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Biggest Tech Innovations of 2011

RRohan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:52:15 +0000

If you think start-ups have a monopoly on innovation, think again. Some of the world’s biggest companies are among the winners of The Wall Street Journal‘s Technology Innovation Awards this year.

One company makes heart cells out of mature human stem cells. Another makes biofuel out of the sun. And then there’s the supercomputer that makes answers within seconds.

Technology Innovation winners included such big names as IBM, Novartis AG, Intel Corp., Abbott Laboratories and Xerox Corp. Runners-up included Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo.

Big companies have featured in these awards in the past, but the trend was especially noticeable this year.

“Historically, the rap would be that big companies do incremental stuff, but you look to start-ups for breakthroughs,” says Scott D. Anthony, managing director at Innosight Ventures and one of the judges for the Innovation Awards. “But it seems that big companies are increasingly doing really interesting innovation work. Large companies are recognizing that they need to approach innovation more expansively.”

The Wall Street Journal received 605 applications this year from companies, organizations and individuals in 31 countries. A team of Journal editors and reporters reviewed the entries and forwarded 155 to an independent panel of judges from venture-capital firms, universities and other organizations and companies. From that pool, the judges chose a total of 35 winners and runners-up in 16 categories.

The judges assessed the applications primarily on these criteria:

• Does the innovation break with conventional ideas or processes in its field?
• Does it go beyond marginal improvements on something that already exists?
• Will it have a wide impact in its field or on future technology?

Even though big companies dominated some of the individual categories, the overall Gold winner this year was Cellular Dynamics International, which makes huge quantities of human heart cells that can be used to study diseases and develop medicines.

Joule Unlimited Technologies Inc. garnered the Silver award for developing a more efficient technique for producing biofuel. And the Bronze award went to IBM for Watson, the artificial intelligence system that defeated two grand champions on “Jeopardy!”

Another noticeable trend this year: a number of companies were involved in innovative projects in the developing world, especially Africa, that could improve the lives of millions of people.

Novartis won the Health-Care IT category for a project that tracks medical supplies in Africa, while H-P and its partner, mPedigree Network of Ghana, were runners-up in this category for a text-messaging service that helps users detect counterfeit drugs.

“The mobile phone is a source of innovations in Africa, since access to a mobile phone is the first step toward development,” says Pedro Nueno, professor of entrepreneurship at IESE Business School in Spain and an Innovation Awards judge.

Online Gamers Solve Protein Structure Mystery

RRohan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:24:24 +0000

Next time you hear someone complaining about gaming and what a waste of time it is, tell them this story: Players of an online game recently solved a decade-long protein structure mystery.

According to the Center for Game Science, part of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, a small group of individuals living on at least three continents, who call themselves The Contenders, solved the structure of a protein that has stumped scientists for more than 10 years. How? From the comfort of their own homes, playing an online protein folding game called Foldit.

The Contenders’ solution and its validation were published in September in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology magazine.

“This is the real deal,” said biophysicist Rhiju Das of Stanford University, who was not involved in the work. “I think [this] really shows how this is a new way of doing science that is more powerful than what a handful of experts could do.”

The protein in question was a retroviral protease of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, which causes an AIDS-like disease in monkeys. Over the last decade, many researchers tried various methods to determine the protein’s structure but were unsuccessful. “This viral protein…has really evaded the efforts of expert crystallographers and the very best automated tools,” Das said.

Then one scientist, Mariusz Jaskolski of A. Mickiewicz University in Poland and the Polish Academy of Sciences, turned to an online game called Foldit. Foldit, an extension to the Rosetta@home program, was designed by computer scientists at the Center for Game Science so that home computers around the world could do complex calculations on protein structures. According to UW computation biologist David Baker, while the program ran, users would see a screen saver of the computations. Before long, he began to get emails from users who noticed that the program wasn’t always accurate. They had noticed that the protein, when folding up its helix, was going left when it should have been going right.

