppliers,
markets, service providers, financing,
trading systems, and a proliferation of
business models, and that ransomware
has grown quickly in this environment,
especially with the advent of Bitcoin and
anonymous financial markets.
theres almost nothing you can do to

avoid these types of app exploits other
than to not download the applications in
the first place. There are certainly malware apps out there that can scan your
device and look for malicious programs,
but malware that infects your device via
legitimate applications is typically much
more difficult to track and could affect
your device before you have a chance to
react. The best course of action is to only
download apps from trusted developers,
make sure you keep those apps up-todate, and also be somewhat wary of apps
with mobile and Web components that
communicate regularly. In some situations, hackers may be able to use one
platform to infiltrate the other if a vulnerability or exploit is discovered.
App Bugs & Exploits
Preinstalled Malware
Another common way that hackers

try to gain access to mobile devices is
through exploiting bugs and other vulnerabilities in the code of applications.
For example, in August 2015, hackers
discovered a bug in the Web-based version of WhatsApp, a popular messaging
application with more than 900 million
mobile users of which 200 million are
Web users. The hackers were able to use
the exploit to find user phone numbers,
send vCards (virtual contact cards) that
appeared to be legitimate, and infect
their victims devices with ransomware.
Once a victim opened the vCard to see
If it isnt enough that hackers can use

exploits in legitimate applications to deliver malware to your mobile device,
theres also a chance that the next smartphone you buy will come with malware
already installed, especially if that device
comes from a Chinese-based manufacturer. In fact, G DATA researchers discovered a 25% increase in preinstalled
malware on mobile devices in Q1 2015.
You may recall that Lenovo faced problems earlier this year when it was determined that some of its laptops were sold
with preinstalled spyware and adware, and
it turns out the same problem impacted
mobile devices from Lenovo, Huawei,

Xiaomi, and other manufacturers.
According to G DATA researchers,
the phones were infected by an outside
party somewhere along the supply chain,
which takes the blame off of the manufacturers shoulders, but the problem is
that the malware was actually hidden in
the code of commonly used applications
from Google and Facebook. And for an
added layer of woe, its nearly impossible
to remove the malware once its installed
because it is tied to the firmware that
resides on the device. As of now, there
are 26 known infected devices and they
are isolated to the Asian and European
mobile markets, but its still an important trend to be aware of, and one that
highlights the need to be cautious when
making device purchases.
MOBILE STILL NOT A

MAJOR TARGET FOR
DATA BREACHES
In its 2015 Data Breach
Investigations Report, Verizon
points out that while mobile malware certainly shouldnt be ignored
in terms of data breach security,
mobile devices infected with truly
malicious malware only made up
0.03% of the overall threat landscape in 2014. Apps with built-in
adware were much more common
and not only made money by delivering ads to mobile devices, but
also gathered personal information from infected smartphones.
Verizons advice on the matter is
to not make mobile your primary
focus for malware and data breach
prevention, but just to make sure
you have high visibility and strong
controls in place in the event
hackers do make mobile devices
their primary targets in the future.
15
Dialing Into UCaaS

CLOUD-BASED COMMUNICATIONS OFFER ADVANTAGES & EFFICIENCIES
AS KEN LANDOLINE, Current Analysis

principal analyst, points out, theres
a mantra among solution providers
todayUCaaS (unified communications
as a service) providers includedthat
goes mobile first. Meaning the folks
developing solutions must keep in mind
mobile executives, mobile sales representatives, and other mobile workers, as
more people are working from their mobile devices.
Factor in the fact that more employees
are also working remotely and it makes
sense enterprises are increasingly eying
UCaaS, which Landoline says makes it
much easier to increase points of service and reach employees, among other
things, rather than having to make adjustments to a monolithic PBX. Although
companies have yet to adopt full-fledged
UCaaS solutions in large numbers, expectations are more will implement various
UCaaS elements in coming years.
This article explores the benefits that

UCaaS offers over traditional UC implementations, why organizations might
consider altering their current communications solutions for UCaaS, and more.
Communication Breakdown
Years ago, while sizing up the UC
markets reach, Landoline set about
creating a fundamental definition for
UC. For a solution to qualify as UC at
the desktop, he determined three basic
criteria were required, including a telephone dial tone to make/receive voice
calls, employee presence to know who
was on the system at any given time, and
the ability to message people. Since then,
Landoline says, UC has expanded to include such notable elements as video,
page sharing, collaboration, and other
components.
Historically, high acquisition, management, and maintenance costs rel-
egated on-premises UC solutions to

large enterprises primarily, says Tim
Banting, Current Analysis principal analyst. Delivered as a service, however, UC
becomes accessible to more types and
sizes of businesses. Essentially, UCaaS
takes traditional UC infrastructure (PBX
[private branch exchange], for example)
off premises, providing the same service via a hosted provider that charges a
monthly, per-user fee.
Typically, UCaaS provides a full communications service with little need
for specific hardware or software purchases, Banting says, meaning significantly lower initial deployment, ongoing
maintenance, and upgrade costs. Irwin
Lazar, Nemertes Research vice president
and service director, says while some
solutions might include voice, desktop
video, IM, Web conferencing, and contact center features, others might provide
everything but voice.
17
To date, UCaaS adoption remains

somewhat tepid. A recent Canalys
survey of channel partners revealed
96% believed hosted collaboration offerings would comprise less than 20%
of their revenue in 2015. And Lazar
says that while Nemertes benchmark
research shows strong uptake in UCaaS
solutions, companies are largely deploying point solutions, such as cloudbased voice, Web conferencing, mail/
IM, etc., vs. buying a single offering.
The Advantages
Security concerns, reliability, and
adhering to compliance/regulations
requirements are among the deterrents
companies have experienced when
adopting cloud-based communications
services companies have experienced.
Conversely, flexibility, complexity,
and integration are key areas where
UCaaS can improve upon traditional
UC. UCaaS enables IT to eliminate
complexity by letting UC specialists manage the solution. UCaaS also
enables flexibility in terms of easily
adding and removing users and its
pay-what-you-use pricing model.
Lazar says the biggest advantage of
UCaaS is the native integration the solutions offer. For example, a company
with separate platforms for email, IM,
voice, video, Web conferencing, and
contact center can find that UCaaS
offers a far more integrated and easierto-use user interface, he says. UCaaS
offerings may also offer presence and
click-to-call federation with other
companies or public services, such as
Skype.
Elsewhere, the enhanced visibility
into spending and the ability to reduce
OPEX and limit CAPEX that UCaaS
provides can translate into financial efficiencies. Another advantage relates to
expanding points of service. Rolling out
a solution to three additional branch
offices, for example, would basically
only require an Internet connection
18
By going to UCaaS, [companies] can save in initial capital

cost and obtain a broader set of integrated features with
less in-house integration efforts. UCaaS services typically
offer faster upgrades to deliver new features.
IRWIN LAZAR
Vice President & Service Director
Nemertes Research
and browser, Landoline says. Further,

customization possibilities in the cloud
make it simple for internal or external
developers to implement changes, while
uniformity and consistency advantages
in terms of upgrades are also noteworthy, he says.
Another big advantage that people
dont talk about yet but I see coming
is that . . . putting things in the cloud
is a tremendous form of business continuity, Landoline says. Whereas an
organization with an on-premises UC
system could lose communication abilities in the event of a natural disaster,
for example, working in the cloud
would enable the business to keep running, he says.
Overall, overhauling an existing
communications solution to adopt
UCaaS typically makes sense when a
company is at an inflection point in
which it requires upgrades to existing
UC platforms, Lazar says. By going to
UCaaS, [companies] can save in initial
capital cost and obtain a broader set of
integrated features with less in-house
integration efforts, he says. UCaaS
services typically offer faster upgrades
to deliver new features.
Future Adoption
Similarly, Landoline says a small
percentage of companies are in a
greenfield environment that gives
them a pure choice to either implement UC on-premises or put it in
the cloud. Instead, the marketplace is
primarily a replacement market, he
says, meaning a company is facing
decisions concerning whether to replace the PBX or a previous on-site

solution. Therefore, Landoline says,
theres a big legacy piece of hardware
and software to deal with. A CFO
in an organization with a relatively
newer communications system might
say, We need to depreciate that over
the next 10 or 12 years. We cant just
yank it out, Landoline explains.
Due to such scenarios, Landoline
says, he foresees a hybrid era occurring over the next five to 10 years where
organizations with existing on-premises solutions start adding cloud-based
applications to bolster those solutions
but not scrap them entirely due to the
investment they made. He says vendors would be wise to build for a hybrid
world. For example, if youre running
a contact center, and a company wants
to put in a workforce management solution, Landoline explains, allow it to
do that in the cloud and work on-premises and link them together in a hybrid
type of environment. Landoline says
he believes thousands of applications
could be placed in the cloud and added
to on-premises UC solutions.
Currently, the collaboration and
communications market is fragmented
into numerous premises-based and
cloud-based offerings, he says, thus
theres likely to be a compromise in
features and functionality in choosing
a solution thats either all cloud-based
or all premises-based. Many vendors
currently support hybrid models where
customers can integrate both deployment choices.
GO DEEP
If quality time with the latest, fastest home computing technologies

is your idea of well-spent leisure time, CPU is the magazine for
you. Each month CPU serves up how-to articles, interviews with
tech industry leaders, news about cutting-edge research,
and reviews of the newest hardware and software.
Law Offices of Donald M. Gindy

1925 Century Park East, Suite 650
Los Angeles, California 90067
(424) 284-3123 www.gindylaw.com
Check out the latest edition right now at www.computerpoweruser.com

or on your iPad via the iTunes Store.
Business Intelligence Solutions

WHAT ENTERPRISES CAN REALISTICALLY EXPECT FROM THEIR INVESTMENT
KEY POINTS
Before selecting BI software
and tools, map out a clear BI
strategy and goals.
BI software offers numerous
possible benefits, but making
data-driven decisions isnt
possible if cultural and human
roadblocks exist.
Companies with BI software
in place may find it difficult to
convert users who are comfortable with the current solution.
Avoid the influence of marketing or following other companies leads and instead match
a solution to your businesss
use cases and problems.
20
IN A RECENT REPORT, Michael Lock,

Aberdeen Group vice president and
principal analyst, writes that while executives traditionally have greatly, if
not completely, based key business decisions on their experience and firsthand knowledge, utilizing analytical
tools and processes would enhance
that experience with data-driven insights.
Organizations that base decisions
on experience and intuition over data,
says Howard Dresner, author and chief
research officer at Dresner Advisory
Services, place themselves at a strategic
disadvantage by not having their finger
on the pulse of their business, market,
or customers. While the notions and
myths some organizations hold about
BI (business intelligence) software and
analytics are changing, especially as
newer workers climb the ranks, more
education is still needed, he says.
Lock writes, even the stodgiest,

slowest moving organizations are
waking up to the power of data-driven
decision-making. Today, he states, analytics is entering the C-suite, reaching
senior managers seeking to extract
maximum value from data, provide employees with analytical capabilities, and
deliver repeatable business results. For
these executives and others, the following
explores what BI software is; what results
it can provide; and how to choose tools,
avoid mistakes, and measure results.
The Purpose
BI software helps companies organize,
extract, and analyze internal and external
data gathered from business departments;
social media efforts; retail, marketing, and
digital initiatives; and other sources. The
aim is unearthing patterns and insights
that would otherwise be difficult to recognize. Using tools such as historical and
predictive analysis, OLAP (online analytical processing), text and data mining,
dashboards, data visualization, and reporting, BI software can identify a companys strengths and weakness and help
its leaders make better and faster decisions concerning business opportunities,
strategic plans, inefficient processes, past
missteps, cost savings, and more.
Although BI software and business
analytics are commonly used as if theyre
interchangeable, some argue there are distinctions between the two. Cindi Howson,
Gartner vice president, views business
analytics as the application of BI software. Some vendors, she explains, say BI
is just reportingI disagreewhereas BA
includes reporting and prescriptive analytics. Similarly, Lyndsay Wise, president
of Wise Analytics, says while there are
differences, the marketplace is ripe with
semantics. Essentially, she says, the goal
of BI and BA is gaining value from data
and attaining broader business visibility
to support better decision-making and
strategic success.
Whatever theyre called, says Daniel
Ko, Info-Tech Research Group analyst
and manager, whats important is finding
a tool that suits the organizations needs.
Ko describes BI software as a spectrum
of tools he views as last mile tools delivering and provisioning data to end
users. At one end are reporting tools. At
the other are predictive analytics suites.
BI and business analytics tools are in between, he says.
Used properly, BI software can solve
typical and atypical problems, Ko
says. Typical problems arise when running operations, such as how many
products we sold last week or how
year-to-date activities compare to those
last year. Atypical problems represent
strategic BI and are basically open
questions arising from business curiosity and start with a hypothesis and/or
observation. A marketing manager, for
example, might propose that placing diapers alongside beer may boost the sales
Look at [a BI tool] like a portfolio. Some stocks you want

to hold on to for a long time, and others you might get rid
of and pick up others.
HOWARD DRESNER
Author & Chief Research Officer
Dresner Advisory Services
of both. BI can be the platform to gather

data to prove and disprove the hypothesis, Ko says.
Generally, Ko views low-end tools as
doing static reporting with little or no
user interaction, answering typical questions, and pushing information to users.
High-end tools let users explore data on
their own to derive insight.
The Abilities
Dresner believes most organizations
have a sizable amount of low-hanging
fruit that BI software can help grab.
Things they simply didnt know about
their business that they should have
known, he says. Finance, accounting,
sales, manufacturing and logistics, human
resources, and other departments all
have quantitative aspects to analyze if
enough good data exists, says Nik Rouda,
Enterprise Strategy Group senior analyst.
While BI doesnt necessarily track qualitative information, even this is improving
with more nuanced analytics of text and
social, he says.
Howson cites BI software as potentially improving revenues and customer
service, increasing operating efficiencies,
exploring new opportunities, and predicting future outcomes. At a minimum,
it should help businesses know whats
happening based on facts, not gut feel,
she says. Jeff Cotrupe, Frost & Sullivan
big data and analytics industry director,
meanwhile, says accessing, processing,
and querying big data for analytic insights
can help solve problems in virtually any
business area. Companies in every vertical
are using tools to determine who their
best customers really are, where improve-
ments in production and other processes

are needed, how to optimize customer
experience, and more, he says.
What BI software cant do is solve
problems when cultural and human nature obstacles prevent a company from
being data-driven, Howson says. Further,
BI software cant magically solve dataquality issues and provide answers/insight without good data, Ko says. A lot
of people are trying to introduce BI to a
culture that isnt data-centric, he says.
These implementations will fail because
the demand for BI simply isnt there.
Make A Match
Notably, Cotrupe says, while there are
numerous vendors in the BI software
space, none has all the answers or all the
solutions. Often, the smallest providers
offer the most innovative solutions, he
says. Arguably the best starting point to
deciphering which BI software is most appropriate is defining the companys overall
goals, use cases, and applicable users.
Wise recommends full evaluation of
the business pains the company is experiencing and what the business and
technical requirements are. Specifically,
determine what data sources are required
and how to acquire, store, and manage
them. Further, identify where calculations/processing will occur and how the
company will interact with the information. Unfortunately, some businesses
overlook the importance of data management and its role in broader BI initiatives, Wise says.
Also critical is allowing for enough
flexibility to integrate software with all
current and future data sources, Rouda
21
says. Thus, choose software that can be

used by anyone likely to be asking questions about the business and that offers
enough performance to satisfy users and
workloads, can scale to handle data volumes, and provides as much security
and governance as possible. More subtle
features can include an ability to work
with data/users in disparate locations,
work on mobile devices, and foster collaboration.
Ko says selecting the most suitable
BI platform is an art, as it requires balancing IT and business needs, which
often conflict because IT wants a platform thats easy to develop, test, and
manage while the business wants something thats easy to use, interactive, and
collaborative. Decisions should involve
both groups. Ko recommends an approve and vote strategy in which IT
provides several options the business
votes on to help ensure the platform is
IT-sound but one that business users
will adopt and use.
Traditionally, IT has managed BI
software post-implementation. As usage
matures, however, business analysts
may manage report creation or access,
Wise says. With the advent of self service and data discovery, organizations
are looking more at user group management or having the business manage
BI, she says. That said, with data governance becoming more challenging
in terms of ensuring the data being accessed/analyzed is valid and reliable as
more users have increasing freedom to
access it, IT will become more responsible again, she says.
Both Ko and Dresner suggest considering establishing a BICC (BI competency center), which Dresner describes
sitting between IT and users, essentially
providing an advocate for users but
simultaneously upholding some corporate standards. Dresner says his research shows that organizations that are
strategically successful with BI always
have a functioning BICC.
22
Avoid Mistakes
Among missteps possible when
purchasing BI software is selecting
the wrong tools for the wrong users
and use cases. One tool, for example,
may be appropriate for user-assembled
dashboards and discovery-style applications but not for large scale financial reporting on transactional data,
Howson says.
Another mistake is following this line
of thought: Weve always used vendor
X, so why change? Rouda explains,
Theres a lot of stickiness in the markets, and while traditional approaches
may have been successful at meeting
traditional requirements, the needs
are changing rapidly. Big data, for example, brings a lot of new possibilities,
he says, and a BI tool is often the front
end of that technology stack.
Elsewhere, some organizations
make decisions based on marketing
campaigns or what others have done
instead of matching solutions to business problems, requirements, and technical specifications. Others overspend,
under-spend, and fail to land and expand, Ko says. Marketing, confusing
pricing models, and politics can cause
buying more than is needed. Other organizations under-spend by buying a
specialized tool that cant scale up and
out. Land and expand pertains to
buying a suitable platform at the right
cost but believing the project is done
after implementation. The project isnt
done, Ko says. [Organizations] fail to
grow with the BI tool, leaving a number
of functions unused.
Some people, meanwhile, view
buying BI tools from one vendor a mistake, while others view buying various
tools from multiple vendors the same.
Rouda says while theres an argument
that buying more integrated solutions
from fewer vendors offers supportability, deployment, and administration
benefits, most people he speaks with are
more interested in best meeting their
requirements than in choosing a specific provider. Wise says a one-stop

shop approach can make sense if a
company is already heavily invested in
a particular vendor, but a piecemeal approach can favor companies that desire
collecting best-of-breed tools or that
want to start with just one tool.
Dresner advises against a one size
fits all approach or taking the get the
hammer and then we can build whatever we need approach. Instead, he
advises narrowing prospective tools to
a subset that meets the organizations
needs. Look at it like a portfolio. Some
stocks you want to hold on to for a long
time, and others you might get rid of
and pick up others, he says.
Ko says using multiple tools is fine if
theres a business case for each. An organization that already has a traditional
BI tool, for example, may want to add a
data visualization tool to complement it
and enable certain abilities. Conversely,
buying from one vendor may provide
integration, bundled discounts, and
easier vendor management advantages.
The risk is getting locked into one vendors architecture, poor client services,
and increases in licensing fees.
Measuring Results
Obviously, a company that purchases BI software will want to see
results. The question is, how do you
measure them? Very carefully, Rouda
answers. Sorting out the impact of
good insights vs. other macro and
micro environmental factors can be
difficult. Did we sell more because of
the economy or because we knew who
to target? Did we make the right decision because were really smart or
because the software told us something
we didnt know? This aside, Rouda
cites cost and business process improvements as good indicators.
Very few companies use ROI to measure the impact of a BI solution, says
Howson, who wishes more did. While
soft benefits (user adoption, for example)

are often used to measure impact, she
recommends seeking out hard benefits
and anecdotal stories that demonstrate
success. For example, We saved $3
million in supply chain costs by better
analyzing our data. Revenue growth
through better targeting markets isnt
the way businesses are measuring results, Cotrupe says. Companies are also
improving their one-call, or one-online-interaction resolution, increasing
production without impacting human
resources, and seeing CAPEX and OPEX
savings using predictive analytics to help
accurately forecast future needs.
Ko recommends using a simple BI
adoption x BI consumption formula,
where adoption equals the number of
people using BI, and consumption measures how much BI is consumed and
how frequently. The product of both
provides a diagnosis of the health of
overall BI, he says. Ko stresses this is
only an overall diagnosis. Companies
still need specialized lenses to identify
areas to target. Example include BI governance, people, processes, data, and
technology. Deficiencies in these areas
will cause BI health to dip. Further, companies should speak with end users and
stakeholders for additional context.
Ultimately, Wise says, measuring
results means ensuring the BI tools a
company has adopted are addressing
the business challenges that necessitated
their use to begin with. The reality for
many organizations is that it becomes
challenging to identify success beyond
time saved, which becomes difficult to
validate over time if broader benefits
arent being realized, she says.
Dresner, meanwhile, believes BIs
success or failure has little to do with
technology and everything to do with
human beings. It comes down to inertia.
Comfort level. Fear. Politics. Often, organizations dont want to know about
problems because knowing means
having to do something about them, he
A lot of people are trying to introduce BI to a culture that

isnt data-centric. These implementations will fail because
the demand for BI simply isnt there.
DANIEL KO
Analyst & Manager
Info-Tech Research Group
says. BI is about changing behavior, and

humans dont like to change because its
uncomfortable. Failing, however, means
its just a matter of time before that organization evaporates, he says.
Call It Quits
A difficult question some companies
will face is knowing when its time to disentangle from one BI solution or switch
to a different one. Further complicating
matters is how to go about it. While
change is disruptive, Rouda says, the alternative is staying relatively uninformed
and under-informed, which isnt worth
avoiding the effort involved in switching.
Triggers that cause a company to rethink its current situation include BI
strategy reviews, an underlying business
model changing, declining BI adoption
and consumption, tools not adapting
to new analytics technologies and
data sources, and new BI technologies
emerging. How difficult a transition is
depends on how deep the roots are,
Dresner says. If data is currently in a
structure segregated from the actual BI
solution, it may be easier. But all these
solutions have their own semantic layers.
It is difficult, he says.
Also difficult is converting and
training users for a new solution when
theyre comfortable, allied, and still getting results from the current one. People
get emotional about that, Dresner
says. Hopefully [the new solution] is
better than what you have. If not, you
have a bigger problem on your hands.
Ultimately, the new vendor may provide
resources to help with the money, resources, and consultants possibly required
in migrating to a new solution, he says.
Scalability, licensing, and capabilities

are challenges Wise cites as accompanying a switch to a new solution. In
terms of scalability, organizations must
consider whether perceived problems
really have to do with the BI solution or
with the data warehouse/infrastructure.
After all, the solution will only perform
as well as its infrastructure, so if a database isnt optimized it becomes a challenge to get results quickly, she says.
Elsewhere, organizations sometimes
deploy a solution at a departmental
level, but it doesnt scale in terms of
use, Wise says. For example, licensing
may become astronomical, or the solution might not meet the needs of other
users, for reasons that can include a
deficiency in ease of use.
In terms of capabilities, use cases
and organizational needs change over
time. Not all vendors products are
created equally, Wise says. Using predictive analytics, for example, requires
specific capabilities not all solutions
provide easily.
If desiring to change products, Wise
advises a full evaluation first, asking
why the original solution was selected,
why its no longer valid, what went
wrong, who desires the change and
why, and what benefits and challenges
are involved. Challenges should touch
upon the current infrastructures readiness to implement the new solution.
Sometimes, Wise says, organizations
become too eager to consider changing
BI strategy due to a new CIOs or IT
directors previous experience with the
current BI solution. Those types of reasons arent valid for a rip and replace,
Wise says.
23
Greenovations
ENERGY-CONSCIOUS TECH
The technologies
that make our
lives easier also
produce some
unwanted side
effects on the
environment.
However, many
researchers,
manufacturers,
and businesses
are developing
solutions that are
designed to keep
us productive
while reducing
energy demands
to lessen our impact on the environment. Here's
a look at some of
the newest such
initiatives.
As part of its sustainability efforts, Bowling Green State University installed Crees CXB Series
High-Bay LED luminaires.
Universitys LED Lighting Could Pay For Itself Within Two Years
Bowling Green State University has been a signatory of the American College and
University Presidents Climate Commitment, which students have supported with
a fund of their own. So when it came time to replace the old metal halide lighting in
its Perry Field House, the university opted for LED lighting. Perhaps as noteworthy
as Bowling Greens decision to go with LED lighting is the fact that some LED products are now so much better than what you might remember from a few years ago
(or the bluish glare you might still get from low-end products).
The university chose Crees CXB Series High-Bay LED luminaires, which provide
bright white lighting with greater uniformity and instant-on performance, eliminating
the warm-up period, always-on requirement, and lighting variations associated with
the previous lights. According to Cree, the university should save more than $200,000
in energy and maintenance costs. The days of $3,000 maintenance calls with lifts are
gone with the use of the Cree CXB Series, says Dr. Nick Hennessy, sustainability
coordinator for BGSU, and we worked with our utility to secure $8,900 in additional
rebates that reduced the payback time to less than two years.
EnergySage Delivers Useful Data On Small-Scale Solar

