Tag Archives: Oracle Corporation

About 1754 days ago Business Software

Free and Open Source Software Licensing

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Anyone can obtain free and open source software (FOSS), and install it on the company’s computers. Just think: no expensive proprietary software that demands multi-user licenses. But before you download any of these programs onto your business computers, software experts recommend that you ask a few questions about FOSS liability issues such as licenses, copyrights, patents, and trademarks. The reason is that violating any of these intellectual property protections can risk embroiling your business in litigation — maybe not right now but at any point in the future. “If you make copies or distribute modified versions of the software without satisfying the conditions (i.e. without permission), you infringe the copyright, which gives the copyright holder access to certain legal remedies,” says The Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects, published by the Software Freedom Law Center, which provides legal representation for FOSS projects. “In particular, the copyright holder can sue you for damages or ask a court to order you not to make or distribute further copies.” The Primer emphasizes that users need to know the conditions stated in their FOSS license so that they are not unwittingly violating copyright law. The first thing users need to know when they purchase open source software is if they received it from a reputable source, advises Philip Robb, a research and development manager in HP’s Linux and Open Source Organization. Robb is also general manager of FOSSBazaar.org, an open source community of technology and industry leaders who are collaborating to push for adoption of free and open source software in business. Robb says that a software company in disarray will not have security updates on their website to protect users from malware or Trojan viruses in FOSS products, which could have the potential to bring your business to its knees. License and copyleft questions Software licenses and copyrights are different in the FOSS world. Developers and programmers in the FOSS ecosystem write these open source software programs collaboratively under an open source license, which permits users to use, change, copy, and distribute these programs free of charge, provided that they follow the licensing guidelines of the software. Most commercial software doesn’t allow you to change a program and redistribute it — unless you specifically negotiate that in a license. You should know what particular FOSS license your software holds and what are that license’s restrictions. For example, Linux uses the GPU General Public License (GPL), which is more restrictive about modifications and additions than the liberal Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) or Berkeley Unix license which gives unlimited use to developers and users. The GPL is a “copyleft” license, which means that whoever receives the modified software must also adhere to the same GPL license restrictions, so that the functionality of the source code will continue to improve. Robb stresses that users should remember, “a copyleft has an author who dictates through their license what the downstream user (those who use the software after it had been modified) can do.” However, if you’re using this software for your own purposes and not distributing it to a third party, then you won’t need to stick with these restrictions. Patent and trademark concerns  The FOSS community discourages patents since patented software runs counter to their philosophy of distributing free software and having it modified by someone else downstream. When there is a patent infringement of an open source software program, the FOSS community rallies around the defendant, such as was the case when Firestar Software sued Red Hat. The community wanted to protect the patent and when Red Hat settled the lawsuit, the terms protected the software in both the upstream (the predecessors to Red Hat) and downstream communities. “Software patents are a threat to users and developers of all varieties of software, and whether a company uses FOSS or proprietary software is unlikely to have much effect on its legal liability,” Says Aaron Williamson, counsel for the Software Freedom Law Center. He continues that, “It is often impossible for users and developers of software to know whether a given program infringes existing patents; the question requires exhaustive searching, careful legal analysis, and often guesswork to answer. Some FOSS licenses attempt to mitigate the harm of software patents by causing developers and licensees of software to grant broad licenses over any patents they own which might be read on the software.” Trademarks are another issue all together. For end-users, trademarks aren’t a liability issue. Williamson says that trademark law is designed to protect consumers from confusing the knock-off project with the real one. If a company takes a logo without asking and then redistributes it or if a distributor markets its program and says that the creators of a related software project endorsed it, then a trademark infringement would occur. Also, if users build a support community around an open source project, they need to ask permission from the FOSS developers to make sure that it’s okay to use their name and logo in the support community. Risks of open source agreements The risks of violating licensing, copyleft, and other intellectual property agreements involving FOSS aren’t any greater than the risks your business undertakes licensing commercial software, according to Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, which helps users and tech members navigate open source software legal matters. “You take risks anytime you enter into a vendor/employer relationship.” Zemlin says. These days, large companies have put their faith in FOSS, such as Motorola, which uses Linux software in its cell phones. Zemlin adds that companies such as Red Hat, Oracle, and Novell, which install Linux for customers and also sell Linux support subscriptions, indemnify customers from legal risks. “The point of FOSS is having a huge vendor ecosystem that can assist mid-sized companies and indemnify their customers” in case of a patent infringement lawsuit, he adds. Robb adds that Fossbazaar and Fossology, the latter a user community that facilitates the study of FOSS and provides free tools, can help users and developers gather information about FOSS licensing. Through webpapers and discussion groups, the sites try to lessen confusion and fears about using and managing FOSS, including patent infringement. These support communities, so prevalent in the FOSS world, give users an advantage over proprietary companies because they want to protect the FOSS system and its philosophy of the open distribution of knowledge. Another justification for using FOSS, according to Williamson, is that users have more range and freedom with FOSS than with proprietary software. They also know what to expect: FOSS license rights and responsibilities are brief and to the point, as opposed to the terms in proprietary licenses, which are generally long and jargon-filled.

