This document examines the impending end of support for Windows XP and the risks this poses, particularly for payment devices that will no longer be PCI compliant. It notes that many businesses have failed to address the issue and migrate from XP, despite the security risks it will leave them exposed to. Embedded software alternatives that can replace XP are described, but many businesses remain unaware of these options. The author argues that failing to address the XP issue will put businesses at risk of financial penalties or losing the ability to process payments.
The Robot and I: How New Digital Technologies Are Making Smart People and Bus...Cognizant
Our latest study shows that when enterprise robots are applied to automating core business processes, they can extend the creative problem-solving capabilities and productivity of human beings and deliver superior business results.
When Digital Disruption Strikes: How Can Incumbents Respond?Capgemini
Digital innovation is shaking the core of every industry and incumbents are struggling to respond. The emergence of startups such as Uber – which disrupt entire sectors with their agile, innovative business models – is worrying traditional incumbents. Venture funding to startups is at historic highs. In just one startup hotspot, Silicon Valley, venture capital investment in the first three quarters of 2014 was around $17 billion, a figure that is only surpassed by the peak of the dotcom era in 2000. In recent research by GE, two-thirds of respondents agreed that businesses have to encourage creative behaviors and must disrupt their internal processes in order to do so. What does a successful strategy for responding to disruption look like? How fast have companies responded to digital disruptions? To understand more about how traditional incumbents respond to digital disruption, we conducted research spanning 100+ companies.
Disrupting Reality: Taking Virtual & Augmented Reality to the EnterpriseCognizant
The impact of virtual and augmented reality platforms and applications will be profound for enterprises across industries, allowing companies to transform processes and improve how employees work, communicate and collaborate. All within a real-time, "real-life" environment that reduces the need for physical premises and presence.
The Robot and I: How New Digital Technologies Are Making Smart People and Bus...Cognizant
Our latest study shows that when enterprise robots are applied to automating core business processes, they can extend the creative problem-solving capabilities and productivity of human beings and deliver superior business results.
When Digital Disruption Strikes: How Can Incumbents Respond?Capgemini
Digital innovation is shaking the core of every industry and incumbents are struggling to respond. The emergence of startups such as Uber – which disrupt entire sectors with their agile, innovative business models – is worrying traditional incumbents. Venture funding to startups is at historic highs. In just one startup hotspot, Silicon Valley, venture capital investment in the first three quarters of 2014 was around $17 billion, a figure that is only surpassed by the peak of the dotcom era in 2000. In recent research by GE, two-thirds of respondents agreed that businesses have to encourage creative behaviors and must disrupt their internal processes in order to do so. What does a successful strategy for responding to disruption look like? How fast have companies responded to digital disruptions? To understand more about how traditional incumbents respond to digital disruption, we conducted research spanning 100+ companies.
Disrupting Reality: Taking Virtual & Augmented Reality to the EnterpriseCognizant
The impact of virtual and augmented reality platforms and applications will be profound for enterprises across industries, allowing companies to transform processes and improve how employees work, communicate and collaborate. All within a real-time, "real-life" environment that reduces the need for physical premises and presence.
The future of insurance distribution: New models for a digital customerAccenture Insurance
This report argues that incumbents need to embrace digital disruption, form partnerships and adopt innovative technologies to improve customer engagement and create new opportunities for growth. It introduces five new distribution models that insurers should consider, as well as six ‘lenses’ through which they can be evaluated.
Your insurance clients know that far-sighted players are already confronting the future of insurance distribution. Use this report to help them assess their options.
Pleasure to present this introduction to IBM cognitive business to business leaders in Hamilton, Ontario. Covers: what cognitive computing is, how businesses are using it to their advantage, and steps to getting started. Includes links to videos "IBM Today" and "IBM Woodside Energy".
Adapted from Nancy Pearson, VP Cognitive Business Marketing "Intelligent enterprise: Cognitive Business" presentation from World of Watson Oct 2016.
In this paper, we offer our thoughts
on where we believe Cloud is going from a business perspective and why it’s relevant for your organization. Our aim is to inspire creative thinking and spark dialog. For more perspectives on Cloud and to share your thoughts, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/cloud.
