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❚ Juniper Announces QFabric new business opportunities and and SkyArchive will provide
Data Center Architecture makes real-time business pos- secure storage.
By announcing its new QFabric sible for the first time,” said Jake
data center architecture, Juniper Klein, SAP VP, Data and Analytic ❚ Teradata Buys The Rest Of
Networks has taken direct aim Engines, in a press release. Aster Data, Aims For “Big Data”
at competitor Cisco Systems in a Teradata, which provides
bid to draw customers away with ❚ HP Offers New data warehousing, database
promises of higher performance Peace-Of-Mind Services software, and analytics for
and greater ROI. Among other HP’s new software services, enterprise businesses, acquired
benefits to using QFabric, Juniper released under the name HP 11% ownership of Aster Data,
is touting the architecture’s Premier Services, are geared a data management and ana-
ability to permit more visibility, toward large businesses that lytics company based in San
❚ Seagate Ships Easily provide more security enforce- can benefit from assistance Carlos, Calif., late last year.
Configurable 3TB ment controls, and offer more managing HP software and in- Now Teradata will acquire
Desktop Drive virtual machines per VMWare tegrated third-party software. the remaining 89% for $263
With 3TB of storage, Seagate’s ESX host (five times more than “Offerings such as HP Premier million. The San Diego-based
new Barracuda XT desk- the competition). “With Juniper’s Services can provide organiza- Teradata plans to continue
top hard drive offers what approach to securing QFabric,” tions with the flexibility and support for Aster Data cus-
Seagate calls “the highest said Mark Bauhaus, executive cost predictability required to tomers and transition Aster
available capacity for home VP and GM, in a statement, “we manage and maintain enter- Data’s employees to Teradata.
servers and workstations.” enable the next generation of prise software across the entire “Teradata is recognized as an
The key to the Barracuda XT’s massive scale and comprehen- life cycle—from planning and innovator and leader in data
success, however, will likely sive security while at the same deployment to support and warehousing and the addition
be its included DiscWizard time reducing the complexity of ongoing upgrades,” said IDC’s of Aster Data will enable us
software, which provides a the data center.” Elaina Stergiades in a press to leapfrog into a leadership
workaround for legacy Win- release. HP Software Premier position in the emerging big
dows XP systems and other ❚ SAP & IBM Work Together Services are available in four data market,” said Scott Gnau,
computers that wouldn’t oth- On Real-Time Analytics packages to match companies’ Teradata chief development
erwise tolerate a drive with SAP’s new In-Memory Appli- varying needs. officer, in a press release.
a capacity larger than 2.1TB ance (SAP HANA) software is
without upgrades. The Bar- designed to capture data in mem- ❚ Ingres Outlines Cloud ❚ Information Builders Makes
racuda XT is shipping now. ory from any source and analyze Strategy, Introduces SkySafe Real-Time Mobile BI
it in real time, essentially yielding Ingres, known for its VectorWise Perhaps your company is
❚ VMware Buys Web App database technology for interac- eyeing the potential benefits of
Development Company tive reporting and business real-time business data analyt-
VMware announced its ac- intelligence, recently announced ics—that is, the ability to view
quisition of the San Francisco- a new cloud solutions roadmap. where the business is at in
based software company At the center of Ingres’ strategy terms of, say, sales or finan-
WaveMaker, which makes is SkySafe, a platform for build- cials, at any given moment.
tools that help non-developers ing cloud Information Builders seeks to
create Java-based Web apps. instant business applica- capitalize on that interest with
According to VMware’s intelligence. IBM tions for its new WebFOCUS Mobile
SpringSource Team Blog, and SAP tested the storing BI. Using WebFOCUS Active
the acquisition will feed VM- software using its and work- Technology to gather informa-
ware’s overall cloud strategy own optimized hardware and ing with large amounts of data. tion and optimize it in the
by fostering increased interest SAP ERP database information Ingres says its SkySafe services form of small screen-friendly
in Web app development and to demonstrate how well the will be suitable for public or charts and graphs, the new
usage. WaveMaker’s software technology works with IBM’s private clouds and are customiz- product delivers information
is open-source, and VMware 3850 series servers. “By dramati- able based on an organization’s to any mobile device with a
plans to continue offering its cally outperforming traditional needs. SkyInsight is a related Web browser, including An-
software as open-source. disk-based systems on analytical service that will offer interactive droid smartphones, the iPhone
queries, SAP HANA opens reporting and analysis, or iPad, and BlackBerrys.
❚ Alcatel-Lucent Envisions Wi-Fi hotspot. Verizon expects Marketplace provides access ❚ Kaspersky Lab Expands
An End To Cell Towers to offer nationwide LTE cover- to hundreds of applications Mobile Security Suite
In touting the benefits of its new age by 2013. and services. Russian digital security
lightRadio technology, Alcatel- company Kaspersky Lab
Lucent points to the currently ❚ Logitech’s LifeSize ❚ Imation Acquires has updated its mobile
visible proliferation of cellular Introduces Mobile Streaming Encryption Company security software to support
masts and towers. Designed LifeSize, a division of input The Oakdale, Minn.,-based Ima- Android and BlackBerry
to help wireless carriers save peripheral manufacturer Logi- tion, data storage and wireless devices. The software previ-
energy costs, reduce the carbon tech, announced the addition of gear manufacturer and owner ously supported only Win-
footprint of their networks, and mobile streaming features to its of the Memorex and XtremeMac dows Mobile and Symbian;
generally reduce total cost of LifeSize Video Center telepres- brands, has acquired the Louis- the updated version, Mobile
ownership, lightRadio technol- ence solution. LifeSize Video ville, Colo.,-based EncryptX for Security 9, does not cover
ogy handles 2G, 3G, LTE, and Center users, whether remote an undisclosed sum. (BeCompli- iOS or Windows Phone 7. In
multiple frequencies, the com- workers or business travelers, ant is the company that does addition to threat-blocking
pany says. Alcatel-Lucent has can now receive live and on- business as EncryptX.) EncryptX features, the software also
essentially dismantled the cell demand video in high definition develops encryption software for aids in theft prevention, the
tower concept and distributed on iPads, iPhones, and other mo- use in USB storage devices, on recovery or remote control
the components that make up bile devices via Wi-Fi or cellular optical media such as DVDs, and of stolen devices, and mo-
a cell tower into small cubes connection. Additional features in PCs. Imation says 10 employ- bile content filtering.
that are easier to install and now available include adaptive ees will transfer from EncryptX
manage. Businesses and con- streaming (to vary the bit rate to Imation. Imation’s recently ❚ Google Introduces
sumers will be pleased with the depending on the connection and launched Defender Collection Certification Program For
technology’s ability to expand device) and cloud storage. uses FIPS (Federal Information Google Apps
network capacity while remain- Processing Standard) cryptogra- By Google’s own count, its
ing nearly invisible. ❚ Microsoft Introduces phy for high-level security. Google Apps suite is now
Cloud-Based CRM used by more than 3 million
❚ Verizon Releases Microsoft is taking aim at its ❚ Intel Launches Thunderbolt businesses worldwide. In
First 4G LTE competitors’ Connectivity order to help developers,
Smartphone cloud-based Intel’s new Thunderbolt tech- authorized resellers, and
The Thunder- CRM offer- nology enables high-speed those who service and
Bolt by HTC ings with connections between devices, support Google Apps, the
has the distinc- its new such as between computers and company introduced the
tion of being Microsoft high-definition displays. Thun- Google Apps Certification
the first 4G Dynamics derbolt operates at 10GBps, Program. The program is
smartphone CRM Online thereby making short order of designed to give recognition
from Verizon service, now media and other large-volume and additional credibility to
Wireless, out of beta data transfers between devices, those IT professionals and
which in past and in full including streaming and down- resellers who prepare for
months has release. For loading video and backing and pass the exam.
aggressively users accus- up to storage devices. Apple
expanded tomed incorporated Thunderbolt tech-
its 4G LTE to Micro- nology into its new line of
(Long Term soft Office MacBook Pro laptop
Evolution) products, Dy- computers.
networks and now provides LTE namics CRM Online provides a
coverage in 39 markets and 60 familiar layout. For IT depart-
airports. The ThunderBolt runs ments, Microsoft says the
the Android 2.2 OS and features product offers fast and simple
a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, deployment, whether that
8GB memory (with support for deployment is cloud-
a 32GB microSD card), and the based or on-premises.
ability to create an 8-connection The new Microsoft Dynamics
STARTUPS
❚ Big Funding For A Simple Concept Capital Partners. In a blog post, September 2010 in a round led by
It is becoming a common strategy Box.net co-founder and CEO Aaron Avalon Ventures. On the heels of the
among Internet startups: Give your Levie said the funding will help the Gmail problem, it’s quite possible
product away for free and wait for company continue to focus on fast, that additional funding for Back-
businesses to start paying for it. reliable service; add support for upify is just around the corner.
mobile platforms other than the cur-
rently supported Android and Apple ❚ Two Security Startups For
iOS; and expand business services Enterprises To Watch
with synchronization services, enter- There is no shortage of digital se-
prise integration, collaboration fea- curity companies nowadays, but at
tures, and more. least two intriguing startups in that
category are worth noting.
❚ A Different Kind Of Cloud Backup CipherCloud (www.ciphercloud
As February drew to a close, approxi- .com), founded in 2010 and located in
mately 150,000 Gmail users found their Cupertino, Calif., offers an extra layer
accounts had been reset, with a glitch of security to enterprises using cloud
having wiped out their email messag- services. CipherCloud works by
es and contact information. By early encrypting the data (according to
March, Google had restored many a company’s customizations) that
Online content management
Assuming there’s a good concept of the accounts, but heavy users re- flows between users and Web-
company Box.net recently
gained $48 million in funding. behind the product (in this case, we’re mained affected for longer (and might based applications without affecting
referring to Web-based services), the still be waiting for their data). It’s the apps themselves. At this year’s
idea is that individuals will flock to this type of situation that Backupify RSA security conference, Cipher-
the product. If enough of those indi- (www.backupify.com) addresses with Cloud was named one of the top 10
viduals also have a professional in- its automated backup service. most innovative companies.
terest in the product, it will become Backupify is different from other The San Francisco-based Okta
popular in the workplace. And once cloud storage companies in that it of- (www.okta.com), founded in 2009
it takes hold in the workplace, IT de- fers a Web service for Web services. by ex-Salesforce.com execs Todd Mc-
partments and business owners will That is, it’s an online service that backs Kinnon and Frederic Kerrest, offers
take note, and many will begin paying up information from Google Apps, services that help businesses control
for bulk licenses. Facebook, and Zoho accounts, among the sign-in process for the Web-based
This is the path that Box.net (www others, via personal, business, and apps they use. Whether the apps are in
.box.net) has taken. The Palo Alto, enterprise-level accounts. The com- the cloud or on the network, Okta’s on-
Calif.,-based content management pany also snatched up TweetBackup demand identity management plat-
company offers 5GB of Web-based in November 2010, clearing out some form brings them all together and sim-
storage free, 25GB for $9.99 per month, competition and adding Twitter ac- plifies sign-on and access. An end user
or 50GB for $19.99 per month to indi- count backup to its offerings. can, for example, go to a single sign-on
viduals. Interested businesses can get Backupify, with headquarters in home page to access all of the apps the
their feet wet with 500GB of cloud Cambridge, Mass., is currently still company supports. Okta’s financial
storage for $15 per user per month. Be- working with the $4.5 million in backers include Andreessen Horow-
yond that, there are a wealth of enter- Series A funding it received in itz, Floodgate, and Ron Conway.
prise features (including encryption,
branding, and Salesforce.com integra-
tion) available for custom pricing.
Boosting Box.net’s advance in the
cloud storage market, Meritech Capi-
tal Partners recently led a $48 million
funding round that also included An-
dreessen Horowitz and Emergence
STATS
❚ Tablets To Impinge On ❚ Who Are B2B Customers & Where Do They Come From?
Computer Sales Given the soaring popularity of Facebook among consumers
Gartner lowered its forecast and, increasingly, in the business world, it probably wouldn’t
for PC sales in 2011 and 2012 surprise you to learn that 37% of customers connecting to B2B
based on marked growth sites did so using Facebook, but that figure comes from a Gigya
in the tablet market and study from May 2010. According to the latest figures from Gig-
diminished sales of notebook ya, a company that makes Web sites social networking-friendly,
computers, which are part of LinkedIn is taking a bite out of Facebook; in July 2010, 3% of
the PC category. Gartner ad- customers used LinkedIn IDs to log into B2B sites, whereas in
justed its forecast for PC sales January 2011, 20% of B2B customers used LinkedIn IDs. Below
to 10.5% growth for 2011 over are the reported job functions of current LinkedIn users.
2010 (down from 15.9%) and
13.6% growth for 2012 over
2011 (down from 14.8%).
KEY POINTS
▲ Cicso Systems forecasts
that from 2010 to 2015
“global mobile data traffic
will increase 26-fold.”
▲ The proliferation of
iPhones, Android devices,
and other smartphones are
putting a heavy strain on
wireless carriers’ cellular
networks.
DRAIN
How Businesses Can Address
Mobile Network Congestion
by Blaine Flamig
Take a look around. Odds are good those around marketplace, the more strain that’s being put on
you are tooling away on a smartphone or tablet. cellular networks.
Both devices are enjoying immense popularity, For perspective, consider Cisco Systems’ recent
which is great if you’re a manufacturer. For cellular “Visual Networking Index” report, which calls for
carriers, though, the proliferation of iPhones and global mobile data traffic to increase 26-fold between
Android devices alone is a source of an intensifying 2010 and 2015, expanding at a CAGR of 92% to reach
headache called “cellular data congestion.” Simply “6.3 exabytes per month by 2015.” Cisco also reports:
put, the more smartphones and tablets entering the r NJMMJPOUBCMFUTDPOOFDUFEUPNPCJMFOFUXPSLTJO
2010, each consuming five times more mobile data
traffic (405MB monthly) than the average smart-
In its Visual phone (79MB monthly)
Networking Index, 6,000,000 6.3 EB r #Z
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Cisco forecasts of traffic monthly, a 16 times increase from 2010
mobile data traffic r *O
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will increase 26-fold
traffic (248 petabytes monthly) as “the entire global
from 2010 to 2015.
(Figures are in exa- mobile network in 2010” (242 petabytes monthly)
3.8 EB r #Z
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bytes per month.)
3,000,000
nect to mobile networks, roughly equaling the
world’s population
2.2 EB
stadiums and urban business districts. For relief, by doctors” adding traffic to hospital networks
some carriers are installing and/or leasing Wi-Fi- already being tapped by users trying to access
related equipment from BelAir Networks, Cisco, electronic records in a timely manner, Kaul says.
Motorola, Ruckus Wireless, and others rather At universities, large numbers of student-owned
than building new, expensive (and unsightly) cell devices coupled with schools distributing net-
towers. Following in carriers’ footsteps are busi- books, smartphones, and other devices to students
nesses and organizations with high volumes of are contributing to congestion, Kaul says.
smartphone and tablet users doing the same. Similarly, congestion is cropping up in en-
terprises where IT departments distribute iPads
The iPhone Phenomenon and smartphones to employees, Kaul says. Aging
Perhaps the best example of a carrier addressing network infrastructures aren’t helping matters.
cellular network congestion is AT&T, which cre- “An IT manager of a Fortune 500 company was
ated a “Wi-Fi Hotzone,” or widespread Wi-Fi telling me the infrastructure that’s in place on his
From a corporate office
hotspot, in Times Square to ease mobile traffic, corporate campus is actually 10 years old,” Kaul
perspective, network
which jumped rapidly after adding the iPhone to says. “The kind of traffic they’re seeing now, the congestion hits “across all
its network. William Ho, Current Analysis VP of infrastructure is just not able to deal with that types of offices and all types
consumer services, says AT&T became “the poster amount of traffic. So the IT manager . . . went out of businesses,” says Aditya
child” in this area due to the iPhone’s “ease of use” and bought some femtocells and picocells out of Kaul, ABI Research analyst.
translating into users drawing more bandwidth, his own money to put them on [the network] just
something AT&T didn’t anticipate. to deal with the problem; it’s about that bad in
“They took PR hits for that,” Ho says. some cases.” From a corporate office perspective,
“Because of the lessons they learned all the other network congestion hits “across all types of offices
carriers have followed suit to beef up their back- and all types of businesses,” Kaul says.
haul specifically and the network to offset any
negative PR. I think everyone is doing a good job The Best Relief
of beefing up the backhaul, which is really the The best approach for businesses seeking to
possible bottleneck, as well as cell sites and tech- alleviate network congestion is subjective, Kaul
nology to increase downlink capability.” says, as “different situations need different solu-
Beyond Wi-Fi-based solutions, carriers (in- tions.” Expanding “Wi-Fi access points is a costly
cluding T-Mobile) are turning to femtocells to proposition for a lot of businesses,” Kaul adds, but
boost 3G performance where signal strength is for those with infrastructure already in place, tech-
poor or lacking. Picocells, meanwhile, are turning nologies such as Kineto’s Smart Wi-Fi application,
up in shopping malls, transportation stations, which Kineto claims is loaded on more than 1 mil-
and office buildings to extend and add cellular lion Android devices, is good for enabling a device
coverage. Distributed antennas are more expen- to automatically switch from 3G to Wi-Fi upon en-
sive, says Aditya Kaul, ABI Research analyst, tering the building, Kaul says. “From an operating
but serve a purpose in sprawling spaces such system perspective, from an Android perspective,
as airports, stadiums, and corporate campuses from an iPhone perspective, I think that will be-
measuring 100,000 to 200,000 square feet or more. come much more seamless as you go along,” Kaul
Kaul says femtocells have matured in recent says. “It will become much more intelligent. The
years and are “definitely a solution that’s gaining phone will be able to switch to Wi-Fi or 3G based
a lot of interest from the operator community. on what’s the most ideal connection.”