About 1754 days ago Business Software

Virtualization Sets Desktops Free

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When is a desktop PC not a desktop PC? When it’s running virtually on an Apple computer. Or loaded with a server’s worth of database and applications to create an environment for software testing. Or sitting in someone’s pocket, stored entirely on a USB flash drive. Virtualization has been one of the hottest new technologies of the past few years, and it’s easy to see why. In large companies’ data centers, software that creates virtual “servers” has replaced actual, physical servers, allowing those companies to better protect their data. Fewer physical servers also mean less electricity and greener IT. But virtualization has its uses for small businesses too — even those that don’t have a single server of their own. Detaching software from hardware Virtual personal computers can be difficult to conceptualize because as users we’re accustomed to thinking of the hardware and the operating system as one unit. We say “PC,” meaning a computer that runs a Windows operating system, regardless of whether it was made by Dell or IBM or Alienware. But virtualization can completely separate the hardware from the code, making a personal computer desktop into nothing more than a file. That file can be stored on a central server or a disk and loaded onto any other machine to recreate the desktop computer exactly as if you had carried the whole thing with you. For executives and sales people at Elemental Security, an automated security and risk management platform, virtualization means the difference between shipping equipment ahead of time to set up a demo or bringing it with them on a USB drive. “Our platform is pretty complex. It requires an Oracle database, an Apache Tomcat Java environment and a lot of agents,” explains CEO Marius Bratan. “We used to use several machines and put several appliances together. It was huge preparation work.” These days, Elemental Security representatives arrive with a virtual version of their environment, created with the virtualization app MokaFive and loaded on a four-gigabyte USB drive. They plug it in to one of the customer’s computers or a laptop of their own, and the demo is ready to go. What’s more, unlike the complicated appliance setup they used before, the virtual environment can easily be copied onto other laptops or USB drives. Reps can even leave the drives with potential customers to give them time to explore the software’s features — something that would have been impractical and too costly with larger appliances. For love of Macs Desktop virtualization software VMware Fusion also allows users to easily combine Mac and Windows environments without having to reboot their machines. “I love Outlook and some of the Windows applications, and I love some applications that only run on Macs,” says Ziv Gillat, co-founder and vice president of business development for Eye-Fi, a device which automatically downloads images wirelessly from digital cameras. “This lets me have the best of both worlds.” Virtualization is also invaluable for testing Eye-Fi in different environments, he adds. “Our company is mostly running on Macs for various reasons,” he says. “So if we want to test on several Windows operating systems, we load Fusion on a Unix machine and run Vista and XP on that.” Running a Mac and Windows computer combined requires extra memory, adds Timothy Childes, chief chocolate officer of chocolate maker TCHO. The company is a Mac shop but uses Fusion to run software, such as UPS WorldShip that only works in Windows. “Make sure your machines are maxed out on RAM,” he says. “A Mac typically comes with one gigabyte. You want at least two, ideally three or four.” Simplifying laptop management Virtualization has many uses even for companies that don’t use multiple operating systems, says MokaFive CTO John Whaley. For one thing, it can vastly simplify managing your company’s laptops. “If you give someone a laptop, there are all the headaches of dealing with that laptop,” he says. If it becomes infected with malware or needs an update, your company’s IT staff will need to do that. A virtual PC can be automatically updated or have new programs installed via the Internet, and it can easily be reset to its original state if it becomes corrupted or infected. And, virtualization can help keep your data private, he says. “If someone loses a device or leaves the company, the central management console can kill that user,” he explains. The next time that virtual desktop connects to the Internet, it will automatically check in with the server, download a “poison pill,” and self-destruct. “Managing desktops and laptops is a huge problem,” Whaley says. With virtualization, though, you can manage their entire life cycle more easily, from setting them up, updating them, keeping them running smoothly — to terminating them when the time comes. SIDEBAR: Desktop Virtualization Options Here are some of today’s desktop virtualization solutions for small and mid-sized businesses: Citrix XenDesktop provisions virtual desktops from a central server to users both on-site and far away. MokaFive allows you to create a virtual desktop PC that, unlike XenDesktop and VDI, will work even when users aren’t connected to the network. VMware VDI (for Virtual Desktop Interface) is a server-based solution that provides virtual PCs from a central console. VMware Fusion, specifically for Apple computers, allows Macs and Unix machines to run virtual Windows desktops.

