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V O L U M E 3 1 , N U M B E R 2 I M A R C H 2 0 1 5I T W O R L D C A N A D A . C O M

H E P U L S E O F C A N A D A ' S I C T C O M M U N I T Y

IT MANAGEMENTSTYLE

Executives reveal how their management stylehelps them keep on top of technology trends

and workplace issues

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AGENDAO P I N I O N S A N D C O M M E N T A R Y

SUBSCRIBEElements of ITmanagement styleRecently, considerable security concerns wereraised when reports came out that HillaryClinton used her own email-server at home insending out emails when she was serving asU.S. secretary of state.While Clintons actions have been characterized as an

example of shadow IT in high places, in his article on thismonths Computing Canada, Shane Schick points out that itsreally more a case of VIP IT" - people in a position of powerand privilege who flout IT policies.As a CIO or IT manager, how would you respond to an

executives circumvention of company policies especially whensuch actions create security risks or undermine compliance ofother workers to best practices?Youll find the answer to that and other IT management

questions in the following pages.

We talked with different IT leaders about how they employtheir own management style in dealing with various issuesranging from rolling out new technology, to recruiting andtraining staff, to enforcing security policies and yes dealingwith VIP IT as well.

Guess who turned up at a recent CIO Association of Canadaevent?Amir Johnson, starting forward for the Raptors, was a

special guest at a CIOCAN dinner in Toronto. One of the fewcagers who really knows his way around Facebook, Twitter,

YouTube and other channels, Amir shares some social mediatips that can very useful for IT professionals as well.

Computing Canada explores how a new discipline calledstrategic foresight can help chief security offi cers and riskmanagers deal with rapidly evolving threats.

Kevin Pashuk, CIO of Appleby College in Oakville, Ontarioand a regular ITWC blogger, talks about why IT leaders shouldfocus more on improving user experience in his piece Its timeto change the way IT is done.

Nestor Arellano


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CONTENT CLOUD:MARCH 2015Follow the tag reference to the indicatedpage. In our electronic version, simplytouch or click the tag to be transportedto the story.

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5 COOL DEVICESFEATURED ATMOBILE WORLDCONGRESS 2015The newest and coolest mobile deviceswere on exhibit at the Mobile World Con-gress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Heres a quick look at some of the lat-

est smart phones and tablets that wowedpeople at the event.

ON AIR:WAYNE BERGER, COUNTRYMANAGER, REGUS CANADABerger discusses how Regus is adoptingto a workplace transformed by technol-ogy and a new generation of workers



FROM OUR BLOGGERS

Every month bloggers on ITWorldCanada.com sound offon a wide range of issues. If you missed their columns,heres excerpts from a few, with links to the complete blog:

CONTAINERIZED CLOUDCOMPUTING THE NEXTBIG THING?DON SHEPPARD

Cloud computing is nolonger a simple conceptor a single solution ithas rapidly evolved intoa new and significantly

expanded IT ecosystem. Competi-

tion among cloud providers is intenseon many fronts, and yet many of theinnovations seem to be older ideasre-visited.

Perhaps youve been wondering - what re-ally is the next big thing in cloud computing?Could Docker be the answer?

Read the entire blog here

DARKTRACE: THE ENTERPRISEIMMUNE SYSTEMMICHAEL BALL

Systems monitoring po-tential network threatshave become sterile andmonotonous, but Dark-trace reminded me of

the tools seen in Minority Report.The company touts itself to be yourenterprise immune system - itlearns like the human bodys im-mune system, which has an under-standing of self or what belongs oris normal, versus harmful foreignbodies like bacteria or viruses.


EXCITING TIMES AHEADFOR IBM IN 2015CHRIS LAU

Due to its massive size,IBM has trouble grow-ing. In 2014, it divesteda number of large busi-nesses that did not fit

its strategic profile. The big divesti-ture last year was the semiconductor

manufacturing unit. But 2015 shouldprove an exciting year for IBM.Heres why...


IS DATA MODELLINGREALLY DEAD?

YOGI SCHULZIf your Agile softwaredevelopment is deliver-ing less functionality orproducing more defects

in each iteration, then your Agileproject team probably believes thatdata modelling is really dead or irrel-evant.




FROM OUR BLOGGERS

7 STEPS TO BECOMINGAN IT MANAGERSTEPHEN ABRAHAM

Are you ready to takeIT to the next level?

You've been workingin IT for several yearsnow, and have mastered

almost all the aspects of your job.You have been given increasinglyresponsible roles and you've receivedoutstanding performance reviews.

You are an excellent developer, aneffective business analyst, a skillednetwork technician or a superior

QA analyst. Now you want to takethe next step on the ladder to be-come a manager.

Here are 7 steps to help you achieve your goalof becoming an IT manager.


MICROSOFT CANADAPRESIDENT: 'WERE DEEPLYCOMMITTED TO OPENNESS'BRIAN CLENDENIN

Cloud applications areoften preferred by endusers for ease of use, butthey also desire harmo-nious co-existence with

Microsofts foundational productivity

tools of Outlook and Offi ce.Janet Kennedy, president of Microsoft Can-ada knows intimately what this means for ITstrategy development in Canadian organiza-tions.


CIO LEADERSHIPFUNDAMENTALS:STRATEGY COMES FIRSTGARY DAVENPORT

In an attempt to provide

more direct insightsinto the world of theCIO from a laymansperspective, here is the

initial blog in a series on CIO Lead-ership Basics.

The first thing a CIO should remember is todefine their own strategy for moving their or-ganization forward in a productive and positivemanner to best leverage the power of digital

technologies.