We’re seeing a lot of trials going on at the mo- Ho says, “It’s understood that within your
ment” as opposed to years past when operators own confines, if you’ve boosted your Wi-Fi net-
were hesitant to roll them out due to uncertain- work it should alleviate all the congestion and
ties in how they’d behave on the network. “Over not really go out toward the cellular, which is a
the last few years, a lot of doubts have been taken slower user experience for all the employees.”
care of,” Kaul says, and consumer deployment Outside those confines, he says, it’s an “under-
“will transition to the enterprise in 2011.” appreciated fact that Wi-Fi is on certain carriers Kineto claims its Smart Wi-Fi
within their smartphones and built into mobile application is currently
In The Workplace broadband plans with other carriers. For ex- available on 1 million-plus
Android devices to turn “any
Two organization types increasingly dealing ample, AT&T does a very good job in having a
Wi-Fi access point into an ex-
with network congestion are hospitals and univer- very large pool of Wi-Fi hotspot assets. As part tension of the mobile network,
sities. In hospitals, system integrators have seen of your data plan you get access to all those Wi-Fi providing an effective offload
huge “growth in the number of iPhones owned areas in a seamless manner.” ▲ solution for operators.”
Keep It Clear
How Seven Vendors Help Improve Your Wireless Experience
by William Van Winkle
he more people rely on cellular and 802.11- add “picocells” at the street level. In fact, some pico-
if you’re a wireless carrier, it’s important to keep Wireless combines its patented Wi-Fi technology
both issues in mind. As overall traffic volume ex- with a Wireless Services Gateway system. Ruckus
plodes, it’s important not only to increase speeds handles Wi-Fi instability by applying advanced
but also preserve quality of service. Juniper ad- beamforming techniques through adaptive antenna
dresses this need with its MX 3D Series Universal array technology to control the form and direction
Edge Ethernet routers and Junos software platform. of Wi-Fi transmissions. Each Ruckus AP integrates
The MX family starts with the MX80, a 2U height a miniaturized antenna array that constantly selects
model with 80Gbps of system capacity. At the top the best performing signal path for any packet
end, the MX960 is a 16U powerhouse with 2.6Tbps destined to a given client. The technology also re-
capacity and 120Gbps per slot. jects interference by not processing the noise that
The key ingredient in Juniper’s offloading is its often overpowers conventional APs. In essence,
Traffic Direct functionality. In Juniper’s words, this whereas Cisco changes channels to avoid interfer-
“optimizes mobile data traffic by combining intel- ence, Ruckus isolates the exact path between AP
ligent subscriber and application policies with MX and client and ignores all other traffic. This gives
3D Series scaling to offload bulk data traffic directly cellular operators the ability to fill in coverage holes
to the Internet.” Additionally, Juniper’s Junos plat- with more reliable Wi-Fi.
form uses software from the company’s Ankeena Ruckus has added a new Mobile Wi-Fi gateway
Networks acquisition to optimize live and on-de- device it calls the Ruckus WSG. This device func-
mand video streaming to mobile screens. This is done tions as a massively scalable wireless LAN con-
by analyzing available bandwidth to the client and troller but adds access gateway capabilities that
adapting download streams to those conditions. interface with existing cellular core services, such
as authentication, policy enforcement, billing, and
Motorola Solutions provisioning. From the edge of the radio access
www.motorolasolutions.com
network, the WSG aggregates all Wi-Fi traffic and
Motorola Solutions offers a wide range of voice presents it to the cellular core, where it looks like
network optimization products, but an interesting any other cellular data traffic and allows operators
twist on the usual cellular offload lineup arrives to manage Wi-Fi traffic more easily.
in the form of Motorola’s TEAM VoWLAN (Voice
over WLAN) smartphones. These are ruggedized Xirrus
handsets that run Windows Mobile 6.5 (hope- www.xirrus.com
fully, Windows Phone 7 models will follow soon) Xirrus offers a complete line of enterprise-class
and transmit in 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth. The Wi-Fi APs featuring up to 16 radios and 60 an-
EWP2000/3000 series phones are not cellular; rather, tennas per AP. These focus into a 3x3 MIMO pat-
they run enterprise-grade VoIP to a single handset tern for specified throughput of up to 300Mbps per
and leverage PBX telephony to eliminate the need radio. Xirrus promises up to twice the range and
for conventional desk phones or workplace cell four times the coverage area of a typical AP. While
phones. The handsets provide push-to-talk function- Xirrus’ circular AP design is reminiscent of Ruckus’
ality, text messaging, Web browsing, and other tools beamforming approach (although the radio signal
for keeping employees communicating on the go processing methods are different), much of Xirrus’
without running afoul of cellular network conges- benefit lies in its Management System’s load bal-
tion. Of course, Motorola also offers a wide range ancing algorithms. By monitoring the real-time
of mesh WAN, WLAN, and network management conditions of all radios in an array, Xirrus helps
products for handling dense wireless environments. to dissuade clients from automatically connecting
Interestingly, Motorola sold off its wireless net- with the strongest signal.
working business last summer to Nokia Siemens If you imagine 100 clients in a room with one AP
Networks. By the middle of this year, NSN expects over the crowd and two APs in adjacent rooms, the
to release its Smart WLAN Connectivity Solution, first AP will have the strongest signal and thus be a
which will automatically transition mobile client magnet for most of the traffic regardless of conges-
connections from cellular to Wi-Fi without any tion and bandwidth conditions. Xirrus “coaxes” con-
manual intervention on the user’s part. nections between clients and APs with weaker signal
strength. The lower raw bandwidth is offset by the
Ruckus Wireless lack of congestion, resulting in higher throughput
www.ruckuswireless.com
for everyone on the WLAN. Xirrus AP models span
To help mobile operators deal with the wall of from the four-radio XN4 to the 16-radio XN16,
data traffic hitting their cellular networks, Ruckus which can support 1,536 users per array. ▲
Seamless Access
For SMBs
Juniper Networks’ Solutions For The Wireless Data Drain
by Rod Scher
The wireless data load is doubling every year, and that SMBs will also be innovators—both from an ap-
companies are looking for ways to deal with that plication standpoint and in terms of how they harness
increase so that their employees or customers don’t the network—so the switching, the routing, the secu-
find themselves without connectivity. We spoke with rity, and the rest of Juniper Networks’ portfolio will
Kittur Nagesh, senior director, Mobility & Security enable them to innovate new business applications to
Solutions Marketing for Juniper Networks, to get his drive productivity and use the network as a competi-
take on the issues and how they might be addressed. tive differentiator to run their businesses.
Smartphones and iPads are becoming compute
What are the main connectivity issues with devices, so we’re extending capabilities and also
Q which SMBs are dealing these days?
Voice, SMS, and data connectivity were the foun-
providing business-level VPN and SSL security
services so that there is ubiquity and so SMBs don’t
A dations for mobile operators, but in the last few
years, data has taken off
necessarily have to think about the network, but can
instead focus on what they’re doing with it; we’ll
exponentially, and in the handle all the seamlessness that is required for these
coming years that will con- types of applications. We’ve also considered this no-
tinue unabated—so much so tion of unifying the wireless and wireline parameter
that “Internet” will become for these networks by thinking through the integra-
increasingly synonymous tion of the switching portfolio with our wireless
with “mobile Internet.” portfolio, which allows us to create a unified param-
eter, regardless of whether it’s wireline or wireless,
What does that mean for the operators, then, in an almost access-agnostic manner.
Q who may or may not be SMBs themselves?
Operators need to make sure that they not only
A manage the data deluge, but also deliver on the
promise of ubiquity and experience for their con-
Q How does the “offload” issue fit in here?
The portfolio integration helps lay the foun-
sumers: first, to keep them and reduce the churn;
second, to deliver a compelling experience so that
A dation for intelligent offloads. For example,
if you’re doing something on the cellular side,
they can command premium pricing; and third, from you can walk into your home office and intel-
an SMB’s standpoint, so that they can offer “sticky” ligently offload to wireless. People don’t think,
business services, which are usually more profitable. “I’m on cellular, I’m on wireless LAN, I’m on
This is true for both wireline and mobile, although the a wired connection.” Instead, we’re reaching a
challenges are more profound on the mobile side. stage where the user requires ubiquitous, seam-
less access. I think that is what SMBs expect, and
So, what does Juniper offer to help SMBs they’re entitled to it, because IT should be an
Q meet these needs you’ve mentioned?
Juniper has been a leader in IP networking for
asset and not a headache.
Of course, there are different points in the net-
A almost 15 years; we started out with routers,
and now we have a portfolio that includes routers,
work where offloads are possible. Juniper has a
three-pronged approach to the offload: at the Wi-Fi,
switching, data center solutions, security solutions, at the control plane, and before the mobile network
and also wireless solutions. branches off onto the Internet—because we can
These products, technologies, and services are all identify that the packet is going to or coming from
packaged for both SMBs and others, along with pro- the Internet. So there are three intelligent aspects to
fessional services and partner capabilities. We believe the offload; it’s not just “offload equals Wi-Fi.” ▲
Research (www.forrester.com), noted, “It’s not providers figured out pricing and service models
so much about which markets are successful and that were compelling to customers.
which ones are hype, it’s more [about] at what
point of their maturity life cycle are different cloud What’s Working Now
market opportunities at this point in time.” What constitutes “maturity,” then? Reid puts
it succinctly by noting that a particular offering
Framing can be considered mature if it’s complete, if “you
“‘Cloud’ is a hodgepodge of technologies have many components that help you create
that received an awful lot of hype,” says Dennis business logic.”
Drogseth, vice president of research with EMA One of the areas that fits Reid’s definition of
(www.enterprisemanagement.com). He notes mature is the private cloud. As Kisker points out, “From the private cloud
side, all the technologies for
that in the tech world, people think that “every- “From the private cloud side, all the technologies
virtualization are very mature
thing that’s two years old is ancient and mature. for virtualization are very mature already.” Thus, already,” says Holger Kisker,
In reality, a lot of trends are just the opposite. companies can use that technology and those IT senior analyst with Forrester
Cloud has probably got at least five to 10 years resources to develop business processes that con- Research.
before it really matures and is really assimilated.” tribute to their overall success.
It’s also important to note that cloud com- This makes a great deal of sense if you think
puting is not one “thing”; it’s a diverse, complex of cloud computing as an evolution rather than
set of technologies and services, each of which a revolution. A revolution is overthrowing
offers different advantages and drawbacks. And what exists and replacing it with something
because cloud is by nature service-oriented, the entirely new. But in a private cloud, a company
possibilities afforded by any particular innova- isn’t chucking its entire infrastructure into the
tion are deeply affected by individual providers. dumpster and starting from scratch; instead,
Because cloud computing is so large and the company is trying to maximize its existing
nuanced, it’s hard to answer broad questions infrastructure, middleware, and applications
about it, and it’s notoriously difficult to define and finds that by virtualizing its resources and
cloud computing succinctly. Therefore, when dis- distributing them on an as-needed basis, the Dr. Stefan Reid, a principal
cussing the state of cloud computing, it’s crucial data center becomes an area of profitability. analyst with Forrester
for all parties to be talking about the same things. Drogseth says, “Internalizing the cloud and Research, notes, “The major
Too often, talking about cloud computing virtualizing data centers has been a huge suc- ‘disruption,’ if you will, is the
can be like the story of the old blind men trying cess overall,” and he pointed out that one of the business model itself.”
to describe an elephant. Depending on which biggest advantages of a private cloud is that IT
part of the elephant each man is able to touch, personnel can manage a company’s IT needs
the definition changes. One feels the trunk and without experiencing any downtime.
declares “An elephant is like a great serpent”; Of course, the private cloud isn’t the only area
another runs his hand over the animal’s leg and of cloud success. In Forrester Research’s estima-
asserts, “No, an elephant is like a tree”; still an- tion, the cloud computing market is currently
other feels the elephant’s ears and counters that worth about $38.4 billion. Of that, SaaS (soft-
“An elephant is like a giant leaf”; and so on. The ware-as-a-service) applications make up about
conversation quickly becomes unhelpful unless $18.88 billion—more than half of the total cloud
those involved can see the big picture as opposed market. Kisker notes specifically that SaaS ap-
to their own small corner of it. plications such as CRM, human capital manage-
One (rather large) wrinkle in evaluating cloud ment, and procurement are currently enjoying Dennis Drogseth, EMA vice
maturity is that innovators in the field aren’t substantial growth. president of research, says,
necessarily developing new technologies per se; “Internalizing cloud and
instead, they’re really coming up with new ways A Look Ahead virtualizing data centers has
been a huge success overall.”
to leverage existing (mostly long-existing) tech- According to Forrester’s taxonomy of cloud
nology to come up with an offering that works computing, there are 12 distinct cloud markets,
for a particular business model. including the familiar SaaS, PaaS (platform as a
Dr. Stefan Reid, a principal analyst with service), and IaaS (infrastructure as a service); the
Forrester Research, noted “The major ‘disrup- emerging BPaaS (business process as a service);
tion,’ if you will, is the business model itself.” and a number of categories that make up private
He pointed out that virtualization software such clouds and virtual private clouds, such as vir-
as VMware has been around for many years; it tualization tools for infrastructure, middleware,
became more successful, however, when those applications, and business processes.
Essentially all of these markets are growing to cloud infrastructure. At a certain point, who’s re-
some degree, and Forrester predicts that growth sponsible? If you experience a service disruption, it
will continue its upward trend for years to come. can be difficult to determine where in the stack the
Says Kisker, “Each of these markets now have outage occurred if you only have visibility into the
their own dynamics—how they are growing, SaaS provider.
their own level of success at this point in time, Additionally, cloud is by nature service-ori-
and maturity.” ented, so all of the issues inherent in working
Taken as a whole, Forrester estimates that the with a service provider of any kind apply to
cloud computing market will be worth about $150 the cloud. As with any service a business pays
billion by 2020. Future growth areas include ERP for—telephony, electricity, and so on—a cloud
(enterprise resource planning) and the relatively offering must offer consistency in the quality of
new BPaaS offerings. the service as well as the promise of essentially
no downtime. Any cloud provider that doesn’t
Barriers offer a strong, comprehensive SLA (service-level
As with any disruptive technology (or in this agreement) isn’t one worth doing business with.
case, as previously mentioned, disruptive business How long would you stick with a phone service
model), cloud computing has its share of barriers to provider or power company that experienced
adoption, and they shouldn’t be taken lightly. outages every couple of weeks, severely dis-
Security is one of the most often-cited con- rupting your business?
cerns. Indeed, until more stringent security mea- The same goes for any cloud provider dealing
sures are in place, it’s not an especially attractive with sensitive data or business-critical applications.
option for every business to move its most sensi- If service is spotty or has an unacceptable level of
tive data or applications to any type of cloud— downtime, it deeply affects your business.
private, public, or hybrid. Part of the security But there is a way forward, and the “winners” in
issue falls to legislators, who can make it easier the cloud market—those that find maturity fastest—
will likely be those that create the best partner ecosys-
tems. “If you have an application plus a platform, you
invite partners to add logic on the platform and com-
Sizing The Cloud - Quantifying And Predicting The Future Of Cloud Computing bine to the application, and you are more mature,”
says Reid. “From the other angle, you have these
infrastructure vendors that are moving up and want
to be part of the platform.”