Digital Process Acupuncture: How Small Changes Can Heal Business, and Spark B...Cognizant
Our latest research reveals that by applying digital remedies to precisely targeted process areas, organizations can relieve operational stress and generate improvements, yielding outsized results that ripple across the process value chain.
How Is Big Data, Artificial Intelligence And Technology Disrupting The Financ...Bernard Marr
Financial services were one of the first sectors to understand the promise of the Big Data revolution, and the wave of new technology which has come with it – including artificial intelligence (AI).
Don't come last in a mobile first --WhitepaperAbhishek Sood
By 2020 mobile devices will outsell PC’s by a factor of 10.
Regardless of what mobility strategy your company has in place, or how you intend to execute it, the more mobile users, devices, applications and content your organization adopts, the more challenges you will have to deal with.
Download this white paper to discover how to overcome the most pressing mobility challenges including device security and management, app development, remote support, mobile data and analytics, and more.
Preparing for the Future of Enterprise Mobility -- Insights Not to MissEnterprise Mobile
Interested in knowing what CIOs and other IT executives really think about the future of enterprise mobility? Join Enterprise Mobile as we delve into the results of a survey conducted to assess the business impact of enterprise mobility based on input from technology leaders. We’ll give you tips to prepare for the future of enterprise mobility, secrets to removing barriers to mobile strategy implementation and show you how other companies are embracing mobile security.
Watch the presentation here: http://bit.ly/180vPc5
Download our BYOD Policy Template here: http://bit.ly/1aEJqd8
2008 annual report for Absolute Software Corporation (TSX: ABT), the leader in computer theft recovery, data protection and secure IT asset management solutions. Absolute Software provides organizations and consumers with solutions in the areas of regulatory compliance, data protection and theft recovery. The Company's Computrace software is embedded in the firmware of computers by global leaders, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, General Dynamics Itronix, HP, Lenovo, Motion, Panasonic and Toshiba, and the Company has reselling partnerships with these OEMs and others, including Apple. For more information about Absolute Software and Computrace, visit www.absolute.com and http://www.absolute.com/blog.
Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data and Corporate PowerBernard Marr
In this article, we look at privacy, data, and corporate power with insights from Professor Ari Waldman, author of the book 'Industry Unbound' about the challenges of data privacy and corporate power of technology companies.
Free download at: http://vint.sogeti.com/downloads/
In the past few years, information technology has become increasingly personal and social and has made its presence very much felt. The emergence of wearable computing and other forms of empathic ‘things’ seems a logical further step: even more intimate, more human-oriented, and ubiquitous. There are more and more devices that count our steps, take our blood pressure or measure the indoor temperature, track our location or conversations.
We are witnessing a computer boom in terms of kinds, shapes and sizes – around, on or inside the body – that behave increasingly smart and link up more and more intuitively with man’s extremely personal and natural interface.
In the next decade Personal Computing will become really personal: inside, on and around the person with attention for the context of the individual. In this study we explore this development and present seven manifestations that can define the impact on business, such as the ‘quantified employee’ and the ‘body as the new password’
Dear Reader,
We are a leading system integrator and IT solutions provider in Mumbai for automating your enterprise needs with reliable solutions since 30 years.
We are happy to publish 69th issue of our monthly newsletter "TechTalk". The earlier issues, can be found in the Newsletter section at www.goapl.com
We have helped 100+ companies in last 30 years for various IT Solutions. We’ll be happy to know if you have any requirement for IT or IT Related services, you could share the same on https://goapl.com/connect-with-us/
The Amazing Ways Retail Giant Zalando Is Using Artificial IntelligenceBernard Marr
Zalando is not only a retail giant but a prominent technology company that uses its leadership in the European AI community to inform policies and ethics considerations as well as support other businesses with AI. They use machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide better customer experience, fashion recommendations, improve business operations, and more.
Fjord Trends 2020: Emerging Trends in Business | Accentureaccenture
Accenture's Fjord Trends 2020 provides insight on business trends impacting business, tech & design to help brands thrive in a changing world. Read more.
How Semantic Analytics Delivers Faster, Easier Business InsightsCognizant
Facing vast and increasing amounts of data, business users need analytic capabilities to handle the volume and derive meaningful insights based on expert knowledge. Semantic analytics applies metadata and metaknowledge principles to extract actionable answers to complex business questions and detect previously unknown patterns.
