Sunnier Days Ahead for Retailers that Use Cloud Computing

May 14, 2013

Brick-and-mortar retailers have long favored highly visible investments, such as advertising or store design over spending hard-earned income on back-office information technology. In fact, the retail industry devotes only about 1.7% of revenue to IT. Compare that with banking, which spends about 6%.

Big-box and boutique retailers alike see that e-commerce competitors continue to use technology as a means to win on price and selection, and know their customers increasingly use smartphones in-store to compare prices or search for deals.

IBM’s latest Big Data-based retail forecast suggests that some brick-and-mortar retailers are turning the tide against showrooming, a trend in which consumers look at items in a store before ultimately buying them online, usually at lower prices. In order to remain competitive and press their advantage further, brick-and-mortar stores must look to the cloud computing revolution as a way to upgrade their technology without busting their budgets.

Perhaps most important, clouds offer retailers a way to explore the potential of big data analytics to understand their customers better. In order to compete with e-tailers, retailers are tapping social networks to learn what customers are saying about them and about their competitors. Weather data is being used to influence product purchasing decisions, and merchandise promotions are organized around social events.

In many cases, brick-and-mortar retailers are even finding new data sources. Some companies are tracking movement of customers within stores and analyzing how many stop at displays to improve the effectiveness of merchandising. Others are considering installing license-plate cameras in parking lots to find out which customer is about to walk into the store.

All of these innovations make use of massive amounts of data. A cloud based solution, with elastic storage, computing and analytics capability, can make it economically viable for retailers as they dabble with these nascent approaches.

Cloud computing involves a new way of thinking about data. In a cloud, a single server can host many virtual servers, slashing hardware costs. The virtual servers can scale on demand depending on the need for computer capacity. That’s very useful for retailers, whose businesses are notoriously seasonal. Automatically expanding capacity on Black Friday, for example, can reduce lines at checkout counters and ensure quick service.

Further, the retail industry is aided by thousands of specialty software programs that are designed for various niches and needs. The average retail chain uses about 450 such applications — far more than most other industries. Naturally, those software programs get heavy use at certain times while they are shut down at others.

For instance, Planogram software, which lays out how boxes and cans are displayed on shelves, may only run once per month. Order entry systems run during the day and in the evening when shoppers are in stores and online. Inventory replenishment systems run full bore overnight. Frequently, each system is operated by a different part of the corporate organization. Managers order capacity based on the maximum use they anticipate for the system, knowing that it’s hard to expand later because of the need to authorize new capital budgets.

The result is that retailers use only about 10% to 15% of the computer capacity in their data centers. Some 85% is sitting idle at any time. Huge economies of scale could be gained by using the same infrastructure across multiple applications in a cloud-computing architecture.

Companies can either build private clouds in their own data centers, purchase dedicated private clouds hosted by infrastructure providers, or they can move their data and applications to a public cloud used by several different companies and run by infrastructure specialists.

Many companies choose to do both by using a hybrid cloud solution with some applications in the retailers’ own data center and others in the public cloud. In a public cloud, retailers only pay for the capacity they use, just like buying electricity from a public utility. Further, many retail applications can also be rented on a monthly basis as software-as-a-service.

As mobile, social and ecommerce continue to explode in popularity, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers must understand and harness the benefits of cloud computing to optimize the in-store experience, market to the individual and maximize every sale. If they don’t, they risk falling behind their competition.

Vish Ganapathy is the Director and Chief Technologist for IBM’s Global Retail business, and has more than 22 years of consulting experience working with retailers worldwide. Ganapathy particularly focuses on bridging software applications and technology that can enable retailers to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Thanks http://www.wired.com

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AVG: Four Common Myths About the Cloud

May 13, 2013

(This post originally appeared on AVG)

Everyone’s talking about the cloud nowadays so you’ve got to consider it, right?  It enables companies to be more flexible and save on their IT costs.  It allows free and easy access to data for employees from wherever they are, using whatever devices they want to use.    A recent survey by accounting software maker MYOB finds that small businesses that adopt cloud technologies enjoy higher revenues.  Another analysis finds that small businesses are losing money as a result of ineffective IT management that could be much improved by the use of cloud based services.  And another poll of more than 1,200 small businesses by technology reseller CDW found that “…cloud users cite cost savings, increased efficiency and greater innovation as key benefits” and that “…across all industries, storage and conferencing and collaboration are the top cloud services and applications.”

