Computer Weekly readers' give their views
Look at the bigger data management picture
I am writing in reference to the article "Chains lack unified
customer view" (Computer Weekly, 14 March ). All too often, a CRM
solution or business intelligence implementation is seen as the
resolution to the problem of how to manage an organisation's
"master data", rather than tackling the problem as part of an
overall master data management strategy.
Often, the problem gets filed in the "too hard" pile and an
ongoing manual process of reconciliation and matching across
different systems exacerbates the problem. These issues hold
businesses back.
A strategic approach to managing the organisation's information
assets is critical. Tactical delivery of master data management
solutions within this framework, which can reap operational and
reporting improvements, can then be undertaken and reused as the
solution grows.
Without this strategic approach, businesses will continue to
struggle, reinventing the wheel and failing to realise value from
their information assets.
Alex Plenty, senior manager in consulting, Deloitte
Spread the word about virtual network
security
Your Events article looking ahead to Infosecurity Europe
("Experts to debate merits of deperimeterisation", Computer Weekly,
21 March) neatly summarised the most pressing security concerns of
the day for IT managers.
The question of whether security architecture should be based on
the deperimeterised model, and whether the benefits of new
technologies such as VoIP outweigh the security risks involved
calls for greater education on the much neglected issue of VLan
security.
Organisations must take the initiative in protecting each and
every port on the corporate network if they are to stay safe.
The strong uptake of IP-based technology - devices that operate
outside the firewall - means it is already too late for businesses
to rely on a changed approach from ISPs to protect them from denial
of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS)
attacks.
To manage IP networks safely, organisations should be applying
techniques such as rate limiting, which can restrict the flow of
information per second through a particular port - keeping just
enough bandwidth available for critical applications such as VoIP,
but preventing external attacks from having any impact on the
enterprise network.
The prioritisation of traffic, so that protocols such as SIP can
be a granted special privileged status, is an additional benefit of
this technology. IP-enabled devices within a virtual network must
be protected from each other as well as from threats originating
from outside the network. The popular approach to network security
fails to take this into account, and instead merely applies the
tried and tested access control list to a virtual network.
Layers of security must be built into each port if interaction
between new devices is to be controlled and a specific class of
service guaranteed.
The long-running debate on deperimeterisation and VoIP security
has been thoroughly exhausted in the technology pages, with a
notable lack of positive conclusions to achieve closure on the
subject.
It is now time for real education on carefully targeted measures
and techniques such as rate limiting, which is among the most
effective means of fighting DoS and DDoS attacks. Such techniques
allow organisations to fine tune policy and ensure nothing is left
to chance. They also mean that exciting new technologies like VoIP,
with all the business benefits on offer, can be embraced without
fear.
Emile Knetemann, IT director
Reduce, reuse and recycle with SOA
Although Cliff Saran makes many valid points surrounding the
development of service oriented architecture in his article "A
clear path to SOA" (Computer Weekly, 14 March), it is worth
highlighting SOA's crucial role in the reuse of disparate legacy
applications.
According to the Aberdeen Group, 80% of all companies are still
reliant on their legacy systems and 180-200 billion lines of Cobol
in existence today, meaning that the option to "rip and replace"
these ageing applications is not viable, due to the huge costs and
risk involved.
It is important to point out that, for the first time, SOA
allows companies to reuse and seamlessly integrate their oldest
applications as business services. It allows otherwise disparate,
discrete IT systems to talk to each other so that companies can
avoid the extreme cost and risk of complete systems
replacement.
Julian Dobbins, Micro Focus
SOA's biggest benefit is communication
culture
At last, a series of sensible articles on service oriented
architecture (Computer Weekly, 14 March). The IT industry really
doesn't help itself with the continued hype surrounding "new"
technologies, of which SOA is the latest. However, there is genuine
reason to be excited about SOA, even if we accept that it's not a
panacea for all integration woes.
True, much of the technology involved in SOA has been around for
a while but WS-* standards designed specifically for SOA are new
and have really given it a shot in the arm in recent months.
But, perhaps the biggest benefit of SOA thinking is its dramatic
impact on the development culture. It encourages project teams to
speak to everyone within an organisation that will be affected by
the building of a service - whether it be the technology
department, end-users or 'C' level executives - and agree what the
final product will look like.
This enables the most important parts of a project to be built
first and means that key components of the service can be up and
running immediately so that people can get on with using them
within a relatively short time. This not only delivers a quick
return on investment but also means that the remaining parts of the
project can be tweaked, based on users' feedback from a real,
working system.
So while we shouldn't get excited about everything with an SOA
badge, we should accept that when used properly, SOA can build
projects quicker and to users' specifications.
Erik Doernenburg, technical principal, ThoughtWorks
That picture of Glasgow looks out by a city
mile
I note that the picture you chose to illustrate Glasgow in your
article on that city's shared services project was actually the
Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
Still, at least you managed to select a picture not featuring a
man in a kilt, playing bagpipes in the rain. Well done.
Nick Addison
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