NEW YORK, USA: Deloitte has issued a new report identifying 10 disruptive and emerging technologies that are expected to play a crucial role in how businesses will operate globally over the next 18 months.
"With 2011 well underway, CIOs should be evaluating the progress made on their New Year's resolutions and taking full advantage of technologies that have the ability to dramatically improve and advance their business operations and decision-making," said Mark White, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and a co-author of the report. "We have evaluated, industry-wide, what is working and what is not when it comes to IT and have identified 10 technologies that are likely to transform the enterprise over the next 18 months."
Deloitte's report, "Tech Trends 2011: The Natural Convergence of Business and IT," groups the technologies into two categories: "(Re)emerging Enablers," which is described as five technologies that many CIOs have spent time, thought and resources on in the past, and "Disruptive Deployments," five additional technologies that showcase new business models and transformative ways to operate. The 10 technologies are:
(Re)Emerging Enablers:
Almost Enterprise Applications: Quick and agile solutions like the cloud and Software- and Platform-as-a-Service (SaaS, PaaS) appeal to the business, but are they "enterprise enough" for IT? Almost enterprise applications are being eagerly embraced by many business leaders, and CIOs should get in front of this democratization and self-service trend.
CIOs as Revolutionaries: With the cloud, social computing and mobility shaking up business models and transforming how business is done, the technology agenda should be considered as tantamount to the business agenda—and CIOs are the executives positioned to pull them into alignment.
Cyber Intelligence: While it still may be necessary to build a rapid detect-and-respond cyber security function, organizations should consider going beyond adding tools to learn and adapt, protect against upstream threats, and connect the internal and external dots to assess probable risks, and in the process move from reactive to proactive.
End of Death of ERP: ERP can be an enabler of tomorrow's innovations, not a fading footnote of yesterday's legacy. Organizations are still able to tap ERP applications to transform processes with reduced risk — at a lower cost and at a quicker pace.
Visualization: Visualization deserves a fresh look given the evolution of the underlying tools and the rich potential represented by unstructured data. It can provide a new way to tap into millions of internal emails, instant messages and documents, as well as trillions of social media objects, Twitter tweets, text messages, blogs and other content of potential concern or opportunity for the enterprise.
Disruptive Deployments:
Applied Mobility: New mobile solutions are being designed to serve the full spectrum of transactional, analytical and social computing capabilities, and present the opportunity for organizations to define real and lasting value in applied mobility solutions and business enablement. This could be the year that businesses will truly begin harnessing these features into rich, yet simple and intuitive applications to solve real business problems.
Capability Clouds: Capability clouds have the potential to move beyond the building blocks of capacity clouds to deliver finished services that can address business objectives and enterprise goals. CIOs should be prepared to answer how they leverage the ecosystem of capabilities, services and value networks delivered by the cloud.
Real Analytics: As the economy resets, analytics can offer improved visibility to help companies drive operational efficiencies. Analytics can also offer an opportunity for growth by helping companies in their efforts to address heart-of-the-business questions that can guide decisions, yield new insights and help predict what's next.
Social Computing: As more of our personal and professional lives are transacted via technology, rich trails of preferences, opinions and behaviors are being created. Beyond the immediate benefits of empowering stake-holders, this "digital exhaust" can be mined, providing a rich source of insight on market positioning.
User Engagement: The proliferation of consumer and Internet technologies has raised expectations for IT tools at work, and can empower employees to find new insights and improve how business occurs. Enterprises should seek to learn and understand how to turn newly-connected consumers into new revenue channels and identify ways they can empower employees to better connect dots and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
"It's evident that the next 18 months will be pivotal for widespread adoption of technologies such as cloud, social computing, analytics and mobile technologies," said Bill Briggs, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-author of the report. "Whether they are re-emerging enablers that are already somewhat at play at large among enterprises or disruptive deployments that offer new, transformative ways for organizations to operate, CIOs should keep ahead of these trends to help generate top returns not just of IT, but the business of the business."
Monday, March 21, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Don't help cybercriminals exploit Japan tragedy
INDIA: Several countries and international organisations have offered to assist with relief efforts from last Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Three days after the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan, the rest of the world is still trying to make sense of what's happening. Citizens around the world are also looking to extend assistance in their own way.