Foldit allows users to alter the course of Rosetta calculations, and try to solve protein structures on their own. The goal is to fold up the protein so it has the lowest energy, just as molecules tend to do in real life. Because some Foldit users had demonstrated their potential to solve real protein-folding problems, Jaskolski and Baker decided to put the gamers to the test to see if they could solve the enigma of this particular viral protease.

About 600 players from 41 teams submitted more than 1.25 million solutions. Narrowing those down to 5,000, Jaskolski and colleagues subjected them to a computational technique called molecular replacement (MR), which tests the models against X-ray crystallography data. For MR to work, the proposed structure has to be very close to accurate, in which case the MR calculations can help perfect the details. But previous attempts at MR for this protein had failed because the protein models were too far off the mark.

But The Contenders’ proposed protein structure was a winner. “When we took [their] model, it was a beautiful fit to the X-ray data so we knew [they] had solved it,” Baker said. “We were just totally blown away. This is the first time that a long-standing scientific problem has been solved by Foldit players, or to my knowledge, any scientific gaming participants.”

“It’s kind of an unprecedented case of using computing non-specialists to solve a longstanding scientific problem,” said Alexander Wlodawer, chief of the Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute.

The next step might be to provide Foldit users with experimental validation as they play the game, said Das. In this case, the players simply kept tweaking the structure until it produced a low energy score, but they didn’t get any experimental feedback until the very end.

“What if the players do have access to experimental data?” Das asked. “Can they interpret it in the same way that scientists do? Can we turn 10,000 or 100,000 into citizen scientists into real scientists who are developing hypotheses and then doing experiments and then refining their hypotheses?”

If so, Foldit users may not only be able to solve protein structures, but actually refine the rules of the game itself and help scientists reach the ultimate goal of understanding structure directly from a protein’s amino acid sequence.

The Most Sought After Tech Skills: A Review of the Top IT Skills Currently in Demand

RRohan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:41:33 +0000

Green technology, cloud computing and CRM technology are gaining popularity as the demand for these skills continues to grow. What other IT skills are currently in demand?

According to a report released in 2011 by Dice. com, the United States’ leading career website for technology and engineering professionals, based on an analysis of their job listings, cloud computing leads the pack with a nearly 300% jump in demand. Dice makes an association between the boom in cloud-related applications and an increased demand for JavaScript expertise, which saw a 98% increase and HTML, which showed an 85% increase.

Skills related to information security are also in demand, as are those related to virtualization.

The report also shows that Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is among the most sought-after skills of the moment. Others are SAP expertise and PeopleSoft experience.

Further analysis from the Dice report:

Demand for Hadoop knowledge grew slower than other NoSQL related technologies, but there were still more Hadoop jobs than there were jobs in every other NoSQL technology combined.
Traditional RDBMS technologies are still the most popular, with the most jobs and strong growth.
Demand for Oracle eBusiness Suite skills dipped but remained strong for Oracle’s database. SAP hiring experienced the most growth in the applications area, followed by PeopleSoft.
Silverlight overtook Flash.
Demand for iPad skills decreased but iOS demand increased.
There was an increased demand for skills in Facebook and Twitter.
Azure was the fastest growing platform.

The five programming languages with the most growth were:
1. HTML5 (45.2%)
2. SAP Sybase PowerBuilder (26.0%)
3. Ruby (15.8%)
4. Python (15.8%)
5. Silverlight (12.6%)

The top languages, by total number of jobs, were:
1. Java (16,152 jobs)
2. HTML (9,736 jobs)
3. XML (9,651)
4. JavaScript (9,618)
5. C# (7,940)

Takeaways:

Microsoft professionals are doing well, with strong growth in C#, Silverlight and Azure.
Java is still sitting pretty
SAP is rebounding.
Oracle database skills remain vital, but other Oracle applications are questionable.
Demand for CRM skills are in decline, with Siebel, Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics all taking hits in the past three months.
NoSQL is a small but growing niche.
You can’t go wrong with HTML5 and JavaScript.