Exploring new mobile and cloud platforms without a governance .docxssuser454af01
Exploring new mobile and cloud platforms without a governance strategy can
have consequences.
At the beginning of my IT career, I witnessed a number of decisions and project management practices which, at the
time, just didn't seem to make sense. But I was young, and I often thought to myself that the people involved must have
some other reasoning, some justification for their actions that I was just not privy to.
In short, I remained quiet when I should have spoken up. What two decades of experience has taught me is that there
is rarely reasoning or justification behind actions that, at a gut-level, are clearly bad IT practices. We inherently
recognize when common sense has taken a back seat.
There is most definitely a dark side to BYOD. For the most part, I am an advocate for the consumerization of IT (using
non-standard apps and tools as a way to increase end user engagement and productivity) and support the bring-your-
own-device model.
However, as a seasoned manager and IT operations leader, I recognize the risks that come with the model if
organizations do not properly plan out their strategies, putting sufficient protections and governance practices in place
to manage the potential risks that could come from these unsupported devices and applications. End users often want
what’s NEW, but there are valid reasons for imposing and enforcing safeguards when giving mobile business users
access to your otherwise secure, scalable, and compliant systems.
Some people equate governance with bureaucracy and hierarchical systems, but those perceptions often come from a
lack of appreciation for the potential risks involved. Governance is about checks and balances -- supporting the tools
and systems your end users want, but in a way that is manageable and which follows defined protocols.
Examples of rogue IT practices
A (http://harmon.ie/blog/new-survey-reveals-mobile-rogue-it-costing-us-organizations-almost-2b)recent uSamp survey
(http://harmon.ie/blog/new-survey-reveals-mobile-rogue-it-costing-us-organizations-almost-2b) found that 41% of US mobile business
users have used unsanctioned services to share or sync files, despite 87% saying they are aware that their company
has a document sharing policy that prohibits this practice. And, 27% of mobile business users who “went rogue”,
reported immediate and direct repercussions, from lost business to expensive lawsuits and financial penalties that cost
$2 billion.
While most IT professionals understand these risks viscerally, some business users need to crash and burn before
they are willing to adjust their risky behaviors, which is not a message your employer wants to hear. Luckily, there is
another way: learning from the mistakes of others. This month, I am one of six mobile security and IT experts judging a
(http://www.rogueitstories.com/)"Rogue IT" contest (http://www.rogueitstories.com/). We’re collecting anonymous stories from the
community ...
The future of insurance distribution: New models for a digital customerAccenture Insurance
This report argues that incumbents need to embrace digital disruption, form partnerships and adopt innovative technologies to improve customer engagement and create new opportunities for growth. It introduces five new distribution models that insurers should consider, as well as six ‘lenses’ through which they can be evaluated.
Your insurance clients know that far-sighted players are already confronting the future of insurance distribution. Use this report to help them assess their options.
Pleasure to present this introduction to IBM cognitive business to business leaders in Hamilton, Ontario. Covers: what cognitive computing is, how businesses are using it to their advantage, and steps to getting started. Includes links to videos "IBM Today" and "IBM Woodside Energy".
Adapted from Nancy Pearson, VP Cognitive Business Marketing "Intelligent enterprise: Cognitive Business" presentation from World of Watson Oct 2016.
In this paper, we offer our thoughts
on where we believe Cloud is going from a business perspective and why it’s relevant for your organization. Our aim is to inspire creative thinking and spark dialog. For more perspectives on Cloud and to share your thoughts, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/cloud.
Digital Process Acupuncture: How Small Changes Can Heal Business, and Spark B...Cognizant
Our latest research reveals that by applying digital remedies to precisely targeted process areas, organizations can relieve operational stress and generate improvements, yielding outsized results that ripple across the process value chain.
How Is Big Data, Artificial Intelligence And Technology Disrupting The Financ...Bernard Marr
Financial services were one of the first sectors to understand the promise of the Big Data revolution, and the wave of new technology which has come with it – including artificial intelligence (AI).
Don't come last in a mobile first --WhitepaperAbhishek Sood
By 2020 mobile devices will outsell PC’s by a factor of 10.
Regardless of what mobility strategy your company has in place, or how you intend to execute it, the more mobile users, devices, applications and content your organization adopts, the more challenges you will have to deal with.
