Grey Matter Issue 66 | Summer 2015

Building on 32 years of software know how

The Internet of Things The coming revolution that will change our world

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Make the most of your customers and prospects

Managing mobile devices

Solutions for the enterprise See page 8 INTEL for details GIVEAWAY • Support for Windows 10 • Integration with Visual Studio 2015 • Enhanced support for new digital signatures • Much more, based on user requests Contents Welcome 4 Software News Embarcadero, Intel, Redgate and more. Editorial It seems inevitable that the next bandwagon coming our way 7 News in brief Editor:...... Matt Nicholson has ‘Internet of Things’ written on it in very large letters, just as Technical editors:... Sean Wilson, Paul Edwards and competition winners. the previous one proclaimed ‘The Cloud’ as the universal solution, and Editorial advisor:...... Julia Hopkins 8 Competition News editor:...... Paul Stephens the one before insisted that ‘Services’ were the answer to everything. Publisher:...... Andrew King Once again, we can expect every new product and service to boast an Win a GoPro camera! Contributors:...... Tim Anderson, Simon Bisson, Mary Branscombe, Jon association with the new buzzword, even if it’s just a humble cable-tie. Honeyball, Graham Keitch, Paul Stephens Which is, of course, not to say that we shouldn’t take the Internet 10 The Internet of Things Design and layout:...... Jason Stanley of Things (IoT) seriously. After all, considering our servers to be A major new series on the Illustration:...... Sholto Walker deliverers of services, and then delivering them through the Internet, coming revolution. Web Design:...... Jason Stanley did open up new possibilities not only in terms of technology but also Advertising & Circulation in transformative business models. Regardless of the hype, IoT does Marketing:...... Ash Khagram, Emma Cottle represent a major paradigm shift, in that it invites a new way of thinking about the Internet, and opens up whole new worlds of both Tel: 01364 654100 possibilities and considerations. Email: [email protected] In a 1991 article for Scientific American, Mark Weiser of Xerox PARC HardCopy is edited for Grey Matter three suggested we were about to enter a time of ‘ubiquitous computing’, times a year by Matt Publishing. It is printed which he described as the Third Wave: “The First Wave was many by Pepper Communications in Plymouth. people per computer. The Second Wave was one person per Copyright © 2015 Grey Matter Ltd. All rights computer. The Third Wave is many computers per person.” Today, some reserved. No part of this publication may be 24 years after the article appeared, it is common for people to be 16 Dynamics CRM reproduced in any form without prior regularly accessing the Internet from at least two, and sometimes Make the most of your consent of the copyright holder. customer interactions. All trademarks acknowledged. three or four, devices. Continuing the analogy, it would seem we are HardCopy is a trademark and Grey Matter a about to enter a Fourth Wave in which computers extend beyond 19 Managing mobiles registered trademark owned by Grey Matter people and into the very things that make up the real world. Enterprise management Limited. While all reasonable attempts are beyond the firewall. made to ensure accuracy, Grey Matter and The most obvious manifestation of this paradigm shift is in the Matt Publishing disclaim any liability things themselves - the sensors and the motors, and the tiny 24 Universal Apps whatsoever for any use of information Get ready for Windows 10. herein. Prices exclude VAT unless specified. computer systems that connect them. For many, this is the most exciting area, reminiscent of the Golden Age with ‘maker boards’ such 29 Inside Data Cover Images: Kolesov Sergei/Shutterstock as the Arduino, the Raspberry Pi or Intel’s Galileo, Edison and the tiny Database technologies for echo3005/Shutterstock button-like Curie taking the place of the Altair 8800, the MK14 and the the Internet of Things. Advertisers Index UK101 of 40 years ago. Pioneers are literally tying such things to 30 Straight talking model cars and drones, while companies like Intel dream up new ways Tim Anderson compares 2 InstallShield to power and communicate with such devices. back-end IoT services. 7 Bing Maps Meanwhile, out in the Cloud, Big Data is wondering how it is 32 And Another Thing 9 Intel Media Server going to cope with the truly immense amount of data that is going to Jon Honeyball considers 12 Intel Parallel Studio be flowing back from all these Things. As James Reinders points out the Internet of Things. 15 RAD Studio XE8 on page 13, this is essentially a problem in distributed computing, and 34 Short Cuts 18 as such will require developer tools that can cope with applications Views from the edge. 20 Office 365 that span platforms ranging from a Raspberry Pi to , 23 Adobe taking in perhaps Windows 10, Android and iOS on the way. Over the 26 Microsoft Azure coming issues we will be examining such subjects in more depth, but 28 Paessler in the meantime, check out Simon Bisson’s introduction on page 10. Register Now! 31 JetBrains Matt Nicholson, Editor, HardCopy HardCopy magazine is published three times 33 Mindjet a year. Make sure you don’t miss out by 35 Symantec registering or updating your details at 36 Visual Studio 2015 www.greymatter.com/hc/subscribe

Grey Matter Limited Prigg Meadow, Read HardCopy online Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7DF, UK To view buyer’s guides, news, blogs and [email protected] forums go to HardCopy online at www.greymatter.com/hc/hardcopy

Matt Nicholson grey matter Editor, HardCopy @GreyMatter_News software know how

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 3 News Software News RAD Studio XE8 targets IoT, iOS and App Analytics Embarcadero • www.greymatter.com/embarcadero/

Embarcadero has released RAD Studio bought-in Castalia and Usertility productivity integrated. Castalia is an IDE plugin (Delphi XE8, yet another edition of its multi tools. Also included are a new ‘Getit’ package only) which offers code refactoring and analysis, target-platform development suite for the manager, simultaneous multi-device previews syntax highlighting and templates, while Delphi (Pascal) and C++ languages. Despite the and over 70 detail improvements. Usertility, now rebranded as AppAnalytics and relatively brief period since last September’s RAD Studio allows developers to create supporting all four target platforms, is a XE7, the product is a major upgrade, with new multi-tier, native-code applications for component-based system that lets developers features including support for iOS Universal Windows, Mac, Android and iOS from a single track and analyse app usage via a pay-per-use Apps, iBeacon and other IoT (Internet of Things) codebase and a Windows-based IDE, using Embarcadero service. Finding components and technologies, and integration of Embarcadero’s Embarcadero’s FireMonkey runtime framework libraries, meanwhile, is made easier by a new to smooth out platform Getit manager which downloads and updates differences. XE8 includes support them directly from Embarcadero’s servers. for combined 32/64-bit XE8’s Multi-Device Preview allows (‘Universal’) iOS apps, now developers to see live, simultaneous mandatory for Apple App Store simulations of any number of target devices uploads, as well as new from desktops to smart watches. A long list of cross-platform support for other improvements include Android Lollipop proximity awareness based on UI styles, a new HTTP client framework, easier standards including iBeacon and migration from older RAD Studio versions, the AltBeacon. DUnitX unit testing framework, and Teradata Support for iBeacon and AltBeacon devices In January Embarcadero and SQLite v3.+ database support. There’s no helps you build applications that are bought two products from Two support as yet, however, for Windows 10’s proximity-sensitive. Desk Software, and these are now WinRT-based universal app standard.

Redgate launches slimmed-down SQL Developer Suite Redgate • www.greymatter.com/hc/redgate

Cambridge-based database tools SQL and Data comparisons, data generator, meanwhile, offers rollback, sandboxing, specialist Redgate Software has source control and database search. Two of the referential integrity maintenance and object slimmed down its SQL Developer Bundle and old Bundle’s tools have now been ‘retired’ while filtering for distributed development. renamed it SQL Developer Suite. The new two remain available in the company’s SQL SQL Prompt provides coding support package contains eight add-in tools for SQL Toolbelt product. within SMS/Visual Studio, including code Server Management Studio users, including Redgate says that 71 percent of Fortune completion, SQL code refactoring and a code 100 companies use its SQL snippet library, while SQL Search finds SQL Compare tool, which fragments hidden away in SQL Server objects compares and synchronises across multiple databases. SQL Data Generator SQL Server schemas. SQL generates ‘meaningful’ test data with Developer Suite gets the inter-column dependency and custom options, Pro version, which adds while SQL Doc produces full documentation in deployment from the suite’s a variety of formats including PDF and MS source control tool, and Word. SQL Test runs T-SQL coded unit tests with comparison/ automatic rollback. synchronisation from Redgate has retired its SQL Connect and backups. Also in Pro form is SQL Packager products, while Dependency SQL Data Compare, which tracker and Multi-Script are now bundled includes T-SQL update exclusively in the 13-product SQL Toolbelt suite. script generation and All available products are also sold separately, Redgate Software’s SQL Developer Suite includes SQL Data Compare deployment to alongside Redgate’s products for Oracle, .NET, Pro, which compares and synchronises SQL Server schemas. RDS. SQL Source Control, MySQL and Azure.

4 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy News

Symantec releases Backup Exec 15 Symantec • www.greymatter.com/symantec/

In our last issue we reported that scalability and support for vSphere 6 security volumes larger than 2TB, plus high- security-to-storage giant Symantec was certificates. performance vSphere SAN transport mode splitting in two, with the data backup and Integration of vSphere 6 heads the new restores. Upgrading from earlier versions is eDiscovery half adopting the name Veritas feature list, with support for ESXi 6.0, vCenter made faster by retaining single backup policies Technologies Corporation. The split remains 6.0, Virtual SAN 6, Virtual Volumes and VMware for multiple servers. work in progress, but in the meantime the EVO:RAIL. Amazon Cloud Storage integration is Symantec/Veritas is encouraging users to Veritas division, still calling itself Symantec, has also improved, with support for AWS Storage migrate to its per-TB priced Capacity Edition by released Backup Exec 15, a new version of its Gateway VTL (Virtual Tape Library) allowing offering licence trade-ins for other versions, multi-platform backup and recovery system. ‘seamless’ migration of existing backup jobs. including V-Ray and Small Business. There’s also Improvements include enhanced VMware and Scalability and performance are improved with a new Capacity Edition Lite, omitting features Amazon Cloud Storage support, improved granular recovery from VMware GPT disks and such as de-duplication.

Intel INDE for high-performance Windows/Android development Intel • www.greymatter.com/intel/

If you’re developing high-performance performance optimising OpenCL Code Builder, Platform Analyzer from Intel’s System Studio apps for Android and/or Windows, and system performance analyzer and DirectX suite, plus a Graphics Frame Debugger, C++ want to leverage hardware features and Graphic Frame Analyzer. For extreme Android debugging in Visual Studio and audio accelerators at a native level, then Intel’s INDE functionality there’s Intel’s Context Sensing SDK, encoding/decoding for Windows. Ultimate (Integrated Native Developer Experience) 2015 aimed at building Android apps that not only Edition adds Intel’s C++ compilers for Android toolkit may be well worth a look. and Windows, plus Intel’s industrial-strength Available in three editions, it plugs Intel Threaded Building Blocks and Integrated analysis tools, libraries and compilers Performance Primitives libraries. into Visual Studio, Eclipse and Android Professional and Ultimate editions come Studio IDEs, enabling cross-platform with Intel’s Premier Support package. development for Intel and ARM-based The tools target Windows 7.1 and systems. know where the user is and what they’re doing, Android 4.3 upwards, and run on Windows 7 A free Starter Edition begins by smoothing but can also make predictions about their and OS X 10.9. The recently-released INDE 2015 the complex process of setting up an Android behaviour (for example their buying choices) Update 1 adds Visual Studio Community 2013 development environment in your chosen IDE. based on analysis of past activities retrieved compatibility (Express editions aren’t Also included are Media for Mobile (camera/ from the cloud. supported), along with support for Nexus screen capture, video editing/streaming), INDE Professional edition adds the Player and Android Lollipop 32/64 bit apps.

