Top ten upgrades to make your small business run faster MAy/JUNE 2013 Information Age May/June 2013 | 1

Give yourself an unfair advantage Top skills to stand out from the crowd

How to mitigate online Getting ready for Win over users to reputation nightmares a zettabyte world the security mission Information Age May/June 2013 | 2

The ICT industry’s Ultimate Awards Night Come and celebrate Australia’s finest

Join us at the iAwards to recognise those who Thursday, 8 August, 2013 have made exemplary contributions to the ICT Palladium at Crown, 8 Whiteman Street, Melbourne industry and applaud the endeavours of the companies and individuals who are leading the host partners Awards Presentations 4.30 – 6.00pm way with innovative technology. The iAwards has a most comprehensive array of Innovation Showcase 6.00 – 7.00pm awards which recognise achievements made in Gala Dinner 7.00 – 11.30pm ICT across all facets of the economy. Australia’s leading technology innovators will be discovered For ticket purchases or enquiries: at the 2013 iAwards.

Make sure you are a part of this prestigious iawards.com.au occasion and join Australia’s exceptional ICT or call 1300 665 145 Innovators and most influential figures at this National Gala Event. REGISTER HERE major partner driving productivity through innovation CONTENTS Information Age May/June 2013 Going places: the skills special issue

Big data means big opportunities for 24 the right people Employers are looking for a delicate – often elusive – mix of expertise for big data. 28 The rise of the UX expert Developers with user interface and user experience skills are increasingly in demand. 31 What does a cloud career really NAVIGATING THE NEXT mean? An industry in transition is creating confusion FRONTIER IN ICT over job roles. BEHIND THE 33 Spotlight hot skills on your resume NEW ACS LOOK Soft skills are key to career advancement, but they’re difficult to quantify. Here’s how to revamp your resume to make your talents shine.

SHOULD THE CIO BE ABLE TO CODE? FUNDING AUSTRALIA’S DIGITAL ECONOMY CONSUMERISATION AND THE GROWTH OF SHADOW IT

www.acs.org.au/infoage CONTENTS Information Age May/June 2013

The global campaign for ICT 18 professionalism How IP3 is helping to put the critical issue of ICT professionalism on the international agenda. 36 Rethinking how you collaborate The BYOD trend is transforming workplace collaboration. 38 Getting an A in engagement To combat upcoming challenges in the sector, universities will need to build stronger ties with stakeholders, an observer warns. 42 Finding some balance Methods to respond to online reputation management Transforming treatments Eight biggest myths about nightmares. 56 70 How technology can help push the inconvenience of managing geeks The fourth dimension illness into the background of a patient’s life. Managing talented techies can be tricky, and these 45 common misconceptions don’t help. How to augment competency levels with the help of the A speed boost for small biz Grey Army. 60 Top 10 tech upgrades to make your small business run 74 Wanted: 40 trillion gigabytes of In the hot seat faster. open storage, stat! 48 Are existing technologies up to challenge of our We spoke with Victoria’s new chief technology advocate, ever-growing storage needs? Grantly Mailes. How to talk security so people will 63 listen (and comply) 50 Straight talking Five techniques for getting users’ attention about security. Here’s how to get started building or refining your company’s digital media strategy. Six home truths about rock star 68 developers The environment, ICT and ethics Putting together a team of developers with mixed skill 53 levels can work out better than a bunch of the best and Does the ICT industry have a social responsibility to brightest. protect the environment? CONTENTS Information Age May/June 2013

Departments 6 president’s column 8 CEO’s column 10 Editorial 17 ACS Foundation update 78 New members 82 Australian answers: Towards a quantum internet ACS News 10 ACS calls for technology curriculum reform Inspiring your next career Online diagramming and collaboration with Creately, now free for ACS members Information Age competition winner NSW govt outlines strategy and procurement reform for SMEs Conversation hour with CPeP tutor Tom Worthington Federal Budget 2013 – A skilled professional ICT workforce for Australia Building a great start-up needs an amazing founder iAwards – Australia 3.0 forum 2013 Investigating big data for business success

Views 20 We all have a role to play in encouraging new ICT recruits 21 Technology planners: think beyond BYOD 22 The CIO as change agent for the workplace of the future 23 Digital opportunities and threats ACS President’s column Information Age May/June 2013 | 6

incident showed that a sensor had failed and that faulty software Why certification of ICT had then caused the flight computers to behave as they did. It is interesting to note the extent to which on-board computers now run professionals is essential planes. Not only at this flight deck level but for a number of planes, the fly by wire system replaces mechanical controls with those How can we be sure ICT systems are secure and safe for purpose? Only appropriately controlled by computer. certified ICT professionals can mitigate risk and budget over-runs. On 1 August last year, the US Food and Drug Administration Dr Nick Tate, FACS CP, President, ACS officially cleared edible computers to be used in medical applications for monitoring patient health. This is an important step in allowing implantable computers to be used in the human body to provide more information for doctors and patients. ecently in the US, the first driverless car was licensed in for those with a disability and are likely to be much safer than cars The Copenhagen metro is one of an increasing list of rail systems Nevada. It was a vehicle modified with Google’s experimental driven by humans. It also means that these vehicles will be con- that use driverless trains. The trains are all controlled by a computer Rdriverless technology, and it is reported that these have trolled by a computer which has been developed and programmed system at a control centre that supports the operation, protection been tested for over 500,000 kilometres accident free. The states by someone other than the driver. and supervision of each of its 34 trains. There are no drivers on any of Florida and California have also permitted driverless cars and In 2008, a Qantas aircraft, flying from Singapore to Perth, sud- of the trains, which run 24 hours a day. Sergey Brin, one of Google’s founders, expects the technology to be denly went into two deep dives which ended up injuring 110 people In all of these cases, computers are critical in ensuring the ready for the market in five years. When it is ready, the implications as they were thrown around the plane. The dives had been initiated safe operation of potentially dangerous activities and can make will be profound. Driverless cars could provide new mobility options by the flight computer. Subsequent analysis of the root causes of this independent decisions based on the software that they are running. It is certainly legitimate to ask how society can be assured that these systems are safe and fit for purpose and to understand whether those who are designing and building them are competent. ICT is reaching a tipping point where the consequence of failure includes the serious possibility of loss of life or significant injury. Other professions reached this point a while ago. In 1858, the Medical Act started modern registration of medical practitioners and included the following telling words: “it is expedient that Persons requiring Medical Aid should be enabled to distinguish qualified from unqualified Practitioners”. Future generations may well look back with nostalgia on the days of unqualified practitioners in ICT but society cannot afford to continue to allow people to work on systems that could kill or maim people without being appropriately qualified. Certification is a tangible way of demonstrating that an ICT professional is appropriately accredited and the ACS offers two certifications, ACS Certified Professional (CP) and ACS Certified Technologist (CT). The requirement to employ appropriately certified ICT profes- sionals is a case of “when” not “if” as governments seek to minimise risk and reduce the cost of budget overruns. If you do not hold an ACS certification, now is the time to consider how you might work towards it. ¢ I BMCCA1501_FPC_I A. pdf Page 1 15/ 05/ 13, 2: 18: 35 PM AEST

SMARTER TECHNOLOGY FOR A SMARTER PLANET FROM DEPLOYING IN MONTHS

expert integrated systems can be up and running in as little as Thousands of IT engagements... four hours.2 And once deployed, these systems can automatically scale and adjust resources as the needs of the business change—a process that might otherwise take weeks—freeing IT people to focus on larger, more strategic goals.

“It’s not going to be about tinkering...It’s getting back that thirst to make something.” Andrew Smith create patterns of expertise... VP, McKesson IT

which automate processes, speeding up deployments and simplifying management. So you’re on to the next thing.

According to Forrester, the typical IT department spends at least 33% of a project’s budget TO READY IN HOURS. just specifying, designing and procuring IT components. And INTRODUCING On a smarter planet, once procured, it can take up to IBM® PURESYSTEMS. organisations will no longer three months of tweaking before To address this problem, IBM address complex challenges those resources are ready to set out to design a system that with generic systems. Instead be used.1 could benefi t from previous they can rely on integrated

experience—a system that ™ systems with the built-in With decades of experience An IBM PureApplication System could follow the patterns cuts the deployment of OneTree expertise to help solve them. and thousands of deployments ™ established by successful IT Solutions’ PriceLenz software ibm.com/au/integratedsystems in the same industries, on from 3 weeks to 8 minutes2. projects to make it simpler to the same topics, even for the deploy and manage new ones. With the launch of same tasks —why is it that LET’S BUILD A PureSystems,™ we are now organisations are forced to SMARTER PLANET.® delivering on that promise. waste massive amounts of time and resources starting from Using patterns established scratch with every new project? by IBM and leading software vendors, this new breed of

1. Based on a 2011 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of IBM. 2. Based upon testing of the IBM PureApplication System W1500-96 with time measured from powering on the system to when it is ready to support application deployments and based upon testing of the IBM PureFlex System Express & Standard models containing one chassis and one compute node with the time measured from powering on the system to when it is ready to support a virtual image deployment. 2. The results discussed on this page are presented as obtained under specifi c operating conditions. Actual results may vary. IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, PureApplication, PureSystems, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. © Copyright IBM Australia Limited 2013 ABN 79 000 024 733 © Copyright IBM Corporation 2013 All Rights Reserved. IBMCCA1501/EISV2/IA/FPC ACS CEO’s column Information Age May/June 2013 | 8

The central issue of skills Now more than ever, skills are critical. Alan Patterson, MACS (Snr), CEO, ACS

elcome to this edition of Information Age. As this issue is shortages, the quality of the people working in the sector and the Today, as a consumer or as a business owner, the CE trust mark published, Sydney is playing host to CeBIT 2013 – arguably need for a focus on diversity, the messages resonated with the helps guide our purchasing and investment decisions. The CE mark Wthe largest conference for Australian ICT in the year. audience. tells us that it’s reasonable to assume the product we buy will meet As valued partners of CeBIT, the ACS again has an exhibition But the issue for me was that we have already discussed and certain standards, and if it fails to meet those standards we have stand and our president Dr Nick Tate will be presenting at the CeBIT understand skills shortages and skills gaps. Over time, the ACS has some right of guarantee. Cloud Conference where the subject, along with big data, provides published submissions, research reports and facilitated stakeholder Just as the power of technology is underpinned by the power of two hot topics for discussion. discussions at the highest levels about ICT skills in the national people, the trust mark for ICT skills in the twenty first century will be I represented the ACS at the official opening of CeBIT and heard interest. As Harper Reid noted, at his CeBIT address, the time for a ‘trust mark’ of professionalism. In this way, employers will, in future, from Harper Reid, the former CTO for the Obama 2012 campaign. discussion has already passed. be offered a choice: invest in those with a higher degree of trust and Harper provided some amazing insights into how technology is What can we do as individuals about addressing IT skills issues? certainty of skills and competency, thereby helping to manage their changing the landscape in terms of reaching out to, empowering and If you turn your keyboard over, like as not you will see a CE mark. own risk, brand reputation and customer confidence... or not. engaging citizens; and importantly how understanding big data in the For more than 20 years the CE mark has been used on products Professionalism in ICT today means so much more than getting context of answering ‘big questions’ in real time is so powerful. The to provide assurance to consumers that the product meets quality the job done on time and on budget according to spec. While this is message certainly was not lost on Australian ICT leaders. performance expectations. Since then, the CE symbol has become important in the short term, often issues surface down the track and Interestingly, when he and the former CIO of the US government a highly visible and recognisable trust mark – so much so that we rectification or redress can be costly and difficult. referred to ICT skills issues globally, in terms of fundamental supply probably don’t even look for it now, we just expect it to be there. In the true sense of the word “professional” means being engaged with your peers, contributing back to your profession and keeping abreast of latest developments, based on being competent, yes, but having a higher level commitment to lifelong learning and ethical behaviour. In an aspirational sense, this is synonymous with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. That is, having dealt with baseline safety and security issues for the self, working to a higher level of achievement, contribution through self-expression and ultimately self-fulfilment or actualisation. Just as the CE mark provides quality assurance to consumers that a product will be fit for purpose, membership of the ACS demonstrates a commitment to professionalism and ongoing professional development, while attainment of our independently assessed certifications, CT (certified technologist) and CP (certified professional) linked to SFIA levels three and five respectively, raises the bar in terms of a commitment to excellence and the consequen- tial enhancement of assurance and risk mitigation offered to our customers. It’s our responsibility to our colleagues, employers and the wider community to provide this confidence in the ICT industry. ¢ IN AUSTRALIA, WE SPELL I.T. WITH THREE Is. INNOVATION. IMAGINATION. IMPACT.

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314-64068_InAustralia_IA.indd 1 6/19/12 4:19 PM Editorial Information Age May/June 2013 | 10

ast issue, our first fully fledged digital magazine, we invited Of course, I am not alone in pondering the impact of social media Slings and arrows readers to send in their ideas for improving Information Age. It on political and social issues. After the Boston Marathon bombings, Lwas fantastic to receive a large number of responses to this for instance, many were left wondering about the story’s treatment Where do we draw the line with truth and request and I found it truly inspiring to read through them all. Our on social media. What are we to make of a missing university student opinion on social media? challenge now is to work out ways to build on these great ideas, but I touted as one of the bombers to his family’s distress? He was not Deanne McIntosh, editor can assure you we will continue to focus on relevant content while we involved, as we subsequently learnt, but only after his name was fine-tune the ways we deliver it to members. bandied about and his online history the subject of much discussion. Almost straight away, the digital format has given us valuable Journalists were even looking at the accused bomber’s tweets feedback. For instance, in my last editorial, I wrote about the ways and YouTube trail to draw conclusions about the brothers and their politicians were using technology to talk to voters and get their political beliefs. So much of our lives are lived now in the public message across to their electorates. I asked readers what they space and with perceptions created in the blink of an eye, there thought, with a poll on the page. Half of respondents thought the use is sure to be privacy casualties. How are we to respond to these of Twitter by politicians was helpful, but there were concerns that 140 mistakes? Is it okay to let these things slide as just part of how social characters is not really enough to provide useful debate. media works? I’m not entirely comfortable with this position. To my mind, this is a major issue for public discourse in Australia. On a final note, I wanted to briefly draw your attention to some of As I write this, the Twitterverse is alive with responses to the federal the features available in the digital edition. As well as navigating the budget, some considered and thoughtful, others scathing and hastily current issue through contents and thumbnails of all pages, using dashed off. the toolbar at the bottom of the page you can get access to past It is great that people can have their say, but it can be a nightmare issues (click on ‘Browse Issues’). The toolbar at right, meanwhile, for governments and businesses when facts are distorted or down- lets you print a page, search for a technology, company or person, right untruths spread like wildfire through social media. In this issue and navigate through the pages. we take a look at how you can respond to this problem on page 50 If you have any comments on any of the stories in this issue you with some practical steps to take. can email them to me at [email protected]. ¢

INFORMATION AGE Contributors to this issue Information Age is the official publication of the Australian Computer Society Inc (ACT) and is President and Publisher: Howard Baldwin, Adam Bender, Mike Bowern, John Burgin, Stacy Collett, Marc Englaro, Eagle Gamma, Tam Harbert, Michael Harte, Jonathan Hassell, Rich Hein, Jon L. Jacobi, produced on their behalf by IDG Publications. Susan Searle, [email protected] Paul Mah, James A. Martin, Kevin Noonan, Andrew Oliver, Dinisha Palkhiwala, Australian Computer Society Mary K. Pratt, Linda Price, Lester Russell, Daniel Sims, Dan Tynan. EDITORIAL President: Nick Tate Editor: Deanne McIntosh, CEO: Alan Patterson [email protected] Level 11, 50 Carrington Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Production Manager: Mike Gee, [email protected] Phone: (02) 9299 3666 Designer: Steven Dunbar Fax: (02) 9299 3997 Photographer: Ian Sharp E-mail: [email protected] © Copyright 2013 IDG Communications URL: www.acs.org.au ADVERTISING ABN 14 001 592 650. All rights reserved. www.acs.org.au/infoage Cherry Yumul, [email protected] Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express (02) 9902 2756 ARBN: 160 325 931 written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited. Managing Director: Davy Adams Copies are distributed free to members of the ACS. Copyright on works submitted by ACS members is retained by the All material in Information Age is protected under the original owner. Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968. YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News Information Age May/June 2013 | 11

ACS calls for technology Inspiring your next career The ACS has launched a program in Queensland for ICT requirements of becoming a contractor, and starting their own curriculum reform professionals who have recently been retrenched or taken voluntary business. These streams are supported by workshops, networking The ACS has called on ACARA (the Australian Curriculum, redundancies. events, and the involvement of industry experts. Assessment and Reporting Authority) to review its national “The program will enable unemployed ACS members to make Senior ACS members will also act as facilitators and work with curriculum reform, expressing concern that not enough is being informed career choices; it will improve the prospects of members small groups of participants to offer encouragement, ideas and done to encourage students to enter the ICT industry and that finding new rewarding jobs; and it will ensure that the Queensland enthusiasm. The program will run over six weeks and is free to ACS teachers and schools are not receiving the support they need to economy continues to have access to well-qualified and experienced members. implement the curriculum. ICT resources,” ACS Queensland branch chair, Chris Bridge, said. The ACS is offering non-members who wish to participate a “The ACS maintains that if Australia wishes to be more innovative “It is a tangible example of how the ACS supports its members special subscriber fee of $60 that will give them access to ACS as an economy, then every Australian student in primary and and as a professional society takes positive steps to assist members member services, events and resources. secondary school should be taught computing,” ACS chief executive, to adapt to difficult employment conditions.” The program will commence on June 11 and people can register Alan Patterson, said. “A much greater commitment is needed to The program helps people seek new employment, further at www.acs.org.au/branches/queensland/inspiring-your-next- support the teaching of ICT and foundational disciplines in primary education and training, understand the opportunities and career. and secondary school. This can only be done by qualified teachers who can convey the excitement and potential of computing.” The ACS does not believe teachers and schools, particularly in regional Australia, are adequately supported, trained, qualified and resourced to implement the proposed curriculum effectively. “The ACS is very concerned that the curriculum does not appear to adequately anticipate tertiary education – something the ACS believes should be one of the key goals of the curriculum,” Patterson said. “The ACS believes that Year 11 and 12 studies in computing need to be developed to enable students to explore in depth some of the more prominent ICT sub-disciplines, with an unashamed focus on preparation for tertiary study and a career in the ICT, as it would for students selecting elective subjects in most other disciplines.” According to the ACS, anecdotal evidence from the UK shows that when ICT is delivered badly it can turn students off the subject – and, significantly, off a career in ICT. “In the curriculum’s current draft, it is unrealistic to expect that high school teachers will be able to deliver the curriculum. It is possible that some will not take it seriously (judging it to be inappropriate, unachievable and hard to understand), and that they will instead deliver the program inadequately causing students to be repelled: in effect making the current crisis Australia faces much worse,” Patterson said. “In this way, while applauding and welcoming the ambition of the current draft, the ACS would like to see the curriculum demonstrate integrity by acknowledging the significant support that teachers will require. YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News Information Age May/June 2013 | 12

Online diagramming and NSW govt outlines strategy and collaboration with Creately, procurement reform for SMEs The ACS has partnered with the NSW Department of Finance and now free for ACS members Services to deliver insights into NSW government processes and The ACS has partnered with leading diagramming and visual strategies for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). collaboration company Cinergix to provide members with access to Held at NSW Parliament House in April, the event attracted 200 Creately.com free for the first year and discounts thereafter. people from business and government. Speakers included ACS CEO Clear communication and effective collaboration is the key to Alan Patterson and senior government staff from the Department success in every aspect of work. Many a time a diagram is the best of Finance and Services, including Matthew Mason-Cox, the way to explain ideas, plans and designs. Creately is a powerful Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury and Finance; Anne Skewes, diagramming application that’s designed for collaboration and deputy director-general, Government Services; William Murphy, organisational use. It features: executive director, Strategic Policy; Paul Dobing, executive director, • Easy to use diagram software NSW Procurement; and Don Jones, director of procurement policy, • Real-time diagram collaboration Strategic Policy. • Online with your browser, offline on your desktop or installed on In line with the NSW government ICT strategy, the event focused your server on the introduction of an ICT services scheme to transform the way • From flowcharts, mind-maps to UML and mock-ups, there are government provides services to the public and engages with the over 40 types of diagrams and thousands of example templates. ICT industry. Creately is a key enabler for hundreds of thousands of users The ACS has been working closely with the NSW government, across organisations like NASA, Salesforce, Amazon, Boeing, and the forum was an ideal opportunity for members to better Lenovo, Nat Geo and many SMEs. understand the government’s ICT strategy and what this means Top: Dr Abdul Rahim Ahmad, from the Ministry of The exclusive offer to ACS members by Creately includes an online for business, including the opportunity to network following the Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia (centre), personal plan for one year, completely free, and also includes discounts presentations. with Andrew Johnson, Alan Patterson, Anthony Wong for Creately team plans for project or company teams, Creately The NSW government is actively encouraging input into and Adam Redman from the ACS. Bottom: Dr Ahmad Desktop, Creately Server, JIRA and Confluence plug-ins. See http:// procurement processes and is keen to hear from SMEs. For details presenting to the ACS management committee. creately.com/diagram-products for details of all available editions. of the way SMEs can give feedback to the Finance and Services To activate your free Creately personal plan, simply log in to team,visit www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au. your My ACS member area and then go to Rewards & Benefits and Professional Benefits and you’ll see the Creately offer and details of how to sign up.

Information Age competition winner ® Last issue, we invited readers to submit suggestions on ways we ® ® ® could improve the digital edition of Information Age, with the best Self Paced PMP CAPM & PMI-SP Exam Prep idea to be awarded an iPad mini.  PMP course* fees $1200 + GST (pre-approved by PMI for 35Hrs training) To Book, or for more information:- We were inundated with great ideas and want to thank everyone  [email protected] who took part. We are reviewing all your opinions and looking  CAPM course* fees $900 + GST (pre-approved by PMI for 23Hrs training) Email: at how we can incorporate them in future issues of our flagship - Free PMP Spreadsheet to check your PMP eligibility  Visit: w w w .mosaicprojects.com.au publication. - Free CAPM and PMP questions to try complete with detailed answers  Call: (03) 9696 8684 The winning entry, as judged by the Information Age editorial - 99% 1st time pass - all courses include on-line exam simulators committee came from the Department of Defence. - Courses created in-house by our internationally recognised experts Mosaic Project Services Pty Ltd, 13 Martin St., South Melbourne, VIC 3205 ® PMI, PMP, PMI-SP, CAPM and the R.E.P. Logo are registered Trademarks of the Project Management Institute Inc. * Exam fees are extra, paid direct to PMI ABN 70 074 006 081 YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News Information Age May/June 2013 | 13

Conversation hour with CPeP tutor Tom Worthington Information Age recently spoke with Tom Worthington, FACS, CP, and “Students aren’t just sitting alone at a computer watching Computer Professional Education Program author and tutor about videos,” he said. “They are interacting with their fellow students and his teaching, and his career-long passion for ICT and its profession. a real human tutor.” Most of us have an interesting story about our first experiences This is a far cry from when he first started out, and only “had a in our chosen career. Worthington winds the clock back 31 years vague idea about e-learning”. to remember his introduction to computing, where his job title was However, he confessed that teaching online is very challenging. programmer’s assistant, and his job specification was to carry the “You have to make sure that the materials for students is print-out. carefully designed and checked, as problems can’t be as easily Today, Worthington’s career in ICT is a world away from the days corrected as in a classroom. as the lowest level staff member in the computer section of the “It is useful to have fellow tutors, who have a depth of experience Australian Bureau of Statistics. in both ICT and education to help with the process.” Worthington runs his own highly successful consulting firm, is Worthington said that by focusing on workplace-based an adjunct senior lecturer at the Australian National University, assignments, the course becomes much richer than just an a published author, a regular blogger, and author and tutor in the academic exercise. To pass the Green Technology Strategies, Tom Worthington Computer Professional Education Program. students need to assess the carbon emissions and e-waste caused It’s a journey that has taken a circuitous route. It has led to many by ICT in their organisations, and plan how to reduce them. He is Worthington borrowed an Australian Army uniform and took a interesting opportunities such designing the first websites for the passionate about ensuring students frame their advice in a way helicopter ride out to the middle of the Coral Sea, observing how the ACT government, SBS TV and the Australian Information Industry management can understand and use. US Marines used the web for conducting an amphibious assault. Association, and being invited to take part in an international Worthington has also spent the last year studying for a certificate It’s a long way from carrying pounds of paper in the basement of symposium on how to design a website for the 2008 Beijing in higher education, which is the qualification university lecturers are the ABS. Olympics. expected to have. That has been an enlightening experience for him, Worthington’s involvement with the ACS goes back nearly as long and he says it taught him that being a student is very hard work. Computer Professional Education Program as his career. Twenty-four years ago, when he was working in the “This gave me an appreciation of the difficulties my CPE program The Computer Professional Education Program is a postgrad- Australian Public Service, Worthington recalls that “someone in the students have,” he said. uate-level course of study offered online. Students complete government got the bright idea that programmers would no longer Studies complete, in late August Worthington is off to Sri Lanka three core subjects, one elective and a professional practice be needed as fifth generation programs would be smart enough to to speak at an international education conference on how to educate component. write themselves”. computer professionals for the region. Enrolments for study period 2 close 5 May, and the period Worthington attended a meeting called by the ACS to discuss When talking to Worthington, you are left wondering how he fits runs from 12 May to 10 August. how to counter this, and left having been co-opted onto the ACS so much into his days. Staying away from constant emails is one Subjects offered in study period 2 include: Canberra branch executive committee. time efficiency trick. Core It was the beginning of a long, close and active association with “I am very disciplined and only check email every few hours so I • Risk Management: Professionalism and Compliance his professional body, which has included being on numerous can actually get some work done,” he said. “It’s a discipline I pass on • Business, Strategy and IT committees and boards, president of the ACS, chairman of the to my students. Focus on doing the job. Late assignments get zero Electives ACS Canberra branch, director of the publications board and marks.” • Business Analysis communications technologies board, director of professional That may sound harsh, but as Worthington points out, in the real • Business Process Improvement (using Lean Six Sigma) development, and now, author and tutor in the Computer world late IT projects have serious consequences. • Consultancy Professional Education Program’s popular elective Green Our conversation comes full circle, and we ask Worthington Green Technology Strategies will be offered in study period 3. Technology Strategies. about the highlights of his career. Not surprisingly, the list was quite For a complete list of subjects, dates and fees visit www.acs.org. Worthington is a vocal advocate for the program, and believes long. One that stood out, however, is when he was co-ordinating web au/cpeprogram; email [email protected] or freecall 1800 it uses the world’s most advanced blend of online education and pages with staff at the US 7th Fleet and he was invited to visit their 671 003. personal tuition. flagship during the exercise. YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News Information Age May/June 2013 | 14

