Operating Systems
The Age of iPad – Day One
0Yesterday, I wrote about how I believe that today’s release of the Apple iPad represents a revolution in Information Technology. Reviews continue to be outstanding with negative reactions seeming to have more with politics and long standing Apple hate than anything factual. Today, I want to continue the discussion of the revolution… and write about its one-of-a-kind media access.
Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I tell you that I have not touched an Apple iPad yet. If Apple wants to give me access to one, I promise to fairly and rapidly review it and post my thoughts.
There is no peer in the computer world to the media that is accessible from the iPad. Here is just a short list of its capabilities.
- Full web access.
- Full iTunes store access to all of its movies to buy.
- Full iTunes store access to all of its movies to rent.
- Full iTunes store access to all of its songs and albums to buy.
- Access to all of your audio content on any computer.
- Full iTunes store access to all of its applications to buy.
- Access to iPad specific apps like a word processor (Pages), a spreadsheet (Numbers), and a presentation tool (Keynote).
- Full iTunes store access to all of its TV shows to buy.
- All Amazon Kindle content – books, magazines, blogs
- Any electronic book format in the world – including the millions of public domain ones.
- Streaming of Amazon and Netflix TV shows and movies (Mobile Computer First!)
- Marvel Comic books (Mobile Computer First)
- RSS Feeds of any site
- The Wall Street Journal Digital Edition (Mobile Computer First!)
- The New York Times Digital Edition (Mobile Computer First!)
- Zinio Digital Magazines
- National Geographic Magazine (Mobile Computer First!)
My point is simple – This is big. There has never been a digital media content consumption device that has managed to get it ALL. Every e-book reader, iPod, iPhone, slate, tablet, laptop, and palm computer that has come before has had compromises. Either the screen, processor, form factor, or increasingly lack of access to copyrighted content from major publishers has limited it in some way. The Apple iPad breaks down ALL of those doors for the consumer. If the media exists in a digital format, then you can enjoy it on an Apple iPad . It represents the first separation of hardware and software in the mobile space. This is a sea change. One that I warmly welcome.
Later this week, we will look at the Apple iPad Application store and discuss what it means to the computing world.
Please go to Apple’s Official iPad site and see for yourself, on the eve of the Tablet Age on Information Technology, what all the news is about! Welcome to the future of computing.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 3, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: The Huffington Post
Single Sign-On
0The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself. It differs from sites such as Wikipedia because it includes opinions, forecasts, and detractions in addition to just facts.
Today’s term is Single Sign-On. This is how Wikipedia defines the it:
“Single sign-on (SSO) is a property of access control of multiple, related, but independent software systems. With this property a user logs in once and gains access to all systems without being prompted to log in again at each of them. Single sign-off is the reverse property whereby a single action of signing out terminates access to multiple software systems.
As different applications and resources support different authentication mechanisms, single sign-on has to internally translate to and store different credentials compared to what is used for initial authentication.”
Essentially, it is the practice of setting up one, very-high security fence for your users to cross. Once they pass this tough security check-point, then they have ability to use all of the system resources without having to deal with another user-intrusive validation procedure. If your information system is a castle, then the single sign-on is the main gate and the computing resources are all of the shops in the castle market that is inside the walls and moat. The opposing model is one, very similar to the Internet, where users get asked for differing usernames, passwords, and security tokens before they get access to individual pages, databases, and programs.
Single Sign-On protocols usually invoke very hard security requirements to make sure that users are authenticated, validated, and properly approved for access at that once check. Solutions usually involve some or all of the following:
- Usernames
- Strong passwords or Personal Identification Numbers (PINs)
- Hardware Tokens
- Random number generators
- Digital certificates
- Access Control Lists
- Smart cards
Here are some of the reasons why one might be interested in instituting a single sign-on solution:
- Users are more willing to be inconvenienced with complicated security protocols once and actually follow them. This means that you can really come up with a high-powered “lock” and they will be willing to use it. This prevents the “writing the password on a sticky” problem as well as the one password for many places challenge.
- Having a single repository protocol for security services permits less vulnerabilities due to software or hardware faults.
- Troubleshooting of security processes is significantly simplified when only one system is in use.
- Vendors can develop products for your system and evoke security as a service.
- Disavowing a user is simplified for human resources because they only have to expunge them from one service vice many.
- You can use completely open source services to maximize forward looking compatibility.
- Alternatively, you can use completely proprietary systems to employ “security through obscurity” concepts and be comfortable that you can replace the entire single-sign on component at a future date if desired or required.
As you can see there are potentially many reasons to consider a cross grade.
What are some of the disadvantages?
- Complexity. These solutions are rarely easy, simple, or straight forward.
- Installation Expense. Good solutions require investments in people, products, and training. This is not the place to short change.
- Recurring Expense. If you choose solutions that require hardware tokens or third-party certificates, then you will be stuck purchasing them forever.
- People. If you only have one gate, then you had better make sure that your gate guards know what they are doing and how it works. If you choose an obscure or complicated system then you need to be ready to pay for the right people here.
- Fault Tolerance. If you have one gate and it gets stuck up then you entire system is out of commission. You need to have back-up plans that don’t remove all of the security advantages of the Single Sign-On system by creating back doors.
Here are some of the best links on the subject that I found in my search of the web:
- Wikipedia – Single Sign-On. Contains a great pros and cons as well as resources section.
- The Open Group – Single Sign-On. Contains open source specifications, solutions, and white papers.
- IBM – Build and implement a single sign-on solution. Industry best practices, Java implementation guide, and commercial products to achieve goals.
- Novell – Secure Login Solutions. Includes ROI calculators, product comparisons, implementation guides, and white papers.
I have used many Single Sign-On solutions. Overall, I think that if you properly procure the solution after a formal process of defining your requirements, manning for success, and training your people the benefits of these solutions far outweigh their costs. I am a big proponent of their employment.
Hopefully, this introduction to the vocabulary word was valuable for you. Considering all the options for optimizing knowledge management is a core competency of all Information Technology Professionals.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 11, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Positiv-it
The Last Day in the Pre-iPad Age
0There is no doubt about it any longer… tomorrow’s release of the Apple iPad represents a revolution in Information Technology. The reviews are starting to roll in and unanimously anyone who has touched it has loved it. In addition, we are see game-changing media deals that will completely revamp the way that content is delivered. Finally, the hundred of applications already available for it – pre-release – validate that it will be the next big thing.
In the interest of full disclosure, I tell you that I have not touched an iPad yet. If Apple wants to give me access to one, I promise to fairly and rapidly review it and post my thoughts.
First of all, no matter what you may personally think of all the hype, one cannot ignore it. Seriously, there are over 25,000 legitimate news stories listed on Google News so far reporting on the pre-release iPad. Think about that for a second… tens of thousands of by-lines about an object that less than a hundred have even touched. This IS something big.
The reviews really are universally positive … from people who have touched them. Here is a selection of the luminaries who have already fallen for the iPad:
Tomorrow, we will look at the incredible media deals from TV, books, magazines, and newspapers that Apple has secured for the iPad.
Later this week, we will look at the iPad Application store and discuss what it means to the computing world.
Please go to Apple’s Official iPad site and see for yourself, on the eve of the Tablet Age on Information Technology, what all the news is about! Welcome to the future of computing.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 2, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: The UK Guardian