EHR Report: Health IT Isn’t Delivering€¦ · 6 MARCH/APRIL 2013 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT lead role in dealing with that. “Vendors may not be as far along in development as we would

News, Trends & Analysis

CLOUD

Healthcare Cloud Spending Expected to Reach $6.8 Billion

The healthcare market’s technologyspending has grown aggressively overthe past few years, a good percentage of

it in cloud computing services. Researcherspredict that the global healthcare industry willspend $6.8 billion by 2018, compared to an es-timated $1.8 billion in 2011.

Research published in late January by Transparent Market Researchrevealed that North America is the fastest growing cloud computing mar-ket in the health industry today. This is largely attributed to the vastnumber of biopharmaceutical companies that are conducting researchand development and relying heavily on IT to do it competitively.

Healthcare organizations are also major contributors as they imple-ment electronic health records as affordably as possible. They are look-ing to increase competitiveness by cutting IT costs and are turning tocloud computing for solutions.

6 MARCH/APRIL 2013 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT

lead role in dealing with that.“Vendors may not be as far

along in development as we wouldlike, but to some degree they are inthe same place as health providersin trying to figure out where theyshould be.”

Stated Judy Hanover, researchdirector at IDC Health Insights,“The supplier market in this spaceis immature, and there have been alot of new functionality require-ments for ‘meaningful use’ thathave driven development of newfunctionality with minimal atten-tion to usability. The platforms thattoday’s EHRs [electronic healthrecords] rely on make changes tosupport usability time consumingand expensive for vendors to makeand implement in highly cus-tomized systems.”

The Rand study’s authors con-cluded that “a compelling vision isneeded to guide further invest-ments” in health IT. They sug-gested:• Health information stored in one

IT system must be retrievable byothers, including doctors andhospitals that are a part of otherhealth systems.

• Patients should have ready ac-cess to their electronic health in-formation and be able to share itwith providers of their choice.

• Health information technologysystems must be engineered toaid the work of clinicians, nothinder it. Systems should be in-tuitive, so they can be used byhealthcare providers without ex-tensive training, and they shouldbe easy to use across differenthealthcare settings.

tion technology to quickly de-liver on its promise is not caused

by its lack of potential, but ratherbecause of the shortcomings in thedesign of the IT systems that arecurrently in place,” said ArthurKellermann, M.D., the study's sen-ior author and the Paul O'NeillAlcoa Chair in Policy Analysis atRAND, a nonprofit research organ-ization.

Jennifer Covich, CEO of thenonprofit member associationeHealth Initiative, told E-Com-merce Times that the study may bea bit harsh on the progressachieved to date. However, shesaid, “the study points out somevalid factors that need to be ad-dressed. For example, interoper-ability is a big problem and thefederal government should play a

More than $81 billion.That’s how much RandCorp. researchers in 2005

estimated health information tech-nology implementation wouldeventually save the United Statesby improving the delivery and effi-ciency of health care. In 2012, thosesavings had yet to be realized.

In a report published in the Jan-uary 2013 edition of Health Affairs,Rand researchers blamed the slowprogress on the “sluggish” adoptionof health IT systems, the inoper-ability of health IT systems, andhealthcare providers’ failure toreengineer their care processes totake full advantage of health IT.

“The failure of health informa-

EHR

Report: Health IT Isn’t Delivering

©2013 ARMA International • www.arma.org

MARCH/APRIL 2013 INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT 7

CLOUD

What to Expect inCloud Computingin 2013

Cloud use in 2013 will getreal,” predicted ForresterResearch’s James Staten

at the end of 2012. “We can stopspeculating, hopefully stop cloud-washing, and get down to the realbusiness of incorporating cloudservices and platforms into ourformal IT portfolios. As we getreal about cloud, we will institutesome substantial changes in ourcultures and approaches to cloudinvestments.”

Staten’s comments werebased on evidence that IT depart-ments are no longer denyingcloud use is happening in theircompanies and it is part of the ITbudget.

“According to the latestForrsights surveys, nearly half ofall enterprises in North Americaand Europe will set aside budgetfor private cloud investments in2013 and nearly as many soft-ware development managers areplanning to deploy applications tothe cloud,” Staten wrote in hisDecember 3 blog posting.