Adobe bids for digital doc supremacy with Document Cloud Adobe • www.greymatter.com/adobe/

Adobe has made a bid for supremacy in interface makeover with touch capability plus the paper-free document market with new searchable tool panels. It also incorporates the launch of Document Cloud, a service-plus- ‘Photoshop imaging magic’ to clean up images tools offering supporting the capture, online of paper documents and convert them to PDF storage, editing and electronic signing of format, performing font substitution to mimic documents in PDF format across desktop and the original. The same magic is performed by functionality, but the system comes alive, with mobile platforms. Based around a new Acrobat the new Adobe Fill & Sign DC app for Android full editing, storage and document tracking DC release with accompanying mobile apps, the and iOS, which integrates with Adobe’s eSign features, when you subscribe to the Acrobat DC service aims to appeal to everyone from private Services (formerly Adobe EchoSign). The Adobe desktop product, making you a full Document users to enterprises, with a key feature the Reader , meanwhile, is renamed Cloud member. Subscribers to Adobe’s full ability to turn images, even those captured from Acrobat DC Mobile, now offering the ability to Creative Cloud suite also qualify, as it includes mobile phone cameras, into fillable, editable create, edit (currently on iPad only) and fill in Acrobat DC. Close integration with Adobe’s and signable PDF forms. PDFs, as well as converting them to Word and Marketing Cloud service is also planned. Acrobat DC, the latest version of Adobe’s Excel format. Acrobat DC is also available as a one-time venerable desktop PDF creation tool, gets an The mobile apps are free with limited purchase without full Cloud capabilities.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 5 News News in brief

Airware’s Drone OS takes off Silicon Valley startup Airware has released its Aerial Information Platform, Competition Winner a modular operating platform for commercial drones. Aimed at enterprise The winner of Issue 65’s competition prize, an HP Stream 7 Tablet users, the system comprises a Linux-based App Core for on-board device from Bing Maps, is Jonathan Woodward of Norcom Technology. control, Flight Core ‘autopilot’ software, a Windows-based Ground Control Congratulations Jonathan! Station for remote operation, the Airware Cloud for planning and managing flight operations plus integration with enterprise data systems, has born fruit with a new release of Telerik Test Studio, with features aimed and a cross-device Configuration Manager. The system is available by at moving application testing nearer to the start of the development subscription only, including hardware, software and support. Investors in cycle. The package includes enhanced Step and Element builders allowing Airware include Intel Capital and GE Ventures. scaffolded tests before the application’s UI has been built, plus a ‘revolutionary’ new feature in Intellimap, an ‘intelligent mapper’ that Lync becomes Skype for Business enables testing teams to develop tests in parallel with development, via a Microsoft has rebranded its Lync corporate messaging and VoIP system as web interface. Skype for Business, giving it a user-friendly, Skype-like UI makeover and introducing outgoing calls via regular PSTN phone lines. The new version Impero covers all the education software bases also provides Nottingham-based developer Impero Solutions describes seeing its connectivity with users of Education Pro suite pigeonholed as merely ‘Classroom Management the consumer version of Software’ as being like a triangle wedged into a square hole of a child’s Skype and integration shape sorter toy. In fact the suite contains eight products covering licence, with Skype directories, network, print, power and patch management as well as remote control while retaining Lync and support, the core classroom management function and the features such as Active all-important area of e-safety, with mobile device monitoring thrown in. Directory authentication The company says that Education Pro’s network-oriented, client-server and call encryption. architecture makes it more secure and scalable than peer-to-peer The new Call via alternatives. A fair number of UK secondary schools seem to agree, since Work feature, which 40 percent of them use it. requires Skype for Business Server 2015, • Microsoft has announced the editions line-up for Visual Studio 2015, automatically routes slimming the range to three from VS 2013’s four. There will be outgoing voice calls to a Community (free) and Professional editions, while the old Premium and user’s desktop phone, Ultimate editions are replaced by Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise with while still leaving the MSDN. Skype for Business client as the call control panel. The new system is shipping with Office 2013 April upgrade, and scheduled for deployment • Intel has demonstrated its RealSense camera powering Microsoft’s new to Office 365. Windows Hello authentication system. At a recent Developer Conference a speaker was able to log in by simply showing his face to BeCrypt launches credit card-sized secure client PC the camera, assuring the audience that a picture of him, or his identical UK-based security systems vendor Becrypt has launched the tVolution twin, wouldn’t get through. Mini, a credit card sized device that plugs into any HDMI-equipped TV or monitor to provide an instant secure client PC. Equipped with a quad core • SAP has certified all its products based on SAP NetWeaver 7.x, ARM processor plus on-board Wi-Fi including SAP Business Suite 7, to run on Oracle Database 12c. and two USB sockets (you also need a Unusually, the approval has been given to V1 of the product, instead of keyboard and mouse), the device runs the more typical wait for V2. Oracle VP Andy Mendelsohn described the a locked-down Android installation move as “a testament to Oracle and SAP’s ongoing commitment to our that connects to Becrypt’s Mobile mutual customers.” Device Management suite, keeping everything under firm control. Aimed • Microsoft has released an iPhone client app for Office 365 Video, its at security-cleared thin client users enterprise video upload and sharing service. Described as ‘a private who find themselves having to work YouTube for your company’, Office 365 Video is currently available to away from their desks, the device weighs just 28 grams, and consumes Office 365 Academic and Enterprise subscribers only. less than five watts of power. • Remote support specialist Netop has upgraded its Remote Control Telerik makes Progress with new Test Studio release Mobile for Android product to work with rooted devices running In our last issue we reported Massachusetts-based Progress Software’s Android 5.0. It’s also added chat, file transfer and system inventory acquisition of Bulgarian development tools vendor Telerik. Now the deal capabilities to non-Samsung devices running Android 2.3 or later.

6 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy

Competition

# WIN a GoPro HD Naked HERO courtesy of Intel!

As its name implies, the GoPro HD Naked HERO is We will also accept entries submitted online at more than just a camera. Mount it on your helmet, www.greymatter.com/hc/competition your bike or even your dog and you can share your life with the world. Securely wrapped in its waterproof case, the GoPro HD Naked HERO will shoot HD footage at 30 frames per second for at least 2.5 hours on a single charge. Go for it!

To enter our competition, answer the question below, fill out the rest of the form and send it to:

GoPro HD Naked HERO competition Grey Matter Ltd Prigg Meadow Ashburton Devon TQ13 7DF

issue 66 GoPro HD entry form Naked HERO

# Question: What does the acronym HEVC stand for?

A: Hip Encoding Visual Converter B: Happy Enthused Video Codec C: High Efficiency Video Coding D: Hyper Energetic Velocity Computing

Answer:

Your details Do you currently develop media solutions? q Yes q No Name______

Job Title______Are you planning to develop media streaming solutions for your applications? Company______q Yes q No Address______What Intel Software tools are you currently using? ______Postcode______q Intel Parallel Studio XE q Intel Vtune Amplifier XE Telephone______q Intel System Studio q Intel Fortran Compilers

Email______q Other ______

q I would like to receive HardCopy magazine. ______q Please send me information on products or services that I might find useful (note that we keep your information private and will not sell or rent your data for marketing purposes).

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ENTRY # 1. No purchase necessary for entry to this competition. 7. The winner will be announced on Monday 3 August 2015 and notified either by email 2. The prize is one GoPro HD Naked HERO (colour may vary from that shown). There is no cash or by telephone. alternative. 8. The judges’ decision must be accepted as final and no correspondence will be entered 3. Completed entries must be received by Friday 31 July 2015. into regarding the decision. 4. Entries submitted online at www.greymatter.com/hc/competition or completed on a photocopy of 9. Employees of organisations connected with this competition are not eligible for entry. this page will be accepted. 10. Intel and Grey Matter reserve the right to use the winner’s name in promotional 5. Only one entry will be accepted per person. materials. 6. Winner is decided by random draw from correct entries received by the closing date. The competition promoter is Grey Matter Ltd, Prigg Meadow, Ashburton, Devon TQ13 7DF.

8 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Intel® Media Server Studio

TRANSFORM MEDIA INTO CROSS-PLATFORM INNOVATION

Innovate highly optimised media infrastructure and solutions. Intel® Media Server Studio enables real-time performance encode, decode, and transcode for streaming, videoconferencing, and media analytics.

• Essentials Edition: Integrated tools for real-time performance encode, decode, and transcode for streaming and video conferencing, along with performance, power, and correctness analsyers. • Professional Edition: Everything in Essentials Edition, plus enterprise-quality HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) video and audio codecs for datacenter and embedded usages. • Intel® Video Pro Analyzer 2015: Comprehensive suite of video analysis software tools for HEVC and VP9 video coding standards. Available individually or as an add-on to Intel® Media Server Studio. • Intel® Stress Bitstreams and Encoder 2015: Advanced tools to validate and debug enterprise-grade media products including VP9 and HEVC decoders, transcoders, players, and streaming solutions. Available individually or as an add-on to Intel® Media Server Studio.

For more information, contact us: Phone: +44 (0) 1364 654100 Email: [email protected] www.greymatter.com/hc/intel-media-server

For more information regarding performance and optimization choices in Intel® software products, visit software.intel.com/en-us/articles/optimization-notice. © 2015, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Business The Internet of things The coming revolution will transform our world. Simon Bisson introduces a major new series.

