Mozilla Extended Contract With Google for Another 3 Years

Refer to 'Malaysia Technology News'

$300 Million Per Year:

Earlier this week, Google and Mozilla said they had struck a deal to renew their search royalty agreement for another three years.

The search giant will pay just under $300 million per year to be the default choice in Mozilla’s Firefox browser, a huge jump from its previous arrangement, due to competing interest from both Yahoo and Microsoft.

Market Share:

Mozilla's Firefox has earlier been reported that its market share dropped to 26.59%. Microsoft's IE also dropped to new low of 40.92%. The latest information on market share for web browser (according to stat counter) stands at:

1. Microsoft IE 40.92%
   
2. Mozilla's Firefox - 26.59%
   
3. Google's Chrome - 24.3%
   
4. Safari - 5.77% 
5. Opera - 1.77%
   
6. Others - 0.65%
   

Business Model:

The business of model of Firefox has long be subjected to many guesses and industrial debates. How can a company like that survive and yet able to keep up to date with latest trends and regularly provides software updates ?

By default, Firefox is a free and open source software. Most of it is tri-licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPL), the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

Like most open source software, the brand name Firefox is trademark and is owned by Mozilla Corporation. The fate of open source software has always been a roller coaster one .

Take MySQL for example, its eventual fate was to be acquired by Sun Microsystem and later by Oracle. Other notable and common open source revenue making activities include:

• Technical supports.
  
• Technology consultancy.
  
• Enterprise edition subscriptions.
  
• Proprietary license for full features.
  
• Advertisements.
  
• Alliance with other software.
  

Firefox's alliance with Google search is another example of how open source software can create revenue from.

In my personal opinion, with its large user database, Firefox also makes money from selling information for market research.

Many analysts have different ideas on business model of Facebook. Most would agree that advertisement generates huge amount of income and also with Facebook credits for games, movies, ebook and etc.

Personally, I feel that companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo have more to offer than just selling advertising spaces. The fact that these companies have huge amount of real time information just about anything particularly on people, location, date time, activities, behaviour and numbers. These information is most value to market research and consulting companies.

Opera's business model is very similar to Firefox.

Revenues come from almost any sort of activities which leverages on the brand and technology of Opera web browser. Typically, it makes money from content providers such as search engine providers and OEMs (Nokia, Motorola, Ford) who installed Opera browser into their products.

Bit Torrent hasn't got tremendous luck with previous business model such as selling SDKs and technology consulting, is now towards capitalizing on the world of streaming content. Its first major customer is reported as video-service provider Brightcove.

Refer to more on ideas.

Your Car Breakdown Assistance is just One Touch Away

If your car ever broke down during this holiday season, there’s Kurnia One Touch mobile app that could save you. This app is able to exactly locate your current location and by a press of a single button, an immediate help request is sent to Kurnia Auto Assist 24 hours care line. By knowing your exact location, Kurnia could send immediate help to rescue you. Imagine the time you could save while waiting for the tow truck to find you, especially when you are at unfamiliar places.

This Kurnia One Touch application is available in 3 smartphone platforms; iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Non Kurnia Insurance holders could also use the app, but car towing charges may apply.

In case you’re involved in an accident, this application could also make insurance claims for your Kurnia Motor Insurance in just few taps. User can add up to 16 photos for four different categories (Own vehicle, Injuries, Third party and Sceneries photos), add up to three third party details and three witnesses details. With just few taps these information will be sent to the Kurnia Claim Department for processing.

Kurnia One Touch application has one more special function, where user can view the list of nearby Kurnia branches and workshops, this can ease the users to do further action during accident or car breakdown. Kurnia One Touch also enables the users to set reminder for their road tax and car insurance.

This Kurnia One Touch Application is now ready to download for free from itunes, Android Market and Blackberry Apps World.

These Kurnia One Touch application has been develop by Just Mobile Sdn Bhd, a MSC status company that rapidly developed quality Mobile Applications and Web Applications.

2011 A Year Flashback

Refer to 2010 A Year Flashback

Top News/Happenings 2011

1.) Jan 2011

• Microsoft Cloud Summit (Malaysia) - The Power Of Cloud As It Matters To You
  
• Google To Open Office In Malaysia
  

2.) Feb 2011

Nokia To Adopt Windows Phone Platform; Finally

3.) Mar 2011

• Google Voice Search now available in Bahasa Malaysia
  
• Japan Earthquake - Internet Service Interruptions Expected
  
• SAS Malaysia Appoints New Managing Director
  
• iPad 2 Was Launched By Steve Jobs
  

4.) Apr 2011

1Malaysia Email  

5. ) May 2011

• Microsoft Bought Skype For $8.5 bn
  
• Brocade's Strategy To Enable Cloud Computing Adoption
  

6.) June 2011

• 50 Malaysia's Government Related Sites Hacked
  
• Apple WWDC 2011 Summaries
  
• Strongly Disagree To Blocking of 10 Download Sites by MCMC
  

7.) July 2011

• Fujitsu 'K' Computer' is World's FASTEST Supercomputer
  
• Friendster Reboot
  

8.) Aug 2011

• Intel Creates Ultrabook Concept to Compete
• Google Buys Motorola Mobility
  
• Free Cloud Hosting For Java EE6 Using OpenShift
  
• Steve Jobs Resigns As CEO
  

9.) Sept 2011

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Launches Worldwide
  
• Bill Gates Is the The Richest Yet Again
  
• Norton Study Calculates Cost of Global Cybercrime: $114 Billion Annually
  

10.) Oct 2011

• EITN Is Launched
  
• PIKOM’s statement following the announcement of Budget 2012
  
• New Country Manager of F5 Networks Malaysia To Move With Agility and Speed
  
• Oracle Launches Next Generation SPARC T4 Servers
  
• Steve Jobs Passed On
  

11.) Nov 2011

• Google, SKMM, .My Domain Registry and ITrain to Help 50,000 Malaysian Businesses Get Online
  
• The Biggest Internet Giants Concern Over Possible Net Neutrality Threat 
• Microsoft Hints That Intelligent Systems Is The Next Information Age
  
• PayPal Opens Global Operations Centre in Malaysia to Support Significant Demand for Online Payments Worldwide
  
• W3C Announces First Draft of Standard for Online Privacy 
• Oracle Releases Oracle Solaris 11, the First Cloud OS
  
• Launch of DiGi CyberSAFE Programme 
• SAP and Sybase Launch Next Wave of Mobile Apps That Transform Key Industries and Lines of Business
  
• DHL Supply Chain organizes first ever technology conference in Penang in collaboration with the Penang State Government
  
• Adobe To Focus On Digital Media, Digital Marketing Opportunities
• Google launched Google+
  

12.) Dec 2011

• Apple’s Mac App Store Downloads Top 100 Million
  
• DiGi pioneers industry standards with the launch of Malaysia's first green data center
  
• Previewing the Windows Store
  
• HP to Contribute WebOS to Open Source
  
• ICT Lifetime Achievement Award For Tun Dr Mahathir
  
• CEO of Seagate Technology Discusses Thailand Floods And The Hard Disk Industry
  
• Proposed Computing Professionals Bill 2011 Generated Mixed Reaction
  

Top Enterprise IT Trends

• Cloud computing.
  
• Security (especially on cloud computing)
  
• Ethernet fabric
  
• Appliances - i.e SAP Hana, Oracle appliances
  
• Storage - i.e SAN, NAS
  
• Green IT
  
• IPv6
  
• Consumerization of IT - this includes social media
  

Consumer Trends

The two biggest trends are proliferation of mobile devices (tablet PC and smartphone) and group buying (e-commerce).

Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab being the two most popular tablet PC in Malaysia. In terms of smartphone, it is the war between iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S.