Here are some of the thingsStaten said we can expect in2013:• The industry will finally stop

saying “everything is goingcloud” and get real about whatfits and what doesn’t.

• Cloud and mobile will becomeone. “What’s the value of a mo-bile app that doesn’t call outthrough the Internet to back-end services? Not much,” con-cluded Staten.

• Accurate cost-modeling will bemuch easier, thanks to newtools on the market.

• Developers will finally realizethat development is not all thatdifferent in the cloud.

DATA SECURITY

UK Fines Sony$337K for 2011Data Breach

They should have knownbetter, stated the UK Infor-mation Commissioner’s Of-

fice (ICO) in announcing it wasfining Sony Europe £250,000($337,000 U.S.) for a violation ofthe Data Protection Act in 2011.

The penalty was assessed fol-lowing a breach of Sony’sPlayStation Platform in April

personal data secure has to beyour priority. In this case thatjust didn’t happen, and when thedatabase was targeted – albeit ina determined criminal attack –the security measures in placewere simply not good enough,”said David Smith, deputy com-missioner and director of dataprotection.

“There’s no disguising thatthis is a business that shouldhave known better. It is a com-pany that trades on its technicalexpertise, and there’s no doubt inmy mind that they had access toboth the technical knowledge andthe resources to keep this infor-mation safe.”

Interestingly, a California dis-trict judge threw out the Sonycase saying, “There is no suchthing as perfect security.”

Since the hack, Sony has re-built the PlayStation NetworkPlatform to be more secure. Sonytold BBC News that it stronglydisagreed with the ICO’s decisionand intended to appeal.

Smith acknowledged that the

2011. More than 75 million cus-tomers’ personal information –including names, addresses, ac-count passwords, e-mail ad-dresses, and dates of birth – wascompromised, as were customers’payment credit card details.

ICO’s investigation deter-mined that the attack could havebeen prevented if software hadbeen up-to-date.

“If you are responsible for somany payment card details andlog-in details then keeping that

penalty was substantial, but saidthe ICO would make no apologiesfor that. “The case is one of themost serious ever reported to us.It directly affected a huge num-ber of consumers, and at the veryleast put them at risk of identitytheft."

On the upside, Smith cited aPR Week poll conducted shortlyafter the breach that revealedthat 77% of consumers were morecautious about giving their per-sonal data to other websites.



U.S. LEG/REG

Warrantless Access to Cloud-Based Data Debated

Efforts to balance the needs of law enforce-ment and Americans’ privacy are at thecenter of a U.S. Senate debate over pro-

posed amendments to the 1986 Electronic Com-munication Privacy Act.

It all started in November when the SenateJudicial Committee considered a proposal thatwould allow law enforcement to access data in thecloud – including e-mail and Facebook posts –without first obtaining a search warrant. It immediately hit a wallformed by a coalition of technology firms, including Apple, Face-book, Google, and Twitter, which contended that electronic datashould be treated the same way as hard-copy data.

Just prior to the close of the 112th session in December, the Sen-ate Judicial Committee passed a revised version that would allowaccess, but only after law enforcement secured a search warrant forelectronic data based on the traditional standard of probable causebefore accessing data in cloud.

The current proposal before the Senate in the 113th UnitedStates Congress, which convened in January, would also requirewireless carriers to store text messages for at least two years to aidlaw enforcement.

CLOUD

EU ConsidersMore AggressiveCloud ComputingStrategy

The European Union (EU) isnot doing enough to spurthe development of cloud

computing and the EU’s role inthat market. That was the centralpoint made by the European Eco-nomic and Social Committee(EESC), the consultative body tothe European Commission (EC), inits report to the commission inJanuary.

Last September, the EC re-leased a communication on “un-leashing the potential of cloudcomputing in Europe.” While theEESC agrees with the EC’s intent,it contends the EC’s approach doesnot go far enough in helping theEU realize that potential. Promot-ing its uptake isn’t enough.

EESC members proposed an al-ternative strategy in which the EUwould “help businesses and publicadministrations to become ‘cloudactive’ by offering cloud-basedservices and make Europe ‘cloudproductive’ by providing cloud in-frastructure,” stated EESC’s EricPigal, according to Computer Week.Only then can the EU realize thecloud’s potential.

