Web services and wireless security were the two big issues
that struck a study mission of IT directors, which included a group
from user organisation CIO-Connect, on a recent visit to
California.
The group, on a week's study tour led by former IT director of
Imperial Foods Mike Portlock, met a range of 18 large and small
suppliers in the San Francisco area. The theme was "deploying
technology for exceptional business performance".
"What smacked us between the eyes was how big web services have
become in California," said Portlock. "It is the focus of so many
people's attention compared to last year's study tour."
This year's visit was the eighth organised by Portlock for various
high-level user groups, including Wentworth Research (before it was
taken over by Gartner Group) and the Impact Programme.
Portlock said the group encountered many definitions of web
services, but generally the term boils down to meaning the
capability to link things through the internet to make capital out
of existing systems and to make them more appealing.
"People on the tour now really believe web services will happen,"
he said.
The other big finding for the group, which comprised a mix of about
25 IT directors from both private and public sectors, was the
growing linkage between security and wireless technology. "We saw
so many potential benefits of using wireless, but so many risks
too," Portlock said.
He said the group was presented with convincing evidence of massive
wireless hacking in Manhattan in New York.
Although security issues are now being embraced by suppliers, there
is still much to be done, for example in the areas of identity
management, and managing vulnerability of networks and
configurations.
"You can't put a perimeter fence round your system and hope it is
OK any more," said Portlock. "You now have to focus on business and
management problems of secure empowerment, to ensure that among
your business partners, consumers or mobile employees, the right
people are accessing your network rather than keeping people
out."
The tour was organised by Woking-based Greenside Partners.
http://greenside@e-viz.co.uk