Everybody is playing angry bird, including my young cousins, it is the killer app for 2011.

For group buying, there are more and more companies getting into the business. The ones that I know about are Groupon, Google's Offers, DealMates, MilkADeal, Yahoo MyDeal, Idealised and etc.

Cloud Computing

The year 2011 is the year of cloud computing, there is no single doubt about this.

If you are not into cloud computing, you are literally out of the game.

Here is summary of cloud computing product offerings.

In my personal opinion, I feel that enterprises will not adopt it immediately. The catalysts are developers and SMBs.

Developers want to make money and cloud computing actually provides a way for developers to build large and powerful solution in the garage!

For SMBs, especially those in Malaysia, cloud computing is a blessing because of three reasons:

1.) More developers are developing solutions deployed on cloud.

2.) Big vendors provide solutions on cloud at a lower cost.

3.) Adoption of cloud computing solution has lower entry barrier cost.

In term of entrepreneurship, cloud computing presents an great opportunity for start-ups to break the monopoly of big time players like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, HP and etc in the enterprise market.

Believe it, this is your chance. And it is moving without de factor steward at the moment. Whoever capable of seizing the moment fast will be able to at least make a cut.

Refer to more on cloud computing.

Conclusion

• Apple's iconic CEO Steve Jobs passed away.
• Android becomes the most popular mobile platform in the industry, overtaking Apple iOS.
  
• Thailand floods affected storage supplies worldwide.
  
• Cloud computing started off with a bang, all major vendors have invested monies and energy into, resulted in all sort of cloud-oriented products. Year 2011 belongs to cloud computing. It is expected to take off in a bigger way in 2012 because 2011 was about marketing, 2012 should be on adoption. Microsoft predicts that intelligent systems is what comes next after cloud computing.
  
• Google and Paypal created local presence in Malaysia.
• Google has been most aggressive and is going into everything from acquiring Motorola to competing with Apple, Facebook, Paypal and Groupon.
• Consumers are all into tablet PC and smartphones. The typical smartphone user (in Malaysia): 25-34 years old, high educated and working
• Adobe finally relieved attention on Flash and starts to focus on HTML5. This presents a massive opportunity for HTML 5 conversion from Adobe Flash. For those in the graphic industry.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year !!

Refer to more on trends.

Which Tablet PC To Buy In Malaysia ? #4

Which Tablet PC To Buy In Malaysia ? (Apple, BlackBerry, HTC, Acer, AsusTek, Creative, Samsung, Motorola, HP, MSI).

Which Tablet PC To Buy In Malaysia ? #2 (Fujitsu, Sony, Dell, Huawei)

Which Tablet PC To Buy In Malaysia ? #3 (Amazon, Motorola, Quad, Toshiba)

Brand	Model	OS	Web	Pricing	Desc	Links	Remarks
HP	Multitouch Slate	Windows® Embedded Standard 7	Internet Explorer	RM 2,299	Intel® Atom™ Z670, Solid State Drive, 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, Dual camera, battery life (up to 7.5 hours), WiFi? , Bluetooth, integrated 3G Mobile Broadband, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 600, 8.9" diagonal WSVGA wide-viewing angle touchscreen, 2 USB 2.0 port, HDMI port.	Url	Intel processor, Intel graphics,, target enterprise users, A TPM Embedded Security Chip helps protects data, BIOS support for Computrace Pro(5), supports HP Slate Digital Pen
Fujitsu	Stylistic q550	Microsoft Windows® 7	Internet Explorer	RM 3,770	Intel® Atom™Z670 processor (1.50GHz), 10.1 inch WXGA Wide view high bright LED Anti-glare touchscreen display, 30GB / 62GB SSD SATA, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, Intel® GMA600 Graphics, Dual camera, 4 USB ports.	Url	Intel processor, target enterprise users, Windows® multi-touch capabilities, fingerprint authentication, smart card reader, embedded security chip and encrypted SSD

Conclusion:

1. The market has now 18 brands with more than 18 different models of tablets to choose from.
   
2. Android rules. Windows gaining momentum.
   
3. Nokia hasn't announced tablet.
   
4. Tablet PC is replacing laptops in the enterprise IT arena; cheaper, lighter, easier maintenance, durable and trendy.
   

More Updates on Tablet PC, Mobile Platform:

1. HP offers WebOS to open source - There is no way to defeat the open-source Android community which has grown out of proportion.
   
2. ARM Launches Free Toolkit For Android Application Developer Community - ARM® Development Studio 5 Community Edition helps Android™ application developers create native software that can run up to 4 times faster than Java code.
   
3. BlackBerry delay darkens RIM's future
   
4. Nokia first Windows Phone by Jan 2012
   
5. More than 10bn apps have now been downloaded by Google’s smartphone users
   
6. Singapore arm forces to deploy iPad - There is no chance of customized tablet PC for military purposes ? They are just going to use it 'off the shelves' directly.
   
7. Qualcomm's Quad-core Snapdragon Chips to Hit Tablets Next Year
   

IBM Reveals Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives within Five Years

Refer to 'Enterprise IT News'.

1.) People power generation

Anything that moves or produces heat has the potential to create energy that can be captured.

2.) Fully integrated biometric solutions in everywhere

Imagine you will be able to walk up to an ATM machine to securely withdraw money by simply speaking your name or looking into a tiny sensor that can recognize the unique patterns in the retina of your eye. Or by doing the same, you can check your account balance on your mobile phone or tablet.

3.) Mind reading

Scientists in the field of bioinformatics have designed headsets with advanced sensors to read electrical brain activity that can recognize facial expressions, excitement and concentration levels, and thoughts of a person without them physically taking any actions.

4.) Digital divide no more

Cheaper mobile devices, equally powerfully computing power.

5.) Analytics, Automation, robotics and A.I

IBM is developing technology that uses real-time analytics to make sense and integrate data from across all the facets of your life such as your social networks and online preferences to present and recommend information that is only useful to you.

If you have having similar ideas, it proves that you are not crazy. You are a visionary!!!

It is happening in 5 years.

Honest speaking, many years ago, I actually thought about something similar to idea no.1 (People power generation). And recent years, I have ideas on idea no. 5 (Analytics, Automation, robotics and A.I). So, I am also a visionary.

For budding start-ups out there, I don't need to tell you more right ? If you can just own 1% of IBM's market share, it is much better than owning 99% of what you are having now. And the good news is that you have 5 years to prepare yourself.

Check out more on trends.

Symantec on Top Threats Targeting Mobile Devices

Refer to 'Malaysia Technology News'.

Top threats targeting mobile devices to date.

1. Web- & Network-based Attacks
   
2. Malware
   
3. Social Engineering Attacks
   
4. Resource Abuse
   
5. Data Loss
   
6. Data Integrity Threats
   

Check out more on trends.

2012 Technology Trends from Intel

Refer to 'Enterprise IT News'

1.) Ultrabook - Ultrabook is similar to Apple's Macbook Air. The challenge is creation of laptops which are way much thinner and equally powerful as it predecessor.

2.) Big Data - cheaper storage more capacity, more data, more analytics, semantic and patterns

3.) Secured Software - security, security, security

4.) Manufacturing Technology Goes 3-D

5.) DIY Data Creation - Analytics, social media.

IBM Developed Best Practice for To Improve Safety of Pork Business

IBM and a company in China (Shandong Commercial Group Co.Ltd) announced that they have built a system that will help with ensuring safety of pork products. The system will also help to improve efficiency of food supply chain in the region.

Pork is a big business in China. In 2006, a fatal outbreak of porcine blue-ear disease killed millions of Chinese pigs. These losses represented a tiny portion of the country’s total herd of more than 660 million, but led to soaring pork prices.