About 1785 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Multiple Locations? MPLS Is a Networking Key

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Let’s say you’re a mid-sized business with a number of locations. Do you juggle multiple networks and multiple phone numbers?  Are you afraid you’ll lose quality of service if you make a change? Maybe multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is for you. Different from frame relay or ATM systems, MPLS is an Internet protocol-based service over a virtual private network (VPN) that has the ability to tag and prioritize whether voice, video, or Internet traffic is moving over the system, and assign it the correct class of service. The result? Phone calls, even voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), have optimal sound, because they are correctly assigned the best class of service. Video service is less jumpy. Internet service, phones, and video can run across the system at the same time without a total meltdown. “Voice and video traffic needs a class of service that is low jitter and low latency,” notes Lisa Pierce, a vice president with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. “MPLS can provide this.” Disaster recovery an advantage MPLS also offers built-in advantages with regard to disaster recovery. “You can store critical business data at different locations around the country, and if something happens at one location, you can go over to the other database,” says Sal Cinquegrani, spokesman for Vancouver, Wash.-based New Edge Networks, a full-service WAN provider and Earthlink subsidiary. There are also cost advantages. MPLS can be a good choice for a growing business with multiple locations that isn’t ready to pay higher prices for a T1 line. “In this slumping economy, businesses might not want to invest in T1” which costs roughly $500 a month, he says. New Edge offers MPLS over a DSL connection for about $240 a month, he says. However, Dan Hoffman, CEO of New York, N.Y.-based M5 Networks, says the process can be complex. “Mid-sized companies should really hire a consultant for this,” he says. But he admits that there can be real savings involved. “The real dollar value in MPLS is saving five receptionist salaries and avoiding having five phone systems.” M5 is a leading VoIP and hosted networks provider that also offers MPLS services. MPLS not for everyone If you have only a couple locations, however, MPLS is probably more technology and expense than you need, cautions Forrester’s Pierce. “For an [small or mid-sized business] with two or three locations, it’s probably too expensive…. It’s probably better just to use good old long distance, along with a VPN without the class of service,” she says. An exception, she noted, would be a smaller company that relies heavily on voice and video conferencing or data applications such as PeopleSoft that demand better latency. For most smaller businesses, hosted network services continue to represent the best value, adds Pierce. “They can be managed by a third party, there’s no commitment to equipment, and they can provide the applications a business needs without overkill,” she says, for about $10-$80/month per unit price. So, is MPLS for your business? If you’re growing, and need to make long-distance links, it just may be.

About 1785 days ago Wireless Networks

Multiple Locations? MPLS Is a Networking Key

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Let’s say you’re a mid-sized business with a number of locations. Do you juggle multiple networks and multiple phone numbers?  Are you afraid you’ll lose quality of service if you make a change? Maybe multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is for you. Different from frame relay or ATM systems, MPLS is an Internet protocol-based service over a virtual private network (VPN) that has the ability to tag and prioritize whether voice, video, or Internet traffic is moving over the system, and assign it the correct class of service. The result? Phone calls, even voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), have optimal sound, because they are correctly assigned the best class of service. Video service is less jumpy. Internet service, phones, and video can run across the system at the same time without a total meltdown. “Voice and video traffic needs a class of service that is low jitter and low latency,” notes Lisa Pierce, a vice president with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. “MPLS can provide this.” Disaster recovery an advantage MPLS also offers built-in advantages with regard to disaster recovery. “You can store critical business data at different locations around the country, and if something happens at one location, you can go over to the other database,” says Sal Cinquegrani, spokesman for Vancouver, Wash.-based New Edge Networks, a full-service WAN provider and Earthlink subsidiary. There are also cost advantages. MPLS can be a good choice for a growing business with multiple locations that isn’t ready to pay higher prices for a T1 line. “In this slumping economy, businesses might not want to invest in T1” which costs roughly $500 a month, he says. New Edge offers MPLS over a DSL connection for about $240 a month, he says. However, Dan Hoffman, CEO of New York, N.Y.-based M5 Networks, says the process can be complex. “Mid-sized companies should really hire a consultant for this,” he says. But he admits that there can be real savings involved. “The real dollar value in MPLS is saving five receptionist salaries and avoiding having five phone systems.” M5 is a leading VoIP and hosted networks provider that also offers MPLS services. MPLS not for everyone If you have only a couple locations, however, MPLS is probably more technology and expense than you need, cautions Forrester’s Pierce. “For an [small or mid-sized business] with two or three locations, it’s probably too expensive…. It’s probably better just to use good old long distance, along with a VPN without the class of service,” she says. An exception, she noted, would be a smaller company that relies heavily on voice and video conferencing or data applications such as PeopleSoft that demand better latency. For most smaller businesses, hosted network services continue to represent the best value, adds Pierce. “They can be managed by a third party, there’s no commitment to equipment, and they can provide the applications a business needs without overkill,” she says, for about $10-$80/month per unit price. So, is MPLS for your business? If you’re growing, and need to make long-distance links, it just may be.