There’s a revolution going on and it’s much of what we’re seeing in the development of the refrigeration system. SIMON changing the way we think about world today, from new languages and design At a major Californian university, all new BISSON computing. The Internet of Things promises to patterns, to Platform-as-a-Service clouds. Our buildings have devices embedded in every wall, add billions of computers and devices to the IDEs now stretch from screen-less, UI-less simple un-powered strain gauges that transmit Simon is a freelance IT writer and technology Internet over the next few years. Whether you devices, all the way up to those cloud platforms, readings when energised by a radio signal. After consultant who has call it Machine-to-Machine, Connected Home, letting us create and build projects that span an earthquake civil engineers walk the halls, worked on large scale Smart Cars, The Internet of Sensors, The Internet the whole of the Internet of Things. Then there capturing stress data from the sensors and so Web architectures, mobile Web projects of Everything, or whatever, it’s a massive are the so-called ‘maker boards’: low-cost, allowing a quick assessment of building safety. and XML solutions change that’s likely to become something low-power prototyping boards that give you Instead of weeks of work to manually determine for clients in both bigger than the marketing-driven hype. That’s the electronics you need to connect those safety, a building can be back in action in hours the private and public sector. because it’s building on some of the most Things to the Internet. or days. important computer science work of the last 30 One such project comes from a Then there are aircraft engines. The huge simonb@ years, and most importantly, because it’s being well-known logistics company that has a turbines under the wings of a Boeing 777 hardcopymag.com driven by makers and hackers who are solving division specialising in urgent perishable goods, collect data as the aircraft flies, dumping it back real problems with a new generation of tools. such as experimental drugs. These are carried in to the engine maintenance crew on landing, so The roots of the Internet of Things (IoT) go refrigerated trucks, and if there’s a change in that critical tasks can be handled quickly and back to the early days of personal computing, temperature they can be ruined. That’s a big efficiently, reducing delays and helping and to the work of ubiquitous computing problem if a single dose can cost many schedule a maintenance programme that can pioneers like Mark Wieser at Xerox PARC. It thousands of pounds. The company fitted an keep engines running for longer and for a wasn’t a big jump to go from a computer on array of sensors with cellular modems to every greater portion of an airframe life. every desk to a computer in every pocket to a truck, delivering readings to a machine learning There’s an old adage: you can’t control computer in everything, to the extent that the system. Over a period of a few months the something you can’t measure. What the computer disappears, enveloping the world in a system became able to detect possible failure Internet of Things is about is adding sea of ambient computation. As Microsoft CEO states before they occurred, and automatically measurements and control systems to the puts it, it’s a world of “ubiquitous reroute trucks to repair depots or to meet other world around us. These might be smart fire computing and ambient intelligence.” trucks for a transfer, depending on the urgency alarms, intelligent electricity meters, personal It’s a big vision, but one that’s driving of the delivery and the predicted failure mode fitness monitors, or anything else you can

10 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Business

it is able to run a full OS and drive an HDMI display, as well as handling USB peripherals. The Raspberry Pi offers many similar features to Arduino devices, with plenty of analogue and digital I/O, and is the size of a credit card. Like Arduino, the Raspberry Pi has become an IoT flagship, at the heart of many different prototyping kits and tutorials. It’s also been used as the basis for low-cost educational computers, like the Fuze. Packaged in a strong case the Fuze hides a Pi underneath a full sized keyboard, with a header board dropping from the Pi’s IO ports onto a pluggable breadboard – together with a kit of wires, components, sensor and LEDs, ready to get users started building their first IoT apps. An OS and tutorial software help speed things up. The Pi has its own equivalent of the The RCarduino: an Arduino strapped to a model car chassis by the LA Robotics Club. Arduino Shield, in the shape of HATs (Hardware Attached on Top). These add extra hardware to imagine. What they’re doing is giving us a whole devices to instrument the winemaking process, the underlying Pi and conform to a specification new set of endpoints that can transmit data to from battery-powered sensors in fields to arrays that allows the Pi to identify the hardware it’s our applications, letting us build feedback loops of temperature monitors in a fermentation vat. using and install the appropriate drivers. that can be adjusting boiler temperatures in a Arduino’s success has inspired other Similarly Intel’s Galileo and Edison devices central heating system, unlocking doors as we prototype boards and devices, such as the Wi-Fi are based on its Quark processor with walk up to them, or sending out replacement based Electric Imp that can be used to add Arduino-compatible ports and support for buses and planes. low-powered connectivity, or Spark Labs’ Wiring-based applications, but like the Electron cellular board for remote sensors. There Raspberry Pi you get a choice of operating Maker boards are also Arduino-compatible boards based on systems, including IoT-focused releases of Linux. Perhaps the most popular route into the other programming models, like the Netduino Other boards, such as Imagination’s MIPS-based Internet of Things is through Arduino, a low cost which uses Microsoft’s open source .NET Creator CI20, offer other single board computer built around ARM Compact Framework. options including Android. micro-controllers, with plenty of I/O ports to Like Arduino, many of these prototyping Microsoft is prototyping a version of allow anyone to build prototype sensors and boards are simple microcontrollers. There’s no Windows for IoT devices and has shipped a cut actuators, and small enough to fit in the palm of operating system and no storage: just a set of down version of Windows 8 for Intel’s Galileo your hand. The heart of Arduino’s success is the firmware and enough memory to load and run boards. A Windows 10 build for Raspberry Pi 2 concept of the shield, a pluggable circuit board a single program. But that’s good enough for devices is due Summer 2015 and will give that can contain sensors or other hardware, most IoT applications where firmware-based Windows developers the tools they need to such as a Wi-Fi or cellular chipset. Some shields devices can be flashed once and left running for deliver Universal apps to IoT controllers. are designed to be extensible, built around years. All you need to do is hook them up to a breadboards or simple soldering pads where power source. Developer tools you can add your own components. That said, there is also a need for more Building an IoT application is much like building Arduino works with a wide selection of complex devices: small computers that can be any other piece of code. While you have to be development environments and tools, but is part of an IoT deployment, perhaps managing a aware of the limited capabilities of much IoT perhaps best known for the combination of the fleet of sensors or handling more complex tasks. hardware – and of memory and CPU constraints Processing IDE and the Wiring language that An Arduino might not have make it easy to quickly build event-driven the horsepower to recognise a applications. Wiring is a C/C++ library and it’s cat trying to come in through found its way into other platforms too, including a locked cat flap, but a low Intel’s Arduino-compatible Galileo board which cost single board computer is being used as a test-bed for the first iteration with a full ARM or Intel Quark of Microsoft’s Windows for Devices. SoC (System-on-a-Chip) could A common I/O port design and its plug-in do the job nicely. shields have helped create an ecosystem of Perhaps the most popular component providers, kit builders and device in the UK is the Raspberry Pi. manufacturers giving all you need to build an Riding on a wave of BBC Micro Arduino board into your own IoT projects. You nostalgia with its model A and don’t even need to be a full-time developer: a B versions, the Pi is an ARM while back we met a winemaker in Northern SoC-based single board California who is using homebuilt Arduino computer. Unlike the Arduino, The Intel Edison single-board computer is the size of an SD memory card.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 11 TRANSFORM performance into opportunity.

Optimise code with the ultimate development tools. Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2015 for C, C++, and Fortran application

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: WWW.GREYMATTER.COM/HC/IPSXE-2015 OR CALL US ON: 01364 654100 Business

– you’re going to be using the same IDEs and use Visual Studio’s remote debugging tools, for working with sensor data. development tools, or at least tooling that’s very using breakpoints to expose variables and Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT similar. single step through your code. Wiring makes it implementation is likely to work similarly, but A good example of how IoT development easy to address I/O ports and read analogue or with support for Universal apps written using works is the way in which Microsoft has been digital values, and it also lets you trigger .NET languages and with the option of adding support for Windows for Devices to outputs. We were able to write an app that providing a UI on devices which support Visual Studio. With the current build, installing reads values from a temperature sensor on a screens, such as the Raspberry Pi. Arduino the Windows for Devices SDK adds new project shield and then flashes an LED at a proportional support is also promised, though Microsoft has types to Visual Studio. You can then write Wiring rate using just a few lines of code. You can get a yet to detail how apps will run on Arduino code in a C++ wrapper, and use Visual Studio’s feel for how device development and cloud firmware and how Visual Studio will work with remote deployment tools to deliver the app services come together using the Microsoft devices that only have firmware. Alternatively over an Ethernet connection to an Intel Galileo Open Technologies Connect The Dots project, you can write apps that work with Microsoft’s board. which provides framework code for working wearable sensor platform Band, reading sensors Once the app has been deployed you can with Azure cloud services, and design patterns over a Bluetooth connection and taking triggers from the device’s buttons. Other development platforms are offering The Intel angle different approaches to cross-platform IoT Intel’s involvement in the Internet of Things is wide ranging, from the Xeon multi-core processors development. Embarcadero’s recently released that power much of the cloud, to the tiny Quark SoC (System-on-a-Chip) devices that are RAD Studio XE8 supports Android Wear and designed to sit within the ‘Things’ at the edge. , with tools for working with The Quark is a single core 32-bit processor that supports the x86 instruction set together Bluetooth LE beacons and for designing with a number of interfaces, including PCI Express, Ethernet and USB 2.0, in as small a package as UIs. ’s C# and F# possible. It is accompanied by three ‘maker’ boards. The Galileo, now on its second generation, cross-platform tools also offer wide-ranging conforms to the Arduino specification and comes with 256MB of memory and a range of support. connectors on a board measuring 107 by 71mm. The Edison is also Arduino compatible but With the Internet of Things building on a considerably smaller at just 36 by 25mm, with support for both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The smallest maker foundation, there’s a lot of open source of all is the Curie which will be released later in the year and includes a Quark processor together tooling, starting with Arduino’s Processing IDE. with 384kB of Flash memory, Bluetooth LE and a movement detector in something the size of a Node.js is an important element of many IoT fingernail. solutions, giving you a simple, scalable actor As James Reinders of Intel Software explained at the recent iStep conference, Quark’s that can be used as a switching element to priority is extremely low power consumption, while still providing a useful performance: “You’re handle messages from IoT endpoints, talking about devices that you want to run on very small batteries for a very long time, while still marshalling data to cloud services. A quick way being able to talk to the outside world. One of the secrets is to keep as much turned off as you of getting started with Node.js is IBM Research’s can, leaving just a small piece active so as to know when the rest of the chip needs to be Node-Red, which takes a visual approach to powered up.” managing information from devices. There’s also the problem of powering such devices. Reinders continued: “It’s obvious devices Running inside a browser, Node-Red lets like the Curie don’t want you plugging in a cable, which is why you see Intel so excited about you draw your IoT application, dropping wireless power. If you’ve got something the size of a button, then throwing it in a tray to recharge controls on screen and adding JavaScript code is much better than trying to figure out how to plug in a cable that’ll probably break the device if to customise controls. There’s a library of you put it in wrong.” connections to various common devices, with Intel has long been at the forefront when it comes to parallel computing, and as Reinders links to cloud services and databases. There’s points out, “The Internet of Things is another place where computer engineers need to be aware even a build of Node-Red that’ll run on a of parallelism and the issues of concurrency that arise when you distribute your problem. I’ve got Raspberry Pi, giving you the option of building little robots doing something here; I’ve got cloud computing doing face recognition and looking your IoT applications directly on an IoT device. up databases there: it’s an amazing application of parallel computing.” For example, one solution to the problem of security is to have low-power devices talking Connecting the IoT through something like Bluetooth LE to local hubs that decide who gets Internet access. Such a Connectivity is of course key. While most hub could also perform some initial processing on the raw data: “That would lower the devices use IP-based connections, there are complexity of the devices, and if you can trust that you are always in touch, then the hub can just other protocols that can be used in home tell you when something changes, or when something bad happens.” automation and industrial hardware. One As a representative of Intel Software, Reinders sees compatibility as a major selling point: option, ZigBee, is designed to work with low “It’s really cool to see our tools being used for more than we imagined when we started power radios and includes tools for building producing our compilers and libraries and so forth. They were always for workstations and them into a mesh network, making it possible desktops but now it’s up to supercomputers and down to Quarks. It’s good to see that to transmit data from device to device until it commonality because people who have been using our tools for years can get involved in the reaches a hub. It’s relatively slow but works well Internet of Things and the tools are familiar, and the x86 is familiar, and that’s a big boost for for home automation, handling temperature innovation.” and humidity sensors and simple switches. Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) is increasingly You can read the full transcript at www.greymatter.com/hc/James-Reinders-Interview. popular for short-range connections between smart devices and hubs. As it’s the heart of the

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 13 Business

Bluetooth Beacon specification, it’s commonly used for linking fitness trackers to phones and to support device tracking hardware. There’s support for it in Windows, as well as in most mobile operating systems. A relative newcomer is AllJoyn, a higher level protocol that lets devices advertise their capabilities, so simplifying connection to software and other devices. It’s already supported in various connected home devices, and is an open software framework which means it is supported by a wide variety of operating systems. Microsoft is making AllJoyn a key component of Windows 10 and is shipping an AllJoyn agent in the Windows 10 Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics provides cloud services for analysing the real-time Mobile Technical Preview. data that is streaming back to your application from IoT devices.