EnergySage Marketplace is an online business that helps small-scale business and
residential solar buyers collect and review bids from pre-screened installers. Over time,
EnergySage has amassed a huge store of market data, much of which is now available
in the companys first Solar Marketplace Intel Report. Among the highlights: solar
costs are dropping, many shoppers are now buying solar energy systems rather than
leasing, and the number of equipment manufacturers grew this year by about 20%.
24
StoreDots Goal Is An Instantly

Charging Car
StoreDot, a startup based in Tel Aviv,
recently announced $18 million in new
funding, bringing its total funding so far
to $66 million. Why the interest from
investors? Perhaps because StoreDot is
preparing its FlashBattery technology,
which the company originally developed
for quickly charging smartphones and
other mobile devices, for use in electric
vehicles. The companys goal is to create
the first-ever prototype for an instantly
charging car battery, and the new funding
will help accelerate the process, StoreDot
says. Using synthesized (non-biological)
organic molecules with uniquely tunable optical and electrochemical properties (competitors, by contrast, use
metals), StoreDots FlashBattery can
charge a smartphone in 60 seconds. The
EV FlashBattery will store enough energy to power a vehicle for 300 miles per
5-minute charge, the company says.
Magnetic Refrigeration Market

To Take Off, Researchers Say
According to a report from Research
and Markets, the magnetic refrigeration technology does not involve the
use of refrigerants and its coefficient of
performance is estimated to be higher
than that of a conventional refrigeration
system. Because industrial and other
markets are realizing that the technology
offers greater energy efficiency than refrigerants without producing toxic fluids,
Research and Markets says, the magnetic refrigeration market will grow at
98.7% CAGR between 2017 and 2022,
to become a $315.7 million market by
2022. The firm explains that the markets segments include refrigeration, air
conditioning, and heat pumps, as well as
domestic, commercial, transportation,
and industrial applications.
This image from a Lafarge Tarmac video shows how the U.K.-based companys Topmix Permeable
paving material can absorb 4,000 liters (or about 1,000 liters per square meter) in a minute.
New System Addresses Stormwater Management Issues

Excessive rainwater and flooding have been growing concerns in the U.S., Europe,
and throughout the world. Lafarge Tarmac, a U.K.-based manufacturer of sustainable
building materials, has created a material designed to address this problem. Called
Topmix Permeable, the concrete system has been shown to absorb 1,000 liters (264
gallons) of water per square meter per minute. The system includes both material and
hydraulic components so that water is stored away from the paved area. According
to Lafarge Tarmac, Topmix Permeable is not intended as a replacement for all paved
locations, but is best for parking lots, driveways, subbase, and similar uses. The paving
material requires routine maintenance to prevent clogging from debris, but the
company says maintenance costs are greater with traditional pavement and drainage
systems. Topmix Permeable is currently used mainly in the U.K.
Europes New Horizon 2020 Work Program Includes Climate

Change Policy Priorities
Launched in 2014, the European Unions 7-year Horizon 2020 program is the
largest research and innovation program in the EUs history, with an operating budget
of $87.6 billion. Funding is broken out into multiannual work programs. The newest
work program, which has an $18.2 billion budget, was announced in October and
establishes numerous priorities for the 2016-17 time frame. The top priority is job
growth, with about $2.5 billion going to small and midsize enterprises. Other priorities
include expanding Internet and digital technologies, increasing industrial capacities
and globalization, and addressing migration challenges. Climate change policy is third
on the list. According to the EU, the goal is ensuring that Europe has secure, affordable, and climate-friendly energy. Wiser energy use while fighting climate change is
both a spur for new jobs and growth and an investment in Europes future. $822.9
million will be devoted to low-carbon energy technologies, $455 million toward efforts
to make Europe a leader in renewable energy, $263.8 million to smart and sustainable
cities, and $220.8 million to additional energy efficiency projects.
25
Get CyberTrend On Your iPad

Anytime, Anywhere
Its Free, Easy & Convenient
With the FREE iPad app, you can read the latest issue of CyberTrend or catch up on back issues,
all at no charge. The app includes an offline reading mode and both portrait and landscape viewing.
Download the CyberTrend iPad app from the Apple Newsstand in iOS, the Apple App Store on your
iPad, or www.itunes.com/appstore on your computer.
CyberTrend
Is The Essential
Monthly Guide To
Business Technology
For Executives &
Company Owners
Find The Right Colocation Provider

CAPACITY, UPTIME & SECURITY SHOULD BE FOCUSES IN YOUR SEARCH
COLOCATION IS CAPTURING the attention of more and more enterprises as

it promises to help relieve some of the
burden associated with managing and
maintaining a large number of servers
and other IT equipment onsite. Often,
colocation is used for offsite backup and
recovery purposes as well, where a colocation facility is geographically separate
from the companys own data center.
Before your organization can reap all of
the benefits colocation has to offer, however, you must decide which provider is
best suited to meet all of your requirements. This article can serve as a basic
checklist for your selection process.
Space
One of the most important factors to
consider when comparing data center
colocation providers is the amount of
available space. The last thing you want
to do is move crucial equipment into a
colocation environment and begin to

rely on that facility only to find that it
isnt able to handle your needs as your
business grows.
You also dont want to end up in a
situation where the facility itself is so
compact that your equipment is sitting
right next door to another companys
equipment. This may be suitable for
some small to midsize businesses with
smaller implementations, but if you
hope to add more servers in the coming
months or years, they are going to need
room to breathe. Make sure the colocation provider in question will either leave
you some space for potential growth or
has multiple facilities to accommodate
future expansion.
Power & Cooling

Power and cooling go hand-in-hand
with space because the colocation facility needs to have the right amount
of capacity to support your current and

future needs. When it comes to power,
you not only need to make sure the
provider has adequate power supplies
in the racks themselves, but also that
the energy utility coming into the facility is capable of handling the necessary load of your equipment and every
other piece of equipment the provider
is hosting.
In addition to power, its also best to
speak with the provider about the types
of cooling approaches they use in their
facilities. Do they simply flood the room
with cold air to keep all of the equipment cool or do they offer such things as
hot-aisle/cold-aisle containment or spot
cooling to focus more on your specific
footprint within the facility? This is especially important if you are responsible
for paying the cooling bill for your area
within the colocation facility. Your section could be highly efficient, but if the
27
rest of the facility doesnt meet those

standards and its a flood-the-room approach, you could end up paying more
than necessary.
Uptime & SLAs

Uptime should be a major talking
point with any colocation provider candidate. There is always the potential
for outages and downtime at a facility,
but the key is determining how many
9s of uptime a provider guarantees and
whether or not they are truly capable of
meeting those needs. (If a provider offers four 9s, for example, that means it
claims 99.9999% uptime.) This is where
doing your due diligence on space,
power, and cooling really come into
play. By understanding how much capacity a facility can support, you should
be able to determine whether or not that
location has a potential for overutilization and outages.
Aside from doing your own research,
you also need to make sure that everything about uptime is properly addressed
in the SLA (service-level agreement). In
the SLA, the provider should specify its
uptime guarantee (99.999% is usually
a good yardstick), but its also important that power, cooling, and any other
factors that play a role in uptime are
included. In other words, watch out for
any language that blurs the guarantee.
Track Record
Find out how established the colocation provider is and get an idea of its
track record. Compare providers and, if
possible, look for recommendations and
referrals. Indeed, the best way to gauge
whether a certain provider will meet
your needs is often to find out whether
it met the needs of other companies past
and present, particularly if those companies are in your industry.This should
provide peace of mind that the provider
is familiar with your type of implementation and has proven it can accommodate your needs.
28
Security
When it comes to colocation facilities,
there are two types of security to keep
in mind: software-based and physical.
Colocation typically means that the provider gives you the space, power, and
cooling to handle your offsite infrastructure, but you are typically responsible
for securing the data and applications
stored on that equipment. This provides
you with a degree of control so you can
implement your own choice of security
COLOCATION
BY THE NUMBERS
The following information is from a
Q1 2015 report from 451 Research.
$22.8 billion - current

annualized revenue of the global
colocation market.
$36.1 billion - projected
annualized revenue for the global
colocation market by 2017.
74.8% - portion of current
revenues from local colocation providers with <$500 million in annual
revenues.
solutions, but there are some colocation

providers that offer network security solutions if you prefer outsourcing.
When it comes to physical security,
the colocation provider is in control, so
its crucial to learn what systems they
have in place and how much access
others have to your hosted physical infrastructure. Look for providers that require badge access or even biometric
scanners not only for building access,
but also for getting into your section of
the facility. Colocation providers typically have multiple security measures
in place at every level of the facility, but
you have a degree of control over what
security methods are in place in the cage
where your equipment is housed. If, for
example, you plan to store highly sensitive data and require biometric (fingerprint or retina) scanners for access,
speak with the provider to make sure
thats possible.
Additional Services
In addition to the baseline colocation
services you might expect, some providers go above and beyond to make
sure your experience is as positive as
possible. This can include service offerings, such as private or hybrid cloud
hosting; physical offerings, such as multiple sites to choose from in order to
achieve geographic separation; or simply
the opportunity to take advantage of onsite experts to ensure your infrastructure
is maintained in the best possible way.
With so many colocations vying for clients across the U.S., its important to
look for and compare these additional
service offerings to identify which ones
stand out from the crowd.
Contracts & Pricing

After youve narrowed down the list
of potential colocation providers, its
time to look at pricing structures and
contracts. Decisions in this area depend
on how much equipment you plan to
move into the colocation facility and
how long you plan to house it there.
Most, if not all, colocation providers
offer monthly plans with costs that are
tied to the number of servers you have.
Additional costs, such as those for power
and cooling if applicable, need to be factored into your decision as well.
The key is to make sure everything
is clearly stated in the SLA or contract
when you make your final decision. Ask
if discounts are available for longerterm agreements, and build in wording
that will account for potential growth
so expansion-related costs dont get out
of hand. This is the part in the process
where you must take strides to protect
yourself and your equipment not just
now, but well into the future.
Why You Need VPN

GIVE EMPLOYEES REMOTE NETWORK ACCESS WITHOUT SACRIFICING SECURITY
REGARDLESS OF SIZE or industry, most

companies today are searching for ways
to give secure network access to employees, whether theyre in the office,
on the road, or working remotely. They
need flexible solutions that not only enable employees to be more productive,
but also make sure any data and applications are properly protected. VPNs
(virtual private networks) can give companies these capabilities, and they come
in a variety of flavors designed to meet
the needs of any enterprise.
What VPN Is & What It Does

A VPN, at its core, is a secure connection between an endpoint (such as
a desktop, laptop, or mobile device)
and an organization's internal network,
which is usually a direct connection to a
VPN server. This connection is achieved
by installing a VPN client on the endpoint that gives that device permission
30
to connect to the network and access

internal corporate resources. As information passes through the VPN from
the endpoint to the internal network and
back again, the data is encrypted and
decrypted to ensure that none of it can
be accessed or stolen during the session.
VPNs are particularly beneficial for
enterprises because they can be finetuned to restrict access to certain assets
within an organization and to certain
users. For example, an HR representative may need to have access to personally identifiable employee information,
but the same rights shouldnt be extended to sales or call center employees.
A solid VPN client will give you the
tools necessary to allow or deny access
to important internal systems and only
give employees access to the data and
applications they truly need.
If your company employs a fair
number of remote workers or frequent
business travelers, then a VPN is the

easiest way to give them secure access
to your internal network. The same
goes for companies in highly regulated
industries, because you have to make
sure that every incoming connection is
properly encrypted, especially for employees working with sensitive data. The
key to setting up a successful VPN and
knowing which type of VPN to choose
ultimately depends on what devices you
need to support and which solution offers the features necessary to ensure the
best and most secure connection.
Different Types Of VPN

There are quite a few different types
of VPN protocols out there, each with
its own strengths and weaknesses. You
have to look at what types of data and
applications your employees will most
need to access via VPN and then determine what level of protection your
network will require. For some companies, it may make sense to choose the
simplest form, which is called PPTP
(Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol),
while for others it will make more
sense to go with something more advanced, such as IPsec (Internet Protocol
Security) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).
PPTP is one of the most widely supported types of VPN, but that by no
means makes it the best. This protocol
was developed by Microsoft in cooperation with other remote networking
groups and can be used on almost any
operating system or device in use today.
The problem with PPTP is that it isnt
as secure as SSL or IPsec, and it has numerous exploitable security vulnerabilities. Its widely used because it is quite
easy to set up and it might be a good
place for newcomers to dabble, but most
organizations will want to opt for SSL or
IPsec instead.
IPsec is often considered to be one
of the most secure types of VPN available today, and it is also quite flexible
and extensive. IPsec protects data from
inside the Internet layer, which is the
part of the network where data packets
are transferred back and forth. Because
IPsec is implemented deeper within
the network stack, it can be used to encrypt and protect any data or application traffic that goes through the VPN.
This protocol is also supported on most
operating systems and devices, which
is a reason why IPsec and SSL are so
common in enterprises today.
SSL VPN is singular relative to PPTP
and IPsec in that it doesnt require a
dedicated client on the endpoint device
to connect to the network. In fact, a user
can connect to the network via VPN
using any supported Web browser. SSL
VPNs are highly customizable, and with
SSL network administrators have the
option of only giving employees access
to Web-based data and applications or
they can open it up to other internal
resources. There is also an open-source
version of SSL VPN, called OpenVPN,

so administrators have the option of
going that route if they need features
that arent available from vendor-specific solutions.
How To Set Up A VPN

There are a few different ways to
implement a VPN and some of them
require more effort than others. Some
computers and devices have VPN support built-in, so all you have to do is
set up the actual VPN server or VPN
connection on the company side and
allow access from those devices. If you
want to establish a fully managed and
potentially customized VPN, then you
can purchase a VPN solution from a
vendor, which usually consists of the
internal system you need as well as the
clients that can be installed on endpoints. Some vendors offers applications that employees can download
from app stores and then use those to
connect to the network.
Its also important to keep in mind
that VPNs dont actually have to be
implemented and managed internally.
Most major cloud providers give clients VPN solutions that are built into
their cloud environments. Cloudbased VPNs are especially beneficial
for companies that use the cloud to
store data and host applications, because employees can access those
cloud resources from anywhere using
almost any type of device and operating system. This may not be the best
solution for all companies, especially
for those that use non-cloud-enabled
legacy applications that may still require an internal VPN to access.
Why Its Important For

Remote & Mobile Workers
In addition to working well for desktops and laptops, VPN is also useful for
enabling mobile and remote personnel
to do all of their work while away from
the office. Because information passing
over a VPN never needs to be stored

on the device in question, it is more
feasible for employees armed only with
mobile devices to perform tasks while
away from the office.
Depending on the type you select,
VPN can give network administrators the ability to see and manage external endpoints as if they were wired
directly into the network at the office.
This is an excellent solution for companies that want to support BYOD (bring
your own device) policies or allow
more flexibility for employee devices.
If implemented properly, VPN can help
enterprises strike a balance between
protecting sensitive corporate data and
giving employees access to the data and
applications they need to be productive
wherever they are.
VPN TERMS TO KNOW

PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling
Protocol) VPN is widely supported
but is also simplistic and less secure
than the more recent IPsec and SSL.
L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol)
extends some of the functionality of
PP2P and can be used with PPTP.
IPsec (Internet Protocol Security)
and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
are the most commonly used forms
of VPN today and are more secure
than PPTP. IPsec and SSL operate
on different network layers. IPsec
is considered more complex and
flexible, SSL easier to use.
OpenVPN is an open-source VPN
program built on SSL/TLS. Its aim
is high security. It uses OpenSSL
encryption.
MPLS (Multiprotocol Label
Switching) is a type of network; a
variety of MPLS-based VPNs can
be established on these networks.
31
Maximize Your Network's Potential

LEARN HOW SDN CAN BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS
SDN (SOFTWARE-DEFINED networking)

has been a hot topic for quite some time,
but its a relatively new philosophy that
companies are still trying to figure out.
Although most enterprises understand
the basic concept of centralizing network
management and making networks easier
to configure, many still wrestle with the
question of, Do we really need this? To
answer that question, you have to look at
the potential benefits of SDN and determine whether it can offer you better performance, efficiency, and capabilities than
your existing network.
Cost Reduction
According to Dan Conde, an analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group,
the No. 1 reason why businesses want
to implement SDN is to reduce costs.
For example, on the CAPEX side, you
no longer have to worry about buying
all-in-one networking hardware thats
32
optimized and customized to your environment right out of the box. Instead,
you can buy commodity hardware at a
lower cost and use your SDN platform to
maximize performance.
On the OPEX side, a major cost-saving
benefit of SDN is change management
and configuring your network. Traditional
networking would require you to go to
each individual piece of equipment to
make network-wide changes, but with
SDN, you can automatically update the
entire network when you make a change
from the centralized controller. As an
added benefit, this should also free up
your networking or IT team, in general, to
focus on other tasks.
Less Vendor Lock-In

In addition to saving money, there
is less vendor lock-in with SDN, which
means you can mix and match device
families and vendors. When you build
your network primarily on hardware from

one specific vendor, then it may be difficult to incorporate products from other
vendors into your network due to compatibility issues. And if you experience
issues with that one vendors products,
then an entire network overhaul may be
necessary to make a change. SDN lets you
decide what hardware to use and helps
integrate everything via the software layer.
With this approach you can have a router
from Vendor A and an Ethernet switch
from Vendor B and use your SDN platform to bring them together.
Better Network Security

Another benefit of SDN, one that not
many companies initially think about, is
the potential for improved network security. If you buy preconfigured hardware from a networking vendor, there
is a chance it may lack built-in security
features, so you would need to add your
Not [all enterprises], especially the smaller ones, are

DevOps-capable. Theyre not the ones writing Puppet
scripts. But if they want to do that in the future or hire
new people who are capable, its one of those things
where I can now provision a Docker container and then
do networking at the same time. If youre going to move
to that DevOps style of doing things, SDN is going to
be ready to adopt that. A lot of people are talking about
adopting some of the technology used by some very large
Web service providers, but even smaller companies can
benefit from these capabilities in the long-term.
DAN CONDE
Analyst
Enterprise Strategy Group
own layers of security. However, with

SDN, you can essentially build your network from the ground up with security in
mind every step of the way and know that
your desired security solutions will work
as intended. Plus, because everything is
software-based, you can easily monitor
each individual connection to the network
and be proactive when dealing with and
responding to potential threats.
Network Function Virtualization