About 1846 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Pay-as-You-Go with Cloud Computing

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Salesforce.com is one of the technology industry’s more recent Cinderella stories. Less than a decade ago, it was just another Silicon Valley startup operating out of the home of its founder, Mark Benioff, with three employees, $6 million of his own seed money and an idea that was the laughing stock of the business section. Some implied he had his head in the clouds and in a way, he did. Benioff, a former Oracle executive, had a vision to develop software, but not sell it. Instead his customer relationship management (CRM) applications would be offered on a subscription basis while empowered and housed on his company’s maze of servers and computers (euphemistically referred to as a “cloud”), not to mention storing and securing the entire body of client data created in its wake. CRM applications, formerly cost prohibitive for small to mid-sized businesses, would now be affordable, scalable and turnkey living on Salesforce.com’s more robust data grid than the more limited networks of its clients. Back in 1999, that idea was considered voodoo. Critics at the time predicted companies would never be willing to offload control of such core business applications. Pioneer in cloud computing In 2008, the now publicly traded company has more than one million subscribers from its 41,000 subscribing companies and works in partnership with some of the biggest names in technology and on Wall Street. As for the power of the company’s data grid or “cloud,” there are now days it accommodates more than 100 million user requests. “Salesforce.com is a really a pioneer in cloud computing. It identified a specific need; that it’s hard for a small to midsize business to manage a CRM system. With Salesforce.com, now those same companies only need a web browser. It’s effective and it addresses a clear pain point,” says Andrew Reichman, a senior analyst from Forrester Research. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), data centers, Web-based applications and virtualization, along with cloud computing, are some of the most over used and misunderstood buzz words floating around in business technology circles these days. They all have one thing in common: they are often confused in various combinations as the same thing. Though similar, they are not interchangeable terms. “It’s easy to confuse. From the standpoint of the user, there isn’t a difference between cloud computing or SaaS or Web-based applications,” says Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics, based in Irvine, Calif. Historically, jobs requiring serious computing power have been performed by powerful mainframes, supercomputers, and over the past two decades increasingly by the ever more capable desktop or laptop PC souped up with the latest and most powerful microchips, RAM and sophisticated operating system that can run multiple applications simultaneously. Cloud computing is the alternative to all that high powered computing generating from one place. Cloud computing, instead, takes place within a integrated ballet of algorithms and code among cheaper, low powered computers and servers and third party networks “out there.” What IT types eventually started referring to as “the cloud” and what is increasingly becoming the platform of choice for many companies who no longer want the headache or expense of housing and maintaining all that cumbersome computing. Coming to terms So how is this different from all those other terms mentioned? Here’s a quick primer: Software-as-a-service: This is the business model, an alternative to the generations old business model of marketing software by selling usage rights with an “end user license agreement” (EULA). Web-based application: This tells you where the software lives. Traditionally, software applications have lived on a centralized mainframe or server or on the individual user’s PC. Web-based applications live on the Internet and are accessed with a Web browser through a password protected website. Data centers: A data center is the physical location of a farm of servers and computers. Data clouds are typically much bigger, involving perhaps thousands of computers across data centers around the globe. Clouds are automated. Data Centers involve human management. Virtualization: This is the programming mechanics of optimizing and integrating servers to act in concert as one external interface for the end user. It’s a great way to create redundancies, maximize the equipment’s efficiency and conserve energy. The benefits of cloud computing While Salesforce.com has proven itself a success serving small to mid-sized businesses by delivering CRM from the cloud, the cloud computing trend has hardly hit its tipping point. Here are some of the reasons many industry watchers say it’s only a matter of time: Save money. Through the business model of SaaS, applications living on the cloud are much cheaper for companies. Organizations save on the expense of implementation, maintenance, and security while benefiting from the economy of scale a massive “cloud” can offer compared to even a large company network. Access to more sophisticated applications. Salesforce.com is a great example of this with its offering of CRM tools to smaller businesses, whereas before CRM was completely out of reach for most modest budgets. Downsize the IT department. The more applications that are farmed out to a cloud, the fewer that have to live on the company network. That translates to fewer bodies for deployment, upkeep and updates, as well as less hardware in the building and less square footage taken up in the office. Saving energy. This is a factor on everyone’s mind given the economy, concerns for the environment and the growing energy crisis. “No one really thought about it up until now. But there’s a real focus on power, cooling and space because there’s a general mood of concern over energy costs,” says Reichman. Saving data. “Cloud computing relieves the smaller business from things like backup and recovery, which most don’t do a good job of doing anyway,” says Scavo. Any company big enough to provide data cloud services is likely to have more infrastructure to handle data security than the average small to midsize business. SIDEBAR: Cloud Computing Vendors Amazon EC2 — A funny thing happened on the way to becoming the biggest bookstore on the Internet. First, Amazon expanded to selling just about everything else available in retail making it the virtual Sears and Roebuck of the new millennium. More recently, with the launch of EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), which is still in beta, Amazon has revealed what is likely its long term business plan; to become the cloud service provider of choice for small businesses at affordable rates. Google — was perhaps the first company to build itself from the ground up as a data cloud, spending billions of dollars each year on additional servers and PC’s. There is no mother data center at Google headquarters running all those algorithims to conduct lightening fast searches while hosting email, dynamic calendaring and collaborative office applications. Google’s cloud is estimated to involve over one million PC’s and servers parceled out around the world. It’s only natural that they would monetize access to their subscribers. EMC Cloud — EMC is another one of the clouds gathering as this emerging market creates more buzz. The first tip off was the acquisition of online storage provider Mozy and more recently the startup cloud company, Pi Corporation. Pi stands for personal information. Cloud computing would be a natural progression for EMC, as it is one of the most popular vendors when it comes to virtual machine software (VMWare). Windows Live — Nothing could be more counter to Microsoft’s core mission than embracing and enhancing cloud computing. After all, Microsoft made its bones (and billions) selling software licenses by the seat and pushing its increasingly powerful Windows browser version after version. But clearly the folks in Redmond have seen the writing on the wall from the strong interest of web-based services like Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Salesforce.com. Windows Live is in the early stages of what industry watchers refer to tongue in cheek as the Windows Cloud O/S 3Tera — It’s a small company, but based on open source solutions and with its own patented Applogic technology is now in the process of rolling out its CloudWare services in stages. IBM’s Blue Cloud — It’s also still in the process of rolling out and is based on open source code. It could prove too pricey for smaller businesses, appealing more to the budgets of mid-sized and enterprise level companies.