Download this white paper to discover how to overcome the most pressing mobility challenges including device security and management, app development, remote support, mobile data and analytics, and more.
Preparing for the Future of Enterprise Mobility -- Insights Not to MissEnterprise Mobile
Interested in knowing what CIOs and other IT executives really think about the future of enterprise mobility? Join Enterprise Mobile as we delve into the results of a survey conducted to assess the business impact of enterprise mobility based on input from technology leaders. We’ll give you tips to prepare for the future of enterprise mobility, secrets to removing barriers to mobile strategy implementation and show you how other companies are embracing mobile security.
Watch the presentation here: http://bit.ly/180vPc5
Download our BYOD Policy Template here: http://bit.ly/1aEJqd8
2008 annual report for Absolute Software Corporation (TSX: ABT), the leader in computer theft recovery, data protection and secure IT asset management solutions. Absolute Software provides organizations and consumers with solutions in the areas of regulatory compliance, data protection and theft recovery. The Company's Computrace software is embedded in the firmware of computers by global leaders, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, General Dynamics Itronix, HP, Lenovo, Motion, Panasonic and Toshiba, and the Company has reselling partnerships with these OEMs and others, including Apple. For more information about Absolute Software and Computrace, visit www.absolute.com and http://www.absolute.com/blog.
Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data and Corporate PowerBernard Marr
In this article, we look at privacy, data, and corporate power with insights from Professor Ari Waldman, author of the book 'Industry Unbound' about the challenges of data privacy and corporate power of technology companies.
Free download at: http://vint.sogeti.com/downloads/
In the past few years, information technology has become increasingly personal and social and has made its presence very much felt. The emergence of wearable computing and other forms of empathic ‘things’ seems a logical further step: even more intimate, more human-oriented, and ubiquitous. There are more and more devices that count our steps, take our blood pressure or measure the indoor temperature, track our location or conversations.
We are witnessing a computer boom in terms of kinds, shapes and sizes – around, on or inside the body – that behave increasingly smart and link up more and more intuitively with man’s extremely personal and natural interface.
In the next decade Personal Computing will become really personal: inside, on and around the person with attention for the context of the individual. In this study we explore this development and present seven manifestations that can define the impact on business, such as the ‘quantified employee’ and the ‘body as the new password’
Dear Reader,
We are a leading system integrator and IT solutions provider in Mumbai for automating your enterprise needs with reliable solutions since 30 years.
We are happy to publish 69th issue of our monthly newsletter "TechTalk". The earlier issues, can be found in the Newsletter section at www.goapl.com
We have helped 100+ companies in last 30 years for various IT Solutions. We’ll be happy to know if you have any requirement for IT or IT Related services, you could share the same on https://goapl.com/connect-with-us/
The Amazing Ways Retail Giant Zalando Is Using Artificial IntelligenceBernard Marr
Zalando is not only a retail giant but a prominent technology company that uses its leadership in the European AI community to inform policies and ethics considerations as well as support other businesses with AI. They use machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide better customer experience, fashion recommendations, improve business operations, and more.
Fjord Trends 2020: Emerging Trends in Business | Accentureaccenture
Accenture's Fjord Trends 2020 provides insight on business trends impacting business, tech & design to help brands thrive in a changing world. Read more.
How Semantic Analytics Delivers Faster, Easier Business InsightsCognizant
Facing vast and increasing amounts of data, business users need analytic capabilities to handle the volume and derive meaningful insights based on expert knowledge. Semantic analytics applies metadata and metaknowledge principles to extract actionable answers to complex business questions and detect previously unknown patterns.
Exploring new mobile and cloud platforms without a governance .docxssuser454af01
Exploring new mobile and cloud platforms without a governance strategy can
have consequences.
At the beginning of my IT career, I witnessed a number of decisions and project management practices which, at the
time, just didn't seem to make sense. But I was young, and I often thought to myself that the people involved must have
some other reasoning, some justification for their actions that I was just not privy to.
In short, I remained quiet when I should have spoken up. What two decades of experience has taught me is that there
is rarely reasoning or justification behind actions that, at a gut-level, are clearly bad IT practices. We inherently
recognize when common sense has taken a back seat.
