It hasn’t been an easy time for IT professionals over the last few years. Numerous debates have arisen in the industry that there exists a general lack of skills and practical knowledge within the emerging industry which is jeopardising the UK’s already tentative status as a global economic leader. With the recent recession many London IT Support groups, particularly those who had not diversified sufficiently or relied on outdated services, suffered considerably as cost cutting became the overriding priority of many firms.
This downturn has been compounded by a recent boom in the interest of new technologies such as cloud computing which has had many IT professionals questioning their futures. The outsourcing of traditional in house IT services to cloud-based support, SaaS or to a lower cost foreign competitor who take care of system administration, programming, help desk support and testing is threatening to render many in house teams obsolete.
Pay-cuts, limited career opportunities and the withdrawal of vital training schemes by companies have been cited by many individuals associated with the industry as primary factors in the stagnation of the UK professional. So what is the solution, in a recent ComputerWeekly user questionnaire a majority of those who answered agreed that a fair playing field with offshore workers with UK contracts was essential to the survival of indigenous IT services.
As developing nations expand and grow it is inevitable that costs will eventually rise, so for the UK based IT professional I think that until a more ‘level playing field’ is achieved the key in my opinion is to make yourself more valuable to the company you work for. The best way to overcome a problem is by understanding it and remaining resolute; it is not good enough for IT teams to offer a service that will solely cut costs anymore or soon they may find that the simplest cost cutting exercise is to outsource their operation. Professionals need a thorough understanding of traditional and basic IT is crucial as well the flexibility to embrace new technologies. They should not simply concentrate on cost cutting, but value creation, forging a close working relationship with non-IT related colleagues such as marketing, finance or sales and embrace and manipulate new technologies including cloud computing, SaaS, Social Media and portable IT devices including smart phones and tablets. Fast and effective system delivery allows us to explore new markets and new opportunities, something that is central to the evolution of the IT industry.
With the well publicised news that Apple Inc. icon and CEO Steve Jobs is taking an indefinite hiatus from his role as head of the world’s most valuable technology company, it has been interesting to observe the varying reactions to his rather prompt departure.
It of course comes as no surprise that Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant in 2009 during a similar six month absence, has decided to take some time to focus on his own health. In 2004 Jobs divulged to Apple employees that he had been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, though a rare less aggressive It was commented numerously after Apple Worldwide Developers conferences in 2008 that the San Francisco born businessman was looking considerably leaner than usual. I don’t want to focus too much upon the health of someone who despite his international status is a human being first and a business mogul second; more important is the effect Jobs’ absence may have upon the company, with numerous questions now being thrown around about the leadership of Apple: will a single individual step into the shoes of Jobs on a temporary basis; can the likes of Jonathan Ive or Tim Cook come together and consolidate successfully; will there be any kind of boardroom bust ups if control is levelled upon a group of senior employees rather than one person; what kind of influence, if any, will Steve Jobs have on product development and the overriding direction Apple expansion over the next year, two years or however long?
The announcement of Jobs’ leave of absence is thought to be very strategic, with shareholders having ridden a wave over the past year and share prices at an all time high; the day of the announcement itself was also an American national holiday meaning that investors had more time to let the news be absorbed. As suspected though when trading reopened in New York shares were down more than 5pc on the NASDAQ.
Despite this initial fall, it is widely believed that if financiers can ignore those itchy feet for long enough the company will not only recover, but bounce back with significant gains. Just as in 2009 when Jobs had to leave Apple to undergo the aforementioned surgery stocks suffered a similar reactionary downturn before a substantial recovery. Also just as in 2009, the year of the update and the relaunch, 2011 is set to see a continuous stream of product revisions and upgrades; we already know about the Verizon iPhone and spectators are eagerly anticipating the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5 to be unveiled and there will undoubtedly be some Mac desktop and notebook . With the strategy of so many big businesses today being ‘plan ahead’ it would be unsurprising if the iPhone 6 and 7 were already well under way in the development stage.
As we might all suspect I think that Apple will do just fine without Jobs for the foreseeable future, but in the long term the loss of his personality and methodology will no doubt be a big blow to the company. Jobs has something about him that even a comparative corporate figurehead such as Bill Gates lacks, an unconventionalism that just seems to work so that when the torch is finally past, it won’t be like Steve Ballmer’s succession at Microsoft, but something a little more poignant. What this indicates is the unique status and authority of the industrial celebrity, how one person’s prominence can so considerably define a multinational corporation employing thousands.
