For safe online shopping!

Since this is the last blog of this semester, I thought why not write about a topic that is so in during the holiday season.  Next week, it’s all about shopping for the best deals that many look forward to since the beginning of the year.  Many of you will plan to form long lines early in the morning in front of your favorite stores to get the best deals of the season. Some even arrange tents to sit in and avoid the cold or tiresomeness. Some prefer shopping from their home comforts, shopping online. While doing this, they should be well aware of the cyber risks that come with it. 

With so many retailers posting huge hoardings and advertisements about the savings that consumer can have during the “Black Friday”, not many pay attention to the internet attacks that are possible while shopping online. According to the statistic analysis by TRUSTe, an Internet privacy services provider, 25% of the purchases are usually done online not only from their computers but through Mobile web too. Let me consolidate below some measures that need to be taken by deal hunters as put up by Paypal, Trend Micro, and Amazon:

1.       Use a more secure and tough to break password for the shopping websites

2.       Investing on the best antimalware and antivirus protection

3.       Being aware of the “looks so good deals” – like an ipad worth $100. Come on, its just common sense   that is needed to distinguish such deals

4.       Avoiding less heard about sites for better deals

5.       Contacting your credit or debit card banks to find out if they have any form of additional authentication to avoid any frauds

6.       Avoiding shopping using public Wi-Fi or a PC in public places

Hopefully, cyber criminals get a day off, while consumers take care of all the above methods. Regardless of these risks, am sure all shoppers will have to do some homework to hunt around for best deals.

Outsourcing for Mid-Size companies

Though there is a major difference in terms of services between Outsourcing and Offshoring, Indian mid-size companies seem to be very competent with the larger companies like Wipro, Infosys and TCS. Offshoring is basically chosen to cut certain costs in business by making use of affordable services from across the world, while Outsourcing is a way to utilize the staff of a company to perform various core functions to cover up any lack of resources. India has grown as one of the hubs for Offshoring and Outsourcing markets because of its low labor costs and competent services offered. One of the articles in CIO this week mentions that, for medium size Indian outsources to be on par with the larger companies like Wipro, INFY and TCS, they have to focus on specific industry, services or specific geography as their potential markets. 

The major advantage for the mid-size customers to work with the medium-size outsources of India would be the direct contact with its high level management and the specific focus and attention they receive. In my point of view, to gain contracts, the medium-size companies should first focus on the services they are ready to provide and should equip themselves with the facilities that none of the other companies on par with them have. One close example in the U.S. market for such a scenario would be the Wimax Forum Designated Certification Labs (WFDCL). Even though all of its 7 labs are equally competent all over the world, AT4 Wireless, Inc.  gains a slight edge over the others by acquiring the latest testing equipment and thus gaining additional sub-contracts (Outsources projects) from the other labs apart from major contracts from larger companies like, Sprint, Clearwire, etc.

Apart from getting high-end projects, India has proven itself to be the single largest location to receive projects related to IT application development and maintenance (ADM) and remote infrastructure management (RIM) services. Also, the stats show that India accounts for 50 percent of the global offshore IT services industry. In such a scenario, the grave threat that the mid-size Outsourcers face from the larger companies is a lack of contact base with global customers, may be mainly because of the poor marketing strategies they use or not being aware of the way they are introduced to the world by media. If they can get hold of these factors, am sure the day for them to announce a bigger share in the market is not far away.

Sprint vs ZTE & Huawei

Being two of the leading telecommunications equipment manufacturers now does not give enough reason to win a contract for U.S. based carriers. This is the latest news that has come up in the wake of security concerns for the U.S. The mobile operator in question who had announced for Request For Proposals to improve their infrastructure was Sprint Nextel. Even though being the lowest bids among the others that Sprint had received, ZTE and Huawei are supposedly been denied approvals of a possible win in the competition at the last minute. The reason being that ZTE and Huawei are Chinese based companies that are closely tied to its government and military forces. 