For many companies, particularly startups, small companies, virtual firms and organizations with remote employees, cloud based technologies make a lot of sense.  And it also makes sense that the more popular ones are the ones that provide storage and collaboration –these are easy to setup and not as mission critical. There are a lot of myths about cloud computing in 2013 that just aren’t true.  Here are some of the more common ones I hear from my clients.

 

“It’s cheaper and cost beneficial.”  This may be true if you’re a startup or are migrating to a relatively inexpensive cloud application.  But if you have existing applications and you decide to move your entire organization to a cloud based infrastructure you’ll likely pay about $100 per month per user.  That’s exactly what I’ve been seeing and that’s a lot more expensive than just buying a new server and having an IT guy service it for a few hours a month.  There are many inexpensive cloud based applications but the more robust, the higher the monthly fees. And if you add up the monthly fees over a 5-7 year period and compare it just buying an application you’ll see that you could be likely paying more.  I expect the costs of the cloud to continue to decrease over time, but for now it could be more expensive.

“I can connect anywhere, anytime.”  The reality is you’re not as mobile as you think.  That’s because to use the cloud effectively you need internet access.  And depending on where you are this is easier said than done.  Many places say they offer free Wi-Fi but sometimes it’s so slow it’s almost not worth doing the work.  It’s not uncommon, particularly for a business traveler, to hit dead spots and experience agonizingly slow speeds which can really hurt productivity.  Internet access and speeds continue to improve, but they haven’t caught up with the functionality that a lot of advanced cloud based apps offer.  Many of my clients experience frustration with this.

“My data is less secure.”   If any cloud provider tells you that your data is 100% secure than they’re lying to you.  Nothing is 100%.  But I’m going to bet that your data hosted on their server is way more secure than in your own internal environment.  That’s because successful companies who offer cloud based services and who want to continue being successful build their business models around data connectivity and security.  They will always be using the latest security applications and have more security resources deployed than you could ever hope.  Breaches will happen, but I favor the security of cloud companies over my IT guy.

“My service provider is guaranteeing me a long term, flat, monthly fee.”   True.  For the time being.  But my biggest question about cloud application is how much you will allow your business to become dependent on the cloud provider.  How much are you willing to relinquish control over that “flat monthly fee.”  What if your cloud services provider decides to increase it 10%?  What can you do?  What’s your recourse?  Are you going to move yourself off of their platform and go through the inconvenience of finding another solution?  Or will you opt to self-manage your cloud applications? Nothing ever stands still for long in IT.  Nothing.

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Citrix VDI and virtual desktop solutions from C24

May 13, 2013

Excellent video from Citrix. C24 are a specialist application hosting and delivery organisation that specialises in the delivery of your business applications at speed. The solutions we deliver enable you to log on, anywhere, on any device and at any time. For further information please visit http://www.c24.co.uk

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Where Seconds Matter: Mobile Marketing for Quick-Serve Restaurants

May 10, 2013

Large retailers are used to dealing with big problems. Thousands of stores, millions of customers and billions of transactions. Dealing with that kind of order flow can be a logistics nightmare. How do I staff my stores? When are my peak hours? Do I have to add personnel at the store level to support my new marketing campaign? The problem is exacerbated exponentially when it applies to quick service restaurants (QSR). Not only do you have to manage an influx of customers, they are expecting to be served in less then 5 minutes.

The most forward thinking QSRs are using mobile to manage their transactions. Starbucks is currently handling over 2.1 million mobile payments each week. They added over 1.4 million new members to their loyalty program in the first quarter of 2013. Further, by combining loyalty with tender Starbucks has outpaced their competitors by miles. Customers rewarded Starbucks for making life easier, and loaded over $1B onto gift cards in the most recent holiday quarter.