HOMOGENEOUS IS GOODIF IT'S MILK, BAD IF IT'SINNOVATIONKEVIN PASHUK

One of the key tools ofsafe IT leadership is theconcept of standard-ization, or homogene-ity. Homogeneity is the

state of conformity. For example,milk from various sources is mixedtogether to become homogeneous sothat every sip will taste consistent.



7/26

Our annual CanadianCIO Census is here.

And, were reaching out to you to participate

in the only survey report that looks at whatCanadianCIOs are seeing, thinking, and planning.

It takes only minutes to answer these questions.

The result we pool our experiences and share our

wisdom with our community. The benefits we all get

from the information lasts throughout the year.

If you didn't participate in previous iterations,

your voice was missing. And you were not able to

benefit from the shared wisdom of your colleaguesor from the insights that come from knowing what

challenges others are facing or which technologies

they are adopting. To review last years findings,

CLICK HERE

Be a part of this and we all benefit. All participants

will receive a complimentary copy of the full report

and a $20 Tim Horton's gift card.

SPONSORED BYIN PARTNERSHIP WITHPRODUCED BY

SURVEY 2015 NOW OPEN

PARTICIPATE TODAY

Benchmarking the IT Functionand CIO Role in Canada

CanadianCIO Census

PARTICIPATE IN THE SURVEY NOW



NEWSI N B R I E F

BLACKBERRYOPENSSOFTWARETREASUREBOXBlackBerry has takena major step in its evo-lution as a company

by opening up its pro-ductivity and securitysoftware and solutionsto other mobile plat-forms.

With the launch ofthe BlackBerry Ex-perience Suite, thecompany brings itsproductivity, commu-

nication, collaborationand security software

solutions to iOS, An-droid, and Windowsdevices.

The move is an ex-tension of a strategicshift for BlackBerry,which had viewed itssecurity solutions,

and tools such asBBM, as competitivedifferentiators thatcould help drive cus-tomer stickiness for itssmartphones. Black-Berry may now see therevenue potential ofbringing its BlackBerryExperience Suite to

other vendors as morecompelling.

FREAKINGNEW SSLFLAWThe Heartbleed vulner-ability revealed thatthere can be problemsin the OpenSSL/TLSencryption the world

takes for granted insecuring HTTPS con-nections.

Now comes wordof another flaw calledFREAK (Factoring At-tack on RSA-EXPORTKeys vulnerabilityor CVE-2015-0204),which has Apple,

Google and Web siteowners scrambling

to plug. The bug candowngrade strongencryption to a weakerversion that can becracked.

The bug has for yearsmade users of Apple(iPhone and Mac OS

X) and Google Androiddevices vulnerable tohacking when they vis-ited millions of suppos-edly secure Web sites,including sensitiveAmerican sites such asWhitehouse.gov, NSA.gov and FBI.gov.

More than one writer

has noted the ironythat NSAs public Web



NEWSI N B R I E F

site is (was?) one of thevulnerable sites.

CLOUD-

BASED BES12LOOMING INTHE HORIZONBlackBerry is aiming toexpand its enterprisemobile management(EMM) business intothe small and mediumsize business realmby launching a cloud

version of its BES12technology.

At the Mobile WorldCongress in Barce-lona, the Waterloo,Ont.-based phonemaker announced anew cloud-based EMMsolution designed tomanage iOS, Android,

Windows Phone,Samsung Knox, An-droid for Work andBlackBerry 10 smartphones and tablets.The solution will bereleased this month.

The on-prem BES12allows administratorsto manage employees

iPhones, Android andBlackBerry devicesover cover networks.BES12 Cloud is gearedtowards enterpriseslooking to manage mo-bile devices, protecttheir corporate dataand enable employeeproductivity. The com-

pany also said that thecloud version contains

the core functional-ity of the on-premiseversion but providesgreater ease in man-

agement and is gearedtowards SMBs thathave limited resourcesbut want to obtainand enterprise-gradeEMM, according to thecompany.

HP NEWBRITE BOX

OPENNETWORKSWITCHESHewlett-Packardhas launched a newline of open networkswitches adding to thegrowing assortment ofwhite box componentsgeared to the soft-

ware-defined network-ing (SDN) trend. Theproducts are amongthe first in the industryin the emerging newcategory of brandedwhite box switchesknown as "brite box"switches.

Gartner has de-

scribed brite boxswitches as a newcategory that com-bines some charac-teristics of brandedswitches and whitebox switches.

HPs new line of opennetwork switches forthe data center will

provide Web scaleorganizations and

service providersmore flexibility andcontrol of their datacenter networks to

power cloud, mobile,social media and bigdata workloads. HPwill deliver these newnetwork switches toWeb scale data centercustomers throughits partnerships withAccton TechnologyCorporation and Cu-

mulus Networks.

WDSPERSONALCLOUDSTORAGE FORPROSStorage solution ven-dor WD, a division ofWestern Digital, has

launched four new net-work attached storage(NAS) solutions thatallow creative profes-sionals, prosumersand small businessusers to accesstheir files anywhere,through the cloud.

WD has expanded its

My Cloud Expert Seriesof NAS systems withtwo new models de-signed for creative pro-fessionals and prosum-ers that need the abilityto save, share, back up,stream and managelarge amounts of data.The My Cloud EX2100

and MyCloud EX4100are two and four-bay

systems respectivelyand are powered by thedual-core Marvell Ar-mada processor. They

offer high read/writespeeds for simultane-ous, high-performanceHD media streamingand up to 24 TB of stor-age capacity.