Typically, when you set up a traditional network, you not only have to think
about the hardware necessary just to get
the network up and running, but also the
different appliances required to optimize
and protect the network as a whole. For
example, you may buy a physical security solution, such as a firewall or intrusion detection and prevention system, or
a WAN (wide area network) optimization
appliance thats designed to make your
network run efficiently.
With SDN, you can take advantage of
NFV (network function virtualization) to
bypass the need for hardware-based appliances and instead put those same functions into virtual machines. In addition to
being able to virtualize security and WAN
optimization appliances, you can virtualize
routers, switches, and even load balancers,

which help you efficiently allocate network
resources to your different workloads. By
virtualizing all of these different network
functions that traditionally required hardware, you may be able to save money while
also having more control and flexibility.
Policy-Based Networking
Building on the idea that SDN can essentially make your network smarter and
more flexible is policy-based networking.
With policy-based networking, you no
longer have to tell your network how to
perform a certain function. Instead, you
tell it what you want to do and the network
figures it out automatically. For example,
you might set up a policy that lets only
certain systems communicate with each
other. This is particularly important when
dealing with the Internet at-large and your
potentially sensitive internal systems.
Lets say I have three tiers: I have a
Web tier, a middle application tier, and
then a database, says Conde. You dont
want the Web tier to talk to the database
for security reasons, but you want the
Web tier to talk to the app server and the
app server to only talk to the database.
Right now, if you want to set that up, you
have to do that by accessing the control
list, which is kind of hard to manage. But

SDN can give you a policy-based system
that basically says, tell me what you want
to do, and then it figures it out for you.
Improved Agility
SDN can improve the agility of your
network across the board. Weve mentioned how you can set up the network
and make changes quickly, but youll also
feel the agility boost during day-to-day
business tasks. Conde says that business
employees are being asked to work faster
with the same amount of resources, so
companies are looking for ways to improve productivity and give employees the
tools they need to succeed.
Conde uses the example of a development and test team. With traditional
networking, if that team wants an environment to safely build and test applications,
IT would have to put that job in a queue
and make them wait until resources are
available. However, with SDN, you can
provision things automatically, meaning
you can set up a special sandbox network
and give the team access to the resources
they need almost immediately, he says.
DevOps Capabilities
In a similar vein, SDN also supports
the DevOps mindset of bringing software developers and IT teams together.
Although DevOps is typically a concept
that best fits larger enterprises, SDN
should help bridge that gap in the future.
If [smaller businesses] want to do that in
the future or hire new people who are capable, its one of those things where I can
now provision a Docker container and
then do networking at the same time,
says Conde.
If youre going to move to that
DevOps style of doing things, SDN is
going to be ready to adopt that. A lot of
people are talking about adopting some
of the technology used by some very large
Web service providers, but even smaller
companies can benefit from these capabilities in the long term.
33
Co-Managed Security
REAP THE BENEFITS OF EXTERNAL SIEM EXPERTISE
KEY POINTS
SIEM (security information
and event management) gathers
information from your other security solutions to better detect
anomalies and threats.
SIEM requires employees
with specialized skills, which
not all organizations can afford.
Managed security service
providers can take full control
of your SIEM, so your internal
team can focus on incident response and other tasks.
Co-managed security is a
partnership where you and a
third party work together to run
and maintain the SIEM platform.
34
IN AN EFFORT TO ease the burden on enterprises, more products and solutions

that were once only available on-premises are now moving offsite or to the
cloud with the help of managed service
providers. This transition, however, is
about more than just moving email systems or productivity suites to the cloud,
because now providers are offering security services aimed to give customers
special security expertise at a more affordable entry point.
Fortunately, one of the biggest yet
most complicated systems that companies have to deal with, SIEM (security
information and event management),
is available as a managed service or as
part of a co-managed security arrangement. If your company is struggling to
keep up with security, or youre looking
to offload some of the responsibility for
your SIEM system, then now is a good
time to consider your options.
SIEM In A Nutshell
SIEM is a combination of SEM (security event management) and SIM
(security information management).
SEM is the aggregation of data into a
manageable amount of information so
that security incidents can be dealt with
immediately, says Michela Menting,
digital security research director at
ABI Research. With some elements of
log management, SEM focuses more
on data analysis, using storage, and reporting tools. SIM, on the other hand,
focuses on the analysis of historical data
in order to improve information security infrastructures. This system is essentially dedicated to the discovery of
anomalous or malicious behavior.
In essence, SIEM helps security teams
analyze potential threats and makes
them aware of truly dangerous behaviors. Instead of going to each individual
system, such as your firewall, antivirus
toolset, or other security solutions,

you pull information from all of those
disparate sources and put it in a more
manageable location. You have a firewall and antivirus, but what if a security problem affects network, systems,
users, and applications? asks Dr. Anton
Chuvakin, research vice president at
Gartner. You want to see whats going
on across the environment in a unified
monitoring view.
In addition to pulling data from
your other security solutions, SIEM
can use information from sensors
spread throughout your infrastructure.
Whether a threat comes from within the
organization or at its edges, the SIEM
program identifies potential problems
and your security team can respond
quickly to alerts. You can really think
of it as the one-stop shop for all event
data that is coming from endpoints,
servers, network devices, and applications, says Doug Cahill, senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group.
And whats further making this more
complicated in terms of just the massive influx of data that goes into a SIEM,
now weve got cloud computing, hybrid
clouds, and mobile devices, so theres
just a tremendous amount of disparate
data coming into the SIEM.
Special Skills Required

Because SIEM solutions are relatively
difficult to maintain and have so much
data streaming into them, your security
employees will require a specific level of
expertise to properly run and respond
to the programs. Chuvakin points out
that the trickiest part of SIEM is not
necessarily the implementation step, but
instead the fact that because its a monitoring, detection, and response product,
it implies that when it signals something
important is going on, you have to pay
attention to it. He says theres also an
ongoing cost for SIEM, and the challenge of running a solution ultimately
comes after the implementation phase.
The issue with SIEM is that selecting the right product

can be difficult and is almost entirely dependent on the
objectives of an organization and the resources available.
Without knowledgeable IT personnel, certain organizations
will require a more out-of-the box solution that requires less
technical implementation. A host of other considerations
need to be taken into account, such as data storage, user
interface, monitoring, functionality, event reduction, ticketing, visualization, and reporting mechanisms.
MICHELA MENTING
Digital Security Research Director
ABI Research
You have to pay for and make time for

skilled security professionals to monitor
the SIEM solution and respond to potential threats as they arise.
Cahill says security employees also
need to know how to set a baseline for
normal activity in their unique business environments, be able to understand anomalous and potentially
malicious behavior, and then create a
set of correlation rules that can properly differentiate between the two so
you dont end up with an unmanageable amount of false positives. These
experts need to live in and fully understand your infrastructure and network
to be able to identify what constitutes
normal activity or a real threat. A lack
of cybersecurity IT skills, however, can
force some companies to look at thirdparty support whether that be through
MSSP (managed security service providers) or co-managed SIEM providers.
MSSPs
While IT expertise limitations may
cause a company to choose a thirdparty security provider, Menting
says that resource allocation and
the rise in cyberattacks are also factors. Many companies are turning to
MSSPs to manage certain aspects of
security they dont want to manage
themselves. Generic offerings include

virus protection, spam blocking, firewall management, intrusion detection
and prevention, log management, and
Web content filtering, she says. Many
MSSPs also provide high-end capabilities like virtual private networks, user
authentication and identity management, data forensics analysis, vulnerability assessment, penetration testing
and evaluation, incident response, and
data leakage detection and prevention.
MSSPs can also manage SIEM solutions. Chuvakin says that with MSSPs,
you are essentially renting peoples time
and getting a service rather than a box,
appliance, or tool. For SIEM, this makes
perfect sense because if you dont have
the people to run the SIEM, then you
probably want to go with an MSSP,
he says. Another potentially unforeseen
benefit you get with MSSP-based SIEM
is the ability to share in the knowledge
the MSSP has gathered from working
with other clients.
Its basically threat intel sharing
vis--vis the knowledge of a [SOC
(security operations center)] analyst
working at an MSSP, says Cahill.
This is called situational awareness
where instead of being myopic in
terms of Hey, Im just worried about
my environment, theyre bringing
35
Youre not outsourcing your whole IT security team.

Youre augmenting that team, extending it, and really
offloading the tactical day-to-day functions to the service
provider, which then frees up your own security team to
do more strategic security projects.
DOUG CAHILL
Senior Analyst
context to how theyre monitoring and

managing your environment that is really hard for IT managers to get, unless
youre allocating time for somebody on
your team to become a security expert
in terms of the threat landscape, adversary behavior, and known vulnerabilities. Thats really a big value add
of MSSPs: expertise and being aware
of cybersecurity situations across multiple companies.
Co-Managed SIEM
Your options for SIEM essentially
come down to buying, deploying, and
managing the system wholly on-premises; outsourcing all things related to
SIEM to your MSSP, because they may
already be handling the rest of your
security; or taking advantage of SIEMas-a-service where you essentially buy
a service from a third-party vendor but
still hold all of the management responsibility. Another option, co-managed
SIEM, serves as somewhat of a middle
ground between these options where
you can take advantage of third-party
expertise and management capabilities
but not put all of the responsibility on
your internal security team or, to the
other extreme, relinquish all control
over the system.
What co-managed SIEM is all about
is basically teaming with a third party
to manage the ongoing day-to-day operations functions that are performed
in the SOC, says Cahill. The core of
the SOC or the main tool that they use
in a SOC, whether its at an MSSP or
36
on-premises, is a SIEM. What youre

saying is for the day-to-day activity of
events coming in, writing correlation
rules, and vetting alerts, youre going to
outsource that, but youre still working
closely with the service provider to write
those correlation rules and prepare reports
for the executive team, but very often the
data is still on-premises. A co-managed
SIEM doesnt necessarily mean that everything is in the cloud or only the service
provider has access to the data. Its really
a partnership.
Chuvakin says co-managed SIEM is
basically a hybrid between owning an
SIEM and renting time from an MSSP,
and that co-managed security essentially balances the negatives of the other
two. What that means is that by partnering with a third party, you can make
sure you get the necessary expertise
from your MSSP, but you still maintain some of the control and have access to the data. You dont suffer from
losing local context, but you also dont
suffer from the overwhelming resources
needed to run a SIEM, says Chuvakin.
Hence, co-managed SIEM was born as
a way to service-enable your SIEM and
have somebody else help you run it or
help you manage it and gain insight, but
also preserve all the local context and
local data availability.
Levels Of Control
While there are benefits to using comanaged security, and especially comanaged SIEM, you also need to think
about how much control you want to
maintain or give away in terms of how

you run the system. The more regulated the organization and the more
sensitive the data is in their environment, the more likely they are to want
to keep this on-premises, Cahill says.
However, he warns that taking this approach will result in higher operational
costs and not being able to take advantage of the cooperative and collaborative environment you get with an MSSP
or co-managed arrangement.
For organizations concerned with
data going outside their walls, Cahill
recommends encyrpting the data in
motion and at rest and to own the encryption keys. I think thats fundamentally the trade-off, he says.
Chuvakin says the level of control
you get from a co-managed partner ultimately depends on its policies. There
are situations where it will be relatively
open and youll have a say in almost
every aspect of running the SIEM, and
there will be other situations where
you can freely access the data from the
SIEM and monitor it as much as you
want, but your partner will handle all of
the configuration responsibilities. The
reason for this is that when you sign up
with an MSSP, it is supposed to commit
to certain service levels, and if you, the
client, have the ability to tinker with
settings, doing so could jeopardize the
effectiveness of the service.
In the end, you have to decide
whether you have the resources and
staff onsite or can hire the right personnel to run a SIEM internally. Then,
you have to balance that with the fact
that youre missing out on taking advantage of valuable knowledge outside
of your own organization. If youre
willing to relinquish a little bit of control by going with a co-managed security arrangement, then you can still
have full access to the SIEM solution
itself, but you also get help with management and access to invaluable security expertise.
Improve Security Awareness

EDUCATE EMPLOYEES & CONSIDER IMPLEMENTING TRAINING PROGRAMS
NETWORK BREACHES, data theft, and

other security risks impact businesses
of all sizes, not just the largest enterprises. Whether your company employs
10 or 10,000 people, make sure your
staff understands the many security
risks that face them in todays business world. In some cases, awareness is
enough to build a more cautious work
environment, but there are times when
formal or informal training is necessary. Regardless of which path you take,
it never hurts to give employees a refresher on what they can do to better
protect the business and themselves.
General Awareness
If your company isnt in a highly regulated industry and would like to give
employees a heads up as to potential
risks, then awareness may be enough to
get the job done. Andrew Walls, managing vice president at Gartner, warns,
however, that awareness is not always

achieved through the use of computerbased training or classroom training approaches. He recommends looking at
awareness like an internal advertising
or marketing campaign rather than a
specific training program. Awareness
campaigns need to be ongoing and
consistent, because employees cant be
expected to keep up with the newest
threats on their own, especially if that
isnt part of their day-to-day work.
Rather than focus on monolithic,
once-a-year training sessions, these enterprises produce multimedia programs
that span the entire working year,
says Walls. Employees are provided
with information as well as motivation
through the use of computer-based
training, live events, coaching, and a
variety of print materials. Building a
successful security education program requires focus and investment.
Materials must be refreshed on a regular basis to keep them fresh and entertaining. CISOs must anticipate this
increased investmentand the skills
required to develop effective training
and budget appropriately.
Implement Training Program

When Awareness Isnt Enough
For some organizations, awareness
simply wont be enough and they will
need to create a training program. Its
important to remember that technology alone will not mitigate all of our
risks and that employees hold all the
cards when it comes to security of corporate information, Walls says. You
can have all of the top-end security in
the world, but if an employee accidently
sends something in an email or opens
the corporate network to hackers via
their personal connection, then nefarious folks are bound to get through.
37
To properly develop a training program for your employees, you need the
help of an expert that has experience in
the areas of behavior influence and education. Walls says that too often companies will blame the failure of security
education on its employees rather than
on its own incompetence as training
developers. He understands that some
companies simply dont have this experience in-house, but they need to gain
access to those skills through engaging
vendors or other teams within their
own enterprise that are responsible for
other forms of training. If you can get
your employees on the right track in
terms of security training, then theres
a better chance that theyll think twice
before putting the company at unnecessary risk.
Training Programs Live Or Die

By Clearly Defined Objectives
Not only do you want to have a
knowledgeable person leading your
training program, but youll also want
clearly defined objectives. While the
ultimate goal of any security education program is to protect a business and its corporate data, that isnt
specific enough to guide the training
strategy in any meaningful way. Walls
adds that the lack of specific objectives means that it is impossible to
demonstrate a return on investment
for the program, which will make it
difficult to get support for such programs in the future.
The goals you establish for your
workforce from a security awareness
perspective will ultimately determine
what shape your program takes and
whether it is successful. Clearly defined objectives enable an organization to more readily define their
options for training content and delivery methods, as well as their needs
for capturing employee performance
in the training process, says Walls.
Your objectives define your methods
38
Changing an employees habits permanently requires a

sustained effort and oversight that very few organizations
consider worth the payoff. Unless you are a cybersecurity
vendor, a national defense organization, or a highly, highly
critical business unit ,then general employee security
training is just a bit of a lost cause, in my opinion.
KYLE PRIGMORE
Associate Analyst
and the quality of your results. If you

don't have objectives it really doesn't
matter what you do.
Informal Or Formal Training?

Sometimes an internal training
program may not be enough, which
is typically the case for companies in
regulated industries. For instance, you
may need to get an employee certified
in a specific security area and update
that certification on a regular basis.
Walls explains that there are formal
and informal certifications. Formal certifications are typically for employees
working in government or military organizations or possibly those that work
for HIPAA- or PCI-regulated businesses. Informal certifications that are
indicative of higher skill levels can
also be used as a way to motivate employees to participate in the security
training program, Walls explains.
Its also important to keep in mind
that some specific technologies and
security solutions have their own
training programs, which is another
angle you may want to consider. There
are many vendors that offer professional certifications in various security
topics, says Walls. If youre worried
about a specific solution being used incorrectly or just want to make sure your
employees understand how to use that
solution, it wont hurt to get in touch
with your vendors to see if they offer a
training program.
Training May Not Be An Option

Security awareness is a must for most
organizations. However, training programs simply wont be an option for
some companies due to the time and
effort such programs require. This is
especially true for larger enterprises that
are forced to keep track of hundreds or
thousands of employees and cant waste
resources checking up on employee security habits on a consistent basis.
If it ever worked, it would be huge,
says Kyle Prigmore, associate analyst
at ESG (Enterprise Strategy Group).
An enterprise where everyone made
sure their machines were patched [and]
hardened, [where] they used best practices for things like password management and phishing prevention, and
[where they] only used the appropriate
devices, channels and networks to access company data? Theyd be as close
to bulletproof as is possible. Sadly, it
will never happen at the enterprise
scale, he says.
The key to implementing security
awareness programs that work is to
focus on the biggest risks to your business. You cant cover every possible
base and remove every possible vulnerability, because in the end, you are
dealing with human beings that are
prone to error. In some cases, its a
matter of just doing your best to educate employees when you can and creating an environment that tries to put
security first in everything it does.
GENERATORS
AUTOMATIC TRANSFER SWITCHES
UPS
PRE-OWNED GEN SETS
20-3000KW
LOW HOUR WITH WARRANTY
We buy and sell complete systems.

CALL FOR PRICING AND SPECIFICATIONS.
w w w. e m p i r e - c a t . c o m
INQUIRIES
Kris Davenport: 602.622.5619
kris.davenport@empire-cat.com
Digital Commerce Trends

MOBILE & SOCIAL HIGHLIGHT THE NEED FOR A CHANGE IN E-COMMERCE THINKING
KEY POINTS
Spending on commerce applications is seeing double-digit
growth every year and customers are getting more comfortable with online shopping.
The market has shifted so
that most businesses buy prebuilt digital commerce platforms
rather than building their own.
IBM, Oracle, and SAP offer
the most common platforms,
but there are many other
players in the market.
Improving the customer experience is crucial across social
and mobile, in addition to your
main Web presence.
40
DIGITAL COMMERCE has grown to the

point where its about so much more
than selling products online. Businesses
are fighting for the attention of consumers with their desktop-based websites, mobile sites, applications, social
networks, advertising campaigns, and
other channels, with the ultimate goal
of pulling in customers and gaining
their loyalty for the foreseeable future.
The statistics point to enterprises focusing on digital commerce more than
ever before, and with so many platforms to choose from, its easier for
even smaller companies to jump into
the fray. To help you better understand
where digital commerce is now and
where it will go in the near future, we
explore some of the major trends happening in the market today, including
industry growth, platform buying decisions, and the importance of improving
the overall customer experience.
TRENDS
More Than E-commerce
The first thing to realize about digital
commerce is that it is now a term that
actually encompasses traditional e-commerce, which typically revolved around a
main desktop-oriented website being the
primary source for selling products and
services. Thats why Gartner now tracks
digital commerce rather than solely ecommerce, according to Jennifer Polk, a
research director with Gartner. Polk says
that digital commerce is growing and
that its bigger than just the Web. In
fact, she points out, 50% of digital commerce revenue comes from a channel
other than the website.
What this means is that companies
need to consider areas such as mobile
devices, social media, and even connected devices and IoT (Internet of
Things)-related products as well. Its

no longer enough to just set up an ecommerce website and try to drive
traffic toward it. You now have to target
consumers on the devices they use the
mosttablets, smartphones, and, now
or in the near future, wearablesas well
as on the social networks they commonly visit, including Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn.
Spending On Digital Commerce

Applications Is Growing
Another major trend in digital commerce, aside from the fact that its expanding into more channels and to more
devices, is that its growing at consistent
rate. Christine Dover, research vice president at IDC, says that spending on digital
commerce applications that actually run
the websites, take the orders, and process the payments grew by 25% in 2013
over 2012, with the expectation that it will
continue to grow at a 17% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) through 2018.
And Dover expects this years figures will
follow the same trend. This growth, she
says, has been spurred by traditional commerce businesses continuing to spend
and newer businesses, such as non-profits
and other organizations that wouldnt
traditionally need online stores, entering
the market.
Based on research around enterprise
application buying forecasts, Polk and
Gartner agree that spending on enterprise
software designed to support digital commerce will grow at double-digit rates well
in the coming months and years. Gartner
expects not only double digit-growth for
the foreseeable future, but also growth
of between 14% and 15% through 2018,
focusing just on the U.S. alone.
Consumers Are Getting Even

More Comfortable Buying Online
There are numerous factors contributing to the growth of digital commerce, but one of the biggest is the
fact that consumers are getting more
Its the idea of personalization, presenting things

that are in context to the customer, understanding
perhaps where they are and what theyre doing, and
figuring that out so that theyre not being presented
with bathing suits in December. . . . [Its also the] idea
of community and participation.
CHRISTINE DOVER
Research Vice President
IDC
comfortable buying online, and the buyer

demographics are expanding. Polk says
that people have historically made assumptions about demographics, but that
were actually seeing a broadening of all
demographics using digital commerce
channels. She admits that its still not a
level playing field, because you certainly
see higher-level usage in millennials and
Generation Y than you do in older demographics, but there has been an increase
in usage across all demographics.
Why are these demographics expanding? Polk says the overarching reasons are a greater comfort level in general,
and the fact that e-commerce channels are
becoming easier to use. People are getting
more comfortable with paying online and
using the technology, she says. Id say the
second thing is certainly adoption of mobile devices, including smartphones as well
as tablets. And third is improvement in infrastructure that allows purchasing online,
increased adoption of things like responsive Web design, and mobile sites making
it easier to purchase online and complete a
transaction online from a mobile device or
mobile site.
Credit Cards & PayPal