In the cloud Service makes a lot of sense as you don’t have Guthrie connected it to a PC and with a few The cloud is a key part of the Internet of Things. to design your own scaling algorithms, which lines of C# code had it delivering a stream of With many millions of devices connected to you’d have to do with Node.js. JSON-encoded data to an Azure Event Hub. networks, we’re going to need systems that can Microsoft’s aren’t the only cloud services This delivered the data to two separate scale effectively. Microsoft has been focusing a around. You can also use tools like Amazon’s services, namely Stream Analytics and Azure lot of its IoT work on Azure, with its Azure IoT Lambda service to trigger actions based on Machine Learning. Stream Analytics processed Suite. Based on the Intelligent Systems Service information from devices and services. While it’s and stored the data for display in a Power BI preview, this is a of tools designed to help not a platform for dealing with dense streams dashboard. Meanwhile the Machine Learning capture and manage information from devices, of data, it’s easy to see how it can be used to system was able to identify out-of-band especially from sensors. Full details of the work with another class of sensor. Take readings using a standard set of rules to predict service are still to be announced but the focus is Netgear’s Arlo security cameras, or Google’s future states based on past and present around Azure Event Hubs, Stream Analytics and Nest smoke alarms for example. These are readings, triggering alerts when Guthrie Machine Learning. quiescent most of the time, only needing access deliberately breathed into the sensor. Event hubs are a key technology, designed to cloud services when triggered. Arlo’s motion Using off-the-shelf BI tools to display to work with millions of telemetry events a sensors can instigate a cloud upload of a video real-time data makes a lot of sense: they’re second. You may not be planning to deliver snippet, while Nest sends alerts to your smart designed to be human readable, as well as easy information at that volume but if you’re devices. This is where Lambda would come in, to reconfigure. We’re not going to be sitting instrumenting complex equipment then you’re firing up the code to handle that upload or alert there watching real-time data as it streams off likely to find that you’re generating more data as soon as the event triggers. You’re not running millions of sensors: that’s what machine than you expect. Event hubs handle secure apps all the time, just when they’re triggered, so learning systems are for. Instead we’re going to connections, as well as throttling signals from saving you money. want to explore the data we get, asking devices and buffering data before sending it on Other cloud options include Arrayent’s questions in order to get insights that machine to a real-time analytics service, or to a storage Connect, which links devices to UIs, so you learning systems may not be delivering. service for later analysis. Azure’s Stream don’t need to write controller tools. If you’re a It’s worth looking at the lessons of the Analytics is an example of a real-time analytics sump pump manufacturer, you don’t want to massive IoT sensor systems already in use; the service, able to compare data with historic be writing iPhone apps, you want to be Formula 1 teams, the jet engines, the container information, as well triggering alerts for known building better pumps. Arrayent’s tools allow ships and the America’s Cup yachts. They’re all error conditions. And you don’t need to learn you to concentrate on linking your device to pushing the envelope of modern computing, new skills as queries are managed using a the cloud, allowing third parties to integrate using sensors to generate the vast amounts of SQL-like language. your devices with their control systems, or data they need to gain useful insights into the But it’s Azure Machine Learning that really letting you quickly build and deploy a UI. way their tools, services and businesses are drives the IoT platform, letting you train actually working. machine learning systems and pick and choose Putting it all together The Internet of Things promises much, but algorithms – as well as add your own code. So what does tomorrow look like? A recent we’re still in the early days. That means there’s Building an IoT service around Platform-as-a- presentation by Microsoft’s at an lots of work to be done, and lots of Azure User Group event in London shows how opportunities. But with tools and technologies i you can start to bring all these pieces together coming together, and support from cloud Find out more to build your own IoT apps. It’s probably a platforms and operating systems, we’re going coincidence that his demonstration mirrored to see an explosion in IoT development over Further details on our website at www.greymatter.com. Call Grey that logistics company’s truck refrigeration the next few years. If you want to get a feel for Matter on 01364 654100 or email [email protected] if you monitoring system using just a few lines of a it, pick a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino and start would like to discuss your needs with regards to the Internet of Things. code and a collection of cloud services. building that piece of automation you’ve Taking an off-the-shelf humidity sensor, always wanted. You won’t regret it.

14 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Embarcadero All-Access XE On-demand, Heterogeneous Tool Chest Business Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

How much do you know about your customers? Matt Nicholson looks at the tools that can help you make the most of each interaction.

Regardless of the business you are in, client-server application that runs on top of discussion group or chat facility as it is from a MATT the relationship you have with your Internet Information Server (IIS). User access phone call or someone walking into a store. NICHOLSON customers is vital. Not only are they the source can be through a web browser, or for a richer Buying options have increased as well, to what of your revenue, they are also your most experience there is a plug-in for Microsoft Microsoft refers to as the ‘omni-channel’ which Matt is editor of HardCopy magazine valuable source of information. Every Outlook, and as you would expect Dynamics encompasses eCommerce, mCommerce (as in and has been a interaction can increase your understanding of CRM works well with the suite. ‘mobile’), in-store and call centre. Dynamics computer journalist their needs, provided you have the tools to There are also client apps for devices running CRM 2015 copes with this through tools that since 1983. He recently published gather, store and analyse the data they Windows 8, iPad and Android which support facilitate coordination and ensure everyone When Computing Got generate. offline working and are free to download. involved in both marketing and sales has the Personal: A History of Such tools come under the general You can install the server component information they need at their fingertips. the Desktop Computer which is available in umbrella of Customer Relationship in-house, or you can subscribe to Microsoft For example, you can use the Email Editor paperback, Kindle and Management (CRM) and include support for Dynamics CRM Online, a cloud service that is to create marketing emails which work with the audiobook editions sales teams, helping them work together to charged on a per user per month basis. Campaign Management Console so that you from Amazon and all good bookshops. make the most of every interaction, and Furthermore, for a little extra, you can include can see in real time how many emails are Business Intelligence (BI) tools for analysing and Office 365 and Power BI in your subscription to opened, how many recipients click through, http://blog.mattmags.com displaying the data collected in a fashion that deliver everything your staff need within a and how many unsubscribe or forward the [email protected] will help your marketing team make effective familiar client environment. email on. You can also create different versions decisions. More recently, CRM software has of the same email and perform A/B tests to included support for customer-facing websites Sales and marketing determine which is the most effective. with features such as Live Chat or online The modern consumer uses and Dynamics CRM 2015 offers the option to discussion groups. Google to research purchases as much as they store new leads in a ‘holding tank’ separate from Microsoft’s contribution is Dynamics CRM might access more traditional sources, and your your established accounts or contacts. Leads 2015, now in its seventh incarnation. This is a first contact is as likely to come through a can be scored automatically depending on, for example, registrations to marketing events or responses to emails. A lead might be issued a Microsoft Dynamics ERP quote which can become an order and an Microsoft Dynamics CRM is just one of the packages that make up Microsoft Dynamics ERP invoice once the lead is elevated to a full-blown (Enterprise Resource Planning), a family of solutions that cover financial and management account. There are tools to help you design and accounting, payroll, recruitment, training, scheduling, workflow and lifecycle management, track a wide range of business processes, so quality control, order processing, purchasing, project management and inventory handling. ensuring that each lead and each account is Each member of the Dynamics family centres on an acquisition, so Microsoft Dynamics AX is handled appropriately. based on Axapta, a suite of accounting applications originally developed by the Danish Social networks such as Facebook and company Damgaard Data in collaboration with IBM. Microsoft Dynamics NAV comes from a are increasingly regarded by customers Windows-based accounting system developed by Navision Software, another Danish company. as valuable sources of independent advice. New Microsoft Dynamics SL is based on Solomon IV for Windows, while Microsoft Dynamics GP builds to Dynamics CRM 2015 is Microsoft Social on the Dynamics package developed by Great Plains Software. Listening which can analyse online forums for Each address much the same set of problems, but there are differences, and they each mentions of particular brands or products. The foster their own community of users and third-party developers. Dynamics AX, for example, is tool can analyse conversations held in any of 19 better suited to larger enterprises while GP, NAV and SL target mid-sized businesses. Dynamics languages, and understand sentiments SL has strengths when it comes to professional services and project management, while expressed in 6 of them. Dynamics NAV comes in more than 40 country-specific versions. On the sales side there are facilities for creating guided processes that branch

16 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Business

according to the response of the customer. Sales staff can be guided to cross-selling or up-selling Trek Bicycle Corporation opportunities, while managers can put together Case study bundles or price lists tailored to particular The Trek Bicycle Corporation has long been an advocate of Microsoft customer groups, with prompts for front-line technologies, and now has solutions in place built around Office 365, Azure, SharePoint, staff to help them make the most of every and Dynamics CRM Online. The company recently deployed Power BI to analyse use opportunity. of Helpdesk, which is where employees go to sort out their technical problems. As Trek’s Also new is the Sales Collaboration Panel Enterprise Collaboration Manager David Peterson explains: “What we had before just didn’t which allows sales staff to input information work. Our former reporting tool was too confusing and didn’t operate the way we needed it garnered from the front line into the design of to, so no one used it. Microsoft Power BI has completely changed that – it has given us better the campaigns that target their customers. insight than we’ve ever had before.” Dynamics CRM 2015 integrates with For example, Peterson uses a Microsoft Power BI workbook to track how long support technologies such as Skype and Yammer to help tickets remain open. This highlighted a particular type of request made repeatedly by the HR staff work together effectively, whether they’re department. Once identified, Peterson put in place appropriate training which has cut the in the next office, on the road, or halfway time Helpdesk staff spend on the issue from 12 to 15 hours a month down to zero. around the globe. Using Power BI, Peterson also discovered that the Helpdesk was dealing with up to 35 requests a week from guests Development platform to the company’s These are just a few of the many tools that come headquarters requiring Wi-Fi with Dynamics CRM 2015, however it is also a access. He is now looking to development platform in its own right with a add this as an option to the flourishing market of add-ons and apps, many visitor check-in process: “It’s of which are available through the CRM App a simple request and on a Store. Dynamics CRM 2015 exposes a small scale, not a huge deal, comprehensive set of web services that give but day after day, they were developers access to the underlying data, really adding up. We didn’t workflow and security models. see this until we started On the client side, developers can make use tracking everything in The Trek bike used by Jens Voigt for his Hour Record of its integration with Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Microsoft Power BI.” ride (photo by Ludovic Péron). Word and SharePoint to deliver solutions within an environment already familiar to their users. access through any number of devices, while a recommended for most users. The Basic CAL is a Alternatively they can create lighter applications Device CAL gives any number of users access on cheaper option for those that don’t need full for access from a web browser, or full-blown a non-concurrent basis through a single device. access, while the Essential CAL is intended for Windows apps of their own. You can buy a combination of User and Device users accessing a custom Dynamics CRM CALs, depending on your needs. application that has been developed in-house Licensing options External customers and suppliers can or by a Microsoft partner. For in-house installation, Microsoft Dynamics access your server without a CAL, provided they Access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online CRM 2015 is licensed in much the same way as are not performing business processes on your is on a per user per month basis. The any Microsoft server application, so you need a behalf. This allows customers to update their Professional licence is the version Server Licence for each instance that you are details directly through your website, for recommended for most users, or there is the running, either directly on a physical machine or example, without requiring a CAL. Sales Productivity licence which is only a little within a virtual machine, while user access is Both User and Device CALs can be more expensive and includes Office 365 authorised through a system of Client Access Professional, Basic or Essential. Professional Enterprise E3 and Power BI for Office 365. Licences (CALs). A User CAL allows a single user CALs give users access to all features, and are Accounts with at least ten Professional licences get access to Microsoft Social Listening as well. More expensive is Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Enterprise which includes Social Listening as standard, and adds Microsoft Dynamics Market Enterprise and Parature help desk software. There are also Basic and Essential options.

i Find out more

For more information on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, see the Grey Matter website at www.greymatter.com. You can also call us on 01364 654100 or email [email protected]. The Overview dashboard lets you drill down for more detail.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 17

IT Enterprise Mobility Management

Managing IT systems nowadays means coping with devices on both sides of the organisation’s firewall. Mary Branscombe investigates the solutions.