ITIL PROVIDERAXELOS TOLAUNCH

CYBERSECURITY,AGILE SKILLSPROGRAMAxelos, which providesprofessional qualifica-tions including the ITservice managementbest practices ITIL (In-formation Technology

Infrastructure Library),said it will launch anew cyber resiliencecertificate and publishbest practice guidanceon how to combineAgile methods such asScrum with good gov-ernance and projectmethodology PRINCE2

(Projects In ControlledEnvironments 2).

Axelos is also work-ing on continuingprofessional develop-ment (CPD) whichis meant to keep ITprofessionals skillsup-to-date. The CPDprogram will also

launch in the secondhalf of the year.


10/26

By Aleem Mohummed, Program Management, TELUS

Business collaboration is not new and neither

are its benefits. For decades organizations

have sought ways to better connect employees

with their peersboth wi thin and outside the

organizationin order to more effectively

share ideas, fuel innovation, enhance

productivity, and ultimately improve business.

In fact, it can be said that the speed of innovation

closely mirrors the efficiency and immediacy of

collaboration. As a result, a new collaboration

environment and tools have emerged that take

advantage of unified communications, chat, mobility

and video technologies. These further enhance

employees ability to work together while at the same

time improving communications with customers and

partners. Still, despite the well-recognized benefits of

current collaboration technologies, many Canadian

businesses continue to struggle to keep pace with

thema problem exacerbated by the bring-your-own-

device (BYOD) reality that business must contend with.

In many ways, this is an economic challenge more

than a technology one. Since the global economic

downturn of 2008 and 2009, Canadian businesses

already heavily CAPEX focused when compared with

Lifting collaboration

to new heights:Leveraging the cloud to make collaborationmore flexible, agile, and cost-effective

SPONSORED CONTENT


11/26

their counterparts in the U.S. and other regions

have been more reluctant to jump on best-of-breed

technologies, wary of the impact a significant

investment will have on cash flow. No business wants

to risk being caught in another economic downturnwithout the funds to weather the storm; however, the

result of this approach for many businesses is being

tied to aging technology, and stifled innovation and

competitiveness.

So how does an organization faced with relentless

two-year cycles of new collaboration tools and

technology keep competitive amidst ever-tightening

purse strings? After all, top-notch collaboration tools

enable greater revenue generation, but they dont

directly generate revenue.

ENTER CLOUD COLLABORATION

Looking to the cloud

Just as cloud has revolutionized and disrupted storage

and other IT resources, it does the same in the

collaboration arena. A cloud collaboration environmentprovides organizations with the ability to manage costs

in a predictable fashion based on users (or seats)

and featuresallowing them to pay for capabilities

only when needed and eliminating the overbuilding of

infrastructure to support potential future needs.

Cloud-based collaboration also supports

emerging BYOD environments by offering platform

independence. This affords employees the freedom

to collaborate from any tablet, PC, smartphone or

browser of choice, an increasingly critical component

of inter- and intra-office productivity and connectivi ty.

It supports rapid exchange of ideas between staff,

management, and even partners and customers,

all while freeing up IT from the management of the

plethora of devices and the infrastructure.

In a cloud environment, upgrades to maintain best-

in-class collaboration and communications features

are continuous and software-based. Again, this

offloads the burden from already cash-strapped IT

budgets and frees up resources to focus on issues

core to the business. Ideally, in fact, upgrades in a

cloud collaboration environment can (and should) be

managed to be as seamless to employees as possible.

From an economic perspective, cloud collaboration

doesnt simply reduce CAPEX. Operating costs

related to maintenance are also decreased. Consider

that most environments with 100 or more employees

must dedicate a resource that spends 30 to 40 per

cent of his or her time managing telephony and its

collaboration features.

With such benefits, interest is significant.A 2013

study by Forrester determined that two-thirds of

businesses plan to leverage the cloud to either

replace (26 per cent) or complement (41 per

cent) their existing collaboration tools. As such,

solutions must embrace a hybrid approach that brings

the efficiencies of cloud, while integrating fully with

existing infrastructure.

And despite s ignificant savings and the benefits of

predictable costs, many of the businesses turning to

cloud collaboration are doing so for its other business

boons. Forrester research found implementationspeed and flexibility both topped costs as motivators

to adopting cloud collaboration. Attitudes around

cloud collaboration, like those broadly around cloud,

are maturing. In fact, implementation speed, the ability

to focus resources on other projects, improved agility,

faster upgrades, and greater innovation are becoming

top of mind.

CLOUD COLLABORATION CONSIDERATIONS

Like any solution, not all cloud collaboration solutions are

equal. A few considerations are crucial when migrating

to cloud collaboration and selecting a cloud partner.

Flexibility:One-size does not fit all employees.

Different executives and employees rightly have

different collaboration needs that any successful

collaboration platform must meet. For example, most

executives, sales representatives and other road

PRODUCED BY


12/26

warriors use multiple mobile devices and require vastly

different services than a static workstation sitting in a

warehouse. Effective cloud collaboration must meet all

specific needs and, importantly, at different price points

to ensure the most cost-effective service.

Infrastructure:Similarly, infrastructure needs

vary from business to business and over time as

businesses develop new models. For this reason, a

hybrid cloud-based SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)

approach is important as it offers the option of

using dedicated servers or shared infrastructure that

leverage economies of scale. For those with client

data residency concernslocation requirements

based on privacyservers located in Canada are

another important consideration.

Resiliency and reliability:Elements of infrastructure

that cannot be overlooked are those of reliability

and resiliency. What is the cloud providers history?

Is the solution backed by a top-notch service level

agreement? Does the provider offer the safety and

security of Tier-3 data centres and geo-resiliency?