About 1876 days ago Computer Security

Tech Talk: Virtualization Saves $$ for Software Firm

System Automation Corp., an 85-person business based in Columbia, Md., provides the MyLicense Suite software to more than 400 government entities in 23 states to manage, for example, teacher and nurse licenses. Network Engineer Craig Callan describes how server virtualization helps keep costs down yet provides better service for customers. Elizabeth Wasserman: What challenges did you encounter at System Automation? Craig Callan: There were often delays setting up testing trials because equipment simply wasn’t available. Quite simply, in many cases, a desktop box wouldn’t be enough. You needed to beef up a desktop box to run a server on it. We needed to do a number of things to get it going. We just didn’t have enough resources. We didn’t have enough servers to keep everybody happy. The process of ordering equipment, setting it up, loading software takes a minimum of about two weeks. Also, we were looking for a way to create a testing platform that would be easy to convert into production for our customers. Although the software starts with a common base, each MyLicense implementation is customized and each customer tests the software. Once testing is completed and the actual implementation is locked, we needed a better way to transition into production. Wasserman: What made you look at virtualization technology? Callan: The fact that I needed a number of servers and it was an increasing number every day. As we started in development of our MyLicense software product, we really needed servers. We tried to host multiple servers on a single box and it didn’t work. We were looking for the ability to quickly deploy servers for the developers as they needed them. Virtualization is the only way to do this. By sharing the resources on a single server, we can roll out servers almost instantly. In-house, we’re currently running three boxes. Two of our main boxes are for virtualization. One is deployment for customer sites, test sites for customers, and the other is for test sites for our own developers and quality assurance people. We’re probably running about 25 sites on each server at the moment. Wasserman: So virtualization helps you deliver products to customers? Callan: It helps us deliver products to customers on time, but also it allows our developers to quickly respond to deploy a new software build to see how it works, to have development sites that are different from our production sites and our quality assurance sites. Developers will go in and change a site and make changes on an ongoing basis and if anyone is trying to share that server they’re going to have some serious problems. So we need to give them their own servers and in many cases dedicated servers to run on the various levels of Oracle that we support and SQL server. We were facing this multiplying need for environments. Wasserman: What have the results been? Callan: We can turn around servers very rapidly now. One of the things that happens, for example, is we’ll do a new build. Within about two hours, I can deploy roughly eight to10 new servers with the new version of the software. Every time we do a build, we simply turn out a number of quality assurance servers for the team to work with. That takes about two hours. I wouldn’t begin to think what the 50 servers would cost me to buy. They run around anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 each these days. So we’ve saved about $75,000 to $100,000 versus I think we’ve put in about between the software licensing everything was $25,000 to $35,000. Wasserman: Tell me about your implementation. Callan: We did it in an afternoon. It seems rather funny now. We got a trial version of Parallel’s Virtuozzo Containers software, worked with the sales people, and I installed the software and created a server with an operating system and installed on an existing server here started at 11 a.m. and had everything up and running by 1 p.m. By the time I went home that night, I had eight servers up.