This is in many ways what has happened in
other tech sectors, such as personal computing
and mobile technology. Software, hardware, and
operating system makers (also, increasingly, mobile
service providers) work together as partners to
produce compelling products for the consumer. In
very few instances does a single company offer ev-
erything from the bottom up; the Microsofts need
the Dells, who need any number of software ven-
dors, who all need the Verizons and AT&Ts.
Education for all involved parties is at the core
of cloud growth going forward. Kisker puts it suc-
SOURCE: FORRESTER RESEARCH cinctly: “The vendors need to understand clearly
or more difficult to enact security standards if what they have is really a cloud offering and
According to Forrester across countries or regions. where their offering fits. And then the users need
Research, the cloud Another big issue is fragmentation: There are to understand what are the benefits of the different
computing market will very few (if any) cloud service providers offering cloud offerings and understand which technology
continue to grow for many comprehensive services all the way up the stack you want to apply, whether it’s in their enterprise,
years to come.
from infrastructure to applications. Instead, a busi- whether it’s a public service, or for what resource.”
ness may find itself working with an application Thus, although there are certainly barriers to
provider that relies on another company’s cloud cloud adoption, progress has been steady and
platform that in turn relies on another company’s shows no signs of abating. ▲
A Rocky
Cloud KEY POINTS
Journey
▲ IaaS can boost the
flexibility and cost-
effectiveness of IT, but
the required level of
integration work can
scare off potential
customers.
▲ Future success in
Infrastructure In The Cloud Seeks To Overcome Challenges the IaaS might depend
on vendors’ ability to
provide an easy-to-
by Christian Perry cross bridge between
in-house infrastructure
and cloud infrastruc-
s the cloud continues its storied ascent to the efforts involved with transitioning to IaaS, ture.
(infrastructure as a service) as large enterprises and Bridging The Gap innovative companies
pulling ahead as others
small businesses alike appear more likely to lend Businesses that lack IT infrastructure expertise fall by the wayside.
enthusiasm—and investments—to cloud-based have a small handful of choices today: hire the
▲ Simpler offerings
software services. Is IaaS destined to mire away on necessary personnel to handle the infrastruc-
targeted for specific in-
the cloud sidelines, or can the services prove them- ture implementation, locally outsource experts frastructure uses could
selves as lasting, easily approachable solutions for to handle it, or trust the duties to an IaaS pro- help to better define the
IT to offload in-house operations? vider. Warren Arbogast, founder and president IaaS market and help its
“IaaS is still in its infancy and today requires of Boulder Management Group (www.boulder future growth.
more integration work than many customers can managementgroup.com), acknowledges the dif-
tolerate if they truly want to make it an extension ficulties involved with IaaS but says the concept
of their IT infrastructure and capabilities,” says only makes sense for businesses without core
Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director of valida- expertise in IT infrastructure and want new ways
tion services with Taneja Group (www.taneja to keep costs down. IaaS does continue to deal
group.com). “With that level of integration, IaaS with stumbling blocks in terms of familiarity
is certainly worthwhile and can disruptively alter among potential customers, but its potential is
the economics and flexibility of IT. But getting undeniable.
that level of integration is difficult for most, if not “There’s still a lot of confusion out there as to
all, organizations, as it many times requires not what IaaS is, what it can do, how it really works,
only incorporation of cloud technology but deep and how it’s different from PaaS [platform as
alterations in existing IT practices and systems a service] and SaaS [software as a service]. But
so that they work alongside cloud offerings that there’s also a growing energy out there. I’m
“The concept is there
are many times more restrictive than traditional seeing it at the C-level like never before. People and it makes sense on so
IT systems.” are questioning, ‘Why are we doing these things many levels,” says Warren
Funneling an entire IT operation into cloud in-house when I can do all of this with my iPad Arbogast, founder and
services is certainly a bold, complicated ven- and smartphone?’ Of course it’s a lot more tech- president of Boulder Man-
agement Group. “Why
ture, but even trusting a portion of operations to nically complex than turning things over to iPads
stay in a wrestling match
IaaS demands close inspection of service details and IaaS providers, but I’m seeing a push to out- when you’re a swimmer
to ensure the service parallels or exceeds what source all these bulky, cumbersome, confusing and others can now do
a business already receives in-house. Despite tech things like never before,” Arbogast says. the wrestling for you?”
Unlike SaaS, which can be more forgiving customers, custom solutions, partners, pricing,
as a business makes a gradual transition from track record, integrity, and other factors.
one application to another, the somewhat cut- “Enterprise consumers of cloud services will
and-dried approach to IaaS can force adopters begin to dip their toe in the water by moving
to endure striking changes as they become ac- non-mission-critical applications to the cloud to
customed to infrastructure changes. evaluate factors such as downtime, CAPEX, and
According to Boles, IaaS innovation needs OPEX savings, difficulty or ease of transitioning
to occur within the gap between existing in- to the cloud environment, security, etc.,” says
frastructure and IaaS offerings, which he says Ron Angner, a senior vice president with TMNG
have been built on the “other side of a chasm.” (www.tmng.com). “We believe that adoption at
“IaaS has a market for However, bridge builders are coming, and the the enterprise level, where the true benefits will
clients that are medium-tech
eventual bridge could change the way business be, may be a little bit slower than anticipated, but
savvy,” says Scott Archibald,
managing director and IT is done. In fact, he sees products that bridge over the next 18 months, cloud services will be
transformation practice leader this gap as possibly the most valuable IaaS verified, and the ‘trust’ factor will grow, leading
at Bender Consulting. “If they vendor products in the future, particularly for to further adoption.”
aren’t savvy enough, then enterprises looking to integrate the cloud into
they are really looking for a We’re Just Fine
their operations.
SaaS solution, and if they are
too savvy then they probably “Simultaneously, what we are seeing now From a vendor perspective, IaaS represents
want to run their own is a shift toward more major IT investments a huge opportunity both for the vendor’s busi-
infrastructure.” happening on the other side of the bridge, and ness and for the business of prospective cus-
this will only happen more often in the future,” tomers. With today’s IT landscape built partly
Boles adds. “The IaaS may be a big and signifi- by highly flexible technologies designed to ac-
cant customer for many vendors in the future. commodate the varied needs of organizations,
This will alter the way technology is acquired IaaS stands to fill a gap that other cloud-based
and used and change the nature of the IT cus- technologies cannot. According to Matthew
tomer relationship. Storage and data are two Leonard, senior product manager for IaaS at Tata
areas of the infrastructure that could be most Communications (www.tatacommunications
significantly disrupted here—the cloud stands .com), IaaS may not appear sexy to those outside
to change the way data is integrated and inter- of the IT industry, but it has big benefits to those
acted with, and innovative vendors could use who live within it.
“Innovation needs to this to entirely shake up how storage technolo- “There is a school of thought that over time,
bridge cloud services with gies are consumed.” all IT services will be delivered via software as
traditional IT so that many As the evolution of the IaaS space continues, a service, and there will be no need for IaaS. But
of [the implementation] loads of vendors have entered the picture, in- I don’t see this happening, at least over the next
challenges go away,” says
cluding Amazon, GoGrid, Rackspace, Savvis, 10-year horizon. This could happen within small
Jeff Boles, senior analyst and
director of validation services Terremark, Verizon Business, and others. business segments where SaaS has been aggres-
with Taneja Group. Although an outsider might view this vendor sively used. However, medium and large busi-
selection as relatively crowded compared to de- ness enterprises will want the freedom to take
mand, Boles points out that there’s more room different software components and glue them to-
for variety in IaaS than in any other type of gether with different OS capabilities themselves,”
product market. Yet despite that room, he says Leonard says.
that vendors have failed to develop sufficient dif- Vendors are quick to clarify the terminology
ferentiation to sustain their numbers—too many around IaaS, which can grow convoluted among
similar services are available that are difficult to the many options available on the market. For
tell apart. He estimates that the next two to three example, IaaS isn’t just about external public
years will see the rise of certain IaaS providers clouds, but also internal private clouds offered to
that determine how to better differentiate target business units by IT departments, explains Dave
Roberts, vice president of strategy and marketing private on-ramp to the IaaS cloud. Security is a
at ServiceMesh (www.servicemesh.com). Inside top concern among businesses transitioning to
most enterprises, these business units—as well as IaaS, and Tata worked to deliver a path to the
application developers—request computational space that doesn’t require businesses to touch
capacity from the IT department as infrastructure the public Internet. As with any technology,
(e.g., “I need another server”). The IaaS model, such innovation could work to thin the vendor
Roberts says, packages this same product and of- herd as customers choose solutions that fit well
fers it as a service. with their environments.
In fact, private clouds could be a significant “The relative oversupply of capacity at the
area of growth for IaaS in the near future. “A lot current moment is merely a sign that many
of our larger customers want to take advantage players are competing for the business and is “Many businesses are
looking at IaaS for
of IaaS but have concerns about security and per- not indicative of a lack of consumption,” Roberts
software development
formance in a multitenant environment, so they says. “Indeed, market leaders are experiencing and dynamic Internet-
are asking us how we can integrate a private IaaS double-digit growth in their IaaS revenue at the facing applications,” says
service into their existing model,” notes Thomas current time. This is poised to continue as enter- Matthew Leonard, senior
Kiblin, chief technology officer and founder of prise IT departments move from pilot and proof- product manager for IaaS
at Tata Communications.
Virtacore Systems (www.virtacore.com). “I also of-concept deployments into full production.”
“In fact, many CIOs would
think you’ll start to see a more focused model on question buying dedicated
certain niche plays as IaaS providers try to carve Down The Road IT resources for these
out their share of the market. You can’t beat Simplicity remains a valuable commodity applications.”
Amazon trying to be Amazon; you have to find a for IT vendors looking to sell complex concepts
niche, focus, and execute on it.” to businesses that aren’t necessarily familiar
A decade ago, Kiblin says, oversaturation with cutting-edge technologies. In turn, the
rhetoric plagued the hosting market, but today innovation inherent in IaaS stands to shine
there are more hosting vendors and MSPs through simpler, easy-to-digest offerings
(managed service providers) than there were aimed at specific needs. Scott Archibald, man-
then. As for IaaS, demand appears abundant aging director and IT transformation practice
when he engages prospects and partners, leader at Bender Consulting (www.bendercon
adding that C-level executives consistently .com), expects to see vendors eventually re-
place cloud initiatives at the top of their pri- lease “IaaS in-a-box” solutions, such as an IaaS
ority lists for the next 12 to 24 months. Yet, like trade show product that would target software “The market is definitely
crowded and, as with
analysts, vendors recognize the need for differ- vendors demonstrating at trade shows who
other markets in a similar
entiation in the market to ensure their survival. don’t want to bother with complicated server/ state, we would expect
“What will be important is innovative IaaS infrastructure setups. that it will thin substan-
features and capabilities beyond simply spinning “I think the IaaS market needs to do a better tially over the coming
up those resources,” Leonard says. “Companies job of selling the niche areas in which [IaaS ven- months and years as the
market picks the winners
who simply offer baseline IaaS service without dors] can be useful,” Archibald says. “In addi-
and losers from among
any differentiation will be forced out of the tion, IT organizations need to keep looking at the available offerings,”
market. There will always be room for new en- the technology and ROI that IaaS vendors can says Dave Roberts, vice
trants in the market with differentiated capa- offer. Right now, too many are looking at the president of strategy and
bilities. Footprint and pod location is also a major technology and feel they can do what IaaS ven- marketing at ServiceMesh.
consideration in the competitiveness of the IaaS dors are offering. However, these same IT orga-
provider and the demand for service.” nizations are not asking the question of whether
For its part, Tata Communications worked they should be doing this. IT organizations need
to differentiate its IaaS offering by delivering to continuously look at what services and skills
seamless integration with its MPLS (multipro- they should be developing in house versus what
tocol label switching) network to provide a they should be getting externally.” ▲
REAL
for orders placed this week and compare
it against its real-time inventory to gauge
KEY POINTS supplies needed for next week. A utility
▲ Real-time analytics company can use real-time data generated
have become critical to
businesses seeking to act from sensors in the field to either allow ex-
TIME
on data as it is compiled. tra capacity or conserve capacity. Or an on-
line retail company can instantly generate
▲ Analytics systems
generally rely on a discounts or other sales measures based on
combination of hardware real-time customer activity.
and software to deliver “The ability to act on data as it’s being ag-
data in graphs and other
easy-to-digest elements gregated in real time is critical to businesses
on real-time dashboards. today,” says Amit Pandey, chief executive
officer of Terracotta (www.terracotta.org).
▲ Although real-time
analytics present a major “Enterprises must be able to make decisions
opportunity for market just in time and need to analyze the most
advantage, enterprises up-to-date data possible to make informed
must have a good grasp
of their business pro- decisions. Rather than being dependent on
cesses to efficiently use offline batch operations to aggregate and
the real-time data. correlate historical data, businesses can be
▲ Real-time analytics more effective by working directly with
systems can cost thou- their current operational data in real time.”
sands, but businesses
need to compare that
cost against the cost of
Gaining An Upper Hand
not having such systems Today’s real-time analytics market is
in place. deep and varied, but a typical deployment
features analysis-driven software running either wrong time can be misleading when trying to in-
on existing standard hardware or specialized tegrate minute-to-minute changing flows of data
hardware (such as data warehouse appliances) into the decision-making process. The business
designed to accommodate heavy data loads. processes and rules must be clearly understood,
This tandem of software and hardware gathers as well as how and when the new streams of in-
information, such as sales data, and displays it in formation can be used by the decision-makers
charts, graphics, and other elements on a dash- and automated decision systems.”
board that’s easily accessible and viewable. With
this information, a business can instantly deliver Cost Considerations
more resources to a needed area or predict re- The costs required to deploy real-time ana-
“In every functional area of
quirements for the coming hours, days, or weeks. lytics can vary wildly depending on enterprise
today’s enterprises, we can find
U.S. Xpress Enterprises (www.usxpress.com), size and data scope. Free tools such as Google tactical decision making and
one of the nation’s largest truckload carriers, Analytics can provide substantial feedback on risk, which necessitate real-
takes advantage of real-time analytics in multiple Web site visitors, while complex platforms that time information access and
fashions to ensure its pickup and delivery pipe- integrate with nearly every aspect of a business analysis,” says Rado Kotorov,
chief innovation officer at
line flows without fail. For instance, the company can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of
Information Builders. “[As] in a
uses geo-fencing to generate alerts when trucks dollars. Some real-time analytics products are battlefield, in the marketplace
near their destinations and send ETA alerts to built into BI (business intelligence) platforms such information provides
customers expecting pickup or deliveries. The that cost plenty but add more significant levels tactical advantage.”
company also uses the technology for service of analysis across the business landscape.
failure notification, which generates alerts when Norman Nie, a renowned pioneer in predic-
trucks cannot reach their destinations on time, tive analytics and now CEO of Revolution Ana-
which in turn lets the company ensure customer lytics (www.revolutionanalytics.com), says that
satisfaction through real-time situational in- the real-time analytics industry is still in its in-
tervention. Maintenance also gets a boost from fancy. However, as the space moves away from
real-time analytics, thanks to fleet management expensive memory and servers to commodity
feedback that routes equipment requiring regu- hardware and software, the real-time process
lar maintenance to a service depot when a time will begin to bloom. For example, Nie says, the
or mileage threshold is reached. emergence of databases such as Apache Hadoop
Using information like this on an immedi- and those from Netezza has helped to make the “Properly implemented, real-
ate schedule can help enterprise businesses process more affordable because they can ef- time analytics should be used
to distance themselves from competition that ficiently handle the data in ways that the older to drive quality assurance,
time and cost reductions,
analyzes data after the fact. According to Rado systems could not.
alignment with customer
Kotorov, chief innovation officer at Informa- “The hardware and technology infrastruc- needs, and identification of
tion Builders (www.informationbuilders.com), ture requirements and the options to implement business opportunities,” says
businesses can’t really compete on the analysis real-time analytics can be significant—from data Tim Leonard, vice president
of past data, because most are equally well- acquisition, to data cleansing, to data warehous- for information technology at
U.S. Xpress Enterprises.
equipped to generate reports, analyze past ing, to analytics,” says John Lucker, principal
data, and issue policies to correct business at Deloitte Consulting (www.deloitte.com), “to
processes. Time is required to implement those technology integration of analytic results, to the
policies, and that lapsed time is a sunk cost. business implementation tools and the organi-
The faster a company makes decisions, he says, zational and customer monitoring tools for the
the lower the cost and the more competitive it analytics, to real-time performance management,
can be in the marketplace. But while the ben- and finally to adaptive controls which monitor
efits of real-time analytics can be significant and improve real-time analytics.”
for many companies, it’s an area that demands Lucker recommends performing a full
expertise and discipline. cost/benefit analysis that takes into account
“Real-time analytics should be factored into not only the cost of the analysis software and
“You will be able to maximize
an enterprise on the basis of the business’s needs hardware, but also the inevitably challenging
revenues, maximize market
and readiness to consume the information, be- process required for implementation. How- share, [and] maximize profit
cause real-time analysis requires a better under- ever, he and other experts are quick to iden- instead of waiting until the
standing of the rhythm of a business than other tify the cost of not using real-time analytics in information that the world has
forms of business intelligence,” explains Tim today’s business climate, because enterprises changed in some fundamental
way trickles up over months or
Leonard, vice president for information technol- can pay dearly for what Lucker calls “lagging
even years. By then, the oppor-
ogy at U.S. Xpress. “The right information at the or ineffective execution.” ▲ tunity is lost,” says Norman Nie,
CEO of Revolution Analytics.