There is most definitely a dark side to BYOD. For the most part, I am an advocate for the consumerization of IT (using
non-standard apps and tools as a way to increase end user engagement and productivity) and support the bring-your-
own-device model.
However, as a seasoned manager and IT operations leader, I recognize the risks that come with the model if
organizations do not properly plan out their strategies, putting sufficient protections and governance practices in place
to manage the potential risks that could come from these unsupported devices and applications. End users often want
what’s NEW, but there are valid reasons for imposing and enforcing safeguards when giving mobile business users
access to your otherwise secure, scalable, and compliant systems.
Some people equate governance with bureaucracy and hierarchical systems, but those perceptions often come from a
lack of appreciation for the potential risks involved. Governance is about checks and balances -- supporting the tools
and systems your end users want, but in a way that is manageable and which follows defined protocols.
Examples of rogue IT practices
A (http://harmon.ie/blog/new-survey-reveals-mobile-rogue-it-costing-us-organizations-almost-2b)recent uSamp survey
(http://harmon.ie/blog/new-survey-reveals-mobile-rogue-it-costing-us-organizations-almost-2b) found that 41% of US mobile business
users have used unsanctioned services to share or sync files, despite 87% saying they are aware that their company
has a document sharing policy that prohibits this practice. And, 27% of mobile business users who “went rogue”,
reported immediate and direct repercussions, from lost business to expensive lawsuits and financial penalties that cost
$2 billion.
While most IT professionals understand these risks viscerally, some business users need to crash and burn before
they are willing to adjust their risky behaviors, which is not a message your employer wants to hear. Luckily, there is
another way: learning from the mistakes of others. This month, I am one of six mobile security and IT experts judging a
(http://www.rogueitstories.com/)"Rogue IT" contest (http://www.rogueitstories.com/). We’re collecting anonymous stories from the
community ...
The Trouble With Enterprise SoftwareF A L L 2 0 0 7 .docxssusera34210
The Trouble With
Enterprise Software
F A L L 2 0 0 7 V O L . 4 9 N O . 1
R E P R I N T N U M B E R 4 9 1 0 1
Cynthia Rettig
Please note that gray areas reflect artwork that has been
intentionally removed. The substantive content of the ar-
ticle appears as originally published.
C O N T R A R I A
Te ch n o l o g y h a s a l -
w a y s b e e n a b o u t
hope. Since the begin-
ning of the industrial
revolution, businesses
have embraced new
technologies enthusi-
a s t i c a l l y, a n d t h e i r
optimism has been
re w a rd e d w i t h i m -
p r o v e d p r o c e s s e s ,
lower costs and re-
duced workforces. As the pace of technological
innovation has intensified over the past two de-
cades, businesses have come to expect that the next
new thing will inevitably bring them larger market
opportunities and bigger profits. Software, a tech-
nology so invisible and obscure to most of us that it
appears to work like magic, especially lends itself to
this kind of open-ended hope.
Software promises evolutions, revolutions and
even transformations in how companies do busi-
ness. The triumphant vision many buy into is that
enterprise software in large organizations is fully
integrated and intelligently controls infinitely com-
plex business processes while remaining flexible
enough to adapt to changing business needs. This
vision of software lies at the core of what Thomas
Friedman in “The World Is Flat” calls “the Wal-
Mart Symphony in multiple movements — with
no finale. It just plays over and over 24/7/365.”1
Whole systems march in lock step, providing syn-
chronized, fully coordinated supply chains,
production lines and services, just like a world-
class orchestra. From online web orders through
fulfillment, delivery, billing and customer service
— the entire enterprise, organized end to end —
that has been the promise. The age of smart
machines would seem to be upon us.
Or is it? While a few companies like Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. have achieved something close to that
ideal, the way most large organizations actually
process information belies that glorious vision and
reveals a looking-glass world, where everything is
in fact the opposite of what one might expect.
Back-office systems — including both software ap-
plications and the data they process — are a
variegated patchwork of systems, containing 50 or
more databases and hundreds of separate software
programs installed over decades and intercon-
nected by idiosyncratic, Byzantine and poorly
documented customized processes. To manage this
growing complexity, IT departments have grown
substantially: As a percentage of total investment,
IT rose from 2.6% to 3.5% between 1970 and 1980.2
By 1990 IT consumed 9%, and by 1999 a whopping
22% of total investment went to IT. Growth in IT
spending has fallen off, but it is nonetheless sur-
prising to hear that today’s IT departments spe ...