About 1876 days ago Data Security

10 Steps to Database Security

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March 1, 2008: a laptop containing unsecured confidential data is stolen from an employee’s car, endangering the privacy and financial well-being of thousands of people — and a company’s reputation.  Feel like you’ve read this before? Once only the stuff of nightmares, this unfortunate scenario has become almost commonplace. In this latest instance, the laptop belonged to an employee of San Jose, Calif.-based Stock & Option Solutions (SOS), a stock-plan manager and subcontractor to Agilent Technologies Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., a life-sciences and measurement firm. The laptop contained a database listing the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of 51,000 Agilent employees, retirees, and stakeholders, as well as information about their stock holdings. Despite a strict Agilent database-encryption policy, which covered SOS as well, the laptop version was unencrypted, confirms Agilent spokeswoman Amy Flores. “They blew it,” she says simply. Cautionary tale about databases This latest case should serve as yet another cautionary tale. Data such as Social Security or credit card numbers are not only crucial to a business, they are worth their weight in gold to those in the identity theft racket. Moreover, compliance with regulatory mandates, such as Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, requires companies, and their contractors, to keep an airtight lock on relevant data if they want to win and maintain lucrative business deals. And yet, database administrators (DBAs) probably only spend 7 percent of their time tending to database security, estimates Noel Yuhanna, principal analyst for database security at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. If anything, DBAs spend more time trying to increase internal access to a company’s database, so that it can be used optimally by the accounting or sales staff. And for small businesses, where the DBA could have countless other duties, too, the problem might be greater. Sometimes insiders at fault Which brings us to another tough statistic — a January 2007 Forrester Research report estimated that 70 percent of all database breaches involve insiders. Even those employees who administer the database need to be viewed as potential risks to its safety. Awareness of the scope of this problem is growing, however. A separate Forrester study found in October 2007 that enterprise spending on database security and auditing is likely to double by 2010 to nearly $900 million annually. What should a small or mid-sized business do to protect its database? Here are some tips from the experts: What’s Your Risk?  “If your database is on the Internet, you have to protect it from hackers. Even if not, you have to protect it from insiders. And then you need to consider the laptops, thumbdrives, anything else that can include the data,” says Sushil Jajodia, professor of information technology and director of secure information systems at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va. Figure out the scope of your risk first. Conduct a Vulnerability Assessment. Tools are out there that can help you check how well your existing systems work to protect your database. Products such as Imperva’s Scuba, an open-source assessment tool, can point out flaws in existing programs. How Many Databases Exactly? Make sure you track down any and all copies of your company’s databases that might be floating around. There may be more copies than you think, so make sure they are all found and eventually protected. Develop a Clear Policy…and Stick to It.  “Insiders need to know what they can and cannot do” with critical information, and how it should be stored, says Jajodia. “They need to understand the policy and know what will happen if it’s violated. Usually, that’s enough and people will do the right thing.” Insiders can include not only employees, but third-party contractors, too. Go Shopping for New Tools. DBAs should seek out the newest database security releases instead of relying on what’s on their systems now, says Forrester’s Yuhanna. For example, the latest offerings from Oracle, IBM, SQLServer, and Guardium offer far more advanced features. Guardium’s appliance, for example, features continuous tracking of all database activity, including failed logins, and includes an email alert service that can let others know of any suspicious activity. Make Sure the Tools Get Used. Make sure any software is properly installed. If encryption software for laptops is purchased, make sure it’s installed on every laptop in the office. In a recent case involving a laptop theft from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) employee, the laptop was not encrypted despite the existence of a U.S.-government-wide encryption policy, notes Jajodia. Control Access. Only certain employees should have access to the office database, and those employees who need only parts of the database to do their work should only have access to those parts. Products such as Applimation’s Informia subsetting solution or EMC’s Database Xtender can ensure that the sales force, for instance, only sees the specific data they need and nothing more. Don’t Give DBAs Sole Responsibility. Remember that most database breaches happen from the inside, so make sure someone is checking up on the DBA, too, notes GMU’s Jojodia. “This is the typical weakness, where a separation of duties isn’t followed,” he says. “There have to be checks and balances,” Newer product offerings can help by ensuring that even DBAs cannot make changes without notice. Handle Old Data with Care. Develop a solid strategy for storing databases that have outlived their usefulness, or old equipment containing such data. Remember that even old data can be misused if in the wrong hands. To store sensitive data, consider off-site archiving options with limited access, says Yuhanna. Should You Dump it Instead?  Legal experts note that keeping certain old data could add to your company’s risk in the event of an e-discovery case. If you decide to dump the data, wiping software, which overwrites your hard drive with unreadable gobbledygook, is one option: consider such products as WipeMaSSter or Active@KillDisk. Other options include degaussing (frying with an electrical impulse to render it unreadable) or destroying a hard drive outright. To be sure, protecting your company’s database is a challenging, time-consuming task. And, as Agilent’s Flores warns, the proverbial chain is only as strong as its weakest link. But nonetheless, making your best effort could help inoculate your company from all kinds of unforeseen dangers.