Are Still King
When it comes to digital commerce
payment methods, Dover says that you
still see a lot of PayPal and credit card
usage as well as some growth in the use
of Apple Pay and other mobile technologies, and she hasnt seen many vendors talking about alternative payment
methods like Bitcoin. In fact, she says

that there are a lot of partnerships happening with credit card companies and
digital commerce vendors, which means
that traditional payment methods still
reign supreme and may do so for quite
some time.
Where things are changing a bit, however, is in the global digital commerce
world. Dover says that some vendors,
including Avangate and Cleverbridge,
will essentially serve as the merchant of
record, so you dont have to have a legal
presence in a given country to be able
to sell there. Plus, these vendors can help
you adapt to the local payment customs
of different countries as well. There are
some interesting local things that happen
with payment that some of these vendors
are enabling, because obviously [companies] want to sell their products in a
lot of places, says Dover. Brazil does
something where you can actually buy
almost anything on layaway, so you have
to adapt to that kind of thing where the
customer is paying a little bit a time.
PLATFORMS
Build Or Buy?
Dover says it wasnt that long ago
that many organizations built their own
e-commerce platforms simply because
there werent than many options available
from vendors. Back then, the e-commerce
presence of most organizations amounted
41
to not much more than a marketing website, but now, consumers expect to be able
to go to your website and actually make a
purchase right then and there. Its a very
complicated application that has lots of
ties back into your ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, accounting, inventory, and perhaps your manufacturing
and marketing applications, she says.
Dover says that over the past 20 years,
there has been a major shift where virtually no one builds their own accounting
or payroll applications, although there
are some legacy custom-built systems that
some companies still use. She points out
that where companies often used to think
they were too unique to buy a readymade commerce platform and had little
choice but to go custom, she sees little
reason for a company today to build its
own commerce application from scratch.
Still, some still do. We see companies
that are investing in building their own
technologies and we also see companies
that are looking to buy something off the
shelf that they can integrate with other
technologies, oftentimes because its faster
and easier to do, says Polk. However,
she adds, there are certainly benefits to
building internally, which can include integration with other proprietary technologies
and possibly better support in-house.
How To Choose A Vendor

If you do decide to go with the prebuilt
platform approach, Dover warns that you
have to be careful with what vendor you
choose as a partner. She recommends researching the company to see how wellfunded it is, who the leaders are, and how
those leaders present themselves. You have
to make sure that vendor is run by people
you can see yourself working with for quite
some time, she says. Once you get started
with one of these commerce vendors, its
not like youre going to throw it out and
get started with a new one next year,
Dover explains.
Another important aspect of selecting
a vendor is size. If youre a larger, more
42
Gartner forecasts double-digit growth in digital

commerce, and this is based on enterprise application software forecasts. Its not necessarily what are
consumer buying, but what are IT organizations and
companies investing in enterprise software to support
digital commerce. . . . Were forecasting doubledigit growth for the foreseeable future, and growth
between 14% and 15% through 2018 for the U.S.
JENNIFER POLK
Research Director
Gartner
sophisticated organization, then you may

want to go with a vendor such as IBM,
Oracle, or SAP that can adequately meet
your needs. In fact, for large organizations,
Dover recommends not being the biggest
customer they have and making sure they
work with companies that are similar to
yours. Otherwise, they will be scrambling
to meet your needs, and you dont need
that, she says. However, if youre a small
to midsize business, it may be too complex or too expensive to run those types
of platforms over time, Dover says, so you
might want to go with a smaller vendor.
customization and personalization. Polk

says the ability to support real-time marketing through data analytics is a major
feature to look for, but she also stresses the
importance of being able to support multichannel marketing, including, but not limited to, mobile and social. Regarding the
digital commerce store experience itself,
she says many organizations are looking
to be able to integrate internal and external
search capabilities, incorporate ratings and
reviews on product pages and in external
search results, and use customer behavioral
and transaction data to build a strong recommendation engine.
How To Pick A Solution

When it comes to choosing a digital
commerce platform, Dover recommends
first asking yourself whether e-commerce
is all youre after or if you need something
that also ties into a physical retail environment. If [youre] just doing e-commerce,
all of these vendors are fine because they all
do that, she says. But if you need to have
a single experience between whats going
on in your store and whats happening
online, those two things used to be completely disconnected, and you cant have
them be disconnected anymore. In that
instance, youd want to go with a vendor
that has online capabilities as well as solutions that support brick and mortar stores.
In terms of what features to look for,
there are quite a few depending on your
needs, but most of them revolve around
Commonly Used Platforms

Once you know what size of vendor you
want to go with and the type of features
youre looking for, its time to compare the
vendor landscape and find the best match
for your needs. Dover says that for large
enterprises, vendors such as IBM, Oracle,
SAP, and Demandware all have solutions
that can take care of both an online and
in-person commerce presence. But there
are also many other vendors, including
Avangate, Cleverbridge, and Elastic Path
Software, that primarily focus on the sales
of digital goods and services.
Once you get into the SMB space as well
as the mom and pop shops, Dover says,
vendors such as Volusion, Bigcommerce,
and Shopify typically come into play. Once
again, what vendor is most appropriate
depends on size, scalability, and support.

Larger organizations may need to go with
the biggest players out there, but if you
fall into the midsize space, you have a lot
more options to choose from, so it ultimately comes down to the features offered
in those platforms and how much you plan
to grow in the future.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Responsive Web Design
& The Importance Of Mobile
One of the biggest areas of competition between digital commerce organizations boils down to the overall
customer experience, and what that
ultimately means is being able to give
consumers exactly what they want regardless of location or channel. For that
reason, RWD (responsive Web design)
has emerged as a major technology for
companies to look for in their commerce platforms.
RWD gives your website a way to
determine whether or not its being
viewed on a mobile device and then it
adapts it to the best possible experience.
It can affect the size of the content on
the page, how the content is displayed,
what content is displayed, and other
aspects of the Web experience, says
Polk. Its basically changing it from
a desktop view to a mobile view thats
customized depending on whether
youre on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or a
mobile phone, as well as what make and
model of device youre on.
Responsive Web design is crucial because a growing portion of Web traffic
is coming from mobile devices, Polk
says, and it behooves businesses to make
it easier for users to engage on a mobile
device. Its important to make sure your
company, brand, and products and services can be found by customers when
theyre searching for information on
these devices, Polk says.
Social Networking
Another key area for improvement
with regard to customer experience in
digital commerce is with social media.
Polk says that, inherently, customers
dont always trust advertising, and so
they instead reach out to people they
trust in their network to make better,
faster, and smarter purchasing decisions. For that reason, you have to look
at your customer base, determine what
social networks they most commonly
use, and then make sure you have a presence in those environments.
Whether its a CIO looking to invest
in software and turning to a discussion
group on LinkedIn or an individual consumer looking to buy a car and turning
to Facebook to get the opinions of their
friends and family on different makes
and models, people arent relying solely
on advertising to make these decisions,
says Polk. Its not enough just to invest
in traditional advertising or push marketing. Its important to also embrace
social or word of mouth marketing.
Building A Community
The ultimate goal of every business,
whether they primarily focus on digital
commerce or not, is to build a core group
of loyal customers, and perhaps the best
way to do that is to build community
features into your website that give customers more ways to interact with each
other and the company itself. If all Im
doing is checking who has the cheapest
price on a particular pair of boots and
thats who Ill buy from today, thats not
what retailers or anybody else wants,
says Dover. They want loyal customers,
and you create that loyalty by having a
good experience.
She uses the example of a sporting
goods store. You want to get customers
to the point where they dont just go
to your website to shop for a jacket or
pair of hiking boots, but rather go to
the website as a way to be part of a community, share stories from hiking trips,
and interact with other customers. I

may sign up for a group event thats happening and say, you know, I need a new
outfit, says Dover. There I am, already
in the store environment, so naturally
I would go shopping there. If you can
make your digital commerce presence
into a community and make the experience relatively seamless across any device, then youll be well on your way to
gaining more engaged and more loyal
customers.
A BETTER CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE BREEDS
A MORE COMPETITIVE
BUSINESS
Detailed in a report entitled
Customer Experience Is The New
Competitive Battlefield, Gartner
surveyed a selection of marketing
organizations in 2014 to determine
where customer experience ranked
in terms of competition between
businesses. In the survey, 89% of
marketing leaders expected customer experience to be the primary
area of competition with other
businesses, up from 36% four
years prior.
Of those same marketing
leaders, fewer than 50% said
they consider their organizations
customer experience level to be
better than their peers, but around
two-thirds of them thought they
would be more successful than
their competitors within a five-year
time frame. This report highlights
just how important it is to focus on
the customers experience when
it comes to marketing and digital
commerce, because if users cant
get the products and services they
want from you quickly and easily,
then they have plenty of other
places to look.
43
Rise Of Mobile Commerce

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IS GROWING & BUSINESSES NEED TO KEEP UP
KEY POINTS
Anywhere/everywhere
Internet access is making mobile shopping and mobile buying
much easier for consumers.
Businesses can take advantage of app development tools
and responsive design to put
their products in front of more
people than ever before.
Retailers should see mobile
as a separate channel and design the mobile user experience
with that in mind.
Adoption of mobile payments
is slow right now, but that
should change as the benefits
become more obvious.
44
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE in mobile

buying and the use of mobile payment
methods is growing, and this trend is
forcing many businesses play catch-up
in order to meet customer demands. Its
not enough to set up a website and hope
consumers will suffer through the clunky
desktop-oriented experience on their mobile devices. Its vital to cater to the mobile
user specifically, and give them a reason to
complete the transaction.
Making Mobile Commerce

Easier For Consumers
The growth of mobile in the e-commerce space can be attributed to a few
factors, but one of the most important is
the availability of high speed access to
Internet, whether its Wi-Fi hotspots or the
increased capacity of cellular networks,
says Gene Alvarez, managing vice president at Gartner. Because users can connect
to the Web from almost anywhere now,
they always have access to mobile storefronts and commerce-based applications.

When they see a product theyre interested
in, they can instantly look up information
about it and make the purchase directly
from their smartphone or tablet.
To complement this constant access
to the Internet, the displays on smartphones are getting bigger and clearer,
which gives businesses a chance to better
display their products to consumers and
increase the confidence to conversion,
Alvarez says. He adds that the cameras
built into mobile devices are having an
impact on commerce. I can see something
that someones wearing, take a picture of
it, and search on it in some applications,
says Alvarez. In other cases, I can take a
picture of the UPC code or QR code on a
poster and it connects me to the product.
Theres a bridging of the physical and digital worlds occurring through the use of
QR codes and the camera.
Yet, even with improved mobile experiences and greater consumer confidence
to buy from mobile devices, challenges
remain. James Wester, research director
at IDC, says that until recently, its been
difficult for merchants to adapt their existing platforms to the mobile device and
make that an attractive experience for consumers. There are also security and privacy
barriers that prevent many consumers
from embracing mobile commerce.
However, Wester believes that with the
market presence of Apple Pay, Android
Pay, and other digital wallets, it may finally reach the point where when you go
to buy something, all of that information
is securely auto-populated into the site and
the purchase happens quickly, he says.
How To Embrace Mobile

Commerce As A Business
On the business side of mobile commerce, Wester thinks merchants have had
a love/hate relationship with the whole
idea of consumers being able to carry a
piece of equipment that allows them to
look at cheaper or better alternatives to
what theyre presenting in their store. In
essence, he says, mobile devices are the
equivalent to bringing a competitor directly into the store. This has also contributed to the showrooming phenomenon
where consumers use the physical store
as a way to see and try out products that
theyll eventually buy online or from another retailers (more on that later).
The key with mobile commerce for
businesses, according to Wester, is to understand that it isnt going anywhere and
to embrace it. I think youre going to start
seeing that happen more and more, he
says. As consumers push for that mobile
experience, the merchants themselves will
say, Well, we have to embrace it not just
as a buying mechanism, but as a customer
service mechanism as a way to increase
loyalty and stickiness.
Fortunately, there are quite a few tools
available to businesses that are making it
easier to move toward mobile. In addition
All of these questions, in terms of mobile, really

roll up into a larger topic of customer experience. If
Im in the convenience business, I should be thinking about mobile as to how it makes things more
convenient. . . . If Im in the everyday low price
space, how is it helping customers save money and
make it easier for them to get their items?
GENE ALVAREZ
Managing Vice President
Gartner
to the availability of mobile application

development frameworks that are much
easier to use now, Alvarez says responsive
Web design has had a major impact on
mobile commerce. If I want to be out on
a mobile platform quickly, I can design my
website in a way in which it will reformat
itself to the mobile device its being viewed
[on] and provide an easier interface for
the consumer, says Alvarez. With the
mobile application frameworks that are
available, organizations are able to create
applications for mobile devices that can be
deployed across the various collections of
mobile devices out there.
Staying Competitive
In The Mobile Commerce Space
Wester points out that mobile devices
have brought about major changes in
terms of defining what a store is, what
a merchant is, and what it is to be a consumer. Stores are no longer places that
you have to physically travel to in order to
buy products, because those channels exist
anywhere consumers are as long as they
have access to the Web. We can access it
at home on the computer or while were
out and about, and merchants are now
coming around to the understanding that
they arent just a place customers go to; its
a relationship that is ongoing all the time,
Wester says.
Because this is such a fundamental shift
in thinking, most companies are still figuring out how to be competitive in the
mobile space, and one major challenge is

the choice of payment technology. Wester
says many companies have tried to move
the desktop experience over to mobile and
realized that it isnt a one-to-one analog.
The first step that merchants are really
starting to embrace right now is understanding that a mobile device is a different
experience altogether from the online experience and a complementary experience
to the in-store purchase experience, he
says. What theyre really trying to do right
now is wrap their heads around how they
actually provide this different but complementary experience on mobile devices.
Alvarez agrees that the user experience is perhaps the most important area
to focus on when designing a mobile Web
storefront or commerce app. Responsive
design is one way to achieve this, but
its also about creating a simplistic flow
throughout the entire experience. People
dont want to be pinching to make it move
in and out, and they also dont want to be
tapping five or six times through multiple
screens, he says. Think about it as something that needs to be done in 30 seconds
or less once someone has decided this is
the item to buy. Improved flow through
the checkout process is important.
Pros & Cons Of Showrooming

There was a time when showrooming
was seen as a harbinger of doom for brickand-mortal retailers, but theres little evidence to prove or disprove how much an
45
impact e-commerce and mobile devices

have actually had on traditional commerce.
Wester says that it makes sense to consumers to take this approach as a way to
get the best possible price, but at least right
now, he hasnt seen evidence that this is
necessarily happening at a large scale.
However, regardless of how prevalent
showrooming is or not, many physical
retailers are finding ways to turn a potential negative into a positive. If you
look at the stores that compete on things
like price and customer experience, youll
find that even in their storesand Im
thinking about Target as an example
they provide you with free Wi-Fi as if to
say, Go ahead, use your phone, look at
other prices and other places, because
youre not going to find anything better
than whats sitting in front of you on the
store shelf, says Wester. There is this
sense that if youre going to showroom,
thats fine, we know you are, but youre
in our store right now and were going to
make sure you stay here.
Another way that retailers may combat
showrooming in the future is to use
Bluetooth beacons to provide discounts or
coupons to consumers on the spot, which
would be a way to price-match online deals
in real-time and potentially make an instant sale. The problem with this approach
at the moment is that companies have yet
to figure out how to do this without being
intrusive. But once consumers become
more comfortable with targeted advertising and offers while at a physical retailer,
stores will have even more opportunities to
embrace mobile and remain competitive.
Barriers To Mobile
Payment Adoption
With the emergence of Apple Pay,
Android Pay, and other digital wallet style
mobile applications, the idea of paying for
in-person transactions with your smartphone is quickly becoming a hot topic.
However, the challenges of consumer security and privacy are still major barriers
for mobile payment options. Wester says
46
What if you got a bill on your phone and it was just

a matter of clicking a button to pay your electric bill
or credit card bill immediately without having to take
money out of your wallet? You dont pay ahead of time,
but exactly when its due. Thats the kind of stuff I think
well see even before we see a large-scale migration
to people paying using their phones offline at stores.
JAMES WESTER
Research Director, Global Payments
IDC
consumers are starting to realize that the

little computer in your pocket that you
call a phone is likely more secure than
that plastic card with the digits of your
account number embossed on the front.
But he also admits that positioning
smartphones as more secure than credit
cards simply isnt enough to encourage
mobile payments, at least partly due to
the fact that most credit cards have zero
liability and most debit cards have limited
liability when it comes to lost or stolen
cards. In essence, credit cards are already
secure to some degree and therefore the
mobile experience has to strive for something more: to be better than using cash
or a credit card. Are those tools providing a better experience that is additive
to the shopping experience more so than
that plastic card? Wester asks. At this
point, I dont think that consumers have
seen that it is.
And when it comes to businesses supporting mobile payments and digital wallets, its a matter of incentive. They really
dont get anything for it, says Wester. If
it costs to install the equipment and all
you can do is send discounts and loyalty,
then it actually reduces revenue. Theyre
increasing costs and reducing revenue,
which is not a formula that most merchants are that excited about. They want
the exact opposite. Have we gotten to a
point where whats offered to us makes
our shopping experience better? It cant
just be security, because again, its already
secure and we dont have any liability for

it. It has to be better.
The Future Potential

For Mobile Payments
Still, even though there are numerous
challenges inhibiting the adoption of
mobile payment methods, the fact of the
matter is that consumers are using their
mobile devices more than ever before to
make purchase decisions. And this trend
isnt separated into specific categories either, according to Alvarez. He says that
people use eBay Automotive to buy cars,
mobile Web stores to buy apparel, mobile
apps to make grocery list, and even apps
like Zillow to aid in the process of buying
a home. Mobile works with every category, its just to what extent, he says.
The key is for companies to figure out
how to best implement mobile payments
in order to get the most benefit. Alvarez
says that since the dawn of time, retailers have been finding ways to move
customers through lines more quickly.
With mobile devices, it may be possible
make that process much more efficient
and decrease the effort it takes to make
a payment. In some cases, you already
have fast food applications where if you
have a credit card on file, you can place
your order, go in and receive your lunch,
and its paid for, says Alvarez. Youre
bypassing the register straight to pick up.
That aspect of mobile payment frees me
up from even going to the register.
Seeds Of E-commerce Change

SMALL BUSINESSES NOW HAVE THE TOOLS TO COMPETE AGAINST THE BIG GUYS,
BUT THATS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION
RUNNING AN ONLINE store used to be so
complicated that even the largest businesses had difficulty setting them up and
maintaining them. But now, e-commerce
and online retailers are commonplace,
and consumers are increasingly comfortable ordering products online. In a recent report, UPS Pulse Of The Online
Shopper, comScore showed that one in
four shoppers worldwide bought products from retailers based in other countries, half of which were retailers from the
U.S. The study also found that half of the
U.S. shoppers surveyed bought products
from international retailers.
This may seem like news that only applies to the Amazons and eBays of the
world, but in fact, its possible for businesses of all sizes to get in on this growth
due to the proliferation of e-commerce
applications and services. In essence,
these lower priced and more advanced
tools are leveling the competitive playing
field between the smallest and largest

businesses so that even mom and pop
shops can go from local to national or international, as long as they have ambition
and ability to do so.
Tools Of The Trade

At A Reasonable Price
Raymond Boggs, vice president, small
and medium business research, at IDC,
says that you used to need dedicated subcontractors and quite a bit of capital to
build a website capable of taking orders
or even having a shopping cart function.
But in the past 15 years or so, technology
has changed so considerably that now you
can not only have those basic retail functions, but also take advantage of data analytics and advanced marketing strategies.
The biggest thing is the search engine optimization and getting the metrics
in place, says Boggs. Its the ability to
make use of the technology in much more
effective ways than ever before. I used

to have a website and had no idea who
was visiting, but now I can capture the
metrics, drive traffic, look at how much
click-through activity there is, and so on.
The higher level of understanding about
the whole process is available to me in a
real way.
For small businesses in particular,
there are quite a few easy-to-use website
builders that prioritize style and function
over coding ability. For example, companies such as Wix.com and Squarespace
offer templates specifically designed for
businesses and e-commerce stores. Users
can choose to use existing templates and
fill in relevant information, or dig in and
fully customize their sites to match their
tastes and requirements.
Most website builders today offer dragand-drop-style interfaces, which makes
it easy to change elements on the page
without having to spend hours or days
47
digging through HTML code. Perhaps the

best part is that users can typically start
for free, or start at a reasonable monthly
or annual rate, and then pay for additional features as the site grows and the
more functionality is required.
Additionally, most website builders
support RWD (responsive Web design),
meaning that with little or no effort on
your part, your website will look and
feel as though it were natively designed
to be viewed on any device, including
desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Five years ago, that was an enormous
song and dance, and now the tools are
in place to allow you to have the right
formatting and the right rendering and
display depending on whatever device is
being used by the customer, says Boggs.
You get exactly the right clear image
and graphic clarity that will not put off
the customer, but engage the customer.
Meeting Consumer Expectations

If youre entering the e-commerce
space for the first time or looking to improve your existing setup, its important to remember that todays online
shopping space needs to center on the
customer experience. Boggs says online
retailers such as Amazon are so engaged
with consumers nowadays that everybody is comfortable with ordering online
and getting stuff sent to them. However,
Amazon is an enormous company with
resources to spare and can afford to put
forth an easy-to-use and high-quality
product that smaller businesses have to
try to match.
The best place to start in this respect is
to look closely at what customers value
from the biggest online retailers. They
want intuitive search functions, graphically appealing product information
pages, a quick and painless transaction
once they decide what to buy, and then
information on where their product is in
the shipping process. Fortunately, those
tools are available to companies of all
sizes, but the challenge is using them in
48
Think of the more advanced and expensive kinds

of capabilities that the biggest companies are using.
Theyre going to find their way into the smaller ones,
but also the smaller ones are sufficiently agile so that
when they get successful, the share of the business
they can do via e-commerce is actually going to be
greater than the share that a bigger company can do.
RAYMOND BOGGS
Vice President, Small & Medium Business Research
IDC
the right way and being able to handle

what may come next.
I want to get the resources in place
that allow me to do just as good of a job
as Amazon, says Boggs. On one hand,
thats terrific, because those resources
are available. On the other hand, its
terrifying, because I used to just have
to compete against the other guy down
the street whos the same size as me. I
just had to do a little bit better than he
was doing. Now, Boggs adds, I have to
do as well as the biggest company in the
world in implementing e-commerce, or
else the customers are going to get sore.
Youre caught between these two conflicting sources.
As Big As You Want To Be