At the time, the EC said thestrategy introduced last fall

would improve and increasethe use of cloudcomputing in theEU and that thecloud could gener-ate about €900 bil-lion (about $1.2trillion U.S.) and anadditional 3.8 mil-

lion jobs across the EUby 2020.

EESC supported the commis-sion’s call for an EU-wide certifi-cation scheme for cloud providersthat would thereby create a tech-nical standard. The committeealso favors the EC’s call for draftmodel conditions for cloud com-puting contracts in service levelagreements and developing cloud-based public sectors.

On the other hand, the EESCtook issue with the current strat-

egy and the absence of concreteawareness-raising measures andwarned against excluding themost vulnerable. “The commis-sion should prioritize users withthe lowest awareness and showsmall and medium businesseshow they can benefit from cloudcomputing,” said Pigal.

He also contended that specialincentives are needed to encour-age development of cloud servicesand infrastructure by Europeanproviders. “Under current marketconditions, expanding the use ofthe cloud in Europe will inevitablystrengthen non-European opera-tors,” Pigal warned.

EESC concluded that meetingthe objectives of its cloud strategywill require targeted EU financ-ing and national subsidies. Thecommittee also stressed the needto kick-start European projectsthrough competitive bidding.



PRIVACY

Lebanese Upin Arms overInvasion of Privacy

Controversy arose at theend of 2012 in Lebanonwhen it was revealed the

country’s Internal SecurityForces (ISF) demanded the con-tent of all SMS text messagessent between September 13 andNovember 10 from providers suchas Blackberry Messenger andFacebook. According to the Elec-tronic Frontier Foundation(EFF), the information requestedincludes usernames and pass-words.

The ISF’s requests were sub-mitted to the Ministry ofTelecommunications. The minis-ter of telecommunication, NicolasSehnaoui, immediately took toTwitter, reportedly to rally hissupporters to spread the wordand to fight to save individuals’Internet privacy.

ISF justified its request, re-ported EFF, by saying it wouldhelp generate leads in an investi-gation into a car bombing inBeirut that killed ISF’s intelli-gence chief and another senior of-ficial. Rather than request thedata for only those individualssuspected of being involved in theattack, the ISF apparently askedfor all messages from all users —an estimated 3.7 million.

Not all the data requested byISF is available from the Min-istry of Telecommunications, saidSehnaoui; some of it would haveto be provided directly by theservice providers. The requestwas forwarded to Lebanon’sCouncil of Ministers. It will be upto them to determine ifthe country’s general se-curity or its people’s pri-vacy are highest priority.

As of the writing ofthis article, no decisionhad been announced bythe Council of Ministers.

EHR

HHS MovesToward SaferElectronicHealth Records

The U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Serv-ices (HHS) recently re-

leased its strategy for makingelectronic health records andother health IT safer for patients.The Health IT Patient Safety Ac-tion and Surveillance Plan was

released for public comment atthe end of last year.

At its foundation is the beliefthat health IT has the potentialto greatly improve patient safety.To realize health IT’s full poten-tial, however, all interested par-ties — including the governmentand private sectors — must rec-ognize that patient safety is ashared responsibility.

The plan’s stated goal is to“inspire confidence and trust inhealth IT and health informationexchange,” by taking steps to usehealth IT to make care safer andcontinuously improve the safetyof health IT. It prescribes a list ofactions that are organized underthree strategies: • Learn: Increase the quantity

and quality of data and knowl-edge about health IT safety

• Improve: Target resources andcorrective actions to improvehealth IT safety and patientsafety

• Lead: Promote a culture ofsafety related to health IT

“Though some in the field sayit doesn’t go far enough, otherssaid the plan is an important stepfor an office whose primary rolehas been cheerleader for a tech-nology that has the potential todramatically improve health carein the United States but that maycome with significant risks” wroteBoston Globe’s Chelsea Conaboy.

Public comments were due toHHS by February 4.



PRIVACY

Australia PassesNew Privacy Law

In late December 2012, Aus-tralia passed the PrivacyAmendment (Enhancing Pri-

vacy Protection) Bill 2012; it goesinto effect in March 2014.