The new provision given to the U.S. military agencies by the U.S. lawmakers states that the military agencies can at will exclude subcontractors if they sense any threat to their nation’s security. The main concerns that the U.S. Department of Defense and Federal Communications Commission has now with these companies is that a possibility of the Chinese military forces utilizing the equipment of these companies to interfere in their peaceful operations with the U.S. based Sprint and disrupt, tamper, intercept or even purposely misroute the U.S Telecom systems as put up in a letter written by U.S. lawmakers to the FCC. Not only this, but there are concerns over china’s trade and currency policies with the U.S. that had not been elaborated enough. 

Now the big question is – Even after Huawei’s denial of current ties with the Chinese military system and also ZTE’s self defense statements, will Sprint let them in with the contract or will Samsung and Alcatel-Lucent be the ones to take this billion dollar deal? Is the discussion of this issue in the G20 summit going to make any difference with Obama’s presence in Seoul along with other business leaders?

Russia - Linux over Windows!

What your Business can learn from Russia – looking at this sentence the first thing that cropped up to my mind was – Is Russia the world leader in Business strategies now? But later reading at the article it made me feel that leaders are made with thought provoking moves. 

This is all about Russia’s move to build its own national software system based on Linux and not on Windows. First point that I would agree is “Linux is free”. Flexibility, security, reliability are also the major points that every Business would like to keep stable every minute of their existence. The bold move of setting aside 150 million rubles for building the software system on Linux that is open to all and to which updates are created almost every day with new applications and sidelining Windows across the entire nation is really something to be looked at.

Linux gives the flexibility for an individual to change the source code and add as many features as you want but of course this is dependent on the level of programming one has. I do not doubt this would be an issue as we see how many are into hard core programming nowadays. This move would be very beneficial for companies that still use older hardware on their computer as Linux would run on even the NT series desktops.

According to a recent study, Linux is highly preferred than Windows nowadays mainly because of the creative involvement of different companies for its development and help and support provided by these companies. If this is followed by every other nation now, I think there won’t be a day far away when Windows will be planning to create open source software and attract its once loyal customers back.

Reverse Outsourcing

"Reverse Outsourcing" is the new buzz word in today's IT industry in India. IT projects being outsourced to India use to be the norm but now-a-days Indian IT companies are outsourcing some of their bigger projects to the US. Indian IT giants such as Wipro and Infosys, whose majority of clients are US based, are expanding to the US for the following reasons:

1. Reduce overall infrastructure and overhead costs:
Since the majority of the clients of these companies are US based, they spend a lot on traveling to interact with the clients and also it would cost them dearly from time delays in getting feedback on the on-going projects.

2. Expanding their market:
Firms can get contracts with US healthcare clients, government agencies etc that don't allow their data to go beyond the US border. Also creating American jobs is pretty useful for Indian IT companies since majority of their clients are within the US, it will also lead to a lot of political benefits.

The "Reverse Outsourcing" model looks to play a major role in the expansion of the Indian IT industry in the US.

Clash of the Titans

http://www.cio.com/article/621267/Microsoft_Sues_Motorola_Over_Android?page=1&taxonomyId=3000

“Look at the charts, ANDROID’s momentum is killer”. This phrase from the above mentioned article describes ANDROID’s position in the smart phone market today perfectly. The article talks about the patent infringement complaints filed against Motorola by Microsoft in the International Trade Commission and the Federal court. It also mentions a list of other lawsuits to be filed against ANDROID by the other technology big-wigs.

Android is sure making waves with its increasing number of customer, so why wouldn’t its competitors find ways to slow it down. The patent in issue is the Microsoft Exchange Active Sync that is being used by the Android OS. Though Google has taken the patent for it, Microsoft now claims that even the handset manufacturers should be buying a patent. Ok! good, so what happened to this claim when ANDROID was being introduced with Motorola? All of a sudden they want to file complaints? I would say it leads us to the stance of Microsoft Windows 7 against ANDROID. May be they are following the good old school thought – make hay while the sun shines.

Not one, but there is actually a list of patents that they plan to file. So what’s in for Microsoft if they do this? One thing is for sure, they expect Motorola to shell loads of money for the patent. This would definitely increase the pay offs from the customers in order to get their investment back and may be reach Microsoft’s goal of declining ANDROID users and hopefully increase Windows OS phone followers. But looking at the split that Motorola is about to go through, none of the trade experts think that it will be investing billions of dollars for the patent. 