History has told us that once a bar has been set, consumers expect the competition to rise to the occasion. Coupling location data with mobile payments allows QSRs to do just this.

Integrating location-based marketing and analytics into their mobile application gives QSRs a leg up on managing order flow. Timing is everything in the restaurant world. Make an order too soon and it sits, giving customers a cold experience. Custom orders create more work, creating even longer lines.

Location-based marketing allows QSRs to understand where a customer is in relation to the store. Thus, a customer places an order on a mobile device. Once the patron breaches a 1-mile radius geofence, the order is prepared. Within 5 minutes the customer is in the store, picks up the order and is acknowledged with a “Thank You for Your Business” notification on the way out. In today’s time compressed society, a customer who knows they can patronize a certain store and have their custom order waiting for them, is a repeat customer.

Time saving is just the beginning. QSRs are constantly looking for innovative ways to drive store traffic in off-peak hours. Why not target customers within a 5-mile radius of the store to come in for a 3 p.m. treat on a hot day? Location-based marketing allows QSRs to understand who received the offer, who opened it and what store they went to.

Streamlining order flow, maximizing off-peak hours revenue and tracking marketing campaigns are just a few of the benefits QSRs can receive with Location-based marketing. Get a leg up on the competition, start marketing today.

Thanks to the mobile retail blog

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More Than a Third of Businesses Hit by DDoS Attack in 2012

May 10, 2013

Organizations hoping distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are no longer incidents du jour and are beginning to slow down can think again: there were more attacks in 2012 and they aren’t going away, according to Neustar.

A little over a third, or 35 percent, of organizations in the survey experienced some form of a disruptive DDoS attack in 2012, Neustar found in its second DDoS Survey, released Wednesday. Retailers and e-commerce businesses were among the top three industry sectors being targeted, accounting for 39 percent and 41 percent, respectively, of the attacks in 2012. Financial service organizations, many of whom battled waves of attacks last fall as part of Operation Ababil, were the most targeted, at 44 percent.

Back in February, Neustar surveyed 704 IT professionals in North America how their organizations managed DDoS attacks. When organizations are hit with distributed denial of service attack, organizations generally go into “crisis” mode, as everyone from the IT department to customer service does whatever is necessary to get past the threat.

“The consequences of being unprepared to mitigate a DDoS attack can be crippling to businesses, Alex Berry, a senior vice-president of enterprise services at Neustar, said in a statement.

Slightly more than a quarter of survey participants indicted that DDoS-related outages cost their organizations anywhere between $50 and $100,000 an hour, or up to $2.4 million a day, the study found. About 74 percent of users projected outage costs of $10,000 per hour, or $240,000 a day.

The damage isn’t just revenue loss, however, but “about erosion in trust, brand value, and reputation,” Berry said. Nearly a third of the respondents said DDoS mitigation required time and related expenses of six or more employees.

While large attacks, such as those serious enough to raise the specter of a DDoS Armageddon, grab headlines, more than 70 percent of the attacks were less than 100 Mbps in network size or less than 100 Kpps in packets, Neustar found. Only two percent of the attacks in 2012 approached SpamHaus levels, with more than 20 Gbps of malicious traffic targeting the network.

While about 63 percent of the attacks lasted less than a day, the remainder of the attacks lasted more than 24 hours, with 17 percent going between one and two days. More organizations are seeing attacks that last more than a week, according to the survey.

“A well-crafted, multi-vector attack of just 2Gbps can bring most Websites to their knees,” Neustar said.

While companies are increasingly investigating DDoS protection, they aren’t investing in the right solutions or doing it fast enough. Only 8 percent of IT administrators in Neustar’s survey admitted to not having some kind of protection in place, a dramatic difference from 25 percent reporting no protection last year.

About two-third of the companies use firewalls, routers, and switches to manage DDoS Attacks, the survey found. In fact, Neustar found a 10 percent increase year-over-year in organizations using firewalls, switches, and routers for DDoS defenses. These networking products are not intended to filter out and block an overwhelming volume of malicious traffic, and wind up creating bottlenecks which help the attacks succeed, Neustar said.