The core idea behind such system is to enable ability of monitoring and tracing of movement of the meat across all phases of the supply chain. It is expected to be fully deployed by 2013.

Using IBM WebSphere software running on IBM System x Servers, experts from IBM China Development Lab and China’s National Engineering Research Center for Agricultural Products Logistics have created a pork monitoring and tracking system that can extract and store actionable business information from the millions of interconnected sensors that make up the “Internet of Things.”

In the event that a consumer’s illness can be linked to pork produced in the Shandong Province, Lushang Group’s new system will be able to pinpoint the stores that have the tainted food is, arrange a targeted recall and in turn, minimize the number of people who get sick, while keeping pork that is safe available for purchase.

Such initiative is being categorized as IBM Smart Food initiative by IBM where it is providing technology and expertise to create a smarter, safer food supply for consumers around the world.

For more information, refer to 'Made in IBM Labs: China’s Shandong Province Teams with IBM to Improve Safety of Pork'

Malaysian pork businesses should look into this very seriously. The Malaysian pork industry has suffered couple of mishaps over the years, lately being the discovery that errant traders circulated expired pork products to consumer.

Networking Industry Veteran Doug Ingraham to Lead Brocade Alliances

Brocade NASDAQ: BRCD) today announced the appointment of Doug Ingraham to the position of vice president of Alliances. Within this role, Ingraham will oversee the Brocade Strategic Technology and OEM Alliances business units, as well as the Strategic Program Council. Ingraham will report directly to Brocade CMO, John McHugh.

“Alliances is an extremely dynamic area within Brocade, and Doug’s impressive track record of business portfolio management—combined with his deep networking technology expertise—makes him the ideal person to lead this charter,” said John McHugh, CMO of Brocade. “In addition, his extensive background in strategic partner management will enable us to uncover fresh new business opportunities that leverage the power of partnerships to further innovation.”

In this new role, Ingraham will oversee several key areas relating to Brocade Alliances initiatives, with a specific focus on forging new alliances and deepening existing relationships with Strategic Technology Alliance and OEM partners. Ingraham will also oversee the establishment of a program framework for the development of cloud ecosystem alliance partners to educate and extol the benefits of solutions built upon Brocade® Virtual Compute Block technology and the Brocade CloudPlex™ architecture.

For over two decades, Ingraham has been a fixture within the networking industry, applying his leadership skills to a variety of roles. Prior to joining Brocade, Ingraham held positions at Cisco Systems, StorageTek and AT&T, where he oversaw engineering and marketing efforts related to data and storage networking products.

Ingraham joined Brocade through the acquisition of McDATA in 2006. Most recently, Ingraham served as vice president of Product Management for Brocade Data Center products, where he set the strategic direction for the company’s Fibre Channel business and led the market introduction of the Brocade VDX® family of products, the industry’s first true Ethernet fabric switching solutions for highly virtualized and cloud-optimized data centers.

A frequent speaker at industry trade shows and an active contributor to wide-ranging discussions on the networking industry, Ingraham holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

“The networking industry is at an interesting crossroads in light of the IT transformation that’s currently underway and, with our strong reputation for innovation, Brocade is well-positioned to seize market opportunities as they present themselves,” said Doug Ingraham, vice president of Alliances at Brocade. “It’s certainly an exciting time to be in networking and I am looking forward to working in close collaboration with our partners to bring about continued innovation that results in best-in-class solutions that our customers can deploy with ease and confidence.”

Solarwinds Network Management Products Now More Integrated And Easier To Use

SolarWinds® Inc. (NYSE: SWI), a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today rolled out enhancements and further integration of two of its flagship Network management products, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM), and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM).

Designed to be mixed and matched based on customers’ needs, SolarWinds robust suite of network management software includes NPM, NCM, NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, IP Address Manager, IP SLA Manager, User Device Tracker, Engineer’s Toolset, LANsurveyor, ipMonitor, and CatTools. In addition, SolarWinds offers IT software products to manage virtualization, storage, application and server, and log and event needs.

In 2011, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) was awarded: Gold in the Windows IT Pro Editors’ Best and Community Choice Awards; Network Management Product of the Year by UK-based Network Computing; Best non-Microsoft Network Management Product by Microsoft’s Redmond Magazine; and won the Network Monitoring category in the WindowsNetworking.com Reader’s Choice Awards.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) v10.2 includes the following features:

• Enhanced discovery and protocol support for IPv6 devices, Windows servers using WMI, and SNMPv3 traps traffic
  
• Improved native support for wireless devices, Juniper firewall sub-interface monitoring, and CPU and memory data monitoring for JunOS and Netscreen devices
  
• Improved ease-of-use and reporting, including statistics on a per-CPU basis for many devices
  

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) v7.0 includes the following features:

• New features and UI improvements including a change approval request feature that allows for approval by a reviewer of sensitive changes
  
• Improved node discovery and management from web console and availability of Network Atlas to standalone NCM customers, to create topology maps on network devices
  
• Improved Orion alerting integrated with other products in the Orion family; NCM users can seamlessly keep their device repository synchronized with their NPM repository
  
• Improved account management including a new web-based user management feature and Active Directory integration improvements
  

SolarWinds Customer Feedback:

“I just tried out the beta and the first thing I did was run an import. IT WAS AWESOME! It was like seeing a sunset for the first time,” said customer and thwack user Donald Francis. “I want to say how awesome it is to see the features list for each new release contain at least one of the features that I have requested. I love that SolarWinds is so interactive with their user community,” said customer and thwack member Byrona.

Additional Resources

• What’s New in NPM 10.2
  
• What’s New in NCM 7.0
  
• Orion Network Performance Monitor on Network Performance Management Resources (Videos on Best Practices, Products)
  
• Orion Network Configuration Manager Resources (Product Tour, How-To Videos, Best Practices)
  

Pricing and Availability
 
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is available now and pricing starts at US$2,475. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is available now and pricing starts at US$2,495.

The first year of maintenance is included for both products. For more information, visit the SolarWinds website, download a free 30-day evaluation, or call +65 593 7600.

Proposed Computing Professionals Bill 2011 Generated Mixed Reaction

Refer to Malaysia Technology News

The proposed Computing Professionals Bill 2011 for the setup of the Board of Computing Professionals Malaysia (BCPM) very recently was received with mixed reaction from the ICT community.

MOSTI, the body who proposed it, had organized an open-day on 13 Dec 2011 to gather feedbacks.

Most people in the industry thought that it is not very relevant to the industry.

Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof likened it to bodies such as the Malaysian Medical Association and the Malaysian Institute of Architects.

MCA Young Professionals Bureau has warned that the proposed Bill could potentially force companies to relocate or shut down due to a lack of human capital.

Personally, I feel that there is a need to encourage certain form of professional element in the software development, ICT networking industry which is currently vendor-technology-oriented.

For more information, refer to IT Qualification Draft Bill Proposed.

Oracle and Java Updates 2011

Oracle bought Sun Microsystem in 2009-2010 and now Oracle is continuing the efforts on Java roadmap.

The core components of Java can be categorized into:

1. Java SE 8 - Java standard edition - desktop technology
   
2. Java FX 2.0 - Java on the client - rich client technology
   
3. Java ME - Java Micro Edition - mobile technology
   
4. Java EE 7 - Java Enterprise edition - web based technology
   

The updates (Proposed JDK 8 Features) announced by Oracle on October are:

• Lambda expressions (”closures”) for higher developer productivity, better leveraging of multi-core CPUs, and bulk data-processing enhancements to the Java collections APIs.
  