Most notably, the new law es-tablished the Australian PrivacyPrinciples, the National PrivacyPrinciples (applicable to the privatesector), and Information PrivacyPrinciples (applicable to the federalpublic sector) revised credit-report-ing provisions; and expanded thepowers and function of the Aus-tralian Privacy Commissioner, in-cluding the authority to seek civilpenalties up to $1.1 million ($1.15million U.S.)

Businesses were given 15months to review their existing poli-cies and procedures to ensure com-pliance with the new law.

Passage of the law occurredabout the same time ABC NewsAustralia reported that cybercrimi-nals had hacked into the server andpassword system of a small medicalclinic in Queensland and encryptedthe center’s patient medical records.The thieves then demanded $4,000($4,200 U.S.) to decrypt the data.

A Troubling TrendThis is just one more instance

of a disturbing global trend in datasecurity. Healthcare providershave become popular targets forthis kind of cybercrime. The ThirdAnnual Benchmark Study on Pa-tient Privacy & Data Security, re-leased in December 2012 byPonemon Institute, reported that94% of the U.S. hospitals surveyedhad experienced at least one databreach in the previous two years;45% had been attacked at leastfive times during that period.

According to Larry Ponemon,Ph.D., CIPP, and chairman andfounder of Ponemon Institute, thevulnerability of patient informa-tion “is due in part to the recent ex-plosion of employee-owned mobiledevices in the workplace and the

use of cloud computing services. Infact, many organizations admitthey are not confident they canmake certain these devices are se-cure and that patient data in thecloud is properly protected. Over-all, most organizations surveyedsay they have insufficient re-sources to prevent and detect databreaches.”

The study confirmed that or-ganizations are taking steps to de-tect data breaches, but most lackadequate budget and resources.Nearly half (48%) of the organiza-tions surveyed said they are nowconducting security risk assess-ments, but only 16% are conduct-ing privacy risk assessments.Furthermore, 67% don’t have con-trols to prevent and/or quickly de-tect medical identity theft.

PRIVACY

Georgia CongressmanTackles Health Security

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) released adiscussion draft of the Application Privacy,Protection, and Security Act of 2013 in mid-

January. According to the congressman’s website,AppRights.us, “This bill would require that app devel-opers maintain privacy policies, obtain consent from consumers beforecollecting data, and securely maintain the data that they collect.”

The act would also require developers to provide consumerswith a method to opt out of continued use of the app and decidethe fate of their personal information already captured by the app.The consumer could direct the developer to delete any personaldata to the extent practicable or cease collecting data altogether.

Johnson released the draft following on the heels of a meetingof the National Telecommunications and Information Administra-tion (NTIA), which comprises mobile industry members and pri-vacy advocates, to discuss a draft of proposed voluntary standardsfor disclosing how mobile apps use data.

The APPS Act draft provides a safe harbor provision for anydeveloper who voluntarily adopts and complies with the code ofconduct the NTIA is expected to release. Enforcement of the APPSAct would fall to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). State at-torneys general could bring suits against those who violate the reg-ulations the FTC would enact to enforce the law.

As of this writing, it was unknown when the APPS Act wouldbe introduced to Congress.

Johnson



decision by a state bar’s ethicswatchdog that failure to use pre-dictive coding is ethically ques-tionable, if not unethical. Afterall, purposefully using a less-effi-cient, less accurate, more expen-sive option is problematic.” Stagefour, he said, could happen anytime given how fast we’ve gonethrough the first three stages.

Other Legal Trends of 2012At the end of each year, Kroll

Ontrack analyzes the 70 most sig-nificant state and federal judicialopinions related to the preserva-tion, collection, review, and pro-duction of electronically storedinformation. In 2012, the deci-sions broke down into the follow-ing major issues: • 32% of cases addressed sanctions

regarding a variety of issues,such as preservation and spoli-ation, noncompliance withcourt orders, and productiondisputes.

• 29% of cases addressed proce-dural issues, such as searchprotocols, cooperation, produc-tion, and privilege considera-tions.

• 16% of cases addressed discov-erability and admissibility is-sues.

• 14% of cases discussed cost con-siderations, such as shifting ortaxation of e-discovery costs.

• 9% of cases discussed predictivecoding.