Small businesses typically become
successful because they make one specific product or offer one specific service
that is so highly specialized and unique
that no other company could reproduce
it on a larger scale. But in the past, those
businesses didnt have access to the same
resources, which in turn give that business access to customers all across the
world. If you take advantage of that scalability and start thinking nationally or
globally, then you have to prepare for
that potential growth and success.
Its almost like you want to advise
folks to fasten their seat belts because
you may find growth that youre going
to be pretty surprised at if you hit the
market and start to resonate with prospects, says Boggs. These are the kinds
of things that can really transform your
business from the sort of local operation that you used to have to one thats
national or even international, assuming
you have the shipping and capabilities in
place to execute on those orders.
So, how do you handle that success? There are essentially two ways to
go about it, according to Boggs. You
can focus on revenue and profit margins and take the biggest orders that
come your way, provided you have the
supply chain and shipping partners
in place to handle it. Or, you can be
ready to say no, raise your prices, or
be more selective, he says. You ultimately have to decide if you want to be
everything to everyone or if you want
to tailor your product so that only a
certain set of consumers will pay a premium for it.
Thats the hardest discipline in the
world to maintain, says Boggs. Im
looking to pay the bills, Im worried
about cash flow, and I have make payroll. I hear this big order comes in.
Terrific, how am I going to say no?
When Walmart knocks, are you really
prepared to say go away? Its going
to change your life, and maybe not for
the better. It requires a real discipline.
Do I just want to make money or is
there something else I have in mind as
a mission?
CORPORATE TRAVEL?
NEED A VACATION?
Let our #missionbird take you where you need to go.
Our diverse fleet of 22 aircraft offers a travel experience above the rest.
Ready when you are
STAjets exclusive membership program allows our members

to earn cash in addition to flying at an industry discount.
It requires no complicated contracts, deposits, hidden fees,
or blackout dates.
We offer our exclusive members discounted flights
while earning cash rewards on every flight.
ITS THE LOWEST COST MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM IN THE INDUSTRY

AND THE ONLY PROGRAM THAT PAYS BACK!
844 FLY-STA1 | charter@stajets.com | www.stajets.com

359-7821
IMAGE COURTESY OF TRIMBLE
Putting Drones To Work

MORE COMPANIES EXPLORE DRONE USE FOR BUSINESS BENEFITS
KEY POINTS
Whether designed for the
consumer/toy or the prosumer/
hobbyist market, drones have a
variety of use cases.
Drone use is popular in agriculture and oil/gas exploration. The
insurance industry might be next
in making major use of drones.
Although film and media get
a lot of attention for their drone
use, they only make up about
20% of the overall drone market.
Contrary to popular belief,
technological hurdles, rather
than the FAAs approval process,
hamper or halt a majority of proposed drone use cases.
50
REGARDLESS OF THE TERM you use to describe themdrone, UAS (unmanned

aircraft system), UAV (unmanned aircraft vehicle), or something elsethese
systems have long been a hot topic in
terms of military usage. More recently,
there is a growing number of news reports
about drones flying into restricted airspace,
hovering over unauthorized areas, and
even interfering with firefighters efforts as
they fly over California wildfires. Increased
drone activity in the consumer market
has also resulted in the Federal Aviation
Administration getting involved for safety
reasons. But regardless of the controversies
surrounding drone use, there are many legitimate commercial and private uses.
Types Of Drones & How They Work

Dan Kara, practice director, robotics,
at ABI Research, says there are essentially three types of drones used by the
consumer, prosumer, and commercial
markets. One is the helicopter-style (also

referred to as a quadcopter) drone that is
capable of vertical take-off and landing
without the need of a launcher. These systems usually have four rotors that work in
tandem to provide lift. A second type is a
fixed-wing model, which resembles a traditional airplane in shape, typically has one
propeller. Unlike the VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing)-style drones, fixed-wing
drones often require a launcher: a long,
flat area from which to launch, or a person
to steady the device and throw it into the
air (if it is small). Another common drone
style is a hybrid craft that has multi-rotor
take-off and landing; the rotors change
positions once the craft is in the air, and it
flies similar to an airplane.
Aside from their unique designs and
launch methods, what sets these drone
styles apart more is the distances they can
fly and their maximum operating ranges.
Kara explains that VTOL drones typically
cant cover long distances because they

are basically helicopters. He says the fixedwing drones can cover longer distances,
but its a little harder to get them off the
ground. The hybrid models combine both
styles, but you dont get quite the same
operating range or operating time with
hybrid systems by virtue of the fact that the
vertical take-off still cuts down on that to a
large degree, says Kara. This is an important distinction because the size, design,
and take-off/landing method of any given
drone will impact its potential use cases.
Clear-Cut Market Segments

& General Use Cases
For his research, Kara focuses on drones
that weigh less than 25 pounds. Crafts of
that size are used by everyone from military, security, and government agencies to
commercial B2B (business-to-business),
marketing teams, and consumers. He
notes that the consumer marketplace can
be broken into two categories: the consumer/toy marketplace (typically made up
of drones with an average price of $350)
and prosumer/hobbyist (with drones that
can cost as much as $4,000 or more).
Kara says ABI Research focuses more
on the prosumer/hobbyist category as opposed to consumer/toy, because that marketplace, frankly, is so out of control now
that any numbers you get are probably not
based on any kind of measurable, quantifiable facts. Still, he says, the most common
use cases for drones in the consumer/toy
category are recreational photography
DHLs parcelcopter was used to deliver

medications and goods to an island in Germany
as part of the first real-life unmanned mission
where a drone wasnt in the operators view.
If you look at the videos that show [drones] flying out to

a house, theres beautiful weather, and they land outside
of a fairly large house in a suburban area. I live in New
England, so for five months out of the year, stuff is kind
of bad. I dont know how itll be in terms of really cold
weather, snow, hail, rain, or whatever. Thats another
problem. I just think there are technical problems that will
be very difficult to get around.
DAN KARA
Practice Director, Robotics
ABI Research
and videography, first-person flying via a

camera on the drone and a display in the
users hands, and action sports scenarios
where the drone follows someone as they
ski, ride a bike, or participate in any another activity.
Drones in the prosumer/hobbyist marketplace can easily cost thousands of dollars, so the use cases for this category tend
to be more professional in nature. For
example, youll see drones in this market
used for professional photography or videography. Film and media companies, for
instance, typically use drones to capture
scenes from interesting angles. There are
also use cases for the real estate industry,
marketing, and entertainment. A real estate agent could go beyond taking the typical external and internal photos of a home
and also provide potential buyers with a
quick flyover of the neighborhood and a
view of the house from various angles.
There are also examples of companies
using drones as marketing or sales tools to
drop prizes to groups of eager recipients
on the ground. Kara says some organizations have used drones as a source of entertainment, as well, flying them in formation
over events. Although there are a variety
of potential uses for drones, perhaps more
interesting than the real-world examples
are the purported use cases that may never
actually see widespread usage.
Its funny, because when people talk
about this marketplace, they kind of make
up these use cases, like delivering beer,

says Kara. With some of these drones,
they dont have a great deal of lift, particularly for carrying liquids, and they cant fly
very long, maybe 20 minutes. It doesnt
make sense. Someone did a presentation
where they talked about the use of drones
for walking dogs, and somebody actually
walked [his] dog with a drone, but then
that model just falls away because people
like walking their dogs. . . . Theres this Zen
aspect to it and theyd prefer to not have a
machine walk their dog. You keep seeing
these things come out and theyre kind of
ridiculous.
Industry-Specific Use Cases

In addition to the general personal
and business uses, there are industry-specific use cases for drones being explored.
Agriculture, for example, is one of the
industries taking a lead in drone usage.
Farmers can fly drones over their fields to
measure plant height or survey the landscape and spot potential trouble areas in
terms of crop health. These are all tasks
that would typically be performed manually, on the ground and in smaller increments. By contrast, with a single drone
flyover, there is the potential to gather
weeksor in some cases monthsworth
of information and put it to use right away.
Another major industry for drone usage
is oil and gas exploration. Instead of flying
an airplane or helicopter over oil fields to
51
property claims adjusters; drones would

enable them to not only be more efficient
at their jobs, but also avoid entering hazardous areas. The adjustor could send a
drone to inspect a home for fire damage
from various angles before analyzing the
findings or sending them to experts.
Amazon made headlines with the announcement
of Amazon Prime Air, but the company was only
able to start testing earlier this year and theres no
clear indication of when the service might go live
for consumers.
Market Breakdowns
Among the biggest growth sectors for
drones, military applications are making
up less and less of the overall picture.
Kara says that even organizations such as
the AUVSI (Association for Unmanned
Vehicle Systems International), which used
to cover military UAVs primarily, have
since moved into the commercial market.
However, there are a few discrepancies
between groups as to which markets will
see the most growth and how drones will
be used in the future.
For example, a few years ago, the
AUVSI estimated that as much as 80% of
all drone usage would occur in the agriculture industry, but through his research
Kara found that as we see it right now in
SOURCE: ABI RESEARCH
monitor pipelines or environmental factors (and paying for the pilot, fuel, and
maintenance costs), a company could instead gather information by flying over
the fields using a drone equipped with an
ultra-high-definition camera. The same
idea applies to infrastructure inspections.
Wireless carriers, for instance, typically
have employees climbing up cell phone
towers to ensure that equipment is
working properly, but it would be much
safer and quicker to fly a drone to the
highest point of the tower to look for potential issues before sending a worker up
to fix them. And, of course, these same
concepts can apply to a variety of infrastructure inspection use cases for locations
and equipment that arent necessarily safe
for humans to be around.
Insurance is another area in which
drone usage is expected to grow in the
coming years. In its white paper, Drones:
The Insurance Industrys Next GameChanger?, Cognizant points out a few use
cases for the insurance industry to consider. One example relates to the safety of
ABI Researchs report shows the overall sUAS (small unmanned aircraft systems) market will grow by nearly
$6 billion between 2014 and 2019, and the commercial sUAS category will make up the majority of the
market by 2017 and is expected to grow from there. (*Does not include consumer/toy drones.)
52
the 2015 application breakdown, a quarter

of it is basically agriculture, 20% is film
and media, infrastructure is another 15%,
and then it starts dropping down from
there into the areas of security, insurance,
oil and gas mining, and other industries.
Kara says that many people think film and
media make up as much as 75% of the
drone marketplace, essentially because
there are more FAA approvals in that area
than any other.
The film and media stuff is simply
easier to do, says Kara. What happens
now with the FAA is they have an approval
process, and if they find an application and
approve it, then other applications that
come in that are similar get fast-tracked.
Weve seen that with film and media. The
business case and model is that were going
to be filming outside and were not going
to be around anybody. Thats easy to do
compared to say infrastructure inspection
or geology and mining.
In fact, its the FAA approval process
that has stalled many other potential
drone use cases, such as the delivery of
goods. Amazon Prime Air, for instance,
was instantly thrust into the limelight in
late 2013 when it made its debut on a 60
Minutes report. It wasnt until April of
this year, however, that Amazon was given
FAA approval to conduct tests using its
current drone models. As Amazon was
waiting for the FAAs OK, however, it was
testing drones at an approved outdoor
location in Canada.
The Trimble UX5 HP is an example of a

fixed-wing, single-propeller drone UAS to travel
longer distances and survey the land below.
As part of the FAA approval, Amazon

was given certain restrictions to follow. For
example, the drones couldnt weigh more
than 55 pounds, including the payload,
they couldnt travel faster than 100mph,
and they couldnt fly higher than 400 feet
above the ground. These preliminary restrictions limit the potential use of drones
for the purpose of delivering goods, but
Amazon will push ahead with its plans.
DHL also wants to use drones for specific delivery use cases. The company
launched a research project in September
2014 where it delivered medications and
other needed goods to the island of Juist
in the North Sea of Germany. It was the
first time in European history that an unmanned aircraft was used in a real-life use
case where the craft itself was out of the
operators view.
Technological Challenges
& Other Considerations
Kara says that too often organizations
see the FAA as a gatekeeper to what they
want to do with drones. However, he explains that the FAAs mandate isnt to
support the UAS marketplace. No. 1 is
safety, he says. Thats the absolute critical
thing that drives it, and the U.S. FAA is the
leading regulatory body in the world for
aircraft. Its head and shoulders above everybody else, including western European
countries. Everybodys kind of looking at
the FAA. They are moving forward and
they put in a facilitation process I think
that will eventually get worked out.
For Kara, the main barrier to using

drones for commercial purposes is a
technological one. Because most of
these drones weigh about 25 pounds or
less and can only fly for 20 minutes at
a time on average, they are unable to
carry large packages over particularly
long distances. Kara says he has seen
some breakthroughs where drone manufacturers are able to extend the duration of time in the air through a use of
hybrid fuel and electrical power. And
there are also new capabilities in place
where drones can automatically and autonomously adjust to inclement weather
and change of wind speed and direction. However, for drones that can deliver large packages over long distances,
youll need larger drones, which in turn
means that you have to introduce liquid
fuels, which are highly combustible, into
the equation. The larger the drones, the
more dangerous they become.
In addition to these technological, logistical, and environmental issues, theres
also the matter of privacy and legal liability. It could be something as small as
someone not wanting their neighbor to
fly a drone with a camera attached over
their property and potentially take pictures or video. Or, it could be something
as big as a drone crashing on someones
property and causing damage or harm.
The opportunity here for insurance companies or legal firms is fairly large, because
there is a lot of stuff going on with all of

this, says Kara. Weve had it for the
automobile industry, boats, and airplanes,
so it is manageable, but its going to take
time to work itself out.
Growth Potential
So, where is the drone market going,
and where are the biggest areas of innovation? Interestingly enough, Kara says,
the focus will turn more to the software
side of things than to the hardware or the
aircraft. In his research, Kara found that
even the biggest military drone contracts
involved more than the aircraft but also included technical support and maintenance
services, as well as application and data
services. Its in this data services space that
Kara thinks well see the most growth as
drones become more commoditized, and
the real differentiator is what can be done
on the software side.
There are already quite a few companies, such as Trimble and PrecisionHawk,
that offer drones and the data analytics
services to back them up. Kara expects
that market to grow. Probably the last
[category] I looked at was these application
and data services, which is where it really
gets interesting and where money is going
to be made, says Kara. Once I started
doing that, it became very clear that it will
be the application marketplace, not right
now, but in the future, thats going to be
the largest.
FAA CRACKS DOWN ON UNAUTHORIZED DRONE FLIGHTS

The FAA announced in
October that it would be
hitting SkyPan International with a $1.9 million
civil penalty for what
it calls unauthorized
unmanned aircraft operations. The FAA claims
SkyPan, which specializes
in aerial photography
and videography, was
responsible for 65 unauthorized commercial

drone flights over Chicago
and New York City and
that these flights were
conducted in some
of our most congested
airspace and heavily
populated cities. Fortythree of the flights were in
New York City B airspace
without air traffic control

permission. This is by far
the largest civil penalty
the FAA has imposed on
a drone operator so far
and illustrates how serious the agency is about
unauthorized drone flights
over airports and heavily
populated areas.
53
Leverage Multi-Display Workstations

USE LAPTOPS, TABLETS & MORE MONITORS WITHOUT SACRIFICING ERGONOMICS
EMPLOYEES WHO WORK in fast-paced

office environments understand the
importance of multitasking. You may
often find yourself editing a document,
checking email, and looking up customer information all at the same time
with few breaks in between. To ease the
challenge presented by tracking multiple tasks simultaneously, its wise to
have enough screen real estate to be
able to view a variety of applications at
the same time.
For that reason, many businesses
offer their employees multi-display
workstations with different combinations of desktops, laptops, tablets, and
monitors And while there are quite a
few benefits to this approach, especially for enabling multitasking, its
also important to note the potential
challenges, disadvantages, and ergonomic issues associated with a multidisplay setup.
54
Advantages Of Multiple Displays

For those who constantly work on
multiple projects or tasks at the same
time, there are advantages to having a
multi-display setup. For starters, you can
separate your applications into categories
and have the information you need right
in front of you at all times. For example,
if your organization conducts much of
its business via email, you can dedicate
an entire screen to your email program
rather than open the app each time you
receive a new message, and then you can
use the main display for other programs
and tasks.
Another plus is the flexibility you have
to mix and match devices to meet your
needs. You could pair a powerful desktop
computer with two or three monitors, for
instance, which would allow you to easily
use video editing programs or display
one aspect of the same application across
three screens so you can keep the project
and reference points in view at all times.

You can also use a laptop-and-monitor
combination to extend your desktop display and create more screen real estate.
In addition to using multiple connected devices, you can add tablets and
smartphones to the mix. Best practices
can be as simple as using your mobile
device for keeping tabs on your email, or
it could extend into other advanced areas
such as application development. In this
situation, an app developer could work
on a new program on his main display,
keep a design document open on another
display to ensure he keeps the project's
goals in mind, and then use a tablet or
smartphone to test the app.
Potential Disadvantages
One challenge of using a multi-display
workstation is complexity. Not all positions in a company require the use of
multiple screens, and having all of that
information constantly in front of a

worker may become overwhelming for
some employees. The key here is to pay
attention to how your employees work on
a regular basis and determine whether a
multi-display setup is right for them. And
if multiple monitors happen to be the
basic standard for your organization, then
educate employees on how to best utilize
the displays. You can recommend they
use the primary screen for the most important tasks and the secondary screen to
display programs they use less frequently.
Another challenge of using multidisplay workstations is cost. The monitors can be relatively inexpensive, depending on your quality bar, but when
you consider that every employee may
need one or two monitors plus a desktop
tower or laptop, then the costs start to
add up. Some companies also choose to
use a tablet or hybrid device with a dock
that connects to one or two monitors,
which is another expense. As is choosing

to issue employees smartphones or tablets
to use as displays. This is another situation where you need to determine which
employees would benefit most from the
multi-screen setup and then add equipment to correspond with those needs.
Ergonomic Challenges
& Solutions
Working at a desktop computer is an
ergonomic challenge in and of itself, but
add multiple displays to the mix and you
compound the potential for problems.
With a traditional single-monitor arrangement, ergonomic guidelines suggest
placing the monitor in front of you, about
an arm's length away, and adjusting it so
the top of the screen is slightly below eye
level. A multi-display workstation is different because you not only have to keep
your primary monitor in mind, but also
any other monitors you plan to use.
Fortunately, there are a few helpful

practices you can follow to overcome
these challenges. You can set up your
primary monitor using traditional ergonomic guidelines, and then arrange any
others so you only have to move your
eyes, not your neck, to see the second
display. Another option is to set the
monitors far enough apart from each
other that you have to swivel your chair
to use them. This ensures that every time
you turn to use a different monitor, you
have to adjust your posture rather than
put undue stress on your neck.
If you primarily use laptops and
tablets, its important to minimize the
need to constantly look down at the
screens. You can issue larger monitors
and make the laptop/tablet a secondary
screen, or you can take advantage of solutions such as Cooler Masters NotePal
ErgoStand III, an ergonomic laptop
cooling pad you can adjust for better
viewing angles.
Alternatives To Multi-Display
Setups
The Cooler Master NotePal ErgoStand III puts your laptop or tablet at an appropriate height to meet
ergonomic guidelines and offers other helpful features such as additional cooling via a low-power fan
with multiple speed options and a built-in four-port USB hub.
If you dont want to use multiple displays but need more screen real estate,
then consider alternate widescreen displays. LG, for example, has a line of
UltraWide monitors that offer a 21:9
aspect ratio. These widescreen monitors also tend to come in flat or curved
models, which gives users a better
viewing angle and has the potential for
a more immersive experience.
As with any other display choices,
youll want to keep ergonomic guidelines
in mind. Widescreen displays, especially
the curved models, are typically more
expensive than traditional alternatives,
and the extra screen space could cause
new ergonomic challenges if not used
properly. For cost, you may need to be
choosier with who gets a widescreen
monitor and for ergonomics, the user
may just need to move farther away from
the screen to prevent undue neck stress
and eye strain.
55
THE LATEST PREMIUM ELECTRONICS
Microsofts Serious Contender

WWW.MICROSOFT.COM
What does the future of personal computing look like as traditional desktop PC sales continue their downward slide and
all things mobile rise to the, ah, surface? According to Microsoft, its new Surface Book is the future of laptop computing.
Available in multiple configurations, all of which include powerful specifications (for example, solid-state drives with capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB, Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, 8GB or 16GB of RAM, and, in some models, dedicated
graphics processors), the Surface Book is designed to appeal to home users and professionals alike. Its standout feature,
however, is its overall physical design: its 13.5-inch PixelSense multi-touch display can be used in conjunction with the
back-lit keyboard, angled for use as a canvas, or removed and used as a tablet. The accompanying Surface Stylus enables
precision input, and the entire package weighs less than 3.5 pounds. As of press time, the Surface Book was available for
pre-order through the Microsoft website starting at $1,499, with availability starting on October 26.
56
Western Digital Offers Fast, Flexible Storage For Professionals

WWW.WDC.COM
The new My Book Pro line of storage devices from Western Digital is designed for creative professionals, multimedia
enthusiasts, and others with a need for storage thats fast, capacious, and flexible enough to handle multiple devices and
demands without lag. With capacities to meet various needs and budgets6TB ($599), 8TB ($749), 10TB ($899), and
12TB ($999)each My Book Pro device includes two 7,200rpm hard drives, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and two USB 3.0
ports. There are multiple storage management options for the drives: RAID 0 (striping, on by default), RAID 1 (mirroring),
and JBOD (disks available as multiple disks). Maximum data transfer rates vary with each drive, ranging from 350MBps for
the 6TB model up to 435MBps for the 12TB model. With super-fast (20Gbps throughput) Thunderbolt 2 technology on hand,
Western Digital says you can daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices (say, for synchronizing multiple devices and drives
simultaneously) while also using multiple 4K monitors with no degradation in performance.
57
Images, clockwise from top left, courtesy of Apple (1), Samsung (2), Sony (3), Microsoft (4, 5), and BlackBerry (6)
Smartphone Tips
SHORTCUTS & HINTS FOR AVOIDING SMARTPHONE HEADACHES
BLACKBERRY
58
Send A File With NFC
BlackBerry Balance Separates Work & Personal Activities
If youd prefer to send a file directly

to another nearby device rather than
sending it over the Internet via cellular
data or Wi-Fi, you can use NFC (near
field communications), a very shortrange wireless technology, provided that
both devices have NFC capabilities. On
your BlackBerry, tap Settings, Network
Connections, and look for NFC. If you
see NFC listed, your BlackBerry has it.
Tap NFC and then make sure the NFC
Connectivity switch is in the on position. Open the file you would like to send
and then tap the Share icon and NFC.
Place your BlackBerry back-to-back with
the other device. The file(s) may be sent
automatically at this point, or you may be
prompted to tap Send.
The BlackBerry Balance feature lets system administrators easily establish two
separate personalities for a BlackBerry device: one maintained by IT staff and
one the user controls. This permits companies to push work-related apps and
updates directly to employees phones, as well as wipe data remotely if necessary,
while allowing users to install and use their own apps and data in a separate location. For the user, switching between these personalities is as simple as swiping
down and tapping either the Personal or the Work button. In terms of social networking, this work/personal split is helpful because it enables users to maintain
multiple accounts simultaneously and switch between them as needed.
Connect To A Hidden Wi-Fi Network