KEY POINTS
▲ Companies are really
just people—and most
people fear being labeled
DAMAGE
From Within
“the bad guy.” That fear
puts the company at risk.
What Happens When IT Goes Wrong?
▲ No one person should by Rod Scher
have enough power to
completely destroy compa-
arry was an experienced system adminis- that he’d made a mistake and a heartfelt apology
L
ny assets or infrastructure.
trator who had been promoted through the for having caused this uncomfortable situation.
▲ Regular security audits ranks and was now director of IT for a Mid- The managers, relieved that things had gone so
are a key to protecting west business management and consulting firm. smoothly, told Larry (not his real name, of course)
the company.
A longtime employee, Larry knew better than to that he was welcome to retrieve his personal gear
▲ Security audits should violate the company’s rule against moonlighting. from his office and his computer, and hand in his
include simulations But moonlight he did, and management decided keys and ID on his way out, so Larry went into his
that cover dealing it had no choice but to terminate his employment. office and packed up his belongings. Then, using his
with disgruntled or The termination meeting went well, as those things high-level admin passwords, he connected to every
terminated employees.
go: Instead of tears and recriminations, there were one of the company’s 11 servers and formatted every
smiles and handshakes and sheepish admissions drive on every server. For good measure, he trashed
the onsite backups. Then he grabbed his cardboard every time they tried to talk to him about those is-
box of books and posters and family pictures, hand- sues, he would freak out—childish stuff. The company The Ultimate
ed his keys to the receptionist, and walked out the wanted to address his problems, but the managers
door with a smile. were afraid that he would blow the company away.” Rogue IT
It took the company months to recover, and the Martha went in pretending to do a HIPAA Scenario
final cost was estimated at $13 million. (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability TERRY CHILDS HOLDS
SAN FRANCISCO
Act) audit, but her real goal was to check out the ad-
HOSTAGE
Problems Aren’t Uncommon ministrator. In the end, says Martha, “My take was
Security expert Chris Hadnagy, author of Social that he was a tech nerd who’d been left unsuper- Municipalities are, in effect,
Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, says that vised for too long and who used the company as a businesses—and they can
be just as vulnerable as any
scenes like this play out regularly, mainly because playground simply because he could get away with
other business. When the
companies fail to manage their employees. “Too it.” The employee was buying toys and implement- City of San Francisco decid-
many times companies compromise on the rules and ing the “latest and greatest” all the time, but not get- ed to fire its senior IT guru
standards they know they should have in place, be- ting the more foundational, boring things done at in July of 2008, it learned
cause they are difficult to implement and not always all. “Also,” notes Martha, “he was on straight salary just how vulnerable: During
a confrontational termina-
the most comfortable.” and was paid very well, so he really had no incen-
tion meeting, the city’s chief
This is not an isolated problem, says Hadnagy. tive to meet various goals, because he was paid the IT staffer, Terry Childs, was
“According to a recent industry report, there was same no matter what.” ordered to hand over pass-
a 27% increase in employee theft over the last year, The solution? “Have the other IT people step words to the city’s network.
with losses now totaling some $994 billion.” Theft, up and take on more responsibility. Make this guy He did so, but it turned out
that the passwords he had
fraud, and damage by employees is one aspect of be a real manager and give him clear, measurable
given them were bogus.
owning a company that most people do not want to goals that he can be held to.” And, says Martha, Days later, Childs handed
think about. “But,” says Hadnagy, “the unfortunate “if there’s no one else on staff with a comparable over the real passwords to
fact is that if companies do not think about it, it can technical background—as was the case here— San Francisco mayor Gavin
end up costing them dearly.” bring in quarterly oversight to review the budget Newsom, the only person
he felt was competent to
No one wants to be the bad guy, but even some- and documentation.”
handle them. It turned out
thing as simple as setting and following procedures In this instance, notes Martha, there was plenty that the city didn’t actually
for hiring and firing can make a huge difference. of blame to go around. Sure, the employee was im- have in place procedures
Rigorous policies would help companies avoid most mature and self-indulgent, but the company was that outlined how (or to
of these kinds of problems, say experts. also at fault. Employees need to be managed, and whom) to hand over pass-
words, which is the issue
someone in this situation had abdicated a basic
on which Childs based his
Protect Your Company managerial responsibility. defense. In April of 2010,
What Larry’s managers should have done, says Childs was found guilty of
Hadnagy, is disabled his mail, network, and admin It’s Your Policy, So It’s Your Responsibility network tampering. ▲
accounts during the meeting, and then had security Employees have and need power, access to sensi-
supervise the cleaning out of his office. Yes, that tive data and valuable equipment, and enough au-
could make people uncomfortable, but it’s part of tonomy to encourage them to make the most of that
managing employees and running a business; being power and access. But they also need oversight.
thought a nice guy is not worth $13 million. Consider Martha’s comment about the company
Companies need policies in place to limit poten- worrying that a rogue employee might “blow the
tial damage, including policies that detail how to company away.” An early security audit would
handle the hiring and firing of employees. And at have uncovered that risk and raised alarms: No
the root of those policies should lie the safety and company should ever confer on one person enough
security of the company and its employees, not the power to destroy an entire company. Allowing such
comfort and convenience of either the firing man- a situation to exist in the first place is simply bad
ager or the terminated employee. risk management—and bad risk management usu-
One excellent step, say security experts, is the ally boils down to bad management in general, say
establishment of regular and rigorous security au- the security experts.
dits—including audits that simulate terminations In the end, there’s no getting around the fact
and disgruntled employees. that people in positions of power require access
A security expert we’ll call “Martha” told us about to powerful tools; limiting that access would limit
going “undercover” in a financial services company their ability to do their jobs. That means that noth-
that was worried about the stability and intentions of ing short of sensible policies, regular security audits,
its lead system administrator. “The sys admin appar- and intelligent, active oversight will protect a com-
ently had some performance issues,” she says. “But pany from the misuse of that power. ▲
Making Sense Of
KEY POINTS
NET NEUTRALITY
The Next Great Internet Debate
▲ Net neutrality is the
principle that the In- by Joanna Clay
ternet should be a free
and open network that
f someone asked you to explain why the Internet bloggers—love the idea of sustaining a free and open
I
permits equal access to
all content. should be a free and open network, how would you Web community. By contrast, some major hardware
respond? Some might say that unfettered browsing manufacturers, ISPs, and telecommunications com-
▲ Proponents of net
neutrality want to makes for an even playing field between Internet ser- panies deride net neutrality as impractical and mak-
prevent Internet service vice providers and consumers. However, others may ing no economic sense, instead favoring the ability to
providers from dis- reject the notion that the Web should remain a free provide tiered, payment-based services and to con-
criminating between and open technology, because if consumers want a trol bandwidth based on the type of data (limiting
the types of content
better-quality Internet experience in the future, they file-sharing networks, for example).
and applications online.
should pay for it; after all, the Internet is big business.
▲ The FCC approved a These responses are, in fact, the arguments presented There Are Two Ends Of The Pipe
regulation in favor of net on both sides of the Great Net Neutrality Debate. There is a lot of mud-slinging going on over net
neutrality that addresses
In the simplest of terms, Internet (or “net”) neutrality. To better understand what both camps
issues of transparency,
neutrality is a principle that advocates for restric- truly believe, Tyler Clark, owner of Tyler Clark
blocking, and unrea-
sonable discrimination. tion-free Internet access, meaning that ISPs and Consulting and chief imagination officer at Youngs-
governments would not restrict bandwidth or town Business Incubator (www.tylersclark.com),
▲ Legal disputes involving content at any level. Generally speaking, coalitions explains that it’s important to look at the two ends of
the FCC and telecommu-
dedicated to Internet freedom—which include non- the Internet pipe. “Think of drinking from a straw:
nications will continue as
the debate develops. profits, businesses small and large (including eBay, the tech giants, like Apple and Google, are sucking
Microsoft, and Yahoo!), and many independent from the end of the straw, and telecommunication
Next-Generation Firewalls
Make An Impact
NGFWs Have Evolved To Provide Stronger Security
by Rod Scher
raditionally, firewalls have been stupid, mind- another, and taking action based not on the port
Big-Budget
A Checklist by Seth Colaner
What It Costs
The cost of a videoconferencing system varies
widely. In general, however, the more functionality
you add to a system, the higher the price. Instead
of buying every component separately, it’s typical
An immersive telepresence
thereof. Whatever the configurations you choose, the to buy everything you need as a package from a
solution such as the Polycom
Open Telepresence muscle and might resides on the core of your net- single vendor. However, many customers buy the
Experience High Definition work, in the IT closet. displays—typically large-screen HDTVs—on their
300 (OTX 300) is ideal for Laura Shay, director of product marketing for Poly- own, as it’s often more cost-effective that way.
group-to-group meetings, com (www.polycom.com), says that Polycom empha- According to Shay, desktop endpoints cost in the
training sessions, and other
sizes the need for companies to sit down with them neighborhood of $100 per seat, with rooms running
applications.
to determine what solutions are best for that company anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands
before spending a dime. “It’s a very consultative ap- of dollars, depending on how elaborate a given
proach, all based on the person’s applications, [looking room is. Bridges cost between about $25,000 up to
at] what they are going to be doing with it.” a couple hundred thousand dollars, depending on
Polycom offers a wide range of videoconfer- how many simultaneous users they support. A re-
encing products that are largely representative of cording box may cost around $25,000, and you can
what’s available on the market. expect to pay approximately $75,000 for a streaming
Systems may include per-seat licenses for as box. Immersive telepresence solutions run between
many employees as necessary, each endpoint (a about $150,000 to $500,000 per room, depending on
desktop or a room) equipped with the necessary the scale of a given installation and its amenities. ▲
Small-Budget
A Checklist by Seth Colaner
Desktops
LaptopsFor Small
vs
Business
Which Are Best For Desktops
Your Company? Traditional desktops have been the go-to computers
for companies up until the mid-2000s, when laptops
By Joanna Clay
made their mark as worthwhile investments. Take a
look at what they have to offer your growing business.
D
esktop or laptop? It’s a question you might
ask yourself each time you buy a new per- Why Say Yes?
sonal computer. While it’s difficult enough If this is your first round of purchases and the
to choose your own component preferences and computing budget isn’t what it could be, desktops
requirements, making the purchasing decision for may be your optimum choice. When assessing
a small to medium-sized business is a challenge which components your workers are going to need
that requires thoughtful research, budget strat- most, think about whether or not extensive periph-
egizing, and end-user consultation. eral support is important. For instance, designers
and other members of a creative team may prefer to
So, What Are Your “Must-Haves?” use large (19-inch and larger) monitors to collabo-
Although practically all business desktops and rate on marketing projects. Specific desktop models
laptops now include the ideal components to op- typically include the multimedia ports to accommo-
erate efficiently, some features date two displays.
will be more critical to Many professional towers can be configured to
your business than oth- match your storage standards, as well. Desktops for
ers. Consider the follow- basic business uses, such as email and word process-
ing questions during ing, probably won’t need more than 100GB of hard
your research: Does a drive storage (your network servers should be back-
significant portion of ing up data, regardless of what’s stored on end user
your workforce travel hard drives). However, manufacturers usually install
regularly? Do your more storage than necessary, with capacities ranging
employees store a from 160 to 320GB. That’s enough gigabytes to store
large amount of plenty of graphics and videos—and you can easily
data on their attach an external hard drive to save additional data
individual that you access frequently. Desktops are generally
PCs? What more “scalable” than laptops, too, because you can
types of soft- add supplementary hard drives and other compo-
ware capabilities does nents. The same can’t be said for all-in-one desktops,
your particular company require although they have their own benefits (if space is of
The Lenovo ThinkCentre from a business laptop? How will the majority great concern) as they are tower-free systems.
M58 Tower enterprise of your employees use their business applications? Economy desktops include integrated graphics,
desktop features Windows 7,
Above all, what is your budget? unless you upgrade a tower to a larger form factor
GMA4500 integrated video,
and a DVD burner, but you When it comes down to a laptop vs. desktop that will support a discrete graphics card. A graph-
can customize components, faceoff, you can make things simple with a pros ics card is necessary for running demanding vid-
peripherals, and software. and cons list. And if you’re in the market for eography programs or visual editing suites.
either type of computer, you’ll be glad to learn Theoretically, enterprise PCs are built to last and
that we have outlined the benefits and disad- could be an employee’s computing companion for at
vantages of both styles. least five to seven years if the IT department deploys
updates on schedule and services the systems regu- the room with extra cables, monitors, and towers. Not
larly. Fortunately, desktops are also designed for main- all laptops are the same, though: desktop replacement
tenance, so IT staff can swap out or upgrade individual laptops tend to be bulkier, whereas thin-line models are
components as necessary. more travel friendly.
THE TAKEAWAY
Laptops
Desktops
DESKTOP LAPTOP
▲ Support for numerous peripherals ▲ Ideal for mobile workers
PROS ▲ Plenty of configuration options ▲ More wireless connectivity options
▲ Generally less expensive ▲ Everything-in-one form factor
▲ Easy to maintain ▲ Doesn’t occupy a lot of space
▲ Customization fees ▲ Lack of ergonomic design
vs CONS ▲ Occupies more office real estate ▲ Requires battery charging and maintenance
▲ Not for business travel ▲ High price points depending on the brand
Business Software
The Latest Releases & Updates
by Rod Scher
N
othing ever stays the same, certainly not
in the world of business-related software.
Attempting to manage a business while
keeping track of new and updated software releases
is enough to try anyone’s patience, so we’ll give you
a hand by letting you know what’s available.
SurveilStar
SurveilStar has released its SurveilStar em-
ployee monitor software, an application that lets
administrators monitor employees’ computer be-
havior and activities. Users can download free
trial versions of the program, which takes screen CompanionLink offers multiple ways to sync contacts,
snapshots of employees’ computer screens every calendars, and notes with your iPhone.
second, records incoming and outgoing emails,
tracks chats and instant message conversations, ACT!, Palm Desktop, Novell GroupWise, Salesforce
and monitors and records Web sites visited. The CRM, and Highrise. CompanionLink also syncs
app is hidden from users and does not appear with multiple Microsoft Outlook add-ins, including
in the Windows System Tray, Start menu, Add/ Franklin Covey PlanPlus for Microsoft Outlook,
Remove Programs, or Task Manager, and its his- Getting Things Done, and the Outlook Business
tory logs cannot be deleted or altered. Only an Contact Manager. The CompanionLink wired
administrator can block or uninstall SurveilStar. USB sync for HTC Inspire is also compatible with
Android’s DejaOffice.