“Few have invested in purpose-built hardware or third party expertise,” Neustar said.

via More Than a Third of Businesses Hit by DDoS Attack in 2012: Survey | SecurityWeek.Com.

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Mobile Security: Crunchy on the Outside, Soft on the Inside

May 10, 2013

When we hear of mobile malware (especially on Android) growing 163 percent or infecting 32.8 million devices in 2012, it’s easy to understand why having a security strategy and solution for employee-owned devices is essential. However, what can sometimes get lost, especially for organizations looking to bolster their security posture, is how to prioritize security across your environment.

To be clear: establishing a perimeter defense in your network is important – very important. But if you’re a company that hasn’t already covered the basics, where should you begin? Many companies are now realizing that security is not just about holding the enemy at the gates, it’s also important to understand when the enemy is already within them. A good security posture starts by assuming you are compromised and then asking the hard questions: “Would I even know if I were compromised? What is the enemy doing? How can I stop them once they are inside?”

Security doesn’t start with BYOD – that’s just one aspect of a much larger picture. Should you really be focused on the doors to your house when the foundation is crumbling? Enterprise security shouldn’t be built like an M&M – crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside – it should be crafted more like a jawbreaker – hardened from the inside out. Of course, you want everything hardened, but you can’t tackle all aspects of your infrastructure at once. You need to prioritize based on risk and value. Attackers are after intellectual property and they have a particular appetite for credentials to help them come and go as they please. Build concentric circles of defense starting with your critical infrastructure, then extend to your application and database servers, and then encompass other sensitive systems like finance and your highest risk end-user systems (e.g., remote users, publicly accessible systems, etc.).

Also, what is a perimeter these days? When it comes to securing mobile devices and cloud computing, your corporate assets are being accessed from around the world, in Internet Cafes and homes, and by devices that don’t travel through any “known” perimeter (3G/LTE networks, etc.). Authors of advanced malware are currently targeting endpoints and servers with more regularity than mobile devices. Mobile attacks tend to be focused on small financial gains, not stealing intellectual property. So what we saw in the past with hackers changing dial-up modem settings to expensive toll lines and pocketing the cash, we now see with mobile hacking and expensive premium SMS messages; cybercrime – not cyberespionage.

Mobile devices still represent security vulnerabilities because of the unprotected credentials and company documents they store. The data on these mobile devices could always be used in more advanced attacks on desktops or servers in the future. So it should be part of your strategy to secure employee-owned devices that are not under your primary control. All I’m saying is start at the center where the data and systems are easily identifiable and there are proven technologies that exist to stop advanced threats from executing in your environment. As you extend your security layers, you will be left with a security posture that’s more sour than sweet for cyberattackers.

via Mobile Security: Crunchy on the Outside, Soft on the Inside | Bit9 Blog.

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Mass marketing vs personalisation (infographic)

May 9, 2013

85 percent of us know that websites track their online shopping behavior, a new report from ecommerce optimization company Monetate says, and 75 percent of us want retailers to use our personal information to customize our shopping experiences.

That’s going back to the future, according to Monetate: going back to a time when all commerce was personal.

But there is a yin and a yang here.

While we may want personalized experiences, and we want websites to be smart — to know us, essentially, and act as an intelligent, solicitous person might — privacy is part of the picture. A good third of us don’t want our website activity tracked, and a quarter of us don’t want the websites we shop to personalize our experience at all.

Monetate has four tips for online retailers:

  1. Use marketing automation technology and big data to assist with personalization
  2. Target segments with relevant content based on what you know about them
  3. Don’t think of channels, think of customers first
  4. Be in it for the long haul, not the quick win

All the data, in visual form:

Personal-Mass-Marketing-Infographic_FINAL
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/07/mass-marketing-vs-personalization-infographic/#qItF8VoBijgGBY1R.99

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Infographic: Big Data Makes a Big Impact

May 7, 2013

big data english thumb

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New Internet Explorer Zero-Day Exploited in Watering Hole Attack Campaign

May 7, 2013

Attackers are targeting a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer in a campaign that has hit as many as 10 different websites, including the U.S. Department of Labor site.