Sometimes you know a Wi-Fi network exists but it is hidden from view. To access such a network, go to the Home screen, swipe down, select Wi-Fi, and select the
Add (plus sign) icon. Enter the exact name of the Wi-Fi network in the SSID field,
select the type of network security that is in use, enter additional information if required, and tap Connect.
ANDROID
Set App Permissions
Within Each App
Say goodbye to having to grant permissions to apps when setting up your
phone. If you have updated to the latest
Android version, Marshmallow (6.0),
you are now able to grant permissions
within each app. What this means,
for example, is that if youre using the
Facebook app, you can toggle on or off
the apps permission to access your contacts, phone, calendar, camera, microphone, current location, and SMS (text
messaging). This is a marked improvement over having to grant (or deny) all
of your apps access to your smartphones
camera in one fell swoop.
Adjust The Default Zoom Level

Multitouch is a great feature. Sadly,
it is not standard on all Android-based
devices. On handsets that dont support
multitouch, users can zoom in to images
and Web pages by double-tapping them.
By default, the zoom level when you perform the double-tap is set to Medium,
but you can change it to Close or Far
by launching the Browser; pressing the
Menu key; and tapping More, Settings,
and Default Zoom. Tap the radio button
beside the option you want, and then
back out of the menu by pressing the
Back key.
Change Your Primary Shortcuts

The primary shortcuts on a current Android smartphone are the persistent
buttons at the bottom of the screen for Phone, Contacts, Apps, Messaging, and
Internet. You can remove any of these except for the Apps shortcut, and add
shortcuts to the apps youd rather have quick access to. Press the Home button
so that youre looking at the Home screen, and then press and hold the primary
shortcut you wish to replace, and drag it to an empty spot on the Home screen.
Repeat this to remove other icons from this area, if you like. Then, press and
hold the icon for any app you want to add to the primary shortcut area and
simply drag the icon to the desired spot.
Use A Fingerprint
For Greater Control
Biometric controls
using fingerprints is
nothing new to Android
phones, and many
models these days come
with built-in fingerprint
sensors. Starting with
Android Marshmallow
(6.0), however, users
of devices with fingerprint sensors can use
the operating systems
simplified fingerprint
The newest version of Android, officially designated as 6.0 and
technology. You can,
called Marshmallow, includes new fingerprint security features
for example, can set up
for devices with fingerprint sensors.
your phone to demand
a fingerprint prior to unlocking the device and sign into various apps that provide some kind of locking
protection (passcodes, for example) with the press of a finger. You can also check
out quickly using Android Pay and authorizing payments and other transactions
within the Google Play Store.
Delete Browsing History

Deleting your mobile Chrome
browser history eliminates some potential privacy issues and helps keep your
Android device clutter-free. In Chrome,
tap the menu icon, Settings, (Advanced)
Privacy, and Clear Browsing Data to remove browsing history, site data, and
related information.
Avoid Storage Woes

Running out of storage capacity is easy to do if you store a lot of files (particularly photos, videos, or other large files) on your Android smartphones internal
memory when a larger-capacity memory card is available. To verify the default
storage location for multimedia files, open the Camera app, tap Settings, scroll
to find Storage, tap it, and make sure the appropriate storage location is selected:
Device or Memory Card.
59
iOS
Be Personable With
Your Voicemail
If your iPhones voicemail feature
isnt customized, callers will hear your
wireless carriers automated message,
which typically informs the caller in a
robotic voice that he has reached suchand-such number and can leave a message after a tone. Setting up voicemail
to include a personal greeting in your
own voice ensures that callers know
they have reached your phone when
youre not available to answer a call,
and the setup procedure is quick and
easy to do. To start, tap the Phone icon,
tap the Voicemail icon, and then tap
Greeting. The two options available are
Default and Custom. Default refers to
the wireless carriers automated message. Tap Custom and, when your message is ready, press Record, speak your
voicemail greeting into the iPhone,
and press Stop. Press Play to listen to
your greeting. If you need to re-record
it, simply press Record and start over.
When youre satisfied with your voicemail greeting, tap Save and exit the
Phone app.
Brighten Your Alerts

Depending on your iPhones settings
and whether or not the volume switch
is on or off, you may receive an alert
tone or your iPhone may vibrate when
a new alert appears. If you like, you can
also make the phone flash its light as
an alert indicator. Access Settings, tap
General, tap Accessibility, and switch
on LED Flash For Alerts.
60
Whats Eating Your iPhones Battery Life?

You might be surprised to learn which apps are (and which apps arent) the
culprits when it comes to the amount of charge they sap from your iPhones battery. Apple simplified the process for retrieving battery usage information in iOS 9;
whereas in earlier iOS versions you needed to open Settings and drill down through
General settings to find battery usage information, in iOS 9 you just open Settings,
tap Battery, and wait a couple of seconds for the list of apps to populate the display.
Scroll down to view all of the apps.
By default, you will
see the apps that have
been used in the past 24
hours. The figures on
the right indicate the
percentages of charge
each app has used,
so the total should be
100%. Tap Last 7 Days
to view your apps battery usage over the past
week.
Almost Out Of
Power? This
Setting Will Save
Your Charge
Theres one quick
setting you can change
when you find your
iPhone is running dangerously low on charge,
provided your phone
is running iOS 9. Open
Settings, tap Battery,
In iOS 9, Low Power Mode can be a (battery) life saver.
and switch on the Low
Power Mode toggle. This
setting turns off background activity, such as email retrieval, app refreshes, and automatic downloads.
According to Apple, having Low Power Mode turned on may cause some performance lag. However, you can keep Low Power Mode turned on all the time if you
want your iPhones charge to last much longer than usual, say, during an overseas
flight. This mode is also useful for times when you dont plan to actively use your
phone for extended periods but dont wish to turn it off entirely. If youd prefer to
only use Low Power Mode in a pinch, just wait for the lower power indicator, which
appears when only 20% of the charge remains.
WINDOWS PHONE
Use Mini Diary To Track Events
Reconnect With Your Vehicles Bluetooth
Mini Diary is a Samsung app that

comes already installed on Samsungmade Windows smartphones. Each
time you open the app and tap New,
a new diary entry is created, and when
youre done making the entry it will
be stored with the date and time and
stored in OneDrive, Microsofts online storage service. You can use Mini
Diary to simply save text notes or to
save photos, recordings, or location
information. You can also save handwritten notes or drawings using the
Draw option.
Ordinarily, after you set up Bluetooth pairing between your Windows Phone
smartphone and your vehicles Bluetooth system, the phone and car should
connect automatically every time they are on and within close proximity.
Sometimes, however, the pairing can falter. To get your smartphone and car
reconnected, access your phones Settings, swipe until System is displayed, tap
Bluetooth, move the Bluetooth switch to the On position, ensure that both the
phone and the vehicles Bluetooth system are discoverable, tap the vehicle identifier on the Bluetooth screen, and follow the on-screen prompts.
Take Advantage Of Auto-Correct

As with other mobile operating
systems, Windows Phone offers numerous automatic text correction features that are designed to speed up
typing. When you reach the end of a
sentence, for example, tap Space twice
to automatically place a period at the
end of the sentence and capitalize
the next word if you should decide
to type another sentence. Windows
Phone also adds accents and apostrophes where it seems they might be
needed (for example, it will change
werent to werent, and will even
try to determine whether the word
well is meant to be left as it is or
changed to well). As you type words
that Windows Phone doesnt recognize, the OS might try to change them;
this can be annoying, but it can also
be helpful if you are typing unusual
words you intend to type again because Windows Phone will add them
to its dictionary. If you should ever
need to reset the dictionary, access
Settings and tap Keyboard, Advanced,
and Reset Suggestions.
If automatic pairing fails, re-establish the connection between your Windows Phone smartphone
and your vehicles Bluetooth system.
Word Mobile Tips

To create a new Word Mobile document, flick left from the Start menu to access the App list, and then tap Office. Next, flick the screen to the left to access
Documents, tap the plus sign icon adjacent to New Document, and then tap
Word Document. The onscreen keyboard will appear and you can begin composing right away.
To view and edit existing Word documents using Microsoft Word Mobile,
swipe your finger to the left on Start to access the apps list, and then tap Office
to launch the application. Swipe left again to access Documents, and then tap
the document you want from the list of existing documents. The documents
created most recently appear at the top of the list, so if youre looking for something you havent accessed recently, you may need to scroll down. Once viewing
a document, you can pinch to zoom in and spread your fingers apart on the
screen to zoom back out.
61
Spreadsheets In The Cloud

GOOGLE SHEETS & MICROSOFT EXCEL ONLINE
SPREADSHEETS have been a popular way

to arrange and save data for decades, but
theyve typically been tied to full desktop
versions of Microsoft Office or other productivity suites. Fortunately, Microsoft
and Google offer online spreadsheet creators in the form of Excel Online and
Sheets, respectively. Although these programs could be considered the lite versions compared with other more robust
offline alternatives, they still offer quite
a few features to help you present your
data in an informative and visually interesting document.
Time-Saving Templates
Among the helpful features of Excel
Online and Google Sheets, especially for
getting projects started quickly, are the
selection of templates available each time
you open either program. These range
from purely number-based lists with a
little bit of color and a few dividing lines
62
here and there to advanced budgeting

and sales tracking templates that include
graphics, such as bar graphs and pie
charts. Choosing one of these options,
you can enter data quickly and present the
information to clients in a more dynamic
way. However, if you do want to make
your own graphics, you still have the option to do so using the Insert menu in
both Google Sheets and Excel Online.
Quick Formatting & Limited

Sorting
Google Sheets and Excel Online make
formatting numbers quick and easy
within a spreadsheet. Click the Format
menu in Google Sheets, hover your mouse
pointer over Number, and then select
the format that best fits your data. Hover
your pointer over More Formats and you
can access different currency types and
other data and time formats, or you can
create custom formatting options. In Excel
Online, the most common number formatting options are available in the Home
tab. Click the Number Format drop down
menu in the Number group to access
Currency, Time, Percentage, Fraction, and
other formats.
If you want to sort data, your options
are a bit more limited in both online programs. You can choose to sort the entire
spreadsheet in an ascending or descending
order, or you can select a range and sort
the information that way. There is currently no way to sort information across
multiple columns. You can sort the entire
sheet based on column A, for example,
but theres no way to link it so information
from columns A, B, and C will all be put in
the correct ascending or descending order.
Protected Sheets & Ranges

There may be situations where you
want to share your Google Sheets spreadsheet with a co-worker and allow her to
edit certain parts of the document or add

her own data without affecting the information you already entered. In those
instances you open the Data tab in your
spreadsheet and select Protected Sheets
And Ranges. From here, you can protect
an entire sheet in the book from being
edited, or you can choose only specific
ranges. An easy way to protect ranges is
to highlight the section before selecting
Protected Sheets And Ranges menu
item. Then, in the box that appears to the
right of your spreadsheet, click Range
(Sheets automatically enters the specifics into the empty field), and then click
Set Permissions.
Helpful Help Bar

If you have ever tried using the Help
menus in any program, you know they
often arent as helpful as. But the Tell
Me search field thats always present
in Excel Online is a help menu that actually works. For example, if you type
currency in the Tell Me field, Excel
Online returns the following results:
Currency Format, General Number
Format, Increase Decimal, and Decrease
Decimal. If the search results don't address what you are looking for, you
can click the question mark icon in the
drop-down list to launch the full Excel
Online Help guide and find an answer
to your question.
Type CTRL+/ while

in Google Sheets, and
a lengthy list of helpful
shortcuts appears that
includes formatting options,
navigation tools, and shortcuts to other menus youll
frequently access in Sheets.
Add-ins & Add-ons

Called Add-ins and Add-ons by
Microsoft and Google, respectively,
both Excel Online and Sheets give you
the ability to add more interesting layers
to your spreadsheet. For example, one
Microsoft Office Add-in lets you create
a geographic heat map and one Google
Add-on gives you access to 35 additional
fonts not included in the default program. Most of these extra tools are free
or free to try, so you can add more functionality to each online programs without
having to pay more.
Access To Other Programs

Because Microsofts entire suite of
Office Online products fall under the
same umbrella, it makes sense that you
should have easy access to all of them at
FUNCTIONS
Although Microsoft Excel
Online and Google Sheets
have some differences
that make them each
unique, they are very
similar when it comes
to functions; many that
you are familiar with
using in Excel should
translate over to Google
Sheets. For example,
the basic SUM function,
any given time. Just a quick click on the

square in the upper-left corner opens
another window with a list of Microsoft
services: Outlook.com, People, Calendar,
OneDrive, Word Online, Excel Online,
PowerPoint Online, OneNote Online,
Sway, Docs.com, and Office Online.
Google offers a similar navigation
method where you can click the three
horizontal bars in the upper-left corner
and get instant access to Google Docs,
Sheets, Slides, and Drive. This makes it
much easier to pull data from other types
of online documents and incorporate
into your spreadsheet or vice versa.
=SUM(1,2,3, ), works
the same in Excel Online
and Sheets. In fact, the
only difference across
programs for most functions is the term used to
describe the information
you need to enter into
the formula. Using the
SUM function as an example, Excel refers to the
figures as numbers and
Sheets refers to them as

values. Little differences
such as these exist in
nearly every function,
but if youve used them
consistently in the past
and already know what
information to enter, then
you should be able to
move from one program
to the other relatively
seamlessly.
Saving, Downloading & Sharing

Similar to Google and Microsofts
other online programs, you have quite a
few options available when it comes to
saving or sharing your Sheets and Excel
documents. For starters, Excel Online
and Google Sheets save your documents
automatically, but also give you the
option to save a copy to OneDrive or
Google Drive. You can also download
a copy directly to your PC either in the
Excel format or in an OpenOffice format.
But its the sharing functions in which
these online-based programs shine. You
can share a spreadsheet with specific
people via email and give them the ability
to view or edit the file, you can create a
link to share online and determine who
can access the link, or you can embed the
spreadsheet on your website.
63
Presentations In The Cloud

GOOGLE SWAY & MICROSOFT POWERPOINT ONLINE & SLIDES
IF YOU ARE a seasoned business traveler,

you know that ideas and inspirations dont
always happen while at the office, and
sometimes you need a quick, easy way to
arrange information into a presentation
for co-workers or clients. Fortunately, you
can take advantage of free cloud-based solutions such as Microsofts PowerPoint
Online and Sway, or Googles Slides, to
create presentations on the go for sharing
or downloading for later use.
Microsoft PowerPoint Online

If youve used the traditional desktop
version of PowerPoint or Microsofts
Office 365, then youll feel at home with
PowerPoint Online. Sign in with your
Microsoft account and youll have access
to a simplified version of PowerPoint that
is ideal for creating presentations on the
fly or just when youre away from the full
version of the program. You can load an
existing PowerPoint presentation or start
64
from scratch using one of the dozens of

available themes.
PowerPoint Online offers the same tools
you get in the full version of the program.
In addition to selecting an option from a
menu, each new slide you create will display five icons that let you add media. You
can add text as a bulleted list or reformat it
as you choose, create a table, add images
from your computer or use Bing search to
add online images, or pull YouTube videos
into your presentation. After you add an
image or other object, you can add animation or customize how the item appears on
the slide and in what order.
Where PowerPoint Online shines is in
how you can save, download, and share
your project. Theres a menu option near
the top-right corner that says Open In
PowerPoint, where you can automatically
transition from the online program to the
offline version or Office 365 version with
a quick click. For sharing, you can enter a
users email, add a quick note, and decide

whether to give the recipients the power
to edit the project before send the presentation along. You could come up with a
quick idea, create a rough outline, and then
pass it on to someone at the office with
the full version of PowerPoint to spruce it
up, or you could just share it with another
PowerPoint Online user to collaborate.
In addition to sharing, you can also
print the presentation right from PowerPoint Online. You can also save a copy of
the presentation to your OneDrive account
or download a copy to your computer
for use with PowerPoint, or download an
OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) version, which can then be used with Google
Docs or Apache OpenOffice. You have
several options when it comes to sharing
and saving your project. If you want to
start editing a presentation in PowerPoint
Online and then move it to another program, you can do so quickly and painlessly.
Microsoft PowerPoint Online lets you quickly

create well-organized presentations with text,
images, video, tables, and much more.
Google Slides
Slides is essentially Googles answer
to PowerPoint and is offered as a cloudbased service. After you sign into Slides
using your Google account, we recommend taking the tour Google offers to see
how Slides works. The basic setup of Slides
should feel familiar to you if youve previously used Microsoft PowerPoint or any of
Googles productivity applications. From
there, you can choose to look through
some example presentations for inspiration or start with a blank slate.
In the menu bar, youll find tools for
inserting different media, adding and
deleting slides and transitions, formatting text, creating tables, and more. You
also have the option to select a theme
(choose from those provided or import your own). For example, we saved
a PowerPoint presentation with a specific theme to our computer and then
uploaded it to Google Slides using the
Import Theme tool. Google automatically
formatted our existing Slides project to
incorporate the PowerPoint theme, and
we were able to continue editing it using
the same theme throughout each slide.
You can also upload and edit a completed
PowerPoint presentation using Google
Slides. Keep in mind, however, that you
may lose some of your transitions or animations in the process.
The goal of Google Slides is to be easy
to use and flexible, which is evident from
the streamlined editing tools, the ability
to pull in different file types, and the
different ways you can share your creations. You can share with other people
via email or with a link as well as choose
whether others can edit your presentation. Or you can publish your project to
the Web or download it as a Microsoft
PowerPoint file, PDF document, JPEG
image, Plain Text, or other file type. You
can save the presentation to your Google
Drive account, create copies that are editable and others that are locked to maintain
an original master copy, and more. Slides
gives you a lot of flexibility in how you can
save, import, and share presentations.
Microsoft Sway
While PowerPoint and Slides share
much of the same DNA, Microsoft Sway
stands out quite a bit in terms of visual
presentation. When you first open Sway,
you have the option to import a Word
document, PowerPoint presentation, or
PDF to work from, or you can create an
entirely new project. There are also example presentations offered for you to look
at, and we recommend checking them out,
because theyll give a good idea of what you
can do with Sway. Note that Microsoft also
offers quite a few video tutorial, so you can
go as simple or as complex as you want
with your Sway presentations.
One important tip is to keep an eye
on the black menu bar at the top of the
screen, because this is where youll insert
text, images, graphs, videos, and other
information. Youll also add new cards
Google Slides makes it easy to work on

presentations from other programs, incorporate
themes from existing slideshows youve already
created, or create entirely new projects.
Microsoft Sway is unique in that the

experience of the presentation itself is more
like a free flowing stream of content rather
than a traditional slideshow.
(Sways name for slides) from this menu,

change the design aesthetic of your Sway
presentation, and determine whether
users will navigate from left to right, top
to bottom, or as a traditional slide show
that just moves from slide to slide with
a click. We recommend trying out the
scrolling navigation options though, because they make the presentations seamless, and theres a flow to it that you cant
quite get from most traditional presentation programs.
After you get your basic layout down
and choose your content, you can
group images, videos, and other media
together to make sure they all show up
on the same card. You can add emphasis to words using bold and italics
formatting and choose the focal point
of an image to make sure the most relevant information is always in view.
Sway also offers a helpful graph creation
tool, so you can incorporate line graphs,
bar graphs, pie charts, and other databased graphics into your presentation.
When you finish your project, share
it via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
other services. Plus, Sway lets you provide
a link to the presentation for users to access or you can get an embed code for the
presentation and add it to a website. And
an added bonus for these presentations is
that regardless of whether theyre viewed
on a computer, tablet, or smartphone,
Sway automatically scales your presentation for the best possible experience.
65
Ease Travel Headaches

THESE DEVICES CAN HELP
IF YOU DO ENOUGH traveling, you quickly

learn tricks to eliminate some of the stress
and headaches that come with being on
the road. Technology can often help, as the
following travel-friendly devices prove.
Bluetooth Finder
$20+
Ever set down the keys to your rental
car or your own vehicle on a restaurant
table only to get up, walk away, and leave
them behind? Many of us have done
this. One way to prevent the aggravation
that typically follows is to attach a small
Bluetooth dongle-like device to the key
ring. These devices communicate with
a smartphone, warning you when the
phone moves out of range of the dongle.
Typically, such devices cost about $20 or
more and have a smartphone app that
sounds an alarm, emits a beep, or even
provides a visual indicator that lets you see
when you get closer or move farther away
66
from the key ring or other object to which

you attached the device.
Bluetooth Keyboard
$60-$100+
No matter how adept or comfortable
you are typing on a mobile devices touchenabled keyboard, there are times when
facing a hefty amount of text or numbers to enter into a document or spreadsheet that would make anyone conclude
that a full-fledged keyboard would be a
better choice. While some tablets bundle
a Bluetooth keyboard, others dont.
Fortunately, plenty of third-party options are available. Nearly all Bluetooth
keyboards are thin and light enough to
make an ideal travel companion, and some
double as a protective tablet cover as well
as conveniently fold into a stand to present
a laptop-like form factor. Depending on
the model, a particular Bluetooth keyboard
may include backlighting and specialty
keys, integrate a rechargeable battery, and

provide a carrying case. Pricing generally
ranges from $60 to $100 or more.
Device Charger
$40-$100+
If theres one certainty about mobile
devices its that they dont hold their
power forever. Further, an outlet isnt always available for recharging. Thus, its
a good idea to pack your own portable
power supply so you can keep using your
device. Though price, size, and weight
can vary, general portable charger options include battery packs that are solar
powered and/or integrate a rechargeable
battery. Typically, models bundle multiple
device adapters, and some models may
include multiple connectors to charge several devices simultaneously. Some packs
also function as a cover for a smartphone.
Other products worth considering include
USB power adapters that plug into power
outlets to provide a USB port for charging,

solar backpacks, power adapters for overseas travel, and mini surge protectors.
Luggage Tracker
$50-$100
Some people would pay a small fortune
to know where their luggage is at all times.
Anyone who has experienced lost luggage
understands why. The good news is you
dont have to pay a fortune to pinpoint the
exact location of your baggage. For somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 to $100,
you can acquire a device (perhaps even
an FCC-certified and FAA-compliant
one) that uses GPS (Global Positioning
System), GSM (Global System For Mobile
Communications), and other technologies
to provide tracking abilities for luggage.
These devices are small enough to easily
fit in a bag and can do such things as email
or text you a verification that your luggage
arrived at its destination. If your luggage is
lost, the devices let you pinpoint the bags
locations on a Web-based map.
Multi-Tool Knife
$25-$100+
While you still cant carry a pocketknife onto a plane, you can take one with
you when traveling by land, and having
a multi-tooled knife on hand can get you
out of a fair number of jams, including
in a storage sense. Thats because beyond
packing an actual blade (as well as possibly a screwdriver, scissors, wine opener,
pliers, etc.), some multi-tool knives integrate a USB memory stick for storing and
transferring several gigabytes worth of
document, image, video, audio, and other
files. Thus, even if you lose your notebook
or tablet, youll still have important files
handy. Depending on the storage amount
and model, prices of multi-tool knives can
span from about $25 to $100 or more.
Noise-Canceling Headphones
$50-$100s
Whether in a plane, shuttle bus, taxi,
or room in a not-so-quiet hotel, noise
seemingly always surrounds a traveler.