Few businesses can afford to have their abi lity to

work and communicate grind to a halt as the result

of disaster. The solution should strengthen business

continuity, not introduce new risks.

Expertise:One of the advantages of turning to

cloud collaboration is removing the complexity (and

associated costs) from managing the communications

and collaboration platform. What management

expertise does the cloud provider bring? Are the

resources replacing internal staff fully-trained andcertified? Do they have access to the latest advances

and solutions?

Armed with a cloud collaboration solution from a

provider that provides the right answers to those

issues, theres no longer any reason for organizations

to be tethered to legacy systems and obsolete

collaboration features. Employees can become more

effective, productive and efficient, customers can

be better served, and business continuity can be

strengthenedall with reduced capital expenditure. All

thanks to the cloud.

For more information, please visit

telus.com/cloudcollaboration

SPONSORED CONTENT

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH



ANALYSIS

What CIOs shoulddo about the HillaryClintons in their livesBY SHANE SCHICK

She didnt have to be one of the most fa-mous women in the world for CIOs torecognize her type. Hillary Clinton could be

any woman -- or any man with enough powerand privilege to feel shes above the law. Or atleast above the organizations IT policies.

A story by the Associated Press which said theformer U.S. Secretary of State was essentially

running her own e-mail server from her homehas

raised considerable questions about securityand federal record-keeping laws. Though at leastone expert suggests this was more a question ofa hosted domain name than an actual serverinher basement, Clintons behaviour suggeststhat its not just everyday employees who arechoosing their own cloud-based services forprofessional purposes. Yet to call this shadow IT,as many are doing, is missing an essential dif-ference involving Clintons authority. This isnt

shadow IT. This is VIP IT.

Im An Exception

Anyone who has worked in any large organiza-tion, or even for a small business, knows there arealways higher-ups who believes the rules dontapply to them. This can include everything fromwhat they claim as a business expense to howmuch time they take off for personal reasons.Technology, which provides so many convenienc-

es, luxuries and opportunities to gain advantageover others, is just another perk to be abused.

In this case, abuse might go too far. Thevarious reports suggest Clinton and her staffwere managing some of her email remotelyand through third party managed servicesfirms to protect the privacy of communica-

tions. Still, I can think of any number of waysCEOs and other senior executives could ratio-nalize a decision to circumvent policies thatCIOs have gone at pains to create and imple-ment across an organization.

The problem with IT VIPs

VIP IT is worse than shadow IT because it con-veys a sense of entitlement to which others willaspire. Just as IT experts will always say you

need support from the top to get a successfulproject pushed through, flouting IT policies bythe CEO or someone in a similar role sets a tone.Its a tone that says, You dont have to take theCIO that seriously.

For years now, I have suspected that one of thereal catalysts that driven bring-your-own-device(BYOD) programs into Canadian organizations isnot a desire to be an employer of choice or tohelp staff feel more empowered, but to appease

CEOs who wonder why they cant connect theiPad Air they just bought to the network.

Two Tactics To Take

Theres only two ways I can think of to deal withVIP IT. One is to manage up and convince theHillary Clinton in your life that what they aredoing puts the organization in greater jeopardythan whatever benefit they are enjoying. Thatsthe hardest route, and it probably requires either

a CIO who feels they can be brutally honest, orone who feels they will have the backing of othersenior leaders.

The other way to manage VIP IT is to makeit public. That may not have been possible orprudent in Clintons case, but in many orga-nizations its probably better to acknowledgethat being in the C-suite means you are trustedwith a greater degree of flexibility than IT poli-cies that must be obeyed by admin staff. The

disgruntlement may still be there, but at leasttheres a layer of honesty.



CAREER WATCH

How a counterintelligenceprogram can help your company

fend off a cyber-attackBY SHANE SCHICK

A

n attempted cyber-attack against L-3Communications that was thwarted

with the assistance of the Canadiangovernment is an example of how criminalsare coming at companies through unexpectedroutes, according to the firms vice-presidentof corporate security.

Speaking at a session of the Conference Boardof Canadas recent event on insider threats inOttawa, Level 3s Vincent Jarvie told the audi-ence he couldnt provide many details about theattempted attack, except that it involved doing

an end run around the company, which sellssystems to the space industry.

We have more problems with our contractorsthan our staff. You need to know who your keysuppliers are, and to educate them (about pos-sible dangers), he said. We found out that anadversary was interested in one of our prod-ucts, so instead of targeting us they started hit-ting our suppliers. Only because we educatedthem were they attuned to that activity. We

actually worked with the Canadian governmentto stop the threat, but it was cross-border.

Jarvie said the incident brought home the im-portance of establishing what he called a coun-terintelligence program to learn as much as

possible about potential risks to an organizationin order to mitigate them. This can make work-ing with members of an IT department, includ-ing the CIO, somewhat challenging, he added,because threats can encompass a wide range offactors that may involve physical security andhuman nature as much as software.

Partnering with IT is a pain in the neck, hesaid. They think the solution to everything isones and zeroes. Thats only part of the solution.

On the other hand, Jarvie said he has createda organizational structure at L-3 that effec-tively combines tech talent with other areasof expertise. He reports into the ISPs COO aswell as its CEO, and a staff of seven who reportinto him directly. This includes half a personwho spends 50 percent of their time acting asthe companys CISO, but who spends the re-mainder working for Level 3s CIO. Althoughthis could sound like a constrained use of

resources, Jarvie said it can be helpful to have astaff member with a foot in both areas.