The Future of Enterprise Software - How Software Companies can Achieve High P...Philipp Stauffer
The enterprise software industry, after sev- eral years of declining growth, stands at the verge of what promises to be a tumul- tuous time. Just as the Internet was responsible for the last explosion of growth in the industry in the past decade, it is now laying the groundwork for dramatic change that will sweep across the software sector in the coming years. Indeed, we already are seeing some of the first waves of change making their mark in the form of growing acceptance of open standards and the development of open source and soft- ware-as-a-service, which at the moment are competing for attention with the industry’s move towards consolidation.
To shed light on the nature and extent of these changes and how they will affect the industry, Accenture recently conducted comprehensive research involving software company executives, venture capitalists, CIOs and other technology leaders in major corporations, and Accenture’s own experts. We believe our findings and analyses — which are detailed in this paper — will provide software company executives with valuable insights that they can use as they shape their strategies for achieving high performance and market leadership in the dynamic and uncertain years to come.
Trends 2020 - Demystifying Bleeding Edge from Leading Edge TechnologyFulcrum Digital
Want to gain mileage with technologies? Discover the ones that directly add business value through this FREE Whitepaper.
To download go to bit.ly/2020-tech-trends-whitepaper
Bringing AI into the Enterprise: A Machine Learning Primermercatoradvisory
New research from Mercator Advisory Group shows how machine learning, a.k.a. AI, has changed consumer behavior and expectations and will evolve to alter all aspects of bank operations. AI’s impact on banking will be broader and faster than the impact of the internet.
White paper by Bessemer Venture Partners outlining the growing opportunity to build large industry software businesses. The white paper discusses the trends driving growth in industry software, playbooks for building successful industry software businesses, markets ripe for innovation, and historic M&A outcomes.
Only few organizations wise up to new digital competitors, as they usually come from outside their own sector and are not taken seriously at first. Their allegedly inferior propositions confuse prominent players, who should in fact be the very first to be fully aware of potentially disruptive innovation.
To swing into action rapidly, existing organizations would be well advised to properly analyze anything resembling digital competition. Evidently, there are clear patterns behind the startup success marking a new techno-economic reality. Ecosystems, APIs, and platforms characterize this New Normal where customers have more freedom of choice and better service at lower costs.
These successful disruptors are called two-sided market players, also known as multi-sided platform players. Companies like Uber and Airbnb are getting all the media attention, however there are over 9000 players (and counting) active in almost every industry.
The new VINT report explores the new digital competition and presents:
A analysis of the success factors of disruption
10 design principles of the new digital competition like Unbundle your organization processes, APIs first. Access over ownership and Building trust with social systems
The need for every business to develop a API-strategy
An appeal to the CIO and the IT department to use a leading digital approach and map out an offensive technological route.
Are you exploring the best way for your business to save expenses, enhance margin, or reinvest in the coming years? Check out the top technological advancements in business that are beneficial for business expansion and that result in a technology roadmap that has an impact on a number of the organization's strategic goals.
For more information, see: https://www.albiorixtech.com/blog/technology-trends-in-business/
#technology #technologytrends #webappdevelopment #mobileappdevelopment #softwaredevelopment
Mantacore Whitepaper Part1 Standard System EnMantacore
In this white paper you’ll get information on what you
should think about if you are in two minds whether to continue developing your own system or to switch to one of the off-the-shelf software products currently available on the market.
Why should you choose a software product rather than build your own? How can you still be unique, in relation to the rest of the market?
What are the advantages of an off the-shelf system?
Mantacore Whitepaper Part1 Standard System EnMantacore
In this white paper you’ll get information on what you should think about if you are in two minds whether to continue developing your own system or to switch to one of the
off-the-shelf software products currently available on the market.
Why should you choose a software product rather than build your own?
How can you still be unique, in relation to
the rest of the market?
What are the advantages of an off the-shelf system?
This whitepaper will help you to answer key questions such as: How will your organization protect itself from advanced cyber-attacks? What are you doing to detect suspicious behavior within the organization and beyond? What processes and tools will you implement to quickly respond to threats and quickly recover from the effects of an attack?