Federal Budget 2013 – A skilled professional ICT Support the ACS employment survey workforce for Australia Complete the annual ACS employment survey to help the ACS improve conditions for the ICT sector and for the future of the The ACS has welcomed elements of the 2013 Federal Budget in Patterson also said the sector would welcome the extension ICT profession. As an added incentive, you can win an iPad mini! supporting Australia’s need for a skilled professional ICT workforce of the Enterprise Connect program which provides a range of The ACS will use your anonymous survey responses to to drive economic growth. operational advice to businesses, including ICT optimisation. engage directly with government ministers and their advisors, ACS chief executive, Alan Patterson, said the $350 million In other areas of the budget Patterson noted ACS members departmental heads and staff, industry leaders and educators earmarked for the ‘Innovation Investment Fund’ to help start-ups would have liked to have seen a stronger commitment to the digital to raise the profile and importance of our profession and high- was a good recognition of the increasing importance of the digital training needs of SME’s ($12.9 million) and Seniors ($9.9 million over light the reality of our everyday work. economy. four years) as confidence, trust and security issues are increasing The ACS survey is the only survey of its kind in Australia, Patterson also welcomed the $45 million directed to a new Skills with ICT’s ubiquity in our economy and society. providing independent and unbiased advice to policy makers. Connect Fund to provide industry with a single point of access for “The ICT sector remains concerned that more needs to be done Please support us to support you. The link to the survey is at: skills and workforce development support. to address the barriers to women and older workers in accessing https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2013-ACS-Survey “The Skills Connect Fund recognises the concerns of business training (and therefore employment). ACS also has concerns about The survey results will be available in July and we will that Australia has ongoing ICT skills gaps. The ACS will continue plans to cap education expenses for professional development. The use these results to campaign for you in the upcoming to work with governments, industry and educators to define and ACS will continue to highlight the impacts on ACS members and the federal election. address these issues,” he said. broader ICT sector to the government,” he said. The Deakin MasTer of Business analyTics A collaborative academic program with industry. • Breadth of curriculum • industry involvement in delivery • innovative and flexiBle delivery model apply now to commence your study in July. for more information contact [email protected]. deakin.edu.au Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News Information Age May/June 2013 | 15

Building a great start-up needs an amazing founder A recent study by PwC predicts that by 2033, technology start-ups objective feedback, and peer support in the early stages of building goal is to “Globalise Silicon Valley” by launching 1000 technology will create more than 540,000 jobs in Australia and add over $109 a company, improves the rate of start-up success for these high- companies per year worldwide. Here in Sydney, we have launched billion to our economy. For an industry under immense progress, potential entrepreneurs. nearly 20 companies within the past 12 months. We have expanded these figures represent a staggering four per cent of our future GDP. Through a part-time four-month program sponsored and into Perth and are looking to launch in other Australian capital cities There is a significant opportunity for start-ups to improve nearly supported this quarter by the ACS, existing and prospective by the end of the year to meet the demands of our program. every industry from healthcare to agriculture to finance. It is clear founders can launch their dream company with support from Starting a company is an arduous and lonely journey, and that while our diggers have been the entrepreneurs of a previous experienced start-up CEOs while not being required to quit their day entrepreneurship is a constantly evolving discipline. With only 1500 generation, the technologists are leading us into the future. job. Our unique graduate liquidity pool also enables graduates and tech start-ups across Sydney and Melbourne run by 2000 founders, Like any major ecosystem, the start-up sector requires a concert mentors to share in the equity upside of each class, creating local, Australia has an exciting road ahead. The Founder Institute will of activities working together to achieve success. First, there needs teamwork-based ecosystems where great new businesses can continue to develop great founders that will help Australia, once to be a core group of passionate people who champion innovation, flourish. In just over three years of operation, the Founder Institute again, disrupt the global economy and remap the distribution of experimentation and even failure. Start-up growth also requires has helped launch over 800 companies across 50 cities and five wealth and power. physical spaces, like co-working spaces or incubators, to facilitate continents, making us the world’s largest start-up accelerator. Our -Tom Frazier, Sydney co-director of the Founder Institute events and collaboration. Of course there is also need for regular media coverage to showcase local successes. The elements necessary to pump out great companies goes on and on from iAwards – Australia 3.0 forum 2013 government involvement to mentors to large corporations taking a One of the key ICT events which forms part of the iAwards program roundtable and forum. Australia 3.0 provides the opportunity for risk on innovation itself. each year is the Australia 3.0 forum. This thought leadership industry representatives to play an active role in the driving of the Importantly, it takes great people to create great companies summit will bring together experts and senior representatives from future productivity and competitiveness of Australia’s economy. and that is where education comes in. In over 40 cities worldwide, the ICT industry and Australia’s major economic sectors, to discuss To find out more about Australia 3.0 and sponsorship the Founder Institute is bringing the ethos of the Silicon Valley and debate how the digital economy can lift national productivity opportunities or to register your interest to be involved, visit www. to the talented people all over the globe. My role running the through the use of innovative technology. australia30.com.au Founder Institute locally, and that of my co-director Benjamin Offering a unique opportunity for informed and action-oriented Chong, is to help individuals become more like Batman. We help discussions, the core focus of this year’s Australia 3.0 forum will people with a passion for a particular problem and provide them explore how the Australian economy can react to the age of digital with the tools and techniques to build a meaningful and enduring transformation, in particular digital productivity. Streams being technology company. Our approach of expert training, critical examined include the agriculture, mining, infrastructure, health and services in government sectors. Due to the pace of digital Benjamin Chong and Tom Frazier at Echelon Ignite. transformation, the effects will continue more aggressively into the future, accelerated by ubiquitous high-speed broadband and ever improving smart phone devices. From May through to August this year, Australian thought leaders and industry influencers will gather for an intensive eight- week online debate, followed by a single-day forum in Melbourne – the day of the national iAwards gala dinner on 8 August. Australia 3.0 is a joint initiative between iAwards host partners ACS, AIIA and the Pearcey Foundation and is hosted in conjunction with the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research Presenters at Australia 3.0 2012 forum. This year’s forum and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE). Foundation partners NICTA and will explore how the Australian economy can enhance CSIRO are actively supporting and participating in the online virtual digital productivity, amongst other major issues. YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News Information Age May/June 2013 | 16

Investigating big data for business success A global study by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has revealed the challenges and opportunities,” Hadwen said. “Data when harnessed quarters of big data leaders are doing analysis outside of business extent enterprises are investing in big data to achieve a competitive and analysed can then be utilised to provide a true business units, there is a definite split in the preferred approach, with 42 advantage and drive growth. advantage. We expect the number of Australian companies focused per cent using their existing IT function, and 37 per cent creating a The TCS ‘Emerging Big Returns from Big Data’ study was based on big data issues will continue to grow, across all large enterprise, separate big data function altogether. on a global online survey of 1217 executives, as well as drawing on corporate and government.” According to TCS, this reveals businesses need to carefully in-depth interviews with leading senior IT executives and big data It is clear that big data has enormous potential, and early think where big data initiatives should sit within the organisation, technology experts. adopters are projecting a high ROI on investments. But it’s not all how to break down internal silos and look beyond just internal and The study confirmed big data is a hot ticket item for many large plain sailing. structured data sets. enterprises, including banks, retailers, energy companies and As well as the technological issues involved with handling the “Big data is getting bigger with different sources adding to the government departments. The US showed the highest frequency of large volume, velocity and variety of big data, the study identified complexity that organisations have to deal with,” Hadwen said. “We big data initiatives amongst respondents, followed by Latin America, a number of challenges for businesses implementing big data see those organisations with a holistic strategy toward data that Europe and finally Asia Pacific. initiatives. cuts across internal silos, best positioned to leverage the value of Perhaps surprisingly, Australian companies are among the biggest Whether assisting different business units to share information that data.” spenders on big data. However, when it comes to the proportion of across organisational silos, or determining what data to use for If you would like to learn more about unlocking the potential of companies investing in big data here, we are still some way behind the different business decisions, it is clear overcoming the technological big data in your enterprise, the TCS ‘Emerging Big Returns from Big US, UK, Mexico and India, where the majority of companies surveyed challenges is only part of the story. For example, while over three Data’ study is available online at: www.tcs.com/BigDataStudy in those markets had initiatives underway in 2012. Deborah Hadwen, chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services – Australia and New Zealand, believes this shows that local organisations are starting to focus on the benefits of big data. ANZTB Test 2013: Advancing Testing Expertise “We work with clients to help their organisations understand how to exploit big data to meet an increasingly diverse range of business Hyatt Hotel, Canberra, 6 June 2013 The Emerging Big Returns on Big Data TCS 2013 Global Trend Study The 10 Key Findings A one-day international software testing conference

ta has big impact External & Unstructured Da the firms use Big Data bigger ROI About ½ e Companies getting In 2012, 53% companies had a Big Data Initiativ SIX Use more external and As part of its mission to advance the software refreshments, fine music, and networking ONE Many of them expected big returns unstructured data than 43% predicted ROI > 25% companies that get small or no ROI testing profession, the Australia and New with fellow professionals. ta A lot is being spent on Big Da e e industries The best users of Big Data spend much mor By consumer transaction-intensiv more than laggards By 2015, Leaders spent 3 times Zealand Testing Board (ANZTB) is bringing of annual revenue e than laggards O 0.14% Leaders expect to spend 2 times mor The conference is suitable for testing Heavy Spenders SEVEN TW Lighter Spenders Hi-tech, Telecom, Insurance, Travel & Hospitality, leading industry practitioners from around the Energy/Resources, professionals, IT managers, developers, Financial Services

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With these results, Super Sonic Speed was invited to represent Super Sonic Speed finds success Newcastle and the Hunter at the state competition. At state level, the team placed third, coming second in fastest car, best portfolio and best pit display categories. at Formula 1 in schools The boys completed the majority of the work themselves but enlisted the aid of a team sponsor to help with team uniforms, the milling of the car and the final spray coat. The milling of the raw balsa wood blanks was done by other schools, and the cars were mailed through the post, which took time. Unfortunately, the car manufacture was out of the team’s control, with broken parts and poor surface finishes. uper Sonic Speed, a school team from the Hunter Region in Super Sonic Speed 2012 was made up of three year nine boys At state level, Super Sonic Speed realised that the level of NSW, entered the F1 Technology in Schools competition in 2012 from Merewether High School, an academically selective high school competition had become more business-network orientated, with Sand achieved outstanding results. near Newcastle. All members of the team were competing for the teams getting corporate assistance as well as sponsorship. Many The team was awarded first place overall in the pro-junior cat- first time and the three boys all had their own inspiration for entering successful state teams looked professional, while Super Sonic egory at the regional competition, with first place in six out of seven the competition. Speed took a more exciting approach to its team identity. The boys categories, and was invited to compete at the state competition, They all learned valuable skills. With only the minimum number documented this information, finding out as much as they could where the team gained third overall. of team members, they each took on extra task responsibilities, with about their opposition so they can use it to their advantage in this F1 in Schools is a worldwide competition where teams of three a lot of emailing, lunchtime and after school meetings necessary to year’s competition. to five students design and manufacture small balsa wood racing complete the project. Without the sponsorship, the boys knew they couldn’t compete. cars to be propelled by a CO2 gas-filled canister along a 20-metre The team is made up of Joshua Beverley, the team manager, who The enthusiasm and support of the 2012 sponsors gave a positive straight track. The cars are designed using CAD software such as participated in, supervised and co-ordinated all work schedules, model of business leaders and their staff to these school students Pro-Engineer, tested in wind tunnels, and manufactured using CNC ensuring tasks were completed and within budget. He also designed and influenced the boys to undertake the challenge again this year. milling machines. and sourced materials for the pit area and uniforms and the Joshua and Muhammed are competing again and have welcomed F1 in Schools is an excellent competition for students interested manufacture of the car – sand, paint and assembly – compiled the three new team members: Daniel Bradley, Nabil Khan and Liam in engineering or technology as a career. In some schools, this portfolio, managed sponsorship communications and wrote regular Ralston. Super Sonic Speed is aiming high – to compete and place competition can be a subject choice, but Super Sonic Speed took this newsletters that were published to sponsors. well at the national finals. With the new team members and much- as an extracurricular activity. Patrick Wells, the team’s graphic designer, designed the logo, needed experience, Super Sonic Speed will be a strong force in the To represent Australia, teams have to compete successfully formed the team identity, scripted the verbal presentation, ensured 2013 F1 in Schools competition. at regional, state and national levels before going to the world everyone knew their lines, designed artwork for the pit area and Super Sonic Speed 2012 would like to thank its sponsors Port competition. portfolio, documented in the portfolio logo design concepts, compiled Waratah Coal Services, C-E Solutions, Custom Fluid Power, Onesteel Besides the car racing, the other areas of the competition that are the team diary, and was the team photographer. Wire, Mustafa’s Kebabs, Warners Bay Paint and Panel, EmbroidMe judged include engineering design, verbal presentation, portfolio, pit Muhammed Al-Mudafer, the car designer, designed the car Cardiff and the ME Program for their excellent assistance and area display, industry collaboration and team marketing. in CAD software, tested the car in virtual wind tunnel software, support throughout last year’s competition. And technology underpins the entire exercise. The teams must designed and manufactured wheels, documented all the informa- In 2013, the ACS Foundation is sponsoring the Super Sonic Speed impress the judges with original, innovative and aerodynamically fast tion about the car for the pit area, portfolio and presentations, and team and is excited to be associated with this important initiative to engineering-designed cars and complete a prepared presentation managed the engineering presentation. demonstrate to high school students in a practical way the impor- about the team members, their innovation, collaboration and the Super Sonic Speed was very successful at the regional finals tance of the various skills they learn as a result of being involved in learning experiences the competition has granted them. The pit area where it placed first in six of the seven categories, including fastest this project. is a small, expo-style booth on show where teams market their car, car, best engineered design, best pit area, best portfolio, outstanding If you are interested in sponsoring or collaborating with Super team and sponsors. Additionally, teams have to document a portfolio industry collaboration and best team marketing; to place first Sonic Speed 2013, contact Joshua at joshua.beverley1@education. on their progress throughout the competition. overall. nsw.gov.au. ¢ Profile : IFIP IP3 Information Age May/June 2013 | 18

The global campaign for ICT professionalism

As we rely on technology for more and more of our everyday lives and business – not to mention national security – the question of trust is growing in importance. Here, we look at how IFIP IP3 is helping to put this critical question on the international agenda

stablished in 2006, the International Professional Practice At the time the system went live, there were 81 known issues who found it tried to keep others from finding out and failed to report Partnership (IP3) was established by the International Federa- with the software and no load-tests had been run. No provisions it to higher-ups, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. When Etion for Information Processing (IFIP) general assembly to for a back-up system had been made. While the gap of 10 months investors complained that their portfolios were performing badly, the bring together professional ICT associations around the world to between the time dispatchers were first trained to use the software company told them that among other things, market volatility – but not foster debate and policy development around ICT professionalism. and when it was deployed played a role in the disaster, the software including the software flaw – were to blame. had three primary flaws that immediately caused the failure. As a Closer to home, last year, 21 children who were wrongfully What’s at stake? result, it is estimated that 46 people lost their lives. arrested because of a computer error joined a class action against Unfortunately, there is no shortage of examples of ICT failures, with More recently, in 2011, an investment fund that hid flaws in a the NSW government. “The NSW police are relying on a computer tragic and serious consequences. In 1992, for example, a software computer application that set the fund’s strategy for making trades system that contains incorrect or out-of-date bail information,” system for the London ambulance service was unable to keep track was forced to pay a $US25 million fine and pay back $US217 million Public Interest Advocacy Centre senior solicitor, Vavaa Mawuli, says. of the ambulances and their statuses, and kept sending multiple in losses suffered by investors because of the problem. AXA Rosen- “This means they are wrongfully arresting children and young people units to some locations and no units to other locations. burg Group caught a coding error in April 2010, but the employees for breaches of outdated bail conditions.” Profile : IFIP IP3 Information Age May/June 2013 | 19

Why IP3? recognised this growing problem by creating the Grand Coalition concentrating on attracting young people into the study of ICT As we can see, the stakes are incredibly high now that ICT for Digital Jobs. Despite the financial crisis, the ICT sector is in order to redress the perceived skills shortages that are underpins nearly all aspects of our lives. According to Brenda growing in Europe and it is estimated that by 2015, there will be emerging,” Aynsley says. “Australia ought to consider doing Aynsley, IFIP IP3 chair and ACS representative, dangers arise a shortage of 900,000 ICT professionals. likewise as well as utilising the short term solution of 457 visas out of careless or thoughtless and unprofessional behaviour. In its submission to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and which address skills shortages in specific areas. “We need to mitigate risk to life, economic loss at individual, Reporting Authority’s (ACARA) paper ‘Draft Shape of the Australian “More also needs to be done to help older workers, for corporate and national levels,” Aynsley says. “It is a matter Curriculum: Technologies’ last year, ACS CEO Alan Patterson example, or those made redundant to get back into the work- of enshrining trust in the ICT profession, a profession which warned that the continuing decline in ICT course enrolments force. These workers are typically demonstrated professionals underpins so much of everyday life from social media and combined with an increase in ICT skills shortages is threatening with a commitment to lifelong professional development but communications to medicine and education, food technology and the development of Australia’s $100 billion digital economy. HR practices often seek lower-cost options focusing on finding research.” “In Australia, ICT skills shortages continued to grow by up to employees with some experience and a demonstrated capacity IFIP IP3’s mission includes promoting professionalism in ICT 14,000 extra ICT jobs in 2012 and 35,000 by 2014,” Patterson said. to get the job done, ignoring the candidate’s commitment to by helping member societies create and administer professional “At the same time, curriculum initiatives in ICT at the secondary professionalism.” certification schemes. Through this process, the aim is to give level have not gone far enough to encourage high-achieving stu- Leon Strous, IFIP president 2010-2013, will be in Australia the ICT profession the kind of recognition and prestige other dents in Years 11 and 12 to study tertiary ICT courses or promote later this year to talk with government and industry about these professions like law, accountancy and medicine enjoy. the discipline as a rewarding and vibrant career. important issues. ¢ “Historically one of the consequences of business disasters is “Over the past decade, a determination to improve professional standards in the indus- universities have not been Brenda Aynsley Leon Strous tries responsible,” Aynsley says. “IFIP IP3 is a global initiative to successful in attracting bright be pro-active in this regard working with industry, government school leavers to consider ICT and professional societies around the world. as a study area, compared “The innate professionalism of individuals in itself is not to other professions such enough today; organisations and governments need to know as (law and medicine). As a that individuals’ professionalism has been certified to globally consequence, many students recognised standards. with an undergraduate degree “ICT is one of a handful of professions where best practices have not been able to secure and standards are not recognised or employed consistently professional ICT employment.” across the globe. ICT needs common standards of practice, ACS research has also knowledge and ethical boundaries.” found that, in Australia, less In September 2008, the ACS became the first professional body than 50 per cent of ICT profes- to be accredited with the ACS Certified Professional (CP) scheme. sionals typically possess a degree level qualification in Australia’s skill shortage ICT. The issue of competence and professionalism will only be “The Europeans, through exacerbated by a global skills crisis. In Europe, the EU has the Grand Coalition, are now Views : careers Information Age May/June 2013 | 20

We all have a role to play in encouraging new ICT recruits By Michael Harte

eing invited to speak to students at universities is something I am often asked to do. It is important to do as we need to Battract a new generation to the ICT industry. The industry is facing a period where there has been a steady decline in enrolments in tertiary computer science and ICT courses. problem is the industry is failing to make their organisation attractive. In order to boost enrolments and hopefully increase ICT graduates, You need to only look at the high school exam results across the What we need to do is sell the dream. the industry and universities need to work better together. nation to see how smart this country really is, particularly in maths Do you want to work on the latest mobile phone applications that We need to attract talented maths and science students into a and science. make it into the top 10 in app stores? Do you want to design and build career in the information industry where they can be innovative and However, while there are smart people achieving stellar results in online websites that regularly rank as the most visited sites in Australia? work on projects that will better help people and better help society. maths at high school, these people are not enrolling in mathematics, Do you want to work in a collaborative modern environment, with the The failure to attract talented high school students into computer computer science and information technology courses at universities. latest technology at your fingertips? Do you want to be supported by science and information technology courses at university is a failure The reason for this is a failing in encouraging excitement about modern network and enterprise applications that enable you to take to encourage innovation. the ICT industry. an idea and fully develop and launch it in months? That’s why the industry needs to change how it ‘markets’ ICT. We When I chat to university students and I ask them where they want I have not described working for a leading search engine need to focus on what we are and what we do: creative and innovative to work and what they want to do at those organisations, the feedback organisation and I am not referring to working at a popular social organisations that better help people. is they wish to work at brands that are regarded as innovative. They networking site. Everything I have just described happens at Com- I look at the Australian ICT industry and see the foundations for want to work on exciting projects and in a creative environment. monwealth Bank. wonderful times ahead: smart graduates, innovative ideas and organi- I’ve yet to speak to an ICT graduate who says their dream job is to We may be a non-traditional IT organisation like the big name ICT sations like Commonwealth Bank willing to foster the next generation be a database administrator, system specialist or coder of a legacy services and consultancy brands, however, when it comes to technology of ICT professionals. ¢ application. and computer science, we have the budgets, the projects and the The problem is not that there is a lack of skilled ICT graduates. There ideas that allow our people to work on some of the most cutting-edge Michael Harte is group executive of enterprise services and chief may be fewer of them, but that doesn’t mean they are not skilled. The technology projects in the country. information officer at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Views : BYOD Information Age May/June 2013 | 21

Technology match the tools available in their personal lives. Against this background, The concept car provides an innovative rethink of the problem BYOD is a natural fit. BYOD has become an irresistible force. by embedding intelligence into the car. This reduces the technology burden on officers, while adding new services. The car itself becomes planners: think Many organisations have been experimenting with a data scoop that collects information about its surroundings while alternate solutions making online enquires to central support systems. Activities can COPE (corporately owned, privately enabled) is proving to be a popular include number plate registration checks and situational threat analysis. beyond BYOD solution in certain situations. This is particularly the case for a number Police officers only need to become involved when action is required. of regulated industries, or for addressing the needs of some externally By Kevin Noonan facing roles. The real value of mobile lies in workplace reform There are big savings for some types of work, if the BYOD devices Smartphones, tablets and BYOD are already delivering significant pro- can be used to replace fixed line phones, as well as existing mobile ductivity improvements in the way work is performed in the enterprise, he underlying value proposition for BYOD in the enterprise is devices. In such cases, COPE may be the best policy as it provides a but these are just steps along the journey. Over time these technologies undeniable, and it is already having a profound impact on many simple solution to practical problems such as: who owns the phone will continue to evolve and change. However, these productivity gains Tenterprises. Today, the question is no longer if BYOD should number? What happens to client contacts when the staff member will be lost, unless these gains are realised through workplace reform. be implemented but how it should be implemented, and what part it departs? Who ultimately decides conditions of use? This requires ICT to build partnerships within the enterprise to drive should play in the strategic vision of the enterprise. However, COPE does have some significant disadvantages. For reform, not just the technology that enables it. ¢ example, it is difficult for many enterprises to keep up with the multitude Standing still is not a practical option of personal devices on the market. Also, many staff are already locked Kevin Noonan is a research director in Ovum’s government practice. Recent Ovum research indicates that the BYOD horse has already into personal phone plans. These can limit the value of corporate phone Email comments to [email protected] bolted. In every country surveyed, Ovum found the number of enter- contracts and the theoretical value of COPE. On balance, BYOD appears to prises using BYOD (whether planned or not), far exceeds the number offer a pragmatic solution that meets most general usage requirements. of enterprises with procedures to manage its use. The time has come to catch up, realign management procedures and harvest the benefits. Mobile technology is morphing into more than just In a 2012 report, the World Bank observed that mobile technology phones and tablets had arguably become the world’s most ubiquitous modern technology. While smartphones and tablets continue to dominate the mobile It is therefore not surprising that these devices have quickly found market, it would be a mistake to limit strategic technology plans their way into the workplace. only to the use of such devices. Embedded technology is beginning Concurrent with these changes, other forces have been at play. The to create new opportunities for business innovation and job redesign. boundary between work and personal time has continued to evaporate. One such example is the development of the Concept Car for the Work is just one part of the complex life we all lead. It is no longer West Australian Police. Mobile technology is no stranger to police practical to artificially separate the way we organise our work lives, forces around the world – smartphones and car-mounted laptops and our private lives. have been in use for many years. However, there are practical In our complicated existence, there is no longer a place for discon- limits to the number of devices an officer can refer to without being nected work and personal diaries, and separate mobile tools. Technically weighed down or distracted from the very duties these devices enabled workers are now clamouring for more productive tools that were meant to assist with. Views : ICT management Information Age May/June 2013 | 22

The CIO as The gap between the two experiences must and will be closed, and know the processes and policies at all levels of the company and the not only to mollify the new generation of users and customers, but to tools to support them. As members of the C-suite, CIOs are familiar enable professionals to do better and more innovative work, to help with long-term strategic goals, which is an essential perspective in change agent for the firm attain new levels of performance. crafting an enduring new corporate structure. It’s inevitable that companies will embrace these new platforms A global survey of 402 executives in Europe and North America, con- of collaboration and engagement as aggressively as individuals have ducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in cooperation with Cognizant the workplace of in their private lives. Business Consulting, examined the role of CIOs in restructuring how Forward-thinking companies are already changing their operations work is conducted throughout the organisation. It found that companies the future to support new work structures based on virtual teams, rather than leading the movement toward virtual and collaborative processes – traditional hierarchies and communication channels. These teams often spurred by the CIO – are garnering impressive business results, By John Burgin can be powerful operational resources, particularly when it comes particularly with respect to innovation, talent recruitment and retention, to knowledge-based work. Adopting cloud-enabled platforms and and productivity. social networking tools, they combine diverse skills to quickly carry CIOs, in close partnership with CEOs, have an extraordinary oppor- or most of us, the technology we experience in the work- out complex tasks and foster more productive relationships with internal tunity to act as change agents to help their companies master the place is starkly different from the technology we use in our and external partners. new requirements for leadership. Let’s consider the forces behind Feveryday lives. Consider the typical Sunday evening experience The CIO is in the optimal position to lead this profound transformation this corporate transformation, and how CIOs can lead the charge to at home. We open up one of our dazzling personal computing devices with cross-functional views of the organisation, and familiarity with the richer, more engaging workplace of the future. ¢ and enter an online world that is virtual yet rich, global yet intimate. the people, tools, technologies, and techniques needed to create a It’s a place of friendship and idea sharing, where colourful photos and corporate culture of virtual, collaborative teams using social networking John Burgin is vice president at Cognizant, a global provider of videos flow as effortlessly as the human voice. These are moments platforms. Particularly within knowledge-intensive enterprises, they information technology, consulting, and business process services. of true engagement. Then Monday morning arrives. After a long commute, one settles in at one’s desk. Yes, the standard-issue computer gives access to standardised systems of record, providing abundant access to data – yet precious little human engagement. It’s all restrictive and confining, both physically and conceptually. Work technology has become a limiter, not an enhancer. The striking contrast between the Sunday night and Monday morning computing experience – between the engaging and custom- isable personal IT experience and the rigid and mandated workplace IT experience – has become much worse than a personal irritant. It has become a business risk and a competitive burden, and an obstacle to attracting the best and the brightest talent – especially the new generation of digital natives, the so-called millennials, who have been born and raised on collaborative social tools. Views : ICT strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 23