Windows XP
Not a true release or software update, but none- SmarterTrack
theless a critical reminder for businesses using The newest version of SmarterTrack’s customer
Microsoft systems and applications: WinXP is ap- service software, a help desk app built for tracking,
proaching end-of-life, and Microsoft says that sup- managing, and reporting on customer service and
port for both WinXP and Microsoft Office 2003 communications, including sales and support is-
will end in April 2013. Analysts say that being sues, is now available. Version 6.x includes a re-
prepared for a shift away from WinXP and older designed management interface and several other
versions of Microsoft Office will be critical, and UI enhancements, including smaller page sizes,
note that many software vendors will cease testing less JavaScript, and improved page load times. The
their software on WinXP this year; that means that new release also offers time logging, a feature that
by next year, the lack of tested, WinXP-compatible lets agents track the time spent resolving customer
software may become a critical issue. issues via tickets, live chats, or phone calls. In ad-
dition, companies can generate reports based on
CompanionLink the collected data and bill customers accordingly.
CompanionLink Software has announced two-
way synchronization and backup of contacts, cal- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
endar, tasks, and notes between Microsoft Outlook Aimed at sales, service, and marketing or-
and the HTC Inspire 4G. CompanionLink allows ganizations worldwide, the newest version of
four sync methods: wired USB sync, automatic Microsoft’s CRM offering is now available via the
wireless sync via Google, syncing via local Wi-Fi, Microsoft Download Center to customers with
and a hosted wireless sync service. CompanionLink active Microsoft Software Assurance agreements.
also supports syncing with IBM Lotus Notes, Sage This release is meant not just for partner-hosted
deployments and can be hosted onsite and run new version of Paperless enables the user to create,
locally. According to Microsoft, the new product manage, and store any type of paper and digital
can support up to 150,000 concurrent users in a document. Paperless 2.0 supports merged receipt
single instance while delivering sub-second re- and document libraries, custom fields, full OCR
sponse times. Earlier releases were launched under of English-language documents, and multiple file
the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online banner and types, including PDF, Word, RTF, JPEG, and more.
delivered Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 as an on- Although the product retails for $49.95, current
demand service hosted at Microsoft’s data centers. users of Paperless can upgrade to the newest ver-
sion for $24.95.
Oracle Healthcare
Master Person Index Veera
Oracle has announced enhancements to Oracle Rapid Insight has
Healthcare Master Person Index, the company’s released an upgrade
standards-based health-related solution. The to its business intelli-
product provides a single point of reference to gence software, Veera.
information about a patient, clinician, or other Among other enhance-
healthcare person or entity within a healthcare ments, Version 3.6 of
organization. The new index enables organizations the product incorpo-
to create an integrated and consistent view of per- rates data visualiza-
sonal data based on current applications and sys- tion into the product’s
tems. Oracle has also released a Web-based single toolkit, letting users
view aimed at helping increase the quality of data, meet reporting and
improving enterprise cost efficiency in delivering analysis needs by
that information, and sustaining system usability. turning raw data into actionable information, such The new release of
With the new release, healthcare organizations can as charts, graphs, and visual dashboards. As a self- SmarterTrack customer
service software offers
more efficiently retrieve healthcare-related data for service business intelligence tool, Veera is aimed at
time logging, which
any entity, even if multiple systems reference the enabling business analysts and nontechnical users lets agents track the
entity with different identifiers. to develop their own reports and ad hoc analyses. time spent resolving
Veera includes a drag-and-drop analytic process customer issues.
Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 builder that enables users to produce reports and
Corel has released its newest video-editing analyses by merging, aggregating, cleansing, and
suite, VideoStudio Pro X4. Important enhance- transforming data from disparate file formats.
ments include automated stop-motion video, time-
lapse, and creation of 3D effects. Performance is RoboForm
also improved, with optimized support for new Version 7
families of CPUs, including Intel’s Sandy Bridge RoboForm securely
and AMD’s Fusion processors. The software also stores confidential data
makes use of multiple CPU cores and graphics such as passwords,
processor acceleration, so that even less cutting- bank account numbers,
edge processors can deliver optimum perfor- and credit card num-
mance. Pro X4’s Smart Proxy option temporarily bers, and simplifies
reduces the video resolution during editing in the process of filling
order to enhance system responsiveness. The re- out online forms by
lease also features a new user interface, with un- securely storing user
dockable elements and the ability to show a video information. The new
preview on a second monitor. release offers an updated look, lets users import and Mariner Software’s
organize bookmarks from all browsers, and features Macintosh-based
Paperless 2.0 a Group Login tool that lets users log in to multiple Paperless 2.0 provides
tools for managing
Mariner Software has released Paperless 2.0, a Web sites with a single click. The new version also digital documents.
Macintosh-based update of its digital document supports Google Chrome and Opera 10, in addi-
solution for home and business. More businesses, tion to the already supported Internet Explorer and
state and federal governments, and other entities Firefox. The release now offers two licenses for users,
are furnishing digital documents, thus making one in which data is stored locally and one that in-
digital records preferred over paper, and requiring stalls on multiple devices to allow data synchroniza-
tools capable of managing those digital assets. The tion among all of the devices. ▲
Greenovations
Energy-Conscious Tech
by Nathan Lake
energy demands
to lessen our Eco- & Checkpoint-Friendly Bags
impact on the The ScanFast 2.0 Collection ($99.99 each; www
.mobileedge.com) of bags from Mobile Edge is
environment. Here, made with a DuPont material that consists par-
we take a look tially of corn stalks. The agricultural material is
at the newest titled Sorona, and it requires 30% less energy to
produce than petroleum-based nylon or polyes-
environmentally ter, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions
friendly technology for the product by up to 63%. Overall, the Sorona
initiatives. material contains 37% renewable sources. Bags
in the ScanFast 2.0 Collection are also checkpoint
friendly, so you won’t need to remove your lap-
top when going through security checkpoints.
Briefcase, messenger bag, and backpack models
are available.
Electricity-Generating Glass
New Energy Technologies (www.newenergytechnologiesinc.com) has developed a working proto-
type of its SolarWindow technology, which is a see-through glass that can generate electricity. The first
generation of its 12- x 12-inch prototype was created by spraying New Energy’s electricity-generating
coatings directly onto the glass, which would eliminate the need for costly or otherwise inconvenient
high-temperature or high-vacuum methods of creating solar panels. New Energy indicates that the glass
could generate electricity from both natural and artificial light sources. The organic, transparent solar
cells would also allow light to pass through, so the glass would still make for a functional window.
Smart Glass
Soladigm’s (www.soladigm.com) Dynamic Glass windows are capable of electronically switching from
clear to tinted, so you can control the heat and glare generated by the sun into a building without investing
in window treatments that block the view. Soladigm indicates that the Dynamic Glass windows will reduce
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning energy usage by 25%, and peak load in commercial buildings can be
lowered by 30%. The company recently announced that it received $40 million in Series C equity financing,
which will help it move toward high-volume production of the smart glass.
Is Telecommuting
KEY POINTS
▲ Telecommuting has met
with positive reactions and
expectations of improved
▲ We often approach epending on whom you ask, telecommuting in which case maybe we call it telework? Is it some-
telecommuting as if it’s a
technology issue. It should
be a business question that
may or may not have a
D is either a huge boon to productivity, or else
it’s the most over-hyped waste of time ever.
Either way, there’s no shortage of opinion.
thing you do with a tablet, smartphone, or laptop
over Wi-Fi or 4G or what-have-you?”
Certainly there are plenty of enthusiastic en-
technological answer. One of the reasons we argue about telecommut- dorsements from telecommuters and those for
ing is that we don’t all define it the same way. Is it one whom they work.
employee working at home during a snowstorm? Or a “My whole agency is based on telecommuting,” says
group of employees who work full time out of home of- Andy Abramson, founder of Comunicano, a boutique
fices? Is it knowledge workers? Or is it the executives marketing consultancy. “As an agency owner, I am able
to whom the knowledge workers report? Can everyone to hire better people who, for a lot of reasons, no longer
telecommute, or only certain types of employees? want (or are able) to go to an office. When people have
According to Info-Tech Research Group senior re- to move, I don’t lose them, because the only change is
search analyst James McCloskey, we need to be com- where they work—they need not change companies
fortable with a certain degree of ambiguity when it just because they changed location.”
comes to the term. “Telecommuting is some point Tresnic Media’s Todd Giannattasio says, “I’ve
on a set of points on a spectrum of remote working,” been telecommuting one day a week for a few years
he notes. “Is telecommuting your primary function, now. I find that I am able to get much more focused
on projects that need more time and focus when I’m JumpStart’s Freund, a fan of telecommuting, is
at home. Also, I get home from work on Tuesday nonetheless aware of its limitations. “What an em-
and set up my laptop, essentially making myself ployee who telecommutes misses is the informal
100% available for many more hours. And telework- communication that typically takes place around
ing gives me such freedom throughout the day that the office. When there is a body at a desk, it’s very
I don’t mind doing a little work at night.” easy for a co-worker to walk over and have a con-
John Freund, president and CEO of Minneapolis- versation. It’s the water-cooler conversation about a
based JumpTech, notes that the ability to telecom- project that pops up, the conversation in the break
mute helps him find and keep good employees. room or at the lunch table that no one planned but
“Telecommuting has been a way to retain key tal- suddenly happens. The informal communication is
ent in our organization and a way for the company the biggest loss for the telecommuter.”
to show flexibility to our employees when matters Of course, we like to seek simple answers to com-
arise that cause them to be out of the office. It allows plex questions, and the question of telecommuting
employees to be productive on days where they is indeed a complex one. It may be that it’s some-
would not be if we did not allow telecommuting.” thing that—in one form or another—works well in
some instances and not in others. Brian Sutter, di-
Positive Feedback—And A Paradox rector of marketing for Plano, Texas,-based Wasp
In fact, industry-wide, the reaction to telecommut- Barcode, says that his company sees great value in
ing has been almost uniformly upbeat, with adherents telecommuting. “It’s an effective way to improve
painting the practice—and the technology tools that productivity and employee morale, allowing for
allow it—as the best thing to happen to business pro- uninterrupted focus and eliminating the stress of a
ductivity since the invention of carbon paper. commute to the office.”
“What we’re seeing,” says McCloskey, “is a shift, Nonetheless, Sutter echoes some of Freund’s con-
a much more fluid back-and-forth between employ- cerns, noting that telecommuting may be better suited
ees’ work-life balance.” And, somewhat paradoxi-
cally, part of that shift is a positive impact on em-
ployees’ lives: In spite of the fact that telecommuting
allows 24/7 access to the office, says McCloskey, “it
impacts work-life balance in a positive way because
the real question becomes: Can an individual get a
better work-life balance by being able to do the work
that needs to be done quickly and effectively, and
then being able to go back to their regular life?”
McCloskey says that the answer is yes. “For knowl-
edge workers, the desire is there to provide value
whenever possible and as quickly as possible, but at
the same time still recognize that we have lives outside
of work. An awful lot of what we’re seeing in terms
of telecommuting adoption is to facilitate that on-
demand participation by passionate knowledge work-
ers; it satisfies their desire to help and satisfies the need
to keep the business going, but at the same time does it
in the most efficient way so that the individual can then Google Wave was aimed at providing telecommuters, among
get back to doing what they want to do in their per- others, a platform for meeting, writing, and sharing. Google
sonal life. The reality is that those knowledge workers dropped the project after a tepid response from a public that
was apparently not interested in such a tool.
are not leaving the work in the office at 5 p.m. They’re
carrying it with them; they’ve got a passion to provide
additional value whenever they can—telecommuting to some roles in the organization than to others: “We
can be a very powerful way to do that without impos- have had success with staff members in our support
ing as much of a burden on the individual.” and product development teams working remotely
for an extended period,” he says. “But within the sales
Risks, Doubts & Issues and marketing teams, we have found that prolonged
Not everyone is completely sanguine about tele- telecommuting limits the organic office conversations
commuting, however, and even those who imple- that lead to better cohesion and employee engagement
ment it successfully may encounter problems. and more creative ideas.”
Self-Encrypting
KEY POINTS
▲ SEDs (self-encrypting
drives) contain hardware-
based encryption engines
D
devices.
tor’s data breach? The personal information company’s data isn’t something that starts and stops ▲ Alarms and lockdown
of thousands of their clients was compro- at the building’s front door. It’s increasingly com- devices are still an effec-
mised. The culprits weren’t the usual suspects. No mon for mobile devices to be actively targeted as a tive way to keep laptops
from going missing.
one breached a firewall or hacked into a server. No way to gain access to a company’s data.
one compromised a Web site, and the IT depart-
ment was able to say it wasn’t their fault. Data Protection For Mobile Devices
There are a number of ways to protect your com-
So, Whodunnit? pany’s laptops and other mobile devices. Many
On a recent sales trip, the company’s VP of smartphones already have built-in data protection sys-
marketing accidentally left his laptop at the air- tems. The most common ones let you remotely wipe
port. An opportunistic thief quickly scooped it up a phone’s data; others encrypt data on the phone, so
and sold its easily accessible data on the identity that a password is necessary to gain access. The remote
theft black market. wipe function is available on some laptop systems,
but it’s not a particularly effective method of securing data as the OS accesses information. In this way, nothing
data. Unlike smartphones, laptops aren’t usually left is ever exposed, beyond the files that are currently in use
on, or actively connected to a network that could be by the OS or an application. And because the SED uses
used to transmit the remote wipe command. built-in hardware, there is little, if any, perceived perfor-
mance hit. Even better, once you supply the initial key,
Self-Encrypting Hard Drives the entire encryption process is transparent to both the
Most laptop OSes already include some form of OS and you. This ensures that SEDs work with almost
encryption software that you can use to encrypt a all applications, and that you don’t have to do anything
group of files or folders. But while this is better than special to achieve data security. When you shut the lap-
nothing, it’s not that much better. top down, the encryption/decryption system locks all
of the data and the drive in an unreadable state, until
you turn the laptop back on and provide the key.
SEDs support multi-factor authentications, so you
can easily incorporate smart cards, biometrics, or other
methods to provide additional security levels. It also
makes SEDs easy to integrate into existing systems.
(mean time between failures). You’ll also find SEDs lock, that simple system of using a
in the same drive sizes and configurations you’re us- cable to tether your laptop to an im-
ing today, which makes it easy to include them in a movable object.
maintenance upgrade plan for your company. Mobile Edge has updated the stan-
Taking hardware-based data protection one step dard security lock system with two
further, you can purchase laptops that incorporate options: one based on a combination
Intel’s Anti-Theft technology, which combines SEDs lock, the other on a key system. Instead
with processors that monitor how the laptop is being of attaching to your laptop’s standard
used. The technology is also capable of deactivating security connection point, the cable is
the processor when it detects suspicious activity, bolted into your laptop’s video port.
such as multiple log-in attempts or the failure to The advantage is that the video port
check in with a corporate server. In essence, the lap- offers two strong connection points,
top will appear as useful as a brick to anyone who allowing the security bolts to be an-
steals or stumbles upon it. If you recover the laptop, chored to the laptop’s frame instead of
you can quickly restore normal operations with the its external body.
use of special pass phrases or hardware tokens. Of course, that option won’t
help when you’re mobile, unless
Software-Based Encryption Solutions you don’t mind being chained to
Hardware-based encryption isn’t the only option; your laptop. Targus makes a great
software-based solutions can provide most of the same substitute for a pair of handcuffs:
capabilities, and allow you to enjoy the security of en- the Targus DEFCON 1 Laptop Se-
cryption without replacing laptops or hard drives. curity System. The DEFCON 1 is a motion-sensitive The Targus DEFCON
Software-based solutions, such as those from alarm system that attaches to your laptop and can be 1 ($54.99; www.targus
CryptoMill, can target just your data by creating vir- armed or disarmed with a combination lock. When .com) is a motion-
sensitive alarm system
tual disks that always encrypt the data stored within armed, the alarm will sound if the cable is cut or mo- that will protect you on
them. Additionally, removable media can also be en- tion is detected. No more worries about grabbing a the go (or when you’re
crypted, ensuring that, for example, a lost USB flash quick snooze while you wait for your flight. napping).
drive doesn’t lead to a data breach.