Thinking about your mobility strategy? standard enterprise devices, because you don’t their credentials. This implies an element of Mobile Device Management (MDM) has want to have to duplicate policies any more access management and authentication, ideally MARY come a long way from the days of Exchange than you have to, and the fewer the systems you multi-factor rather than just passwords. Given BRANSCOMBE profiles or the feature lockdown of BlackBerry have to juggle, the smaller the likelihood of the rate at which we upgrade our phones and Mary is a freelance IT Enterprise Server, where ‘taking control’ usually loopholes slipping between the cracks. Your tablets these days, you need to be thinking in writer who’s worked on meant ‘turning things off’. What businesses need users look at the same email and the same terms of identity, information and apps rather both sides of the fence, now is a mix of connectivity, control, documents whether it be on , than devices; and it has to happen from writing manuals to developing a technol- productivity, security, identity and access tablet, laptop or desktop, so having automatically, from the moment they sign in ogy area for a major management, which means that device management tools that treat such devices as with their work credentials, no matter what online service. She was management is just part of the story - although separate problems isn’t helpful. device they show up with. also launch editor of you still have to be ready to cope with lots of Such diversity means that you can’t hope You also want some self-service tools for IT Expert magazine. devices, some of which you might never have to manage much on the devices themselves – users, such as password reset and facilities for maryb@hardcopymag. come across before. and the more personal the device, the less locking their devices remotely. With UK users com The new term for this is Enterprise Mobility happy users are going to be about letting you carrying up to four separate devices each, you Management (EMM), and everyone from interfere. They will put up with the company don’t want the extra work, and devices will be BlackBerry to Sophos is promising it. You will wallpaper on their company desktop but they’re more secure if you let users lock them rather also find familiar MDM names like Good and really going to hate it showing up on their than hang around hoping to find them because AirWatch, device manufacturers like Samsung, phone. Furthermore, this type of management they don’t want to go through a tedious and one big player you might not expect, can only give you protection at the device level. reporting process. namely Microsoft. More important is to manage the This all needs to work without assuming Microsoft’s own description of its Enterprise information flow to and from such devices, and users will connect over a VPN, so it’s a good Mobility Suite (EMS) sums up the key areas you to manage and protect the apps and systems opportunity to look at mobilising some of your need to think about, stating that it’s “to help that users access with those devices. There’s not internal systems, perhaps using team sites on organisations enable their users to be much point in installing an approved document SharePoint Server, so that users can access productive on the devices they love, while reader onto someone’s phone if you can’t stop them from their phone or tablet if they’re out of protecting the company.” Devices your users them opening a work document in Google the office. As usual, the alternative to doing so is might love include Bring Your Own devices over Docs. And you probably need to manage the to risk users copying files onto USB sticks that which you have limited management; Choose data flowing into Dropbox from notebooks and they can lose, or to cloud services where you Your Own devices that you whitelist and can desktops in the office just as much as you do the have no control. If you want to protect have more control over (although not as much apps installed on your users’ phones, because information you need to stay in control of how as your standard enterprise devices where you that’s all part of the same balancing act it’s accessed, and you can only do that if you can apply strict policies); or even ‘on your own’ between keeping users happy and productive, give users the access they need. devices that you don’t support, manage or and keeping control of the company assets that maybe even know about, but that users might go on their devices (while staying well clear of Microsoft EMS still try to connect, such as Apple Watch or their personal information). Rather than develop a separate mobile device Microsoft Band. Identity management and integration with management tool, or just extending the EAS The system that you choose to manage your directory systems is also important, as you policies that are already in Exchange Server and such devices must at the least integrate with the need to make sure it’s really one of your users Office 365, Microsoft has combined the cloud system you are currently using to manage your connecting and not someone who’s phished versions of its existing tools for identity

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 19 Create, Edit, Store and Business-Class and Share on Share in the Email and More Mobile Cloud Devices

Unlimited Office Online Applications Meetings

Enterprise- Enterprise Guaranteed Grade Social Uptime and Security and 24/7 Support Controls IT

device. This is a good match for URL filtering, so you can stop someone visiting gambling sites on a company device, even if they’re not on your network. But where Intune and EMS are unique is their ability to manage Office apps on devices. As with the management options included in Office 365 you can restrict cut, copy and paste in Word, PowerPoint, Excel and the Mobile Outlook Web App to keep work information out of personal email, have documents from OneDrive for Business open in the Office apps rather than any other document apps on the system, and restrict where documents can be saved. You can also wrap your own line-of- business apps on iOS and Android into the same container as Office, so users can copy work information between them, but not out into their personal email. And you can use the Azure Rights Management Service component to Workplace Join in Azure Active Directory Premium lets users register their own devices automatically apply policies like preventing so you can manage them from Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite. confidential documents from being printed or forwarded outside the company, or have them management, mobile management and Samsung Knox which give you the option of expire after a certain date, based on what’s in information protection into a suite that works removing apps from a device. Neither the document. You can set up specific with your on-premise infrastructure (especially BlackBerry nor the older Mac OS are supported templates with the protection you want, and Active Directory and System Center), and with though. You can use it to provision email make those available to users or let them pick Office, which remains a familiar and popular accounts, certificates and Wi-Fi and VPN profiles them from standard protections for their product (even with iPad users these days). on mobile devices, and you can enforce policies document or email. The mobile device management like having to unlock the device with a PIN, This gives you the familiar Information component of the Enterprise Mobility Suite requiring encryption, turning off Bluetooth and Rights Management (IRM) options from (EMS) is Microsoft Intune, which manages both all the usual MDM settings. And because it Windows Server, but they now work in the PCs and mobile devices like and integrates with Active Directory, these settings mobile Office applications, and there are free tablets. Identity management comes from Azure will all be reversed when someone leaves and apps on multiple platforms for reading Active Directory Premium, which you can sync you remove them from AD. There’s a selective protected files. Most importantly, because with your on-premise AD, even if you have wipe feature, so you don’t remove personal Azure RMS is a cloud service, you don’t need to multiple forests. Access and information information when a user unregisters a device, worry about federating with partner companies protection is provided by Azure Rights and there’s self-service features like password so their employees can open protected Management. At this point these are separate reset and remote locking. documents. services with separate interfaces for setting up At the other extreme, if you have company Intune also detects rooted Android devices specific features, but those features do work owned devices that are shared by factory and jailbroken iOS devices as well as telling you together so you get more options by having all workers or staff in a restaurant, for example, you which Windows PCs have out-of-date anti-virus three services in the suite – as well as a lower can bulk enroll thousands of devices against a software or haven’t run an AV scan recently, so price than if you took out individual single service account and then have users sign you can restrict access to email or file stores subscriptions. in when they pick up a device for their shift. If from devices that don’t have good enough Intune integrates particularly well with you need to use devices as a kiosk, you can security without locking the users out when System Center, where you can see the Intune lockdown iOS devices using supervisor mode they use more secure devices. And because console directly. You can even co-ordinate and the Apple Configurator so the user can’t rooted devices don’t always tell the truth, System Center Configuration Manager to run a different app, change the volume or even there’s an agent that runs on Android to collect automatically download updates to Intune. The rotate the screen – ideal if you’re using it as a that information more accurately. Intune portal remains far simpler than cash register or demo station. You can set up conditional access to Configuration Manager. For example, you don’t You can also use Intune to get the right resources using the Workplace Join option in need to know the details of how the same apps to users, whether that’s making a portal Azure Active Directory Premium, which is the setting works on different devices as Intune with links to useful apps, or pushing them out lightweight version of domain join that works abstracts the differences so you can set it once to the PC. Any MDM system can do that, and on iOS and Android devices, as well as Windows and have it applied as necessary. like other MDM offerings, Intune has a set of 8.1 and Windows RT. You don’t get to set group Intune covers Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, managed file viewers for PDF, images and policies using Workplace Join, but it does mean , Windows Mobile and Symbian, videos, and a managed browser that keeps that you know more about the devices that are and includes secure Android options like company information inside a container on the connecting to your network. Instead of having

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 21 IT

to assume the worst case scenario – that your user is on an unprotected PC in an Internet café or hotel business centre that’s infected with half a dozen pieces of malware – you know they’re on their own device and that it’s not compromised. In return the user gets a simpler experience where you provision their device with useful apps and settings, with single-sign access to both cloud applications and on-premise systems (if you chose to set that up). You can now even use conditional access to let only users who allow you to manage their device connect to Exchange for email and calendar sync, whether it’s in Office 365, your own Exchange servers, or other Office 365 services like SharePoint. And you can require a PIN or multi-factor authentication, either for registering a device in the first place, or for accessing an app each time. You could do some of that using the Device Registration Service in Windows Server 2012 R2, which includes Workplace Join, but Samsung’s solution supports KNOX which gives you facilties to set up a safe you have to set up all the remote connectivity ‘container’ on your users’ devices. yourself, which is a significant investment of time and hardware, and you wouldn’t get the Samsung SDS EMM person keeps trying to get into the device, it extra protection in Azure Active Directory Samsung has two enterprise mobility solutions. will be remote wiped. You can put together a Premium. Furthermore, before you turn on Samsung KNOX Enterprise Mobility ‘business store’ with approved apps, such as a conditional access, you can run a report in Management is a cloud service that uses camera app for taking pictures of whiteboards Azure Active Directory Premium to see exactly Centrify’s identity service to integrate with your at meetings that only saves images to a what will be affected, so you’ll know if you’re Active Directory for sign-in to mobile and cloud company cloud service. You can also use the about to lock the CFO out of your expenses apps. There is also Samsung SDS Enterprise mobile enterprise app platform included in system before they call you to complain. Mobility Management, an on-premise MDM SDS EMM to create apps that integrate with Other Azure Active Directory Premium and app management system that you can run your own backend systems. reports tell you if your users are making on your own Windows, Linux or AIX server, with There’s a self-service portal that lets users impossible journeys, such as logging in from the option of a second server in the do some simple device management, New York half an hour after they log in from demilitarised zone of your network to handle including locking a lost device, but many of the London. This is based on machine learning, so if encrypted push notifications. In both cases you pieces that you’ll find in other MDM and a high speed rail link opens up, employees can buy just the software, which comes with mobile app management systems are optional using it won’t get locked out incorrectly. If it’s a preset security policies that make it easier for extras, which means you can pick and choose. legitimate user they can still log on using you to get up and running more quickly, or If you need secure communications between two-factor authentication. there are installation and maintenance services apps on a mobile device and your own servers Azure Active Directory Premium has a rich available. (The name, incidentally, was then you can add on the App Tunnel feature and growing list of further services. For example apparently inspired by the famous Fort Knox.) which creates an SSL/TLS tunnel for each app you can monitor what cloud apps are in use on Samsung SDS EMM had an early rather than using a VPN. There’s also an your network, using an agent that you deploy advantage in that it supported both KNOX and optional mail, calendar and contact app, and a to PCs. This is the point where EMS becomes Samsung SDS Container, which is Samsung’s file sharing tool called Securage that integrates much more of an holistic solution to own secure container, as well as Android and with your own network storage. productivity for device users, some of which iOS devices. It currently supports KNOX 2.0, as The more interesting options let you just happen to be mobile, combined with do almost all MDM and EMM systems now. This change the policies on a device using protection at the device, app, document and includes the usual MDM features like managing geo-fencing, time of day or infrastructure like even network levels. email and email attachments so they stay in the secure entry systems. This means you could container, enforcing encryption or turning off allow employees to process customer orders i Find out more camera, screenshot, USB and tethering features, on their phone, but only when they’re on whitelisting and blacklisting apps on the device company premises during working hours, or (including by role). you could apply different policy settings to For further help with device management, see the Grey Matter There is also an Android agent that can employees when they enter different buildings, website at www.greymatter.com. Alternatively call 01364 654100 or detect if someone is trying to turn off EMM or or specific areas inside a building, such as email [email protected]. root the phone, stopping the device from turning off their camera when they’re in connecting until it’s protected again. If that the research department.