Noise-canceling headphones provide an
escape from the din by using battery-powered technology to essentially match and
cancel external sound swirling around.
Alternatively, less bulky and non-battery
charged sound-isolating earbuds offer
comparable results by fitting into a users ear canal to isolate sound rather than
cancel it. Depending on the mechanics,
engineering, sound quality, and materials
in use, headphone and earbud prices can
stretch from $50 for an acceptable pair to
into the hundreds of dollars.
Portable Hotspot
$50+
Staying Internet-connected while traveling is an absolute necessity for business travelers, but doing so via Wi-Fi
isnt always easy. Although public Wi-Fi
hotspots are available, theyre not always
free and security can be an issue. An alternative is to use a portable hotspot device
(costing about $50 or more) that uses a
mobile broadband connection (a 4G LTE
network, for example) to form a wireless
hotspot for multiple devices. Another option is to use a portable router. Plug an
Ethernet cable into, say, a hotel rooms
wired Internet port, plug the cables other
end into the router, and youve created
a wireless network with multiple-device
support. Elsewhere, various companies provide private Wi-Fi services for
a monthly/annual charge that provide
a welcomed layer of security when connecting to a public Wi-Fi hotspot.
Portable Monitor
$75-$200+
In some office environments today,
you may see two (or more) monitors on
an employees desk. This setup allows
users to easily switch among open programs, keep tabs on continually updating
information in a Web browser, and perform other multitasking chores. Travelers
can get this same second-screen ability
away from the office by bringing along
a USB-based portable monitor. Such

screens (generally $75 to $200 and more)
connect and draw power from a notebook via USB cable. Typically, the screens
support landscape and portrait modes,
bundle a stand to prop them up, and are
light enough you likely wont notice when
youre toting one around. Depending on
the model, touch abilities might also be
included.
Storage Device
$10+
One thing you cant have too much of
is storage, including for reasons tied to accessing and backing up data. Packing an
extra memory card, USB thumb drive, or
external drive is smart. If youre expecting
rugged conditions where youre going,
some external drives and USB memory
sticks offer water- and shock-resistant
features to provide protection against the
elements and drops. Overall, storage continues to be an excellent value. Memory
sticks, for example, can start at around $10
depending on the storage capacity.
Video Streamer
$35-$100+
Its possible you already have a settop box-like device attached to your
HDTV at home to stream on-demand
TV programs, movies from subscription
services, and audio from Internet radio
stations. A nifty aspect of these devices
is that travel-friendly sizes (some are essentially a glorified USB stick) means
they can easily stow away in a suitcase.
Unpack it once in your hotel room;
connect it to the TVs HDMI, USB, or
AV port; configure the Wi-Fi settings;
and all the content you have at home is
now available for watching in your hotel
room. Should you forget to pack the remote control the device bundled, many
streamers have compatible apps that enable a smartphone or tablet to function
as a remote control. With prices ranging
from about $35 to $100 or more, these
devices are an entertainment steal.
67
Data Usage & International Travel

HOW TO AVOID RACKING UP UNEXPECTED CHARGES
ASIDE FROM A FEW exceptions, such as

the lack of 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution)
network availability outside of the United
States, advances in communication technologies are making it easier to use your
mobile devices when traveling abroad.
Theres one common problem, however:
American travelers using cellular services
beyond U.S. shores can easily get stuck
with hefty wireless bills. Whether you
use a smartphone, tablet, laptop, portable
hotspot, mobile broadband modem, or
other device, if it relies on cellular communications, it could cost you. We explain
how to fend off excessive charges, regardless of the device.
Understand Roaming
Roaming occurs whenever a wireless
carrier other than your own provides your
device with a cellular signal. International
roaming rules and rates are typically different from those that apply in the U.S.,
68
so heres the No. 1 roaming rule to keep

in mind when traveling abroad: Never assume anything. If you think that an unlimited plan doesnt change if you travel
outside the U.S., that isnt so. Or if you
believe that roaming charges will skyrocket if you only use the Internet and
that exchanging a few simple text messages or checking voicemail wont add up
very quickly, you will be mistaken because
roaming rates often apply to anything you
do with your device when it involves a cellular connection.
Also, depending on your devices carrier
and settings, you may or may not receive
an obvious notification when roaming, so
you wont necessarily be prompted when
the tally of charges starts to rise. On the
flip side, you might not be able to roam
internationally unless you enable roaming
before you travel. It is imperative, then,
that you fully understand how your wireless plans roaming features and rates work
before you leave the States. Barring that,

bring your carriers toll-free customer service phone number with you; if you have
any doubt as to how your plans roaming
rates work when traveling, use a local
phone to call that number and find out.
Know Your Phone & What It Can

(& Cant) Do
When it comes to frequencies, wireless carriers, and foreign cellular networks, there are few absolutes. Its
imperative that you determine what frequencies your device uses and whether
those frequencies match the networks
available in your destination countries,
because if they dont match, your device
wont work at all for voice, messaging, or
data transmissions.
Devices that use CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) cellular networks
are very limited in terms of international
use. You need one that works with GSM
(Global Standard For Mobile Communication) networks if you want it to work

in the largest number of countries. And if
you have a device that uses 4G, research
whether your destination supports the
technology before you take the device
abroad. When identifying what frequencies your device supports, find out the
exact frequenciesdont settle for simply
GSM (because there are multiple GSM
networks) or brochure verbiage that
suggests the device will work anywhere
you go.
Some devices only function on one or
two frequencies. Some CDMA phones
work only on CDMA networks, while
others include added support for two
or more GSM frequencies. In general,
the best devices for international travel
are those labeled world (as in world
phone) or global. These are typically
quad-band GSM devices, which means
they operate on all four GSM frequencies
(850/900/1800/1900MHz), and sometimes
on CDMA and 3G/4G frequencies as well,
and will therefore work in most locations.
Unlock Your Device

It might be necessary to unlock your
smartphone or other cellular device before
you travel so it will work not only with
networks, but also with wireless carriers,
in other countries. Call your carrier to find
out if this is necessary and to receive a code
or other means to unlock the phone.
Get A New Device Or Plan

If your device or wireless plan is presenting you with limitations or potentially
excessive fees, consider switching to a new
device or a new plan. This might involve
replacing your current device with one that

operates on frequencies commonly used
worldwide. Or it may involve switching
your wireless plan to a global roaming or
similarly named plan or adding a special
Internet data bundle that will allow you
to travel internationally and roam all you
want for a relatively affordable price.
Track Usage To Avoid Surprises

If you know your devices international
roaming rates and you wish to keep expenses down, it can help to track voice,
messaging, and data usage on your device.
Most smartphone and tablet operating systems include settings that let you view data
usage, and they many include options for
setting self-imposed limits on usage.
Use VoIP On Wi-Fi

One inexpensive (and sometimes free)
method for placing voice or video calls
while traveling is to connect to a Wi-Fi
hotspot and use a VoIP (voice over IP)
app. Dont rely on this method, however,
as common VoIP services can be blocked
in some countries and by some hotspot
providers. And, as always, make sure that
any Wi-Fi hotspot you connect to is secure
so that technically inclined eavesdroppers
cant listen in on your conversations, view
your data transmissions, or nab your website passwords.
Limit Data Usage

It used to be simple to limit data usage
on mobile devices: go into settings and
switch Data to Off. While this (or something like it) is still possible on many
phones, tablets, and other devices, there
are nowthanks to a plethora of mobile
. . .YOU CAN CALL YOUR WIRELESS

CARRIER ANYTIME TO SPEAK WITH A CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE AND
FIND OUT DETAILS ABOUT YOUR PHONES
CELLULAR CAPABILITIES, YOUR WIRELESS
PLANS, AND HOW THOSE THINGS WORK
TOGETHER IN THE PLACES YOURE GOING.
appsmultiple changes you can make to

various device and app settings without
shutting off data transmissions entirely.
In the device/OS settings, look for options with phrases that relate to fetching
new data, using packet data, and roaming
that you can switch off. Devices differ, so
experiment with these settings; assuming
you want to continue to use the device
on international networks but want to
limit unnecessary data traffic, the idea behind changing these settings is to turn off
only those features that work in the background, searching for new data on an ongoing basis.
Additionally, review any apps installed
on your device. You may want to change
the settings within individual apps so that
they will only update on demand (when
you manually tap a Sync button, for example) rather than searching for updated
data in the background. You may also find
that some apps only work with an active
wireless connection, so you may want to
install different apps (at least temporarily)
that work offline or only when a Wi-Fi
connection is present.
Use A Temporary Device

If you prefer to forgo all of the steps in
this article, consider picking up a rental
or pay-as-you go smartphone. These are
available in many international airports.
Remember, You Have A Lifeline

& A Panic Button
Keep in mind that you can call your
wireless carrier anytime to speak with a
customer service representative and find
out details about your phones cellular capabilities, your wireless plans, and how
those things work together in the places
youre going. If youre already overseas,
though, use a local phone to call customer
service so you dont rack up additional
charges. Finally, if all else fails, use your
devices airplane mode setting as a form
of panic button to ensure that you wont
be charged for wireless services while you
figure everything out.
69
Certied Piedmontese beef tastes great: lean and tender, juicy and delicious.
But theres more to it than just avor. Certied Piedmontese is also low in fat
and calories. At the same time, its protein-rich with robust avor and premium
tenderness. Incredibly lean, unbelievably tender: Its the best of both worlds.
piedmontese.com
PROCESSOR
SPECIAL ADVERTISING & CONTENT

FROM OUR PROCESSOR PARTNERS
Helping IT stay on pace with the
SPEED OF CHANGE
Processor is designed for the IT world, covering the hardware

and technologies that power todays data centers.
PROCESSOR
T E C H N O LO G Y T O WAT C H
Why Next-Generation
Memory Is Better
How DDR4 & Other DRAM Technology Will Affect Your Enterprise
Theres no doubt that DDR4
memory is superior to DDR3, as it
offers lower power consumption,
faster speeds, and higher capacity potential. And when put into
a high performance computing
environment with a large memory
capacity, such as virtual machine
server or a set of racks delivering
enterprise applications, DDR4s
improvements can significantly
improve total cost of ownership.
Lets take a deeper look at what
you need to know about DDR4 and
other future memory options.
Now Is The Time

To Upgrade To DDR4
The price difference between
DDR3 and DDR4 has narrowed
from 30% at the beginning of 2015
to 10% at the end of the second
quarter, according to a report from
DRAMeXchange. Based on this,
DRAMeXchange expects that DDR4
will become mainstream for server
applications by the 4th quarter of
2015. Mike Howard, director, memory and storage at IHS, expressed
similar optimism, While DDR4 is
a more expensive option today, it
wont be in six months, and in a year
DDR3 will likely be a non-trivial
price premium to DDR4.
And even if DDR4 is more expensive for you right now, youll want
to think about the how buying into
technology with a limited lifespan
will effect purchases down the road.

While it may be tempting today to
stick with the less expensive technology, DDR3 might end up being a more
expensive option when upgrade and
replacement costs are considered,
says Howard.
Power Savings
One of the biggest advantages for
DDR4 is that it operates at 1.2V,
while DDR3L runs at 1.35V and
conventional DDR3 operates at
1.5V. The JEDEC hasnt approved
low-voltage standards yet, but you
might see even lower voltage modules in the future. Even at 1.2V,
DDR4 uses 11% less power than
DDR3L and 20% less voltage than
conventional DDR3. When youre
loading up servers with DRAM, the
While DDR4 is a more expensive option today, it wont

be in six months, and in a year DDR3 will likely be a
non-trivial price premium to DDR4.
- Mike Howard, Director, Memory & Storage, IHS
72
power savings are magnified, as each

module is lowering power draw,
when compared to DDR3.
DRAMatic Performance
DDR4 modules start at 2133MHz,
twice what we saw when DDR3 was
first launched. The high-end of most
DRAM vendors DDR3 server lineups typically top out at 1866MHZ.
As such, youll typically see a performance boost right away. Best of
all DDR4 has a lot of potential headroom. In the consumer market, were
already seeing DDR4-3400MHz
kits. As DDR4 matures, the speed
gap between DDR3 and DDR4 will
only continue to grow. The increased
performance means your servers can
benefit from higher memory bandwidth, ideal for highly virtualized
environments and high performance
computing.
DDR4 is also available in load
reduced DIMMs (LRDIMM) that
take advantage of distributed buffers
to improve memory bandwidth efficiency. Memory vendors can utilize
PROCESSOR
T E C H N O LO G Y T O WAT C H
new features in DDR4 LRDIMMs,

such as shorter I/O trace lengths
and 50% less component latency, to
reduce latency and increase signal
integrity. The end result is that DDR4
LRDIMMs provide performance,
including overall latency and read/
write times, similar to conventional
DDR4 RDIMMs. The load reduced
modules are ideal for enterprises that
require the highest capacities, as well
as those that need speedy bandwidth.
Maybe the most intriguing element,

from an IT perspective, is DDR4s
potential capacity. Similar to DDR3,
the most widely available single
DIMM module capacities are 8GB and
16GB. But in the future, its expected
that improvements in the production
of 8Gb mono-die chips and the 20nm
manufacturing process will allow for
32GB or even 64GB capacity DDR4
modules. Some memory vendors have
even designed 128GB load-reduced
memory modules.
Prices, of course, for the large
capacity modules are likely to start
out sky high, but as modules with
capacities 16GB and above become
mass available, cost will drop to a
point where small and medium-sized
enterprises could afford the high
capacity memory. With capacity on
the rise, its much less likely your
servers will be hamstrung by memory
capacity restraints.
Upgrade Complications
Not all processors work with
DDR4, says Howard. Even within a
single generation of processors, some
SKUs may or may not work with
DDR4. And although youll need to
verify which products currently support DDR3 and DDR4 over the next
few months, Howard expects that
by 2016 most all vendors will have
moved over to DDR4. As such, its
unlikely that youll want to continue
to invest in DDR3-based servers, as
youd be investing in something with
a limited upgrade path in the future. P
IMAGE COURTESY OF MICRON
A Capacity Upgrade
Meet Hybrid Memory Cube

DDR4 might be the memory of choice for the foreseeable future, but Hybrid
Memory Cube (HMC) is likely the next big thing. HMC is really exciting technology, and while its still early days for the tech, it offers some truly game-changing
performance, says Mike Howard, director, memory and storage at IHS. Weve
seen a lot of early traction in the networking space and absolutely expect to see
a meaningful slice of the server segment adopting HMC in the near future. He
estimates that HMC is only a year or two from serious penetration into the server
market.
HMC is a new way of using memory inside computing systems. HMC uses 3D
interconnect technology to add a high-speedy logic layer to vertical stacks of
DRAM die layers. The 3D interconnect design lets HMC memory sit on the same
substrate as the processing unit, and the logic layer allows for optimized performance and energy efficiency. The vertical stacks of DRAM is where all the data
resides. This architecture allows HMC to respond quickly with multi-core scenarios, and provide incredible boosts to bandwidth. For example, the current generation of HMC technology offers up to 15 times the bandwidth of a single DDR3
module, and uses 70% less energy.
HMC chips are around 90% physically smaller than conventional RDIMMs, so
the circuits will be coupled with computational and graphic processors, as well
as application specific integration circuits (ASICs) in point-to-point configurations.
Besides speed, HMC also has some features that will appeal to the data center
audience, including error correction, resiliency, and refresh capabilities. Clearly,
HMC is a technology to watch.
73
PROCESSOR
DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
A Powerful Combination:
Paperless Office & Full-Text Search
Cabinet Document Management Solutions Uses dtSearch For Complete Document Searching
Since 1999, Cabinet Document
Management Solutions has helped
clients deploy enterprise-class document management software systems.
Cabinets SAFE document management system makes the efficiency,
security and sustainability of a
paperless office accessible to any
organizationfrom large enterprises to small and midsize businesses.
Typical business industries served
include legal, financial and accounting, insurance, manufacturing,
healthcare, and human resources.
Today, Cabinet offers document
management in the cloud, as well
as through servers running at their
client sites, including both browserbased and more traditional Windows
client access. For full-text searching inside the SAFE cabinet, both
online and offline, Cabinet chose
dtSearch.
Simplicity Isnt Easy

The concept of transforming documents from paper to digital may
seem straightforward, but when you
stop to consider storage, compliance,
and search requirements, the challenges of going paperless become
much more complex. There are also
client-specific needs to consider.
Cabinet configures each SAFE
installation based on the organizations processes, rules, and workflows, says James True, vice president of product management. SAFE
is configured to meet those exact
needs, creating an efficient, fully
digital version of document storage,
capture, storage, retrieval, and workflow processes.
dtSearch plays a pivotal role in the

retrieval of information from Cabinet
SAFE systems. We use dtSearch as
our full-text engine because it allows
us to offer the complete set of search
capabilities our customers require,
while letting us keep development
resources focused on our core document management, workflow and
mobile technologies.
A Solution To Larger Problems

For example, adds True, the product plays a key role in areas such as
information access control, disaster
recovery, and providing secure anywhere/anytime access to documents.
We call this, Your business: paperless, efficient, secure, accessible.