1. Embedding success in your business www.avnet-embedded.eu
Introduction
It is surely not too much to hope that the attitude
of businesses to imminent and game-changing
technology upheaval is one of thoroughness,
timeliness and responsibility.
This is all the more critical when an entire value chain
is completely dependent upon the technology in question
– vendors, distributors, integrators, OEMs, resellers,
end-user organisations, all the way down to the individual
withdrawing cash from an ATM in the street.
It is all the more critical when failure to migrate to a new
technology means spiralling vulnerabilities and gaping
holes in security that will no longer be fixed.
It is all the more critical when the technology in question
will no longer comply with industry regulations that govern
the safe electronic movement of billions of dollars every
day, effectively rendering every credit and debit card
transaction hazardous.
In short, when we’re talking about something as significant
as “end of life” – the withdrawal of support that heralds
the definitive demise of a particular software, operating
system or other technology - businesses have a duty to
move to migrate to an alternative, and vendors have a duty
to provide that alternative.
But with the imminent demise of XP, this model has,
arguably, dissolved. This piece examines the realities,
risks, options and alternatives for a world and an economy
that are soon to be XP-free (at least in the current sense) –
and explores why many businesses and commentators are
apparently in denial over this successful operating system’s
impending swansong.
Nick Donaldson, Director, Avnet Embedded nick.donaldson@avnet-embedded.eu
The nature and impact of XP’s demise
The exit of Microsoft XP does not follow the “rules”. It is not
a necessary transition from an obsolete operating system
to a better one, as with the move, say, from NT to 2000.
Neither is it an improvement from one form of an operating
system to an enhanced variant.
In fact, the death of Microsoft XP represents a complete
disconnect from established practice - and this is perhaps
why many businesses (fed, it has to be said, by unhelpful
misinformation from vendors and their partners) are either
failing or refusing to grasp the impact thereof.
As one consultancy firm put it in London’s Daily Telegraph,
“In these tough economic times, it is not surprising that
business leaders do not want to invest a substantial
amount of money in something that essentially isn’t
broken, as is the case with Windows XP today.” Donning
the blinkers, focusing on the accounts and pretending the
problem will go away thus appears to be the preferred
action plan of many of our so-called “business leaders’”.
If more proof were needed, here it is. A recent industry
survey, cited in the The Register, shows that 40 per cent
of respondents said their companies had “yet to even start
migrating off XP”, and 20 per cent of respondents were not
planning to do so at all.
So, in an attempt to rouse these businesses from the
comfort zone, let’s take just one (terrifying) example to
clarify what an appalling false economy their current
approach could prove to be – that of payment devices.
“This piece examines the realities, risks, options and alternatives
for a world and an economy that are soon to be XP free”
“Panic? What Panic?”
Is the industry in denial over the death of XP?
2. Huge numbers of these devices and their applications
currently run on XP - POS tills, chip and PIN terminals,
parking payment machines, motorway toll barriers,
ATMs – the list is unrelenting. From April 2014, XP
support for all these devices will cease. The resulting lack
of updates and patches will mean that those millions of
devices are no longer compliant with PCI (Payment Card
Industry) regulations.
This puts at risk everybody who is in any way involved with
the creation and use of payment devices. It affects the
businesses that supply the hardware and software on which
the devices are built. It affects the businesses that build
the devices. It affects the businesses that distribute them.
It affects the businesses that use them, and, of course, it
affects the individual end-users whose hard-earned cash
is suddenly a target for hackers looking for outmoded
security and easy pickings.
Security experts have already predicted a rash of these
attacks come April; as Gregg Keizer of Computerworld
recently reported, “Hackers could find themselves in the
catbird seat on April 8, 2014... those who have zero-day
exploits for XP will bank them until that day and then sell
them to crooks or loose them themselves...”
PCI enforcers, on the other hand, can fine businesses up to
£400,000 for being non-compliant, and sellers (merchants)
using the devices run the risk of losing their merchant
account and being placed on Visa/MasterCard Terminated
Merchant File (TMF) - making them unable to take credit or
debit payments for several years, if ever.