Digital opportunities and threats groups and enter or create completely new businesses based on digital capabilities. The value of harvesting comes from continually Linda Price tuning existing digital assets, not just for improved ICT efficiency and effectiveness, but also to serve the evolving needs of the business and its customers. IO budgets in Australia and New Zealand are expected to grow based on the combined impact of mobile, big data/analytics, cloud and an average of 2.6 per cent this year. However, 52.3 per cent of social technologies (what Gartner calls the ‘nexus of forces’). They can Stepping outside the comfort zone CCIOs report that their budgets are flat, and 27 per cent expect create new ‘digital edge’ capabilities using different combinations of As business needs and opportunities evolve, more CIOs find them- them to decline, according to the 2013 Gartner executive programme’s physical and digital resources, or identify threats from non-traditional selves leading in areas outside of traditional ICT. In addition to their global survey of 1959 CIOs, which included 112 CIOs from Australia areas based on digital capabilities (what American companies Borders tending role, they are assuming responsibility for hunting for digital and New Zealand. This marks another round of ICT strategies based and Kodak failed to do). opportunities and harvesting value. on doing more with less – really just doing the same with less. Exploiting these trends will allow organisations to enrich the According to the Gartner Executive Programme’s 2013 CIO Survey, Technology needs a new story. The current story revolves around customer experience, serve customers better, target new customer the vast majority of CIOs in Australia and New Zealand have significant current operations, with a focus on cost, quality and services. It is a leadership responsibilities outside of ICT, with only 22 per cent having story defined by ICT’s role as ‘tender’ of the garden of legacy applica- no other responsibilities. tions, outsourced operations and limited value creation. CIO tenure with the enterprise is a significant factor in gaining The current story is not working. On average, CIOs globally report responsibilities outside of ICT. The longer the tenure, including time that their enterprises realise only 43 per cent of technology’s potential. not as a CIO, the more context and connections the CIO has for playing Clearly this number needs to increase if organisations are to create a broader role in the enterprise. ANZ CIOs have spent on average 4.2 value via technology. years as CIO in their current organisation, close to the global average of 4.6 years. From tending the garden to hunting and One third of ANZ CIOs now act as their enterprise’s chief digital harvesting officer, leading digital commerce and channels. Though this nascent The CIO’s role has traditionally been to nurture ICT services and their role varies in scope and style, it normally includes championing the infrastructure in service of business processes, and then to execute digital vision for the business. discrete projects aimed at replacing legacy systems or fulfilling new CIOs face a future torn between current operations and digital needs identified by the business. The business value created from opportunities. Hunting for digital innovation and harvesting that value this paradigm is further automation, integration and standardisation. across the enterprise describes a deeper role for technology in the This ‘tending the back office’ approach leaves gaps in two areas: first, enterprise and a step outside the comfort zone for many. proactively identifying business opportunities based on new digital To make room for this, set aside old tools and adopt new rules: capabilities and realities (hunting), and second, extending value from there is simply not enough ICT capacity to start new things without existing information and technology investments (harvesting). stopping others. ¢ Taking on a greater hunting role benefits the business in finding and acting on disruptive digital opportunities and threats early and Linda Price is group vice-president, executive programmes, with often. CIOs can guide the organisation in re-imagining business models Gartner. Hot skills : big data Information Age May/June 2013 | 24

Big data means big job opportunities – for the right people A slew of new jobs is expected to open up in big data, but not everyone in ICT will qualify. Here’s what employers will be looking for. By Tam Harbert Hot skills : big data Information Age May/June 2013 | 25

s big data gathers momentum, it’s helping to create big career says John Reed, senior executive director at ICT staffing firm Robert opportunities for ICT professionals, if they have the right Half Technology. And, as Sacheti’s title demonstrates, some big data Aqualifications. jobs contain neither the word big nor the word data. Companies are, and will continue to be, looking for employees with Phillips says some companies come to his firm for help recruiting a complex set of skills to tap big data’s promise of competitive advan- big-data talent. First they ask where to look for candidates. “Then they tage, market watchers say. “There’s no question that the number one stop in their tracks and say, ‘Wait, how do I know what I’m looking requirement [for] enterprises that are serious about gaining a competitive for?’” he says. advantage using data and analytics is going to be the talent to run that Greta Roberts, CEO of Talent Analytics, which makes software program,” Jack Phillips, CEO of research firm International Institute designed to help employers correlate employees’ skills and innate char- for Analytics (IIA), says. acteristics to business performance, says everyone is asking the same But what exactly constitutes “big data talent”? What are these jobs, questions. and what skills do they require? What kind of background qualifies a “Everybody’s asking, how do you identify these people? What skills person for a big data job? We took the pulse of some prominent players do you look for? What is their degree?” she says. in the emerging field to determine an ICT worker’s place – if any – in Roberts, Phillips and other experts say the skills most often mentioned the big data universe. Here’s what they had to say. in connection with big data jobs include maths, statistics, data analysis, business analytics and even natural language processing. And although Buckets of skills titles aren’t always consistent from employer to employer, some, such “There is no monolithic ‘big data profession’,” says Sandeep Sacheti, as data scientist and data architect, are becoming more common. former head of business risk and analytics at UBS Wealth Management. Sacheti now holds the newly created position of vice president A curious mind is key of customer insights and operational excellence at Wolters Kluwer As companies search for big data talent, they’re tending to target appli- Corporate Legal Services, and his new job is all about big data: using cation developers and software engineers more than ICT operations analytics to understand customers, develop new products and cut professionals, says Josh Wills, senior director of data science at Cloudera, operational costs. which sells and supports a commercial version of the open-source In one project, the Wolters division that sells electronic billing ser- Hadoop framework for managing big data. vices to law firms is using analytics to mine data it gathers from its That’s not to say ICT operations specialists aren’t needed. After all, customers (with their permission) to create new products, including they build the infrastructure and support the big data systems. the Real Rate Report, which benchmarks law firm rates in the US. “This is where the Hadoop guys come in,” says DJ Patil, data scientist Sacheti is now both hiring from the outside and training internal in residence at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm. “Without staffers for big data work. He thinks of big data jobs in terms of four these guys, you can’t do anything. They are building incredible infra- “buckets” of skill sets: data scientist, data architect, data visualiser and structure, but they are not necessarily doing the analysis.” data change agent. ICT staffers can quickly learn Hadoop through traditional classes But there are no standard titles; other employers likely use different or by teaching themselves, and burgeoning training programs at the buckets and value different skills. What one company calls a data major Hadoop vendors are proof that many ICT people are doing so, analyst, for example, might be called something different elsewhere, he says. Hot skills : big data Information Age May/June 2013 | 26

That said, most of the jobs emerging in big data require knowledge Wills, for example, took a circuitous path to the role of data scien- of programming and the ability to develop applications, as well as an tist. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in maths, he pursued understanding of how to meet business needs. a graduate degree in operations research while working for a series of The most important qualifications for these positions aren’t degrees, companies before dropping out to take a job at Google in 2007. (He did certifications, experience or titles. Rather, they seem to be soft skills: a eventually complete that master’s degree.) Wills worked at Google as a curious mind, the ability to communicate with non-technical people, statistician and then as a software engineer before moving to Cloudera a persistent, even stubborn, character and a strong creative bent. and assuming his data science title. Patil has a PhD in applied mathematics. Sacheti has a PhD in agri- In short, big data people seem to be jacks of all trades and masters cultural and resource economics. According to Patil, the qualities of of none, and their greatest skill may be the ability to serve as the “glue” curiosity and creativity matter more than one’s field of study or level in an organisation, Wills says. “You can take someone who maybe is of academic credential. not the world’s greatest software engineer [nor] the world’s greatest “These are people who fit at the intersection of multiple domains,” statistician, but they have the communications skills to talk to people he says. “They have to take ideas from one field and apply them to on both sides” as well as to the marketing team and C-level executives, another field, and they have to be comfortable with ambiguity.” he says.

Big data job titles and skills

Without conventional titles, or even standard undefined data and lots of ambiguity. They may be background, but they also need the communication qualifications, it’s hard to know what makes someone people with traditional programming or business skills to translate jargon into terms others can suitable for a big data job. This listing, based on inter- intelligence backgrounds, and they’re often familiar understand. views with big data experts and recruiters, attempts with statistics. They need the creativity and persis- Data engineers/operators: The designers, to match up some of the most common titles with the tence to be able to harness data in new ways to create builders and managers of the big data infrastructure. skills required. new insights. They develop the architecture that helps analyse Data scientists: The top dogs in big data. This Data visualisers: Technologists who translate and process data in the way the business needs it. role is probably closest to what a 2011 McKinsey analytics into information a business can use. They And they make sure those systems are performing report calls “deep analytical talent”. Some companies harness the data and put it in context, in layman’s smoothly. are creating high-level management positions for data language, exploring what the data means and how “The people who do the best are those that have an scientists. Many of these people have backgrounds in it will affect the company. They need to be able to intense curiosity,” DJ Patil says. Patil probably knows maths or traditional statistics. Some have experience understand and communicate with all parts of the what he’s talking about: Forbes magazine credits or degrees in artificial intelligence, natural language business, including C-level executives. him and Cloudera founder Jeff Hammerbacher with processing or data management. Data change agents: People who drive coining the term data scientist. And earlier in his Data architects: Programmers who are good changes in internal operations and processes based career, Patil helped develop the data science team and at working with messy data, disparate types of data, on data analytics. They may come from a Six Sigma strategy at LinkedIn. Hot skills : big data Information Age May/June 2013 | 27

“These are people who cut across IT, software development, app The IIA sees data science as resting on three legs: technological development and analytics,” and he believes such professionals are (ICT, systems, hardware and software); quantitative (statistics, maths, rising in prominence. “I’m seeing a shift in value that companies are modelling and algorithms); and business (domain knowledge), according assigning to these people.” to Phillips. “The professionals we see who are successful come from Sacheti, too, keeps his eye out for people like that. “We are finding the quantitative side,” he says. “They know about the technology, but there are a lot more who are flexible in learning new skills, willing to they aren’t running the technology. They rely on IT to give them the do iterative design and agile thinking,” he says. tools.” Big data also demands a scientific temperament, Wills says. “When we talk about data science, it’s really an experiment-driven process. You’re usually trying lots of different things, and you have to be OK with failure in a pretty big way.” Wills believes there’s a “certain kind “A predisposition of relentlessness” you need in the personality of someone who does to curiosity can be this kind of work. more predictive Big data professionals also have to be intellectually flexible enough to quickly change their assumptions and approaches to problems, says of someone’s Brian Hopkins, an analyst at Forrester Research. “You can’t limit performance in yourself to one schema but [need to be comfortable] operating in an a role than them environment with multiple schemas or even no schemas,” he says. That tends to be a different approach than most ICT people are used having a degree in, to. “IT people coming out of a strong enterprise IT shop are going to say, IT or IS or CS” perhaps be constrained a little bit in their ability to do things quickly and move fast and be agile,” Hopkins says. But once hiring managers find the right type of person, they’re usually willing to retrain that person to fill a big data role. For example, Patil used to work at LinkedIn, where, he says, “we largely trained ourselves, because so much of this is open source”. He thinks the same thing can Roberts agrees. “The innate characteristics of people, like a predis- happen at most companies. “You can make these people” if they have position to curiosity, can be more predictive of someone’s performance the right personality, he says. in a role than them having a degree in, say, IT or IS or CS,” she says. ICT workers who are flexible, willing to learn new tools and have a bit of an artist somewhere within can move into data architecture or Wanted: relentless, scientific temperament even data visualisation, Sacheti says. Until recently, creativity, curiosity and communications skills haven’t In short, big data carries big potential for ICT pros who would relish typically been emphasised in ICT departments, which may be why an opportunity to show their creativity. ¢ many employers aren’t looking to their ICT operations staff to find people to spearhead big data projects. Tam Harbert is a writer specialising in technology, business and public policy. Trends : skills Information Age May/June 2013 | 28

The rise of the UX expert ICT professionals with the right mix of user experience skills are in high demand, and enjoy great job satisfaction. By Howard Baldwin Trends : skills Information Age May/June 2013 | 29

oberto Masiero vividly remem- expert on board need to get serious about aesthetic,” Masiero says. “The image of an airline pilot to a hotel manager. And bers the moment in 2011 when it begging, borrowing or stealing one, an your brand is at stake in your mobile you have to create a design so that the Rbecame clear to him that designing increasingly difficult proposition. application now. Companies that have experience is accessible to everyone, a mobile application was a considerably Developers with user interface (UI) great design, whether they’re a restaurant while still providing them with a sense different effort than designing a desktop and user experience (UX) expertise are chain or a car manufacturer, have a more of uniqueness.” application. hot these days, according to Shane Bern- valuable brand,” and the same standards As head of the innovation labs for ADP, stein, managing director of QConnects, a apply internally, he says. High tech, high touch a payroll services firm, he managed the digital recruitment firm. And it’s a fairly Moreover, as mobile computing With design at the forefront of everyone’s engineering team tasked with creating recent phenomenon, he says. Between explodes, a company’s client base becomes mind, UX experts are suddenly in high ADP Mobile, the company’s version of 2010 and 2011, QConnects saw a 25 per both broader and more demanding of a demand and short supply. One reason its human capital management application cent increase in the number of requests for consumer-like product experience. As they’re hard to find is that the position for mobile devices. UX designers. Between 2011 and 2012, Masiero notes, 10 years ago his compa- spans multiple disciplines: design, pro- “We started out with a list of 100 fea- the increase was 70 per cent. ny’s sole target audience was the human gramming and human behaviour. “When tures that we thought were awesome,” resources department. That’s no longer you find that person, let me know,” Masiero says, but his team’s enthusiasm Thanks to Apple, users expect true. Masiero jokes. perfection ran smack into the collective disdain of the “With mobile devices becoming ubiq- UX designer Whitney Quesenberry, user experience designers they’d brought In design parlance, the user interface (UI) uitous, we have to serve 30 million users, who runs her own agency and has done in from an outside agency, who deemed is what the user sees; the user experience from somebody on a construction site to work for Novartis, Siemens, Dow Jones feature after feature irrelevant for mobile (UX) is how the application behaves. users, arguing that so many options would Both recruiters and practitioners stress just confuse them. that designers need to know the latter as By the time the designers were fin- much as the former. That is, they need ished, they had whittled the list of features to concentrate not only on how a design down by 80 per cent. “Their message was looks, but on the whole “wireframe” of simple,” Masiero says. “Less is more.” the application, and where their requests In a mobile application, it is better to are going into the back end of the system. cleanly provide the 20 most important What’s driving the demand for such A key benefit for ICT business owners or contractors pieces of information than force people skills? Many people in the industry lay becoming an ACS Certified Computer Professional is to navigate through 100 that they might the credit – or perhaps blame – on Apple, that you qualify for capped liability. never use. with its near-fetishistic attention to how This means your risk is limited to the amount of your “We learned that you have to drop design, hardware and interface intersect. professional indemnity insurance cover. completeness in the name of usefulness.” “Now people expect everything they For more information on how to get covered visit What’s more, like a lot of other tech interface with to have the ease of use of www.acs.org.au/cert leaders, Masiero realised that in this age of the iPhone,” says Matt Miller, CTO of mobility and user-driven technology, ICT technical recruiting firm CyberCoders. shops that don’t have a user experience “Apple forces everybody to match their Trends : skills Information Age May/June 2013 | 30

and Eli Lilly among other companies, director Donna Farrugia insists that Grow your own UX team in the design world to learn interaction says UX experts “do a little bit of market the more cross-disciplined a designer is With so much in the business world and Web and digital skills, so they’ve research, a little bit of psychology”. the better, with the ability to combine dependent on the success of mobile been adding to their portfolio,” she says. “We’re synthesisers, pulling bits good design and layout background with applications these days, most companies “Vice versa, people on the technical side and pieces of different methodologies technology skills encompassing HTML feel they can’t forego development until are interacting more frequently with the together,” she says. “UX is like program- coding and JavaScript. “The ideal is this universities churn out more graduates front-end team to understand usability, ming – there’s not just one job involved.” hybrid person who’s both right-brained with the ideal mix of design and coding personas and usage scenarios.” and left-brained, high tech and high sensibilities. Beasley concurs that it frequently takes Why UX designers love their jobs touch,” she says. In the meantime, they cope by forming at least two to tango. “A really creative The job description is amorphous and That pretty closely describes Beasley, multidisciplinary teams to stand in for one designer may help [the organisation] make challenging: to understand a given app’s a designer with a BA in English and perfect UX expert. “A designer might not big leaps to a whole new level of quality, interface requirements, user experience music and a masters’ degree in human- be able to program, but they should be but the quantitative side is just as impor- context and back-end machinations. computer interaction. able to have a reasonable conversation tant. Designers would do well to get more UX designers themselves say there “That’s where I got my approach to with a programmer so they understand comfortable with the technical side, to are other, intangible benefits to the posi- interface design,” Beasley says. “The the impact of a design decision,” Quesen- build up those skills and knowledge.” ¢ tion. “Money only takes you so far,” says multidisciplinary approach taught me berry says. Michael Beasley, a designer for Internet design, human cognition and usability Farrugia has seen these hybrid design Silicon Valley-based freelancer Howard Baldwin marketing agency Pure Visibility. “The principles and methods. I also got a good teams form more frequently over the past has 24 years’ experience translating technology into work has to be interesting, not the same understanding of how organisations work few years. “We’ve been coaching people words businesses can understand. things over and over again. I like having and information flows.” fresh problems to tackle and the feeling That kind of background sits well with that I’m making a difference for our IT managers like Masiero, for whom good clients.” design goes deeper than rounded corners “The real perk is meaningful work,” on icons. “I want you to be a wizard of Quesenberry says. “Why would anybody understanding the mental model of the IT’s personal want to work on something where you user and translating that into the behav- spend the first six months writing about iour of the application,” he says. “You requirements and the next six arguing have to always think about making the The CPE Program is designed by ICT experts for recent about them?” user comfortable, about not creating any graduates and young professionals operating in the Her advice for becoming a highly friction between what the user expects to ICT market. prized designer with both technical depth happen and what the application expects Through the CPE Program you get access to a dedicated, and design breadth is to talk your way from the user.” one-on-one mentor to help you build on your skills. The CPE Program is unique in offering highly focused, onto one of the hybrid design teams that “Designers who understand human personal training in ICT. are becoming more prevalent within IT interaction are one step ahead of everyone departments and learn all you can. else,” Farrugia says. “They are rare and For more information visit www.acs.org.au/cpeprogram The Creative Group’s executive precious commodities.” Careers : cloud computing Information Age May/June 2013 | 31

What does a cloud career really mean? An industry in transition is creating confusion over job roles. By Rich Hein Careers : cloud computing Information Age May/June 2013 | 32

he term cloud computing has become part of Things that have never been included in what is paying between a 10 and 14 per cent of base the vernacular in companies of all industries would be considered a cloud role or job are now pay premium. Tand sizes. Over the past few years, more being added to the growing list of cloud jobs. Foote says he suspects that cloud architect will and more companies are moving to the cloud to Foote Partners’ original assessment of cloud likely be the first break-out role as companies save money, scale more easily and achieve faster jobs years ago included roles such as engineers, realise the need of an architectural eye when times to production. analysts and architects, along with some developer building a long-term plan. Companies can waste If you frequent job boards or listen to chatter and administrator jobs. Recently, as part of its a lot of money only to wind up at a dead-end if about cloud jobs, there is an explosion of career internal research of major job boards, it came they don’t begin with an architecture perspective. opportunities, but according to David Foote of up with about 150 different cloud job titles while “Companies have gotten religion the hard way Foote Partners, an analyst firm that specialises searching for cloud computing. when they didn’t architect very well. They paid for in ICT analysis and forecasting, cloud roles have “There isn’t a standard list of cloud jobs,” Foote it in time and jobs have been lost over it. These yet to be clearly defined. “We’re in a period of says. “You can say Linux or Unix is a cloud skill, people [architects] have to fit cloud computing transition where we’re moving to the next level but it’s also not a cloud skill. You have people using into some current architecture that they’ve got.” of what cloud means,” Foote says. Linux, XML and Python that have nothing to do The answer is that cloud training is essentially The challenge many companies face, he says, with cloud computing. Now you have these cloud cross-training, he says. “Taking people with skills is that we have yet to define the skills necessary versions of all of these broadly defined skills.” in different areas of infrastructure, development, for leveraging all the cloud has to offer, and as a This type of shake out in ICT careers also architecture, networking, server configuration or result there’s a lot of confusion over what a cloud occurred at the dawn of the Internet phenomenon. administration and then adding a set of skills into role really is. Many companies who were using the web had those people to make them a different flavour of no idea what developer roles were or what they the specialist that they once were.” Time for a new look at cloud careers should be paying their people. Foote says that over the next 12 to 18 months, Foote Partners reports that it is rethinking its What this means, Foote says, is that we’re now we will start seeing hard data that will begin to definition of what the cloud is now compared in a period of rapid evolution. “It hasn’t shaken out show how and where different companies are to the last four years. The firm is starting from yet. The cloud market is in transition and hasn’t spending their money. This will give insight into scratch, using its network of more than 2500 com- ordained or adopted a set of jobs or skills that where the market is going to settle. panies to figure out what roles and responsibilities you can call cloud skills. Companies are totally As for the future of cloud computing roles, specifically tie into cloud and if or how they break confused on what they are going to do from a “We believe growth in the cloud will come mainly down into different tiers. human capital perspective.” from in-house training,” he says. “A lot of the best “We need to retool our own view of the cloud cloud people will come out of your own internal now that is has become more mainstream and One cloud role already paying off training efforts.” ¢ there are so many players in the market,” Foote That being said, Foote Partners has identified says. “Cloud is blowing out into a very inclusive one certification for which employers are paying Rich Hein is a senior writer, covering ICT careers and definition.” a premium. EMC Cloud Architect, Foote says, developer topics. Skills : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 33

Spotlight hot skills on your resume Soft skills are key to career advancement, but they’re difficult to quantify. Here’s how to revamp your resume to make your talents shine. By Mary K. Pratt Skills : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 34

ne of the most daunting tasks in a job search is The best approach is to think of ways that your so you can better understand the problem? When asked devising a resume that’s going to get you past that technical accomplishments contributed to your com- to pull data, do you learn why it’s needed so you can Ofirst cut. To do that, though, you have to know pany’s ability to reach its goals, says Michael P. Brooks present the data in a way that offers an holistic view of what the hiring manager really wants. Sr., regional account executive at Kforce Professional the information for the person who requested it? Sure, that’s easy when it comes to the required tech- Staffing, and president of the Boston chapter of the If you answered yes to these questions, then you’ve nical skills: degree in computer science. Five years’ Society for Information Management. got the mindset that hiring managers want. experience. Java expertise. Check. Check. Check. Then spell that out on your resume by using phrases To show that on your resume, Russell recommends But how do you recognise – and then convey on your like “contributed to such-and-such project, which listing accomplishments that highlight your approach. resume – the fact that you have, for example, team- improved customer service/saved money/generated “Describe how you used the skills [by mentioning] the building skills, the ability to work with minimal supervi- new revenue”, says Chad Lilly, director of recruiting at projects you’ve supported and the impact you know sion, excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, and Lextech Global Services, a mobile application design, you’ve had on the business,” she says. the ability to develop solutions using enterprise-level best strategy and development firm. practices? Those were actual requirements listed for a Some ICT people “have a harder time doing that Ability to innovate, passion for problem- solving senior .Net engineer in a recent posting. because they may only work on one component of a ICT professionals often skim past lists of desired soft larger system, and that’s one of the challenges that tech When it comes to recognising and promoting their ability skills when they’re reading job ads and don’t bother to people face”, Lilly says. “It’s an unconscious thing, but to innovate, ICT workers often sell themselves short, highlight them on their resumes, perhaps assuming they you have to start to incorporate the understanding of Amar Panchal, CEO of IT staffing firm Akraya, says. don’t have them. That’s a big mistake that can land your why you’re building what you’re building.” “Writing code is creative: you can write code in five resume in the wrong pile. different ways,” he says. “I’m stunned at how otherwise qualified people dis- Superior analytical and quantitative skills “You can use the same language in five different ways qualify themselves unintentionally,” says Rick Endres, Postings for business intelligence and analytics jobs to write a poem, but only when you use the words in the president of The Washington Network, an IT services naturally call for quantitative and analytic capabilities right way does the poem sound good. Writing a code company. because those positions require mathematical expertise. in an optimum way is just like writing a good poem.” Before you make that mistake, carefully consider your But hiring managers may also list such skills in other Consider how you approached an assignment and own experience, then think of all the skills that experi- ICT job postings in the hope of finding good thinkers, whether your contribution made a difference. Have you ence actually showcases and highlight those skills on says Rachel Russell, director at TEKsystems, an IT written code that improved an application’s performance your resume. staffing firm. or a business user’s ability to do a task? If you have, “that Here’s a look at how you can do that with five sets of They “want someone who can identify the root cause shows creativity – that you see there’s a better way to do non-technical skills culled from numerous job postings. of issues and recommend solutions that apply to the something,” Panchal says. business”, Russell says. Also, list the ways you’ve been recognised for that kind Ability to translate complex business goals How do you know you’ve got it? Consider how you of thinking, such as winning a corporate award. “If I The task of translating business goals might not be a big approach problem-solving, Russell says. Do you come see a resume that says ‘nominated’ or ‘won’ these kinds challenge for a business analyst, but how does a software up with multiple solutions and present them along with of awards, it shows me that they’re not just following developer or a database administrator demonstrate that the pros and cons of each? When the business asks for instructions,” Panchal says. he has such skills? help finding a solution, do you ask why they’re asking He says he also looks for ICT people who have applied Skills : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 35

for or gotten a patent, published an article, written blogs IT solutions company, says ICT people might hesitate The bottom line, according to ICT leaders and hiring or are contributors to user forums, all of which he con- to claim they have strong interpersonal skills because managers, is that job seekers need to not only list what siders proof of an innovative professional. they don’t have training in subjects like business com- they know but also show what they can do. munication, but there are several professional experiences ICT workers likely gain more experience than they Excellent communication skills that tell her a candidate does indeed possess such skills. realise in the various projects they work on, and they can Although technical people have a reputation for being For one thing, she looks for people who have been transfer that expertise from one job to another, experts introverted and prone to using techno-babble, you members or leaders of teams, because successfully com- say. But their resumes have to show hiring managers may have the communication skills hiring managers pleting a project as part of a team is difficult unless you they’ve got what it takes. As Howden advises, put your are seeking. In fact, many ICT professionals have had learn to work well with others. She also looks for ICT accomplishments front and centre. ¢ to develop and employ communication skills as part of pros with consulting experience, because that usually their everyday jobs. They just fail to recognise that and indicates that they’ve interacted with clients. Mary K. Pratt is a contributing writer to Information Age. don’t highlight it on their resumes. “A lot of technical individuals have a tremendous 4 resume tips for 2013 amount of certifications,” Mark Relf, a networking career 1. Tailor your resume to each job posting program instructor at US-based Computer Systems “You want to make sure you’re highlighting the Institute (CSI), a post-secondary education provider, skills that are important for that position,” says says. “They showcase that they know how to perform Mark Relf, an instructor at Computer Systems those tasks, but they don’t show how they’re able to Institute. communicate with folks.” 2. Keep it short Look at past jobs for proof: if you’ve worked on a Although resume length will vary depending on how long you’ve worked and how senior you are, two help desk where you’ve coached users through trouble- pages is about right for most people, says Michael shooting exercises, recapped for your colleagues what you Crom, executive vice president at Dale Carnegie learned at a conference, written a request for proposals Training. or briefed business partners on an IT project, then you 3. Think of your LinkedIn profile as a public resume have communication experience, says Robert Howden, “It shouldn’t be a duplicate of your resume, but it also a networking career program instructor at CSI. should match, because recruiters are checking If that sounds like you, Relf recommends adding “com- LinkedIn profiles, how many people you’re con- nected to, what groups you’re in, what books you munications” to your resume and briefly detailing such read. That tells them a lot about you that your experiences. resume doesn’t,” says Michael P. Brooks Sr., regional account executive at Kforce Professional Strong interpersonal skills, peer relationships Staffing. When HR manager Fran Peters is trying to fill an ICT 4. Solicit recommendations for your LinkedIn profiles. position, she looks for the ability to work well with others Putting “references upon request” at the bottom of in addition to strong technical skills. your resume is dated, says Rick Endres, president of The Washington Network. Peters, who works at SWC Technology Partners, an Management : strategies Information Age May/June 2013 | 36