Many e-discovery opinionsdiscussing sanctions re-volved around preserva-tion and spoliation,yet courts wereall over the mapregarding an ap-propriate preser-vation standard fore-discovery — especially inthe era of big data.

Kroll predicts that courts will

Looking back over the re-ported electronic discoveryopinions and notable e-dis-

covery themes in 2012, it’s clearthat the big shaker and mover istechnology-assisted review (TAR),or predictive coding.

“Across the entire electronicdiscovery reference model manynotable e-discovery trendsemerged in 2012, but none prom-ises to change the status quo morethan the line of opinions approv-ing the use of technology-assistedreview,” said Michele Lange, di-rector of e-discovery thought lead-ership and industry relations atKroll Ontrack. “As courts in thelast year progressively embracedadvanced technologies, such asTAR, opinions from the benchshowed increased scrutiny overprocedural issues.”

Indeed, the number of e-dis-covery procedural disputes dou-bled last year, while sanctioncases dropped 10%, according toKroll Ontrack’s annual report onelectronic discovery cases.

Howard Sklar, senior corpo-rate counsel at Recommind Inc.,observed in an article on Recom-mind’s The Core Perspective thatpredictive coding has gonethrough three stages of adoption,each marked by legal develop-ments.• In the first stage, courts allowed

the use of predictive coding in e-discovery.

• In the second, a dispute aroseover electronic review of recordsbecause predictive coding wasn’tused. Both sides eventuallyagreed on keyword searchterms.

• In the third stage, a Delawarechancery judge required predic-tive coding without a requestfrom the parties.

“In the future,” Sklar con-tended, “we’ll enter stage four: the

continue to fine-tune the most ap-propriate instances and best prac-tices for TAR adoption in 2013. Italso said it expects continuedbuzz regarding discoverability ofsocial media and e-discovery costallocation.

Some courts, such as inRobinson v. Jones Lang LaSalleAmericas, Inc., allotted broad dis-covery of social media data, find-ing that such data helped prove ordisprove a party’s allegations.

Conversely, the court in Mail-hoit v. Home Depot U.S.A. Inc.,found that requests for socialmedia data failed to satisfy theFederal Rules of Civil Procedure34’s “reasonable particularity” re-quirement and denied the bulk ofthe requests. Similarly, when itcomes to which party pays for e-discovery costs, courts across thecountry have yet to settle on astandard.

“E-discovery cost allocationremains ripe for consideration bythe Advisory Committee on CivilRules in 2013 when evaluatingamendments to the Federal Rulesof Civil Procedure,” concludedKroll Ontrack.

A TROUBLING TREND

Predictive Coding to Become an Ethical Obligation


Council (CIO Council), these newcompetencies include:• IT Governance• Cybersecurity/Information As-

surance Strategies and Plans• Social Media• Cloud Computing• Information Accessibility

According to the report, thecompetencies and learning objec-tives are the basis for developingand implementing IT

policies across the

U.S. federal government. Educa-tional institutions also use them todevelop curriculum offered throughprograms under the CIO Univer-sity Consortium umbrella. Theycan also be used as guidelines by in-dividuals and organizations.

Twelve federal agencies, aca-demic representatives from the CIOUniversity Consortium, and mem-bers of the Industry Advisory Coun-

cil helped review the changesdrafted by the CIO Council’s IT

Workforce Committee.

The recently published 2012Clinger-Cohen Core Compe-tencies and Learning Objec-

tives includes nine new com-petencies under the 12 core compe-tency areas federal chief informa-tion officers need to effectivelymanage federal technology re-sources.

Published inDecember 2012by the ChiefInformationOfficers

GOVERNMENT RECORDS

Cloud Computing, Social Media New Competencies for Fed CIOs

Demands from large higher-end enterprises and othercustomers for complete,

end-to-end services are promptingcloud service providers to form newpartnerships. For example, as ofthis writing, AT&T had alignedwith IBM and CSC with Sprint tooffer a more comprehensive rangeof services.

“Alliances between vendors,such as AT&T/IBM and Sprint/CSC, will change the game in thecoming year,” said Ashok Kumar,associate director of custom re-search at Current Analysis.

