Grey Matter Issue 70 | Winter 2016 Building on 33 years of software know how Silicon brainpower Artificial intelligence - the new frontier for software development Ready for business How well do Apple devices stack up? Stay safe Protect yourself against the latest security threats See page 8 WIN! for details RAD Studio 10.1 Berlin The fastest way to develop cross-platform and broad IoT connectivity. “RAD Studio is the ultimate and most complete IDE for IoT development. No other product has the flexibility, capability or completeness” Harris Vrahimis Computernetics Corporation Find out more about RAD Studio® 10.1 Berlin by visiting Findgreymatter.com/hc/Embarcadero out more about RAD Studio®10.1 or call Berlin one by of visitingour grey matter Embarcaderowww.greymatter.com/hc/Embarcadero specialists on +44 (0)1364 655123 software know how or call one of our Embarcadero specialists on 01364 655123 Contents Editorial Editor: .....................................................................Matt Nicholson Technical editors: .. Sean Wilson, Paul Edwards Editorial advisor: ............................................Julia Hopkins News editor: ...................................................... Paul Stephens Publisher: ..................................................................Andrew King Contributors: ........Tim Anderson, Simon Bisson, Mary Branscombe, Kay Ewbank, Jon Silicon brainpower Microsoft Cognitive Services Honeyball, Graham Keitch, Paul Stephens 10 20 Design and layout: ..................................... Jason Stanley Artificial intelligence is the new frontier Microsoft bundles its AI know-how into Illustration: ............................................................Sholto Walker for software development. a new set of APIs. Web Design: ........................................................Jason Stanley Advertising & Circulation Software News Marketing: ............................................................Leanne Bevan Editor’s Intro 4 Barracuda, Flexera, Microsoft, Sophos, In February 2009, in an effort to demonstrate exactly how far we VMware and more. Tel: 01364 654100 are willing to obey a seductive voice emanating from a plastic box, Email: [email protected] the driver of a 50-foot articulated lorry wedged his vehicle so News in brief HardCopy is edited for Grey Matter three thoroughly into a hair-pin bend in the tiny Cotswold village of Syde 6 and latest competition winner. times a year by Matt Publishing. It is printed that it took five days to extricate. In the light of this and other such by Pepper Communications in Plymouth. examples, I am heartened by the news that Google, Amazon, Copyright © 2016 Grey Matter Ltd. All rights Facebook, Microsoft and IBM have announced the Partnership on Competition reserved. No part of this publication may be Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society in order to look 8 Win a Linx tablet! reproduced in any form without prior consent of the copyright holder. into the ethical and societal implications of such technologies. All trademarks acknowledged. Many of these implications stem from the lack of human HardCopy is a trademark and Grey Matter a involvement in the decisions that such technologies are Ready for business registered trademark owned by Grey Matter 15 increasingly making. Driverless cars are almost upon us, and by How well do Apple devices stack up in Limited. While all reasonable attempts are a Windows environment? made to ensure accuracy, Grey Matter and most accounts orders of magnitude safer than human drivers, Matt Publishing disclaim any liability particularly in cities where they can communicate with each other whatsoever for any use of information to better understand the dangers ahead. However, on 7 May this Stay safe herein. Prices exclude VAT unless specified. 24 year a Model S Tesla in driverless mode smashed at high speed into How you can protect yourself against the latest security threats. Cover Images: Jason Stanley an 18-wheel truck and trailer, killing the ‘driver’ instantly. It looks as feelplus/Shutterstock though the car was unable to distinguish the white truck and Djem/Shutterstock Inside Data echo3005/Shutterstock trailer against the bright Florida sky behind, something that most 29 How Oracle Mobile Cloud Service can human drivers would be able to do ‘without thinking’. It is this that help you integrate mobile devices. Advertisers Index makes such accidents seem ‘inhuman’. Or there’s the customer who rings up wondering why the 2 Embarcadero Straight talking insurance premium you quoted him is twice that of his neighbour, 7 Microsoft Azure 30 Tim Anderson on why Windows Server 9 Grey Matter Cloud Services whose circumstances appear pretty much identical. You have no 2016 is significant for developers. 