Incentive Programs for IT Professionals

RRohan — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:55:09 +0000

If there’s one thing that companies with successful retention rates for IT talent know, it’s that you have to make sure your IT employees feel like they’re part of the larger organization. Too often, the IT department is treated as a separate entity, and it’s crucial that they feel part of the business.

You should also make sure they understand how their efforts impact the bottom line and improve the profitability of the company. In other words, show your appreciation!

If you can create an inclusive, supportive environment, you will get both engagement and innovation from your IT staff. By differentiating your work environment, you will make your IT employees think twice about leaving and joining a more typical work environment – even if it offers a little more pay.

One great way to make your IT employees feel important to the company is to create incentives. These incentives aren’t necessarily monetary. They can be professional rewards.

• Organizations can improve retention rates and employee performance by making it easier for IT personnel to find new opportunities within the company.
• Some companies empower IT employees by giving them the opportunity to work on diverse, limited-term assignments, rather than in one department or function. Some organizations develop a talent exchange. This connects employees and other resources with appropriate projects, roles, and positions across the company.
• Companies that provide intensive training to promote skill building convey the message that professional development is important – and it is especially important to IT personnel, who work in a field that develops and changes rapidly.

Some incentive plans can be quickly implemented and will yield positive results almost immediately if executed well: project bonuses or other project-related incentives (which can be non-cash, like restaurant vouchers or gift cards); awards for outstanding performance; or public recognition of achievement through corporate communications outlets like newsletters and intranets.

IT employees tend to value family-oriented or quality-of-life rewards, such as extra paid time off or a paid family vacation as compensation for their efforts.

Of course, you can always use cash incentives such as stock options and annual bonuses. A recent survey found that more than 90% of companies provide some form of cash bonus or incentive plan for IT workers.

However, research also suggests that what matters most is not always how much money or how many perks are offered, but the way in which incentive programs are structured. An incentive must be attainable, relevant, and meaningful to impact performance and behavior. Giving the employee an opportunity to have input into the reward system he will be attempting is important in developing commitment. Employees who have been given some say in the design of their incentive programs will be more committed to seeing the program through to reap the rewards.

If you would like to learn more about the ins and outs of hiring IT talent, contact Bayside Solutions today.

How to Retain Your Top IT Professionals

RRohan — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:30:14 +0000

How many of your top IT performers are simply biding their time, waiting until the economy improves before bolting to the next job? As the job market opens up, the first people out the door will be the ones with the most options – the best employees in your organization.

This could have a devastating impact on your company in more ways than one — disrupted projects, overruns on schedules and budgets, quality issues, and loss of corporate memory — in addition to the time and expense of having to find replacements.

How can you increase commitment and decrease turnover among your valued IT employees?

First, you need to understand why IT professionals tend to leave an organization. You may think the most important reason is money, but that’s not the entire story. It’s easy for IT workers to compare their salaries to others doing the same work, both within your company and within their industry. If they feel they are not being paid competitively, pay is definitely an issue. However, infotech employees also appreciate other perks, such as:

• Challenging work assignments
• Favorable work environment
• Flextime
• Stock options
• Additional vacation time
• Family-friendly values
• Everyday casual dress code
• Cross-functional assignments, tuition and training reimbursement

One recent survey found that the second most important retention factor for IT professionals is quality of management – how well the IT staff is managed. Many bosses in IT aren’t strong on mentoring and team-building. They often received promotions themselves because they were technically strong, and not necessarily because they had strong people skills or instinctive leadership qualities.

In order to ensure that your managers are giving the IT staff what they need, try to ensure that they are:

Communicating about Career Development IT managers need to communicate frequently with their employees about career development activities. This should include assessing an employee’s competencies in terms of technical ability, project management and process skills, innovation, and effectiveness.

Employees also want to learn business skills, interpersonal skills and communication skills. They know that companies are looking for well-rounded individuals, not just “techno geeks.”

Conducting Employee Surveys In other words, managers need to ask their employees what they like about their jobs, and what they need in terms of training and mentoring. The amount of training offered is a critical consideration in an IT professional’s decision to stay or leave.