Why the right technology – combined Rethinking how with the right people and attitudes – is crucial in reinventing how we work together. you collaborate Daniel Sims very organisation strives to be more productive, and finding ways to more effectively collaborate between Eindividuals and different parts of the organisation is key to this. Turning to technology to help this process and become more effective is a natural place to start. However, a recent study by Mindjet found that 67 per cent of the local businesses surveyed experienced chal- lenges in using collaboration tools. At the top of the list of barriers to deploying workplace tools was support for company-wide adoption, and the second was ensuring that staff had the appropriate level of training in the tools selected. Despite these challenges, 96 per cent of Australian workers surveyed indicated that they are required to collaborate in their roles, so those companies that can best support the adoption of these tools will ultimately benefit. Another key part of the productivity discussion is how businesses are poised to realign resources to meet the needs of the evolving business. This includes how we look to work effectively across different geographies, or with a wider range of external partners. For example, 73 per cent of Australian businesses indicated they were required to work with external teams often, if not on every project. So with the pressure to be more productive in an increasingly complex business environment, companies that are doing it right are striking the balance between effectively engaging staff and implementing the right technology, such as using collaboration tools. Management : strategies Information Age May/June 2013 | 37

Here are some ways to ensure your team are engaging Many Australian businesses are recognising this, Ensure that employees not only understand the ben- with these tools, and with each other. indicating a key method they would use to assist in efits of the tools, but also encourage the mobile use of overcoming their collaboration challenges in the future these products. By giving access to the right tools, you Keep it simple! would be to engage the support of top-level executives are empowering individuals to actively work on the go. ¢ Consider how you’re using the tools you or other to ensure widespread use. employees already know and love to supplement the In addition to this, it is important to encourage use Daniel Sims is marketing manager at mind-mapping and process. Many innovators are incorporating their existing at a grassroots level. Identify ‘champions’ from all levels collaborative work management solutions provider Mindjet. technology, for example by syncing the likes of email, within the workforce to truly see a benefit. By empow- calendars and social media to tap into their plans. Some ering individuals, and allowing them to act as mentors Changing behaviour are even attaching links to YouTube videos or images or guides to others in their organisation, the potential UNAIDS recently launched CrowdOutAIDS, an online for co-workers so they get the visual impact of the idea for this technology to be more widely adopted increases. collaborative project to crowdsource its program to to re-stimulate the original inspiration. Above all, a seemingly obvious suggestion, but an educate young people around the world about HIV/AIDS. Forty-two per cent of Australian businesses recognised important one, is to provide staff with education oppor- To meet this goal, CrowdOutAIDS hosted several forums on social networking sites that engaged more the need to shift to a simpler solution in order to see the tunities. Using a new tool can be intimidating, so make than 3500 participants and allowed them to share their benefits of successful collaboration, and it is important sure you provide sessions for employees to be brought experiences and perspectives on the issues. The group to consider sometimes that the right solutions can be up to speed and skilled. also used additional tools, like an online question-and- right under our nose. answer app. Rethinking the type of information we can include on Foster a mobile culture Using collaboration tools enabled the organisation to draft its proposal in the cloud and ensure the team the page, how we share it with others, providing alternate The idea of doing things ‘anywhere at any time’ has worked towards its goals in an efficient manner ways to engage with the ideas, and turning them into never been more applicable, as creative ideas can spring while benefiting from the collective brainpower of executable actions is revolutionising the way we plan. to mind in the most unusual places, so being properly contributors. Maximising tools to brainstorm and share With Australian businesses indicating that developing equipped with the right tools is critical. Whether it’s achieves important cultural outcomes that transform better products and services, and fostering stronger downloading an app, recording a conversation or using not only how we work, but how we live. This example demonstrates that a cookie-cutter relationships with suppliers, as key incentives for better a cloud solution to make or add notes, it’s vital that your approach doesn’t work in all situations. In Africa, the collaboration, it makes sense to equip businesses with team is armed to deal with inspiration when the moment tried and true methods they were using to change the tools that are the best fit for the organisation, but hits – in the airport lounge, in the middle of the night behaviour were working, but they were further are also simple enough to be embraced by all employees. or on the train home. complemented by new technologies, namely mobile With the ability to collaborate via the cloud, on a campaigns, which proved highly effective as they reached the right audience instantly and in a compelling Engage employees on all levels smartphone, through apps and even desktop solutions, way. There is probably nothing more compelling for the adop- the opportunities are endless, and by using these tools There is no reason why this same thinking should tion of these tools than for the boss to take the lead. If in clever ways we’re giving a new life to ideas that would not be used inside the enterprise. ICT directors and this is where the interesting, game-changing thinking have stayed on the page or white board and simply been managers need to think about their employees first is happening and employees are invited to participate, forgotten. These tools can be very successful, but it is and what their needs are as opposed to implementing a great tool that might end up being a bit like a square they will not only see the tools in action, but also be vital to develop a workplace culture that fosters mobile peg in a round hole. more inclined to participate in the collaboration process. collaboration for them to be most effective. Education sector : ICT strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 38

Getting an A in engagement

To combat upcoming challenges in the sector, universities will need to build stronger ties with stakeholders, an observer warns. By Marc Englaro Education sector : ICT strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 39

recent Ernst & Young higher education report thinking “commercially” is important, then adopting established universities have an enviable advantage provided an uncompromising conclusion for the language of commerce is an easy first step. over new entrants into the market, in that the good- A Australia’s universities: fundamentally trans- Customer relationship management (CRM) will developed between a student and their university form, or prepare to fail. describes the collection of business processes and can endure for long periods of time and often over a The report studied five trends affecting the educa- technology used to develop and maintain relationships lifetime. Those institutions that move first to develop tion sector globally and analysed the effects of these with its “customers”. In some circles the phase ‘xRM’ that goodwill into a wide range of deep engagements trends on future business models and funding. It has been proposed to indicate that the ‘x’ in relation- will have a platform from which to establish strategi- concluded that that the availability of knowledge and ship management can mean many different parties, cally valuable relationships and build a sustainable increased competition for both domestic and inter- not just the traditional paying customer, such as sup- competitive advantage. national sources will see most universities’ current pliers and partners. However, many organisations business model become unviable within 10 to 15 years. simply choose to widen the definition of customer What is customer engagement? Ernst & Young’s report makes uncomfortable to include all important stakeholders. It is this latter Customer engagement refers to the social phenom- reading for anyone in the sector but it also presents approach that will be taken in this report. Customers enon and behavioural shift from the passive accept- some unique opportunities for those who build signifi- in higher education include all important external ance of ‘brands’ to a far more interactive model where cantly deeper relationships with alumni and industry. stakeholders including students, alumni, other uni- the ‘consumer’ chooses how and when they wish to Cost cutting is rarely a satisfactory strategic versities, agents, industry and government. interact with an organisation, brand, community response to changing market conditions and increased or idea. One of the biggest effects of recent social competition. Structural shifts demand new strategic Importance of deeper relationships media technology is that these conversations can occur visions and new ways of harnessing growth. Customer Whether an institution’s future strategy is to become a without the permission or control of the organisation relationships are going to be critical to that process leading broad-based teaching and research institution, itself, and frequently even without their knowledge. because they are key to capturing long-term sources or to adopt a niche dominator role, any strategy will Those organisations that encourage and deepen of revenue-generating business opportunities as well require at its foundation a commitment to establish interaction and engagement around their offerings as other sources of fundraising. and defend strong, enduring and reciprocal relation- will be able to build and develop their brand in a way How can universities of the future harness these ships with a wide range of stakeholders (the ‘cus- that traditional advertising no longer provides. emerging growth opportunities and create sustain- tomers’) to execute the organisation’s strategic vision. The degree to which a person is considered able relationships? And what do they need to do to With the pervasive use of the Internet to research ‘engaged’ in a relationship is often measured in terms transform traditional alumni contacts into life-long, options and the rise of social media to connect with of the number and quality of interactions. reciprocal, and profitable relationships? peers, all organisations need to work hard to design an experience and engagement strategy that cuts through Measuring engagement The language of relationship the background noise and consistently delivers content Donations from alumni or new partnerships with management that is relevant to an individual, given their role, inter- industry are both obvious signals of engagement, but One of the key findings from the Ernst & Young report ests and stage of life. are typically the end result of long relationships and was the need for universities to become more commer- Developing new relationships can be expensive may have arisen from less obvious previous interac- cially oriented in their approach to acquiring, building and time-consuming, as any commercial busi- tions. To measure the leading indicators for success, and nurturing their key stakeholder relationships. If ness development manager will confirm. However, earlier signs of engagement need also to be measured. Education sector : ICT strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 40

The University of British Columbia, for example, data leads to loss of information and a corresponding this data. It no longer requires spamming the whole applies a value score to each category of interaction reduction in the effectiveness of any segmentation population, most of whom will have no interest in they have with their stakeholders with people who attempt. such an event. volunteer their time score most highly. For example, Industry best practice is based on having a defined The key to this approach is the collection, main- attendees at events score three points, speakers at customer information strategy and well-described tenance and effective use of information about events score eight, and volunteer board members processes to collect and maintain this information customers in order to provide them with the best receiving 15 points. in a CRM system. possible experience. In order to collect the informa- By measuring the aggregate scores of sections of the Making this information available to all customer- tion required, it is necessary for the customer to have alumni and non-alumni stakeholders, the effectiveness facing departments ensures that each interaction or an incentive to share and engage, and often this will of engagement campaigns and communications can communication is informed by the best possible require the organisation to provide something of be determined. information about the customer’s relationship and reciprocal value. interests. No CRM initiative will be successful without a Staying relevant Well-designed CRM systems embed processes for holistic approach for the structured collection, man- To maintain engagement, communications, cam- capturing and maintaining the demographic and other agement and utilisation of information, and the invest- paigns and interactions with a customer must be attributes about individuals and organisations, so that ment in CRM technology to underpin it. relevant. Overly frequent or irrelevant communica- this is always available for segmenting communica- tions simply highlight to a customer that they’re a tions and engagement opportunities. The student-career lifecycle name on a mailing list and not a valued member of The relationship between a person and a university the university’s community. Personalisation can potentially span decades, from an undergraduate In order to make sure interactions are relevant, it is If segmentation is the process of grouping stakeholders student to a senior executive, patron and donor. While first essential that the organisation know something with similar attributes and drawing inferences from each individual relationship will be unique, demo- useful about the interests of their stakeholders. these, personalisation is the strategy of using declared graphic profiling and analysis can provide insights interests down to the level of a single individual. into behavioural patterns, and the mechanism to Segmentation Similarly, by capturing information about an segment stakeholder population into groups with Segmentation has been the cornerstone of marketing individual’s particular interests, communication similar interests. for decades. It is based on the approach of dividing and engagement can be tailored to achieve the most By aligning communication with a stakeholder’s customers into subsets who have common attributes, effective result. stage in their life-cycle journey, messages can stay and therefore (presumably) common interests. By A simple example is using a survey to ask stake- highly relevant and meaningful, in turn promoting segmenting customers, organisations can design holders which subjects they’re interested in hearing response and engagement from the community. messages and experiences that best suit that group more about (e.g. research into mining technologies), of people. and the channels of communication they’d prefer School leaver, prospective student: for students However, executing a strategy of segmentation (e.g. cocktail events). Capturing this information at contemplating higher education, university represents can be hampered by the availability of information, the individual level ensures a university can attract a huge personal investment. The decision-making which is often spread across multiple databases and participants to the mining research awards cocktail process is a long and complex one, and often involves spreadsheets, if held at all. This fragmentation of evening simply by constructing the invitation list using significant research and consultation. Education sector : ICT strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 41

In the early stages, the relationship between a certification, and often these provide opportunities they are financially stable. They may be in a strong school leaver and a university is just beginning to form for alumni and universities to re-engage. Further position to reflect on their career and may wish to and can be influenced by a number of sources, both career development for graduates may also involve give back to the institution which provided their first formal and unstructured. These can include friends connecting with executive education, short courses opportunities. These relationships can be highly valu- and family, counsellors, open days, career fairs, the or postgraduate studies, which provides new oppor- able. They may result in a university establishing a UAC guide, as well as social media and blogs. tunities for the university to engage with relevant scholarship in a donor’s name, or the donor themselves Engaged and supportive communications will content and context. could use their corporate influence to contribute to support this process by maintaining higher levels major donations and projects. of trust and loyalty in the university’s brand and Middle-senior management: while not all gradu- reputation. ates pursue a career that takes them into leadership Actions for developing a relationship positions, many do and this can change the nature strategy Student: a university student is necessarily deeply of their relationship with the university. Without doubt the donor/patron relationship can be a immersed in the university environment, rich with No longer is the alumnus exclusively a consumer of highly profitable one. Yet developing and maintaining multifaceted interactions with the people and institu- education services. The person may have recruitment a relationship with your stakeholders up to this point tions around them. and staff development responsibilities and may influ- can be incredibly complex and often involves making Academic studies and exam results are obvi- ence the career and education of their team. They may strategic decisions about the way you communicate ously major factors, and can be both rewarding recommend executive education and short courses with them over time. and traumatic. Graduates often keep with them to address team skill deficiencies and postgraduate Universities could decide to embark on the segmen- the inspiration provided by particular educators as studies for staff seeking to make a deeper investment tation route and infer stakeholder interests through well as the frustrating experiences that will colour in their career. understanding their point in the education-career their overall perception and future dealings with Senior staff with hiring responsibility may also lifecycle, or they may research their database and ask the university. Administrative functions, enrolment, get involved in the university for work placement, key questions so as to personalise their communica- fees, student cards, timetabling and IT support will internships and careers. tions through targeted one to one campaigns. also all have a strong impact on student engagement We strongly recommend that every university for- and experience. Executive engagement with research/consulting: mulate a comprehensive CRM strategy that considers As experiences were only previously communicated as careers develop into senior management and execu- the value in each relationship and how it evolves over among a student’s group of peers, the explosion of tive roles, a stakeholder’s relationship with their uni- time, and includes decisions such as: social media has given a plethora of platforms for versity may change again. They may engage with the 1. Segment or personalise relationships students to express and form their opinions to fellow, university for research, or work with the expertise of 2. Design the customer’s experience future and past students. a particular faculty to develop strategic plans. They 3. Audit every touch-point could also engage with the university through various 4. Redesign the customer engagement approach Graduate-professional: when a student graduates joint-research and consulting engagements. 5. Measure success and constantly improve. ¢ and enters the workforce the relationship with the university radically alters. Many professions require Donor/patron relationships: typically by this stage Marc Englaro is the founder and CEO of InsightfulCRM, an continuous professional development to maintain of the lifecycle stakeholders are at a point in life where Australian business consulting and system integration firm. ICT management : digital strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 42

Finding some balance Here are some ways to respond to online reputation management nightmares. By James A. Martin ICT management : digital strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 43

ou have lots of happy customers, but they don’t feel any Online reputation management nightmare #1: negative reviews particular need to review your product or service online. The situation: an automotive company we asked the customer how we could solve YMeanwhile, a few dissatisfied customers waste no time with multiple locations had plenty of happy the problem they experienced. For positive trashing you on TripAdvisor, Twitter or any other forum they customers. Even so, a few disgruntled reviews, we thanked the customer. Either can think of. customers at different locations left nega- way, we wanted to show customers how Because those sites have strong authority with the search tive comments about the company on review important their feedback is.” sites. engines, the negative feedback is likely to show up on the first The result: for the six weeks leading up to As a result, the automotive company felt search results page for your company name. The net effect: even the trial, the automotive company averaged its online reputation was out of alignment just more than two online reviews for each though you largely have a happy customer base, suddenly you with its offline reputation, which was largely location that was selected for the trial. have an online reputation challenge. positive. During the six weeks of the trial, the It’s something many businesses have experienced. Here are The solution: the automotive company average jumped to more than eight online three examples of businesses that faced such challenges, as told turned to online reputation management reviews for each location involved in the by the online reputation management experts who helped them firm Reputation.com for help, says Brent trial. The control group locations saw no Franson, vice president of sales. A three- change. bounce back. (The experts we interviewed didn’t disclose details pronged reputation management trial Negative reviews as a percentage of total about their clients’ identities.) ¢ followed, running for six weeks in October reviews changed dramatically, according to and November 2012. Franson. In the six weeks before the trial, 40 James A. Martin is an SEO and social media consultant. Follow him on Twitter To begin, managers at select locations per cent of all reviews posted for the loca- @James_A_Martin. received access to Reputation.com’s moni- tions in the trial were negative. During the toring platform, reporting alerts and weekly trial, only 19 per cent of reviews for those status updates to gain insight into and locations were negative. proactively monitor feedback for their par- Again, the project’s authors found that, ticular locations. (There was a control group there was no measurable change for loca- of locations excluded from the reputation tions in the control group. management trial, Franson says, as a way to The takeaway: “proactively communicate gauge the project’s effectiveness.) to customers that your online reputation The next step was to ask recent cus- matters, and that their honest, genuine tomers of the select locations for their feedback is important to you,” Franson says. feedback. “Encourage them to leave reviews for you “We told customers how much online online. This will help put your online reputa- reputation matters, and how we would tion more in line with your offline one. You appreciate their honest feedback on the shouldn’t be worried about getting too many location they visited,” Franson says. “We negative reviews, unless you’re treating also suggested places for them to leave customers badly. Also, a five-star rating their reviews.” for a business looks suspicious to most The third piece of the plan was to respond people, while a 4.5-star rating looks more to all reviews for the locations involved in trustworthy.” the trial. “If there was a negative review, ICT management : digital strategy Information Age May/June 2013 | 44

Online reputation management nightmare #2: showing up on RipOff Report Online reputation management nightmare #3: CEO gets ill-timed bonus

The situation: a few years ago, when In a few cases, Sorenson contacted The situation: the CEO of a publicly authority and trust. Thus, an unflat- you did a Google search on the name of disgruntled bloggers or forum members traded company received an $11 million tering article from a top media site a particular home security company, and successfully convinced them to bonus around the same time that poses a particularly difficult online seven of the first 10 results were nega- reconsider their negative stance toward the company reported disappointing reputation challenge, since such articles tive, including an unflattering video, the home security company. Overall, earnings and its share price was being often rank highly for months or even article, forum comments and com- though, he says, “the solution was to hammered. Not surprisingly, a leading years. plaints on RipOff Report, a consumer push up positive stuff in the search national newspaper reported on the The solution: on the CEO’s company complaint site. results as a way to push down the situation. website, Performics optimised content “The company had done tens of thou- negative”. The article showed up prominently in that would rank highly for the CEO’s sands of home security installations and The result: it took about one year to the executive’s top 10 search results and name, such as a detailed leadership bio. had a satisfied client base,” says Don purge all the negative content about the remained there for months, says Brad In addition, Performics optimised pro- Sorenson, an online reputation manage- company from its first page of search Beiter, vice president of SEO strategy files for the executive on high-authority ment expert and president of Big Blue results, Sorenson says. and growth for search marketing firm sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Robot. “But like any business, once in a He’s posted before and after snap- Performics. YouTube and linked them to the CEO’s while [it] had an unhappy customer who shots of the company’s online reputation Search engines such as Google tend corporate bio. was highly vocal. Unfortunately, that management results on the Big Blue to give leading national newspapers Finally, Performics created and pro- negative online content was impacting Robot website. and other prominent media sites high moted across the Internet new content sales.” The takeaway: Along with YouTube, about the executive’s non-profit work to The solution: Sorenson worked with his Sorenson says companies should develop balance the negative impression from client to counter the negative search a strong presence on LinkedIn, Google+, the newspaper article. results with positive content, which Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. The result: within six months, the news- included YouTube videos about the Asking business partners for positive paper article sank from No. 3 on Google company. The videos were keyword- mentions about you on their website is to No. 18. optimised with the home security another proactive way to “own” more of company’s name in the video titles and The takeaway: “make sure the online your company’s search results. assets you control are ranking well for descriptions. Due to recent Google algorithm In addition, Sorenson worked to your name”, especially on social media changes, having positive content on an networks, Beiter advises. You can attract links from other websites to the exact-match domain such as yourcom- YouTube clips. This helped the videos also link those accounts to an online panyname.com isn’t as likely as it once bio or other content “hub” that’s also rise in search result rankings ahead was to shoot to the top of search engine of those negative videos. “A YouTube optimised for your name. Distribute results for your company name and stay favourable content about you around the channel for a company can be extremely there, Sorenson says. useful for reputation management, Internet to balance anything negative However, it’s still worth owning and that exists or may show up later. especially when all the videos are using domains with your company name tagged properly,” he says. in them. Skills Information Age May/June 2013 | 45

The fourth dimension Organisations can augment competency levels through the retention of the ICT resources of the Grey Army. By Dinsha Palkhiwala Skills Information Age May/June 2013 | 46

he ICT industry is at a crossroads: the ICT • How to develop core competencies in my • They are based on resource augmentation profession is shrinking and runs the risk of team to make them think strategically and (FTE-based), which adds a permanent Tbecoming marginalised. take a more customer-centric focus? or temporary head count that does not On one hand, the influx of new entrants is • How do I know what new competencies my necessarily relate to augmentation of declining. On the other, there has been very little team will need? competencies of existing resources. focus on conserving and harnessing the experience • How can I acquire these in a timely and cost- • They are task- and outcome-oriented, rather which we are losing by many experienced senior effective manner? than people-oriented: the contracting and professionals leaving their full-time roles in the • Why is my “talent pool” moving to other consulting approach is likely to see time spent industry. organisations, leaving my team further on developing competencies of other team Although in recent years there has been some deficient in the desired competencies? members as an overhead and drag on the effort invested in addressing the first half of Baby boomers are often no longer perma- main objectives. the problem, there has been very little focus on nently employed but the members of the grey • Any positive impact on the rest of the addressing the second half of the problem. I hope to army still want to share their years of valuable organisation competency or IP is seen as bring focus on preserving the experience of senior real-life experience. However, all too often, they accidental, and not the primary objective. professionals for the benefit of the ICT industry find themselves frustrated and disillusioned by The concept of coaching and mentoring is and, as a result, support the broader community the fact that there does not seem to be any coor- not inherent to terms of engagement. and national interest from a strong ICT profession. dinated effort to harvest their experience and • They are transient: the contracting and The issue at hand focuses on the combined make them visible to CIOs. The irony is that, consulting approach lacks the continuity of impact of an ageing workforce and the apparent while most of the CIOs and their direct reports trusted relationships and very rarely involves failure of many employers to upgrade workplace are very clear on the importance of technology any continual improvement element. competencies, which could mean that Australia refresh and hence invest a lot of energy and time • A reactive approach – responding to risks being unable to sustain key ICT-based eco- in creating an annual plan, very rarely do you find individual situations rather than working nomic capabilities in the future (Building Aus- them mentioning “competency refresh” in their to a strategy or plan – results in pressure to tralian ICT skills, report May 2006). annual strategy or allocating any investment for get things done in a limited time, and any The participation of mature age workers (the it in the annual budget. activity that does not align to this objective is ‘grey army’) can play a key role in tipping the Traditionally, any competency deficiencies seen as a drag. balance between the number of future retirees (this get addressed in an ad hoc and uncoordinated • Generally technology- or process-focused should include the so-called transition to retirement manner by employing, contracting or engaging rather than people-focused: out of element) and the number of workers available to consultants. From various industry reports, one technology, process and people, the people support them. In fact, an extra three percentage can clearly conclude that when it comes to devel- element is most likely to be neglected. points would result in a $33 billion boost to GDP oping and nurturing internal competencies and As a result, these approaches are best suited (Increasing Participation among older workers, capabilities, none of the above approaches seem when an organisation needs to deliver outcomes report by Deloitte Access Economics, 2012). to be delivering the most optimum outcome for that require a temporary or permanent additional Concurrent concerns held by CIOs and senior the CIO and the organisation due to following headcount. This occurs generally when the task is ICT managers focus on: common constraints of these approaches: project-oriented, with a higher resource demand or Skills Information Age May/June 2013 | 47

a new function is being created. Alternatively, you external recruitment costs and the number of Finally, has there been a reduction in the might have sensitive material or require external competency enhancement objectives from career dependency on external resourcing like contrac- expert intervention, such as during organisational development plans are achieved. Additionally, one tors and consultants. ¢ restructuring, a cost-saving exercise which has the needs to determine if there has been career growth potential for an FTE cut, or the introduction of of the participating team member. Ask yourself, Dinsha Palkhiwala, an ACS Fellow, has established new technology. has there been an increase in number of internal Competency Catalyst to help CIOs and ICT organisations The proposed competency augmentation promotions compared to a reduction in external to enrich human and intellectual resources through approach is a sustainable way of augmenting organ- employment? mentoring. isational competencies through active coaching/ mentoring by grey army ICT resources to grow the intrinsic value of human resources. It is designed to Grey army: key benefits help the ICT community identify the competency zzProvides a cost-effective and efficient alternative to expensive classroom-based leader- gaps and, at same time, provide access to senior ship training programs. A leadership training program can cost anywhere in the range of resources with the desired competencies to bridge $50,000 to $100,000 with no ongoing support. the gap. zzSince the approach uses internal resources, it increases retention of key talent and, as a Most organisations have team members who result, avoids the high cost of recruitment and reduces the associated cost of unsuccessful are strong in certain areas, but for them to create recruitment. One recruit fewer can potentially save around $200,000 to $250,000 in the first more value and further their own careers, they year and 150,000 every year thereafter. need to develop in other areas. Active coaching and zzIt is much more sustainable and cost effective as the focus is on reducing dependency on mentoring can help deliver real outcomes through external resources. A reduction in one external consulting assignment can easily result in a partnerships between the mentor and mentee. This saving of $100,000 per annum. approach involves using senior members of the zzIt enables the building of trusted relationships without any suspicion of ulterior motives ICT community, who have now taken a lifestyle as the engagement of the competency augmentation resource has the clear objective to enhance existing resources. decision to transition to retirement, and harvesting zzProvides a much higher level of flexibility than other possible options by combining the their extensive experience in the industry. optimum resources from the wide resource pool of senior ICT professionals. Essentially, the main objectives of this approach zzIt has a single-minded focus on working with your organisational resources without are twofold. Firstly, to ensure a progressive enhance- making it an ‘if time permits’ kind of activity, because the external resources have no line ment of organisational capability by enriching the or BAU responsibility and the outcomes are linked to the career development plan of your competency profile of individual team members. internal resources. Secondly, to reduce organisational dependency zzHigher employee engagement and motivation levels by demonstrating to employees that on external resources for the core and critical the organisation is serious about growing its human resources. competencies to deliver customer satisfaction at zzImproved possibility of success in organisational change through stronger participation optimum cost. from key and critical resources by integrating this approach with organisation/cultural In order to measure the success of this approach, transformation programs. one needs to gauge if there is a reduction in Interview : Grantly Mailes Information Age May/June 2013 | 48

In the hot seat

100 days into his role as the deputy secretary Department of State Development, Business and Innovation, we spoke with Victoria’s new chief technology advocate, Grantly Mailes. By Ernest Stabek

rantly Mailes says “never doubt that Ga small group of thoughtful and com- mitted people can change the world” – one of many adaptations of the original Margaret Mead quotation. Just over 100 days ago, Grantly Mailes was appointed as the new deputy secretary of Department of State Development, Business and Innovation and he shares with us his thoughts on his experiences in this IT lead- ership role within the Victorian Government thus far.