Any machine or device running the operating system, from
your home PC to a corporate or banking network, will
rapidly become increasingly vulnerable once support is
withdrawn – but, of course, payment devices, given their
lucrative function, will be the most urgently deficient.
So where now?
Confronted with such a potentially apocalyptic scenario,
let’s suppose for a moment that the businesses in the value
chain that produces and distributes payment devices asked
themselves “So what are the alternatives”? And this is
where wholesale confusion reigns.
Many seem to think that help will still be readily available
for PCI compliance after withdrawal. And indeed, according
to law firm Pinsent Masons, quoted in The Register,
businesses that continue to use Windows XP after 8
April 2014 will be able to engage with Microsoft or a
licensed sourcing provider if they want to manage new or
existing vulnerabilities and continue to comply with PCI
requirements. But the implication is clear – these services
do not come for free.
Some see moving to Windows 7 or 8 as an option. Indeed, it
is, but as I said earlier, the withdrawal of XP is no ordinary
migration exercise, and nowhere is this clearer than in the
lack of seamlessness between XP and Windows 7 and 8.
Firstly, 7 and 8 do not support all of the devices that XP
supports. Secondly, and rather more seriously, 7 and 8
will not necessarily be PCI-compliant on those particular
devices even if they do support them. False hope aplenty.
Making the switch over to a newer Windows operating
system will also have other implications for a company’s
infrastructure, and there could be complications in getting
all the devices across a business to run on the same
platform, particularly in larger businesses where multiple
servers and point of sale devices are deployed. Whichever
way you slice it, budget looms large in the process.
“Hackers could find themselves in the catbird seat on
April 8, 2014... those who have zero-day exploits for XP
will bank them until that day and then sell them to crooks
or loose them themselves...”
3. Embedded misunderstanding
Most damaging of all, however, is the lack of understanding
around the options for using embedded software instead
of standard XP. Many businesses in this space still think,
for example, that embedded software requires a hardware
refresh. Not so. Embedded offerings also include XP-based
operating systems, such as POSReady 2009 and WES 2009,
which can be delivered via a software services model, with
no hardware implications.
Embedded licensing also allows for a longer lifespan of
devices, with some embedded products being available or
supported for up to 15 years (thus avoiding exactly the kind
of disruptive support withdrawal situation that businesses
are currently having to deal with!)
The benefits of embedded aren’t just limited to prolonging
support life, however; there is also much greater licence
discounting, higher levels of efficiency, locked-down
functionality and full customisation support, enabling easy
integration into a business environment. And there is no
shortage of choice for XP users – the embedded variants of
XP are abundant.
Embedded is not, by any means, the only choice, and no
choice can ever be perfect in every respect, but there
is far more to recommend embedded technology as a
replacement for the outgoing XP than the industry
currently realises.
Facing up to XP’s passing
So how is it that the virtues of embedded just have not
been properly grasped? Here, I hold my hands up. This
industry (and this company) could have done a much
better job of demystifying the embedded software value
proposition to the payment device value chain. The level of
misunderstanding in the marketplace proves it. So let’s not
blame it all on the customer.
But at the same time, I question the competence
of business “leaders” who would sleepwalk their
organisations (and those who interact with their products)
into huge financial risk, rather than address a technical
issue that requires some out-of-the-box thinking.
Yes, the demise of XP is disruptive. Yes, XP has been
effectively killed off by Microsoft in an act of unnecessary
and premature euthanasia. Yes, this means that it doesn’t
fit the mould of technology change that businesses are
used to coping with. And yes, I can understand why, a year
ago, businesses may not have wanted to deal with
it immediately.
But in the final analysis, we now have only six months
to go before a lot of businesses start haemorrhaging
their customers’ money to hackers, and their own to the
authorities that will surely prosecute them. Yet still the
minor leap to an XP-like alternative – a POSReady 2009, or
a WES 2009, as compared to the relatively major upheaval
required in deploying Windows 7 or 8 – seems to be a
bridge too far for many of the businesses handling your and
my money on a daily basis.
Technology denial? I call it business suicide.
“ Yes, the demise of XP is disruptive. Yes, XP has
been effectively killed off by Microsoft in an act
of unnecessary and premature euthanasia”
For more information
Please visit our website www.avnet-embedded.eu, email uk@avnet-embedded.eu or call +44 (0)1628 518 900