CLOUD

Cloud Computing Creates Strange BedfellowsKumar’s prediction was based onthe results of Current Analysis’srecent Enterprise Cloud Adoptionstudy.

In general, the research indi-cated that “enterprises are nowmoving beyond cloud experimenta-tion to broader-based implementa-tions,” commented Bruce Page, vicepresident of custom research atCurrent Analysis. He said 64% ofthe responding enterprises re-ported they use the cloud, and theremainder expects to make thetransition within the next twoyears.

Thestudy alsorevealed thatalthoughsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS)is the most common cloud de-ployment, infrastructure-as-a-ser-vice (IaaS) doubled in 2012.Further, security remains the mostpressing concern both pre- andpost-deployment. But the final de-cision most often (67%) resideswith an enterprise’s senior man-agement, not the IT organization.




An Austrian artist was awarded a £60,000 ($95,000 U.S.) commissionby the Contemporary Art Society to turn classical and archaeologi-cal objects into digital and hologram forms using 3D scanners.

According to The Independent, artist Oliver Laric will scan all the worksin The Collection and Usher Gallery — from classical sculptures to archae-ological finds. His goal is to “[eliminate] historical and material hierarchiesand to reduce all works to objects and forms.”

The scans will be made available to the public to view, download, anduse for free from the museum’s website and other platforms, free from copy-right restriction and available for social media and academic research alike.In addition, the artist will use the scans to create a sculptural collage forthe museum, for which the digital data will be combined, 3D printed, andcast in acrylic plaster.

IMAGING

3D Technology to Make Old New Again

PRIVACY

Victoria Establishes Privacy and DataSecurity Office

Victoria (Australia) Attorney-General Robert Clark re-cently announced its plans

to create an office of the Privacyand Data Protection Commis-sioner. The office intends to bring“together the skills and resources ofthe Privacy Commissioner and theCommissioner for Law Enforce-ment Data Security.”

David Watts, the law enforce-ment commissioner, was tapped tolead the transition from two exist-ing bodies into the one new entity.The new privacy and data protec-

tion commission is expected tospearhead the implementation of anew Victorian Protective SecurityPolicy Framework for the govern-ment departments and agencies.



EHR

EHR Vendors toFeds: Slow Down!

Electronic health record(EHR) vendors have askedthe U.S. government to

slow down and focus on “encour-aging and assisting providers

to take advantage of thesubstantial capabilities es-

tablished in Stage 1 andespecially Stage 2,

rather than addingnew meaningfuluse requirementsand product certi-

fication criteria.”The EHR Association,

representing 40 EHR vendors,posed the request in its commentsregarding the proposed Stage 3requirements. The group statedits belief “that any meaningfuluse and functionality changesshould focus primarily on inter-operability and building on accel-erated momentum and moreextensive use of Stage 2 capabili-ties and clinical quality measure-ment.” The vendors requestedthat Stage 3 be delayed at leastthree years so the focus could be

on these areas.They also encouraged the gov-

ernment to invest in qualitymeasure alignment, infrastruc-ture, and standards, and to focuson building on the foundationbegun in Stage 2 without addinga significant number of new qual-ity measures.

The government regulationstake a one-size-fits-all approach,which has proved cumbersome forsome healthcare providers. Un-fortunately, there hasn’t beentime to examine what’s workingwell.

“To keep moving ahead withsuch an aggressive strategystrikes me as foolish,” StephanieReel, vice provost for informationtechnology and chief informationofficer at Johns Hopkins Univer-sity, told Forbes. “We don’t knowwhat’s working, and what’s notworking.”

“Our proposed alternative ap-proach is offered in recognitionthat the public and private sectorshifts to accountable care andvalue-based payment are nowcreating a business case forproviders to adopt and use EHRsand other health IT, and to iden-tify needed functionality to meet

their varied technology require-ments,” stated the EHR Associa-tion in its comments.

Interoperability is a perfectexample. It has never been a pri-ority for vendors or hospitals.Now it’s at the top of the list be-cause payments are tied to carecoordination. Vendors want tomake sure standards for trans-mitting patient data between dif-ferent platforms are adequate bytesting them before they’re set instone. “We need the time to do itright,” John Glaser, chief execu-tive officer of Health Services atSiemens Healthcare, told Forbes.