CAREER WATCH

People lie at heartof successfulmanagement styleBY DANNY BRADBURY

One thing lies at the core of a successfulmanagement style, said experts inter-viewed by Computing Canada: a collabor-

ative approach that puts people at its heart. RonStinson, CIO of Vancouver-based visual effectshouse Rainmaker Entertainment, said that hetreats each person as a subject matter expert intheir area of responsibility, with the authority tomake decisions there. He also offers them the

chance to talk to him and collaborate on tech-nology solutions to business problems.

The big benefit of that is that it makes every-one an owner, he said. When someone takesownership of what they do, theyre more com-mitted, and they want to succeed, which makesthe company succeed.

Making sure that individuals do what theyregood at is a crucial part of Jories Timmers man-agement strategy. The CIO at BC Hydro subsid-

iary wholesale energy trader Powerex, dividesIT roles into projects, and operations. Typically,operations staff are firefighters, who keep sys-tems running and deal with prob-lems, he explains. Although somepeople are happy to keep workingin operations, most would eventu-ally like to move into projects, Tim-mers believes.

Whenever I combined the roles

of ops and project work in one teamor person, it failed, because the opswork is unpredictable and neverending, so the project work suf-fers, he said.

What has worked best is to havededicated teams for ops and proj-ects, and to provide specific opspeople some non-critical projects,so they are not only in the firefight-

ing mode, he added. This not onlykeeps operations running smoothly,

but also provides a career path to move from op-erations to project-based work.

Note that some of those projects might be toimprove the ops processes, fix underlying prob-lems or collecting better KPIs, so it will make the

ops work easier, he concluded.In the 3.5 years she has spent building a solid

IT team at waterpark attraction manufacturerWhiteWater, director of IT Carmen Plesch hasalso focused on giving staff responsibility. I amnot a specialist in anything. I empower themto do what they are good at, and this way I cancover way more territory and accomplish waymore, she said.

Plesch doesnt necessarily recruit subject mat-

ter experts, though. She looks for people withinitiative to change what they think isnt work-ing, rather than relying on some external eventto happen. Hire young people who have theright attitude and then grow them into the rightroles, she said, adding that she has a strongteam now, but she played a long game whilebuilding it, waiting for the right people.

Plesch evaluates technology by mapping itto touchpoints where the company can deliver

value to customers. "Every business systemmust be aligned with one of our corporategoals," she said.


16/26

TELECOMWATCH

BY SHANE SCHICK

E

ven if they never watch Dragons Den,most CIOs could probably see some

similarities to what they and venturecapitalists do.

Like VCs, CIOs get pitched by all kinds ofcompanies to take an interest in their productsand services. Like VCs, they need to separatethe hype from the value. Like VCs, they arehighly accountable for the decisions they makeabout what companies are worth the invest-ment and which are not. No wonder so manypeople think CIOs and VCs could learn from

each other, that CIOs should apply VC bestpractices and even that CIOs will start to look alot like VCs.

I want to suggest an alternative theory, onethat doesnt deviate too far from what othersare saying but which I think reflect more aboutwhat CIOs really do.

Introducing venture buildersIn a recent post on VentureBeat, Ali Diallo

discusses the emergence of a very different kind

of organization within Silicon Valley that showsa remarkably pragmatic approach to turn-ing innovative ideas into real organizations.Theyre called venture builders.

Unlike incubators and accelerators, venturebuilders dont take any applications, nor dothey run any sort of competitive programthat culminates in a Demo Day. Instead,they pull business ideas from withintheir own network of resources and as-

sign internal teams to develop them(engineers, advisors, business devel-opers, sales managers, etc.).

. . . Venture builders developmany systems, models, or projects atonce and then build separate com-panies around the most promisingones by assigning op-erational resources andcapital to those port-

folio companies.The thing is,

there is a vast difference between taking anequity stake in an organization and merelycoming on board as a customer. VCs are deep-

ly invested in their portfolio companies notmerely from a financial perspective but interms of helping hire and fire leaders, givingguidance on business models and go-to-mar-ket strategies. CIOs have a job to do and oncethey have achieved the right balance of riskand reward, they simply want a good partnerwho will provide good results for their organi-zation, not necessarily other customers.As CIOs are increasingly constrained by

budgets and human resources, I think venturebuilders might be a better role model to fol-low. As a sort of startup to build other startups,they remind me of what todays IT departmentis challenged to do: solve business challengesby cobbling together an appropriate mix of ven-dors and technologies. Just as a venture builderis a new kind of holding company, a CIOs teamis becoming much more involved in applyingits expertise to the customization and manage-

ment of disparate IT components, particularlyfrom an on-demand perspective.

CIOs still arent providing startups capital(other than one-time or subscription fees)but they certainly provide a lot of intellec-tual capital to promising suppliers in terms

of what works well in their organization ortheir industry.

CIOs are not venture capitalist

16 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com



TELECOM WATCH

ITS TIME TOCHANGE THEWAY ITIS DONEBY KEVIN PASHUK

The best advice I ever receivedwhen I was looking to starta consulting business was

this: To guarantee success, find aneed, and fill it.

On occasion, an organizationwill come up with a game chang-ing product and redefine a wholeindustry, such as RIM in the early

days, replacing pagers with emailanywhere, and Apple with itsiPhone and iPad, which brought smartdevices to the masses. But for the mostpart, the businesses that thrive are thosewho have mastered the ability to identifya need and fulfill it.

In my role as a CIO, I get to preview andtry a lot of different devices, softwareapplications, and computer hardware. I

admit that much of what I see leaves meunderwhelmed, like the array of slate de-vices that have come my way recently.

I also know that I would never, ever rec-ommend that my parents use one of theseother slate devices.