About 2028 days ago Business Software

Picking an SaaS Vendor: Upstart or Big Player?

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Small and mid-size businesses considering their software-as-a-service (SaaS) options have more choices than ever. The latest vendor to enter the on-demand market is SAP, the German-based enterprise software powerhouse whose small-business SaaS product was introduced in late September. Called Business ByDesign, the multi-application suite should be widely available in the first quarter of 2008. SAP joins Microsoft and Oracle, who continue to roll out small-business SaaS products. They’re following Web-only SaaS pioneers like Salesforce.com and NetSuite Inc., which have built up strong user bases over the past few years. When weighing which vendor to choose, size shouldn’t matter, industry analysts caution. Instead, businesses should consider the same things they’d consider when evaluating on-premise software: first and foremost, whether a vendor offers the product that best fits a company’s need and has a core competency in what they’re selling. Beyond that, they need to be committed to the SaaS delivery model, says Erin TenWolde, lead SaaS analyst at IDC, a Framingham, Mass., tech industry researcher. To assess that commitment, she suggests quizzing vendors on their future direction, profitability and customer base, and asking to talk to existing users. Check contract terms SaaS contracts vary substantially, so a business should check the fine print for terms that fit its unique situation. Typical terms cover: Contract length — Some vendors allow customers to pay on a month-to-month basis, so contracts could be terminated with a month’s notice, says Robert DeSisto, vice president and application strategies analyst at Gartner, a Stamford, Conn., technology researcher. Other vendors require a two-year commitment, not always a good thing. “If you subscribed for 100 users for two years and six months later laid off 50 people, you’d still be paying,” DeSisto says. New releases — Vendors give customers varying amounts of time to upgrade to new releases. Some make customers jump to a new release immediately, while others give up to three months. Outages — As with upgrades, vendors’ guarantees of uninterrupted service are all over the map. DeSisto says he’s seen everything from no uptime guarantees to vendors who promise 99.7 percent uptime. Customization and customer service In addition to contract terms, companies need to consider whether a vendors’ on-demand software can be customized to fit a special business need, and how much customer support is available. According to IDC analyst TenWolde, forward-thinking vendors such as Salesforce.com host idea exchanges on their corporate websites where customers and business partners can discuss best uses of the company’s software. Good customer service is one way Web-only vendors are keeping customers now that bigger players have arrived. When Oriel Wines began using NetSuite’s accounting and finance software three years ago as a start-up wine distributor and reseller, there were no other options. Now that there are, Oriel managing director Kelly Ford wouldn’t consider switching, even though the New York City-based company has graduated to using on-demand applications for e-commerce and CRM. Says Ford: “We’re very happy.” When choosing a vendor, it all comes down to fundamentals, says DeSisto, the Gartner analyst. “You still have to have the right product, sales force, and marketing. A lot of vendors are preoccupied with being labeled SaaS but aren’t doing the proper work behind the scenes to make themselves have a viable offering.”