Grantly, congratulations on your first 100 days in the hot seat, what did you plan to do when you came into the role? I’m not sure it’s the ‘hot seat’ but it is certainly an exciting place to be. When I came into the role I knew that people Interview : Grantly Mailes Information Age May/June 2013 | 49

underpinned technology so what we sought to do is to of cloud-based solutions for internal service amounts of capital but can still deliver extraordinary have an objective, balanced scorecard focusing first on delivery. value. Key to its success is building an effective working people and the team and then technology, whilst taking • Engagement with the community to focus on relationship with CIOs and agencies and good progress into account the fairly significant changes we were facing. improvement of quality of services and reduce effort to that end is being made. As chairman of VICTAC I needed to land the VIC required to attain these services. ICT Strategy, which had already gone through public • Ubiquitous channels focus to provide anywhere You mentioned that technology is underpinned by people, consultation but needed internal conversations including and anytime access to services regardless of device. what is your view on the power of the individual to make a non-VICTAC CIOs in government, while ensuring the That is, better ways to deliver more across a broader significant difference to the way we deliver ICT in Victoria? Minister was across the direction. range of “counter-based services” channels. I like the quote by Margaret Meade: “Never doubt that We also needed to do something differently and better • IT procurement reforms to find more open and a small group of thoughtful and committed people can with the e-Services Register, working more closely with economically efficient ways to provide services, change the world” Treasury. improve options and move rapidly towards We needed to carefully consider innovation, which is a more sustainable approach to all IT and You have had a pretty full on time of it and it is early days challenging at a state level given the majority of funding related procurement. That is, vendor closure 20 yet, any lessons to share? comes from federal sources for large scale research, often procurements over the next 20 months. Using One of the key lessons of the journey so far is that a within universities and where locally we seemed to be industry consultation to find better ways to small group of people from diverse backgrounds and doing more learning than doing. purchase telecommunications and a range of opinions, non-government and government, can be a Helping drive IT-enabled service delivery in govern- IT-enabled services. powerful advisory group. We also learnt that we have ment was a big priority and this also included engaging • Emergency services ICT reforms plans. Generally some pretty bright people internally who were prepared the Victorian Government workforce and significant looking at business processes and IT in parallel to to collaborate and contribute to the development of the and interested stakeholder groups. improve the way we provide services. ICT Strategy. Importantly, there is a genuine ongoing interest in change but not for change sake, for positive That sounds more like 1000 days! Looking back, did you What do you plan to do in the next three to six months value. Ultimately it’s not about cloud, innovation, or one achieve all you wanted? that will make a significant difference? platform above another, it’s all about the people. The VIC ICT Strategy was completed and was reason- The next six months includes entering a new budget cycle ably and favourably received, that’s a big achievement for for government but the significant plan is the continued What would you like to say to the members of ACS? our team. I am also reasonably confident the eServices driving of innovation including shaping Vic Connect Belonging to a professional society is incredibly important Register will deliver to its implementation plans and we to enable mixing and matching of the most sustainable for your career. As ACS members, you are at the forefront are making good progress into the Innovation space. purchasing arrangements, negotiations to support serious of delivering enduring value to the economy. We have consideration of channel management alternatives to a long way to deliver the potential of “produce service What are your top priorities moving forward? drive value, getting more significant data sets out as innovation” to improve productivity within Victoria and We have a confident plan to implement and deliver VIC planned and delivering the ICT Strategy. Australia but as a group of thoughtful and committed ICT Strategy across 50 actions. people, we can and will change the world. ¢ Special priorities that are important, not just urgent, What is the greatest challenge (risk/opportunity) to include: delivering the recently announced VIC ICT Strategy? Ernest Stabek is vice chair ACS Victoria and chair Policy, and • IT delivery model reforms, including consideration The ICT Strategy was designed so it does not need large Government Relations Committee, ACS Victoria. Strategy : social media management Information Age May/June 2013 | 50

Straight talking

Here’s how to get started building or refining your company’s digital media strategy. By Jonathan Hassell Strategy : social media management Information Age May/June 2013 | 51

t’s a different world out there. In 2013, • Do people look for engagement from This distributed influence is powerful. digital media and social media platforms your company on those places or In the world of digital media, it can turn Isuch as Facebook and Twitter, as well forums, or are they on those sites with you – or against you – almost in the as other digital avenues such as YouTube, primarily to interact with other users? blink of an eye. Every move your company Instagram and Pinterest are increasingly • How do your customers behave makes and every headline your organisa- important to brand awareness. on those sites? Have they come tion generates can trigger a reaction. Frankly, too many companies are for product support, to seek out For teams without a plan to manage this entirely reactive when it comes to these advice or ideas, or primarily to rate reaction, it can be simply overwhelming. platforms. There is no comprehensive your product and recommend it or What’s worse is that a lack of engagement strategy and no cohesive plan for interac- complain to others about it? with that reaction can develop into another tions across all aspects of digital media. • Are there contributors or customers reaction itself, in the order of “Why is Let your organisation be different. As who are frequenting the community? ABC Corporation not listening to its you go about establishing a new digital Do some of the same names come up customers?” media strategy or updating an existing in searches and in examination of site To guard against this phenomenon, one, here are several key points to consider. activities? develop an engagement plan with your digital media team that includes factors Target digital media efforts in the Understand the power of customer such as the following: right places influence, referrals • The tone of your interactions with What’s most important about a digital The real power of digital media takes the customers and visitors, whether it’s media strategy is knowing where your reach and the influence that traditional short, conversational, casual or more customers are. It does your business no media has had and distributes it among formal good whatsoever to have a presence in a your customers, their friends, your pros- • The level of engagement with your place, a network or a community where pects, their families and even complete visitors, including whether you are your customers are not looking. Worse, strangers. having a conversation or sharing their it could indeed be detrimental: to those This power to build awareness, to hold content or simply pointing them to people who aren’t your customers but who conversations and to shine light on compa- existing resources such as customer see your unresearched, un-strategised nies and products magnifies and multiplies service and technical support presence in these incorrect places and with each passing interaction. • The frequency with which you will networks, your brand seems out of touch This is really what “going viral” means: post to these digital media locations and dense. something is passed from person to person, • What types of posts you will make, It is paramount, then, to find out what building a popularity “snowball” that be they company news, updates, sites, forums and social networks your cus- reaches proportions that in the past only product suggestions, responses tomers frequent. When examining those the most costly, sophisticated traditional to customer service and support places, ask yourself and your digital media media campaign could have hoped to inquiries or others team the following questions: achieve. • How you will approach negative posts Strategy : social media management Information Age May/June 2013 | 52

and manage the negative reactions sometimes it’s unreasonable to continue Second, don’t force it. The allure of that will surface. to post to social media when tragic events being seen as cutting edge, “with it” happen. and hip to the social and digital media Digital media strategy should be Take care to consider what’s happening scene can be very strong, and it can often innovative, disruptive in the world at the moment. Otherwise result in strategies and concepts aimed In this day and age, falling in line with your brand could have a reaction disaster at nothing more than achieving that one another brand’s digital media strategy is on its hands. viral video or that hugely popular contest. only half the battle. To be seen as a real While you can be innovative and dis- contender – a brand, company or product Know what your social business ruptive, you must try to remember to on the cutting edge – you have to be dis- strategy should avoid avoid doing things only for their potential ruptive. Turn customs on their heads. While building a list of things to do in social media value. Create powerful energies that run against digital media is important, there are also Some advertising concepts, for what is seen as normal. Be especially eager a couple of points to avoid. Here are two example, can’t really be made social to embrace changes, and even powerful very big don’ts to add to your list. without really stretching the idea. Some disruptions, if they are implemented with First, don’t be cheap. Social and digital contests and promotions that try to gen- a view toward enhancing or improving platforms, especially consumer services erate and leverage consumer interest and the customer experience. that are free to join, often evoke thoughts interactions in digital media simply go At the same time, being disruptive in executives such as “free advertising!” too far. involves taking risks. Traditionally, cor- or “this shouldn’t cost much”. This is Other concepts and campaigns are not porations have run their communications the completely wrong way to approach necessarily forced, but they don’t result through public relations and advertising digital media. While you won’t have a in any significant achievement. The departments. This method has worked budget in the millions like you did with payback from those strategies is limited. well for a while in controlling messaging traditional television and radio advertising The bottom line: don’t force social, and and ensuring less potentially offensive or campaigns, you do have the cost of being don’t force digital. Organically grow in tone-deaf communications are released. unique, attentive and interactive. This these areas and use strategies designed With social media, however, things are means you’ll need a staff, a marketing with social in mind but not exclusively at less buttoned-down, which creates more budget and tools such as analytics soft- the forefront of the plan. room for error. ware to adequately service digital media With time and consideration, you can It’s important to be careful that the properties. build a digital media strategy for your overall reality of current events, the envi- The primary goal should be to be effec- business that pays dividends and is more ronment and the “mood climate” are tive, not just to serve your customers in than just a constant reaction to the latest all taken into account when considering social media at the least possible cost to social media trend. ¢ new, untested plans and strategies. For the exclusion of quality. A good balance example, it’s advisable not to run promo- to target is that it is as good as it can be Jonathan Hassell runs 82 Ventures, a consulting tions when natural disasters strike, and while spending efficiently. firm. He’s also an editor with Apress Media. Ethics Information Age May/June 2013 | 53

The environment, ICT and ethics

Does the ICT industry have a social responsibility to protect the environment? By Dr Mike Bowern Ethics Information Age May/June 2013 | 54 The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other regular issue to come up in the pages of Information Formal definitions of stakeholder or interested party Age is corporate social responsibility. Although way around … All economic appear in a number of national and international stand- A a corporation can be considered as a legal entity activity is dependent upon ards, and a typical list of stakeholders includes customers, in certain circumstances, in itself it cannot protect the that environment and its owners, employees, suppliers, bankers, unions, partners environment; only people working in that corporation and society. Note the inclusion of society in this list. can. underlying resource base However, one omission from the list is future genera- Suppose there were strict and comprehensive laws and of forests, water, air, soil, tions, who will be reliant on the environment into which regulations covering the negative impacts to the environ- and minerals. When the they are born. A definition of interested party from the ment arising from the manufacture and use of ICT. If environmental management system standard is ‘an everyone obeyed these laws, the environment would be environment is finally individual or group concerned with or affected by the protected and, if and when the laws were broken, there forced to file for bankruptcy environmental performance of an organisation’. A future would be suitable penalties for doing so. because its resource base generation could be considered as an interested party. But we do not have such comprehensive legislation The examples of stakeholders discussed here are sets of and as far as protecting the environment is concerned, has been polluted, degraded, people, but there are also additional examples of what are unfortunately we are unlikely to do so. While there are dissipated, and irretrievably sometimes called non-human stakeholders. In this sense, some legal requirements covering business practices with compromised, the economy the environment could be considered as a non-human respect to the environment, at this time we really need to stakeholder, and this could include subsets of other non- rely on the ethical behaviour of people to minimise the goes into bankruptcy with it. human stakeholders. The definition of environment over environmental impact arising from their manufacture the page provides such a subset. -US Senator Gaylord Nelson, Beyond and use of ICT. Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise (2002) There are a number of principles that support a socially Of course there can be financial benefits to be derived responsible view. These principles take account of the from reducing waste and the efficient use of energy, overall effects that are likely from the actions of people. but why do some people follow good environmental suggested that they are “preaching pure and unadulter- They help us to resolve the conflicts which would arise practices if there is not a financial incentive to do so? ated socialism”. if every person believed that they had the freedom to Could it be that they are willing to live up to their social However, there is an alternative view. Over the last behave exactly as they wish. They also relate to John responsibilities? 30 years, a theory has grown out of research into cor- Stuart Mill’s belief that the freedoms of one person end porate governance, strategic management and organi- when they impinge on those of another person. Social responsibility and stakeholders sation theory. Consequently, in recent years the term Do to others as you would have them do to you is In 1970, Milton Friedman wrote an article for the New ‘stakeholder’ has become commonplace when referring known as the Golden Rule. This is a familiar ethical York Times Magazine entitled ‘The Social Responsibility of to an interested party who might be involved or affected principle which is about 2500 years old, and also appears Business is to Increase its Profits’. In his article, Friedman by an organisation. Although he did not use the term, as the Christian commandment to love thy neighbour criticised the businessman who believed that ‘business’ Friedman inferred that the only stakeholder in a business as thyself. had a social conscience and that it should be serious is the shareholder, and current ideas about an organisa- The Golden Rule implies that you should think about about its responsibilities for providing employment, elimi- tion having a range of stakeholders has no place in his the impacts, both adverse and beneficial, that your actions nating discrimination, avoiding pollution and so on. He philosophy. could have on other people. Typically these other people Ethics Information Age May/June 2013 | 55

are those who you deal with on a daily basis. However, this groups of professionals should not form themselves into have both adverse and beneficial impacts on the principle can also have application to your impacts on the a ‘disciplined group of individuals’ in their organisation. environment; environment, and this could extend to the ‘global system’, The codes of ethics of these professional societies • these activities should be managed and controlled as stated in the definition of environment below right. include references to the importance of members working to minimise the adverse impacts; in the public interest above personal and sectional inter- • the activities of businesses can affect a wide range Professionalism and codes of ethics ests. The public interest value in the recently revised of people, frequently known as stakeholders, Most people who read Information Age would probably ACS Code of Ethics includes reference to matters of and the environment can also be considered as a consider themselves to be a professional, in the broad public health, safety and the environment. stakeholder; sense of the term, as working in a professional area such This article has focused on the social responsibility of • there are ethical principles supporting the ideas of as management, computing or engineering. The following individuals with respect to the environment. The formal stakeholder consideration; and features of a profession relevant here are taken from the corporate responsibility to establish ethical and environ- • being a professional includes being ethical and definition of a profession from Professions Australia. mental policies and practices rests with the directors, considerate of the public interest. A profession is a disciplined group of individuals who senior executives or similar positions in organisation as These points suggest a ‘Yes’ answer to the question adhere to ethical standards … and are accepted by the part of their governance activities. raised earlier: do I have a social responsibility to protect public … possess special knowledge and skills … exercise the environment? ¢ these skills in the interest of others. Answering the key question It is inherent in the definition of a profession that a To summarise the preceding paragraphs: Dr Mike Bowern is the coordinator of regular ethics articles for code of ethics governs the activities of each profession. • the activities of people, at work and at leisure, can Information Age. … They demand high standards of behaviour in respect to the services provided to the public … these codes are enforced by the profession and are acknowledged and the environment, from its manufacture and use. Useful terms However, the purpose of this article is to address the accepted by the community. The following definitions, from ISO14001:2004, the responsibility of people to minimise and avoid the While the Professions Australia definition does not international standard for Environmental Manage- negative aspects. ment Systems, are used in this article. include a requirement for membership of a professional Business and ethics: it is sometimes said that the society, some professionals in the ICT industry belong to Environment: surroundings in which an organisa- problem with an ethical approach is that it tends the Institution of Engineers Australia or the Australian tion operates, including air, water, land, natural to challenge the idea of ‘business as usual’. For resources, flora, fauna, humans, and their Computer Society. Other managers and executives may example, if there were no laws to control practices interrelation. belong to similar professional bodies, perhaps the Aus- such as dumping toxic waste in rivers, then some Note: Surroundings in this context extend from people would have no compunction about following tralian Institute of Public Directors. within an organisation to the global system. such practices; thereby saving their business the If you are a professional there are expectations from expense of toxic waste management and disposal. Environmental impact: any change to the environ- the public, and other professionals, that you will behave However, not everyone would do this. Some people ment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or would consider it wrong to dump toxic waste in in a way that is consistent with this definition, even if partly resulting from an organisation’s activities, rivers, even if it was not against the law to do so. you are not a member of an appropriate society. You products or services. These people could be considered as behaving do not have to be a member to have access to the code ICT can have both positive and negative impacts on ethically. of ethics of these societies, so there is no reason why e-health : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 56 Transforming

How technology can help push the treatment inconvenience of illness into the background of a patient’s life. By Dr Lester Russell e-health : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 57

o see how technology will be applied to healthcare and examine Bill’s day the benefits that this can make possible, let’s look five years ahead. 6:15 am: the morning routine TTo provide a practical example, we will follow a type 2 diabetes Bill wakes up. In the past, this would mean that it is time to take the sufferer through an average day. You will see that the technologies dreaded finger-prick blood sugar test and to remember to take his in question are not hugely futuristic; indeed, they are all available tablets (which he often used to forget in the rush to get to work). today in one form or another. But one by one, the introduction of Now, Bill no longer needs to do a finger prick. He has a glucometer such capabilities will make patients’ lives easier and help providers tattoo in the skin of his finger – all he has to do is place his smartphone deal with the enormous burden of healthcare. We will also look at camera over the tattoo, and a reading is taken with no pain, no mess how technology is reshaping the healthcare industry itself, and the and no fuss. The result is sent automatically to his online record. His way the various players interact. bathroom scale records and sends his weight as soon as he steps on it. In only a few years’ time, the healthcare industry may be unrec- His phone reminds him to take his tablets; if he forgets, the phone ognisable from what we are familiar with today. On one hand, the senses this and alerts him. provision of healthcare is becoming financially unsustainable. Rising Changes making this possible: the glucometer reagent is tattooed standards of living are greatly increasing the demands of healthcare, under the skin of Bill’s finger. When the smartphone camera flash exacerbated by a growing and ageing global population. In particular, shines on the tattoo, the camera reads the colour and records the blood chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes put healthcare resources under glucose level. His bathroom scale sends information via WiFi and real strain. Diabetes is an ongoing condition that is not easily “cured”. domestic broadband to his online records. His tablets are pre-sorted Consequently, treating this illness ties up resources over a long period. and packed into morning, lunch and evening blister packs. Each dose Furthermore, the disease manifests itself in many ways, affecting has a smart pill containing a chip which is activated by contact with many systems of the body as it ages. Therefore, treatment requires a stomach acid. If the signal indicates he may not have taken his tablets, diverse range of professionals, often each doing their own treatment Bill gets an alert on his phone. without coordination with the rest of the system. Moreover, since type 2 diabetes is linked to lifestyle factors that are spreading around 12:30 pm: mealtime the world, the problem is only going to get worse. Globally, the cost Bill has to make food choices which keep within his recommended of treating conditions related to obesity is now greater than the cost dietary intake. He orders a weekly schedule of meals from his online of those caused by malnutrition. meal planner, with a variety of either pre-cooked meals or Heston’s At the same time, however, innovation in technology is enabling new Recipe+Ingredients packs. His choices for each day are appropriate for ways to provide care. Areas like monitoring and genetics are shifting his schedule – a sedentary day, a day with a lot of rushing around or a the healthcare industry to a new paradigm in which “wellbeing” gym day. He can vary his nutritional intake according to the season. At rather than “treatment” becomes the end product. Further, building lunchtime, his smartphone reads the nutritional content of his choices services around patient data enables much greater integration of the from the barcode on the menu and updates his online food diary. whole industry, from pharmaceutical and financial services to clinics, Changes making this possible: Bill’s nutritionist has defined his hospitals and other care organisations. optimum dietary intake. This pulls an appropriate set of options for Bill Now let’s meet Bill, a person with type 2 diabetes for whom treating from a food-ingredient database. His smartphone reads barcodes on this chronic illness has been a significant burden over the years. food labels and menus and interacts with a database to record his intake e-health : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 58

For further and adjust his daily and weekly allowances accordingly. His intake is pharmacist. Bill’s tablets are blister-packed in a 28-day packet. Near thought updated on his online record for him to track himself or discuss with the end of the packet, an automatic prescription order is triggered, and • What do you his nutritionist and clinicians. Bill’s tablets are delivered to him at home or at work. Or, he can opt consider to be the to collect them from a dispensing machine at his local supermarket at most significant risks associated with 3:30 pm: at the gym lunchtime or after work. He identifies himself with a palm-vein pattern such a broad sharing Bill has to do sufficient exercise to maintain or reduce his weight, so reader on the machine. of health informa- he takes a mid-afternoon break to hit the gym. The exercise machines Changes making this possible: Bill’s medications are dispensed by tion? How much, for at Bill’s gym automatically tell his smartphone how long he works out the pharmacist in 28-day blister packs with morning, afternoon and example, should and how many calories he burns on the machines. It also records how evening dosages. On day 21, using the same technology as the smart employers know? much exercise he’s done over the course of his normal daily activities pill compliance reminder, a smart pill sends a different signal to trigger • How might the and tells him how much he needs to do at the gym. His meal schedule ordering of the next repeat prescription, which is then sent electronically ubiquity of Internet- enabled mobile can be adjusted in response to his calorie expenditure. from the doctor’s office to the dispensing pharmacy of Bill’s choice. A phones also make it Changes making this possible: Bill’s phone has near field commu- second smart pill on day 25 acts as a back-up. possible to improve nication (NFC), which interacts with a similar sensor on the gym healthcare in machine to detect when he’s on the machine and to record his calorie How will these changes affect the healthcare developing nations expenditure. This is sent either by WiFi or cellular communication industry? that have had limited access to technology to Bill’s online record. His smartphone uses its accelerometer as a Now that we have seen how these changes will play out in daily life, we until now? pedometer to record his energy expenditure on daily activities. can now zoom out a bit and consider how these advances will alter the • Which of the links big picture by examining how all of the various players will be affected. between the various 4:45 pm: clinic “visit” Overall, the healthcare industry itself will become much more like an players in the health- Bill often has to take time off work to see doctors and other clinicians. eco-system, with information being the connecting mechanism. care market stands To minimise time loss, Bill schedules his appointments online with the to profit the most various clinicians looking after him – a nutritionist, an ophthalmologist, Patients: The contrast between healthcare and consumer experiences through technology- enabled communica- a cardiologist and an endocrinologist. – like Internet shopping, video chat and booking tickets online – will tion enhancements? He has virtual “facetime” consultations with them – sharing access become less stark. People with chronic diseases ideally want their con- • What kind of a role to his online record of dietary intake, exercise, medication compliance, dition to disappear into the background of their lives, and using ICT can technology play weight, blood glucose and blood pressure readings. to radically streamline and automate processes has the potential to in conjunction with Changes making this possible: all of Bill’s health data is channeled to do this for them. The smartphone, with ubiquitous access to mobile other long-term ill- his own cloud-based medical record, a combination of genomic, vital broadband, makes communication with their health record an effortless nesses, such as age- signs and lifestyle data, from a variety of sources and over his whole part of their lives. Sharing that record with their attending clinicians related dementia? lifetime. With shared access to this multi-dimensional record, he can is increasingly a natural extension of people’s connected lives. • Would you ever want a robot to make decisions about his health in consultation with his health advisers. provide your basic Payers: Value for money, or healthcare productivity, is the focus for needs as a patient? 6:15 pm: Bill’s pills healthcare payers. Strategy expert Michael Porter refers to the quality Bill has to order his repeat prescriptions and collect his tablets from the of patient outcomes relative to the dollars expended. Such metrics are e-health : trends Information Age May/June 2013 | 59

only achievable through the intelligent use of data analysis – comparing becoming smaller, more consumer-friendly devices. Near-patient testing like with like is not easy in healthcare, with its in-built input variables. of blood parameters will become much more convenient compared to So ICT will become an integral part of the payer’s business. Coupled the alternative of having the individual travel to a healthcare facility. with care pathways and best practices, health outcomes become a It will be possible to wear different devices and connect them to a potential differentiator for payers. body-area-network. The integration of devices with fixed-line or mobile Devices which broadband connections will be automatic and will disappear into the Providers: Divisions between general practitioners, community care background of life. measure vital and hospital care will become blurred as work is moved out from the signs and hospital. Providers will be reimbursed on the basis of outcomes or Digital healthcare channel data proxies to outcomes. One example of this is the Quality Outcomes As medicine becomes digital, technologies can track how pills are being Framework (QOF) for UK GPs. taken and then provide feedback to patients, caregivers and researchers. to a cloud- Providers see efficiency gains from remote consultations, which can Fujitsu has developed semiconductor technology that it supplies to a based health reach out from their physical location into the patients’ lives. leading provider of digital medicine. record via How does it work? Smart pills equipped with microprocessors emit Pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies: The pharmaceutical a signal when they are dissolved by stomach acid. That signal is picked smartphones business model is under threat – some pharma firms see value in up by a small sensor, which is worn much like a sticky bandage on a are becoming moving from drug discovery and medicines manufacture into disease person’s arm and back. The sensor data – which also tracks other health smaller, more management systems. There is increasing pressure for pharmaceutical data, like movement and sleep – is sent to the patient’s smartphone for companies to prove and be paid on value for money and outcomes, viewing. This information is also passed on to the clinician, either in consumer- rather than on unit price of drug supply. real time or at a review with the patient. friendly Local pharmacies are becoming alternative providers of healthcare The benefits of are enormous. Such medicines enable careful tracking and disease monitoring. They supply medicines and disease-manage- to ensure that the patients are properly observing a drug regime – a task ment systems. They can also collect and record valuable compliance that is particularly challenging for patients who take many different and side-effect data. prescriptions at the same time. The digital approach also makes the re-ordering of prescription medicines much easier; a new order can Policymakers: Politically, the economic drain from managing chronic be triggered automatically. diseases is becoming a significant challenge to national economies. Now, for the first time, clinicians have the ability to monitor how Policy and regulation are crafted to ensure that payers and providers drugs are being taken by their patients and intervene to help, for instance follow those care pathways that provide the best possible value for if pills are being skipped or taken irregularly. money: the longest preservation of an active life before the shortest Furthermore, this technology greatly boosts the accuracy of research period of dependency and terminal decline. and trials, and clinicians can easily aggregate patient data to provide insights about the condition across an entire population. ¢ Product manufacturers: Devices which measure vital signs and channel data to a cloud-based health record via smartphones are Dr Lester Russell is chief medical officer, Fujitsu Global. Small business : technology Information Age May/June 2013 | 60