22 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy

Development Building apps for Windows 10 A new version of Windows is coming, and with it a new app platform that will run on everything from desktops to phones, consoles and IoT devices. Tim Anderson investigates.

What is next for Windows, following a other class libraries that work across multiple either. At the Windows Hardware Engineering TIM lacklustre response to Microsoft’s bold platforms, with Visual Studio enforcing Conference in Shenzhen, Microsoft ANDERSON remaking of the operating system in version 8? compatibility. Another characteristic of this Distinguished Engineer Don Box stated: The answer is Windows 10, with availability existing technology is that developers are “In Windows 10 we have this notion of a A freelance journalist since 1992, Tim promised later in 2015; and this time the pitch expected to create a separate user interface for Universal App platform. The apps that target it Anderson covers is that the company is unifying its platform with each platform. are called Windows Apps. Sometimes we say a wide range of ‘One Windows’ across all form factors, including In Windows 10, Microsoft is taking a ‘Universal Apps’ but we call them Windows technical topics and is well versed in games consoles, augmented reality devices different approach, though it has been using a Apps.” modern programming that use HoloLens technology, and Internet of similar term, namely Universal App Platform The name is a clue to the importance that tools, techniques Things (IoT) devices such as the latest (UAP), to describe it. A Windows 10 UAP app is a Microsoft attaches to the platform. The and technologies. His recent work Raspberry Pi. single project, and the user interface tools have advantages of the UAP include easy has appeared in Microsoft talked up the concept of been reworked so you can target multiple discoverability via the Windows Store (or publications including Universal Apps before Windows 10 was devices with one design, an approach Microsoft enterprise app stores in businesses), smooth Guardian Technology, The Register, announced, introducing a new project type in calls the Adaptive UX. It is a similar concept to install and uninstall, better security through Computer Weekly, Visual Studio 2013 that can target both phone Responsive UI in web design, though app isolation, and ease of use on tablets as well Hardcopy, IT Expert, and PC. Although it is a single project, this type implemented in XAML, Microsoft’s XML-based as with keyboard and mouse. vnunet.com and ITJOBLOG, as well as of Universal App is really just a means of presentation language, rather than in HTML. Microsoft is also supporting the UAP with his own popular blog sharing code, generating separate executables The UAP is accompanied by a unified its own apps. The previews of Windows 10 and at www.itwriting.com. for each platform, and with device-specific Windows Store, so that users can buy once and Windows Phone 10 show the platform being projects within the shared Visual Studio install both on phone and PC. used for standard accessories including solution. The key technical enabler for old-style The Windows 10 UAP, like Store apps in Calculator, Alarms, Sound Recorder and Photo Universal Apps is Portable Class Libraries, which Windows 8, uses the Windows Runtime viewer. The company has also released a UAP lets you use standard .NET assemblies and (WinRT), a platform within Windows that version of Office, including Word, Excel and isolates applications from one PowerPoint, with similar functionality to the another and from the OS, as well versions available on iOS and Android. as providing a touch-friendly API for apps that run on tablets and Building for the UAP phones. However, WinRT apps There are several ways to build for the UAP, with behave differently in Windows the main ones being: 10, running in a window on the 1. XAML with C# or desktop, rather than full-screen. 2. XAML with C++ Microsoft has worked to 3. DirectX with C++ integrate the desktop and WinRT 4. HTML and JavaScript, through the use of environments, figuring perhaps Microsoft’s WinJS library that in Windows 8 most users live 5. Hosted Web Apps (essentially web sites in the desktop and rarely see or packaged for the Windows Store with access explore the modern app to WinRT APIs through JavaScript) platform. In addition, Microsoft has several projects for The ‘Universal App’ name building apps using simple visual tools, Starting a new Windows 10 app project in Visual Studio 2015. may not be the final choice, including the online App Studio and

24 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Development

TouchDevelop, and the app-based Project Siena. The application lifecycle also means that While these currently build Windows 8 Store when an app starts it should check whether it is apps, they are expected to transition to the UAP resuming after suspension, or a new launch, or once Windows 10 is available. called by the system because the app is All these options are viable, and the choice registered for a certain file type or to handle is a matter of developer preference and the images or contacts. purpose of the app, with DirectX intended This approach is required for apps to mainly for games, XAML for general-purpose behave nicely in environments such as Windows and line of business apps, and WinJS for those Phone or small tablets, which may have low coming from web development or with existing memory. JavaScript code to port. XAML in the UAP is essentially the next Microsoft builds the Universal App version version of XAML for Windows 8 Store apps. It is The application lifecycle means that your app can be of Office using XAML and C++, which has a similar in approach but not compatible with suspended and must know how to resume cleanly. small performance advantage over XAML and XAML for Windows Presentation Foundation .NET. It is worth noting though that UAP apps (WPF) or for Silverlight, used by Microsoft’s device families are Desktop, Mobile, Xbox, IoT written in .NET benefit from Microsoft’s .NET browser plug-in and by Windows Phone. The and IoT headless (without user interface). Native project, which means they are compiled GUI controls in the UAP are designed for touch, Visual Studio 2015 ships with an emulator to true native code when deployed. This which means they tend to be chunkier than for Windows Phone 10, based on Hyper-V improves start-up time as well as solving Win32 or WPF controls, though the flexibility of virtualisation, and you can debug phone apps potential dependency issues. XAML means that you can achieve a very either with the emulator, or remotely on the The main tool for building UAP apps is different look and feel through custom styling if device itself. Visual Studio 2015, currently in preview. This needed. Part of the rationale for the UAP is that comes with Microsoft’s Blend visual designer. it works well with touch though, so it would be Microsoft’s Adaptive UX Blend is integrated with Visual Studio, so that unwise to create an app that was hard to use on The idea of designing a UI that works on you can right-click a XAML file, choose Design in a tablet. everything from huge desktop screens to small Blend, work on the page, save, and continue in Despite the concept of ‘One Windows’, phones sounds ambitious, and it is. However Visual Studio. different devices have different capabilities. This Microsoft has done a few things to make the The experience of building UAP apps will is handled in the UAP via extension SDKs that task easier. be familiar if you have previously worked on are device-specific. When you reference an First, some built-in controls such as the Windows 8 Store apps, but less so for those Extension SDK, the device-specific API is Date Picker and Toggle Switch automatically coming from Windows desktop development or available on all platforms as stub, but only adapt according to the size of the display. other platforms. Note that the platform is more functional on the device to which it applies. Second, an updated VisualStateManager like a mobile platform than a desktop platform, Functions like IsTypePresent and IsEventPresent includes an element called an AdaptiveTrigger. not only in its approach to data, but also in the let you detect at runtime whether the features The way this works is that in your XAML you application lifecycle and sandboxing. Whereas a are active on the current device. You can also define an AdaptiveTrigger based, for example, Windows desktop app is either running or not - use conditional compilation using #if, but on a minimum window width. If the windows even when minimised the process is still active Microsoft discourages this since if you do, you width is below this size, it activates a VisualState - a WinRT app can be suspended by the OS if the are back to needing a separate executable for in which you can apply changes to the layout, user switches away. Suspension fires an event each platform. such as changing the orientation of a panel or that you can handle to save data, but it must Microsoft has currently identified five having it become a flyout rather than always return within 5 seconds or the app will be ‘device families’ which determine what APIs are visible. Blend has a States panel that lets you terminated. The OS may also terminate a available and Store availability – in other words, design these different states, or you can define suspended app if there are insufficient resources users can only install an app from the Store if them in code. to keep it in memory. they have a supported device. Currently, the Third, a new layout control called RelativePanel lets you create layouts by defining the relationship of one control to one another, so simplifying the markup. Instead of using a grid when you want to ensure that one control is always to the right of another, for example, you can now specify this with a RelativePanel. Fourth, a new SplitView control makes it easier to present content in a common layout pattern, with navigation links in a left column and a panel on the right with the related detail. You can define this so that the navigation pane is a flyout in small window sizes. Despite these helpers, creating a high quality user interface that will work from phone Working with a Windows 10 app in Visual Studio 2015. to desktop is a lot of work. The benefit is that

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 25 Microsoft Azure The Cloud for Modern Business