Whether or not Tim Cook or Jonathan Ive share this ‘star power’ is debatable, but in the meantime I have no doubt that Apple can continue to succeed without Steve Jobs at the helm, and as the man himself has already outlined, I’m sure wherever he is and whatever his health may be, he will still have a very real impact upon the overall evolution of his brainchild.
With the start of a new year come new challenges for the internet security industry. The well publicised activities that surrounded ‘Operation Payback’ and the “hactivists” working in sympathy of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange exposed that even the most supposedly secure websites can be exposed to viral attacks. So what should be the course of action for smaller businesses and domestic users? Well the advice has always been that one of the most important steps when setting up or maintaining your computer software is the installation of a reliable and pervasive anti-virus program. In a commercial environment it is always worth pursuing the advice of a professional IT Support agency.
So what type of anti-virus software should you choose? With so much competition in the market today it is important to select a program which compliments your usage, does not hinder or impede the processing of your OS or any communicative features and is, perhaps most importantly, going to thoroughly and efficiently protect your computer. When I of course refer to antivirus software I am referring to a utility which protects not only from viruses but Trojans, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, adware, scareware and host of other potential compromising attacks.
One feature of many of 2011’s new antivirus releases is the blurring of the lines between standalone and suite programs. Previous features which would provide a distinction between the two were the presence of personal firewalls and spam filtering tools yet these tools have been integrated into many of the recognised security suites including Panda Antivrus Pro 2011, eScan Anti-virus 11 and McAfee AntiVirus Plues 2011. Spam filtering has also become incorporated into BullGuard Antivirus 10 as well as eScan’s offering. StopSign Internet Security 1.0 includes an optional firewall with inbuilt spam filter. Other new programs include BitDefender Antivirus pro with its full remote management system and an effective anti phishing tool. GData Antivurs 2011 and AVG’s newest free antivirus update also feature anti-phising.
This trend doesn’t however spell the death of the standalone antivirus program, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2011 is completely distinctive from a form of suite or mini suite, while providing a resilient service
Microsoft has just released limited details regarding a new flaw affecting their windows operating system. The vulnerability could allow hackers to install programs, view, alter or delete data, create new accounts with full user rights and essentially take control of the target machine if the user is logged in with administrative privileges. This news comes as another headache for Microsoft’s IT Support network with concerns arising over the security of Internet Explorer.
The problem regards the systems Graphics Rendering Engine which would allow a hacker, following a careful series of actions, to gain partial or full control of a computer. The strategy involves sending an email with an attached Microsoft Word or Power Point document, within which would be contained a specifically engineered thumbnail. The user would then be coerced to open this thumbnail, which would trigger the attack. Alternatively, the image could be placed on a network with potential victims having to browse the image location on Windows Explorer.
The flaw affects Windows XP Service Pack 3, XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2, Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Server 2003 x64 Edition Service Pack 2, Server 2003 with SP2 for Itanium-based systems, Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, Vista x64 Edition Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, Server 2008 for 32-bit, 64-bit, and Itanium-based systems and Service Pack 2 for each.
Microsoft did however state that it is not aware of any active attacks which are exploiting the problem, a spokesman stating that,
“Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers,” he continued, “This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.”
This revelation also comes at a time when Google security engineer Michael Zalewski has entered into an argument with Microsoft chiefs over the timeline of recorded correspondences with the firm, regarding the results of his new ‘fuzzing’ tool, referred to as the ‘cross fuzz’ which has exposed over 100 bugs in the 5 major browsers, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Though reports suggest the operators of the other systems, Mozilla, Apple and Google, where receptive to Zalewski’s findings, the Google worker has accused Microsoft of dragging their feet over providing patches for the flaws that are reported.
In further news, Statcounter has released an end of year report which also suggests that Mozilla Firefox has overtaken Internet Explorer as Europe’s most popular internet browser. Though their findings differ considerably from a similar Net Applications review, the findings suggest a considerable slide from 44.91% to a 35.54% share. The data should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt, but could signify a shift in browsing habits, both reports corroborating on a significant increase in the use of Google’s lighter and faster Chrome program.