A speed boost for small biz Top 10 tech upgrades to make your small business run faster. By Paul Mah Small business : technology Information Age May/June 2013 | 61

f you run a small business, you know that things storage without having to purchase another NAS. makers in the past, today’s docks typically connect happen faster than they do in the corporate Indeed, rapid improvements on this front mean using the standard USB interface. As you can Iworld. That’s all the more reason to make sure that some SMBs may even find it beneficial to imagine, this allows your dock investment to be your technology is up to date and is able to keep replace an ageing NAS device with a newer model. reused with newer laptops. up with you and your employees. It’s important to note that a dock eliminates If you’re lucky enough to have extra funds in Consider gigabit networking the need for peripherals such as keyboards, mice, this year’s ICT budget, or if you’re planning to If your core network is still bumbling along at a fast speakers and network cables that must be plugged invest in incremental improvements, here are 10 ethernet speed of 100Mbps, consider upgrading it in and unplugged all the time. Using wired ethernet tech upgrades that will help your employees get to gigabit ethernet (GbE) for a 10-fold increase in also offers faster and more reliable network con- things done faster in 2013. throughput. To put this upgrade into perspective, nectivity as it frees up wireless capacity for workers a large file transfer that took 15 minutes to finish not at their desks. Finally, some newer docks, such Switch to 802.11n Wi-Fi at 100Mbps will take less than two minutes when as the Targus USB 3.0 SuperSpeed dual video If you’re still running a 802.11b or 802.11g Wi-Fi transferred over a network operating at 1000Mbps. docking station, support two external monitors, network in the office, it may be a good time to which makes setting up a multi-monitor rig easy. ramp things up a notch by rolling out an 802.11n deployment. A faster wireless speed not only allows It’s well established that using Deploy multiple monitors for a better experience, it also makes it possible for more than one monitor helps It’s well established that using more than one the network to serve a greater number of wireless improve productivity and boost monitor helps improve productivity and boost devices since it takes less time to complete each user satisfaction – in some cases by up to 50 per data transfer. user satisfaction cent – since you spend less time toggling between application windows. Unfortunately, most SMBs Upgrade to network attached storage dither about spending money on something that The file servers of yesteryear – fully fledged server GbE used to be expensive, but proponents does not deliver an immediate and tangible return. machines running server operating systems and will point out that gigabit network switches are However, with 23-inch LCD displays available equipped with multiple disk drives – offered a affordable today. In addition, they work over widely for as little as $160, businesses may want to con- convenient, centralised location for file sharing. deployed CAT 5E cabling. Finally, GbE is built sider a limited deployment or a pilot study. At a Today, network attached storage (NAS) offers into most desktops and laptops, and it’s necessary minimum, SMBs should consider deploying one similar features, but with substantially greater to support 300Mbps 802.11n Wi-Fi APs. external LCD display of reasonable size for laptop power efficiency and upgradability. users. This will help reduce eyestrain by replacing Much of this power efficiency can be attrib- Use a docking station with your the smallish laptop displays with something that uted to the low-power Intel Atom or ARM-based ultrabook or laptop is comfortable. microprocessors used in modern NAS appliances. Businesses with workers who rely heavily on laptops Furthermore, most vendors recognise that storage or ultrabooks may want to invest in a docking Upgrade your RAM demands do increase over time and now sell expan- station to expand their workstation connectivity Modern computers with 4GB or more of RAM sion chassis that let businesses add more disk options. Unlike proprietary docks sold by laptop generally have sufficient memory for most user Small business : technology Information Age May/June 2013 | 62

needs. The mantra “more RAM never hurts” con- On the flip side, computers stuck with older cloud. (Obviously, a thorough evaluation of the tinues to be relevant, though, and it is bolstered computers running on the parallel ATA (PATA) attendant security risks of storing business data in by the sheer affordability of RAM. may be out of luck, since SSDs sold today are the public cloud should first be conducted prior For one, having enough RAM lets you reduce based on the newer serial ATA (SATA) interface. to making the leap.) virtual memory or even turn it off entirely. This Assuming a decision to go ahead, online storage will result in a snappier experience for hard disk Get faster, more robust Internet services such as Dropbox, Box and SugarSync are drive (HDD) systems, especially when they are connectivity worth a look. heavily loaded. Newer laptops equipped with fast It’s surprising that some businesses would skimp solid-state drives (SSD), on the other hand, will on Internet connectivity despite their complete reli- Use a faster USB flash drive see more of their expensive flash-based storage ance on it to get things done. Without the Internet, Ever spot cheap USB flash drives at the flea space freed up. crucial business emails would not be received, chat market and wonder about the large price dif- Of course, a RAM upgrade may not be for clients and VoIP conferences would grind to a halt ference with those you saw elsewhere? Though everyone. One strange quirk of RAM memory and Web-based CRM and ERP systems would be part of the reason for the price disparity may be modules is that, while the prices of slightly older inaccessible. mark-ups imposed by more established shops, chips tend to be cheaper, the reverse is true for the truth is that not all USB flash drives offer those that are a generation behind. You can expect the same kind of performance. those prices to spike instead. The easiest way to stretch the The speed at which you can write files to or lifespan of an ageing desktop copy data from a flash drive varies depending on Upgrade to solid state drive or laptop is to upgrade the the electronics under the hood. Deferring that company-wide system upgrade until internal HDD to an SSD Raw access speeds are of little relevance for Windows 8 adoption picks up? The easiest way to occasionally transporting small documents. stretch the lifespan of an ageing desktop or laptop Businesses that uses them with large files such is to upgrade the internal HDD to an SSD. The as high-resolution photographs and computer higher speed at which an SSD can read and write With this in mind, increasing Internet speed will assisted drawing (CAD) plans will appreciate data, in turn, lets users boot up their systems and certainly speed up file downloads and the loading faster flash drives. launch their applications faster. of webpages. An even better idea: sign up for a Instead of going for the cheapest USB flash In fact, the effect of an SSD upgrade is immedi- second Internet line with another provider and drive, pay attention to the stated read/write speeds ately noticeable, more so than an increase in RAM load balance access between the two lines. Not before buying. ¢ or a processor upgrade. Aside from the benefits of only will this speed things up, it will also provide getting things done faster, the speed-up translates a safety net should your Internet connectivity fail. Paul Mah is a freelance writer and blogger who lives into greater user satisfaction. Moreover, SSDs don’t in Singapore. He has worked for a number of years in have to cost a lot; even a lower-end model will offer Store data in the cloud various capacities within the ICT industry. Paul also enjoys a significant system boost compared to a two- to One way to gain access to business documents tinkering with tech gadgets, smartphones and networking three-year-old mechanical HDD. anywhere in the world is to load them into the devices. You can follow him on Twitter at @paulmah. ICT management : security Information Age May/June 2013 | 63

How to talk security so people will listen (and comply) From phishing your own employees to sharing your company’s hack history, here are five techniques for getting users’ attention about security. By Stacy Collett ICT management : security Information Age May/June 2013 | 64

he statistics are staggering: last year, Symantec functions such as sales, HR, administration and media/ blocked a total of over 5.5 billion malware attacks, public relations, as criminals try for lower-hanging Tan 81 per cent increase over 2010, and reported fruit, the Symantec report says. a 35 per cent increase in Web-based attacks and a 41 Against such an onslaught, the stereotypical wall per cent increase in new variants of malware. poster of security tips hanging in the lunchroom is If those findings, documented in the company’s useless, says Julie Peeler, foundation director at the latest annual Internet Security Threat Report, cause International Information Systems Security Certifica- ICT leaders to wonder if they’ve done everything pos- tion Consortium (ISC), a global, non-profit organisa- sible to protect their companies, they might consider tion that educates and certifies information security looking in the mirror. professionals. “Security training is not a one-time That’s because security people, in struggling to event: it has to be integrated throughout the entire establish policies and procedures that are both effec- organisation, and it has to come from the top,” she says. Promote security from the top down tive and easy to use, often forget a third and crucial When it comes to talking security in a way that users Security initiatives should be mandated and sup- step, experts say: communicating their security goals will listen to, managers need to ensure that employees ported at the top levels of the organisation. At in such a way that the broad corporate population not understand the security posture of the company from Endurance, information security is a board-level only understands but responds. day one, Peeler says. They must be willing to sign con- agenda item and a strategic business objective, CIO “Compliance is necessary, but it’s not sufficient,” fidentiality agreements, attend training and participate Tom Terry says. “Being able to work with your execu- says Malcolm Harkins, vice president and chief infor- in ongoing awareness, all with the goal of remaining tive team and senior management to help share the mation security officer at Intel. vigilant. communication message makes it much easier rather Harkins’ goal is to get employees to go beyond Companies that are most successful in their security than being an IT-centric responsibility.” compliance toward full commitment to protecting message have moved beyond an IT-centric approach Royal Philips recognised the need for top-down the company’s information. “If they’re committed to to an holistic model. We spoke to three organisations security communications when it created a corporate doing the right thing and protecting the company, and doing just that – Intel, Royal Philips Electronics and level organisation called Information Security and if they’re provided with the right information, [then] Endurance Services – to find out how they managed named Nick Mankovich its first chief information they’ll make reasonable risk decisions,” he says. to make information security a corporate-wide security officer in January 2012. The group “is To be sure, employees are not involved in every responsibility. focused on a simple pitch, which is the adequate type of corporate security breach, but user behaviour Read on for five best practices for getting the security protection of information that affects the business and non-compliance are implicated in many, including message to sink in with employees. ¢ of Philips”, Mankovich says. “That could mean my mobile malware, social network schemes and advanced laptop, my notebook, even information that’s in my target attacks. These are increasingly aimed not at Stacy Collett reports on a variety of ICT technology and head. And it’s everybody’s responsibility.” CEOs and senior staffers, but at people in other job management issues. ICT management : security Information Age May/June 2013 | 65

Put threats into context People don’t internalise security best practices by simply Protect to enable being told what to do or scared into compliance, Peeler says, In light of the increasingly virulent cyber-threats groups to define security and usage policies,” and Harkins agrees. “You don’t want to spin information secu- out in the wild, ICT leaders struggle between Harkins says. “This enabled us to begin allowing rity compliance as fear,” he says. “Fear is like junk food: it can giving business units the freedom to choose access to corporate email and calendars from sustain you for a bit, but in the long run it’s not healthy.” their own apps, launch their own online initia- employee-owned smartphones in January of Instead, both experts say, employees are more likely to be tives and adopt new devices, and putting the 2010.” motivated into compliance if security managers can put risk brakes on. The initiative has been highly successful in into a context that relates to them directly. But it is possible to strike a balance between allowing users to adapt their mobile devices Most employees know that a security breach affects not the two, Harkins says. Intel adopted its “protect to the workplace while keeping corporate data just data, but the entire company’s brand and reputation, but to enable” mantra three years ago. Rather than safe, and Intel continues to define new security Harkins says some business units might not fully understand focusing primarily on locking down assets, the and use policies as new devices come on board. their potential role in a security breach. mission of the information security group has Insurance provider Endurance Specialty Hold- A marketing team, for instance, might want to launch a new shifted to enable business goals while applying ings tries to establish policies that don’t limit the interactive website ahead of its competitors, he says. The a reasonable level of protection, Harkins says. users from performing their jobs, says CIO Tom website’s content seems harmless enough since it doesn’t “The more drag you put on information flow, the Terry. “There’s generally a good reason why include intellectual property, only a few interactive screens slower the business velocity, which also creates they’re asking for a particular software, tool or and videos. strategic risk issues,” he says. device. We attempt to understand the problem But what if vulnerabilities left by a third-party provider that To enable business goals while still effectively they’re trying to solve and give them tools to helped develop the site allow a hacker to implant malware in communicating its security policies, ICT needs address their needs in a secure manner.” one of the links found on the site? Explaining the risk ahead three things, Harkins says: an adequate level of For instance, USB devices were needed by of time, and in a way that’s specific to the department’s line of acumen as to the business side’s situation and many business units to transfer data, but the business, helps ensure the group will do what’s necessary to needs; input from both technical and business ICT organisation knew that USB devices can be mitigate damage, Harkins says. units on the risks versus rewards of a given a major contributor to data loss if not managed Real-world examples can also drive the message home security decision; and a clear channel of com- properly. So the Endurance IT team said “yes, when put into context. When a data breach makes the news, munication among all levels and units of the but...” by distributing the devices but also insti- use it as a teaching tool in training classes, via email or business. tuting and explaining a policy to ensure they had through video presentations. Intel’s BYOD plan is one product of its “protect password protection and encryption. Discuss the likelihood of a similar breach occurring in your to enable” policy. As early as 2009, Intel took a “When the business sees you working with organisation. Ask how a breach like this would have affected new approach that supports personal devices them in a collaborative fashion, then you can the company or a specific business unit? What people or in the enterprise. “I challenged my team to move the dial forward” in terms of a shared business units should remain extra vigilant against a similar work with Intel legal and human resources corporate response to security, Terry says. attack? What security measures do you already have in place to protect against such an attack? ICT management : security Information Age May/June 2013 | 66

Share your company’s hack history Although controversial, sharing – in confidence, of course – the Go phishing, internally number and nature of attempted hacks on your own company’s Another effective communication tech- Depending on the exact nature of the systems, or incidents within business units, can be a strong nique some companies have adopted is attack, tips might include questions motivator toward security compliance, according to Peeler. to launch their own simulated phishing like: did the email come from a trusted “People don’t really understand how often a company’s own scams, see how many employees take source? Was there something mis- systems are under attack,” she says. the bait, and then use the opportunity spelled or unusual about the link? Did Harkins agrees. “[Security leaders] have got to show logic, to offer advice on avoiding the scam the you remember to hover the mouse over show data, and relate it to the business goals and, if not next time, when it might be real. the link and check the bottom of the addressed, what impact it can have toward achieving those Royal Philips Electronics recently screen to see if the two matched? goals,” he says. “The more your predictions start to come true, launched a pilot program of controlled So far, three phishing experiments [the more] you’re demonstrating you know what you’re doing and phishing attacks, the company’s chief involving 250 employees each have been you’re not trying to impede the business; you’re trying to help the information security officer, Nick conducted; eventually, Mankovich hopes business.” Mankovich, says. to test the security smarts of all 90,000 Intel has found ways to put breach data to good use without Working with a professional phishing email-connected Philips employees sharing too much confidential information, Harkins says. “We partner, whom Mankovich could not worldwide. had an employee who stole intellectual property from us a reveal, Philips simulates an email “At the end of each pilot we talk to a few years ago and was convicted. We posted to all employees scam that tries to get employees to few of the users to see what they felt the story of what happened, how we found out, and reminded click on a link to a website and enter about the experience, both those who everyone of the expectations we have of them.” their password and user name. When fell for the phishing and those who did Intel also posts its lost or stolen laptop rates and reminds the unsuspecting employee clicks on not,” Mankovich says. “We [typically] people how to take care of equipment. It will also share general the link, a message pops up explaining have a very small percentage of people investigation or incident details, including mistakes made by their error and offers tips to avoid being who did the bad behaviour, and those employees, such as posting information to a social site, and scammed the next time. people do get the message.” describe the risk that created for the company. “But we don’t “It’s not about embarrassing or As for more simulated attacks, “we’ve share who did it or other details that would embarrass or create surveilling anyone,” he says. “It’s really decided we’re going to run it forever issues for the employee,” he says. about giving material that means some- – those personal hooks do very well,” Others have mixed feelings. Mankovich says the transparency thing at the moment when they click on he says. Future phishing tests will be approach “bears consideration”, but he worries that any shared the link.” stealthier and increasingly intricate. information could too easily jump the fence to the outside world. “My first reaction is that, with 124,000 employees in 60 countries, we couldn’t avoid it going public,” Mankovich says. “Knowing that, we must consider the downside of providing the bad guys with attack intelligence. That in itself might increase risk.” Upcoming Short Courses.

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Register now at www.acs.org.au/shortcourses Skills : software development Information Age May/June 2013 | 68 6 home truths about rock star developers You want the best and the brightest money can buy, or do you? In fact, you’re better served by a group of developers with mixed skill levels who focus on getting the job done. By Andrew Oliver

big, important project has launched, and abruptly crashed to the ground. The horrible spaghetti code is beyond debugging. There are Ano unit tests and every change requires a meeting with, like, 40 people. Oh, if only we’d had a team of 10 “rock star” developers working on this project instead! It would have been done in half the time with twice the features and five-nines availability. On the other hand, maybe not. A team of senior developers will often produce a complex design and no code, thanks to the reasons listed below.

Truth no. 1: you can’t afford all senior developers Many managers have an unrealistic understanding of the job market for software developers. Just get 10 extremely senior developers to work on an application, and voila, success! These same managers also generally believe they can hire senior developers for less than the market demands. Best case, you’ll get one or two senior developers and eight or nine liars.

Truth no. 2: people do their best work when their head is barely above water When you have a senior developer typewriting JSP pages (read: ASP, PHP, whatever), that person won’t actually perform as good a job as a more junior-level developer who hasn’t slogged through it 100 times before. A senior developer, even one with good intentions, will phone it in after the Skills : software development Information Age May/June 2013 | 69

first few weeks because he or she is inescapably bored. actually know how to code. Most developers over- results. The scientific method requires us to prove what A junior developer assigned to the same job will work rate themselves and align their title with their salary we know. Arrogance and overconfidence cause us to a lot harder. expectations. Knowing how to talk about monads and believe things without proof. Hadoop doesn’t actually mean you know how and Truth no. 3: too many senior developers spoil when to use them or, more importantly, when not to. Truth no. 6: Individuals aren’t the be-all and the code It doesn’t even mean you know how to write a simple end-all If I were working alongside a bunch of other senior SQL statement. Projects are created by groups of people. Groups are developers on a simple project like the one mentioned Our interview process involves a coding test. It has the organic and dynamic. Interactions inside groups are above, out of boredom we would come up with a way world’s simplest requirements: “Granny’s address book”. just as important as the individuals that make it up. not to use JSP pages at all. Instead, we’d engineer the Senior developers need to be able to read requirements The best groups are ones that force members to grow. most powerful and flexible templating system that was and create reasonable code that someone can follow. Developers tend to be incredibly individualistic and not JSP ever designed. They need to be able to write simple instructions on always feel under-appreciated. There would be extensive discussions and architecture how to install and deploy the software. Most people we Nonetheless, few learned everything on their own; meetings. A pretty basic B2B website would become one of interview write code that throws an exception on start they benefited from other developers showing them the the most complex architectures ever created. Why? Because up and instructions that are wrong at best and poorly tricks of the trade. Whether these were formal or informal we can. We’re smart. We can keep up. We’d definitely do written and indecipherable at worst. mentors, they were critical in any long career. Creating an entirely functional programming design because this a teaching environment is the most important thing a is our chance to show our friends it can be done. Truth no. 5: arrogance goes before the fall manager or lead can do. This lets you grow your own Ultimately, we’d run overtime and request “interns I’ve seen projects that were extremely sophisticated fall senior developers. or something” because a few “little things” and “bug down in production due to very basic oversights. Gener- Senior developers need constraints. Time and budget hunting” still need to be done. After a time, a handful ally, these were the result of smart people who wrote really are obvious, but to some hotshots, they’re also elastic, of bright interns would end up doing most of the actual “smart” code but who, like the engineers of the Titanic, as complexity gets piled on complexity. When junior work on the project, while us senior developers exercised thought their creation was unsinkable and neglected to developers are also on the team, their ability to keep our whiteboard brilliance. try and prove otherwise. up with the high-falutin’ stuff will be limited. That’s a Sound far-fetched? I saw it happen on a multi-million- Overconfidence is a dominant personality trait in the good thing, because it encourages simplicity, which is dollar corporate website project that lasted over a year. developer community, and it doesn’t seem to abate with usually your friend. Not long before, I had led a more complex B2B portal experience. With senior developers, having other people A mixed team aligns the company’s interest with the project with a small team of four more junior people, and tell you how smart you are can make a bad personality developers’ interests. A mixed team provides a good delivered in about three months. No one ever compared trait worse. We think we can handle the complexity, so career opportunity for all: leadership experience for senior the ROI between the two projects. we create it. developers and a chance for junior developers to learn Unproven technology can’t come back to bite the likes new things. ¢ Truth no. 4: most senior developers are not of us! We don’t need to test this one section of code senior thoroughly. We know it works, because we wrote it! Andrew C. Oliver is best known for founding the POI project, which is While conducting interviews, my company has encoun- Talk is cheap. Results speak for themselves, and both now hosted at Apache. He is president and founder of Open Software tered at least a dozen strong lead developers who didn’t method and materials selected by careful judgement bring Integrators, a professional services firm. ICT management : strategies Information Age May/June 2013 | 70

8 biggest myths about managing geeks

Managing talented techies can be tricky business. Here’s how. By Dan Tynan ICT management : strategies Information Age May/June 2013 | 71

rom Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory to Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, we know Geek management myth No. 1: Pizza in, code out Fall we need to know about geeks, right? Though pizza may appear to “Every so often you might of Cyrus Innovation, an agile They eat nothing but pizza and care about nothing the culture at large as one of encounter someone who can software development firm. but technology. They live by night and are rarely seen the four basic geek food groups create production-quality code (Eckfeldt also recommends an in daylight. They’re barely able to communicate with (along with Chinese takeaway, in this kind of environment,” she alternative diet of fresh fruit and microwave popcorn and Red says. “But I’ve been in the busi- herbal tea.) other bipeds. They’d spend all day playing with their Bull), stocking the development ness for over 30 years now and “Developers perform better toys and getting nothing done if you let them. They’re department with junk food and I’ve only met three of them.” when working at a sustainable the antithesis of creative. caffeinated beverages, locking The pizza-in, code-out (PICO) pace and collaborating together, While some of these stereotypes may seem true at the door and waiting for a rule usually results in an inferior as with pair programming,” he a distance, up close they tend to fall apart. Tech pros finished product to emerge in the product, in large part because says. “This provides a constant wee hours of the night doesn’t good code requires collabora- rotation of new ideas and distrib- are more than the sum of their stereotypes, though cut it, says Johanna Rothman, tion between multiple teams, utes knowledge of the system, they are definitely different and need to be managed management consultant and according to Bruce Eckfeldt, which speeds up innovation and accordingly, says Eric Schlissel, founder of tech ser- author of Hiring Geeks That Fit. managing director and CEO reduces risk.” vices provider Geektek IT Outsourcing. “Managing a geek is different than managing other employees,” Schlissel says. Geek management myth No. 2: Geeks need communication coaching “If business owners want to retain the top talent, It’s a well-worn cliché that tech- “Many geeks score higher on wikis and so on – which tech pros they should treat their geeks as a different class of nologists have difficulty commu- analytical intelligence than con- find less disruptive and more employee. Respect their proclivities, within reason, nicating with the rest of humanity. ceptual or social intelligence,” says conducive to their skill sets. and judge them based on their work product instead But the truth is not that ICT pros business coach Nora N. Simpson, “Geeks are excellent com- can’t talk to normal people, it’s that principal of Simpson Strategic municators; they just don’t use of their tattoos.” they often prefer different modes Solutions. “The analytical thinker traditional communication chan- The trouble is in separating the myths from the of communication. craves knowledge and assumes nels,” says Chris Kelly, developer wisdom when it comes to getting the most from highly Geeks may be reluctant to speak everyone else does too. To prove evangelist for New Relic, a web trained technology professionals. up in group meetings (because their worth to a manager, they will app performance management Here are eight commonly held misperceptions they’ve been told all their lives often demonstrate their knowledge firm. “They prefer to communicate they’re bad at communicating), or by providing too many details, which asynchronously using tools like about managing the techie set. If you’re among the they may talk too much, getting can confuse the issues at hand.” instant messaging, group chat (mis)managed, perhaps you can persuade your boss bogged down in technical details, For techs who are shy about systems and email. Phone calls, to read this. ¢ simply because the minutiae is talking in front of others, the meetings and ‘stopping by’ are very important to their work. Worse, solution is to meet with them one- disruptive to the process of writing Dan Tynan has been writing and editing stories about technology they can at times be savagely on-one on a regular basis, Rothman software. When a geek appears to blunt, skewering the opinions or says. Another good idea is to use be non-communicative or antiso- and its discontents for more than 20 years. During that time egos of coworkers, thereby fuelling multiple channels of communication cial, she’s just trying to focus on he’s been an editor in chief and an executive editor for major communication stereotypes. – email, chat, IM, texting, intranets, the task at hand.” technology magazines and written for more than 50 publications. ICT management : strategies Information Age May/June 2013 | 72

Geek management myth No. 3: Geek management myth No. 4: Technologists can’t be bothered with creative challenges Geeks are freaks who only come out at night Just because someone takes an their working relationship.” Though some tech professionals productive leads to better results for analytical approach to problem solving The key is to avoid being too might prefer to work all night and the company.” doesn’t mean they’re not creative. prescriptive in your requirements. sleep all day, that does not neces- Smart managers recognise that Organisations that put “creatives” on Describe where you want your sarily bind them to the fraternity geeks are different than their average one side of the table and engineers company to be and what the limitations of the undead. It does, however, employee and give a wide latitude on the other need to invest in a new are, then let your engineers figure out mean they might be better off being for alternative hours, dress and table, preferably a round one where whether it makes more sense to build unbound by many rules that govern behaviour, says Richard J. Sherman, all parties can all collaborate. a train, a plane, or a time machine to other employees’ temporal existence. author of Supply Chain Transformation: “Most managers assume engineers get you there. “I’ve had more success letting the Practical Roadmap to Best Practice are solely linear thinkers and only “An old geek management saying people I manage work on projects Results. looking for the next high-paying job,” goes, ‘Don’t try to herd the cats. Just when they want to, rather than “Let them work in soft light, let them says Meredith Munger, principal of put them where the mice are, and let restraining them to nine-to-five listen to their music, let them surf the small-business consultants Munger & nature take its course’,” says Brian work days,” says Nicholas Percoco, Web, let them find their own technical Co. “You’ll have much better success Jones, CTO at email marketing soft- senior vice president and head of muse,” Sherman says. “As for time, by thinking of and treating your ware company Aweber. “Rather than Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, a cloud- they cannot have any boundaries. engineers as artists who love creating force-feeding the engineering team based compliance and information They will work for 72 hours straight beautiful things and are proud of their the specific tasks they’ll perform, give security provider. “They’re always when the muse finds them, and they work. That in turn helps managers them the tools to efficiently self-orga- held accountable for completing tasks will take 72 hours off when a new understand how criticising an engi- nise around an issue and eradicate it, and working as a team, but allowing release of a computer game comes neer’s work hurts him and damages because that’s what they want to do.” them to do it when they’re most out. Let them be.”