• A Java-native module system (“Project Jigsaw”) which will simplify the construction, packaging, and deployment of applications, and also enable a fully-modular Java platform which allows customized deployments on servers, clients, and embedded systems.
  
• Improvements for JavaScript on the JVM, including Nashorn – a brand new JavaScript? engine optimized for the JVM -– and full * Java/JavaScript interoperability.
  
• A next-generation Java Client in the form of JavaFX 3.0.
  
• Modern device support, including multi-touch.
  
• Completion of the HotSpot/JRockit JVM convergence project, including performance enhancements and a second-generation Java Flight Recorder.
  

Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile:

Oracle ADF is an end-to-end Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) framework that simplifies application development by providing out of the box infrastructure services and a visual and declarative development experience.

It is provided for customers under the OTN JDeveloper License Agreement. It is similar to Microsoft .NET framework. Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile sits on top of Oracle Application Development Framework.

The updates for ADF Mobile are:

• Developers can benefit from the latest Oracle ADF Mobile capabilities to extend Oracle ADF to mobile users through:
  
  • Simplified mobile application development: enables mobile developers to develop once and deploy to multiple device platforms, Oracle ADF Mobile prevents mobile applications from having to be re-developed from the ground up whenever a new mobile platform needs to be supported.
    
  • Strong native device services integration: allows mobile developers to create rich enterprise mobile applications that leverage the full capabilities of smart phones, including calendars, cameras and GPS.
    
  • Tight integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications: enables Oracle customers to easily extend enterprise processes and data to mobile users.
    
  • Re-use existing Oracle developer skills: Oracle developers can leverage existing Oracle ADF application development expertise to declaratively create mobile applications without having to learn new languages or development paradigms.
  • Consistent performance and availability: Oracle ADF Mobile applications can operate regardless of network condition or availability.

Why you should use Oracle ADF ?

• Leverage on stable enterprise application framework.
  
• Create apps which are capable of integrating with Oracle software ecosystem. This is good for startups who wanted to integrate applications with Oracle's software through Oracle Fusion Middleware.
  

Development Tools:

Developers can leverage on NetBeans IDE 7.1, the de facto software development tools for Java programming.

The NetBeans IDE is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Oracle Solaris, and is the first IDE to support the latest specifications and standards in the Java Platform. It supports PHP, JavaScript and Ajax, and C/C++.

NetBeans IDE 7.0 also delivered enhanced integration with Oracle WebLogic Server 11g and industry leading Java EE 6 support for Oracle Database, GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 3.1 and Oracle Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1.

NetBeans Community Distributions are available under a Dual License consisting of the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) v1.0 and GNU General Public License (GPL) v2.

Cloud Computing:

Java Web Based application can be hosted on the following cloud computing environment.

1.) Redhat Openshift

A PaaS (Platform as a service) provided by Redhat which supports open source programming languages, namely Java PHP Ruby Python Perl.

2.) Google App Engine.

A PaaS (Platform as a service) provided by Google which supports open source programming languages, namely Java, Python, Go.

EITN Knows Everything

The Enterprise IT News portal (EITN) knows everything in the ICT industry.

It is a good source for information to facilitate analysis, creating strategy and decision making before making the next business move.

To get yourself equipped with latest happenings, leverage on its rss feeds.

Microsoft Announces Metro Style App and Window Store

Refer to 'Enterprise IT News'.

Microsoft recently announced the Windows Store for metro style app.

What is metro style app ?

It is referring to writing apps using a combination of familiar technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript? , and Cascading Style Sheets, Level 3 (CSS3), or XAML, with C++, C#, or Microsoft Visual Basic code-behind.

Windows store is built as part of Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10, for distribution of apps in many ways similar to Apple's AppStore.

The store app catalog will be indexed by search engines especially by BING.

Developers can also promote apps from their websites, not just with “available in the Windows Store” logos, but with built-in promotion through Internet Explorer 10. With just a line of markup, your website promotes your app via the app button within the browser, visible to anyone running Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8.

The Windows Store will be available in 231 markets worldwide.

The store also empowers developers to reach enterprise market, transcending conventional layers of business barrier. This is a good thing for the economy.

On the other hand, it also allows enterprises to have more controls in terms of application management whereby enterprises can choose to limit access to the Windows Store catalog by their employees, or allow access but restrict certain apps.

The store provides full platform support for free apps, trials (both time-based and feature-based trials) and paid apps, including in-app purchase. And we have sales analytics that will help you target customers more effectively.

To get started, individual registration fee will be $49 USD ($99 USD for companies).

Microsoft will share up to 80% of the revenue generated from app sales. Microsoft will take 20%.

Windows Store presents a plaftorm for developers to have flexibility in terms of business model. Gone are those days where software are sold in CDs with serial number stickers. Subscription based supports time-based and feature-differentiated deployment and in-app purchases for trial version.

Using in-app purchase (especially for games), players can upgrade to new levels right in context, as they play the game. No app reloads or restarts required, and all the settings are retained.

Transaction platform is available to cater for time-based subscription.

And when it comes to time-based subscription, trust with highest integrity is most expected and this is what customers can rely on Microsoft.

Developers can also fund their businesses by embedding ads into the apps even using Google Ads because it supports web technologies, or any other ad platform they prefer.

In short, Window Store is a great way for Microsoft to kick off the concept of Metro style application development. Metro style app development is a new direction for software development which will embrace mobile app development in a comprehensive manner.

CBN Pilots New Cloud Computing Services in Indonesia with Brocade

CBN, one of Indonesia’s pioneering Internet service providers, has broken new ground by establishing a cloud computing data center using Ethernet fabric switching from Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD). The new data center infrastructure enables CBN to build a new revenue stream by offering cloud-based application services that meet the increasingly sophisticated requirements of business customers.

In a service provider market dominated by large local and international state-owned enterprises, CBN has had to maintain a competitive edge through service quality and innovation. The move to build an infrastructure platform capable of delivering high-value cloud computing services places CBN ahead of the curve and gives it the opportunity to establish a valuable new market position in Indonesia’s vibrant Telecommunications sector, which has registered real GDP growth of 6.5 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2011, driven by private consumption and investment. (1) Indonesia reaffirmed its position as one of the more attractive emerging telecoms markets in Asia Pacific after the country overtook India in this quarter’s BMI business environment ratings update.

1. Indonesia Telecommunications Report Q4 2011 - BMI

To streamline development and deployment of new cloud-based services, CBN is leveraging CA 3Tera App Logic to virtualize conventional n-tier web applications and then running them on a scalable grid computing infrastructure. CBN turned to the Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches to provide a single-layer 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone network for the grid, enabling low-latency any-to-any connections among the grid servers and the virtual machines they host. CBN also deployed Brocade FastIron WS648G Ethernet switches in a separate front-end network that connects the cloud-computing grid to the routing infrastructure at the heart of the company's IP service network.

“We are once again pioneering new technology and new services in the Indonesian market,” said Tony Hariman, CTO of CBN. “In this position it is very important to invest in infrastructure that enables us to scale as the business develops, and to maintain low operational overheads. Brocade's Ethernet fabric solution enables us to start small as we develop our initial application service offering and then to easily expand the cloud-computing data center as these services are rolled-out and gain market traction. The level of automation provided by the Brocade VDX switches helps us create autonomic infrastructure that more or less manages itself.”

CBN is one of more than 300 Brocade customers that have deployed the Brocade VDX switches since their introduction in January 2011. Recently, Brocade introduced a second wave of Brocade VDX switches, the Brocade VDX 6710 and Brocade VDX 6730, which added new features, performance, and functionality all purpose-built for the rigors of highly virtualized data centers and cloud computing.