Offerings such as ZoneAlarm’s DataLock, Micro- Making The Change
soft’s BitLocker, and Trend Micro’s Mobile Armor SEDs are likely to be the common drive type in
mimic how SEDs work, encrypting the entire drive laptops in coming years. Some analysts suggest that
and requiring you to supply a password whenev- SEDs will be a standard offering in as little as two
er you start the laptop up. As with SEDs, encryp- years; and within five years, may be the only type
tion and decryption happen in the background, so of laptop drive available. This time frame is an im-
any file not in active use remains encrypted. When portant one, because it matches the standard update
cycle most companies use for their mobile
CheckPoint Zone- computing platforms. But you don’t have to
Alarm DataLock
wait until you update your laptops to meet
($39.95; www
.zonealarm.com) your security concerns.
encrypts all of the There are a few options that are easy to
data on a hard implement. You can, for example, replace exist-
drive. Even if thieves ing drives in the laptops of key personnel with
boot from a CD or
SED equivalents; wipe the old drives clean and
steal the drive, they
won’t get your data. move them to your parts inventory, for use as
replacements in laptops not deemed a security
risk; and use software-based solutions for em-
you shut down your laptop, all data returns to the ployees whose laptops don’t carry corporate intellec-
encrypted state. You may also find that the anti-mal- tual property or other critical data.
ware software you’re already using has built-in file
or disk encryption options. Stay One Step Ahead
In the long run, your laptops will all be SED-
Security Measures Not To Be Overlooked based (or an equivalent) within a few years. Plan-
This may seem old school, but it’s still effective to ning for the transition now should help you keep
lock down your laptop so it can’t be easily picked up abreast of your corporate security needs, and make
and spirited away. Yes, we’re talking about the cable the transition smoother and more cost-effective. ▲
by Josh Compton
I
f you’re a frequent business traveler, you know
how important it is to stay connected to your
co-workers and clients and how smartphones
and laptops can help you do that. But you may not
think about the many apps available on the market
The Weather Channel
that can give you constant access to email and Max app provides
text messages, regular weather updates, and more real-time weather
when you’re on the road. We detail some of these updates using radar,
apps so you can make sure your next trip maps, forecasts, and more.
is easier and more enjoyable.
by Joanna Clay
T
he tablet market and, Use A Personal
along with it, the market Teleprompter With
for tablet apps are grow- Best Prompter Pro
ing each day. With your busy Designed to guide you dur-
schedule in mind, we scouted ing public speeches and lectur-
the app stores and compiled a ing practice, recently released
list of some of the most impor- Best Prompter Pro ($7.99; www
tant and useful apps, tablet OS .smartphoneware.com) functions
updates, and app tweaks. as an automatic teleprompter,
script reader, and cue card dis-
Upcoming HP TouchPad play on the Apple iPad. The app
Will Run webOS 3.0 supports Bulletin Board CODE
HP plans to release the text (for Internet forums), which
TouchPad tablet this summer, is used to create formatting tags
but its webOS 3.0 from Palm The Best Prompter Pro is a personal teleprompter for the table of contents, headers,
(www.palm.com) is already big that guides you through your speeches, helps you and text format options includ-
news. The most acclaimed fea- make notes as you practice, and lets you paste text ing bolding, italics, and lists. Us-
ture, so far, is Tap-To-Share (also from your email. ers can edit and change a script,
known as Touchstone technol- manage scrolling speed, scroll
ogy), which lets you transfer a call, document, song, to individual text using gestures, and enable elapsed
text, or URL between a webOS phone (such as the time. To personalize documents for teaching, podcast
Pre3) and the HP TouchPad by physically tapping scripting, music, and other speaking engagements,
the two devices together. You will also be able to ex- you can copy and paste text from your email (and
ecute “true multitasking.” The practical application other supported apps); save your current editing spot;
of this feature is that you can pause one app, tap a add custom backgrounds and colors; see estimated
ending time; and import and export scripts through
iTunes file sharing. The Markers feature inserts on-
screen position indicators that you can follow as you
read a scrolling script.
Notion Ink Adam Update Resolves capabilities; and instant media file syncing via USB
General Issues from a camera or PC. Addenda to these brand-new ad-
The latest update for the Notion Ink Adam (www ditions are standard app updates for the Web browser,
.notionink.com) fixes browser bugs, improves video camera app, photo gallery, contacts, and email.
player issues, and tweaks general application features.
To correct problems in the browser, Notion Ink fixed Ruminate Helps You Organize Messy Ideas
the tab switching focus (along with stability issues), Ruminate ($1.99; www.ruminateapp.com) for Ap-
changed the inconsistent tabbed count display for ple’s iPad creates text and URL bubbles that you can pin
multiple tabs, and modified features in the address to a virtual whiteboard so your thoughts and sources
bar. In Canvas, the Adam will no longer restart an are all on the same screen. By double-tapping in the Ru-
minate app space, you can start a new thought, open
a bubble for a Web site, or combine both. Tapping the
Web tab opens the browser so you can tap the Import
URL button next to the address bar; to pull a quote from
a site, select the sentence or paragraph and tap Import
Option on the pop-up menu that appears. You can also
drag and link bubbles or put them in order using other
gestures. When you finish brainstorming ideas for your
paper, report, or essay, you can export the Ruminate
outline as a text file.
by Nathan Lake
Y
ou probably rely on your smartphone for BlackBerry. New features you’ll find in the latest
many things, but with new software and version include calendar filtering, which lets us-
updates, you can improve the efficiency and ers with multiple calendars select which ones work
functionality of your mobile phone. We check out with OnTime, and there’s a global drive or walk
the most popular newly released software and key setting that will let you choose whether to receive
updates to help you maximize how you use your alerts and directions for the given mode of trans-
smartphone while you’re on the road. portation. One of the coolest features of OnTime
is the location-based route mapping that uses the
New For Android GPS in your BlackBerry to take into account your
Quickoffice announced its Quickoffice Connect
Mobile Suite ($19.99; www.quickoffice.com), which
gives you full editing of Microsoft Office files and
access to mobile cloud storage for popular services,
such as Apple MobileME, Box.net, Dropbox, Google
Docs, Huddle, and SugarSync. With an interface de-
signed for use with Android 3.0, the program’s inter-
face creates a more user-friendly experience. You can
view and edit Microsoft Office content in Office 2010
or earlier versions.
Skifta for Android (free; www.skifta.com) is the Version 1.2 of OnTime lets you filter which calendars
first Android app to be certified by the DLNA (Digital integrate with OnTime, and it can provide driving or
walking directions to your next destination.
Living Network Alliance), which means it can stream
media, including photos and music, from one
DLNA source, such as a PC, to your Android current location, as well as the location of your next
phone. Alternatively, you can stream media on appointment, to provide directions.
your phone to DLNA devices, such as televisions, Bellshare recently changed the name of its Berry-
IP-connected stereos, and game consoles. Buzz app to BeBuzz ($5.99; www.bellshare.com).
If you need to monitor the network usage Along with the name change, Bellshare released ver-
costs on your data plan, check out Spb Software’s sion 4.0 of BeBuzz, which now lets you change the
SPB Wireless Monitor For Android ($9.95; standard-colored LED on your BlackBerry to another
www.spb.com). The program can notify you color and set custom alerts for specific contacts. In
when you reach a set limit, and it features daily, the latest version of BeBuzz, Bellshare places notifi-
monthly, yearly, or custom period cost reports. cations of incoming messages (titled toasts) placed
You can view traffic reports per application as near the bottom or top of the display. The app’s
well as time-based reports, all of which you can sound profile settings now let you enable/disable
export as CSV files. LED, change audible reminders, and modify vibrate
Fans of Sports Illustrated who want to read the and toast configurations.
With Skifta for Android, publication on the go should try out the Sports Illus- SOTI added a variety of new features to version
you can stream media
trated app ($3.99 a month for digital only, free for print 7.01 of its Pocket Controller Pro ($35.95; www.soti
to and from your
Android mobile phone. subscribers; www.si.com) from Time Inc. You’ll get all .net), which lets you remotely control your Black-
the SI content you’d see in the print version. Berry from a desktop or notebook computer. New
performance options include a few keyboard short-
New For BlackBerry cuts: An ALT button on the keyboard corresponds
OnTime 1.2 ($4.99; www.ontimemobileapp.com) with the BlackBerry’s ALT button; and the SHIFT
from Ripple Mobile is a calendar application for and arrow buttons let you select multiple files
IPHONE APPS
IPHONE APPS
BLACKBERRY APPS
BLACKBERRY APPS
CarMD
Handheld Prevention & Diagnostic Care For Your Vehicle
by Seth Colaner
he CarMD® Vehicle Health System™ is the of parts and components, from air bags to water
T
CarMD, with its ability to
solution for anyone who’s ever wished they pumps. In addition to finding out if a part is failing instantly diagnose vehicle
could figure out what’s happening under the or making sure the vehicle is operating at optimal problems, is especially useful
for business travelers who
hood of their vehicles at any given time. efficiency, CarMD helps you diagnose problems can’t afford unnecessary and
and determine a reasonable cost for repair (which unexpected downtime.
The Problem in turn gives you leverage when working with a
Most of us haven’t a clue as to the health of our cars, mechanic). CarMD also delivers updates about re-
trucks, SUVs, and vans until something breaks. Even call notices and service bulletins.
so, we have to trust mechanics to diagnose, fix, and
charge us appropriately for every issue, large or small. How It Works
Further, although a vehicle might be otherwise in good The handheld CarMD device connects with
shape, there may be something just slightly off that im- the DLC (Data Link Connector) that resides
pacts gas mileage or wear and tear on a particular part. under the dashboard of all vehicles manufac-
If you’re a business professional, the vehicle you tured since 1996. (If you’re unsure where the
drive is part of your success. Whether you rely on DLC is located on your particular vehicle, you
rental cars for traveling or your company vehicle for can find out at www.CarMD.com.) When you
meeting a client across town, you don’t have time for connect the device to a PC or Mac computer, you
breakdowns. can use the CarMD software to check that data
against CarMD’s online database for diagnostic
The Solution help, projected repair costs, and more.
CarMD is a handheld device (with software for Your purchase of CarMD includes lifetime
your computer) that you can easily connect to your firmware and software updates at no additional
vehicle, use to perform a quick check of your car, and charge, which will keep both the device itself and
determine its overall health. You can also use CarMD the knowledge base to which you have access as
to perform a detailed evaluation to track your ve- current as possible.
hicle’s health in-depth over the long term.
A quick check indicates the general condition of The Road Ahead
a given vehicle; a green light means that it’s good to By the end of 2011, CarMD will launch an app
go, a yellow light indicates a potential issue, and a for various mobile platforms that will augment
red light tells you that the vehicle needs immediate CarMD’s services; stay tuned to www.CarMD.com EXCLUSIVELY FOR
attention. Quick checks are useful for a number of for new product and service announcements. PC TODAY READERS
situations, such as checking your rental car before And if you find yourself stuck on a lonely Visit www.CarMD.com
and use the promo code
driving off the lot or making sure your vehicle is in road somewhere and can’t get to your com-
PCToday to receive 15%
shape to pass emissions tests. puter, you can call CarMD’s ASE (Automotive off the regular price of a
For your own car or company vehicle, you can Service Excellence)-certified technicians toll-free at CarMD Vehicle Health
use CarMD to check the status of a huge number 888.MyCarMD for timely expertise. ▲ System (MSRP $119.85).
SMARTPHONE
Tips
■ Android
Print, Add Security,
Save Power & More
by Andrew Leibman
Google Cloud
Print also works
on iPhones.
But first, you need to set up the service by launch- developer’s Web site, yet the game was not avail-
ing Google’s Chrome browser on a PC connected to able there, nor was the developer’s name.
your desired printer. (Note that if you attempt to set up Also, avoid downloading apps that encourage
the service using any other copyright violations, especially through music,
browser, you’ll be directed video, or ringtone downloads. Closely examine
to download and install the permissions any app requires before finalizing
Chrome before proceeding. a download. A wallpaper app probably shouldn’t
The Web site www.google require access to your identity.
.com/cloudprint provides Avoid sideloading, or installing apps from third
detailed instructions for set- parties outside of the Android Market, whenever
ting up Google Cloud Print.) possible. Many legitimate, malware-free apps re-
First, click the wrench icon quire sideloading, so you don’t need to swear it off
in the upper-right corner of entirely, but treat these apps with extra caution.
Google Chrome, select Op-
tions, click the Under The
Hood tab, scroll down, and
click the Sign In To Google
Cloud Print button. Sign
A third-party security app in using your Google account Enter your Gmail
can help ensure your device credentials to enable
username and password, after
is protected against malware Google Cloud Print.
and more. which you’ll see a dialog box
indicating that you successfully
enabled Google Cloud Print.
You can either print a test page or click OK to exit. If
you chose to print a test page, click the appropriate but- Install a malware and antivirus scanner on your
ton on the subsequent page, and then click the Print A phone. There are several available, many of them
Test Page Button. Back on the Under The Hood tab of free, but treat these like you would any other app,
the Google Chrome Options, the Google Cloud Print and do your homework.
section will now have Disable Google Cloud Print and
Manage Print Settings buttons. ■ BlackBerry
ASSIGN RINGTONES TO GROUPS
ANDROID SECURITY Aside from the novelty aspect, assigning distinc-
With the news that Google recently stumbled tive ringtones to certain contact groups can help you
upon several dozen apps in the Android Market immediately identify whether the call is personal or
that were both pirated software and infected with work-related, for instance. To assign a ringtone to a
malware, security is now officially something you group of contacts, navigate to Profiles on the Home
need to worry about on your smartphone. Google screen, select Advanced, press the Menu key, select
had since remotely removed the offending apps New Exception, type a name for the exception (such
from afflicted phones, but it took several days. What
BLACKBERRY
IPHONE
or trackpad, select the ringtone you want to identify CREATE FOLDERS USING ITUNES
with the group, press the Menu key, and select Save. When your iOS 4.2 or newer iPhone is docked
and synced, you can create folders and add apps
START A to them right from within iTunes. To do this, first
BLACKBERRY MESSENGER connect your iOS-based device to your PC or Mac,
CONVERSATION launch iTunes (if it does not launch automatically),
With ubiquitous QWERTY key- select the device from the left side of the iTunes
boards, BlackBerrys are popular with screen, click the Apps tab, and then just drag and
heavy messengers. The BlackBerry drop your apps into folders as you see fit. Click
Messenger app is a chatting utility Apply when you’re done to sync the changes.
that allows unlimited characters and
is designed just for BlackBerrys. To
start a BlackBerry Messenger conver-
BlackBerry Messenger is a great sation, just select the BlackBerry Messenger icon from
way for fellow BB users to keep
the Home screen, select a contact from the BlackBerry
connected.
Messenger contact list, type your message, press the
trackball or trackpad, and then click Send.
■ iPhone
QUIT APPLICATIONS Yahoo! if you like. To do this, tap Settings from the
Now that multitasking has made its way to Home screen, Safari, Search Engine, and then tap
iPhone (4.2 and newer), killing apps is a necessity Google, Bing, or Yahoo! to make that your default
from time to time to maintain battery life or man- search engine.
age performance on older devices. To kill an app,
you’ll need to access the multitasking drawer by FIND MY IPHONE
double-tapping the Home button, then press and Users with an iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-gener-
hold your finger on an app icon. When the apps ation iPod touch running iOS 4.2 and newer now
begin to wiggle, you’ll see a red icon in the upper- have free access to the Find My iPhone feature of
left corner of the apps. Next, just tap the red icons MobileMe, Apple’s cloud-based service for syncing
on the apps you want to kill. your data between multiple iOS-based devices. If
you ever lose your iPhone, Find My iPhone lets you
CONFIGURE THE IPAD log in to me.com from any Web-enabled computer
With multitasking come SIDE SWITCH IN IOS 4.3 and locate your iPhone on a map. To get started
memory management issues.
With the latest version of iOS (4.3), Apple has with a supported device, just search for and install
decided to let you choose whether the side switch the Find My iPhone app from the App Store. Then
locks the orientation, like it originally did upon launch the app and log on using your Mobile Me
launch, or mutes and unmutes sound, which is sim- Account. If you do not already have a Mobile Me
ilar to how the iPhone works. To take your pick, tap account, access Settings from the Home screen and
Settings, General, and then under Use Side Switch then tap Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Tap the
To, select either Mute or Lock Rotation. Add Account option under Accounts, tap Mobile
Me, and then input your Apple ID in the appropri-
CHANGE YOUR ate fields. Now recovering your device should be
DEFAULT SEARCH ENGINE easier than ever.