Geek management myth No. 5: Taking a geek’s toys away will make him more productive When they spy a techie fiddling with an iPhone or It dampens their enthusiasm and undercuts their their geeks great tools, and that’s no coincidence. playing a game, many managers see unnecessary productivity.” At TimeTrade we even describe the tools newly distractions that drain productivity. But the geek That’s especially true for the tools they need to hired programmers will get in our online job sees inspiration, or at least something to occupy do their jobs, says Brian Kelly, VP of engineering postings. That certainly helps attract technical the lizard brain while their higher thinking chews for TimeTrade Systems, maker of Web-based talent to the company.” on tougher problems. scheduling software. When you see geeks glued to their phones or “Managers don’t understand the emotional “Most programmers work best when given the staring at screens for days on end in a seemingly connection geeks feel toward their personal best tools for the job: fast computers, top-quality comatose state, don’t panic, advises Rod Bagg, VP devices,” says Bill Rosenthal, CEO of multi- monitors, noise-cancelling headphones, ergo- of customer support for Nimble Storage, a pro- channel skills training firm Logical Operations. nomic chairs, and any software they need,” Kelly vider of flash-optimised hybrid storage arrays. “For many, the feeling is so visceral that policies says. “The most successful engineer-focused “The wheels are churning,” he says. “They’re restricting their use seem like an affront to them. companies out there are well known for giving going to get it done. Just stay out of their way.” ICT management : strategies Information Age May/June 2013 | 73

Geek management myth No. 6: Techies couldn’t care less about business Geek management myth No. 8: Solving tech problems is all the satisfaction a geek needs Another familiar myth is that ICT Organisations that fail to invite pros are completely uninterested tech pros to the table miss out on For years, stingy employers have used better to walk into their work area with in what the business side is doing. the expertise and experience they the myth that geeks care only about crisp $100 bills and reward victories That’s simply wrong, says Dave may bring in other areas, such as technology – and not money – as an throughout the year. For engineers Gruber, director of developer mar- Internet marketing, UX design and excuse to underpay and overwork them. who’ve spent extra time crashing on the keting for Black Duck Software, a market segmentation, to name a few If this dubious notion was ever true, job, I have sometimes bought a weekend management and consulting firm for examples, Brett Suddreth, editor at it isn’t any more. Money is only one of getaway at a hotel resort for the whole businesses that rely on open source IT Career Paths, says. several key motivators, along with rec- family to enjoy after the project is done. software. “We are more than just technology ognition from their peers, flexible work Spouses appreciate that the company “Geeks get excited about more gurus,” he says “We have a lot of environments or simply the opportunity recognises their sacrifice as well.” than code,” he says. “Engage them insights into the business that could and the tools to write tight code or solve A job well done – and recognised as in your business. You’ll be surprised help push the organisation forward. a thorny problem. such by management – goes a long way how interested most geeks are in Start including us in your brain- “Money matters, of course, but mostly to keeping the tech staff happy and understanding the bigger picture storming meetings when you are as public reward for a job well done,” motivated. and will ultimately develop more about to pitch new clients: you never Munger says. “Instead of an end-of- “Geeks build stuff, and there is no relevant code when they do.” know what we will come up with.” year holiday bonus, though, it’s far greater sense of achievement than seeing their app live and in use,” Nikki Garg, COO for Icreon, a tech consulting and development company, says. “Give Geek management myth No. 7: Geeks are antisocial misfits them visibility, show off photographs or promotion material of the project, share While the tech field tends to attract Leer, director of internal communica- our employees and their needs.” the usage statistics, and tell the stories more introverts than extroverts, the tions at Web browser company Opera Geeks need to develop good rela- at internal staff meetings or events. image of geeks holed up in their cubi- Software. tionships with their coworkers, even Don’t forget to celebrate victories cles thrumming away on their key- “We host Friday beers, Interna- if they are reluctant to do so, says together.” boards while everyone else around tional Women’s Day events plus life coach Scott Crabtree, chief hap- Even simple praise can do the trick, parties just doesn’t hold water. Christmas and summer parties, piness officer (yes, really) for Happy just as it does with the rest of the non- “I think the biggest myth is that and our employees have organised Brain Science. geek staff, Suddreth says. geeks are antisocial,” freelance Web among themselves board-games “Introverts won’t shout about how “The old adage that geeks like to stay designer and consultant, David Jes- nights, singing groups, sailing trips they need contact with people; they hidden in the dark while hand jamming surun, says. “In fact, one of the best and dance classes,” she says. “Also might even resist social activity,” he away at their computers is really a thing guys I ever had in my teams had only contrary to geek stereotypes, we’ve says. “But science suggests that both of the past,” he says. “They want to be one major issue: I had to constantly found that offering a psychology introverts and extroverts benefit appreciated and recognised just like track him down and pry him away service, having a masseur visit greatly from social contact. Providing anyone else in the organisation. So be from the pretty girls in other depart- weekly and generally offering a opportunities for geeks to be social sure and give them a shout-out when ments, and they from him.” family-friendly workplace where will boost their happiness and there- they do a good job.” Encouraging tech staff’s social side staff can bring their children to work fore their productivity, creativity and is in fact a great motivator, says Live if needed is great for accommodating health.” Technology : storage Information Age May/June 2013 | 74

Wanted: 40 trillion gigabytes of open storage, stat! The world’s storage needs are growing at an alarming rate, but are existing technologies ready to meet the challenge? By Jon L. Jacobi

igabytes and terabytes are so passé. It’s soon going to be a zettabyte world thanks to all the digital Gdata – images, books, music, movies, video, docu- ments, maps, you name it – that we collect and engage with throughout our lives. Industry research firm IDC predicts a 50-fold increase in the total amount of digitally stored data between 2010 and 2020. This means that in the next seven years, the world’s total data footprint will reach 40 zettabytes (that’s 40 trillion gigabytes), and every man, woman and child on the planet will account for some 5.2 terabytes of data whether in the cloud or local storage. Technology : storage Information Age May/June 2013 | 75

That’s a lot of ones and zeroes, and, unfortunately, drive platters, which translates to more precise read/ In terms of personal data storage, hybrid hard drives help is not on the way in the form of some high-tech, write head placement, and allows narrower tracks to be – which marry high-speed flash memory to traditional sci-fi breakthrough. To wit: holographic storage will not written and more disk platters to be placed inside a drive. spinning discs – will likely make a greater impact on bail us out in the next seven years. Nope, between now Hitachi hasn’t commented on increases in areal density our lives than any fancy new technology cooked up in and 2020, the heavy lifting will be done by that vener- (that is, how many bits can be squeezed into a single an R&D lab. Hybrid drives deliver the storage capaci- able mainstay of storage – the mechanical hard drive. square inch), but it has said that its new 3.5-inch helium- ties of traditional hard drives along with some of the And, yes, USB flash drives, SSDs (solid-state drives), filled drives, scheduled for delivery sometime in 2013, performance benefits of SSDs, but at only twice the optical drives, and even tape back-up systems will also will boast seven platters instead of the current five. This price per gigabyte of standard hard drives. remain in play. increase in disk platters – all thanks to helium – will give Seagate is already in the hybrid drive game, and None of these technologies is poised for a revolution, us that 40 per cent capacity increase per drive. Toshiba and other drive manufacturers have recently but we should see some interesting evolution in various Two technologies still under development could a weighed in with plans for hybrid drives. Toshiba sent hardware areas. So let’s take a peek at the incremental deliver a tenfold or greater increase in areal density: samples of its 1TB and 750GB hybrid drives last year to technology improvements that will help humankind reach the long promised (but yet to be commercialised) heat- manufacturing partners. Toshiba expects three million that magic 40-zettabyte mark. assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and patterned of the hybrid drives to be produced by the end of 2014. media such as self-ordered magnetic arrays (SOMA). However, unless the products can approach the tangible Hard drives: dull but reliable HAMR uses current read/write technology in conjunc- kick in performance delivered by SSDs, they may be The workhorse hard drive will remain the dominant tion with a laser to heat the media. The heat is required relegated to being a stop-gap solution. storage mechanism for the world’s data into the foresee- to facilitate writing to disk-coating compounds such as The future of flash memory: speed able future. According to Gartner’s John Monroe and iron/platinum alloys that are capable of greater areal and price reductions Joseph Unsworth, in 2016 hard drives will still account for density than today’s compounds, but are less magnetically 97 per cent of total drive sales, despite the penetration of malleable until heated. Eight- and even three-nanometer Smartphones, tablets, USB flash drives, digital cameras, SSDs into the desktop and laptop markets. Hard drives particle separations are envisioned. video recorders and SSDs all rely on fast, rugged, non- continue to lead SSDs in both capacity and competitive HAMR still remains in development, however, and volatile NAND flash memory. Gartner predicts that pricing, and will do so for the foreseeable future, this in we shouldn’t expect to see anything deployed sooner yearly NAND sales will reach 200 petabytes by 2016, spite of growing capacity and price reductions for flash than two years. up from just 50 petabytes in 2012. Much of the memory drives. Where today’s magnetic layers involve magnetic par- will go into the SSDs for servers and desktop PCs, as Luckily, hard drive performance and capacity will con- ticles that can be oriented to represent data, in HAMR well as laptops, tablets and other mobile devices. tinue to see improvements in the coming years, thanks to these particles are arranged rather chaotically. This makes The difference in speed between an SSD and a fast several new technologies on the horizon. Hitachi Global them difficult to pack any tighter than they currently hard drive is obvious even to the untrained eye. With Storage Technologies recently announced helium-filled are. But patterned media, such as SOMA (a group of NAND’s limited number of write cycles rendered moot drives aimed at enterprise and cloud storage. These drives nanoparticles that can be induced to align in an ordered by advanced operating system support and techniques promise a 40 per cent increase in drive capacity and a fashion), pack magnetic bits much tighter by eliminating such as wear-leveling, SSD technology’s only constraints 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency. the random shapes and spacing of the current technology. are cost and capacity. Helium has one-seventh the density of air. As such, It all sounds great on paper, but deploying this technology Current consumer SSDs top out at 512GB, and each the element can reduce the drag and turbulence between en masse at an affordable price will be a challenge. gigabyte costs 10 times what a gigabyte of a platter-based Technology : storage Information Age May/June 2013 | 76

hard drive costs. The prices of both storage technologies With a large, well-established manufacturing infra- Meanwhile, Blu-ray continues to be offered on PCs, are dropping at similar rates (20 to 25 per cent a year), structure, it’s unlikely that we’ll see serious inroads by and remains a convenient way to share maximum quality, and this 10-to-1 ratio should remain about the same for competing non-volatile memory technologies anytime high-definition movie content. BDXL for write-once at least the next five years, according to Gartner. soon. But trust us, various technologies are vying to discs is currently at 128GB of capacity. However, its Traditionally, NAND has suffered a limited number of offer an alternative, including HP’s Memristor (memory drives need to become more prevalent and media needs program/erase (P/E) cycles. Each cycle reflects an erasure resistor), Toshiba’s ReRAM (resistive memory), and to drop in price for BDXL to gain traction. That said, 4K and write on a memory cell. Fortunately, though, the P/E FeTRAM (ferro-electric transistor memory), to name video, the big trend at the 2013 CES, could give BDXL problem is being rendered moot by advanced operating just a few. new life – and give Blu-ray new life as a whole – if the system support and firmware techniques such as wear- Blu-ray Disc Association adds 4K support to the format. leveling, so now SSD technology’s only constraints are Optical: on the way out? cost and capacity. Gartner analyst John Monroe describes CD/DVD/ Data bus/interfaces Currently, faster and more expensive 100,000 P/E, Blu-ray as “the cockroach of the industry”. Nobody really With current SSDs bumping up against the limits of SLC (single-layer cell, 1-bit) NAND is used in enterprise- wants the technology. Nobody is really satisfied with it. even SATA 6Gbps (as it’s usually referred to), something level drives, with 10,000 P/E, MLC (multilevel cell, 2-bit) But you can’t get rid of optical because it’s still by far the will have to give in the near future. But the SATA III NAND used in consumer-grade drives. This is likely cheapest removable media available. That said, according bus will remain in play for at least several more years, to remain the pattern for the near future, especially as to a DigiTimes.com report, Robert Wong, chairman of because it’s more than adequate for hard drives, which firmware improves practical longevity even further. And Taiwan’s largest optical disc maker, CMC Magnetics, will dominate the landscape through 2020. it may have to, because as dies shrink, so do the P/E warned that optical media prices will jump by 50 per Several new external interface buses have the per- ratings of NAND. The promise of TLC (triple-level cell, cent in the second half of 2013 due to plant closures in formance chops to make inroads in 2013. Thunderbolt 3-bit) NAND is often bandied about in SSD discus- 2012 and an industry reshuffling. Higher prices could (nee Light Peak) from Apple and Intel already ships sions, but without substantial improvement in lifespan very well hasten the format’s decline. on newer Macs and a relatively few cutting-edge PC (currently about 1000 P/E cycles) and performance (it’s In the future, consumers will deal with optical media motherboards. It’s basically an external version of PCI slow), you’ll only see it in smaller mobile devices over primarily as a physical delivery system for entertainment Express with a whopping 10Gbps transfer rate. For high- the next few years. and software, and occasionally as emergency boot media. performance back-up and external storage – particularly The biggest challenge for NAND is physics. Greg Most PCs still ship with optical drives, but increasingly when there’s an array of drives in play – Thunderbolt Wong of Forward Insights says that there is most likely these drives will be offered only as external USB options. should eventually supplant the slower eSATA and USB only one die shrink left after Intel’s current 20-nanometer Though the industry appears stagnant, new optical 3.0. However, USB will certainly remain as a peripheral process. After that, decreasing endurance and perfor- technologies are still being developed. FujiFilm, for one, and flash drive bus. mance will force a halt to further reductions in die size recently announced a 1TB disc to ship in 2015 (no pricing SATA Express (SATA 3.2) – an internal storage bus for flash memory. When asked by how much Intel might was available). that uses the SATA software and protocol layer over be able to reduce the die, Wong says he is unsure. TDK has also been showing a similar technology. If the physical PCIe bus and connectors – is also on the But when you run out of horizontal space, you can shipped with affordable media (it’s supposedly easier horizon. Intended for internal SSDs, it supports current always go vertical. To this end, 3D or layered NAND to produce than Blu-ray), 1TB optical could keep the legacy and SATA/AHCI, as well as an NVMe (non- chips will likely provide the increase in capacity that’s unloved, unwanted, but still undeniably handy optical volatile memory express) mode. NVMe is an interface required for NAND to continue growing in capacity. disc around for the next decade or so. spec designed for SSDs. Theoretically, SATA Express’s Technology : storage Information Age May/June 2013 | 77

throughput is limited only by the bandwidth of the PCIe and in complex directory structures. Enter object storage, According to Gartner’s Monroe and Unsworth, there bus. With PCIe 2.0 that’s five gigatransfers per second, a relatively new way of storing data that organises it into is “a widespread and ongoing readiness at the executive and with the PCIe 3.0 found on newer Intel chipsets, objects. Each object is made up of bytes, but also includes level to curtail production at any moment” and “the that’s eight gigatransfers. metadata describing the object. This allows data to be HDD sector intends to closely and continuously align stored more efficiently and organised by metadata for production with evolving demand.” After the NAND Cloud storage: let it rain easier retrieval. price free fall in the first two quarters of 2012, a similar Today about seven per cent of personal data is stored in Next up, the Storage Networking Industry Association resolve seems to be developing in that industry. That, the cloud, according to Gartner, but by 2016 the amount is proposing a new standard called cloud data man- however, can change in any competitive market at the of personal data stored in the cloud will jump to 36 per agement interface. CDMI is a set of protocols defining drop of a hat. cent. Gartner says trends in mobility are driving the how companies can safely move data between private According to Forward Insights analyst Greg Wong, growth of “personal clouds”. The rise of camera-equipped and public clouds. The standard is open, allowing for “steady 20 to 25 per cent yearly price drops over the next phones and tablets that automatically upload video and wide adoption and the opportunity to associate more few years” for NAND should be the norm. Substantiating pictures to the cloud will create a “direct-to-cloud model, defined rules around object storage data, such as how this is Gartner’s prediction of a drop from the current 85 allowing users to directly store user-generated content long data should be retained, how many copies should cents per gigabyte to around 25 cents per gigabyte by 2016 in the cloud,” Shalini Verma, principal research analyst be kept, and whether those copies need to be distributed for NAND. The Gartner numbers also predict a drop at Gartner, wrote in a 2012 report. geographically. from the current six cents per GB for 3.5-inch desktop Terri McClure, analyst with Enterprise Strategy Enterprise Strategy Group’s McClure says CDMI is hard drives, to a mere 0.8 cents in 2016. Also, 2.5-inch Group, says the more mobile gear we have, the more a driving factor for making business more comfortable mobile hard drives should drop from their current 11.5 we’ll want to push data to the cloud so we can later access about moving data from back-room servers to the cloud. cents per gigabyte to 3.5 cents per gigabyte. documents, video and music from anywhere. Twenty-two per cent of the companies it surveyed that While mainstream storage technology development On the back end, the rise in the number of big cloud already store data in the cloud said that in the next three is slowing in terms of density and performance, it’s storage services such as Amazon S3, Nimbus.io, and years they would move 90 to 100 per cent of their data important to remember just how far we’ve come. In his Nirvanix is enabling smaller consumer cloud services to to the cloud. 2006 presentation “Fifty Years in Hard Drives and the flourish online. For example, Amazon S3 has become a Exciting Road Ahead,” Seagate’s Mark Kryder pointed turnkey service for customers like Dropbox. It just passed Price trends out that if automobiles had progressed as far as hard its 100 millionth registered user milestone and says one While it’s a given that storage will continue to drop in drives in the time period from 1979 to 2006, each vehicle billion files are stored per day on Dropbox. terms of price per gigabyte, how fast and how far are would carry 150,000 people, cost $15, and travel nearly For years these cloud warehouses were not held back always the questions. It’s impossible to factor in events a million miles an hour at 36,000 mpg. That’s a heck by NAND, SSD or HHD hardware issues. The hard such as the 2011 floods in Thailand that halted some of an improvement, and it will continue for a decade at part was the scalability and manageability of crushing manufacturing and significantly raised hard-drive prices. least with the present basic technologies. After that, who amounts of data. Traditional hierarchic file systems were However, as bad as the floods were for the people of knows what we wily humans have up our sleeves? ¢ never intended to store hundreds of millions and billions Thailand, they had a sobering effect on the hard-drive of files in a single namespace. This old network file industry, a time-out as it were. Hard-drive prices have Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches system (NFS) architecture forced data to be stored in again dropped, but not quite back to pre-flood levels, and punched cards to program them. Technology journalists Melissa multiple file systems, sometimes in multiple locations, and they are not in the free fall that they had been in. Perenson and Tom Spring contributed to this report. Recently graded members of the ACS Information Age May/June 2013 | 78

Canberra Hong, Bao Shannon, Jatin Alnafessah, Ahmad Fowler, Michael Krishnananda, H D Palaniappan, Karthick Associate Humpherston, Troy Sharma, Ramandip Alvrez, Karla Fowler, Mark Kudo, Junya Panda, Sushant Kumar Birudharaju, Anil Husband, Carlia Signorini, Dario Amalraj, Vinnarasi Nithya Francis, Fainson Kumar, Sumeet Pang, Marc Ahmad, Manar Hutcheson, Jessica Smith, Hamish Anikolaitis, Dimitrios Fuentes, David Lane, Miriam Patel, Saadiq Aidan, Kerr Huynh, Hung Smith, Joseph Apriani, Deborah Garg, Ravi Lawmar, T L Patel, Amit Alexis, Jeremie Jodlowski, Matt Smorhun, Mathew Aquilina, Laurence Geraghty, Lauren Laws, Rob Patel, Anil Allen, Timothy Johnson, Jamie Smyth, Christopher Arasteh, Masoumeh Ghimire, Barun Le, Nguyen Thanh Thanh Patten, Rhys Amin, Viral Kairys, Chris Song, Zhipeng Arcilla, Mark Louie Gianacas, Christopher Lee, David Peden, Bruce Andison, Christine Keats, Justin Southi, Jessica Bai, Linsong Gloria, Ahern Leto, Giancarlo Peeters, Anthony Aniversario, Steven Kelly, Nicholas Tiwari, Vivek Barnes, Brendan Goh, Benedict Li, Cheng Pelchen, Thomas Bergman, Brad Kelly, Jack Tresize, Dominic Barrett, David Gondesi, Appalaswamy Lidden, Beau Pham, Quan Bouhafs, Tarik Kelty, Jules Triner, Chris Batthula, Srinivas Yadav Grand, Umberto Light, David Phillips, Terence Boyle, Stephen Kenny, Rebecca Truong, Bon Beazley, Colin Grant, Richard Lo, Vincent Phougat, Anil Butler, Ramadasa Kumar, Nathan Tsiamoulis, Phillip Begley, Malachy Groarke, Matthew Logan, Sarah Pitchford, Jeremy Casey, Daniel Lam, Katherine Tsiaparis, Alexandra Begum, Salma Gupta, Sanjeev Luo, Ke Poblete, Margaret Joyce Chesworth, Daniel Le, Thi Ngoc Anh Tu, Sebastian Bell, Simon Hage, Ross Luu, Mimi Pothen, Anie Chow, Jessica Levine, Lisa Urand, Wayne Bell, Eileen Hamdard, Sonia Lymbers, Nicholas Price, Candice Cooper, Mitchell Loder, Alexander Verma, Rohan Beravalli, Arun Kumar Harbin, Alexandria Mackaway, Mark Proano, Ivan Cox, Matthew Lynch, Katherine Vuong, Peter Biggin, Jennifer Harcon, Ricardo Maher, Mathew Radhakrishnan, Suresh Davis, Chris Maheshwari, Apoorva White, Mark Blix, Edward Hards, Anthony Mala, Rattana Rahman, Muhammad Denny, Lachlan Markovic, John Willenberg, Keith Booth, Rebecca Haroutonian, Allen Mamtora, Devang Rai, Shukra Hang Deonath, Abhijit Matthews, Dale John Wilson, Chris Boughton, Matthew Haughton, Leo Mangogna, Giuseppe Rajan, Raghavan Desborough, Paul McCarthy, Fiona Woolley, Brian Bradley, Grant Henry, Karen Manjure, Ashish Rajaram, Suba Dimcevski, Andrej McCormack, Peter Xia, Anna Buchanan, James Ho, Danny Mao, Henry Rajaratnam, Punitharajan Duke, Sam McCutcheon, Kynan Yeadon, Joe Burgess, Jamie Holman, Abigail Mao, Laura Ramm, Ian Duke, Sam McInnes, John Zhao, MengMeng Cabauatan, Honeylou May Hooper, Brendan Maras, Vera Rani, Bimla Dummett, David McKay, Angus Zhou, Jin Cansino, Albert Horaib, Hossam Mathialagan, Japhne Reema Rapolu, Hari Dyer, Renata McMinn, Benjamin Zhu, Shawn Carpio, Manolito Howard, Peter Mavani, Ravi Razan, Mohammad Eiben, Hans McQualter, Daniel Fellow Chadha, Shashank Hu, Zhiyong Mayer, Kirsten Rundle, Kelvin Elford, Peter Mhaisuria, Miraj Lucas, Richard Chadwick, Samantha Huang, Tim McCartney, Bernie Sachin, Patel Ellis, Ryan Monus, Peter Member Challoner‑Miles, Lee Huynh, Hewson McClaine, Ivan Sadeghi Lakelayeh, Saeid Engemann, Michael Moore, Paul Dixit, Akshey Chamala, Emmanuel Hyde, Catherine McCourt, Alyson Sapcas, Dean Evans, Justin Morgan, Chelsea Ghimire, Mandish Chan, Tracy Irvine, Tristan McLachlan, Gerard Scott, Wendy Floros, Timothy Murray, Scott Gupta, Nitin Charles, Tarun Jaber, Mohammad Meng, Cathy Seah, Jackson Ford, Jack Nikodijevic, Novica Hunt, Gareth Chen, Weisi Jawad, Haydar Middleton, Chantelle Selvarajan, Karthick Ragavan Fraser, Sarah Normando, Anthony Khan, Aamir Chintala, Dhanu Joubert, Zelia Miller, Dominique Shang, Di Gaukroger, James Owen, Brandon Leung, Koon Man Chowdhury, Md Shohab Kafle, Parikshyan Minassian, Andre Sharon‑Zipser, Adam Gavin, Luke Parker, Daniel Li, Chun Alam Kalinic, Peter Mirza, Agha Hasan Simonds, Aaron Georgiou, Andrew Peters, Dominic Puteho, Matali Nicholas Clarence, Nathan Kandukuri, Ramesh Kumar Miyasava, Lais Singh, Harmohan Ghimire, Ashish Phillips, Adam Sun, Jingsong Cox, David Kapoor, Vishal Mohammadi, Omid Sinha, Pallaw Glover, Benjamin Pickering, Jarrad Truong, Andrew Cumiskey, Liam Kavadas, Dennis Monis, Diana Sohaib, Osama Gough, Michael Pratt, Thomas Senior Member Dandekar, Yogesh Pramod Kavian, Maryam Mortlock, Jason Soo, Danny Grayson, Graham Rajendran, Vebushanan Beergah, Mervin Davis, Julian Kelly, Michael Muir, Jarrad Stanley, Elise Grecl, Matthew Rice, Adam Dawson, Ann De Costa, Kezia Kemp, Alexander Murdoch, Catherine Stephens‑Schuster, Grigsby, Shane Richard, Rathesh Hamilton, Nick De Silva, Ashan Kesavan, Anita Mussi Baptista, Mariana Andrew‑George Guan, Zhonghua Richardson, Jessie MacGregor, Garry Desai, Gaurang Ki, Benjamin Nadin, Christopher Su, Yu‑Wen Hahl, Mark Rizia, Mustari Radoll, Peter John Ding, Matthew Kim, Yongwan Nath, Jayesh Subotic, Aleksander Harris, Simon Robinson, Andrew Doherty, Ryan Kim, Young Jun Nguyen, Uyen Taberner, Alex Hewett, Jye Rodriguez, Ariel New South Wales Dong, Stephen Kishore, Anand Ogoy, Jumar Tagudin, Joseph Ho, John Ross, Courtney Associate Dunphy, Peter Knight, Susan Onofri, Elvio Taiwin, Wenny Hobday, Stephen Saleem, M Saad Ahmed, Saqib Evans, Nicola Joan Koay, Kevin Oswald, Jason Tanudisastro, Calvin Hocking, Bradley Salfate, Rodrigo Alcock, Georgina Fernandez, Miriam Kordik, Daniel Pace, Martin Telford, Nick Hogg, Callum Sampson, Jeremy Alizadeh Arnesa, Mahdiyeh Forneiro, David Kosasih, Gunawan Pahuja, Ritwik Thompson, Darryl Recently graded members of the ACS Information Age May/June 2013 | 79

