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Trendspotting

What's up, what's down in IT.

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May 2007, Issue 67

Nucleus Research offers these insights . . .
	On-Demand Safeguards Fearing data breaches, 16% of organizations are currently unwilling to adopt on-demand solutions. This will probably change, however, as vendors strive to differentiate themselves with offerings that are more secure. Users should ask vendors about uptime and security strategies. They should also find out how easy it is for a business customer to extract data in the event the vendor fails to meet expectations. Today, options range from delivery of data in a flat file to extraction services that must be arranged contractually. Digitech Systems is one vendor that's taking security seriously. For example, it offers application security that administrators can use to manage and monitor user activity, including documents retrieved, project groups accessed, and unsuccessful login attempts. Digitech's self-contained structure ensures that all communications are passed through a secure, encrypted connection managed from the vendor's internal network; documents are never placed on a Web-accessible server. Moreover, through its "Data Assurance" program, Digitech promises to back up and deliver all content to customers' servers each night, thereby avoiding hardware failures that could render corporate data inaccessible.
	SMB Rumble Heats Up Microsoft is facing increasing competition in the enterprise applications space, with Oracle and SAP continuing their marketing push to small and midsize businesses. But is it more than just marketing? Oracle's North American partners are launching SMB solutions as part of the Oracle Accelerate program. Oracle Accelerate applications combine Oracle apps with partner expertise and Oracle Business Accelerators for industry-tailored solutions that are packaged and priced specifically for SMBs. The program should drive down the cost and risk of implementing Oracle solutions at SMB sites. Unlike Oracle, Microsoft isn't directly building out support for its partners. Rather, Kineticsware, an independent company founded by former Microsoft executives, is offering packaged services to Microsoft partners to help them deliver more complete solutions to customers of Microsoft Dynamics, an SMB-oriented ERP suite.
	Bearish On Biometrics Granted, we're all trying to devise better ways to manage, track, and control user access to buildings, systems, and applications. And to many, biometrics technology offers potential. But before you seek biometrics solutions, bear in mind that they're no panacea to security problems. Although they can be helpful when teamed with other applications—for example, as a deterrent to "buddy punching" in the time and attendance space—on their own they often pose more security risks than they prevent. Users don't want biometrics to slow them down, so test carefully in different conditions before you invest in them as a primary form of security.
	No More False Alarms Traditional security systems may have your IT department overwhelmed. They generate too many false positives, provide too little data about possible threats, and require a huge footprint in order to store data for identifying known threats. All this adds up to IT staff spending lots of time chasing down false alarms at the expense of missing real threats. FireEye offers a way around the traditional memorize-and-scan model. The vendor's security solution creates a replica of your network operating environment, then puts all outside activity through it to see what happens. The benefit is twofold. First, threats never get to your operating environment. Second, your IT staff spends much less time researching threats and fixing corrupted PCs and servers.