IT Shops Strike Partnerships to Make Data Center Overhauls More Efficient Collaboration — particularly in school districts, which are often strapped for resources — is essential with today’s data center projects, says Laura DiDio, principal of ITIC, a research and consulting firm. “Everyone wants to guard their fiefdoms,” DiDio says, “but breaking down those silos is beneficial for all involved.” – EdTech Magazine, January 7, 2019

Tim Cook has a really big iPhone problem “You’re not going to pluck a Steve Jobs out of a genie jar,” said Laura DiDio, tech analyst at ITIC. “Apple needed to make some moves.” “It’s unrealistic to expect a new iPhone-like innovation every year,” said DiDio. “Apple may need to eat some humble pie for a while. I’m not saying they’ll turn into Dell, but they may have to cut prices.” – CNN Business, January 7, 2019

Small Businesses Redoubling Defenses to Combat DDoS Cyberattacks “Cybercriminals sell DDoS attack kits for as little as $100. With a layered defense, even a small business can thwart or mitigate an attack.” DiDio likens it to protecting a home: A locked door, barking dog and blaring alarm can scare off a would-be burglar, but only if they’re in place before the thief arrives. “If you’re not prepared, your network is going down, and it’s going down fast,” she warns. – BizTech Magazine, May 18, 2018

IoT Security “In IoT ecosystems, where myriad device types, applications and people are linked via a variety of connectivity mechanisms, the attack vector or surface is potentially limitless,” says Laura DiDio, principal analyst at research and consulting firm ITIC. “Any point in the network — from the network edge/perimeter to corporate servers and main line-of-business applications to an end-user device to the transmission mechanisms [is] vulnerable to attack. Any and all of these points can be exploited.” – Network World, April 23, 2018

Microsoft Reorganization: “Microsoft has actually been moving away from Windows and more towards the cloud, analytics and AI for the past ten years,” explained Laura DiDio, an analyst at ITIC. “This did not happen overnight.” DiDio pointed out that Nadella has made major changes quickly during his tenure. “That’s the way you have to move,” to stay relevant, she said. “You’ve got to be agile to stay ahead of the game.” The changes don’t mean that Microsoft is totally giving up on Windows, DiDio said. But they do mean that Nadella is focusing the company’s energies around stronger assets. “They’re de-emphasizing Windows,” she said, in order to become a stronger “player in cloud and artificial intelligence, because that’s where the money is.” – CNN Money, March 29, 2018

Failure to deliver reliability and uptime: “Time is money,” DiDio says. “Systems, networks and connectivity devices are subject to failure. If the downtime persists for any significant length of time, it can be expensive in terms of monetary losses. It can disrupt operations, decrease worker productivity and negatively impact the organization’s business partners, customers and suppliers. “A security outage of any significant duration can also be a PR nightmare and damage the company’s reputation, causing lost business,” DiDio says. “Reliability and uptime go hand in hand with a comprehensive, detailed backup and disaster recovery plan that also includes an internal operational level agreement that designates a chain of command in the event of any type of service disruption.” Every organization should have a disaster recovery plan that includes an itemized list of who to contact at vendor organizations, cloud and third-party service providers, DiDio says. “The CISO should also know what the company’s contracts stipulate as the response time from vendors, cloud, and third-party service providers to respond to and thwart security incidents and track down the hackers,” she says. – CSO Online, November 21, 2017

Cal State University and Hartnell College Launching Cohort Program: “Since 2013, the two institutions have promoted this program as a way to attract minorities, women and students who are the first in their families to attend college to Computer Science and STEM subjects. The Cohort program nurtures these students by having them take their CS classes as a group.” DiDio says. It also helps them adjust more quickly to college life by providing them with group study and life skills classes to help them stick with CS as a major and graduate. “So far, so good. A 75% majority of students enrolled in the CSUMB/Hartnell CS Cohort program graduate. This is well above the national average of about 30%,” DiDio notes. – ITIC Corp, November 17, 2017

Burger King Ad Creates Whopper of a Mess: “In the Internet of Things environment, where you can have ‘an ecosystem or ecosystems of ecosystems interconnected,’ the attack vector universe is potentially limitless,” noted Laura DiDio, research director for IoT at 451 Research. The risks are “everywhere, and what you can do is mitigate risk to an acceptable level,” she told the E-Commerce Times — but that requires vendors to make secure products. – E-Commerce Times, April 13, 2017