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Making sense of the UAP Universal App Platform caveats The success of the UAP is by no means assured. Despite Microsoft’s strong push for ‘One Windows’ and the Universal App Platform, there are a As with Windows 8, Microsoft’s problem is that couple of drawbacks. One is that the UAP is Windows 10 only. Users of Window 7 and 8 will not be mobile is dominated by Android and iOS, while able to run the apps unless they upgrade. The upgrade is free initially, for most users, but this is Windows as a client operating system is used still a major blocker, particularly in the business market where Windows 7 remains the standard. almost exclusively for desktop applications. Another issue is that although UAP apps run in a desktop window, they are still in the WinRT Windows 10 will still support desktop sandbox and limited to a subset of the Windows API. There are no database drivers for SQL Server applications, of course, and by coding for the or Access, since you are expected to use a web services model to access data, or a local database desktop you can get compatibility with engine such as the open source SQLite which will be restricted to app-isolated storage. UAP apps Windows 7 and earlier. are also single instance, though they can open multiple windows. That said, the new app model has real That said, enterprises do have a way of bypassing the WinRT sandbox by using a technique advantages, both for consumers using the called Brokered Windows Runtime Components. This is for side-loaded apps (in other words, Windows Store, and for businesses looking for privately installed rather than downloaded from the Windows Store), and lets you call a desktop better security and reliability. The optimistic component from a WinRT app using inter-process communications. view is that extending the Windows app The consequence of these limitations is that you have to be sure that WinRT provides the platform to cover all device types will boost the functionality you need, and that your users have access to Windows 10, before making the ecosystem, bringing more developers to the decision to build a UAP app. platform and making it a viable third contender in the overall app market. users will get a seamless experience running the subject to user consent, and you can now If Windows 10 is successful in attracting app whatever device they are using – provided trigger a request for consent from within the users not only from Windows 8, but also from of course it is within the Windows 10 family. app itself. the many Windows 7 diehards, then demand • The AllJoyn open source framework for IoT is for Windows Store apps will rise, particularly New features in the UAP implemented in a new AllJoyn namespace. now that desktop integration makes these apps The biggest change in the UAP when compared • DirectX is upgraded to version 12, with better more attractive to keyboard and mouse users. with Windows 8 Store apps is desktop performance for games and 3D graphics. Microsoft has spoken about its plans to integration, with the apps running within a • Video apps can use HTTP Live Streaming deliver Windows as a regularly updated service, window. There are other enhancements though, (HLS), and there are new overlay and effects with customers choosing between frequent in addition to the new features mentioned APIs available. updates aimed at consumers, “Current branch above, including the following: • XAML ListView and GridView controls use list for business” releases with regular feature • The WebView control now uses Project virtualisation for faster scrolling of large lists. updates, and “Long Term Servicing” branches Spartan, Microsoft’s new web engine, • Drag and Drop is supported to let users move for scenarios where the stability of a particular promising better compatibility with HTML 5.0 data between apps, and from apps to the build is more important than keeping pace with content. desktop. updates. On this basis Windows 10 is not just a • A new InkCanvas control and InkPresenter • integration means that your app can new release, but an invitation to move from a classes lets you support pen input, such as on be found in Cortana searches. Microsoft has version-oriented approach to one where Microsoft’s Surface tablets. also stated that you will be able to extend incremental updates are the norm. The UAP is • A new shared storage class which lets you Cortana for app-specific functionality such as the app platform for this new style of Windows. share a file with another app by passing a voice control. Developers will be understandably wary, token in code. Note that Microsoft has promised further considering Microsoft’s history of frequent • Apps can request location information, announcements so this list is not exhaustive. changes to its development platform strategy, but it does look as if the company intends to make this one stick. That said, it is obvious that the UAP is not the best solution for every kind of application, a fact Microsoft has recognised with further investment in the desktop-only WPF, which now has its own roadmap of new features. The value of the UAP is for apps that fit the model, in that they run on mobile or desktop, are touch-friendly, and use Internet- hosted services for their data. i Find out more

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Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 27 http://www.greymatter.com/

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551897/UK/20150429 Always safe. Never sorry. Opinion Inside Data The Internet of Things will need new tools and technologies for handling data, as Graham Keitch explains.

Some 30 years ago, many large deal more will be used for decision support, processes will have sensors within the organisations were creating new IT with the potential to benefit both the business machinery that creates things, and within the departments to oversee the introduction of and its customers. things they create. IBM has pledged some $3 desktop computers. They were widely known as The potential impact of IoT in terms of data billion over four years for an IoT business unit Information Centres but in reality were more volume is mind blowing, and participating based on an open platform cloud solution. concerned with the automation of standalone organisations will need to focus on data that’s Industrial automation is also of great office processes. The concept of putting easy to access in real time and provides interest to Oracle on account of Java’s presence information at the hub of things was maximum benefit for the business and its across a broad spectrum of devices. Many of nevertheless a worthy objective and since then, customers. Each organisation or industry group Oracle’s systems are built for the Java J2EE data has become central to nearly every office will need to identify the information that can platform and many are specifically tailored for system. In the business world most of it is effectively transform its business, and then work industry verticals such as health, financial and out how to integrate this manufacturing sectors. into their processes and Database technology is evolving to systems. Existing systems accommodate the diverse and complex nature probably have this partly of Big Data. In-memory solutions now provide covered already, so for lightning speed access to frequently used parts many it’s more a case of of the database, while column store and extending what’s already improved search and retrieval methods are in place. becoming more commonplace to help with the To this end, analytical side of things. The expansion and Microsoft is promoting multiplicity of database technologies brings its the idea of creating the own set of problems. Embarcadero has focused Internet of Your Things to on providing tools that help with this, such as help customers identify its ER/Studio which addresses the requirements what is important to their of data architects who need to work with a wide business and build on range of database platforms, including some of Embarcadero ER/Studio Data Architect in action. their existing hardware the newer types associated with Big Data and transactional and the idea of deriving and software infrastructure. Microsoft offers a IoT such as Hadoop and MongoDB. information from it is a more recent trend made framework that allows the data to be marshalled Oracle is also helping to bridge the possible by Business Intelligence tools. and processed automatically using filters, rules, platforms with several toolsets released recently Our systems are increasingly making use of triggers and other means. The volume and for their Big Data Appliance. These are largely contextual data to inform, influence or support complexity of data that changes hands in a aimed at Hadoop which uses the MapReduce a transaction or process, but not necessarily as a typical IoT conversation is much greater than programming model, a model unfamiliar to mandatory component. For example, the short most conventional systems are geared up to traditional RDBMS professionals. It is only a term forecast for a seaside resort isn’t a required handle, but the flexible and scalable nature of matter of time before such technologies value for a train ticket transaction, but the the cloud solves many of the problems become more widely available and availability of such data is useful to both the associated with handling Big Data. Microsoft commonplace as IoT takes hold. vendor and consumer. The past decade has Azure Internet of Things provide monitoring brought us technologies that have enabled and analytical tools that will enable users to i both websites and applications to display more evolve their systems to accommodate IoT. The Find out more of this type of information. However the Internet various services are fairly self explanatory and of Things (IoT) will take this to a whole new include Azure Event Hubs, Azure DocumentDB, Graham Keitch is the database pre-sales specialist at level, massively increasing the amount of Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Notification Hubs, Grey Matter and has worked in IT for over 25 years. available information, with sensors distributed Azure Machine Learning and Microsoft Power BI, For further information and advice on the options throughout the environment that is relevant to to name a few. discussed here, please call him or one of his colleagues a particular business feeding it with a constant Meanwhile data giants IBM and Oracle on 01364 654100, or email him at stream of data. Some of this will be used for have their sights on the manufacturing sector, [email protected]. traditional transactional purposes, but a great which will be a big adopter of IoT. Industrial

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 29 Opinion Straight talking Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are natural choices for the back end of an IoT solution. Tim Anderson delves deeper.

This suggests that the ideal platform for such as those from Microsoft Azure and IoT services needs strong support for mobile Amazon Web Services. Note that these are large Mention IoT and you think immediately apps as well as for services that communicate platforms, and potentially any of their services of the ‘things’ – the sensors, smart with the devices themselves. might find a role in an IoT solution, so the appliances, wearables, and things that we have Another key feature is the ability to services highlighted below are not intended to not thought up yet that will inevitably be consume large amounts of data and to enable be exclusive. internet connected. However the value only analytics. The amount of data is often hard to comes though when you have the right services predict, making the scalability of cloud services IoT Services on Microsoft Azure in place, which is why IoT is as much about the an advantage. As sensors evolve and multiply in Microsoft Azure has seven services which form cloud as it is about devices and sensors. Cloud is number, the amount of data generated can the basis of its IoT offering: not essential, since you can host services in your only increase. Stuffing data into a traditional • Azure Event Hubs consume and process own data centre, but there are real advantages: SQL database may not be the best solution. A events fired over HTTP or AMQP (Advanced scalability, easy access to database and data warehouse such as something based on Message Queuing Protocol) with high analytics services, and the freedom of being Apache Hadoop, which is designed for throughput. able to focus on the application rather than the analysing large amounts of data efficiently, may • Azure Document DB is a NoSQL database infrastructure in your solution. be more appropriate. which stores JSON documents and lets you There is also a natural affinity between IoT If you are building a real-time solution, query them with SQL, JavaScript or Hadoop and apps running on smartphones or tablets. such as a dashboard, then the objective is to jobs (with a connector). It is backed by SSD The value of always-connected devices make sense of a stream of data without storage for performance. increases if you can monitor or control them on necessarily storing it, which has given rise to • Azure Stream Analytics uses a SQL-like the move, and that implies mobile. Cloud services offering streaming analytics. For language to analyse streaming data and services make sense since they can make it example, manufacturers can use data from optionally output to Azure storage. It easier to let your mobile app services machines in production to monitor integrates with Event Hubs. communicate with your IoT services. performance and troubleshoot problems • Azure Notification Hubs send push Another factor is that few IoT applications proactively, even before the customers on-site notifications from Azure to iOS, Android, stand alone. In the early days of the internet report a problem. Windows or Windows Phone. there was excitement about ‘mash-ups’: Given the synergy between cloud and IoT, • Azure HDInsight is Microsoft’s Hadoop applications which combine data from multiple it is no surprise that the big public cloud implementation, and can also connect to sources to add value. IoT fits well with the providers have come up with suitable services, on-premises Hadoop instances. mash-up concept, and it is easy to think of applications which combine data from sources such as maps, traffic and weather with that from IoT devices. Research company Vision Mobile surveyed 4,000 IoT developers in a report published in the first quarter of 2015.This demonstrated the affinity between mobile and IoT, with 53 percent of mobile developers already involved in IoT development. The top five IoT targets were Smart Home (75 percent), Wearables (75 percent), Connected Car (50 percent), Retail (45 percent) and Industrial IoT (44 percent), where the percentages combine those currently targeting and those intending to target the specified areas. The Azure Machine Learning Studio in action.

30 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Opinion

• Azure Machine Learning lets you create and Client Library lets you build applications in predict outcomes with an indication of operate predictive solutions. You can build Java, Python, Ruby or Node.js. confidence. Machine Learning can use data in workflows in Machine Learning Studio, • Amazon EMR (Elastic Map Reduce) is a data Amazon S3, Amazon RedShift or Amazon publish them as web services, and extend warehousing service that uses Apache Relational Database Service. them using modules written in R or Python. Hadoop. • Microsoft Power BI is a cloud service for • Amazon Redshift is a high-scale data Azure or AWS? sharing and collaborating on Excel reports. warehouse which supports PostgreSQL, JDBC Both Azure and AWS are strong for IoT It is also worth mentioning Azure App and ODBC clients, so you can analyse data solutions, so why would you choose one over Service, which replaces Azure Mobile Services using existing tools. the other? It is apparent when you review the and lets you build services for mobile apps, • Amazon Simple Notification Services lets you documentation that – as you would expect – including authentication with Azure Active send push notifications to Apple, Google, Fire Azure has better support for Microsoft-platform Directory, Microsoft accounts, Google, Facebook OS and Windows devices. technology such as Azure Active Directory, C# or Twitter and REST APIs, and of course access to • AWS Lambda is a fully managed compute SDKs, Excel analytics, and Windows devices other Azure services. platform for running code in response to (including Windows Phone), although Microsoft In March 2015, Microsoft announced the events, using either Java or Node.js. You can does also support Linux, iOS, Android and other Azure IoT Suite, expected to preview shortly, use Lambda in conjunction with Kinesis to important platforms. AWS does not provide C# which will provide complete applications process IoT events. SDKs for all its services, but fits well with open targeting common IoT scenarios such as remote • AWS Mobile Services is not a service as such, source technology such as Linux, Ruby, Python monitoring, asset management and predictive but rather an SDK for iOS, Android, Fire OS and MySQL. Use of REST APIs and other maintenance. and Unity for building apps that access AWS standards mean that you are not limited on services including S3 storage, Dynamo DB either platform, but it is worth bearing in mind. IoT Services on AWS NoSQL database and AWS Lambda. That said, AWS is a more mature platform and Amazon Web Services (AWS) also offers services There is also Amazon Machine Learning, a the largest public cloud provider. suitable for IoT solutions: newly announced service for predictive The individual services vary, especially in • Amazon Kinesis captures and processes data analytics based on the concept of models and the more cutting-edge services such as from multiple sources in real time to create predictions. You give Amazon Machine Learning machine learning, so it would pay to run trials dashboards and alerts, or feed data into other a model, which is a dataset including both data to test the capability of these services in services for later processing. The Kinesis and outcomes. You then supply data and it will the context of a particular application.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 31 Opinion …and another thing