No one will deny that Apple has madea huge impact with the iPad. Even if youare not an Apple fan, you cant deny thedevice is simple to use. I can hand mine

to a 3-year old and she will flick andswipe at the screen like a pro to find hergames and books.

I got an iPad for my parents (who are intheir eighties). A week later, they wanted tobuy a second one so they dont fight overwho gets to use it. These devices haveopened up a whole new world of opportunityand discovery from the comfort of their La-Z-Boy recliners.

The iPad comes with the Apple ecosys-tem. The iPad, while intuitive to use, is like

celery - designed to move the dip (or inthis case the experience) from the bowl toyour mouth. A lot of the other devices arelike celery without the dip. The experienceruns out of steam pretty quickly.

Not to quote yet another s aying bySteve Jobs, but the following is fit-

ting of the streamlined user expe-rience and device capabilities ofthe iPad:

Youve got to start with the cus-

tomer experience and work back-

wards for the technology. (WWDC

1997)

So what can an IT leader learn

from this?It would seem that many of us in

IT leadership missed the lesson on custom-er experience: We have a service catalogue, but havenever defined what a successful experiencewould look like. We ask our users to use products and ser-vices that we ourselves would never incor-porate into our own department.

We launch new technology initiativeswithout ever consulting the people whowill actually have to use the new system. We get defensive when we are ques-tioned about missing functionality or dis-missive when new features are suggestedthat we didnt think of. And on and on...

Its time to change the way IT is done inyour organization.

Dust off your service catalogue; sitdown with your team. Take each of theseservices and discuss what a successfuluser experience would look like. Its notabout whats most convenient for yourteam, but what would make the userexperience the best it could possibly be.Talk about how you are going to make ithappen. Then do it.

If you start at the end, you are leverag-

ing proven wisdom for running a successfulorganization.

Kevin Pakush,

CIO, ApplebyCollege



SECURITYWATCH

Rogers loses some business

customer info in breach

Latest attackstrategy: Createsubdomains todeliver malwareIT security professionals needto be on the lookout for signstheir organizations domainshave been hijacked with thediscovery of a new exploit kitthat delivers malware throughads to unsuspecting Web sitevisitors,

Organizations particularly atrisk are those using GoDaddy

as their provider because -- atleast initially -- the majority ofthe compromised domains areregistered through it.

Cisco Systems Talos secu-rity research group warnedthe danger is the result of thespread among attackers ofthe Angler exploit kit, which itdescribes as having a high levelof sophistication.

The kit is being used to hijackdomain registrant accounts,create subdomains which shiftrapidly and are then used todeliver malicious content. Ciscocalls this technique domainshadowing, and it is increasing-- it has found almost 10,000unique subdomains are beingused this way. The advantage of

using subdomains is they avoidtypical detection techniquessuch as blacklisting of Websites or IP addresses.

These subdomains can pointto a single IP or a small group ofIP addresses.This lastest out-break of Angler has been seenexploiting both Adobe Flashand Microsoft Silverlight vul-nerabilities.

Howard Solomon

ARogers Communica-tions staffer has ap-parently become the

latest Canadian employee tofall victim to a phishing scamwhich resulted in the theft ofcustomer data.

The company said that hu-man error allowed an attacker

to access the account of onestaffer who managed accountsof a small number of medi-um-sized business customers.

Patricia Trott, Rogers di-rector of public affairs, saidin an email to ITWC that theattacker was able to get thebusiness agreements managedby the staff which included

business name, address,phone number and pricingdetails of the corporate cus-tomers, but not personal orfinancial information.According to the Globe and

Mail, an anonymous personposted a zip file with copies ofdozens of contracts that ap-parently came from the ac-

count. The Globe saw the fileand said the documents dont

include password informationto accounts. However they dohave some business customertelecom information such asthe number of data and phonelines purchased.

Rogers has notified the policeabout the intrusion. It has alsoput in additional security pro-

cedures. We take the privacyand security of our customersinformation very seriously.Trott said, and we will contin-ue to review our policies andprocedures.Although publicly-revealed

data thefts at Canadian com-panies dont amount to themillions of files that have

been reported in the U.S., thecountry isnt immune from at-tacks. Social engineering is afavoured way of skilled attack-ers to make their way into anenterprise. Symantec warnedin a report that in 2013, 39per cent of targeted spear-phishing attacks were sent tolarge enterprises of more than

2,500 employees.Howard Solomon



SECURITY WATCH

BY HOWARD SOLOMON

It is the nature of many security pros tolook to the past to prepare the organiza-tion's IT defences. After all, theres never

a shortage of historical data spewed out byeverything on the network.

But an expert says chief security offi-cers and risk managers instead shoulduse tools and skills in a new disciplinecalled strategic foresight to look into

the future.Thats the message Satyamoorthy

Kabilan, director of national security andstrategic foresight at the ConferenceBoard of Canada, gave at a recent con-ference in Toronto on enterprise riskmanagement.

In the world of IT we know we arefacing a world that is evolving very rap-idly, he said in an interview during the meet-

ing. Traditional risk management is depen-dent on the past you look at past data, youlook at past occurrences, at risk, you look atstatistics, all of which are historically based.(But) if youve got a rapidly evolving environ-ment where things are changing quickly youare more than likely not going to have histori-cal data for some of the big changes and newrisks you are going to face. This is particularlytrue in IT. Some of those risks are not tech-

nologically based, theyre based on choicesof people and how they behave and what theydo with technology.

Strategic foresight uses multiple scenarios tobuild a picture of plausible alternate futures tobetter understand some of the risks an organi-zation may face.

Although the field is still emerging, Kabilanused to be the head of strategic futures inBritains Home Office, and said its cyber-

security group developed very good threatscenarios.