About 2028 days ago Business Software

Upgrading to a Database

You know it’s time for your business to upgrade to a database when: Spreadsheets aren’t enough to organize the growing amounts of electronic data anymore, it’s hurting business and clients are screaming for change. The advantages of replacing stand-alone programs outweigh the time and expense of switching to something new. In this age of hackers, viruses and identity theft, it’s not safe for people to keep valuable information on desktop or laptop computers. No matter what the reason, even the smallest business can benefit from upgrading to a database to centrally collect and manage vital company information, according to analyst and industry experts. First introduced in the 1970s, relational databases consolidate and store information in tables that can be shuffled and reshuffled myriad ways, helping companies better track diverse data such as sales transactions, inventory and customer profiles. Plethora of products Today, small businesses have a wealth of database types and vendors to choose from, including: Low-cost solutions like Microsoft Access, part of the Office product suite, or Filemaker Pro from Filemaker. Open source products like MySQL or the Base database fromOpenOffice.org. Software-as-a-service offerings such as InternetOffice.biz. Entry-level enterprise database software from industry leaders such as Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft But don’t put the cart before the horse. The first step in a database upgrade isn’t picking the software. It’s deciding what you’re going to use it for, who’ll be using it, and how far it has to scale as your company grows, says Noel Yuhanna, a database analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. Once you’ve created the database and know what needs to be moved, automated tools can easily transfer data from existing spreadsheets and other files to the new system, Yuhanna says. With identify theft and other computer-related crimes on the rise, security is another reason companies switch to centralized databases, Yuhanna says. “If someone were to remove files from your desktop or laptop, you might not know about it. Anybody can change a figure and you wouldn’t know it. In a database, you can track that.” Who’s in charge Deciding what you need a database to do might be a group effort, but the job of putting a plan into action typically falls to a select few. At small companies, that might be the most tech savvy person on staff, or a consultant who’s hired for a month or two to get things running and train the staff. Mid-sized companies might need one or two IT people to maintain associated hardware and software, according to Greg Nelson a former software company owner and currently chairman of the Naples, Fla., chapter of SCORE, the small-business advisory group. Costs will vary accordingly, Nelson says. For a small company using Microsoft Access to create a database for 10 people, the costs would be nominal. But a database with 500 users and roll-back capabilities that minimize lost data in the event of a power failure could be $25,000 in software alone, he says. However, any forward-looking company shouldn’t think twice about putting a properly constructed database in place, Nelson says. “Having the right information available at the right time,” he says, “can certainly make the difference between success and failure.”

About 2059 days ago Business Software

ERP for Small Business: The Time is Ripe

The time is ripe for small and mid-size businesses to adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, according to leading industry analysts. There are more options than ever among the crowded ERP-vendor field targeting the small and mid-size business sector. Those options are, in turn, growing more affordable. In addition, many small and mid-size businesses are in desperate need of an upgrade to sophisticated software that was once the purview of only larger corporations. “Many small businesses have not upgraded their infrastructure since the Y2K cycle,” says Albert Pang, research director of enterprise applications research for Framingham-Mass.-based IDC. “Many of their systems need to be replaced.” Companies looking to update their financial, human resources, project management, and procurement applications will find that their needs will be met by ERP offerings, Pang says. A field crowded with vendors The good news is that there are many new choices among ERP programs available to small and mid-size businesses, Pang says, with over 30 vendors in the field.  And those vendors are looking to small and mid-size businesses as their primary growth market. An August 2007 Forrester Research report forecast that the small business sector will be “the most dynamic and innovative growth area” for ERP sales over the next three to five years. If comparison shopping a 30-plus market of vendors seems overwhelming, consider that many vendors offer specialty products to certain sectors or verticals. For example, Activant Solutions specializes in offerings to distributors, Constellation Software Inc. services club-membership-type businesses, and Deltek Inc.’s products target professional services providers. But ERP’s largest players — SAP, Sage Software, Oracle, and Microsoft — have more generic offerings that are increasingly tailored to smaller businesses. For example, Oracle is offering fixed-scope products, such as E-Business Suite and JDEdwards Enterprise One. These can be up and running in days to weeks, not months to years like previous, enterprise-focused ERP applications, says Pang. That timetable is crucial for small businesses, which want and need to see a quick return on their technology investments. And while costs can vary widely according to a company’s specific needs, the costs for more sophisticated software have really come down. “In the past, many of these products would cost seven figures, but now, they are available for under $100,000,” says Pang. Stiff competition and the emergency of on-demand products available over the Web have contributed to this trend, he says. Custom, on-demand solutions Another option for smaller firms is to purchase generic solutions and customize them with help from a value-added reseller or consultant, explains Gary Chen, senior analyst and small and mid-size business specialist at Boston, Mass-based Yankee Group. A wide range of add-on modules is available to develop the perfect custom application for every company. Still another option is ERP on-demand products for smaller businesses, such as those offered by NetSuite and SAP Business ByDesign. SAP’s product features a unique flat price: $149 per user per month, according to its website. With all these options, it’s a good time for smaller firms to go ERP shopping, says Chen. “There is so much more available now,” he says. “There’s never been a better time.”