Training is too often seen as a perk when it should be viewed as an essential investment in a company’s intellectual capital. In IT, change is rapid and nobody wants to become obsolete by working too long in an unchanging environment. Strong training, coaching, job rotation programs, and opportunities for experimentation send a clear message that management is seeking to establish a long-term relationship with employees.

In order to retain your top IT employees, take a look at your salary ranges to see if they are competitive, ensure that you are offering other benefits besides salary and insurance, make sure your managers are providing a challenging work environment, and see that career development and training programs are in place.

To find out more about how you can keep your IT team intact, or how we can help fill your technical staffing needs, contact Bayside Solutions today.

An Overview of PCI Security Standards Testing and Certification Programs

RRohan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:28:27 +0000

The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum that manages the development, management, education, and awareness of the PCI (payment card industry) security standards, including the Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS), and PIN Transaction Security (PTS) requirements.

To ensure a uniform, global approach to account security, the PCI Security Standards Council operates training, testing and certification programs for Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) and Approved Scanning Vendors (ASVs).

Each of the five founding payment brands — American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa Inc. — recognize the QSAs and ASVs certified by the PCI Security Standards Council as being qualified to validate compliance to the PCI DSS standards. Organizations engaging QSAs or ASVs to validate their compliance with the PCI DSS will follow policies and guidelines established by the individual payment brands.

Training Overview

The PCI Security Standards Council operates in-depth programs for security companies seeking to become Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) or Payment Application Qualified Security Assessors (PA-QSAs). Companies can become re-certified each year. You must be a full time employee of a validated QSA company in order to attend QSA training and be certified as a QSA. Your company must already be a validated PA-QSA company if you wish to attend that training.

The Council also maintains a structured process for security solution providers to become Approved Scanning Vendors (ASVs), or to be re-approved each year. The PCI ASV training program, for staff and security personnel of ASV companies, is comprised of an in-depth eight-hour online course and exam covering the Payment Card Industry, PCI Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) requirements, and ASV scan testing procedures. Following this training, ASV staff will be better equipped to serve their customers in ensuring the quality of scan outputs and providing reports that are complete and accurate.

The PCI SSC Internal Security Assessor (ISA) program provides an opportunity for eligible internal security audit professionals of qualifying organizations to

• receive PCI DSS training and certification to improve the organization’s understanding of the PCI DSS
• facilitate the organization’s interactions with QSAs
• enhance the quality, reliability, and consistency of the organization’s internal PCI DSS self-assessments
• support the consistent and proper application of PCI DSS measures and controls.

Designed for internal security assessment staff at ISA sponsor companies, the ISA program is composed of a four hour online pre-requisite course and exam covering PCI fundamentals, followed by an in-depth two day instructor-led course and exam. Successful completion results in ISA qualification and a PCI DSS ISA certificate.

To hire PCI-certified professionals, or to find out more, contact Bayside Solutions, your Bay Area IT staffing solutions experts.

HIPAA Remote Access Data Security

RRohan — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:28:07 +0000

As job roles change, more medical professionals are using portable data storage devices and employing remote systems to access EHRs. HIPAA compliance must remain a high priority, especially in regard to ‘willful neglect’ violations, when remote access is an option.

The HIPAA Security Rule specifically focuses on the safeguarding of electronic protected health information (EPHI). All HIPAA covered entities must comply with the Security Rule, which says the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of EPHI must be protected. Ensuring the security of all data that is created, received, maintained or transmitted is paramount.

Remote access is a high-risk issue for providers that have staff or contractors who use computerized PHI offsite. Permitting remote access to EHRs increases the risks of data theft and data tampering in two ways:

1) APPLICATION VULNERABILITIES: Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in network protection (e.g. firewalls), operating systems, and applications. When an application is made available online to remote users, vulnerabilities in the application become especially significant. Hackers can access the application with automated tools to exploit flaws in the design, logic and coding of the application.
This risk can be substantially reduced by allowing remote access only through a Virtual Private Network (or VPN).With a properly configured firewall, hackers are unable to send any data or commands to the application and therefore cannot access sensitive information.