Innovation could be thebiggest casualty. Neither vendorsnor providers have time to evalu-ate and plan improvements.Products become generic and pa-tient care suffers.

As illustration, Reel notedthat the time the IT departmentused to be spend working withphysicians and others to createways to improve patient care isnow being spent ensuring theyare meeting government rules.

“We’re sacrificing innovationbecause of requirements to becompliant. The trade off is stark,”she said.

E-RECORDS

Namibia Home Affairs Switches to Electronic Records

AllAfrica.com reported that the Namibia Ministry of Home Affairs and Im-migration has “kissed manual record keeping goodbye.” The ministrywent live with its electronic document and records management system

(EDRMS) just before the end of the year.According to EDRMS project manager, Sarah Negumbo, from the prime

minister's office, the project intends to ensure a risk-free electronic recordsand archival system for the public service in line with the National ArchivesAct of 1992.

"Records are not filed according to the filing system as per archives codes, making it difficult forrecords to be retrieved. Another aspect that the EDRMS implementation is addressing is the issue ofsecurity, because it was also discovered that some of the registries do not have security measurementsin place in terms of preventing unauthorized access," Negumbo told AllAfrica.

The plan is to implement the system across all government offices, ministries, and agencies.



CLOUD

Singapore Claims HighestUnderstanding of Cloud

Forrester Research’s re-cently published VMWareCloud Index 2012 found

that Singapore companies rankhighest in the Asia-Pacific(APAC) region for their confi-dence in their knowledge aboutcloud computing.

According to the report, 82%of Singapore respondents saidthey believed they had a strongunderstanding of cloud comput-ing, which was higher than theAPAC region’s average responseof 75%. This is the first time Sin-gapore came out on top in thiscategory; Australia had held thatposition the previous two years ofthe study.

In terms of cloud usage, thetop three countries are Australia(58%), Singapore (51%), andIndia (50%), all significantlyhigher than the regional averageof 42%. It’s not surprising, then,to see that Singapore companiesexpressed the highest concernsin the region about data privacyand data residency.

In his briefing regarding theVMWare study results, MichaelBarnes, vice president and re-search director of ForresterResearch, noted that thismay help explain why somany companies in Sin-gapore reported an

adequate understanding andawareness of cloud.

The Singapore government’s“pro-cloud” stance is likely an-other contributor. Barnes said thegovernments in both Singaporeand Hong Kong have consistently

encouraged investments inlocal data centers.

“The government hasdone a remarkable job in lur-ing datacenter investments to

come into the country…whereas authorities in other

countries or certain states couldbe discouraging cloud for variousreasons, even jingoistic ones,”said Barnes.

Commissioned by VMware,the cloud index study is in itsthird year. The 2012 study sur-veyed nearly 5,000 senior IT prac-titioners in 10 economies acrossAsia-Pacific: Australia, China,Hong Kong, India, Indonesia,Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Tai-wan, and Thailand. (Japan wassurveyed separately by anothermarket research firm.)

Respondents who believethey strongly understandcloud

1. Singapore: 82%

2. Korea: 80%

3. India: 79%

4. Australia: 72%

5. Hong Kong: 74%

6. Taiwan: 72%

7. China: 72%

8. Thailand: 70%

9. Indonesia: 70%

10. Malaysia: 66%



CLOUD

Ireland Gets Serious About the Cloud

Like many countries, Ire-land is looking to the cloudfor new growth opportuni-

ties. The government committed€5 million ($6.7 million U.S.) tofund a cloud computing technol-ogy research center.

The Irish Centre for CloudComputing and Commerce (IC4),housed at Dublin City Univer-sity, is meant to help speed upthe development and adoption ofcloud technology in Ireland. Thatmeans more jobs within the IrishIT sector.

“Cloud computing is alreadya significant part of the overallmarket for information technol-ogy and services and is now one

of the fastest growing segmentsof the market. That why as partof the Government’s Action Planfor Jobs we have specifically tar-geted this sector for jobs andgrowth in the coming years,” ex-plained Minister for Jobs, Enter-prise and Innovation RichardBruton.

According to its website, IC4differs from other university-based research centers in that itis both multi-institutional andinter-disciplinary, including re-searchers from computing, busi-ness, and law. Its industry panelincludes such recognizable play-ers as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, andFujitsu.