The default search engine on your iOS-based You can also activate Find My iPhone on mul-
device is Google, but you can change it to Bing or tiple devices. And as long as at least one of them is
an iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-generation iPod touch, View events by pressing and holding your finger
you can enable Find My iPhone on older iPhones, in the gesture area and then pressing the E key. Tap
including the 3GS and 3G. Once Find My iPhone the Birthdays button at the bottom of the Events
is configured on one of the newer devices, down- page to see who among your friends is having a
load the app to the older birthday soon.
device and sign in using The gesture you may use most often is the one
the Apple ID you use for that brings up your Notifications. To access these,
the newer device. Now just press and hold your finger in the gesture
from the Find My iPhone area and then press the N key. New Notifications
app’s Devices screen, you will appear bolded.
should be able to locate ev-
ery device associated with ■ Windows Phone 7
the Mobile Me account. UPDATE YOUR APPS
By default, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace
■ WebOS app is on the Start screen, but if you ever see a
FACEBOOK number notification beside the icon, then you
GESTURES know you have apps that need updating. To up-
The webOS Facebook date these apps, tap the Marketplace icon and then
Find My iPhone shows app has three basic navigation tap Update from the bottom of the screen. On the
the location of your
methods: the top bar header, the next screen, you can tap Update All or select the
device on a map.
Navigate To option in the drop- apps individually to update them one at a time.
down menu that you can access Facebook on webOS
by tapping in the top-left corner, and gesture- FACEBOOK MOST RECENT supports a multitude of
based shortcuts. The gesture area on webOS-based If you’re like us, you prefer to view your Most gesture-based shortcuts.
phones, including the Pre and Pixi, enable you to Recent news posts on Facebook rather than the Top
do some pretty basic functions, such as navigating News, which displays a kind of “best of” based on
forward and back through apps and messages. To the profiles you interact with the most. But on most
perform a gesture-based action, simply hold your versions of Facebook, Top News is the default view.
finger in the gesture area and press a letter key. Accessing the Most Recent view is actually easier
These key-bound actions vary by application, and on Windows Phone 7 than other platforms; all you
the Facebook app supports several different gestures. have to do is launch the Facebook app, tap News
To perform the Facebook-based shortcuts, first Feed, and then scroll once to the left. Now you’ll
launch the Facebook application by tapping the be hip to everything that’s going on in your social
Launcher and then tapping the Facebook icon. If circle, even if your social butterfly likes to perch
you’re using a Palm Pre, slide open the keyboard. on wallflowers. ▲
To get to your News Feed from any other loca-
tion in Facebook, press and hold your finger in the
WINDOWS PHONE 7
gesture area and then press the H key. You can also FIND MY WINDOWS PHONE
skip to the bottom of the News Feed page by per- Windows Phone 7 has a Find My Phone app built in, which lets
forming this action from here. To move back to the you recover a lost or stolen Windows Phone 7 device. But before you
top of the feed, perform the action again. can start using the handy feature, scroll left to access the apps list, tap
Access your Facebook photos from any location in Settings, scroll to and tap Find My Phone, and then tap the checkboxes
the Facebook app by pressing and holding your finger for Save My Location Periodically and Get Results Faster (the latter
in the gesture area and then pressing the P key. option warns you that it may impact battery life). Once set, tap the
You can initiate a search of your Facebook friends, Windows button to return to the Start screen.
all users, or pages by pressing and holding your finger Now, you can log in to windowsphone.live.com on a desktop or
in the gesture area and then pressing the S key. Then notebook PC using your Windows Live ID and then click Find My
just tap the category and type your query. Phone. There are three buttons here that let you Ring it, Lock It, and
To quickly access your Facebook Inbox, just Erase it. Click the Ring It icon to force your Windows Phone 7 device
press and hold your finger in the gesture area and to ring, even if it’s on silent or vibrate mode. This is useful for when
then press the I key. Pressing and holding your fin- your Phone is nearby. The Lock It button locks your phone so that
ger in the gesture area and then pressing the U key nobody else can use it. You can also configure the phone to display
will pull up your Profile page, otherwise known as a message on the screen. Click Erase It to remotely remove your data
your Wall, where you’ll see all of your status up- with a complete factory reset.
dates and activity.
by Seth Colaner
When you’re away from the office, your productivity doesn’t have to stop.
The Web is exploding with mobile sites and online services, including office
tools, news alerts, entertainment, and any number of other useful items. Just
as quickly, it seems, others go under, are bought by larger companies, or
simply evolve into something different. We’ve found some of the freshest and
most useful sites, services, and updates for you to consider.
HTML5 Test Site hours. This new feature is especially useful for
The developing but not-yet-released HTML5 those times when you need something at an odd
specification promises to deliver a variety of hour, such as very late in the evening or early in
new capabilities for the Web; already, many sites the morning. You also can filter Google mobile
and designers are experimenting with various search results by their star ratings and distance.
aspects of HTML5. HTML5 implementation on
Web browsers is on its way, and thanks to www Priority Inbox For Gmail Mobile
.HTML5Test.com, you can easily check the level In other Google-related mobile news, Gmail
of your Web browser’s compatibility. To run the for mobile now has a Priority Inbox feature. The
test, you simply visit the Web site. screen real estate on mobile devices is limited
You’ll receive a score (out of a possible 400), by nature, so anything that makes better use of
and the site breaks down your browser’s score what’s on-screen helps the user experience. You
by category. Categories include Parsing Rules, can set up Priority Inbox in the desktop ver-
Canvas, Au- sion of Gmail—you can’t adjust the settings via
dio, Video, the mobile interface just yet—and when you
Elements, access Gmail from your mobile device, the pro-
Forms, and gram will list your high-prioritized messages
more. With- at the top, including unread messages and
in each cate- starred messages.
gory, you can
see the num- Network Solutions & dotMobi Partnership
ber of points As more and more consumers and business
your brows- professionals rely on their mobile devices to ac-
er scores. For cess the Internet, having a mobile-optimized ver-
instance, sion of your company’s Web site is imperative. In
your brows- some cases, instead of trying to shrink an exist-
er may net 15 ing site down to fit logically on a mobile device’s
out of 20 small display, it may be bet-
points in the ter to simply create a sepa-
Storage cat- rate, stripped-down mobile
egory. Under site that features just the
each score essentials of who you are,
the site pro- what you provide, and how
Google mobile’s new Open Now feature lets users
filter Places searches for local businesses by the hours
vides more to contact you.
they’re currently open. detailed in- At least, that’s the approach
formation Network Solutions (www.net
about how it determined each score and indicates worksolutions.com), in con-
which specific items were supported. For all its detail, junction with mobile content
HTML5Test isn’t intended to be a comprehensive test, provider dotMobi (mtld.mobi),
but it’s a good indicator of how well your browser’s has taken with goMobi. go-
manufacturer is keeping pace with the updated lan- Mobi provides businesses with
guage of the Internet. a simple and fast way to pro-
duce a mobile Web site, with
Google Mobile Search “Open Now” Feature packages that start at $5.99
Google, for all its forays into mobile op- per month.
erating systems, cloud computing, and other During setup, goMobi
technology fronts, hasn’t forgotten about its pulls data from your existing
bread and butter—search, or in this case, mo- site, such as your company
bile search. The company recently unveiled the logo and phone number, al- goMobi, from Network Solutions and dotMobi, is a service that lets
Open Now feature under the Places search tab, though you can manually businesses put together a mobile Web site quickly and easily.
available only in the U.S., which not only turns enter as much new or dif-
up local businesses in search results but also lets ferent information as you like. The resulting site
you filter those results to display establishments is simple and clean, and it offers customers easy
that are open for business at that particular mo- links to your company’s hours, contact informa-
ment. Google pulls data from a business’ posted tion, and more. ▲
Digital
by Blaine Flamig
Take Charge Of
Your Network
Powerline Networks Energize Your LAN
by Marty Sems
I
“Also, Wi-Fi, in many cases, does not reach to
with almost any electronic gadget. Some, such every room in the home. Stone or brick walls, walls
as HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc players, computers, with metal studs, or plaster walls embedded with
tablets, and game consoles, can stream video over chicken wire (for strength) can all significantly
the Internet, even in high definition. (That is, as- block the Wi-Fi radio signal.”
suming you have a decent broadband connection.) Ethernet cable, in comparison, is simple and
Internet TV at home is one rising force; serving foolproof—but you’ll spend time and effort
up multimedia presentations to prospective cus- routing each new cable under rugs and base-
tomers is another. If your employees are able to boards to keep it from becoming an eyesore or
stream a variety of HD video clips from a central- tripping hazard.
EXCLUSIVELY FOR
ized media server or NAS on your network, they Hence the usual lament that your home or
PC TODAY READERS
For a limited time only,
can impress potential clients with professional- small office isn’t prewired for networking with
try the Plaster Networks looking pitches without burdening their local hard multiple cables to every room. But actually, it is.
Starter Kit for yourself for drives with bulky files. Your building or house is already wired for
only $129.90 ($25 off) The trouble, of course, is that your home or powerline networking. A powerline network
plus free ground ship-
small-office network may not be ready for the sends data over the same copper wiring that
ping. Visit www.plaster
networks.com/pct0411.
HD world. Wi-Fi is commonly used because it’s carries power to your devices and appliances. It
easy to deploy, but in many cases, it’s not ideal for may sound risky at first blush, but a powerline
streaming video in a reliable way. network can do this without endangering your
delicate electronic devices. Put into mar-
keting terms, it’s a value-add for your
existing electrical wiring.
Plaster Networks CEO Jeff Scroggin
says, “We’re making it easier to con- Networking With Power
nect your devices to the network. In With a powerline network, you can
turn any AC outlet into a network port.
most cases, [our customers] are using This gives you the freedom to put com-
powerline because Wi-Fi does not give puters, HDTVs, and other Internet-
them a connection that is fast enough capable devices anywhere you need.
Your office layout won’t be limited by
or reliable enough. Powerline adapters the availability of Ethernet connections.
provide an easy and fast way to ‘install’ Nor will you need to move your elec-
an Ethernet port by simply plugging tronics to catch the best Wi-Fi coverage
and avoid dead spots.
(an) adapter into an outlet.” A powerline setup is as reliable, signal-
wise, as Ethernet. And current powerline
equipment is more than fast enough to
“Wi-Fi is inherently unreliable because of noise carry HD video, to say nothing of lesser burdens
from all sorts of devices in the home that generate such as music and data files.
an RF signal,” such as microwave ovens, cordless Most adapters sold today are rated at 200Mbps
phones, and baby monitors, says Plaster Networks (HomePlug AV) or even 500Mbps, albeit over
(www.plasternetworks.com) CEO Jeff Scroggin. shorter physical distances. The upcoming
by Nathan Lake
I
f you need to print your digital photos, there study from Quality Logic found that the cost of ink
are two easy ways to get them. You can in- per page for recent photo printers was anywhere
vest in a photo printer and produce the prints from 11 cents to 41 cents per 4x6 borderless print.
yourself, or you can upload the photos to an online Note that the ink per page cost did not include
photo printing service and have them delivered photo paper, which would further raise the cost for
to you. Many photo printing services also work each print. Most of the printers in the study hov-
with local photo developers, such as Walgreens ered around the 30-cent mark per 4x6 print.
or Target, to let you pick up your photos the same If you examine the “Costs For Online Photo
day. We examine the costs associated with printing Printing Services” sidebar, you can see that a 4x6
the photos for both methods so you can determine print will cost you less than 15 cents (ink and
which printing model works best for you. photo paper together). However, that price does
not include shipping costs. If you’re printing a
small amount of photos, say, fewer than 50, the
shipping costs could come to 10 cents per photo.
For larger orders, such as print jobs that exceed
$25, we found that many online photo printing ser-
vices eliminate shipping charges. You can also get
around shipping costs by requesting the service
send your prints for processing to a nearby photo
developer. We should note that items picked up at
a local developer may cost slightly more, however,
because you’ll have to pay the local sales tax and
possibly an in-store pick-up fee.
When odering prints larger than 5x7s, the cost
scales begin to tip in favor of photo printers. A re-
cent study from the Red River Catalog found that
ink costs for an 8x10 print run about 60 cents to 80
cents. If you invest in standard-quality photo paper,
you’ll add around 30 cents to 40 cents per print to
your bill, which translates to a cost of around $1 per
8x10 print. Online print services currently charge
anywhere from $2.99 to $3.99 per 8x10 print. You’ll
save even more money with a photo printer when
you print 8x10s or larger prints.
Depending on the quality of photo you’re
looking for, you may also need to factor in the
Shutterfly offers you amount you’re willing to spend on a photo
the ability store, share, Cost Efficiency printer. Today’s high-end photo printers, which
and order prints of your Based on print costs, purchasing 4x6s or 5x7s cost anywhere between $300 and $900, offer
digital images. from an online service is typically less expensive results that rival professional lab quality. The
than using a photo printer to do the job. A recent high-end photo printers are typically capable of
handling prints as large as 13x19. Many photo final print. For example, let’s
printers in the $80 to $200 range provide ade- say that you have an image of a
quate color depth and detail for any photo album product your company produces,
or scrapbook, but photo printers are typically and you want to frame and hang an 8x10 photo of
limited to prints as large as 8.5x11. that product in your offices. With an online photo
We found that most online photo printing printing service, the photo you get back will look
services are capable of enlarging your photos to the way you sent the image in. But if you decide The WorkForce 840
from Epson is an
20x30 prints. Other common poster-size options after you see the photo that you’d like to change
all-in-one printer that
include 11x14 and 16x20. Pricing for the poster- the image’s color, or crop it a different way, you’ll also provides photo
size prints varies by the service, but you’ll typi- need to go through the entire upload and waiting quality prints.
cally pay around $8 for an 11x14, $16 for a 16x20, process all over again. With a photo printer, you
and $22 for a 20x30. Most printing services offer a can print the second copy right away. You’ll also be
variety of mailing options, including standard pri- able to adjust the printer’s quality or color balance
ority, two-day, and overnight. For fastest delivery, until the resulting photograph looks exactly the
several online printing vendors provide local pick- way you want.
up. For example, Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com)
allows for in-store pickups of 4x6 prints from Target, Choosing A Photo Printer
Walgreens, and CVS (CVS limits print orders to $60 If you think a photo printer is your best op-
or less). The price for 4x6 prints rises to 19 cents per tion, there are a few key aspects you’ll want
print with Shutterfly’s in-store pickup. Snapfish to consider. There are a number of all-in-one
(www.snapfish.com) allows for in-store pickup of printers that deliver more than acceptable photo
photos up to 8x10s at Walgreens, Walmart, Meijer, quality and function well as all-around of-
and DUANEreade locations. Some stores can also fice printers. For instance, Epson’s WorkForce
produce photo-based gifts, such as photo cards, cal- 840 ($299.99; www.epson.com) is a wireless
endars, and books. printer that includes capabilities for scanning
and copying, and it also features an automatic
Online Photo Printing Benefits
If you regularly print photos with your photo
printer, the process can be time consuming, be- If you think a photo printer is your
cause you’ll need to ensure that printer is correctly
configured for the type and size of paper you’re best option, there are a few key
using. You’ll also need to maintain the printer by
monitoring and replacing the ink cartridges and aspects you’ll want to consider . . .
paper as needed. With a photo printing service,
all you’ll need to do is upload the images, select
the print sizes you want, and wait for the order duplexer for two-sided printing. For results that
to come to you or pick it up at the store. Most truly match professional-quality photo labs, you
online photo printing services, such as Shutterfly can invest in a photo printer that offers more than
or Snapfish, also let you share your photos with five ink colors, which give the printer the ability
others online or store your images online. to produce photos with true-to-life color detail.
For example, Canon’s PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II
Advantages Of Using A Photo Printer ($499.99; www.usa.canon.com) uses eight ink
Many consumers choose to go the photo printer colors and can handle photo paper sizes up to
route because they have ultimate control over the 13x19 inches. ▲
Solve Remote
Network Connection Problems
and your browser or other network access If an early hop takes a long time or causes
utility may be giving up before it connects. Length- the trace to hang (a flood of timeouts), contact KEY POINTS
en the response time by adding a -t switch (ping your ISP. If you reach many hops before things ▲ If you can send data
-t followed by the IP address or DNS name). go awry, the problem may be with a gateway packets but none are
returned, it generally
This will ping the address indefinitely. After or router at or near the location of the remote
means the network is
a dozen pings, press CTRL-Break to view the network. Check with the network administrator refusing to acknowledge
packet data. If there is no response yet, continue for assistance. your request.
awhile longer, and then press CTRL-C. If you never
▲ Obtaining the DNS
get a response or the number of pings to get a Get Connected
name and IP address and
response is considerable, skip to “Trace the Route” Setting up a direct VPN connection gives comparing access times
for assistance. you a dedicated login interface and lets you between the two can
If you get a message saying the ping request avert DNS issues. determine whether Win-
dows is experiencing DNS
could not find the host or the response indicates To set up the connection in WinXP, se-
resolution issues.
the number of data packets sent is zero, the net- lect Control Panel on the Start menu. Click
work is not acknowledging your ping. Changes Network And Internet Connections and then ▲ The point at which
a route trace hangs can
to the network or configuration may now be select Create A Connection To The Network At
help you determine
preventing access. Contact the network adminis- Your Workplace. In Vista/Win7, click Control where your request for
trator for further assistance. Panel on the Start menu and click Network And network attention is
Internet (in Category view), then Network And being disrupted.