In areas where a VPN is not a viable option, remote users can access the application using an Internet connection. Any application supporting Internet connectivity must be protected from design flaws and code faults that would expose it to intentional attacks. To reduce this risk:

• Verify the EHR application will support secure Internet access.
• Ensure that the vendor has a support person assigned to oversee security of the EHR system, who can be easily contacted.
• Make sure the vendor has a procedure in place for responding to security incidents involving the EHR system.

2) VULNERABILITIES AT THE REMOTE ACCESS LOCATION: Remote access exposes the EHR system and its data to risks associated with a compromised workstation. Home machines are often compromised. If they are used by multiple family members for both personal and business purposes, they can be infected by malware that provides opportunity for hackers to gain control of the computer or intercept user credentials and data. Other types of software may give the hacker complete control of the home machine and allow the hacker to access all aspects of the remote EHR session. These risks are significant because personal computers used for remote access are not subject to organizational control. There is no oversight for the computer’s configuration, usage, virus protection, or other basic security measures.

What can you do to protect against these risks?

• Implement two-factor authentication for granting remote access to systems that contain EPHI: users must input information, such as answering a security question, in addition to typing in a username and password.

• Employ a technical process for creating unique user names and performing authentication when granting remote access to a workforce member.

• Develop and employ proper clearance procedures and verify training of workforce members prior to granting remote access

• Establish remote access roles specific to applications and business requirements. Different remote users should have different levels of access based on job function.

• Establish appropriate procedures for session termination (time-out) on inactive remote devices.

• Install personal firewall software on all laptops that store or access EPHI or connect to networks on which EPHI is accessible.

• Ensure that the issue of unauthorized access of EPHI is appropriately addressed in the required sanction policy.

In general, HIPAA-covered entities should be extremely cautious about allowing the offsite use of, or access to, EPHI. Remote access to EPHI should only be granted to authorized users based on their role within the organization and their need for access to EPHI.

For more information on finding the remote access data security professionals you need, contact the IT staffing professionals at Bayside Solutions.

Is Your Organization’s Data Safe?

RRohan — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:14:43 +0000

You may not think that your company’s data is in danger. Maybe you think that only certain companies are targeted for data theft, like those that process payments or store other sensitive consumer data. Why would you need to worry about hackers?

But what about viruses? Your company’s intellectual property? Confidential information about your employees? Those laptops and flash drives that your employees use?

When most people think of data security being attacked, they think of external breaches: network hacking, wireless packet sniffing, malicious codes. But internal breaches occur just as frequently, both intentionally and accidentally. Internal threats can include:

Corporate espionage: employees recruited and paid by competitors to steal data
Malicious/disgruntled employees: employees with a grievance against the company may wish to do damage to the network
Unintentional breaches: employees install unauthorized software, open virus-infected email attachments or succumb to social engineering attacks
Human error: employees may lose a company laptop computer off-site, use an unsecured wi-fi connection to perform work, or transfer files from a flash drive onto an unauthorized computer

Data security breaches are a very real problem for all companies, and the time to address them is before they happen.

So how can you protect your company? With knowledge and planning.

Your IT professionals should not be the only ones who know your computer systems and networks. Company management should also have a basic understanding of them and how they could be exploited.
You must become familiar with the specific hardware and software that your company uses, the types of data and the manner in which data is stored on your networks, and the security systems that you have implemented to protect that data.

A successful data assessment plan will take into account the usage of all the individuals in your company, from those handling data collection and storage to those in human resources, to those in customer service interacting with your customers on a daily basis. It will also take into consideration all of the various forms of personal information that you collect and store from customers, consumers and employees as well as business information that should not reach your competitors. Companies should know what data is maintained, where that data is stored, and how it is protected.

Although your plan should be individually tailored to meet the specific needs of your company’s system security and data needs, any successful Data Assessment Plan should include a comprehensive strategy to investigate, remediate and respond to a data breach when it happens.

The time to protect your data is now. If you need help planning and executing a data security assessment plan for your company, call Bayside Solutions today. Our technology professionals can show you how to secure your network and keep your data safe.