“Indonesia is a member of the G20 and one of the best-performing emerging economies, with a large and diverse domestic market,” said Gina Tan, director of Brocade South East Asia. “Viewed in this context, CBN's move into cloud-computing services makes perfect sense since it can offer cost-effective application services to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of local businesses. Brocade Global Services, our professional services arm, has been deeply involved in helping CBN realize its technical vision and move toward its strategic business objective.”

Product details:

Brocade VDX and FWS Series

A Year in Malaysian Search: Google's Top Searches of 2011

Today Google is releasing its annual Zeitgeist lists for Malaysia: this year’s hottest selection of search terms on google.com.my. The lists offer a unique glimpse through the collective eyes of Malaysian searchers into the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated us as a nation throughout 2011.

This year’s fastest rising searches reveal that in addition to social networking and launching Angry Birds at green pigs, Malaysians love a good laugh, with local reality TV show Maharaja Lawak landing the third spot.

When it comes to TV, Malaysians clearly love reality: America’s Next Top Model (ANTM), X Factor USA and American Idol 2011 were the most-searched for TV shows this year. ‘Tonton’ and ‘what is ppvrip’ were also popular searches, indicating that Malaysians are bringing their appreciation for TV online.

Tech-crazy Malaysians had plenty of technology trends to plug into this year. Gadgets both real and rumored grabbed four out of the top ten fastest rising search queries: iPhone5, iPad2, Samsung Galaxy and Android were all popular searches. Turning to Google with their tech-related questions, Malaysians asked “What is …” to find out more about ‘iPad,’ ‘hacking’ and ‘jailbreak.’

Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, who visited Malaysia in April, leads a list of the fastest rising people searched which includes three other international music stars -- Avril Lavigne, Rihanna and of course Justin Bieber, whose baby face topped the list of most popular image searches this year. Malaysians also turned to image search to discover what fixed-gear bicycles look like as fixie culture took off, and to see Domo-kun, the furry mascot of Japan's NHK television station.

The fastest rising Malaysian searched for was YouTube sensation Cikgu Shida, who has garnered a large following miming to local and international hit songs. Other Malaysians making the lists are young bloggers Fatin Liyana and Haniz Zalikha, politician Anwar Ibrahim, cleric Ustaz Kazim and muslimah designer Hana Tajima, who created a wave of headscarf fashion locally.

When it’s time for travel, Malaysians stick to what’s familiar -- beaches and big cities. Searches for Su Mei Island, Maldives and Caribbean balanced with Hong Kong, Taipei and New York. Disneyland is also popular with Malaysians, with both Paris and Hong Kong Disneylands showing up as top international travel destinations.

Google spokesperson Zeffri Yusof says: “Google’s year-end Zeitgeist is a cultural barometer that reveals just about everything that has us excited, curious or plain wanting to know more. From leaders, celebrities, current affairs to pop culture, sports and everything in between, search trends reveal what’s on the collective Malaysian mind.”

Google Malaysian Zeitgeist: Most popular and fastest-rising searches for 2011

Fastest rising searches

1. Facebook
   
2. Angry Birds
   
3. Maharaja Lawak
   
4. iPhone 5
   
5. Samsung Galaxy
   
6. iPad2
   
7. Jawatan kosong
   
8. Android
   
9. Tonton
   
10. Aishiteru
    

Fastest rising people

1. Bruno Mars
   
2. Hana Tajima
   
3. Cikgu Shida
   
4. Avril Lavigne
   
5. Anwar Ibrahim
   
6. Fatin Liyana
   
7. Justin Bieber
   
8. Rihanna
   
9. Ustaz Kazim
   
10. Hanis Zalikha
    

Top news stories

1. ipad 2
   
2. Malaysian grand prix
   
3. Kennedy space center
   
4. Kentucky derby
   
5. Japan nuclear crisis
   
6. MTV movie awards
   
7. Michael Jackson funeral
   
8. Malaysian open
   
9. Thailand flood
   
10. Malaysia budget 2012
    

Top image searches

1. Justin Bieber
   
2. Background designs
   
3. Fixie bike
   
4. Domo Kun
   
5. Monster energy
   
6. Supra shoes
   
7. Jules Verne
   
8. Smiley face
   
9. Kartun muslimah
   
10. Chelsea Olivia
    

Top ‘what is...’ searches

1. what is bersih
   
2. what is g6
   
3. what is ppvrip
   
4. what is ipad
   
5. what are words
   
6. what is jailbreak
   
7. what is android
   
8. what is lmao
   
9. what is hacking
   
10. what is information
    

Top TV shows

1. ANTM
   
2. x factor usa
   
3. american idol 2011
   
4. amazing race 18
   
5. tvb drama 2011
   
6. nagamma serial
   
7. supernatural
   
8. bones season 7
   
9. Al Jazeera
   
10. My Princess
    

Top international travel destinations

1. Kowloon/Hong Kong
   
2. Su Mei Island, Thailand
   
3. Phuket Island
   
4. Bangkok
   
5. Maldives
   
6. Disneyland Hong Kong
   
7. Taipei
   
8. Paris Disneyland
   
9. New York
   
10. Caribbean
    

Top blogs

1. Blog Serius
   
2. Beautifunara
   
3. Papagomo
   
4. Jejariruncing
   
5. Honeykoyuki
   
6. Oh Bulan
   
7. Kari ngeri
   
8. Malaymoviesfull
   
9. My Resipi
   
10. IniBelogSaya
    

2012: Year of ‘Bring Your Own Device’, Big Data and Cloud’s Gathering Pace

2011 was a year of significant IT innovation, with major advances in both consumer and business sectors. It was also the year of ‘cloud’, but as we say goodbye to 2011, what does 2012 have in store for us?

Gina Tan, South East Asia Regional Director at Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) looks into her crystal ball to outline the top five technology trends we should watch out for in 2012:

1. BYOD’ (Bring Your Own Device) changes IT procurement – the company PC is becoming a thing of the past, as businesses increasingly allow, and even encourage, employees to bring their domestic, consumer devices into the workplace and access corporate applications. This will allow application availability at anytime, from anywhere, and will help business slash procurement costs. The smartphone/tablet phenomenon will fuel this trend, and will drive uptake of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), wireless networking and end-point security solutions in the corporate arena. However, it will create many problems for IT departments as they attempt to mitigate risk, and signals a tough future for PC and laptop manufacturers. Next year, I believe we will see at least one high profile security disaster as a result of this trend, and that will be a wake-up call for companies to get proper security processes in place before unlocking their networks to all and sundry.
   
2. Campus LAN gets smart – with ‘BYOD’, the growth of smartphone/tablet usage among consumers and the Unified Communications market set to triple by 2015, the Campus LAN will have to step up to the plate to meet demand - 2012 will be the year the campus gets smart. Legacy environments will not be able to cope with the huge pressures being placed on them; high-performance applications (such as video streaming, IPTV, real-time image transfer and distance learning) will suffer as a result and productivity/revenue/brand reputation will fall. I predict that by the summer of 2012, we’ll see enterprise-class characteristics introduced into campus LAN solutions at a more affordable price point. This level of innovation will, for the first time, give companies the simplicity and performance required to meet modern business demands and transform the way campus-wide networks are engineered.
   
3. Rise of ‘Cloud Service Revenue’ – 2011 saw organisations slowly moving towards the cloud and this pragmatic adoption will continue in 2012, but will also see the rise of a new form of revenue generation as enterprises from outside the technology sector move towards ‘Cloud Service Provision’. In the current economy, businesses look to sweat every asset at their disposal and more and more will look to leverage their data centre environments to offer cloud services as an additional revenue stream. Those companies wishing to address this burgeoning market will need to have the right data centre architecture in place – a highly virtualised, fabric-based network topology, delivering reliability and performance to meet strict SLAs – to respond to customer demands, and I predict that we will see some high profile casualties as a result of providers trying to make a fast buck.
   