Microsoft is not the only company rooting against ANDROID. The list might even increase over the coming months, like Apple’s lawsuit against HTC and Oracle suing GOOGLE over Java in ANDROID. Microsoft sure seems to be happy with the un-declared support that APPLE and ORACLE is offering to it against ANDROID. How will ANDROID sustain this pressure is definitely to watch out for. Motorola has already declared itself to have a leading intellectual property record and is very confident to come out of this hopefully brief law fights. What APPLE, ORACLE or even MICROSOFT does not know now is if ANDROID and MOTOROLA come against all the odds in a short time, it will definitely climb up the ladder and can even be on top of SYMBIAN (leading OS from NOKIA) one day.

All Hail ANDROID! [And why not!! I own one of these masterpieces!!!]

Juniper's new innovation!

http://www.cio.com/article/618674 Juniper_Networks_Cooking_Up_New_Ideas_in_Incubation_Lab?source=rss_news

The article I chose from CIO this week has introduced us to what difference Juniper Networks can bring to the world of Telecommunications in the near future. This is one sector which has shown rapid innovative growth and vast profits in short time. I have always been a fan of Juniper Networks ever since I knew about them from my friends who are working on both Cisco and Juniper platforms and then from my own research. I never got a chance to work with these technologies though and hence cannot give a verdict on Juniper and Cisco’s Graphical User Interface and Command Line Interface battle that will ever go on. May be some practical experience will strengthen my beliefs in the JUNOS world.

Coming to the article, the JUNOS INNOVATION FUND (JIF) is probably the best way to back and encourage small and growing companies working with JUNOS platform. I expected virtualization and green IT to be a slow-mo spread. But JIF is sure to give the required pace for it and a run for other companies investments. Introduction of the new internal incubation labs in Juniper doesn’t come as a big surprise to me, taking into account their thirst for innovation and growth. The magnanimity and user friendliness of their projects and products has always been a customer’s delight, at least as far as I know.

The strategy involved in running the incubation lab should be well acknowledged. One of the reasons for this is the short time period involved on each incubation even though it is a high-risk or disruptive project. The other can be the verdict pronounced for each of them – which are fail, pass for internal units or pass for external units rather than keeping it on hold and getting a solution for it 5 or 10 years later. I would say this has brought a new dimension for differences between a research lab and the now getting famous incubation lab.

Though the investment for the JIF and the lab are large scale, it can be well predicted that the pay-offs for such projects will always be “owner’s pride neighbor’s envy”. I think the Telecom companies should take this as an example and innovate ways to help each other out and yet stand above in the competition.

Apple Ipad and Galaxy Tab

http://www.cio.com/article/615869/Galaxy_Tab_Vs._IPad_it_s_Oranges_and_Apples?page=1&taxonomyId=3050

The above article basically talks about the differences between the design and marketing strategies of the two tech giant’s innovations - Apple Ipad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. On the first note, it talks about the target audience both the companies aim at in their promos. Apple shows that its subjects in the ad are sitting at home or office and using the Ipad sophisticatedly, and Samsung’s user roaming around with the Tab. Both the products being aimed at technical market, I barely feel that this point in the ad would influence tech savvy people. All that a technology buyer looks for is what features it offers and its usability. 

I quite agree with the points regarding the size, weight and flexibility of both the products. Irrespective of the differences, I would say that Tab is being released into the market only after seeing the Ipad, the first tablet computing device up-close. So obviously the Ipad’s competitors would want to match up the performance and popularity of the product that has already created a stir in the market. Today, technology is all about competition and being a step ahead of another company. If I were the Tab developer, the only thought that would have come to my mind would be adding one perfect reason for people to buy the Tab and “beat the ipad”.

The core competencies of Apple have always been innovation, development and user-benefitting products. Since the very beginning of their entry into the market, they have shown their competitors what leaps technology can take in terms of features, usability and popularity. It’s very tough to maintain this since so long, yet they have been delivering the best – what they are known for. These values have already gained them really faithful consumers who am sure would go out of the way to pay more for their services. 

Samsung is planning to release Tab with a 2 year contract which the Ipad does not have. Am sure  all you Ipad users are very thankful to Apple for this wise decision. Also, this can be considered as one of the most important factors in choosing a winner in the ‘tablet wars’ compared to just an advertisement showing where and how it is being used.

