Formtek Blog

Storage: Architecting an Hadoop Storage Platform for Unstructured Data

dweisinger — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:06 +0000

The convergence of massive amounts of cheap storage, fast processors, and software algorithms like MapReduce are fueling the growth of Big Data technoogy. MapReduce is a computing framework that can distribute the processing of a problem described by very large datasets across many computers. Hadoop is an implementation of the MapReduce Algorithm that combines components [...]

Security: The State of CyberCrime and Data Breaches

dweisinger — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:00:07 +0000

Verizon has published for the fourth year in a row a comprehensive report on the state of data breaches. The report surveys the number and types of data breach incidents that occur and also provides useful information to both small and large organizations for how to better protect themselves from unauthorized entries and data [...]

Cloud Security: Lax Security Controls Make Many Organizations Vulnerable to Breaches

dweisinger — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:00:46 +0000

What you don’t know, or don’t investigate deeply enough, can hurt you. Especially when it comes to security controls for cloud computing. Many companies are entrusting highly sensitive and confidential data to the cloud, but they haven’t dug deeply enough into the security details of their cloud environment.

Chris Potter, PwC information security partner, said that [...]

Intellectual Property: Large Companies Increasingly Rely on Huge Troves of Patents and IP to Block Competition

dweisinger — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:00:30 +0000

In recent weeks, there have been numerous prominent news stories focused on Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Companies have been exchanging billions of dollars to obtain patents and there have been court room battles over licensing and intellectual property ownership.

Intellectual property is important to the US economy. A recent report from the white house contends that [...]

Federal Cloud Computing: Cloud Readiness Varies Widely Across Agencies

dweisinger — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:58 +0000

Overall, across all of federal government, cloud acceptance and adoption is expected to quite fast. A report by CDW found that as of the summer of 2011 already 41 percent of federal government agencies had a written plan in place for adopting and using cloud computing.

According to the CDW report, by 2013, 21 percent of [...]

CIOs: Can the Role of CIO Survive? Not as it’s currently defined.

dweisinger — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:00:56 +0000

CIOs get no respect. Gartner found in a survey of CEOs that only 4 percent of them consider their CIO as a partner in managing their strategy and innovation.

CIOs want to change that perspective. And increasingly the CIO is being looked towards as a source of innovation and business leadership. Donald Light, senior Insurance and [...]

Security/Cybercrime: Are Losses Out of Control — or Over-exagerated?

dweisinger — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:00:28 +0000

“Cybercrime is bigger than the global black market in marijuana cocaine and heroin combined ($288 billion) and approaching the value of all global drug trafficking ($411 billion)” reports Norton (a Symantec company) on a 2011 summary infographic about cybercrime.

Weysan Dun, head of Omaha’s FBI field office, said that because of cybercrime, businesses are losing an [...]

Machine Intelligence: Will Machines Soon Be Able to Ace the Turing Test?

dweisinger — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:00:30 +0000

In a 1950 paper, Alan Turing proposed the question ‘Can machines think?’. That question inspired scientists and engineers working in the field of ‘artificial intelligence’. Turing proposed that a machine could be considered as able to ‘think’ if it could interact and communicate with humans, like a human, on a free range of topics. Turing [...]

Mobile Security: Smartphones still ‘Enterprise Unready’

dweisinger — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:00:40 +0000

Enterprise networks are increasingly being accessed by mobile devices and that’s making a lot of IT professionals uncomfortable. A recent report found that only 9 percent of organizations are aware of which mobile devices are accessing their networks. And in another survey, two-thirds of organizations said that they had no way of identifying mobile device [...]

Business Continuity: Many Organizations Remain Unprepared

dweisinger — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:00:20 +0000

Business continuity is the activity organizations undertake to ensure that all critical business functions remain available to customers and suppliers despite any potentially disruptive events. The goal is to maintain service, consistence and recoverability under any conditioons. Business continuity activities are activities performed before a disaster actually occurs. Business continuity tasks include activities like project management, [...]