4. Greater commoditisation – IT commoditisation will continue through 2012. The maturity of server virtualisation means that hardware is less important; as real estate/energy costs spiral and companies look to reduce capital outlay (CapEx), virtualisation strategies will permeate all companies and the CXO will become more vocal in whether or not their organization has a plan in place. Traditional, enterprise-owned, clients will become obsolete and businesses will turn to virtualised or even hosted, environments to reduce TCO through procurement of lower cost hardware. Companies that get this right will reap the benefits, but they will need to make sure that the network foundation upon which all virtual environments operate is fit for purpose; get this wrong and soldier on regardless and there will be many, many problems.
   
5. Data consumption continues to sky-rocket – 2011 was the year in which ‘Big Data’ stole headlines, but this trend will continue unabated through 2012. The last five years have been awash with new ways to generate, consume and store data – in 2011, the average smartphone user consumed 15Mb of data each day, but this will grow to 1Gb by 2020; as consumers, we will place huge demand on networking and storage resources because of this. Businesses will need to look at innovative solutions to increase network stability and performance while driving down costs to remain competitive. Those who ignore this trend will face major problems, and we may see one or two more examples!
   
6. And finally… the year of the FABRIC – Holistic data centre fabrics – from the storage environment through to the Ethernet network – are going to be the big trend in 2012. All my previous predictions will rely on this. Fabric-based architectures will become mainstream, building on the success of early adopter businesses that have reaped the benefits of flat, reliable, high performance networks that can offer simplified management and increased business agility. This trend will see a fundamental attitude-shift to data centre design, and will underpin many of the aforementioned predictions. After all, the network is the heart and lungs of modern business and without it simple actions like sending an email or accessing a document, taken for granted by all of us, would be impossible. Fabrics will revolutionise network design and change the networking landscape… forever.
   

For more information, please visit www.brocade.com.

EFO iPazzport Skype Voice Mini Wireless Keyboard, Mouse and Multi-Touchpad with Microphone and Speaker for SKYPE, Google talk, MSN Chat

EFO iPazzport Voice Mini Wireless Keyboard, Mouse and Multi-touchpad with Skype Phone having the full remote control of computer as well as voice communication over 10 meters distance away. It is the new hot product that meeting the latest technology V Voice Assessment to Text in 10 meters away. The voice assessment is one of the new features that iPhone 4GS just announced.

EFO new design with the top case in Classic Chromed Bronze which is some kind of fashion, and creativeness beyond the old colors that either Black or White. It keeps with the traditional tiny and handy but full features.

The layout of the keyboard is similar to BlackBerry that can simply use two thumbs to type. Besides the fully QWERTY feature, it added with more function keys and hot keys in supporting of our unique features such as multi-languages keyboard, volume control, page flipping and voice recording etc. Other than keys, it also with additional features like rechargeable Lithium-ion battery and backlight etc.

EFO turns out a wider touchpad, because it provides more additional features than any other similar mini wireless Keyboard: EFO keyboard gives scrolling and multi-touch (two fingers for enlarging photo or flipping pictures).

EFO released the new model with Voice is because of the new wave of the Google TV or Android IPTV or Smart TV¡¦s that growing very fast and users happy with talking in Skype Phone privately or playing Android Games away from the TV screen or large monitor. A wireless keyboard that with headset is the necessary. EFO iPazzport Mini Wireless Keyboard with Mic/speaker for Skype Phone is customized to meet this need. Other than Skype Phone feature, Youtube is also very hot application. Most Youngster always download music or songs for Karaoke. EFO iPazzport mini wireless keyboard, mic and speaker also also suit for this need.


The EFO iPazzport Voice Mini Wireless Keyboard, Mouse, Multi-Touchpad and with Mic and speaker that having another unique feature as it can work as a "Wireless MUSIC Transmitter". Just simply plug the EFO¡¦s Audio outlet to a Hi-FI amplifier then the music at your Mac or any computer can transmit over 10 meters wirelessly.

• Product Link
  
• Price : US$50
  
• Demonstration Video at Youtube
  

Tech Blog Malaysia Statistics (Nov 2011)

As usual, check out the analysis for 2010.

For month of Jan 2011.
For month of Feb 2011.
For month of Mar 2011.
For month of Apr 2011.
For month of May 2011.
For month of June 2011.
For month of July 2011.
For month of Aug 2011.
For month of Sep 2011.
For month of Oct 2011.

For month of Nov 2011, we have the followings.

• A famous back-end program
  
• Prepaid mobile broadband packages
  
• Latest ICT trends
  
• MS .NET reporting component
  
• A celebrity in Malaysia
  
• Cisco routing protocols
  

Overview:

• Total monthly traffic increased by as much as 1.35%.
  
• Traffic from referring sites decreased by 3.55%.
  
• Google still top contributor (77.58%).Up from last month.
  
• Top 5 countries (Malaysia, US, India, U.K, Singapore). Refer here.
  
• New visitors 87.94% (up from last month).
  

Exabytes Flexi Cloud, The Future Of Websites, E-Commerce And Web Hosting

Cloud computing or cloud hosting is the latest technology which makes use of the Internet to store applications, website files as well as data instead of on a physical server and in turn enables consumers and businesses to use the applications on their own websites such as a company's accounting system on any personal computer without installations, purchases of software licenses and upgrade of hardware. Undeniably the future of IT, cloud hosting offers numerous advantages to website owners and businesses such as unlimited computing and website power on demand, guaranteed website performance and experience, pay only as you use, self-healing website and virtual hardware, easy implementation, more internal IT resources as well as 24×7 reliable technical support. A good example of cloud technology users is Gmail which has millions of users who always enjoy the fastest website loading speed even in peak hours.

Exabytes Flexi Cloud, the one of its kind and the first full fledged Cloud Hosting Service in Malaysia is set to offer businesses and consumers greater flexibility and cost effectiveness. “First, Exabytes Flexi Cloud gives your websites unlimited computing power such as bandwidth, RAM, CPU power, etc on demand whenever you need it. Thus, issues like website or server downtime and slow website loading speed during peak-hour traffic surge are thrown out of the window while superb website experience and performance are guaranteed. Second, it enables users to pay less and save costs during web traffic off peak as users are only billed based on how much they use and not how long they use. The billing system of cloud hosting is likened to an electric meter. Third, if your server hardware or virtual machine fails, your site will automatically be moved to other servers within the cloud and recovers in minutes. Fourth, cloud hosting is very easy to implement as you no longer need to purchase any software licenses or hardware as no server setups are necessary. After confirmation, your website will be up in minutes. Fifth, with cloud hosting, you are shifting the burden of your in-house IT team to your cloud hosting provider, to take care of all your server needs so that your team can focus on eCommerce related tasks. Last, your virtual machines are supported by a team of highly professional IT experts who work 24×7 to eliminate all your technical concerns,” said KS Chan, CEO of Exabytes.

Applications of Cloud Hosting

Social Media Sites 

For owners of social media sites on which members extensively share photos, videos and music, the adoption of cloud hosting allows smooth surfing during traffic surge in peak hours and cost saving during off peak.

Web Applications

For owners of e-Commerce sites that run multiple web applications such as order status check, file sharing, data storing simultaneously, cloud hosting improves website loading speed without having to make extensive investment on hardware.

Facebook Applications 

For program / game developers of Facebook, hosting their applications / games on cloud ensures the websites run at optimum speed even if visitors access / browse them from a remote location.

Business Applications

Owners of e-Commerce sites can avoid site overloading when multiple customers simultaneously place their orders, make payments and chat on live chat. With cloud hosting, e-Commerce site owners focus on their e-Business and profits instead of the hardware.