The worm - "Here you Have"

http://www.cio.com/article/612363/Cisco_Here_You_have_Worm_Caused_Brief_Havoc?source=rss_news

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=iqziad#p/u/0/IkMifFGqt78

I present to you my second post for the semester. This recent article from CIO caught my attention as spamming is one of the topics that have been going on since the introduction of computers so to say. The first link talks about the recent “Here you have” worm that caused a great deal even for a few minutes by debilitating email networks of corporate giants such as NASA, Google, Wells Fargo, Disney to name a few. And the second link is a video putting forth the feelings of the hacker. We all are aware of the technological advancement that these IT companies have shown in the recent past, and yet are soft targets for hackers. This makes us think where the stance of technology and its security in today’s market is. For example, shelling out billions and billions of dollars to create a space shuttle, but compromising on its security and providing a key to hackers can be the worst ever nightmare of a scientist. 

The spammers have always been in the spotlight for creating new viruses and attack systems, dodging big companies and common people. According to the above article, the spam was not created for mere pleasure of the hacker but his feelings on a sensitive issue. The person who took “credit” for this spam seemed to be from Iraq and did this for his unacceptability of the US war in Iraq. But thanks to him for he declared that he did not want to smash any of the systems he had got control on. 

The security experts had mentioned that this virus was “not particularly sophisticated”.  So what are we expecting, wait for a virus that can be put under the category of “technologically sophisticated” and recreate history once again. Experience with Anna Kournikova and other such worms that were widespread during the early 2000s had kept anti-virus programmers on their toes to prevent their occurrences once again. But looks like even after a decade, the companies take a step behind to invest more in IT security. Why is that so? 

One could easily blame the anti-virus creators and IT security personnel, but these attacks can be looked at as new diseases cropping up even against the best medicines. In my opinion, may be one of the solutions can be to create anti viruses by getting into the shoes of a spammer or hiring the best spammers in the world and paying them huge amounts to prevent the attacks from their so called brothers. Spending an extra dollar for IT security is the best deal to prevent huge losses, but finding a brain that is worthy of that extra dollar is also a big hunt.

Firefox vs Internet Explorer

http://www.cio.com/article/609219/Microsoft_Uses_Bing_Home_Page_to_Push_IE8?source=rss_news

The above article is about Microsoft pushing Internet Explorer (IE) 8 via Bing search engine. Considering the number of Windows users around the world, you would think there won't be a necessity to advertise their browser, especially when it comes integrated with it's Operating System. Apparently not, Internet Explorer is loosing a lot of ground to Firefox, because of it's superior features and functionality.

Microsoft over the years has become a monopoly in the browser market, which is slowly
changing over the past few years. The number of security threats over an extended period of time, is pushing the users towards more secure browsers like Firefox. As a result, Firefox has become the second most popular browser around the world and pressing hard to creep past IE in the near future. The popularity of Firefox in Europe is forcing Windows to give an option of choosing their desired browser over IE. Considering the number of internet users in Europe, once Firefox takes over the market, IE could very well be in trouble.

The Significant part of Firefox's appeal is it's add-ons and extensions in the library. There are numerous extensions for the users, ranging from business integration to social networking. Once users get hooked on to these add-ons it's hard to make them switch. The second most important advantage of Firefox over IE is it's openness, Firefox being an open-source software enables users to work on improving the features continuously and hence becoming more consumer driven. On the other hand, IE lacks the benefit of having thousands of eyes working on improving it, being a closed software. Last but not the least is the security, thanks to a better core design, Firefox is inherently more secure than IE. Firefox proactively updates the versions as and when security issues arise, which is not the case with Microsoft.

Consumers realizing the superiority of Firefox, are increasingly switching from IE to Firefox, which is pressurizing  Microsoft to make a lot of changes in the newer versions of IE along with the improving security. According to me, unless Microsoft makes the browser open-source (which Microsoft will never do with their products), it will continuously keep loosing the market to Firefox. Microsoft has to realize that once they loose customers, it is very hard to get them back, no matter how secure the newer versions of the product may be and how well it is advertised.