IC4’s research agenda fo-cuses on four broad, core re-search themes that the industryparticipants consider to be ofequal importance; no distinctionis made between server-side andclient-side research. Thosethemes include: • Architecture, including scala-

bility and performance, relia-

bility and resilience, inter-operability, portability, andmigration to the cloud

• Service lifecycle, including serv-ice delivery, service levels fora quality cloud service, andcloud service level assessment

• Business research, includingbusiness and organizationalmodels, regulations for cloudservices, and cloud as a com-petitive advantage

• Cloud security, including scal-able and single/multi-tenantenvironments, data transfer inthe cloud, mobile and securityin the cloud, and risk manage-ment and disaster recovery

Outreach is key in 2013. IC4has identified three major initia-tives:• Cloud Computing and Com-

merce Capacity Building Pro-gramme

• National Cloud Technology In-cubator and CloudClinic Pro-gramme

• Cloud Technology StandardsObservatory

DATA SECURITY

Microsoft, Symantec Take a Bite out of Cybercrime

Software powerhouse Microsoft announced in early February that its Digital Crimes Unit, in conjunctionwith Symantec, successfully took down the Bamital botnet. According to Microsoft, the botnet hijackedpeople’s search results and took them to potentially dangerous websites that could install malware onto

their computers, steal personal information, or fraudulently charge businesses for online advertisement clicks.Microsoft filed a lawsuit January 31, supported by a declaration from Symantec, against the botnet’s oper-

ators in order to sever all communication lines between the botnet and the malware-infected computers underits control. The court granted the requests, and technicians from Microsoft and Syman-tec, accompanied by U.S. federal marshals, seized data and evidence from the botnetthrough raids on data centers in New Jersey and Virginia.

Research conducted by Microsoft and Symantec showed that more than eight mil-lion computers have been attacked by Bamital during the last two years. Further, itssearch hijacking and click fraud schemes affected many of the major browsers, includ-ing Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo, and Google. In a proactive move, Boscovich added, ownersof infected computers trying to complete a search query are being directed to an officialMicrosoft and Symantec webpage that explains the problem and offers guidance on

how to remove Bamital and other malware from their computers.



BIG DATA

Big Data in 2013: What to Expect

Forrester Research’s MikeGautlieri recently sharedhis predictions for big data

in 2013. He narrowed in on fourkey themes, but the underlyingmessage for enterprises, he con-tended, is “opportunity.”1. Companies will realize that“big data” means ALL oftheir data. Some define bigdata by how it can be measuredin terms of volume, velocity,and variety. The flaw in thisdefinition, contends Guiltier, isthat it is “not an actionable,complete definition for IT andbusiness professionals. He sug-gests a more pragmatic defini-tion: “Big Data is the frontierof a firm’s ability to store,process, and access (SPA) allthe data it needs to operateeffectively, make decisions, re-duce risks, and serve cus-tomers.” Furthermore, it willcontinue to reside in all kindsof data architectures, includingenterprise data warehouses,application databases, file sys-tems, cloud storage, Hadoop,and others.

2. The algorithm wars willbegin. Organizations are com-ing to realize that they “must usepredictive and descriptive ana-

lytics to find no obvious informa-tion to discover value in thedata.” Advanced analytics, Gau-tier explains, uses advanced sta-tistical, data mining, andmachine-learning algorithms todig deeper to find patterns thatyou can’t see using traditionalbusiness intelligence tools, sim-ple queries, or rules. He predictsthat companies will rediscoverthe power of old algorithms andfind competitive new ones.

3. Real-time architectures willswing to prominence. “Firmsthat find predictive models in bigdata must put them to use,” saysGautlieri. This means employingtechnologies to make that possi-ble, and mobile will continue tobe a key driver. As a result, hepredicts, “enterprise architectswill step out of their ivory towersto once again focus on technology— real-time technology that ishighly available, scalable, andperformant.”

4. Naysayers will fall silent. Bigdata isn’t just a buzzword, it’sreal. According to Gautlieri, “Itdisrupts many who don’t seeanything new in it or don’t seethe tremendous opportunityfirms have to harness it for com-petitive advantage.” END


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