Jon Honeyball gets wound up about the Internet of Things.

tablet cannot be overlooked, but I am not sure Phone? Why can’t my Samsung smart watch that these can really be counted as true IoT talk directly to my Samsung TV, cutting out the devices. For sure, they connect up through mobile phone component completely? technologies like Bluetooth and let me control Until we have a situation where any device Some people are getting very wound various things between them. The arrival of can talk to any other device, irrespective of size, up about this Internet of Things thing. smart watches and embedded devices is I am not sure that we can claim to have a true How it is going to be transformative, how it will another step towards IoT, but for the moment Internet of Things. To make this really work we change our lives, how things will never be the they remain far too tethered to a companion need a ‘lingua franca’ that will allow apps same again. Frankly, I could say the same about device for me to be convinced they have a real running on disparate devices to communicate, almost any piece of technology that I have IoT role to play. Why should I need to own an wherever they are running. It certainly shouldn’t bought over the last 30 years. When I look back iPhone when I have an Apple Watch? Why require private APIs and formats that allow and see just how primitive things really used to should my Microsoft Band require a Bluetooth specific private conversations to happen. And be, I am actually quite staggered by both the connection to software running on a Windows where is auto-discovery in all of this? Another rate of change, and the actual lack of change. Now I have to explain that seemingly impossible contradiction. Network bandwidth Back in 1990 I bought Word for Windows Are we sleepwalking into a corporate network bandwidth crisis? I am not just talking about the 1.0. It actually ran on Windows/286 and we had connectivity you need to the outside world, or connections between sites – the connections to wait a few months for Word for Windows 1.1 within a site are critical too. to come along and support Windows 3.0 with Last week, I attended the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, a its nicely chiselled grey buttons. Now here I am, huge show where everything to do with professional audio and video happens. Here it became some 25 years later, typing this text into the apparent that suddenly, the world has woken up to 4K video. Not just highly compressed 4K like beta of Word for Windows 2015 (or is it 2016?) that which Netflix dishes up, but the real thing running uncompressed in its 4:2:2 60p framerate for Mac. Of course this new version has loads of loveliness. new things to play with, but the simple truth is The data rates involved are truly staggering; at over 18 gigabits per second for one UHD60p that there isn’t anything like 25 years of uncompressed data stream, you have to start thinking in entirely different terms when it comes progress here - not 25 years’ worth of work by a to moving this sort of information around. There are a few companies I keep an eye on for this, well-staffed development team. such as Black Magic Design. In one fell swoop it has upgraded most of its TV, broadcast and It’s all different on the hardware front, of transmission/distribution technology to ‘12G’, which is the Full Monty of UHD60p. This includes course. Now I have boundless CPU power, such behemoths as a 40-in 40-out cross point matrix running full speed. The data rates are coupled to GPU loveliness, running an enough to make your hair curl. operating system on hardware which has an So why does this matter to the IT world? Because at some point it is going to land on an IP incredible amount of increasing powerful network. You might hope that by then it has been massively compressed, squeezed and knocked components, and battery life of well over 12 into a manageable shape, but one thing is clear; broadcast quality video is making a gigantic hours. The superb performance given to us leap in data rates, and it will impact corporate networks. consistently by Moore’s Law over the past 40 Even today, we have limited real implementation of proper QOS systems outside of the years cannot be overlooked. most rigorously run and highly managed networks. VLANS are found, but there is a mindset that So in our core computing, I am far from says that 1Gb Ethernet is all you need for any possible use in the future. I am far from convinced convinced that we have experienced this that this is true moving forward. What is clear is that these things tend to creep up on you when generational shift which others claim. And let’s you are least expecting it, and maybe it is time to start thinking about how we will deliver 10G to not get all romantic about web-based the desktop. Of course, an Excel worksheet doesn’t have that load requirement, but video is one application design: after all we did have area where you can never have enough bandwidth. And it would be maddening if your internet client-server activities before that. network gets left behind, because when video comes to party, it is the only elephant in the room. OK, the arrival of the smartphone and the

32 Summer 2015 • Issue 66 • HardCopy Opinion

pipe-dream that we have to wait for yet again? via the rather useful SIRI voice controlled Very nice, but why do No, all I can see for the time being is a interface. And I would like to connect my I need them both? point-to-point connected mishmash, with no to the SENA headset so I can hear traffic real thought as to how we will actually use these and directional routing information as I am things in day-to-day life. If you fancy a riding along. Trying to get this menage-a-trois challenge, try sorting out the problem I had to to actually play nicely is nearly impossible. Add solve yesterday. On my motorbike, I have a in a wrist mounted watchband device that will Garmin GPS unit. I have a SENA Bluetooth vibrate when something needs my attention, headset mounted on my helmet, and an iPhone and the complexity goes out of all semblance of 6 Plus in my pocket. I want to connect the control. If we were truly in an IoT world, then iPhone to the Garmin, so I can run the Garmin these things would just work. But they don’t, iPhone, and that it’s not likely to party with an Connect+ app which feeds real-time traffic data and I cannot foresee a time when they will. Android device any time soon. I understand to the GPS. I want to connect my iPhone 6 Plus Of course, I understand why it is desirable how it makes the programming interfaces very to my headset so I can send and receive calls, all to have the Apple Watch chattering away to an much easier when you have the Apple Phone style of communications protocol stack working seamlessly over Bluetooth. But even Microsoft, Mathematica that arch enemy of cross platform development Kudos to the support teams on both sides of the Atlantic at Wolfram. I recently had the need for in the past, has woken up to the new world some advanced technical support with their Mathematica platform. In essence, I knew what I order. My new Microsoft Band connected up needed to do, and roughly how to do it, but my charming lack of any sort of language expertise just fine to the Microsoft app running on my left me singing to the clouds. It took them just a few hours to come up with fully annotated iPhone. How the mighty have fallen. working examples of how to solve the problem from several different angles. Just going through Not getting these things working together that code taught me more in 15 minutes than I had learnt in the hours trying to put it together. in a seamless, truly connected IoT way is what Of course, I really should find the time to sit down and learn the platform in a coherent, will kill the whole premise of the IoT platform, grown-up fashion, rather than trying to drop in and make things up as I go along. But how often unless these problems get solved soon. And do we get the luxury of time to do this? A solid tech support backup is critical in these cases, and that means someone has to stick their neck out they came up trumps. and really want to make IoT interoperation work.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 33 Opinion Short cuts Paul Stephens takes a sideways look at the world of IT.

Things - a Good Thing? idIoT Proximity Services: notifies Here at Short Cuts we like to ponder the great philosophical you when it senses that your boss questions, and this time we’ve been considering a topical one – is the is in proximity to your workstation, Internet of Things a good thing? and will soon be able to observe The answer, it seems, is “possibly, although possibly not.” In theory it’s that you’re busy posting a selfie of a great idea to build a world full of connected devices that warn your car of you and your pet Daschund to looming traffic jams and email your doctor if your blood pressure gets a bit Pinterest instead of checking the high. The fear, however, is that most IoT technology won’t end up being outcome of that automatic code used for things like that, but instead for relentless marketing of the kind refactoring process. Best used with that won’t let you walk down a street without the lamp posts pointing out the idIoT ‘Instant Visual Studio’ nine sushi bars within Uber-distance, or enter a shop without video walls, screensaver, available to suite to the glee of your friends, trying to steer you towards the department subscribers only. where you bought a hideous green cardigan for an aged relative three idIoT Sensor Analytics: analyses An early version of the Short Cuts idIoT platform’s years ago. streaming data from your car’s Sensor Analytics capability in action. In fact the scariest thing we’ve read in a while is Intel’s overview of its reversing camera to send you a Context Sensing SDK, which paints a truly Orwellian picture of a world in warning when it senses that a parking attendant is about to clamp you for using the parent-and- which your mobile device not only knows where you are but can predict toddler spaces at your local supermarket while actually on a solo mission to pick up some cans for what you’ll do next, based on all the data about your past that’s been the Match. Gives you time to adopt a worried expression before shouting “Has anyone seen a two aggregated to the cloud to form your “Historical Context”. As the document year old in a West Ham shirt pushing a buggy?” puts it, “This information can be later analysed using a behavioural model idIoT Historical Context Engine: senses where you are and feeds you interesting snippets about the to produce predictions based on the user’s history,” adding that “Once the place’s history, allowing you to impress your wife/husband/partner/social worker. Popular snippets information is in the cloud, you are enabled to watch and consume the include “Of course, this is the car park where Richard III was really buried”; “There’s an interesting Historical Context from any device.” story behind the axe-hole in that door” and “They didn’t allow that sort of thing when the Salvation This is Intel, so of course the intentions are harmless, with the Army ran this place.” Fully Bluetooth-enabled. company envisaging nothing more serious than predicting that you’ll idIoT Prediction Hub: performs rule-based predictive analysis using best-in-class algorithms and order Chinese food. However you don’t need to be George Orwell to see real-time state vector and context monitoring. Capable of predicting that when you announce you’re more sinister possibilities. Big Brother will not only be watching your off to the gym you are, in fact, going to end up at your local Slug and Lettuce, and that your Historical Context, but consuming it as well – and there’ll be no point in watchstrap’s prediction that you’ll only stay for one is 99.9 percent likely to be wrong. leaving your phone behind, because if you do then your watch, purse or (That’s enough idIoT Services – Ed) car keys will keep tabs on you instead. Photo by Simon Q: https://flic.kr/p/6zU26T In that context it’s reassuring to see the big beasts of the IT jungle, including IBM, Oracle and, of course, Microsoft, queuing up to offer IoT platforms and services, since the latency involved in turning these software supertankers around to point in the direction of the latest Big Thing should mean that, for the next few years at least, your phone won’t have a clue whether your next behaviour is likely to be a feng shui workshop in Shoreditch or a tank driving weekend on Salisbury Plain. That will change though, and one day you’ll wake up to find your phone completing your order at the Starbucks counter and telling you to sit down because there’s something you want to watch on the Discovery Channel. Even Orwell didn’t predict that.

IoT Essentials Ever-keen to jump on a bandwagon – sorry, innovate industry trends – Short Cuts has decided to launch its own IoT platform – Interactive Dynamic Interface Of Things, or ‘idIoT’ for short. Running on the Short Cuts Enterprise Cloud (a shared Linux hosting account with unlimited disk space and 99.9 percent uptime), idIoT will reach the Things other IoT platforms don’t, namely the ones that really matter to you. Here are some highlights Not a feng shui workshop in Shoreditch: early IoT behavioural analysis systems may be from the current Community Technology Preview: prone to incorrect predictions about users’ weekend plans.

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