And with dtSearch Engine, customers
can locate the exact documents they
need in any situation.
The end result for Cabinets customers is simplicity. SAFE doesnt
come with a steep learning curve
or an initial drain on productivity,
says True. Its document management software that works hardand
starts to build ROIfrom day one.
dtSearch extends that ease of use to
SAFEs search functionality. P
dtSearch
Cabinet Document Management Solutions

helps companies of all sizes save money
and increase efficiency by going paperless. Its SAFE and SAFE Cloud products
provide enterprise-class document management software positioned on-premises or
hosted in the companys secure, private
cloud, respectively. With more than 16 years
of experience in the document management
business, the company offers its customers a wealth of insights into dealing with
compliance requirements, operating multiple
offices, and supporting mobile professionals
while saving space, time, and money over
traditional document management practices.
The Smart Choice for Text Retrieval since

1991, dtSearch has provided enterprise
and developer text retrieval along with
document filters for more than 24 years.
The company offers parsing, extraction,
conversion, and searching of a broad spectrum of data formats. Supported data types
encompass databases, static and dynamic
website data, popular Office formats,
compression formats, and emails (including the full text of nested attachments).
The dtSearch product line includes enterprise and developer text search products,
meeting some of the largest-capacity text
retrieval needs in the world. dtSearch products have received hundreds of excellent
case studies and press reviews (please
see www.dtsearch.com for these). The
company has distributors worldwide with
coverage on six continents.
(800) 621-6501
www.cabinetpaperless.com
(800) IT-FINDS or (301) 263-0731

www.dtsearch.com
Cabinet Document
Management Solutions
75
PROCESSOR
I T & FAC I L I T I E S M A N AG E M E N T
Environmental Monitoring Without

The Need To Plug In To The Network
New AVTECH Room Alert 3 Wi-Fi Monitor Expands Facilities Monitoring To New Markets
AVTECH Softwares new Room
Alert 3 Wi-Fi marks the latest in the
companys long line of powerful
and popular IT and facilities temperature and environment monitors.
AVTECH, which has been in
business since 1988, now has more
than 130,000 customers in 180
countries. Michael Sigourney, president and CEO, says this new Room
Alert model will reach an even bigger audience because it eliminates
the need to physically plug in to
the network.
Small Footprint
The unique footprint and features
of Room Alert 3 Wi-Fi make it perfectly designed to assist with monitoring temperature and other environmental conditions where a small
footprint is needed, where a wired
connection may not exist, when the
investment cost needs to be minimal, or where deployment volume
may be high.
With one digital temperature sensor built-in, users can expand monitoring by adding another digital
sensor (i.e., temperature, humidity,
outdoor and fluid temperature) as

well as a switch sensor for conditions such as flood/water, power,
smoke/fire, airflow, and room
entry, motion, and more.
Use Anywhere Theres Wi-Fi

Room Alert 3 Wi-Fi has many
benefits and can be used anywhere a Wi-Fi connection is available. There are no cables to run, so
you can use Room Alert 3 devices around the world and moni-
AVTECH Room Alert 3 Wi-Fi

Monitor, alert, log, graph, view, map, report, manage and protect any facility.
Includes powerful Device ManageR software (free) and one year GoToMyDevices
Personal cloud service (free).
Ideal in areas that require a small footprint and have no network connection. Includes a
built-in digital temperature sensor. Use in computer rooms, warehouse, medical, cold
storage, restaurant, residential, more.
$175 price makes it affordable to deploy or use in areas requiring a large number of
devices. Over 30 sensor options.
(888) 220-6700
Sales@AVTECH.com
Go to AVTECH.com and click Store
76
tor them all together on a single

screen through AVTECHs Device
ManageR software (included
free) or GoToMyDevices (www.
GoToMyDevices.com) cloud service. Advanced alerting, mapping
and graphing features provide easy
overview and analysis. New customers receive a one-year Personal
subscription to GoToMyDevices at
no charge.
Affordable Price Opens

New Markets, New Uses
Based on its ease of use and price
of just $175, Sigourney says, Room
Alert 3 Wi-Fi can help bring temperature and environmental monitoring into markets that have previously been slow to adopt this
technology. Key markets include
IT, medical, cold storage, housing,
retail, food service, museums, public buildings, farming, transportation, warehousing, and distribution.
AVTECH Room Alert 3 Wi-Fi is
available direct and from professional resellers in 180 countries. P
PROCESSOR
S E RV I C E T O WAT C H
GIGABYTE GSM Program Caters

To Business Customers
Replacement Program Helps Companies Save Money & Time On Motherboards
Motherboard management is often
a pain point for IT departments, system integrators, and VARs (valueadded resellers). Companies requiring
a long-term stable supply of motherboards can expend an abundance
of resources on lifecycle management tasks. For companies such as
these, whether they be large organizations or small to midsize businesses, GIGABYTE now offers its
GSM (GIGABYTE Stable Models)
program, guaranteeing a minimum
14-month stable motherboard supply.
What The Program Does

The primary goal of the GSM program is to eliminate the headaches,
time, and costs involved in maintaining a steady supply of reliable motherboards. Customers entering into
the GSM program enjoy a minimum
14-month production and supply, as
well as cross-shipping service (that
is, the replacement is sent before the
older item is received), with no minimum orders.
GIGABYTE guarantees that its
GSM products have a life span
thats longer than other models, and
many motherboards are available for
more than one year. To ensure that
its customers know what to expect in
advance, GIGABYTE provides all
of the updated data and information
online at businesscenter.gigabyte.us,
including a product Roadmap (which
documents release dates and additional
information for each motherboard),
current promotions, and product
change notification updates.
Thanks to its partnership with Intel,
GIGABYTE offers a reward program for Intel Technology Providers.
GIGABYTE also offers rebate pro-
grams for certain Intel and AMD

purchases.
Overall Benefits
GIGABYTE provides a threeyear warranty for all of the
motherboards in the GSM program. All products have passed
WHQL testing and are certified for Windows. GIGABYTE
assigns each customer a dedicated sales representative to ensure
the best service possible. The
company also offers dedicated
technical support and service, a
phone hotline for immediate service
(Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6
p.m. Pacific Time), and BIOS customization support.
and can use either outbound or

ground shipping. All customers
benefit from GIGABYTEs three-year
product warranty.
Advanced Replacement Service
How To Become A Member
One key feature of the GSM program is the GSM ARS (Advanced
Replacement Service), which is
available to customers at the Valued
Partner and Premier Partner membership levels. Customers at these membership levels can use the advanced
swap service for three years from the
purchase date, enjoy a one- to twobusiness day RMA process time, and
can choose from multiple shipping
options (outbound, overnight inbound,
and ground).
Customers at the Standard Partner
level, by comparison, can use
the advanced
swap service
depending on
availability,
expect an RMA
process time
of two to three
business days,
To enter the GSM program, customers must first purchase a GSM motherboard from an authorized distributor (ASI, Avnet, D&H, Ingram Micro,
LeaderTech, Ma Laboratories, or
Synnex). Customers may then register
for an account within 30 days. Its as
simple as that. GIGABYTE re-evaluates all memberships on a quarterly
basis. Call the phone number or visit
the website below for further details. P
GIGABYTE GSM Program

Extends product life cycles
In conjunction with Intel Technology
Provider Program
Ideal for system integrators and VARs
(626) 854-9338
businesscenter.gigabyte.us
77
F E AT U R E D P R O D U C T
Seamless Integration
AICs Smart Rack Solutions Let You Mix & Match
Nodes To Meet Any & All Application Demands
The best way to look at AICs line
of Smart Rack solutions is as a series
of building blocks specifically designed
to work together to handle a wide
variety of workloads. The 48U Smart
Rack itself features centralized power,
enhanced cooling capabilities, and
remote management controllers so you
can monitor every aspect of the solution
for the highest possible efficiency.
From there, you can mix and
match compute nodes, storage server nodes, and JBOD nodes depending on the application. For example,
AICs 1D-HV24-03 and 21D-B31204 compute nodes as well as its
1S-HV26-08 and 21S-B312-08 storage nodes all sport two AIC server
boards with dual Intel Xeon processors, but they offer different maximum system memory capacities and
support for different on-board devices, including SATA, IPMI, network
controllers, and graphics.
The J230-21R 2U JBOD node has
30 hot-swap drive bays in two slide
and lock drive drawers for quick
and easy access to drives. Plus, you
can expand your capacity up to 150
drives by cascading four JBODs.
Regardless of application size or
how you choose to mix and match
the different Smart Rack solutions,
you know theyll integrate seamlessly to meet all compute, storage, and
networking demands. P
AIC Smart Rack Solutions

Built to increase operational efficiency
Quick and easy to deploy
Offers friendly management controls
(866) 800-0056
www.aicipc.com
(888)-865-4639
www.lindy-usa.com
USB Port Blocker
System administrators can physically prevent
users from connecting Pen Drives, MP3 Players
and other USB Mass Storage Devices to their
computers to copy data, introduce viruses, etc.
The USB Port Blocker is a combined key
and lock assembly which plugs into the USB
port. Simply plug the keylock into the port
and release the latch - the lock remains in place!
Plug the key back into the lock to remove. Easy!
Physically blocks access to a USB port
Consists of 4 locks and 1 key
5 different color code versions available:
Pink, Green, Blue, Orange, White
USB 2.0 Slimline Active Extension Cable

Compatible with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1
devices
Connectors:
Type A USB Male to Type A USB Female
FireWire Active Extension Cable

FireWire Repeater Cable for extending the cable
length between FireWire devices over distances
greater than the IEEE 1394 specified limit of 4.5m
Wireless VGA Compact Projector Server

Ideal for use with PowerPoint and other
presentation applications
Connects to the VGA port on your projector
SPECIAL ADVERTISING & CONTENT

FROM OUR COMPUTER POWER USER PARTNERS
Computer Power User offers technically sophisticated readers

a unique blend of product reviews, PC industry news and
trends, and detailed how-to articles.
Double Play
Intels Haswell-E & Skylake Lineups Offer Power For All

ho is a power user? Sure, its really
easy to point to a $10,000 gaming
PCcomplete with a flagship processor,
four graphics cards, PCIe SSDs, and all
the requisite trimmingsand say, that
guy, but theres a better answer. We think
that being a power user is more a state
of mind than a state of hardware. True
power users are those who make the most
of the hardware available to them.
With a fleet of terrific, cutting-edge
CPUs, Intel wants to make power users
out of everyone, regardless of budget.
Thanks to a pair of processor families,
enthusiasts with a passion for pushing
their CPUs have plenty of options.
Hail To The King

The undisputed champ of desktop
performance continues its reign. The
leader of the Haswell-E Dynasty,
Intels Core i7-5960X is as good as it
gets. Armed with eight physical cores
and Hyper-Threading, the 5960X
bulls through demanding workloads
16 instructions at a time. Its 20MB of
Advertisement
82
Intel Smart Cache is the most

yo ul l f i n d a m o n g
any of Intels desktop
chips. The 5960Xs
3GHz stock clock
speed is expected for a
processor that boasts
so many discrete cores,
and its capable of
dialing in a 3.5GHz
Turbo frequency for
lightly threaded loads.
A pair of ruthless sixcore processors join the
5960X in formation.
The Core i7-5930K and i75820K are clocked at 3.5GHz
and 3.3GHz, respectively, and
as youll soon find out, theres
potential for much higher clocks.
Both of these chips are equipped with 15MB
of Intel Smart Cache. Like the 5960X, the
5930K and 5820K can use Hyper-Threading
to double the number of threads their cores
can handle.
Each Haswell-E processor is plenty
ferocious out
of the box, but
industrious power
users can roll
up their sleeves
and unleash the
full fury of the
silicon. The chips
are unlocked to
make overclocking
easier: Set a higher
multiplier and get
a higher clock. Of
course, veteran
enthusiasts know
that overclocking
still requires a
fair amount of
skill, but when
you pair a Haswell-E CPU with a capable

motherboard and cooler, you have the
perfect recipe for maximizing these
processors performance. Thanks to Intels
Extreme Tuning utility, overclocking the
5960X, 5930K, or 5820K doesnt have to
be a tedious, excruciating affair. Beginners
can use the software to quickly and easily
access extra processing horsepower, while
experienced overclockers may be surprised
at the number of dials and knobs at
their disposal when using XTU.
Haswell-E also gives you access to a
host of goodies, thanks to Intels X99
chipset. DDR4 has gone mainstream,
true, but the X99 platform truly lets
your DDR4 modules shine. Thanks to
the Haswell-E processors integrated
quad-channel memory controller, X99
motherboards provide tremendous
memory bandwidth, especially after
you factor in suppor t for XMP
profiles and high-end DDR4 modules
that can exceed 4,000MTps (megatransfers per second).
Gamers also stand to benefit from

an abundance of PCIe lanes available
to Haswell-E processors. The 5960X
and 5930K both have 40 lanes at their
disposal, putting a 4-way SLI or CrossFire
setup within easy reach. The 5820K is
limited to 28 lanes, but thats more than
enough for a powerful multi-GPU setup.
Soar With Skylake

In case you havent been paying
attention, Intel recently updated its
lineup of quad-core processors, too. Built
on a 14nm process and formerly codenamed Skylake, Intels 6th Generation
Core processors are proof that you dont
need to refinance your house or put up a
kidney for sale on Craigslist to purchase
the services of an incredible CPU.
The Core i7-6700K leads the 6th
Generation Core family into battle. Its a
quad-core processor, but like its Haswell-E
cousins, Hyper-Threading lets the chip
tackle twice as many simultaneous instructions per core. The 6700K starts with a
stock clock of 4GHz, and Intels Turbo
Boost 2.0 can bump that up to 4.2GHz. It
includes 8MB of Intel Smart Cache.
Rounding out our gallery of power-user
processors is the Core i5-6600K, which has
four physical cores, 6MB of Intel Smart
Cache, and a 3.5GHz base frequency.
With certain workloads, Turbo Boost
can jack the 6600Ks clocks to 3.9GHz,
but the fun really begins when you take
advantage of its unlocked multiplier.
Yes, the 6700Ks and 6600Ks unlocked
multipliers are a big part of what make
them true power-user processors. Intel has
built these chips precisely for enthusiasts
who prefer to tinker their way to faster
speeds and better performance. K Series
Skylake processors let you run the core
ratio all the way up to 83X, increasing the
resulting clock speed 100MHz at a time.
Going further, these CPUs are bristling
with other options for overlockers. There
are Turbo overrides for voltage and power,
and you can also punch up the BCLK,
increasing it in 1MHz increments. With
the right supporting hardware, you may
be able to push your BCLK to 200MHz
or higher. In addition to these changes, the
6700K and 6600K have unlocked voltage

controls, which should provide increased
stability that ultimately leads to even
higher frequencies.
For the first time ever, Skylake CPUs
and their accompanying Z170 chipset bring
DDR4 support to the masses. Previously,
you had to have a HEDT (high-end
desktop) processor to take advantage of the
high-speed, low-voltage memory, but now
mainstream builders can make the move
to DDR4, too. Consistent with previous
generations of Intel quad-core processors,
the 6700K and 6600K have a dual-channel
on-die memory controller. Both processors
support up to 64GB of DDR4.
Would it surprise you to learn that
Intel has also made improvements to that
on-die memory controller? Previously,
users could only overclock their memory
modules by 200/266MHz. Skylake
and the Z170 chipset halve that to
100/133MHz, giving much more control
to those who like to manually overclock
their memory. Naturally, Skylake still
gives you XMP support for set-and-forget
memory overclocking.
The Future, Sponsored By Z170

Maybe youre just not that into overclocking. Its OK, your secrets safe
with us. You should know, though,
that Skylake processors and the Z170
chipset have tons of cutting-edge features
that dont have anything to do with
overclocking. The new DMI 3.0 (Direct
Media Interface) connection between the
CPU and PCH has four lanes, and each
lane delivers bandwidth up to 8GTps.
The Z170s beefed-up Flex-IO hub gives
motherboard manufacturers the ability
to outfit their boards with even more
PCIe lanes, USB 3.0 ports, or 6Gbps
SATA connectors (now 26 total, almost
50% more than the Z97 chipsets 18).
PCIe devices will have access to greater
bandwidth through the Z170 chipset,
giving next-gen storage drives all the
tubes they need for breakneck speed.
Add Intel exclusives such as Intel Ready
Mode Technology, Intel Smart Sound
Technology, and Intel Device Protection
Technology with Boot Guard, and you
have the foundation for a mighty machine
that will last a long time.
83
Supermicros New Gaming Series Brings Server-Grade

Reliability & Stability To Gaming PCs
ouve likely heard the name Supermicro mentioned in conjunction

with mission-critical servers for business
applications, and with good reason. The
companys server/storage products have a
reputation for providing efficient, reliable
service in industries where downtime
just isnt acceptable, and in recent years
Supermicro has engineered those same
benefits into a growing line of board,
chassis, and server solutions focused on the
desktop and gaming market space.
The company launched gaming motherboards to coincide with Intels Haswell and
Haswell-E launches, and now is releasing an
entire series of Z170 boards designed for the
fastest, most efficient, most stable performance
you can get from Intels Skylake CPUs.
Supermicro is also doubling down on its
commitment to the gaming community by
creating a new brand that encompasses all of
its gaming motherboards and casesSuperO.
What Is
?
As a natural evolution of our rapidly
growing business, Supermicro is positioning
SuperO to include our desktop gaming
Advertisement
84
product lines in the end-user market while

maintaining continuity with our roots as
a server company, says Supermicro
Product Director Barry Huang. SuperO
stands for design superiority with bestin-class quality, reliability, and stability
benefits from the Supermicro corporate
mission to build the most energyefficient products.
The new line includes Supermicros
previously introduced C7X99-OCE
motherboard, as well as the entire new
line of Z170 boards (the C7170-OCE,
the C7170-SQ, and the C7170-M)
and an H170 board (the C7H170-M)
for prosumers.
Of course, every good gaming rig needs
an appropriate case, and SuperO has you
covered in that regard, as well. The companys
S5 and 732G mid-tower cases are designed
with the looks and configurability that
DIY builders in generaland gamers in
particularlook for in chassis for their rigs.
Server DNA
Lots of companies talk about how reliable
their products are, but Supermicro has been
proving its claims for more than 20 years in

server rooms around the world. So when the
company says its motherboards have server
DNA, its more than just a clever tagline.
Server DNA means Supermicros
SuperO motherboards are built using extralayer PCBs with materials that meet server
standards for signal integrity. It means these
boards 15 gold plating on PCIe sockets,
connectors, and CPU sockets is 7.5 times
greater than the standard 2 design. It means
Supermicro uses only the best Japanese
NPCAP solid-state capacitors with longer
lifecycle ratings and extremely low ESR that
offer outstanding ripple rejection. And it
means that Supermicro tests its boards under
full loads for 150-plus hours, including tests
for extreme workloads, memory use, thermal
loads, clock speeds and voltages, and more
before validating them.
The results are obvious: A Supermicro
SuperO motherboard will provide you
with exceptional stability, especially when
you push your components to their speed
and thermal limits through overclocking.
It will also give you the most energyefficient performance possible, thanks to
better DC voltage regulators, relentlessly

refined power signals, precisely optimized
signal traces, and advanced power
management features.
Meet The Family

Supermicro segments the SuperO lines
five motherboards into three subcategories.
At the top, the Pro Gaming segment
configs and at 16/8/8 speeds in 3-way SLI

or CrossFire. It packs six 6Gbps SATA ports
and also comes with an M.2 port for your
next-gen storage needs. And speaking of
next-gen support, the C7Z170-OCE also
features two available USB 3.1 ports, one
of which is the reversible Type C port. The
board also boasts a full suite of overclocking
tools, including three one-touch overclocking
preset buttons, a button for overclocking
your memory, an OCE control panel
header and diagnostic LED, and buttons
for blocking dual boots and for restoring
setups, and 8/4/4 speeds in 3-way SLI or

CrossFire), similar SATA and M.2 support as
the C7Z170-OCE, and all of the C7Z170OCEs overclocking features except the onetouch preset overclocking buttons. You even
get a USB 3.1 Type C port for next-gen
connections to all manner of peripherals.
The C7Z170-M is a micro-ATX version
of the C7Z170-SQ for value-conscious
gamers that has the same memory support but
gives up a couple PCIe slots and some USB
connectivity in exchange for its diminutive size
and potential for increased system portability.
Supermicro C7Z170-SQ
Supermicro C7H170-M
your BIOS from a USB flash drive (the latter

works with any USB port on the board).
The Core Gaming segment (built for
mainstream performance gamers) comes
next, and it includes the C7Z170-SQ
(the handsome red board featured on this
months cover) and the C7Z170-M. The
C7Z170-SQ is a Skylake board with support
for up to 64GB of DDR4-3200+ memory,
three PCIe x16 slots (full x16 speed in
single-GPU configs, 8/8 speeds in dual-GPU
The final segment of the SuperO line

is the Core Business line, which currently
consists solely of Supermicros C7H170-M.
This board, built around Intels H170
chipset, is a Skylake board that supports
up to 64GB of DDR4-2133 memory but
otherwise comes with many of the same
features as the C7Z170-M, and is designed
for 24/7 business use.
Supermicro C7X99-OCE
(designed with enthusiasts and power gamers

in mind) consists of the C7X99-OCE and
the C7Z170-OCE. The C7X99-OCE
is, as its name implies, an X99 Haswell-E
board designed to support Intels Core i75960X, Core i7-5930K, and Core i7-5820K
processors. It comes fully loaded with four
PCIe x16 slots, 10 6Gbps SATA ports, and
support for up to 64GB of DDR4 at speeds
up to 3300MHz.
The C7Z170-OCE is SuperOs flagship
Skylake motherboard, and has the same
Supermicro C7Z170-OCE
memory support as its older X99 sibling.

It sports three PCIe x16 graphics card slots
that run at 16/16 speeds in dual-GPU
Supermicro C7Z170-M
Born To Run
As you can see, SuperO means more than
motherboards that look good (although they
certainly do); it means boards that you can
rely on to perform at peak levels consistently
for years to come, even when you overclock
your components to their limits.
And thanks to the SuperO line of Supermicro desktop solutions, you can get it with
a variety of feature sets at a variety of price
points and in both the ATX and mATX
form factors. In short, SuperO is the name
to look for, no matter what type of gaming
rig you are building. (For more information,
visit www.supermicro.com/Gaming.)
85

Cyber 11

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Cyber 11

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

NOVEMBER 2015 VOL. 13 ISS.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Special Section For IT Managers

Special Section For PC Enthusiasts

Volume 13 : Issue 11 : November 2015

DELL: HARDWARE, SOFTWARE

Special Section For IT Managers

81 COMPUTER POWER USER

Special Section For PC Enthusiasts

Advertising: (800) 247-4880

Overall IT Spending Drops Across All Industries

2015 IT SPENDING (In Millions)

Banking & Securities

2015 IT SPENDING GROWTH

2014 IT SPENDING GROWTH

Semiconductor Market To See

Worldwide Information Security

PC Shipments Slip 7.7%

The latest forecast from Gartner on

Worldwide spending on information

PC shipments worldwide totaled 73.7

November 2015 / www.cybertrend.com

Large Corporations Focusing

New Verizon Report Illustrates How The Internet Of Things

The pressure is intense right now among

Infosys Lauded For Its

North America Leads The Way In

Public-access Wi-Fi (aka Hotspot 2.0, or

In eMarketers 2015 Global Media

CyberTrend / November 2015

Gartner Shines Spotlight On

Big Growth Expected For IoT, Wearables

Businesses are overwhelmingly going

ABI Says Qi To Retain Its Lead In

3D Printer Shipments Rise Due

Tablet Sales Droop As Phablets

Phablets, which are essentially large

November 2015 / www.cybertrend.com

39% of U.S. IT decision-makers at companies using

Changing The Way Brands

Smart Thermostat Company Makes A Splash

The smart technology

Startup Has Raised $30M To

Recharging Devices With

Canva Offers A One-Stop Shop

Move Guides, a startup that offers

The first product isnt available quite

Not a designer? Not a problem, according to Canva, an Australian startup

November 2015 / www.cybertrend.com

Hardware, Software & Everything Else

November 2015 / www.cybertrend.com

FOR MOST COMPANIES it takes years to

Off To A Fast Start

company went public. A year later, Dell

of storage products for data centers. By

continuing to differentiate itself as much

Strong Business Focus

The Quintessential Business PC

In the early 2000s Dell continued its

CyberTrend / November 2015

November 2015 / www.cybertrend.com

solution enables mobile alerts, so the IT

Big Data & Business Intelligence

CyberTrend / November 2015