For more information on Exabytes Flexi Cloud, visit: http://www.exabytes.com.my/cloud/flexi-cloud-nodes/


Why Exabytes Network? 

Established in 2001, Exabytes Network has been the largest web hosting provider in Malaysia since 2005 in terms of numbers of subscribers and IT facilities and currently serves more than 50,000 clients in over 121 countries. Its commitments to customers include 24x7x365 professional technical support, 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee, 100-Day Money Back, friendly customer service team, 99.9% Network Uptime and 99.5% Server Uptime Guarantee.

Enterprise Disk Storage
Exabytes’ Cloud Storage is powered by multiple units of DELL Equalogic which provide you with extremely reliable and scalable enterprise grade SANS storage that's configured as RAID 10. It allows users to add more storage on demand without the need to migrate the servers or change to new hard drives. Nightly, Weekly, Monthly and on Demand backups are included while managed Snapshot and Incremental backup are optional.

For partner benefits and details of other promotions and products of Exabytes Network which include shared web hosting, dedicated server hosting, reseller hosting, SSL web certificate, website builders (InstantWebsite.my), Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Content Delivery Network (CDN), server management, Ebuzz Email/Voice/SMS Marketing, Kaspersky Hosted Email Security, TRUSTe Privacy Services, Server Co-location, student hosting, charity hosting, hosted eCommerce platform (Easy.my), domain registrations, etc, please visit http://www.exabytes.my

More on cloud computing.

Minister of Tourism Malaysia Launches Kaspersky Lab Protects Low Yat Plaza Cyber Security Protection CSR Program

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions launched the continuation of its intensive cyber protection education and awareness campaign in partnership with premier IT lifestyle shopping mall Low Yat Plaza, to promote safer computing habits among Malaysians amid increasing web-borne threats, here today.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding for the campaign between Kaspersky Lab and Low Yat Plaza was witnessed by the Minister of Tourism, Dato’ Sri Dr Ng Yen Yen, with a colourful light up of the mall’s festive décor kicking off the campaign.

The Kaspersky Lab Protects Low Yat Plaza campaign which will enter its third year will see more than 600 retail outlets in Low Yat Plaza protected by the brand’s award-winning Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 security solution, at no charge to tenants, as part of Kaspersky Lab’s CSR campaign to educate retailers and end-users on the need for genuine, top-notch cyber security protection for a safer digital experience.

According to Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng, the Ministry of Tourism welcomes beneficial partnerships between brands and retailers as it will appeal to foreign tourists who view Malaysia as a prime shopping destination.

“Consumer technology related retail tourism is a lucrative market that more local organisations should explore, with Low Yat Plaza a prime example of how it can be done correctly – a well-organised, consumer-friendly specialist mall that has all the goodies that gadget-hungry tourists are looking for, under one roof. The mall’s partnership with a Kaspersky Lab further enhances its stature and reputation among tourists while protecting against the cyber threats,” Dato’ Sri Dr Ng said.

Based on a Kaspersky Lab study, the percentage of fraudulent emails in spam traffic increased significantly from 0.1% last quarter to 2% of all spam traffic in the third quarter of 2011 alone – an increase of 20 times, underlining that users are very much open to vulnerabilities when not well protected by high-quality, legal, up-to-date security solutions.

“A major vulnerability that cyber criminals leverage is the use of illegal, out-of-date security solutions. For users of technology devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and other devices this is akin to leaving your house doors and windows open and hoping that no one will come in and misuse or steal your possessions, in this case your data and your very identity. We have found that by educating retailers and letting them experience the benefit of our security solution allows them to share their user experience with customers more effectively, thereby spreading the message on the importance of cyber protection,” explained Kaspersky Lab Channel Sales Director South East Asia, Mr Jimmy Fong.

According to Polis Diraja Malaysia’s data, reported losses in the country due to cybercrime was at RM 22.3 million[1] <#_ftn1> worth in 2009, with the figure rising to RM62 million last year. Based on their estimates over the next five years losses due to cybercrime will rise to RM 2.73 billion unless more is done to protect individuals and organizations against cyber criminals.

According to the General Manager, Property Management & Operations, Low Yat Plaza, Mr. Michael Lee, Plaza Low Yat tenants are at high risk of cyber threats since much of the business at the mall is conducted digitally.

“Our tenants need superior online security because an increasing percentage of their business transactions store credit card details, contact information, purchase history and other confidential information. By providing Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 to Plaza Low Yat tenants Kaspersky is protecting the tenants’ databases, transaction records and vital digital information, while educating them on internet security so that they can serve their customers even better. It is a win-win-win situation all around,” Mr. Lee said.

Kaspersky Lab Cybercrime Research Competition Returns

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions is calling on Malaysian students from universities and other higher education institutions to participate in a research competition on cybercrime.

Kaspersky Lab’s IT Security for the Next Generation and The Asia Cup of Student Conference aims to assemble students, experts, scientists, law practitioners, economists and researchers in a collaborative environment to present and discuss issues relating to cybercrime.

The first phase of Kaspersky Lab ‘IT Security for the Next Generation’ will begin with the Malaysia Cup, of which the best three papers will be chosen as the winners. The three winners will then be enrolled to the next phase – MEA and Asia Pacific Conference for Young Professionals where the students will be competing with students from respective universities and institutes of higher education around MEA and Asia Pacific region, to be held at City University of Hong Kong in March, 2012.

“After discovering Asnita Hashim, one of the local brightest security expert to hit the international cyber security arena who won third place at the International Students Conference in 2010, the competition returns designed to discover and nurture the next generation to be well-equipped for the future cyber attacks. Her triumphant success in the previous competition means that there is a lot of hidden talents in Malaysia are yet to be noticed. Hopefully, the students in Malaysia would heed this competition as a platform to showcase their talents and knowledge in our universal effort in fighting cyber threats”, said Mr. Jimmy Fong, Channel Sales Director, SEA, Kaspersky Lab.

“We received tremendous feedback from Malaysian students and tertiary education institutions in last year’s Malaysia and Asia Cup. We foresee that we will receive a better response this year as cyber threats has grown and evolved in greater extend in just short period of a year like the industrial attack of Stuxnet and rampant hacking on corporate organizations. As such, we believe that the students across ICT, legal and economy backgrounds have their own distinctive viewpoints on the recent escalating of cyber security issues which could help us to find more alternatives in combating the rise,” added Mr. Jimmy Fong.

The papers submitted will be evaluated and vet through by the program committees chaired by Mr. Eugene Kaspersky, Chief Executive Officer of Kaspersky Lab, together with the Kaspersky Lab experts and university professors.

(From L-R): Ms. Svetlana Efimova, Head of Educational Programs, Kaspersky Lab, Ms. Asnita Hashim, participant from University Technology MARA (Malaysia) and Prof. Dr. Hajah Zainab Abu Bakar, Dean of Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, University Technology MARA (Malaysia) at Kaspersky Lab APAC & MEA Cup 2011 earlier this year. Malaysian Ms. Asnita emerged as second place in the compeitition and she also Malaysia proud by winning third place at International Students Conference in 2010.

The topics, which cover technical, social, economic and legal topics include:-

Technical topics

1. Trends in Anti-Spam Development - Techniques, Methods in the “Spam Arms Race” and new Innovations
   
2. Dangers of an increasingly Networked World
   
3. “In the Cloud”-Security
   
4. Future Technologies for Detecting and Combating Malware (e.g. artificial intelligence, fuzzy systems and p2p-networks)
   

Social, economic and legal topics

1. Emerging Threats (e.g. social network security, embedded systems security, mobile security, online banking security)
   
2. Challenges and Opportunities for IT – Security, Companies within the next 10 Years
   
3. Impact of technologies on Data Protection, Copy and Intellectual Property Rights and Jurisdiction
   
4. Education in IT Security – Trends and Questions
   

The three best papers from Asia Cup will be entitled to compete at the International Cup.