But, as the death and injury tolls continue to rise, there are some malicious people who attempt to exploit such situations, under the guise of charitable institutions and governmental organizations. Emails marked URGENT, requesting for help by appealing to the humanity in every internet user, or urging consumers around the world to offer donations to those affected, are doing the rounds.
Symantec observed more than 50 domains with the names of either “Japan tsunami” or “Japan earthquake” within the first few hours of this unfortunate event. These domains are either parked, available for sale, or are linked to earthquake sites. Don’t be surprised if you see these domains been used in phishing and spam attacks. Below are a few of the samples:
3-11-2011-[removed].com
3-11[removed].com
earthquake-[removed].com
earthquaketsunami[removed].com
earthquakerelief[removed].com
Symantec has also observed a classic 419 message targeting the Japanese disaster. The message is a bogus "next of kin" story that purports to settle millions of dollars owing to an earthquake and tsunami victim.
Previously, when such disasters occurred, Symantec observed a sudden surge in virus attacks in the form of nasty attachments and .zip files embedded in spam sent from such predatory attackers. Do not open them, especially if you don’t know the source! Use caution when opening forwarded messages related to the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and any other tragedy or event that stirs international news coverage, legitimate and otherwise. Nefarious attackers may be sending malicious Java scripts and other threats that could compromise both your personal data and your computer.
Other methods that the cyber mafia uses during such events include search engine poisoning. With several internet users searching for earthquake-related news and information online, cybercriminals can poison search results for malicious websites to appear at the top of the results. Users who click on these links assuming that the information will help them make sense of the tragedy, may end up downloading malware instead.
Symantec has witnessed a rise in malicious websites of late. The recent Symantec report on Attack Toolkits and Malicious Websites revealed that Symantec observed more than 310,000 unique domains that were found to be malicious. On average, this resulted in the detection of more than 4.4 million malicious Web pages per month. It is likely that attackers will use Japan-related terms in order to attract people on to these websites.
While our hearts go out to those grappling with this unprecedented catastrophe, we at Symantec want to urge users to be cautious about unscrupulous elements. Symantec recommends that our readers reach out to the affected through legitimate and secure channels so that the help sent by you reaches the intended recipients.
But, as the death and injury tolls continue to rise, there are some malicious people who attempt to exploit such situations, under the guise of charitable institutions and governmental organizations. Emails marked URGENT, requesting for help by appealing to the humanity in every internet user, or urging consumers around the world to offer donations to those affected, are doing the rounds.
Symantec observed more than 50 domains with the names of either “Japan tsunami” or “Japan earthquake” within the first few hours of this unfortunate event. These domains are either parked, available for sale, or are linked to earthquake sites. Don’t be surprised if you see these domains been used in phishing and spam attacks. Below are a few of the samples:
3-11-2011-[removed].com
3-11[removed].com
earthquake-[removed].com
earthquaketsunami[removed].com
earthquakerelief[removed].com
Symantec has also observed a classic 419 message targeting the Japanese disaster. The message is a bogus "next of kin" story that purports to settle millions of dollars owing to an earthquake and tsunami victim.
Previously, when such disasters occurred, Symantec observed a sudden surge in virus attacks in the form of nasty attachments and .zip files embedded in spam sent from such predatory attackers. Do not open them, especially if you don’t know the source! Use caution when opening forwarded messages related to the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and any other tragedy or event that stirs international news coverage, legitimate and otherwise. Nefarious attackers may be sending malicious Java scripts and other threats that could compromise both your personal data and your computer.
Other methods that the cyber mafia uses during such events include search engine poisoning. With several internet users searching for earthquake-related news and information online, cybercriminals can poison search results for malicious websites to appear at the top of the results. Users who click on these links assuming that the information will help them make sense of the tragedy, may end up downloading malware instead.
Symantec has witnessed a rise in malicious websites of late. The recent Symantec report on Attack Toolkits and Malicious Websites revealed that Symantec observed more than 310,000 unique domains that were found to be malicious. On average, this resulted in the detection of more than 4.4 million malicious Web pages per month. It is likely that attackers will use Japan-related terms in order to attract people on to these websites.
While our hearts go out to those grappling with this unprecedented catastrophe, we at Symantec want to urge users to be cautious about unscrupulous elements. Symantec recommends that our readers reach out to the affected through legitimate and secure channels so that the help sent by you reaches the intended recipients.
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