The Latest News on an Important Renewable Technology

Brad Smith — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:51:29 +0000

As part of our commitment to green technology, we keep up with the latest news in the renewable energy industry. The Thin Film Summit, held in San Francisco from November 30 – December 1, highlighted some of the most recent developments in this growing niche of solar energy applications.

Some of the industry’s leaders shared their experiences and discussed how to build and grow the Thin Film industry. Over 100 of the brightest minds in the industry attended, including key players from:

Thin Film cell & module manufacturers
Turnkey solution providers
Equipment & material suppliers
Technology innovators and pioneers
Equipment & materials suppliers to the TFPV industry
Semiconductor companies
Specialist component manufacturers
Financial analysts, investment bankers, and venture capitalists
Utility companies, installers and project developers
High level consultants & research agencies
Main research institutions
Leading industry analysts

Topics on the agenda included general discussions such as:

The Present and Future of the Thin Film Industry
Thin Film in the USA Today
Building On Thin Film’s Track Record
Essential Requirements for the Next Step in Thin Film Evolution
Utility Perspectives on Thin Film
New Thin Film Stakeholders

Some sessions were devoted to technology, including:

The Thin Film Learning Curve Experience
Status, Challenges and Potential
A Closer Look at CdTe
A Closer Look at CIGS – CIGS Technology, The Mainstream PV Material and an Evaluation of its Potential for Achieving Stable, Cost Effective High Performance

Certain speakers encouraged a look to the future, with discussions about:

Policy & Finance – Developing The USA Thin Film Manufacturing Industry
U.S. Solar Policy Update
Ramping Up MW Capacity
Putting Cost Reduction Levers into Action
· Enhancing Thin Film Efficiency
Powering Up Production Throughput & Yield
Thin Film Applications & Opportunities
Balance of Systems in Thin Film Projects

Some focused on a practical standpoint:

Material Cost Cuttings
Focusing On CAPEX
Cost Reduction Potential
· Supply Chain Workshop: The Suppliers Viewpoint/The Manufacturers Viewpoint
Increasing Competitiveness
Easing the Pain of Price Pressure & Overcapacity
Achieving Bankability & Securing Finance
Investment Flowing Back Into Thin Film
The Banker Perspective
Teaming Up With Developers

If you’re working on a renewable energy project and need top-notch engineering, technical and construction personnel who are familiar with the latest in green technology, come to Bayside! We can find the staff you need with the commitment and professional knowledge you want.

Turning IT Professionals Into Great Department Leaders

Jean Henshaw — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:49:27 +0000

IT workers have a “reputation” of being the kind of people who thrive in dark rooms staring at a computer screens all day. They are purported to have poor people skills (after all, that’s why they went into IT, isn’t it?….)

But like any generalization, this one is flawed. There probably are several IT professionals working at your company now who would make great department leaders and managers.

Here’s how to spot them and how to groom them for leadership positions:

Look around your IT department or division and see which employees display the following characteristics:

They display an interest in and are enthusiastic about your company and its business.
They demonstrate the willingness to go the extra mile.
They offer ideas for improving service, a product or ways to get work done more quickly.
They show their willingness to help or guide others toward a desired outcome.
They ask thought-provoking questions.
When problems arise, they don’t just tell you about the problem, they tell you and offer possible solutions.

Once you’ve identified some IT professionals in your department, you’re going to have to develop and nurture these skills. Offer to send them to classes or seminars that will broaden their knowledge of industry in general how the IT department fits in with your business in particular. Allow them to take on assignments that have them leading a work group or otherwise helping a group of IT workers bring a project to completion.

Make sure you provide training to your potential leaders in how to mentor and coach others, give performance feedback as well as how to motivate and inspire others. Leadership requires people skills that don’t come from being alone “in front of the computer all day.” Help your potential IT department leaders learn and hone these critical skills.

Let Bayside Solutions help you find your next IT leaders. We “know the good guys” among the Bay Area’s IT professionals and can bring some of the best in the business to work at your company. Contact us today.