Look It Up Sharing Center. Click Set Up A Connection Or
You can look up a DNS name from an IP ad- Network (Vista) or Set Up A New Connection Or
dress and vice versa. From the command line Network under Change Your Network Settings
window, type nslookup followed by a space (Win7). Select Connect To A Workplace, then
and either the DNS name or the IP address and Use My Internet Connection. (Vista/Win7 offers
press ENTER. smart card as a connection option. We won’t dis-
Write down the DNS name and numeric se- cuss that here.)
quence you see in the lines that begin with Select Virtual Private Network Connection,
Name: and Address: (ignore aliases). If you are name the connection, and provide the host (DNS)
checking an IP address, the DNS name should name or IP address. If you are asked if you
help confirm it. If you recognize nothing, con- would like to dial a connection, click No (unless
tact the network administrator to confirm the you only have dial-up Internet) and click Finish
IP address. (WinXP) or Connect (Vista/Win7). The OS will
If you are using a DNS name, Windows may attempt to connect you without configuring
be having a problem with DNS name resolution any settings. If this solution does not work, or
(translating the DNS name into an IP address). if you are using WinXP, proceed with the fol-
Perform two pings from the same command line lowing instructions.
window, first using the DNS name you wrote Return to the Network Connections window
down and then using the IP address. Compare in WinXP or the Network and Sharing Center in
the access times and packets you sent and re- Vista/Win7 and click the option to manage net-
ceived. If there is a big difference in behaviors work connections. Right-click your VPN network
pinging the DNS name vs. the IP address, skip to icon and select Properties. Next, click the Net-
“Get Connected.” working tab, click Internet Protocol (in Vista/
Win7, you will need to do this for TCP/IP V4
Trace The Route and TCP/IP V6), and then click Properties. Over-
Tracing the path data packets take going ride automatic configuration and provide the
to the network will help pinpoint problems. exact IP address and DNS names for the net-
From the command line window, type tracert work. Exit the Properties interface, right-click the
followed by a space and the DNS name or IP VPN icon, and click Connect. Provide your login
address, and press ENTER. Lines will appear information if prompted.
with access times and IP addresses. The final If you cannot connect, then Windows can pro-
few hops should show domain names—the vide some assistance, but you may need more
last one being your network. This is the route— advanced configuration information. You will
and the time the trip is taking—between nodes need to contact the network administrator for
on the Internet. detailed information. ▲
Use Wi-Fi
Hotspots Wisely
The scramble for companies to leverage Wi-Fi to boost bottom lines
and customer loyalty has resulted in a confusing number of service configurations. Here’s
the rundown on some issues you will encounter—and also how to connect in the wisest man-
ner possible.
service set identifier or SSID) and, if the network confirmation. If the network is
is secure, a security key or passphrase. Select the WEP and you do not see this
desired network and provide the key if prompt- option, select Shared. Select an
ed. (See the “How To Evaluate Security” section encryption type if you have
before you complete this step.) one. Otherwise, keep the de-
If you use WinXP, your network card may fault. After entering all this in-
manage network connections, leaving you un- formation and configuring the
able to connect using our instructions. To give desired settings, click OK or
Windows control, click Start, select Control Pan- Next to connect.
el, click Network And Internet Connections, and
select Network Connections. Right-click your How To Evaluate Security
wireless connection and click Properties. Click Most private, as well as
the Network Settings tab and select the Use Win- some public, networks use
dows To Configure My Wireless Network Set- one of several security standards to protect us- ▲ Windows XP/
tings checkbox. ers and themselves from intrusion. You’ll en- Vista/7 all provide
a wireless connec-
counter WEP, WPA, and possibly WPA2. The
tion display that lets
How To Set Up A Manual Connection Wireless Network Connection dialog box may you determine if a
If you cannot locate the network you want (be- provide the network type. If not, here’s a hint: network is secure
cause some networks choose not to broadcast their WEP security keys always contain 26 charac- or open (WinXP
SSIDs), you can set it up manually. In addition to ters; WPA and WPA2 security keys are eight to displayed).
the network, name, and credentials, you will need 63 characters in length.
the network security protocol and encryption type WEP is the least
(TKIP or AES). secure and easiest
To set up a manual connection in WinXP, open to crack; treat a
the available networks list as described previ- WEP network as
ously and click Advanced or Change Advanced you would an un-
Settings (depending on the service pack that you secure network,
have installed). On the Wireless Networks tab, setting its profile to
click Add. In Vista/Win7, open the Network And Public unless you
Sharing Center. In Vista, click Set Up A Connec- absolutely must
tion Or Network at the top left of the display; communicate with
in Win7, click Set Up A New Connection Or Net- other PCs. WPA
work (under Change Your Network Settings). Se- and WPA2 are
lect Manually Connect To A Wireless Network and more impervious
click Next. to cracking, so you
Provide the information exactly as you were can use a profile that is more open, such as Work, ▲ WinXP does
given it (uppercase and lowercase). In Vista/Win7, if necessary (or tweak the settings in the Public not offer network
profiles, but you
you can opt to see the characters as you type for profile to open things up as needed).
can turn off File
And Printer sharing
Take Charge through network con-
At the end of the day, the responsibility for nection properties.
protecting your assets lies with you. Using
common Internet precautions is also a good idea.
Before you provide sensitive information, be sure
you are at a secure site. The Web address should
begin with “https” instead of “http” and your
browser should display a padlock icon or other
security confirmation. Check with your email
provider to see if you can encrypt your email
messages. Another precaution you can take is to
turn off your wireless adapter when you are not
▲ In Vista/Win7 the Network And Sharing Center is your
using the Internet. To turn wireless off, right-
portal to setting up new connections, changing network click the icon for your wireless connection in the
profiles, and more. System Tray and select Disable. ▲
Revive A Crashed
Notebook
Someday you will face the inevitable notebook failure. You’ll
be working diligently on the documents you need for your three o’clock meeting or
be right in the middle of composing a lengthy email describing the highlights of your
previous business trip, and your Windows notebook will freeze, suddenly shut down,
or reboot itself. Or perhaps your Web browsing is halted by an unexpected blue screen
bearing an ominously lengthy error message.
Unfortunately, these common errors could be the result of several different issues, so
it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of a failure. But luckily there are also many com-
mon solutions that often yield positive results. Next time your notebook experiences an
error, remember these tips.
Open That
Compressed File
Receiving a compressed file, especially when you’re on the
road, can be a headache and a hassle. Compressed files, which are actu-
ally single archives composed of one or more files, can substantially save on file size and
transmission time compared to a standard file format. However, they require special
software to unpack (uncompress). Most of us recognize and can open the .ZIP file format
(we’ll tell you how in case you don’t know), but what if the file extension is something
arcane? Archived file extensions now run the gamut from .ARC to .ZOO and can origi-
nate not only from a compression utility but also from compression features inside a
program. Fortunately, current tools can handle nearly anything you’d want to compress.
Offer An Extension
Some OSes (notably Apple’s OS) store
the file-type information as a header inside
the file and don’t require a file extension. Mac doesn’t mean your PC
users sometimes use file extensions to make life can open it. If you
easier for their Windows-loving friends, but double-click an un-
it isn’t necessary. If a file unpacks and has no packed file that has
file extension and you know what type of file it a three-letter file ex-
is, you can simply add the extension to the end tension and Windows
of the filename. Turn Officemeeting into Office- does not associate it
meeting.jpg, and you will be good to go, assum- with a particular pro-
ing it is actually a JPG file. This plan will fail gram, Windows will
miserably if you provide the wrong extension, ask if you want to
leaving you to query the sender. However, if you search for a program
at least know the file type (video, digital photo, online or tell it which
and so on), and there are a reasonable number of program to use. With
options, a little experimentation may take you a some file types, Win-
long way. For example, if you know Johnsbirth- dows does a decent
day is a digital photo file, try .JPG, .TIF, .EPS, job of determining
and maybe even .GIF or .PNG file extensions. what program created the file. It may actually ▲ WinRAR, among
You should get there eventually. lead you somewhere useful. If not, try searching the more popular
compression
Google for the file extension to see what pops
programs, offers
Compressed Or Not? up. If you can determine the file type (video,
user-created
If you can’t find a program to decompress a graphic, or document, for example), you may themes to
file, and you are not certain it is an archive, then be able to convert the file to another similar customize the
it might not be. There are many more file exten- but usable format. Zamzar (www.zamzar.com) interface of
the program.
sions than most of us will ever encounter. Many supports an array of file types, and it is free.
of these represent files from proprietary pro- (But you should expect ads and pop-ups.)
grams not in common use. For example, the infor- Media Convert (www.mediaconvert.com), al-
mation needed to portray data spatially through though ad-supported, is free, as well.
a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) pro-
gram often comes divided among a half-dozen Keep It Small
or so files; these are usually zipped into a single When size limitations or bandwidth restric-
archive for ease of transport (and because they are tions affect your ability to send large files, a
pretty useless alone). If you accidentally obtain compression utility can be your best friend.
one by itself, say an SHP (shapefile, which de- There are many available, but beware that most
scribes geometric forms) file, you won’t be able to compression tools can create far fewer archive
do a darned thing with it unless you have its part- types than they can unpack. Some tools, in-
ner files (usually at least SHX [spatial index] and cluding WinZip and WinRAR, can divide extra-
DBF [database] files). Fortunately, a quick search large files and folders among multiple archives
on Google will at least tell you what you have. when you compress them. However, in some
instances this is ideal for moving a group of
Software Lockdown large files through without having to compress
Are you on a corporate laptop or public each one individually.
computer where you cannot install software? The most universally compatible option for
Don’t worry. You can install a compression sending compressed files when you are uncertain
utility on a USB drive and access it simply by of the recipient’s capacity is a SEA (self-extract-
inserting the drive into an open USB slot on ing archive). SEAs don’t require the recipient to
any PC. IZArc2Go (free) is USB-based. Best have any other program on his machine because
of all, for people working from a public com- they contain applets that perform the unpacking
puter, the utility leaves behind no trace of your internally. Some SEAs have the .EXE (executable)
activities when you decide to move on. file extension. Many virus programs flag EXE
files as troublemakers, and some companies and
Can’t Touch That public locations won’t let computer users down-
Compressed archives originate from many load those files. If you send out an EXE file,
programs and OSes. Consequently, just be- make sure you alert the recipient that it is safe
cause you can unpack a compressed program to open. ▲
Revive A Dead
Smartphone Emergency CPR Techniques
All other smartphones. You can generally per- HTC HD2. With the device powered off, press
form a soft reset by powering the phone off and then and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons.
on or removing the battery and replacing it after With the volume buttons depressed, press and release
30 seconds. the End/Power button. When a warning message dis-
plays, release the volume buttons. Next, press the Vol-
Hard Reset ume Up button to perform the reset. Pressing any other
A hard reset is a last-ditch option that returns button cancels the reset.
your phone to its factory settings, which means you HTC Touch Pro, Touch Pro2, Touch Diamond.
will lose all data and any installed applications. Be- With the device turned on, press and hold the Vol-
fore performing a hard reset, you will want to re- ume Down and Enter buttons. While holding the
move the memory card from your phone; that way keys, use the stylus to press the Reset button, lo-
▲ To perform a
you can recover data from the card later. cated under the battery cover. Continue to hold the soft reset on the
Android (all models with functioning menu Volume Down and Enter keys until a warning mes- BlackBerry Storm
systems). One of the following menu-based systems sage displays. Release the Volume Down and Enter or Storm2, remove
for performing a hard reset should work, depending keys, and then press the Volume Up key to reset the and then reinsert the
battery, or download
on the phone and version of Android. phone. Pressing any other button cancels the reset.
the Soft Reset
Open the application menu. Tap Settings, SD iPhone (all models). From the Home screen, application OTA.
Card & Phone Storage, and Factory Data Reset, and tap Settings, General, Reset, and Reset All Settings.
then follow the on-screen instructions. This action resets all preferences but retains ap-
From the Home screen, tap Menu, Settings, Pri- plications and data. If that doesn’t work, go to
vacy, and Factory Data Reset, and then follow the the Home screen and tap Settings, General, Reset,
on-screen instructions. Erase All Content, and Settings. This will delete all
From the Home screen, tap Menu, Settings, Se- data and applications and return the iPhone to fac-
curity, and Factory Data Reset, and then follow the tory conditions.
on-screen instructions. Nokia (all models). With your phone powered on
When the menu system isn’t functional, the fol- or in standby mode, type *#7370# and select Yes when
lowing phone-specific options will be helpful for prompted. You may need your Lock Code for confir-
performing a hard reset. mation. The default lock code is 12345.
T-Mobile G1. With the G1 powered off, press and If your phone doesn’t turn on, try pressing the
hold the Home-End keys until you see a triangle On/Off button, *, and 3 simultaneously.
▲ To perform a
with an exclamation point. Open the QWERTY key- Palm Pre Plus. Open Device Info, tap Reset Op-
hard reset of the
board and press ALT-W. tions, and tap the Full Erase button. And then tap the Palm Pre Plus, open
T-Mobile G2. With the G2 powered off, press Full Erase button a second time. Device Info, tap
and hold the Volume Down button while you tap Samsung Behold II. From the Home screen, tap Phone Reset
the Power button. After the Android logo appears, Quick List; and then tap Settings, Reset Settings, Options, and then
tap Full Erase twice.
release the Volume Down button. Press the Volume and Master Reset. Next, enter your password and
Down button again, select Clear Storage, and press tap Yes.
the Power button. Press Volume Up to start the fac- If the phone is frozen or won’t turn on, turn the
tory reset. power off and remove the battery. Wait 30 seconds
Motorola Droid. Turn the phone off. Press and before you reinsert the battery. Press and hold the
hold the Power-X keys to force the phone into re- Volume Down, Send, and End buttons. Keep hold-
covery mode. Next, press and hold the Volume Up- ing the buttons down until a graphic appears on
Camera key to display the recovery menu. Select the display, and then press the Menu key to start
Wipe Data/Factory Reset from the menu, and then the reset.
select Reboot Phone. Samsung Captivate, Epic 4G, Vibrant. Power off
BlackBerry (all models). Remove the battery and your phone and remove the battery. Wait 30 seconds
wait for about 30 seconds. Reinstall the battery and and reinsert the battery. Press and hold the Volume ▲ To soft reset a
turn the phone on. Down button while pressing and releasing the Power Samsung Galaxy S
HTC FUZE. With the device turned on, press button. Press the Volume Down button to select Clear phone, press and
and hold the Left and Right soft keys. While hold- Storage, and then press the Power button. Confirm hold the Volume Up
and Power buttons
ing the keys, use the stylus to press and hold the the reset by pressing the Volume Up button.
for five seconds. The
Reset button on the bottom of the device near the Windows Phone 7. Slide left and tap the arrow phone will turn off
USB port. Text on the display will ask you to con- icon. Next, Tap Settings and select About, scroll to the and back on.
firm the reset. bottom of the display, and tap Reset Your Phone. ▲
Spirit Airlines
A Complex Tablet
With A Simple Name
■ Notion Ink has set out to create a unique
product with its Adam tablet, and by the looks
of it, the company has succeeded. The Adam has a
10.1-inch multitouch display; a 185-degree, 3.2MP
autofocus camera that lets you capture pictures in
nearly any direction, and 8GB of flash memory with
a MicroSD slot for extra storage. The tablet’s transflec-
tive display and ambient light sensor makes text more
readable under almost any lighting source. For your
connectivity needs, the Adam features 3G, Wi-Fi, and
Bluetooth capabilities, and you can use the built-in GPS
receiver for navigation purposes. The HDMI output provides
1080p video and supports Adobe AIR and flash for playing
stored or Web-based video. And for fun, Notion Ink includes a
“Bonus mystery feature” that is revealed if you buy the Adam.