The World Economic Forum produces a rangeof future scenarios, he said, some of which haveIT elelments.

Some service providers, as Shaping Tomorrow,have automated tools that help risk managers

scan the Internet for trends, he said. How-ever, he added, insights still have to comefrom a broad set of stakeholders contrib-uting to the analysis.

You cant predict the future, Kabilan

emphasized. However you can get abroader view of the future that allows you

to make a better decision todayA non-IT example he gave is an orga-

nization figures out that mobility will bea big trend without knowing if consum-ers will want tablets, phablets or smartphones.

From an IT security perspective a riskmanager may be able to see that the human ele-

ment is more important than hardware.He believes that broadly speaking many Cana-

dian organizations are aware and are preparingto meet the possibility of external cyber attacks.But, he added, in many cases people try tomanage down the risks and dont put in placeall of the pieces and the knowledge they need todeal with an incident if it happens.

That in part is because organizations man-age risk by looking backwards, and that across

Canada the of number data breaches have so farbeen small.

The challenge, he added, is to convince organi-zations that with the world evolving as quicky asit is they shouldnt just manage risk down andhope that it doesnt happen.

But the problem is risk evolving from thefuture, and some of those risks and the potentialfor breaches and other problems you might seemay not be ones were currently aware of. And

that big unknown is what we need to be pre-pared for.

Why CSOs should planfor the future

Satyamoorthy

Kabilan,

Conference

Board of

Canada


20/26

FEATURE

20 I MARCH 2015 I ITWorldCanada.com

FEATURE

A MATTER

OF STYLEThree Canadian IT bossesshare how their management

style helps them keep on top ofthings at the workplace

BY NESTOR ARELLANO



FEATURE

For example, the cafeteria at TorontosSunnybrook Hospital is using a mobilepayment system developed by Compasscalled Tap2Eat. The app allows staff mem-bers and even guests to check the menu,order and pay for their food using their

phones, says Humza Teherany, chief in-novation officer for Compass which has32,000 employees across the country.

Promoting technologyBut when I pitch ideas like these, tech-nology takes a backseat to business goals,says Teherany. The technology exists toserve the business goal. If it's not alignedwith the goal we dont pursue it.

His team builds what Teherany calls ex-citement and alignment around the tech-nology and present it to the C-suite.

Its a 360 view of the technology thatnot only shows how it can solve the busi-ness problem but also serves as a platformfor obtaining additional value critical toour internal or external customers, heexplains. For example Tap2Eat solves theproblem of how harried healthcare workers

can order and pick-up their lunch during avery busy shift. But if I can show our inter-

nal or external clients how the same plat-form can provide data that can be analyzedto improve efficiency or boost sales, thenweve got them hooked.

Getting a team to work

from the same playbookStephen Eyre, director of the Internet ofThings partner ecosystem for Telus, laysout the three main challenges he faces:- Hes working with a very new team. Itsmost recent member just got onboardabout four weeks ago and the first recruitsigned in just about a year ago- Telus IoT practice is a very new initiativefor the company

- Managing and helping his team membersgrow

IoT is a new field with very little ex-perts, says Eyre. We have to become theIoT go-to experts for Telus and the compa-nys clients and we need to accomplish thisin a very short period of time."

He has seen his share of managers whouse fear and strong hand tactics to getemployees to do what he or she wants. Its

a method that may get results in the shortrun, but tends to undermine the productiv-

Compass Group Canada is one of the largest food-service and hospitality businesses in the world. Thecompany manages and provides the technology andworkforce for many cafeterias in universities, hospi-

tals, offices, banks, oil and gas facilities and servesvarious restaurant chains.



FEATURE

CMCAAUDITED

We acknowledge the financial support of theGovernment of Canada through the Canada Periodical

Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.

EDITORIAL

EditorNestor E. Arrelano

Twitter: @cwceditor

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ity, individual confi-dence and team spirit.

The result is thatpeople disengage.

Its a poor substitutefor leadership, hesays. I believe thebest and fastest wayto build my teamscompetence is to setgoals for each indi-vidual and the teamand empower every-one to work towards

those goals.Far from being a pushover, he says his style focuses

on properly communicating expectations and stan-dards as well an encouraging feedback. I do expectthem to meet expectations and we definitely dont relaxon standards.

Opening up to challengefrom subordinatesChange and innovation is an integral part of Tanger-

ine, the online bank formerly known in Canada as INGDirect before its local operations were acquired andrebranded by Scotiabank about a couple of years ago.

For example, says Tangerine CIO Charaka Kithule-goda, the bank was the first to introduce a fingerprintauthentication system for mobile banking. It is currentlyusing a tablet-based account solution that enables cus-tomers to open a chequing account in as little as 10 min-utes and Tangerine is piloting a voice biometric authen-tication solution.

In order to foster innovation, it is essential that teammembers feel confident to present their ideas even ifthese run counter to his own, says Kithulegoda. WhenTangerine was introducing its touch ID system, Kithu-legoda thought the technology should be rolled out asthe only authentication option for customers in order toensure adoption.

My employees challenged me on that saying we need-ed to provide a password option, says. We tried it theirway and customer feedback proved them right. The

password option provided the comfort level that manycustomers required before adopting something new.

I do expectthem to meet

expectationsand wedefinitelydon't relax onstandards

- Stephen Eyre



FEATURE

Raptors AmirJohnson passesthree social medialessons to CIOsBY NESTOR ARELLANO

Members of the Torontochapter of the CIO Associationof Canada got some veryuseful pointers on how to usesocial media from a stellar butseemingly unlikely guest at oneof their events recently.