12 Intel Parallel Studio XE idea because you have no way of understanding how the algorithm that your company uses arrived at that decision, and 14 Parallels RAS And Another Thing 17 ISV Cloud Assure neither does anyone else. Does the customer have a right to be 32 Jon Honeyball expands on the full 18 Adobe told? In other words, does the software have to provide some sort implications of AI. 22 Bing Event of audit trail? Maybe, but in the meatime, companies are understandably reluctant to divulge their use of such things. 27 SonicWALL Short Cuts 28 Microsoft Office 365 AI is already with us and, as our cover features make clear, 34 Views from the edge. 33 GFI already capable of extraordinary feats. However it’s only too easy to 35 Intel Media Studio anthropomorphise. It is conceivable that, some time in the not too 36 Windows Server 2016 distant future, some sort of conscious awareness may prove to be the most logical way for such machines to manage and comprehend the world in which they find themselves. However that is a long way from the establishment of a conscience, Register Now! Grey Matter Limited whatever that may be, and even then it seems unlikely that an HardCopy magazine is published three times a year. Prigg Meadow, intelligence made of silicon and metal will have any understanding Don’t miss out by registering or updating your Ashburton, of emotions or feelings, or anything resembling empathy for the details at www.greymatter.com/hc/subscribe Devon, TQ13 7DF, UK strange organic creatures whose lives they will, by then, dominate. [email protected] While there is an obvious agenda to promote their shiny new services, the coming together of these companies at such an early Read HardCopy online grey matter stage does at least suggest they accept a degree of responsibility. To view read articles on the web go to HardCopy software know how Matt Nicholson, Editor, HardCopy online at www.greymatter.com/hc/hardcopy Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 3 News | Read more online at www.greymatter.com/hc/news Software News Microsoft launches Windows Server 2016 as ‘cloud-ready OS’ Microsoft • www.greymatter.com/microsoft/ Microsoft has officially released application platform as its major themes. New Machines protect tenanted VMs in hosting and Windows Server 2016 with shipping features include an ultra-lighweight Nano cloud environments. In the software-defined scheduled for mid-October, alongside System Server installation option, application datacentre, new Storage Spaces Direct allows Center 2016 and Technical Preview 2 of its containers, major updates to Active Directory high availability storage pools to be created on Azure Stack private cloud platform. Microsoft and new Storage Replica and QoS capabilities. low-cost local drives, while Storage Replica describes WS2016 as a ‘cloud-ready OS’, citing Nano Servers are remotely-administered provides block-level synchronous and advanced multi-layer security, software-defined WS2016 installations without GUI or 32-bit app asynchronous replication between servers and datacentre capabilities and a cloud-ready support, but with 93 percent lower VHD (Virtual clusters, and Storage QoS allows you to apply Hard Disk) size and, crucially, 92 percent fewer Quality of Service policies to Hyper-V virtual critical security advisories than a ‘full fat’ system. disk drives. Suggested uses include running Internet WS2016 brings Azure-style flexibility to the Information Server (now in version 10 with on-premises datacentre via software-defined HTTP/2 support) and Hyper-V. WS2016 networking. Features include dynamically application containers come in either Windows configurable Virtual LANs, distributed and Server (shared kernel) or Hyper-V format, and virtualised firewalls, and automatic load there’s also a free copy of Docker for those who balancing. Like its predecessor, Windows Server prefer a third-party route. PowerShell 5.0 now 2016 will be sold in Essentials, Standard and supports user-defined classes. Datacenter editions, plus specialised academic Security upgrades include ‘Just Enough’ and OEM versions. The release sees a switch Administration, which allows specific from processor- to core-based licensing with a PowerShell tasks to be delegated to non-admin minimum of eight cores per installation, users, and Credential Guard, which isolates although Microsoft says there will be no impact Windows Server 2016 features improved, cloud-friendly secret information to prevent ‘Pass-the-Hash’ on price when compared to Windows Server application support, storage and security. attacks. Guarded fabric and Shielded Virtual 2012 R2. Barracuda heads for the cloud with F-Series firewalls Barracuda Networks • www.greymatter.com/barracuda-networks-inc/