Thompson, David G.c., Bhoj Bahadur Patel, Ripal Johnson, Andrew Batov, Alexander Panshin, Kirill Queensland Tilak Subramanian, Elango Gomez, Astrid Pathak, Abishek Rostron, Gregory Caruz, Hermodillo Pantoja, Warlin Angelo Associate Tong, Nicholas Guo, Xiang Pokharel, Sarad Singhal, Krishna Kumar Combrink, Michael Pascual, Kenneth Abercrombie, Luke Tran, Dian Guo, Xingpeng Pramudita, Ivan Takken, Philip Phillippus Peiris, Sumal Acuna, Nelson Tran, Hai Nam Gupta, Suraj Prasad Prasad, Ronald Conklin, Gregory Perajiraver, Subakesan Northern Territory Alfonso, Katherine Tran, Deborah Gurung, Arjun Qi, Yin Dademo, Alison Pupua, Russell Allison, Brock Associate Tupper, Matthew Gerald Hobson, Jan Rahman, Syed Shamimur Dar, Moazzam Rattigan, Jason Anand, Prince Agarrey, David Glory Uytterhoeven‑Spark, Bas Hossain, Mohammad Zakir Rai, Navendra Bahadur Dass, Esli Jason Ravusiro, Rima Andreas, Christopher Avard, Leah Verney, Anne Hyder, Mahasin Ray, Sachchidanand De Veas, Regienald Rosadino, Gilbert Arigo Mere, Jakapi Branco, Nivio Viswanathan, Raghavendran Ibrahimov, Elmin Regmi, Suman Dion, Hubert Roy, Mainak Bachu, Sangeeta Chaonafai, Phattharaphol Vu, Hugh Islam, MD Mahbubul Rehman, Habib Ur Dodin, Yannick Mitchell Sallang, Vyner Beet, Paul Faraz Abir, Kazi Vu, Huong Trang Ji, Chenwei Sahota, Pankaj Kumar Didier Salman, Khaled Bostock, Darren Gamuza, Mariene Joy Wahid, Sameed Jiang, Tao Sanghera, Jaskaran Singh Fendek, Mojmir Santillan, Aristides Brazil, Daniel Ghimire, Shailendra Wang, Davey Jin, Li Shabana, Shabana Fernandes, Roshan Simon, Julie Brets, Roman Gumber, Sachin Ward, Deryk Kaewpanya, Trin Shatrudh, Choudhary Fluck, Martin Siriwardana, Tisse Cantillon, Jean‑Jacques Hynes, Ebony Wasilwesky, Jessica Katare, Varun Shrestha, Biraj Foiap, Beatrice Appuhamilage Chanaka Carle, Lincoln Jackson, Robert John Xia, Max Kaur, Ishpalpreet Shrestha, Sanil Fraser, Ian Soikava, Terry Chhimpa, Kamal Nain Lin, Ling An Xu, Deqiang Kaur, Simar Preet Shrestha, Sandeep Gima, Glen Sukhoy, Svyatoslav Chien, Derek Maniya, Nayan Yan, Amanda Kaushik, Harish Shrestha, Pratik Gorvett, Andrew Sureshkumar, Subramaniam Coetzee, Dirk Muturi, Stephen Tene Yana, Sanjida Kc, Pradeep Shrestha, Rupesh Gunawardena, Thilok Szucs, Andras Cop, Aleksandra Neupane, Bidhan Yazgin, Oze Khadka, Dil Bahadur Shrestha, Ashim Hahu, Merolyne Tau, Vagi Coppers, Johan Nguyen, Duy Yin, Chao Khadka, Shiva Ram Shrestha, Sandeep Ismail, Ilham Tewesi, Helen Cruz, Rolando Jr Packer, Joseph Yin, Sandra Khanal, Prasit Shrestha Rana, Kristina Juwane, Nathalie Thenuwara, Dimantha Dilan Dasarath, Naveen Kumar Padmanabhan, Mrinalini Youkhaneh, Dariush Khanal, Yam Prasad Sigdel, Dinkar Kaidoga, Judith Thinakaran, Rajatharan Dharmatileke, Nishan Peiris, Manuka Bushana Young, Jimmy Khanal, Bidur Singh, Karmjit Kariyakarawana, Anne Tokana, Makakat Edden, Michelle Raj, Amrit Zaffar, Shahzeb Koirala, Nagendra Singh, Gurjyot Shamalee Vasilev, Nedyalko Vasilev Edison, Reubeil Regmi, Prashant Zhai, Changqing Kulkarni, Kiran Sivalingam, Vithushan Katiyar, Jawwad Velayudam, Thanabalan Eisenhauer, Stephen Santos, Amapola Zhang, Fiona Lett, Mitchell Siwakoti, Suman Kau, Addie Vele, Raymond Eldridge, Chris Sheriffdeen, Milroy Zhao, Qiu Wei Li, Ji Subedi, Suraj Kauga, Serah Vemaraju, Meher Ferraioli, Francesco Shrestha, Prajwal Zhao, Yu Limbu, Biso Sutanto, Eka Surya Kaumu, Kamo Venkateshwrlu Finch, Warren Siddiqui, Hina Zhu, Guoxing Liu, Xiaodong Tamang, Neema Dorje Kolwon, Isaac Weerasinghe, Ranganarth Fogg, Darrel Sriwiset, Wanchaloem Member Liu, Ye Thapa, Bimal Kongiri, David Xu, Donghui Fries, Benjamin Suman, Sayed Ahmed Adhikari, Sijan Liu, Wenfu Thatikonda, Priyanka Kuksov, Igor Yankov, Ivan Gafni, Adi Tamayo, Reinhold Felizardo Adhikari, Youbaraj Liu, Yun Todoroska, Tatjana Kumar, Shandeep Yukil, Herman Gaines, Jerry Thapa, Shyam Ahonen, Peter Loo, Jefferson Towfiq, Tahmidur Rahman Kumareson, Ramesh Zhang, Qinggui Garg, Shweta Thomas, Ashley Nicholas Al Shikh Ali, Omar Mach, Gia Luan Tran, Nghia Trong Kumo, Robert Member Ge, Yu Cheng Bryan Ale, Prem Mahmood, Nasir Tuhin, Md Mydul Islam Leka, Arno Ali, Meer Imtiyaz Giraldo Navarro, Juan David Vallabhaneni, Siva Amini, Hossein Reza Mainali, Jeevan Vyas, Nimisha Brijeshkumar Levi, Stephanie Aloqbi, Ahmad Ham, Richard Kamalnadh Arafin, Md Asfanur Malhi, Tarnjeet Kaur Wen, Shaolan Lim, Keng Aun Halili, Mark Lester Hernandez Leon, Pedro Bajracharya, Bindiya Mathema, Suyog Bhakta Wen, Zhiye Overseas Group Liyanage, Himali Patra Kilburn, Douglas Ferney Basnet, Suman Mathew, Jose Wu, Zixun Associate Locklear, Travis Loft, Aaron Houston, Anthony Bhaduwala, Ashishkumar Mohd, Faheem Yang, Zhen Abuadbba, Alsharif Long, ZhiYu Lwin Oo, Htet Hu, Xiyue Bhujel, Sunil Napit, Miraj Man Zhan, Chao Agi, Beatrice Lopez, Heartiromer Majumdar, Sutanu Janczuk, Michael Chithathoor Krishnaswamy, Nath, Amrita Zhang, Bin Agrafiotis‑Raptis, Dimitrios Low, Chui Ching Mhanna, Joseph Kachana, Mounika Sabharish Neupane, Bishnu Zhang, Quan AlMosawai, Ali Makui, Valentina Nam, Dohyeong Kahler, Owen Clapson, Glenn Robert Neupane, Upendra Zhao, Yuming Ansari, Raja Ghazanfar Malken, Evah Srinivasan, Ananth Kaur, Kanwalpreet Cui, Zhuo Pant, Sujan Zhou, Yatong Ansari, Azra Mehmood, Basharat Strous, Yoel Kearney, Christopher Dahal, Krishna Hari Panthi, Bijay Zhou, Xin Aopo Jnr, Gerea Millington, Jason Thiranagama, Buddhi Kempster, Michelle Das, Shuva Parajuli, Dinesh Zhuang, Kaijun Aslam, Muhammad Hilmi Mohammed, Naimath Ullah Kanchana Khan, Sohail Deng, Xiao Patel, Harshal Senior Member Awat, Nathan Moosa, Hisham White, Nicholas Alexander Leigh, Warren Devgun, Shailja Devendrakumar Bolton, David Bangin, Lita Murau, Larry George Lindman, Johan Devineni, Surendra Patel, Sandip Dineshbhai Curran, Denis Pakure, Raymond Basit, Abdul Lindsay, Gregory Dong, Xiaoxin Patel, Swetal Mukeshbhai Holton, Mark Kevin Batov, Alexander Panjaitan, Frank Agustinus Livsey, Connor Recently graded members of the ACS Information Age May/June 2013 | 80

Lorincz, Szabolcs Kurakake, Hiroko Nguyen, Trung Associate Dang, Kim Dang Kulkarni, Anurag Avinash Pati, Ankitha MacKenzie, Kyrin Brodie Lalcheta, Dhaval Nguyen Hoai, Nghia Adhikari, Priyankar Dasgupta, Subhadeep Lauenstein, Melissa Pavatich, Daniel Marsh, Victoria Lim, Zeng Hoong Nicholas, Bannister Bijonkumar Datt, Nagma Launder, Ian Peiris, Jana‑Marie Moore, Daniel N/A, Jasleen Kaur Passalacqua, Michael Adlard, Kevin David, Emmanuel Lee, Wai Yu Griffith Perera, Charith Asanka Morrison, Cassandra Novlani, Sumeet Kumar Purtle, Warren Alberto, Wilson Day, John LeGrice, Tom Perrera, Ivor Muniandy, Raman Oluwatimehin, Ebenezer Olu Rankin, Timothy Alleva, Kristine Dimovski, Nick Leslie, Jacob Plail, Inga Murdoch, Nicole Parsotham, Mischarlan Sanchez, Jorge Fernando AlShemaimry, Ghadah Dinh Viet, Cuong Lestrange, Josh Plant, Roger Narsey, Chetan Pentapati, Amarnath Sohar, Matthew Alshemimry, Faisal Donovan, Gary Li, Brendan Poh, Clement Justin Newcomb, Dion Shrestha, Mahima Stokes, Melissa Anderson, Lucy Dunlop, Nathan Li, Dan Poon, Peter Nguyen, Tung Walters, Luke Stone, Daniel Arango, Tomas Ectoros, Luke Benjamin Lian, Kai Prokop, Gerard Nightingale, Jeff Senior Member Stuart, Benjamin Aryal, Nilkantha Emerson, Chad Liang, Xi Pryde, Graham Oladapo, Adebayo Barnatt, Paul Tantay, Fiel Asnani, Dheeraj Fernando, Warna Liang, Sisi Quenette, Andrew Oliver, Darren Duffy, Kim Anthony Taylor, Nicholas Awa, Mahmoud Forster, Samuel Liew, Edwin Ranjitkar, Prabal Owens, Christopher Malone, Kieran Tep, Kin Suntana Azad, Abul Kalam Fukuhara, Noemi Lim, Seongwon Rankin, Ashley Penzhorn, Eduard Myers, Toby Tharwani, Sonali Bagchi, Arnab Gangi, Alfio Lipovetsky, Max Raol, Hardevsinh Dilipsinh Phillips, Andy Toth, Ryan Bakshi, Gayatri Georgakopoulos, Bill Liu, Lily Rashid, Mohammed Poh, Ken South Australia Venkatram, Vivek Mohan Balakrishnan, Vishalini Giang, Son Tung Lobley, Peter Ratcliffe, Dylan Pua, Jensen Associate Vijayakumar, Santhiya Rani Bao, Senjie Gocool, Karuna Loh, Daniel Rathnaweera, Chamal Rai, Umesh Aldridge, Mark Vit, Steve Baravatula, Srinivas Gomez, Ramiro Loo, Lilian Richardson, Neil Rees, Allan Alex, Coppinger Vives, Francisco Barry, Brendan Graf, Robyn Lu, Helen Richardson, Roselyn Renderos, Oscar Ayikkal, Ranjeet White, Karen Bawa, Kunal Graf, Karl James Mahadeshwar, Manjusha Rose, Mathew Rhoades, Mahlon Barnes, Alan White, Steven Bayyarapu, Sairanganadh Grant, Paul Maney, Sean Ellis Ryan, Lee Rismanchian, Farhad Barnes, Alana Widara, Primalita Below, Darren Greensmith, Matthew Manghi, Asif Ryan, Raymond Robertson, Kim Cai, Guodong Wijaya, Rizki Bhagat, Mukeshkumar Guan, Huiji Margue, Arnaud Saini, Monika Rohl, David Chiem, David Wood, Debbie Bhimani, Vineetkumar Gunn, David Matar, Rawan Salem, Hadi Michel Ross, David Choi, Ting Him Member Biggins, Martin Haider, Syed Matkowska, Daria Samanta, Debmon Saha, Shovon Ciccarello, Anthony Bajwa, Humayun Bihola, Ruturajsinh Hajdarevic, Seneta Mccullock, Fiona Sandhu, Amandeep Sharif, Mukhtar Collins, Samuel Cheema, Ramanjit Kaur Pradeepsinh Halim, Edwin McFarlane, Shane Sawant, Upendra Sigdel, Sushil Combeer, Kyle Chintha, Rajaamardeep Birrell, Joshua Haque, Santanu McKenzie, Ericah Selman, Aziz Smith, Trent Crouch, Nicholas Feng, Yunfan Biswas, Sourav Harb, Mandy McLaughlin, Brett Shanmugam, Vijayakumar Star, Troy Defazio, Anthony Gangopadhyay, Bhaskar Boldiston, James Hemachandra, Missaka McMahon, Paul Shea, Mark Steenland, Nathan Dorey, Matthew Lin, Fei Bourke, Leon Hlushko, Maksym Medwell, Gregory Sheehan, Edmond Thomas, Jiss John Fewings, Liam Nguyen, Quan Brain, Nicholas Holding, Katherine Elizabeth Mehta, Madhavray Shen, Jiaqian Tran, Thanh Francis, Russell Qadri, Syed Tabeeb Muneeb Cahyadi, Jose Hormann, Peter Meli, Rebecca Shivanna, Shweta Trevis, Jacob Garcia, Marcos Quintero Romero, Nixon Cahyadi, Amelia Hosking, James Mildern, Garry Shonib, Helmi Trinh, Vinh‑Hien Garcia, Sandra Gerardo Calder‑Smith, Aaron Hossain, Forhad Miler, John Siddiqui, Zaheer Tripathi, Navneet Gomes, Pascoal Sargent, Peter Caltabiano, Adrian Hymers, Richard Modi, Hardik Signor, Matthew Tuiatua, Lene Hearne, Rhonda Vundyala, Ramesh Reddy Castaneda, Jessica Lisette James, Shane Mok, Anson Singh, Vikram Viswanath, Kartik Narayan Hlavnicka, Bohdan Wang, Xiao Celon, Marco Jessep, Duncan Mu, Daniel Luke Singh, Kanwar Kuljit Wilder, Jonathan Jarrett‑Urizar, Jeremy Zhang, Jingxiu Chauhan, Nitin Joyce, Shaun Mueller, Ross Smith, Bryan Yin, Qingxiao Kafetzis, Bill Chea, Vey Julian, Cole Munro, Nathan Soo Ho, Jacintha Tasmania Member Kilingaru, Kavya Cheah, Wei Shan Kadarusman, Jeffry Mutusva, Stephen Speight, Sarah Brimblecombe, Wilfred Lakes, Nathan Associate Cheng, Carl Kalogianis, Thomas James Ness, Alison Splatt, Jeff Chen, Xiaoshu Lucas, Tristram Anderson, Mark Cherukuri, Dhannumjaya Kancharla, Koteswara Nguyen, Tuan Viet Stables, Graeme Fu, Zheng Mangiola, Alexander Cashman, Benjamin Shivaji Ganesh Kececi, Abdullah Nguyen, Eddy Stagg, Jeremy Godavarthi Venkata Manser, Lachlan Fong, Ka Yan Chua, Eongping Kelly, Jennifer Nowak, Antoni Stephanie, Stephanie Subramanyan, Hari Mariri, Ben Lethbridge, Jessica Ciechomski, Christine King, Thomas Orlicki, Daniel Stewen, David Chandan Martin, Nathan O’Rourke, Stephen Clark, Kimberly Kinik, Erdogan Ortega Calderon, Gregorio Strangio, Christine Gounden, Anban Mayer, Susan Member Clarke, Allen Klarin, Ivan Pachi, Nadine Stuart, Peter Hsu, Chih‑Hsiang McKeown, Anthony Chigwida, Nigel Panganai Collier, Samuel Konara Mudiyanselage, Parappat, Navin Sun, Steven Iqbal, Muhammad Umair Mishra, Anoop Pyke, Martin Crawford, Michael Harshani Dhammika Parker, Daniel Sutedja, Leonardi Iselin, Matthew Molan, Jennifer Weerakoon, Senarath Currie, Sam Kumarihami Bandara Patel, Akshaykumar Tan, Ken Neill, Ben Kenda, Shailaja Victoria D’Alessio, Anja Krishnan, Nina Pathy, Raagulan Taylor, Matthew Recently graded members of the ACS Information Age May/June 2013 | 81

Thiruvengadam, Das, Kaustuva Qin, Xiaoyu Zheng, Chengkai Dragicevich, Daniel Metherell, James Watt, Stuart Conrad Baranidharan Davie, Darren John Rani, Geeta Zhou, Nuoya Ellies, Noah Axel Mezzapelle, Michael Watt, Thomas Thomas, Boby Deegallalage, Palitha Rashid, Ammar Senior Member Fabio, Christopher Vincenzo Mitchell, Rory Ethan Watts, Thomas Colin Thorpe, Anthony Premawansha Deegalla Saini, Amit Burgin, John Flore, Pierre‑Yves Murphy, Kevin Weekley, Thomas Timsina, Abhyash Emery, Steve Samarasinghe, Muditha Dalvean, Jo Frank, Peter Nallan, Sreedhar Acharya Williams, Kyle Conner Tinney, James Faisal, Muhammad Prabuddha Grant, Rebecca Fuller, Mathew James Philip Newson, Daniel Wood, Paula Tolj, Christopher Fan, Yu‑Hsuan Sarfaraz, Ali MacDougall, Cecily Elizabeth Ghiassy, Seyedsaeed Ng, Jun Teng Wozencroft, Daniel Ung, Leng Fu, Mengmeng Shah, Vrushank Sun, Zhaohao Gholami, Masoumeh Nicholson, Caben Wrona, Emily Valente, Anthony Gautam, Ganesh Raj Shah, Nikunjkumar Gibbings, Julian Nutt, Jaxom Bryan Wu, Haiqi Vella, Maria Gunji, Rajesh Khanna Hargovindbhai Western Australia Goff, Allyana Marie Noelle Odero, Fredrick Yan, Natalia Venkata Subramanyam, Arun Guntaka, Rajashekhar Shaik, Waseem Associate Gough, Bryce Holden O’Dowd, Jackie Yap, Jamie Verhoeven, Bert Guo, Yiyang Shakure, Sanket Shakure Adelaide, Louis Cedric Gowdan, Ali Olan, Jahziel Joseph Cruz York, Brock Vlass, Dennis Hassan, Ali Sheth, Shimoli Ajaj, Hamza Grant, Eric Overton, Lachlan Charles Young, Calvin Edward Walker, Benjamin He, Ying Shrestha, Binod Alagu Sundaram, Devi Gray, Mayce Owen, April Fellow Waluk, Sebastian Ho, Long Phi Sibal, Rashmi Albayrak, Erman Gu, Longchao Patrick, Kurt Owens, James Alganaeva, Elena Wang, Xile Hou, Bin Sidhu, Sharanjeet Kaur Guest, Callan Michael Pavez Cuevas, Luciano Member Ali, Muhmmad Usama Watt, Philip Jayawardena, Lokumalage Singh, Harsimranjit Hegney, Harrison Andres Campbell, George Ali, Qurban Watters, Robyn Jayanaka Kaveen Sriramineni, Rakesh Henry, Nicolas Perera, Jayasuriya Channa, Harpreet Alsodani, Ahmad Weaver, Vanessa Jiang, Kai Syed, Basarat Ali Higgins, Bradley Arachchige Chowdhury, Imran Althaidiy, Yazeed Weir, Rebecca Johnson, Christina Tang, Yinfei Higson, Brian Phone, Jar Aung Fu, Jing Jing Amedi, Hoger Wellabadage, Asanka Priyadarshini Thakur, Yogita Hill, Matthew James Po, Sochiet Lee, Jia Wei Anderson, Imogen Miranda White, Gregory Jones, Asheley Thomas, Georg Hill, Judith Pritchard, Jack Liu, Yixuan Armstrong, Andrew Williams, Joel Kadira, Josephat Tian, Duo Hogan, Brandon Qiu, Zhiqiang Patel, Sohagkumar Vinubhai Armstrong, Matthew Steven Xu, Ruoting Kainth, Sumit Tian, Lin Htike, Aung Ko Raghunath, Mithun Povey, Matthew Asmatullah, Najibullah Yip, Matthew Kanwalpreet Singh, Tiwari, Rahul Huang, Darren Ranjeet, Tirtha Quah, Gary Aung, Cho Yong, Jason Kanwalpreet Singh Toman, Adrian Inafuku, Andre Ransom, Hiroshi Ramesh, Philip Prabhu Awan, Tahir Rafique Yousuf, Hassan Kare Nagesh, Vishwas Uppalapati, Naren Joshi, 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Robert R A Cadona, Casey Abeysingha Herath Martinez Ardila, Sonia Julieth Wibisono, Victor Hartanto Lie, Stella Stevenson, Tyler Campbell, Toby Lee Mudiyanselage, Isuru Gayan Moffitt, Sean Widanelage Kushan Laksiri, Liedig, Stephen Sudweeks, Karl Candasamy Pillay, Marie Ahmed, Shahariar Mohammed, Sabith Fernando Lima Chagas, Andrea Thompson‑Wood, Aiden Kyle Ketty Davina Aljarboa, Soliman Mohammed, Mujtaba Wittachchi, Indu Lin, Jason Tucker, Stephen Chan, King Sun Altaifi, Ahmed Shareef Wu, Shuangyi Linden‑Wood, Adam Urosevic, Uros Cheng, Bing Anna, Kalpana N/A, Anjum Sultana Yang, Di Loe, Alex Varga, Ferenc Chester, Clint Benjamin, Terence Roshan Nahid, Aida Yi, Yunping Logdat, Luisito Veljic, Marin Choi, Kyoungchul Bera, Pavitro Nandolal Nguyen, Thang The Zafer, Hattan Mahon, Trevor Vellar, Jessica Close, Danielle Bian, Shuyuan Ojibara, Ishaq Zarani, Noorul Thameena Malhoa, Hugo Vinci, Sarah Coe, William John Brown, Derek Patel, Nishant Hasmukhbhai Zhang, Jing Marino, Benjamin Nicolas 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Towards a quantum internet

team of researchers has announced a break- earth element commonly used in communications – through that opens up the prospect of a network embedded in silicon. Aof ultra-powerful quantum computers – con- “We have the best of both worlds with our combi- nected via a quantum internet. nation of an electrical and optical system. This is a The team is the first in the world to have detected revolutionary new technique, and people had doubts the spin, or quantum state, of a single atom using a it was possible. It is the first step towards a global combined optical and electrical approach. quantum internet,” Professor Rogge said. The study is a collaboration between researchers Quantum computers promise to deliver an expo- from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum nential increase in processing power over conventional Computation and Communication Technology based computers by using a single electron or nucleus of an at UNSW, the Australian National University and atom as the basic processing unit – a quantum bit, or the University of Melbourne. It is published in the qubit. journal Nature. The researchers said it will be at least another decade UNSW’s Professor Sven Rogge said the technical before the potential of quantum computation is fully feat was achieved with a single atom of erbium – a rare realised. ¢ FREE to all ACS members!

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