Conference Registration & Paper Submission Dateline:

9 January 2012

Announcement of Result:

6 February 2012

Conference date:

21-23 March, 2012, City University of Hong Kong

To register and submit the papers, kindly visit http://www.kaspersky.com/educational-events/it_security_conference_2012_asia.

Solarwinds Releases Storage Response Time Monitor Free Tool

Server virtualization can greatly improve network efficiency; it can also bring about a variety of new challenges that demand unique responses. SolarWinds® Inc. (NYSE: SWI), a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today announced its latest virtualization and storage free tool – SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor, to help target storage IO problems caused by server virtualization in real time.

“If a user is experiencing a slow response time on a virtual machine (VM), SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor can quickly and easily give a snapshot report into how VMware datastores are performing direct from the user’s desktop in real time,” said Jonathan Reeve, SolarWinds’ Senior Director of Product Management. “Using this data, the user can then determine whether there is a VM issue or if the issue is related to storage.”

SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor connects to VMware vSphere and monitors the top five host to datastore total storage response times, providing users with the top five virtual machines (VM) using the connections from an IO (IOPs) perspective.

For iSCSI and Fibre channel datastore types, SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor breaks down the total response time into “kernel latency” (time spent in the host) and “device latency” (time spent in the SAN).

SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor highlights:

• Get at-a-glance insight into host to datastore connections with the worst response times, and the busiest VMs using those connections
  
• See a breakdown of the datastore including type, and device versus kernel latency to understand if the bottleneck is in the host or the SAN
  

Users that need more insight into storage performance and capacity should download a free trial of SolarWinds Storage Manager, Powered by Profiler to quickly and easily monitor storage performance, isolate hotspots, automate storage capacity planning, map VMs to physical storage, and more.

To gain a comprehensive and historical view of all datastores, users should trial SolarWinds Virtualization Manager.

Used together, SolarWinds Storage Manager and SolarWinds Virtualization Manager integrate to provide unprecedented visibility from the virtualization layer all the way to the underlying physical storage.  

Pricing and Availability

• SolarWinds Storage Response Time Monitor is free and available on the SolarWinds website.
  
• Pricing for SolarWinds Virtualization Manager and SolarWinds Storage Manager start at US$2,995. For more information, visit the SolarWinds website, download a free 30-day evaluation, or call +65 593 7600.

IBM Demonstrates Social Media Analysis Capability in Predicting Economic Trend

IBM is experimenting on using computer-based analysis on social media's content to make predictive data that can help with business decision making.

Many Chief Marketing Officers are recognizing social media platforms as part of business, however, not many actually is exploring the possibility of gaining insights out of social media's content.

A look back at the last 100 years of shoe fashion trends reveals that heel heights soared during the most prominent recessions in U.S. history. Low-heeled flapper shoes in the 1920s were replaced with high-heel pumps and platforms during the Great Depression. Platforms were again revived during the 1970s oil crisis, reversing the preference for low-heeled sandals in the late 1960s. And the low, thick heels of the 1990s “grunge” period gave way to “Sex and the City”-inspired stilettos following the dot-com bust at the turn of the century.

Now, it seems that in the period of economic downturn, consumers are doing away with heels' height, a trend much attributed to austerity drive. So consumers are going for the more plainer and simplier looks.

The analysis was done by filtering all related contents with policy driven algorithms which have ways to rate popularity and accountability and make use of statistic to derive the conclusion.

It is very mathematical based actually, not much sentimental element.

The IBM project illustrates how sophisticated analysis of social media could be used by manufacturers in planning future products, by retailers in choosing which products to stock, and by marketers in planning advertising campaigns.

Social media analytics is also applicable to politics in order for politicians to understand what people want.

Check out 'IBM Social Media Analysis Points to Lower Heels, Bucking Economic Trend' for details.

Brocade Selected as the Core for World’s Largest Single Site Deployment of 100 GbE in a Research Institute

Some high-performance research institutes generate millions of digitized images in the course of a year that require complex algorithms and robust computational horsepower to analyze. Their research demands that the computing environment be ultra-responsive and extremely efficient. Janelia Farm Research Campus, the research facility for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), has turned to Brocade to advance data analysis and transform its network infrastructure to be up to 10 times faster than before.

The high-performance and simplified network architecture has a direct correlation to the effectiveness Janelia Farm scientists gain when analyzing complex volumes of data from their neuroscience and imaging research. With 56-ports of 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) in multiple Brocade MLXe routers powering the network core, the Janelia Farm Research Campus is now the world’s largest single site deployment of 100 GbE in a research institute, significantly increasing operational efficiency for more than 250 staff scientists.

HHMI, a nonprofit medical research organization that ranks as one of the largest philanthropies in the U.S., plays a powerful role in advancing biomedical research and science education. HHMI invests approximately US$770 million in biomedical research per year and has an endowment of $14 billion.

“We have 200 Gigabits connections to each of our network wiring closets,” said Spartaco Cicerchia, director of network infrastructure systems for the Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, VA. “Then we have 10 GbE connections going directly down to researchers’ systems in order to support the massive volumes of data they have collected. This new infrastructure enables our research team to obtain results 10 times faster than before. This performance advantage will allow us to set a new standard for research process cycles.”

With more performance and advanced capabilities often comes complexity. Due to a limited networking staff, the Janelia Farm Research Campus sought to redesign its infrastructure to inherently remove obstacles and create a simplified infrastructure that operates with high reliability.

“We were able to reduce the number of routers in our network infrastructure and simultaneously enhance performance,” said Cicerchia. “Therefore we completely eliminated a layer of the network and improved our overall efficiency by about 50 percent.”

With performance, reliability and massive scalability as the critical factors for success, Janelia Farm Research Campus installed multiple Brocade MLXe-32 and MLXe-16 routers connected using Brocade Multi-Chassis Trunk (MCT) to simplify its data center network and increase resiliency. This advancement enables network-level virtualization and enhanced network reliability while greatly reducing management complexity. From the core, Janelia Farm Research Campus link aggregates or bonds two-ports of 100 GbE to create a single 200 gigabit logical connection allowing line rate bandwidth in both directions. The aggregation routers are two fully populated Brocade MLXe-32 routers with more than 2,400 GbE ports and a large subset of 10 GbE ports.

To ensure maximum performance and security on the research network, Janelia Farm Research Campus partitioned its IP communications and wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure using the Brocade FCX Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) stackable switches.

“For security, best practice design, and to make most efficient use of our bandwidth, we do aggregate the telephones and the wireless access point on a different set of Brocade switches. This has really proven to provide added flexibility and simplicity for us,” said Cicerchia

When evaluating networking vendors, Janelia Farm Research Campus looked at a variety of metrics from price/performance and reliability to the network equipments’ degree of scalability.

“When we decided to undertake this new infrastructure, we looked at several networking providers,” said Cicerchia. “We always try to select best-of-breed when we evaluate vendors. It was our goal to deploy multiple 100 GbE connections to the wiring closet so that we could face upcoming network performance challenges.”

“Major medical and scientific advancements not only better our lives but can have a direct impact on future generations,” said Ken Cheng, vice president, Service Provider Products for Brocade. “The work at Janelia Farm Research Campus is a critical element for medical progress. With the addition of the Brocade MLXe routers and 100 GbE connections, Janelia Farm Research Campus has taken a quantum leap in how networking can help transform science and Brocade is pleased to be a part of it.”