Amir Johnson, the 27-year-old startingpower-forward for the Toronto Raptors

was guest of honour at an exclusive dinnerhosted by the CIOCAN Toronto Chapter andTelus. It was, as one CIOCAN official said,one of the moments when the orga-nization ventured out of its comfortzone to explore something new.

Apart from being a rising star withthe Raptors, Johnson also happens tobe a very astute and prolific social me-dia user who has his own Web site and

maintains a presence on Facebook,Twitter, YouTube and other channels.

During his talk with CIOCAN members, heshared some of his experience with usingtechnology (sensors and analytics helpedhim adjust the way he runs to avoid injuries)and social media.

Here are some of Amirs social media tips:

Use it, dont lose it Amir has a healthyattitude towards social media. He seems towant to try anything. For example he andswingman DeMar DeRozan, Raptors shoot-ing guard, love to post funny basketballvideos on YouTube, post selfies on Facebookand tweet when they have the time.

Social media helps me connect with thefans, Amir said. Growing up, I never hadthings like Twitter and Facebook to see what

my favourite players like (Charles) Barkleywere doing. Now kids can ask their heroeshey whassup and they get responses al-

most right away.IT decision makers should explore

what social media channel worksbest for their brand. They also needto determine what they want to usesocial media for. Consider thesepoints: Is it for connecting with cus-

tomers, providing some service, orpromoting a brand or campaign?

GET MORESOCIAL

MEDIA TIPSFROM AMIR

JOHNSONHERE



MOBILE

How to access a bettercomputer that lives in the cloud

Do you need to upgrade your current com-puter, but you dont want to spend moneyon expensive hardware? Tech startup Pa-

perspace, is offering people a full computer

you can access from any web browser.Paperspace is offering IT professionals, de-

signers, students and consumers a low-costservice that could be described as a fully-man-aged, agentless, virtual desktop infrastructure(VDI) solution. It is somewhat similar to so-lutions like Amazon Workspaces, Citrix andVMware.

The company is founded by Dillon ThompsonErb and Dan Kobran. The thought of creating a

cloud-based computer came to them while theywere developing applications for the architec-

ture sector while studying at the University ofMichigan. Their work required enormous com-puting power for simulations. That was whenthey focused on cloud computing.

In order to access the computing power thatPaperspace offers, users need to purchase asmall fob-sized device called the Paperweight.It serves as a zero client that connects the usersown machine to Paperspaces servers.

The service is suited for 3D CAD rendering,simulations, photo and video editing and trans-ferring files. The company allows developersto work on multiple cloud-based machines ormultiple operating systems. Paperspace works

with Windows and Linux but there are plans toexpand the OS options.



MOBILE

SECURITYMEETS LUXURYIN SAMSUNGS

GALAXY S6 ANDS6 EDGEBY JEFF JEDRAS

Samsung Electronics launched its new Gal-axy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smart phones,and unveiled a new mobile payments solu-tion, Samsung Pay.

The Galaxy S series is Samsungs flagshippremium smart phone lineup, blending premi-

um materials including metal and glass withhigh performance technology.

The Galaxy S6 edge features a curveddisplay on both sides, with a glass bodymade from Corning Gorilla Glass 4 in anarray of jewel tones, including White Pearl,Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue To-paz and Green Emerald. Samsung saysboth smart phones also feature a new andlighter user interface.

Samsung has always invested a lot of effortinto the camera on the Galaxy S lineup, andthe S6 and S6 edge feature F1.9 lenses andhigh resolution sensors

for the 5MP front camera and 16MP rearcamera. Tools including Auto Real-time HighDynamic Range, Smart Optical Image Stabilization IR DetectWhite Balance ensure quality pictures even in less than ideal cir-cumstances, and a new quick launch features takes the user fromany screen to taking a shot in 0.7 seconds.

Support for wireless charging has been broadened to any wire-less pad that supports WPC and PMA standards, with a 1.5ximprovement in charging time from the Galaxy S5.

The S6 and S6 edge measure 6.8mm and 7.0 mm thin and weigh138g and 132g respectively. The phones are powered by whatSamsung claims is the worlds first 64 bit, 14nm mobile processorwith a new LPDDR4 memory system and UFS 2.0 flash memory.The 5.1 Quad HD Super AMOLED screen boasts pixel density of577ppi. Models with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of storage are avail-able. On the security front, both models will also come pre-in-

stalled with Intel Securitys VirusScan Mobile technology, the firstsmart phones to come with the solution.


26/26

SHARK TALES

Sex and techpitch causesheadacheA recent press release from leadingcondom manufacturer Durex promisedto reveal the future of sex with the

companys initial attempt to penetratethe mobile technology market. It wasmeant to tease readers and whet theirappetites. It ended up giving us a head-ache instead.

Thick on sizzle and lean on details, it leftmany scratching their heads as to what Durexactually meant. The company said it is open-ing a new technology division called Durexlabswhich will be the firms first significant step

intimacy with mobile technology.Theres mention of a partnership with tech en-

trepreneur Susie Lee, CEO of Siren Mobile - thatmight be a hint.

But more confusion ensues when they droplines like: We took inspiration from modernhabits as well as the ever growing reliance onportable technology for virtually everything inour day-to-day lives. Our market research has

identified a genuine desire for this technologyto exist in our sex lives.

We asked around in the workplace whatDurex might be up to and naturally we gotthe usual erudite conjectures a new formof wearable technology or perhaps a perfor-mance analytics solution?

Durex came out clean a few days later andrevealed that after hours of research, it foundthat the secret to keeping the coals hot in the

canada computerization

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