Originally thought to be exploiting CVE-2012-4792, the attackers are now known to be targeting a previously unknown vulnerability in certain versions of IE. According to Microsoft, the vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 8, and IE 6, 7, 9 and 10 are not impacted.

“This is a remote code execution vulnerability,” Microsoft explained in an advisory. “The vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.”

“On completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs,” according to the advisory.

According to AlienVault, the list of affected sites spans from the Department of Labor site to sites belonging to several non-profit groups and institutes as well as a European company involved in the aerospace, defense and security industries.

Researchers from CrowdStrike said the attack campaign may have begun in mid-March. Their analysis of logs from the malicious infrastructure used in this campaign showed the IP addresses of the visitors to the compromised sites belonged to 37 different countries.

“The legitimate sites compromised to deliver malicious code in this campaign give an indication into targets of interest,” blogged Matt Dahl, senior threat researcher at CrowdStrike. “The specific Department of Labor website that was compromised provides information on a compensation program for energy workers who were exposed to uranium. Likely targets of interest for this site include energy-related US government entities, energy companies, and possibly companies in the extractive sector.”

“Based on the other compromised sites other targeted entities are likely to include those interested in labor, international health and political issues, as well as entities in the defense sector,” he blogged.

Microsoft urged anyone worried about the attack to upgrade to the most current versions of the browser, which are not vulnerable to the attack.

“We also encourage folks to exercise caution when visiting websites and avoid clicking suspicious links, or opening email messages from unfamiliar senders,” blogged Dustin Childs, group manager for response communications for trustworthy computing at Microsoft.

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Kinsa launches a smartphone-connected thermometer to create a real-time health map

April 29, 2013

SUMMARY:New York-based Kinsa is trying to create a real-time picture of the country’s health with a smartphone and a simplified digital thermometer.

If you want a real-time picture of the country’s health, you can check out Google Flu Trends or insights from social media. And if you want a more official perspective, you can turn to the Centers for Disease Control. But getting information that is both real-time and accurate is tricky business.

That’s where Kinsa comes in. Launched Wednesday at the Demo Mobile andTEDMED conferences, the New York-based startup wants to create a real-time picture of the country’s health by using smartphones and simplified digital thermometers.

“Today, I can know what my friend’s dog at for breakfast, but I have so little insight into the health situation around me,” said founder and CEO Inder Singh. “We’re creating… a real-time map of human health [to] keep families and neighborhoods healthy.”

Building on technology developed by entrepreneur and investor Edo Segal and others, Kinsa developed a thermometer that plugs directly into a smartphone’s earphone jack. (Singh said they focused on the thermometer because a fever is often the first sign of illness.) Because it connects with a smartphone, it doesn’t include batteries, processors or an LCD, which means the device is cheaper and lighter than other digital thermometers.

After downloading the Kinsa app, users can see their temperature on the smartphone screen, as well as log other symptoms and share the information with a doctor, family or a private group.

Over time, as the thermometer gains traction, the company’s hope is that it can provide individuals, doctors, public health officials and health companies with better data on where and when illnesses are spreading, as well as inform next steps. For example, it could let individuals and doctors know about possible illnesses in the area. Or, it could enable pharmaceutical companies understand where and when their products might be most in demand.

But even before the company amasses a critical volume of data, early adopters will already be able to use the app to track a child’s symptoms and then share them with the doctor or create a private group to share information and check the health status of others in the group. For example, Singh said, parents could create a group for a child’s class and anonymously view illnesses among classmates.

Users who don’t want to join a private group can consult a map to view the “health weather” in their area, which is a report that combines data from Kinsa with public health data from other sources.  The app also includes features for calling a nurse with one tap and forecasting when you’re likely to be contagious and when you’ll likely recover.

The startup, which has raised $2 million, expects the thermometer to become available later this year, after receiving FDA clearance.  Initially, the company plans to sell the thermometer at a price comparable to other digital thermometers ($15 – $20) but, as penetration grows, they plan to drop the price.

To build buzz around the product, Kinsa also launched an Indiegogo campaign on Wednesday, with a goal of raising $75,000.

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